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Show SPORTLIGHT Fiqht Due on Substitution Rule By GRANTLAND RICE THE most serious matter that will confront football's rule-makers at their next meeting will be unlimited unlim-ited substitution, where changes are often made in groups of 11 at a crack. It is this highly diseased arrangement arrange-ment which permits squads, rich in medicine, architecture, advertising and manufacturing. "Crisler with his two-team idea has produced the most interesting football ever seen at Michigan. His ofTense is the finest and most interesting inter-esting in football. Try to buy a seat for any Michigan game at Ann Arbor." Ar-bor." The only answer Is there are two sides to every question. Dealing in Nostalgia BOTH the Yankees and the Giants, whatever they might do in the way of new material, have taken on a strong nostalgic turn. The Yankees keep the able Cro-setti Cro-setti and then send for Bill Dickey, one of the real Yankees of all time. The Giants send a hurry call to Frankie Frisch and Freddie Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons to bring the past into the present and future. Both these moves are popular with the fans at large. Frisch and Dickey are among baseball's immortals. im-mortals. They were part of the grandeur that was the Giants and part of the glory that was the Yankees. Yan-kees. But, Herman Hickman said when told of the famous stars from the past who once wore the Blue: "I know but I can't use 'em today.' Neither Leo Durocher nor Casey Stengel can win a pennant with the material that finished out the campaign cam-paign of 1948. Durocher needs battery bat-tery help and infield help. The Yankees Yan-kees need better catching, better pitching and infield rebuilding. The mighty Casey has put the blast on the Dodgers, but they still have enough good ballplayers ballplay-ers to win a pennant if properly bandied in the front office, or If Burt Shotton is let alone. The teams in the first division should find the Cubs, Phillies and Reds much improved if properly directed. di-rected. But the Giants' bid for a pennant Is going to call for a lar0j amount of smart rebuilding. The stme is true of the Yankees, whose main strength last season was an outfield headed by Joe DiMaggio. material, to use separate teams for attack and defense. It is murder for the smaller colleges and those that have no such material to call on. Imagine 292 substitutions in the Cornell-Columbia game. Here is a rule Grantland Rice that is hated by most of r.ie coaches that is despised by the public that is highly unpopular with all real football players who happen to like both sides of the game offense and defense. Michigan and Army might be exceptions. Under Its protecting banner, fine football players can leave college without ever having made a tackle, broken up a block, covered a hostile fumble or Intercepted a pass. Most of the better football coaches are dead against it, which means that some definite changes will be made this winter as said coaches are backed up by publio opinion. It would be exactly the same if a baseball team had a fielding outfit and, in addition, had a batting order that included none of the defensive players. There are more than a few who can hit but who can't field. There are still more who can field but who can't hit. To be a real ballplayer you have to do both. This isn't true in football. As Earl Greasy Neale puts it "The real football player can give you from 50 to 60 minutes. If he can't, then he isn't a real football player." Here is another side, presented by one of the best football minds in the game: "In regard to free substitutions, sub-stitutions, there is a difference between be-tween using free substitutions us-int us-int from 30 to 50 players in a game and employing offensive and defensive de-fensive teams. "When you watch Michigan you always know who is on the field. There are two solid units, one for offense and one for defense. de-fense. Each is a well-drilled team, with perfect'y co-ordinated units. By resting one or the other, the coach always has a fairly fresh eleven in the field. "They are specialists but where don't you find specialists today. Tl.ere are specialists in dentistry. |