Show speaking of sports ports corn ei fight seen in senior circuit by ROBERT mcshane Recas edby western newspaper union tto THINK HINK back just for a minute to the start of this yea years r S in major j or league baseball campaign and 1 asee see if you can remember the teams you thought would be the chief contenders for first place in the national league standings odds are 10 to I 1 that you co consider nilder the giants a very serious threat early in april it I 1 looked joked like a two club race a bitter fight between the reds and the cardinals the reds were looking good in spite of last years fiasco and the cards were expected to maintain the stride that almost carried them past the reds to the pennant in the final stretch of 1939 now after about 10 weeks of active campaigning its a three cornered race and it looks as though it might continue to be just that but the cardinals arent in in it and the dodgers and giants are making life miserable for the cincinnati delegation unpredictable giants according to preseason pre season dope the giants have no reason for their rapid turnabout thousands of amateur and professional crystal gazers are ca casting sting baleful glances at their present standing and why not the giants sagged badly last year and were scheduled to look even worse this year only a few diehards die hards probably relatives who hoped for a future touch picked them to finish in the first division the giants were a team of is ifs if carl hubbell could come back the cause hopelessly lost if joe moore and mel ott could charge in and really play baseball why then things be so bad there were plenty of other is ifs on which success would depend uncertain spots that tha t might crack when the carl hubbell pressure was on look em over today hubbell moore and ott came rushing back practically as good as ever hubbell wont win any pennants single handed but hes still the meal ticket the fellow t they hey can rely on when the chips are down ott has been doing better than all right since he started wearing glasses and critics of moore refuse to believe the evidence which is all in his favor burgess whitehead was another question mark last year he had developed a bad case of the quick jitters now the un believers suspect that his present day success is the result of strange herbs and a witcha cauldron cauldren caul dron terry knows his players manager bill terry is far from the most popular figure in baseball but he is a canny pilot one of the smartest in the business today he would be one of the least surprised if the giants captured the tha pennant the dodgers a strong team with plenty of aggressiveness became became stronger with the recent acquisition of joe medwick and curt davis lippy leo durocher finally has the hitter he wanted a hitter he can count on when runs are needed from 1935 through 1937 medwick hit and he had a bad time the past three years i in n st louis but is figured to become as solid as ever with brooklyn with davis davi S to help out with pitching chores and medwick to supply the badly needed daily punch the dodgers are loaded for leo durocher big game the deal whereby brooklyn acquired those two men also may help nail the pennant to the ebbets field flagpole residents of brooklyn already see the pennant in the clutches of the dodgers and they wont stand for anything that might interfere with the reaching of that goal witness the near riot when the cardinals joe bowman medwick recently even the police took part in that fiasco civil war was averted but narrowly happy the passing of M medwick edwick from st louis is not expected to have much effect upon the fortunes of the car danals he was unhappy there wanting to play with the dodgers joe one of the last of tle gas house gang hold his popularity with teammates and with ISMS faus |