Show PORTS W M released release d by western News newspaper pap er union SOMEHOW the world seemed completely wrong one recent morning when a quick glance at the league standings on the sports pages showed the new york yankees tied for seventh place in the american league how flow the mighty had fallen that was the first thought but the initial blow was softened by the fact that only 4 games separated the first place st louis browns and the eighth place philadelphia athletics it long ago that jimmy dykes and lou boudreau were feud ing over whether the white sox or the indians should win the pennant boudreau cleveland indian manager 71 m made a d e a forcible statement predicting the eventual triumph of the sox dykes manager of the latter team disagreed it t was his stated belief that jimmy dyk dykes es the indians were the the leagues league I 1 s fair haired boys rol following lowing that exchange of compliments ments the two teams went into an early season death struggle to see who would gain occupancy of last place except for a week or so in which the indians took the honor the sox clung to the cellar spot with a bulldog tenacity however they stay there the more dependable pen dable As took over 24 hour positions As this is being written cleveland is in fourth place chicago in fifth those positions are not guaranteed for more than 24 hours the american league is delightfully unpredictable dic table almost unstable while we think the yankees still will be the team to beat for the pennant despite st louis we cant ignore the indians and white sox they have too many possibilities the records show that under dykes the white sox always have beena been a formidable team in the second half of the season remember that they started badly last year but were finishing so strongly at the end of the season that had the campaign had two more weeks to go I 1 they probably would have finished second dykes was forced to devote a large part of the first six weeks of this season to experimentation in normal times these experiments would have been made during spring training for a long time the india indians ns have been known as a team well up toward the front until then they fell apart this season they did their falling apart earlier than usual the indians should be a better ball club in the second half of the campaign particularly if ken keltner and allie reynolds are able to stay around the pitching staff is working itself into shape and pitching is I 1 likely to be the determining factor in the race we grant that it is doubtful if either team has enough all allaround around strength to take the flag but neither of them are as bad as early showings indicate veteran hurlers the yankees get gat the nod because they started with three excellent veteran pitchers hank borowy ernie bonham and atley donald they also unveiled two fine newcomers walt dubiel and joe page the present american league race is something new under the sun there is not an outstandingly good team and there is not an overwhelmingly weak team there is likely to be no team in the circuit of field all this makes the national league race look like a walkaway at the same time the yankees were tied for seventh in the junior circuit st louis was leading the national by a comfortable margin the chicago cubs were Ws games out the usual situation had been reversed with a vengeance almost any team in the american is capable of a winning streak and equally capable ot of a slump most of them haap have undergone the latter it seems quite possible that the team which really gets warmed up in september will be the one to take the flag SPORTS SHORTS 41 buck shaws coaching contract a at t santa clara a school that has abandoned football for the duration runs until 1947 |