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Show 1PSF v CMIVriAND 1 WHICH brand of baseball would you rather sec? The Ty Cobb scientific type or the Babe Ruth power pow-er stuir? Which makes the moro Interesting ball game 1 to 0, or 9 to 8? For the firtt time In over 20 years the fan colony may have Its chance to look at much lower scoring. No other season ever opened with a clean spread of shutouts, such as the 1943 balata spe- cial, presented to Grantland Rice chilly customers. The once noisy blast of the home run has given way to the widely-scattered widely-scattered plunk of the single or double, and the odds now are that any man who can hammer out 20 home runs this season will lead bis league. Unless more rabbit meat is fed the present ball, we may even get back to the day when Home Run Baker earned his title and led both leagues with the magnificent total of 11 home runs. The Ty Cobb Brand Ty Cobb has told me more than once that his interest in baseball lagged when Babe Ruth began taking tak-ing his home-run swing. "That," said Ty, "meant the finish Df base running, of scientific baseball base-ball where you had to work for a run at a time. "We had to work our heads off to get a run. A run was important. After the arrival of Babe Ruth and the rabbit ball, not even five runs were important in many of the games." I can take you back to Ty Cobb and the campaign of 1911, to slip you an idea of what Ty Cobb baseball meant. In 1911, Cobb made 248 base hits, scored 147 runs and stole 83 bases. In the records of those days his home run mark, extremely extreme-ly low, was not even mentioned. It was a matter of hits, runs and stolen bases. In 1915, Cobb scored 144 runs and stole 98 bases. His combination of speed and smartness along the towpaths was Ty Cobb one baseball's greatest features, .where home runs seldom figured in any game. The Babe Ruth Brand Babe Ruth came along as a home run hitter in 1919. As a left-banded pitcher he had set a new winning percentage, even above Johnson, Mathewson and Alexander. Now he was on the offensive side. In Babe's tremendous wake the scientific side of baseball, gave way to raw power. Base-running and sacrificing became unimportant factors. fac-tors. Raw power was combined with a far livelier ball, a ball that piled up trouble for pitchers and infield-ers. infield-ers. The records show all this. Ruth was on his way to over 700 home runs. "And the point is," Cobb told me, "the Babe's great success swept both leagues. They were now all trying to be home-run hitters. They were all, or nearly all, taking the big cut at every pitch near the plate." It would be interesting to know what might have happened to baseball base-ball if Ruth hadn't arrived just at that time. The Bambino undoubtedly changed the game. Hands that once choked the bat after the manner of Keeler and Cobb, now moved back to the end of the knob. Stronger Defense The games of Cobb and Ruth were entirely different in many ways. The same thing happened to polo and golf, where power became more important im-portant than control. Both Cobb and Ruth have their supporters. The old-timers are almost al-most solidly for the Cobb game. The moderns are for Ruth. The main point is that after over 20 years of power baseball, the crowds now face a stronger defensive defen-sive game, where a single run might be important. This means a greater premium on speed, pitching and defensive play. If it doesn't work out there is sure to be a quick change to the livelier ball where once again the home run will supplant the single, the sacrifice and the steal. Season s Length This is about what a majority think about the length of the current baseball campaign "Most of the ballplayers now Ief1 have either been deferred on physical phys-ical grounds or have wives and children. chil-dren. These children are all young, many of them between the ages ol two and six. It has been announced more than once that the supporting heads of such families will be the last ones drawn into service. Many of these might be called by midsum mer. but hardly by Labor day," |