Show speaking of sports comeback of di mag makes make S yanks happy happ y by GEORGE A BARCLAY THE new york yankees have AS thundered down the home stretch in m the american league pennant race piling up a lead that could not be challenged the denizens of bothams Go thams litile little italy have been happy for joe di II maggio aggio was hitting and his bat was winning ball games joes batting average is a barometer of joy or despair in the east side neighborhood where the sons of italy have s settled and raised their bambinos lambinos bambi nos in the early days of the season when joo joe was in the doghouse dog house with the yankee ownership and his bat was feeble there was consternation in little italy but as the season wore on and the yanks began pulling away from the cleveland indians there were smiles for joe had found his batting eye again it if little italy was happy 0 over ver di maggiol Mag gios revival so was joe mez aag 4 ii icil iL ILZ J i JOE DI MAGGIO BIAGGIO carthy for once again this astute managers faith in a ball player was vindicated mccarthy is noted for sticking with a player when the averages are throwing him down ile he demonstrated that long ago wa with ith pitcher pat malone when joe was manager of the chicago cubs in malones first year as a cub he lost his first five starts joe Is game that might have discouraged the average manager but not joe mccarthy he sent malone back for his sixth start pat justified this confidence by winning that game and going on to become one of the most effective pitchers in the national league you could cite other examples of this tenacious mccarthy faith theres the case of pitcher lefty gomez who ran into a discouraging series of defeats and finally worked his way back into the winners estate or you might mention lou gehrig at who was a bust in the early days of this season joe give up on lou when the fans and critics critics were panning him and so joe di maggio is the latest reward of mccarthys McCar thys loyalty joes troubles this year started with his holdout demand for after a brilliant 1937 season joes holdout was a failure and he finally compromised for a year after missing the training trip entirely obviously out of condition because of missing the training trip he misso the first ten days of the season and one of the disciplinary measures adopted by col jacob ruppert owner of the club for this recalcitrant holdout was to dock joe at the rate of for each game he missed or a total of 1620 once joe got into the lineup however he was careful not to miss another game joe gets going the going easy for joe in the early stages of the season the hits blast into the outfield as they had in his two previous years and a home run was something of a curiosity but mccarthy stuck with him As a matter of fact he tried to drop di maggio into the lineup as a pinch hitter on opening day but was overruled by business manager ed barrow that gesture as well as mccarthys McCar thys serene confidence in him when joe apparently get going was a convincing evidence that his manager believed the slump was only temporary joes performance in the home stretch of the pennant race proved how right mccarthy was finishing his third year in the big leagues joe jae di maggio can rest and invite his soul his batting av average and also his record tor for runs batted in and runs scored mark him as one of baseballs greats softball school T THE HE axiom that En glands battles 1 of tomorrow are being won today on the playing fields of harrow and eton might be paraphrased for baseball as follows major league games of tomorrow are being won on softball fields of today for the outstanding baseball finds of the past several years got their start playing softball joe di maggio was a softball player before hie he jumped to baseball and started toward the hall of fame as a member of the new york yankees his sensational young teammate tom henrich broke into the game via the softball diamond ken keltner who has made a name for himself this year as third baseman for the cleveland indians was a member of a milwaukee softball team that played in the worlds championship meet two years ago long before he thought of professional baseball as a career baseball men who watched the worlds championship softball tournament in chicago which drew teams from 44 states of the union agreed that a player who can attain a respectable batting average against competent mounds men in the fast ball pitching events should be able to hit a baseball without exceeding difficulty the softball pitcher stands only 40 feet away from the batter at home plate whereas the baseball pitcher stands 60 feet away the ball he uses is is not much larger than a regulation baseball 12 inches in circumference cum cuni ference compared to 9 it is nearly as hard it comes to the batter with almost blinding speed when thrown by a star softball pitcher far from scoffing at softball as a sissy game thoughtful baseball men frankly agree that it may be effective in preparing a youngster for baseball later on says joe cronin manager of the boston red sox here and there GREATEST fullback in the mid adle die west this fau fall will be howie weiss of the university of wisconsin according to coach harry the longwood cricket club of chestnut hills mass has the first tennis racket it ever purchased it was bought april 24 1878 or 50 years ago among temple football opponents this year are three with whom the owls played scoreless ties last year they are bucknell holy cross and boston college with the signing of cecil isbell of purdue and andy uram of minnesota stars of the recent allstar all AU star football game in chicago the green bay packers have made themselves a formidable threat in the national professional football league this fall shake up time W HEN the winter baseball meat meetings are held several months hence it is the prophecy of informed baseball men that there will be more trades between big league teams than the national game has experienced in a long time shake up talk is in the air as baseball gives way to football in seasonal sports interest and teams that promised well but fared indifferently ferent ly are preparing to strengthen themselves for the 1939 race it is conceded that three teams the new york giants and the chicago ca o cubs in the national league and and the cleveland indians in the L 0 CONNIE MACK american league are most in need of overhauling if they are to be pennant contenders again next year how to do it few managers would be prepared to take the drastic steps used by connie mack of the philadelphia athletics on two occasions years ago when he decided his teams had passed their peak but managers terry hartnett and vitt respectively will be unusually receptive to trades that win will replace fading or disgruntled players with fresh performers 0 western newspaper union |