Show Speak speaking irig of sports it pays to be a slugger awards show by HERB ROGERS A A HUSKY large nosed italian A american catcher and a burly first baseman from Ma rylands eastern shore captured the spotlight briefly for baseball from a sports world intent on football when the baseball writers association of america picked the two most valuable players to their teams in the national and american leagues the catcher wa was s ernie lombardi lombard who swung a hefty bat tor for the national leagues league s cincinnati reds during durig the 1938 1933 s season eason the first baseman was jimmy foxx of the american leagues boston red sox whose gallant comeback from the down and outer trail a year ago won him a landslide vote in the poll to lombardi lombard the award comes late in his playing career for he has been in the major leagues since 1931 the big catcher rolled up points or 63 ahead of bill lee the chicago cubs pitcher who finished second lombardi lombard who lives in oak land calif led the league in hitting with and according to his manager will mckechnie had much t to a do with ta the success of the reds red s 1 sensational pitching staff this year sets new record to foxx the award was no novelty for he has won it on two previous occasions in 1932 and 1933 but it is a vindication tor for him after a a miserable season season in 1937 when he hit a weak falling below thi the mark for the second time since he was brought up to the majors by connie mack jimmy polled points out of a possible and became the first player to win the most valuable 1 oa 1 vms 1 edif ev if f j I 1 I 1 1 ERNIE lombardi LOM BARDl award three times during his career foxx batted in the 1938 season an and d drove in a near record total of runs incidentally the awards again indicated that the man with the potent bat is likely to be picked as the most valuable performer for 13 out of the last 15 players selected tor for the honor in the american league and 9 out of the last 13 in the national have been sluggers three members of the worlds champion new york yankees finished among the first six in the american league voting this year bill dickey the champions catcher paced his teammates scoring a total of points tor for second place pitcher charley ruffing was fa fourth arth with and outfielder joe di maggio was sixth with hank greenberg oits slugging first baseman who drove out 58 home runs in the 1938 season finished third |