New Britain herald., 1928-08-15
BY HENRY l.. FARRELL. tNEA Service Sports Writer)


 Lou Gehrig, the busting first base man of the New York Yankees won the contest in 1927 for the Ameri can leagues most valuable player prize in a walk With Babe Ruth ineligible for the prize, the young first baseman was by far the out standing player of the season and he was almost an unanimous choice of the voting committee of baseball writers.
 This year there is no player in the league who stands out as prominent ly as George Sisler. the Babe, Walter Johnson. Roger Peckinpaugh. George Burns and Gehrig did when they won the prize.
 There are. of course. a number of prominent candidates, but they are grouped closely together and the competition will be keener than it ever has been before. And under these conditions there will be plenty Of argument over the fitness and merit of the winner.
 The outstanding candidates would seem at the present time to be Tony Lazzeri and George Pipgras, of the New York Yankees: Jimmy Ioxx of the Philadelphia Athletics; Ralph hress and sam Gray. of the St. Louis Browns: Bob Reeves, of the Washington Senator's: Charley Ja- mieson and Carl Lind. of the Cleve land Indians; Willie kamm, of the Chicago White SoN, and Big Ed MOTHS ot the Boston Red Sox.
 There are one or two players on every club in the league who are more valuable to the team than the other members Of the squad but if IS only natural tendency to pay more attention to the stars on inc pennant contendins teams because their deeds gre given more publicity.
 Considering all the angles our choice would be young Jimmy Foxs. the best all-around player in base oall. lie is a great hitter and a brilliant worker behind the bat on nrst base or third base and q capable outflelder. He has been shifted all over the lot by Connie Mack, and ne delivered on every assignment.
 lie IS playing with bunch Of stars. Al Simmons was fifth in the voting last year and Jimmy Dykes was eighth. Simmons has done valiant work this season but he has not been put to the test in great emergencies that the kid has ana the kid delivered like g Spartan.
 me actual test that proves a players real value to hs c,uh w,. put 10 the Yankees in recent weeks and 1t Was demonstrated very plajn- " that Tony Lazzeri is a very largo part Of the main works of inc champlon Yankees Tony from inc start has been vital port of tbe Tank machine and he is inc hos+ second base'nan in the league. Last year. m competition with Gehrjg ba sot "'2ht votes from the committee on awards and that meant much.
 "heh i.azzeri went out this year "lth an injured shoulder, f}ic cntire ankee infield went to pi.ccs koo '''s pIe" hp when he had 10 work with stranger at second. and the defense of the whole team was de moralized
 LazzerI only ri>a among the ankees is George Pipsras, who js a record as the bes, pitcher '' the year. But, it can be argued any pitcher should have delivered when the Tanks were hitting on al, cylinders behind him and when the .lop went into it's terrible slump llpgras started losing.
 The creditable rise of in, St Jo,,;s 'tro"ns this year placed Ralph '>rcss 'n a position to get a lot of notlee. The romance Of a rook;e somlng up and leading the league h hat'ihg for a long time and in SP1r'hS q whole team put him i'm me spot But some of the man isers and the players in the league ,hlhk mat the fine improvement of He broWns was due as much to the me pitching Of Sam Gray as it was Q anything that kress did.
 Fhcky Harris says that with Cos m hopeiessly crippled. Bob Reeves s the most valuable player on his 'luh. And it wa. the crippling of 'osl1n that brought out the rca1 merits of Reeves. as he had to play 'nortstop from the base line clear pack to the left field wall.
 ('1rt ind 'ase for the Cleveland Indians was | n" of the bright spots of the season. ut the valiant work and tn. noble i plrit of Charley Jamieson cannot be !