Sport: Fun for All

¶ People who eat and sleep baseball between the middle of April and the second week in October are in for nightmares and nervous indigestion. That was last week’s expert consensus. Under prevailing 4-F conditions, the probabilities were that the teams in both leagues would be more evenly matched than last year or the year before—and uniformly awful. Details:

¶The new “rocket ball”—a buna-S core instead of last year’s apathetic balata—may enliven hitting. A Cleveland Indian who last season batted .222 tried the ball at the Lafayette, Ind. training camp last week, promptly hit a home run. “If the cover was any tighter,” reported Manager Lou Boudreau, “it would be a golf ball.”

¶The assortment of players and prospects had fairly stable elements: children, old men (as ballplayers go), 4-Fs, a few discharged war veterans, a few Latin Americans, But there was also the bogey of a draft of 4-Fs into essential industries. By midsummer the national pastime might be almost exclusively a sport for the young and the old. Dodger President Branch Rickey offered a plan: let all the clubs limit their reserve lists of players to an agreed figure and pool the surplus, to be drawn on whenever any club needed a replacement.

The major-league clubs looked, last week, as follows:

Yankees. Strong in pitching: Hank Borowy (3-A), Atley Donald (4-F), Tiny Bonham (3-A), Rookie Walter Dubiel (4-F). No catchers with any major-league experience. Said Manager Joe McCarthy: “I still insist that we’re the club to beat. After all, we’re the champions, aren’t we?”

Cards. Comparatively strong all around. Potential weak spot: outfield. Five of seven outfielders are I-A or 3-A. Helping out: 40-year-old Pepper Martin.

Giants. Strong in catching, weak in pitching. Said Vice President Leo Bondy: “A move to use Army rejects in essential industry would blow up baseball.”

Dodgers. Strong in the outfield, weak in the infield, as usual. Star Pitchers Whitlow Wyatt and Rube Melton are both 1-A. Rookie pitcher: Tom Warren, veteran of Casablanca.

Senators. Strong in pitching: Roger Wolff (4-F), Dutch Leonard (4-F), Milton Haefner (I-A). Weak in hitting and catching. Fourteen Latin Americans; one a Cuban bullfighter, Fermin Guerra.

Tigers. Strong in pitching: Paul Trout (4-F), Hal Newhouser (4-F), Frank Overmire (4-F). Weak in hitting.

Phillies. Weak in pitching. The team’s height and weight average 6 ft. plus, 187 Ib. Said General Manager Herb Pennock: “Size has a value psychologically. Of course there’s a lot more to baseball than size.”

Athletics. Flux and bewilderment under wraps. Club officials kept most of the players’ draft classifications to themselves. The pitching staff looked fairly strong, including: Buck Newsom (4-F), Jesse Flores (Latin American).

Cubs. Strong in the outfield, weak in catching. Strong hitters: Bill Nicholson (I-A), Lou Novikoff (I-A), Andy Pafko (4-F). Said General Manager Jim Gallagher: “No government action will shorten the season.”

White Sox. Strong in pitching: Orval Grove (4-F), Bill Dietrich (I-AL), John Humphries (3-A), Thornton Lee (3-A).

Indians. Strong in pitching: Allie Reynolds (I-A), Mel Harder (2-B), Al Smith (4-F), Joe Heving (overage). Weak in catching.

Red Sox. Strong in hitting: Bob Johnson (I-AH), Bobby Doerr (I-A), Jim Tabor (3-A). Weak in pitching. Said General Manager Eddie Collins: “The fans like a close race. That’s probably what they will get.”

Pirates. Strong in pitching: Rip Sewell (4-F), Max Butcher (4-F). Weak in hitting and catching.

Reds. Weak in pitching, weak in hitting.

Braves. Weak in pitching, probably not so weak in hitting as last year. Said Manager Bob Coleman: “It’s going to be a funny season. Any club can win.”

Browns. More bewilderment and secrecy. Said President Ford Frick of the National League: “This season will be on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis.”