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Show I SPORTLIGH T , These Were the Great Portsiders I By GRANTLAND RICE EVEN HOMER nodded. So did Shakespeare, Kipling, Keats and a lew others. They were entitled en-titled to nod. Most of us are not. We haven't earned any such i - 1, breaks. So I apologize apolo-gize to the veteran fan from New Jersey Jer-sey who says that in picking Young, Johnson, Alexander Alexan-der and Mathew-son Mathew-son as baseball's four greatest pitchers, pitch-ers, I mentioned no left-handers. great right - handers we picked some time ago. The Four Top Southpaws Here are the four top left-handers we have selected along with an alternate who is hard to leave out. We have seen them all under every ev-ery form of competition. We admit in advance that we can be wrong. But wrong or right, here they go No. 1 Carl H u b b e 1 1, New York Giants. No. 2 Herb Pennock, Athletics, Athlet-ics, Red Sox, Yankees. No. 3 Robert Moses (Lefty) Grove, Athletics. No. 4 George Edward (Rube) Waddell, Athletics. No. 5 Eddie Plank, Athletics. We have never yet been able to figure why Connie Mack had the type of mind to go for left-handed hurlers. Yet it was Connie Mack who produced the best of them and the most of them. Connie Mack, or Mr. McGillicud-dy, McGillicud-dy, should have an evenly balanced bal-anced mind. Among his righthanders right-handers he had Chief Bender and Jack Coombs. But among his lefthanders left-handers he had Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell, Lefty Grove, Herb Pennock, Pen-nock, most of the great ones. Mr. Mack must have been a left-hand dreamer. His phantasies must have roamed in the mystic heavens heav-ens of the southpaws. Connie will tell yon that Chief Bender was his most dependable depend-able hurler. But be will also tell you Rube Waddell was his most brilliant all-around pitcher pitch-er and that Lefty Grove was the all - time sharpshooter. (Look at Grove's record.) He will inform you that Eddie Plank was the old reliabte he won 283 games for the Athletics. Ath-letics. The only great left-hander Connie Con-nie Mack never handled was Carl Hubbeil, the old meal ticket the pitcher many old ballplayers will tell you was the greatest pitcher that ever threw a ball. The Improved Tigers It is quite possible that Red. Rolfe's Detroit Tigers are not going go-ing to win the 1950 American league pennant. But it is no part of a certainty that they won't. At least the ex-Dartmouth entry won't be very far away. The Tigers rate with the Indians and the Indians are not too far below be-low the Red Sox and Yankees. The fact is the American League has five improved teams that look to be stronger than last year. Grantland Rice "Were there no great left-handers?" he asks. "Were there no left-handers to match the great right-handers? There must have been. Who were they?" In order to appease the gentleman gentle-man from New Jersey and all left-handed left-handed athletes and friends, we'll wade into the game's greatest left-handers today and see how they match the game's four greatest great-est right-handers. We are not going as far back as Toad Ramsay and southpaws of a forgotten era. This century is late enough. Who have been the greatest left handers since 1900? Here are just a few: Carl Hubbeil, New York Giants; Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics; Rube Waddell, Philadelphia Athletics; Athlet-ics; Herb Pennock, Athletics, Red Sox and Yankees; Eddie Plank, Philadelphia Athletics; Doc White, Chicago White Sox; Art Nehf, New York Giants; Nap Rucker, Brooklyn Dodgers; Dodg-ers; Howie Pollet, St. Louis Cardinals; Hal Newhouser, Detroit De-troit Tigers (one of the best) ; Rube Marquard, Babe Ruth, Lefty Gomez. Now there happens to be a pretty fair list of left - handers in this limited group. There are fine lefthanders left-handers not included. But we believe be-lieve this list covers most of the good ones and the great ones. You may notice such names as Ruth, Marquard and Gomez. Ruth has the finest left-handed pitching record. He could easily have been the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time. Marquard set or tied an all - time winning record. Lefty Gomez was the most devastating left-hander of his day. He was one of the greatest world series pitchers. pitch-ers. All of this goes to show you what a magnificent list we have all set from which to pick the four best men who might match the four |