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Show IwW tZi I .... PCEj . 'IPHOSE looking for further late summer and early autumn excitement ex-citement should find what they want In the battle for the batting championship cham-pionship of the American league between be-tween its two best hitters Ted Williams Wil-liams of the Red Sox and Joe DiMaggio Di-Maggio of the Yankees. Heath, Cul-lenbine Cul-lenbine or possibly some other son of swat may upset this combination but we doubt it. Williams and DiMag are the two A. L. standouts and they still have the better part of three months left in which to prove their places in polite baseball society. DiMaggio's brilliant bril-liant consecutive bitting streak has given the San Francisco Fran-cisco entry most of the publicity lately, but the gangling kid from San Diego and v " J S ) 'A, A .Si nosion is sun lar Grantland Rice lut in front when it comes to the main figures. Anyone who can reach the halfway half-way mark over .400, as Williams did, knows how to handle ash furniture. furni-ture. And even the excellent DiMag will have to keep on swinging his mace effectively to catch or pass the tall, relaxed entry from the Red Sox reservation. Looking Back How do the two compare at this spot along the pennant road? Here is DiMaggio's five-year Yankee record rec-ord through 1940: 1936 .323; 1937 .346; 1938 .324; 1939 .381; 1940 .352; grand averages .343. Here Is Ted Williams' record for his two complete years: 1939 .327; 1940 .344; average .336. But up through the halfway stretch of 1941 Williams is now in front, counting the games both have played under the big tent. Both Williams and DiMaggio can be listed high In the natural hitting 1,0 class. One of the main features of DiMaggio's Di-Maggio's base-hit ability is perfect wrist action. The DiMag has a pair of cocked wrists that carry both power and control. Too many hitters are body and arm swingers. DiMaggio, DiMag-gio, well balanced Joe DiMaggio on DOtn ,eet- lels his body work with his hands, bnt that brace of cocked wrists deliver most of the poison. The main feat- of Ted Williams' bat swinging is i..s almost complete lack of tension. Williams won't be 23 until October, but he still acts with the ease and confidence of a veteran who has been through many baseball wars. In this respect he reminds you of Napoleon Lajoie. Larry at the plate looked as loose as ashes. He was apparently indifferent indif-ferent as he waited for the pitch. "You either hit it or you don't," Larry told me years ago. "Why bother about it? Just take your cut." The fact might be mentioned here that with this modern lively ball Lajoie, a smoking line hitter with the old one, would soon have several sev-eral hospitals full of crippled infield-ers infield-ers who happened to be in the line of fire. Another Hot Match With Williams and DiMaggio grabbing grab-bing off most of the wild laurel sprigs in the American league, you can look for another hot scramble In the N. L. between Pete Reiser of the Dodgers and Johnny Mize of the Cardinals. It might interest you to know, If you care for the succulent statistics in baseball, that Johnny Mize's five-year five-year average with the Cardinals is now .339 up through 1940 just four points below DiMaggio's mark for the same span. Big John is one of the top hitters of his time. Ball players through the South this last spring all picked Jim as the best hitter in the older league. Mize hails from Demarest, Ga., not so far ajvay from Royston where Ty Cobb spent his younger years. (Ever notice how most of the top ones come from the unsung hamlets not from the big towns?) Mize has a freshman challenger in Brooklyn's Pete Reiser, who in his first year on big time has been whacking away between .350 and .370 most of the season. Pete Reiser is the ball player named by Leo Durocher as the "next Ty Cobb provided there will ever be another Ty Cobb. Reiser is 1S5 pounds of speed, power, bead and heart," according to Durocher's estimate. Reiser is now just 21. Don't forget for-get that when Tyrus Raymond was a Tiger debutante he batted .322. But from there on he finished with a lifetime average of .367 for 24 years and that, my fellow countrymen, country-men, is something to shoot at. But for all that, the stretch duels between Williams and DiMaggio, Mize and Reiser, will add considerably consid-erably to the general public interest in both races. Suppose someone else beats them out? What of it? They are still the four best hitters in the two big leagues over a period c-f time. i |