The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-03-30

We're gambling on rockies to come through for us right in the middle of the diamond-short and second. That's the most import ant spot on the field. But how does anybody know they won't click for us?
 Reminiscing "Go back to 1926. I came from Louisville to take over the Cubs an eighth place ball club in '25. The team on paper that year fig ured to be lucky if it finished sev- enth. But no manner of means could we finish sixth.
 Well, we never were worse than fifth all season. And we were sec- opd so often we gave plenty of them the jitters, but still we had enough to beat the Giants into the four-hole."
 Wasn't it a dangerous experi- ment to bring a youngster from Baltimore, such as Don Heffner and put him at second to work with another youngster from Newark, Red Rolfe, at shortstop?
 Not always" replied Joe. These kids have been playing to- gether so far in the training sea- son so well and learning so much about each others infield habits, they may become a fine double play pair. There's Gehrig on one side and Tony Lazzeri on the other side to steady them.
 Both of 'em can drive in runs too. They're not sluggers, but you watch the way that Rolfe lays into a. pitch, He looks like a hitter. Heffner looks little light, but heh is timely hitter. Drove in more runs last year than Rifle.
 Besides, what I like about both of them is that they're snappy out in that field and have all kinds of fight.
 "Then we've got Crosetti and Lary and SaltZgaver, you know, to pick from if we decide not to use those two boys
 Pitchers Promising
 Last year the Yankee pitching had been spotty. Would it be bet ter this year?
 Well, there were good reasons for it being spotty last season. We were depending on Ruffing, Allen, Gomez and Van Alta. The flu and injuries cramped our pitching staff and we couldn't get going.
 ''This year all those fellows look fine. never saw Ruffing looking better than this spring. He'll win 20 games for us easy. Allen is just starting to hit his stride"
 How about the rockies, espe- cially this Smythe from Baltimore who won 21 games last year?
 "I think Smythe and Murphy probably will be the only new men. Smythe is no chicken. He's 30 and he'll know his way around. Murphy turned in some mighty nice relief work over at Newark last year
 Ruth Still There
 "The little fellow you see over there warming that fast one through there-you remember him of course"
 The little fellow" was Big George Uhle, the Cleveland veter- an who made a fine comeback with the Yankees last year.
 Hell be a. regular" Joe went on. "The other starter I don't know about. Might be Danny Mac Fayden, who ran into a bad season last year, but who may find him. self this year. Say, he was great up at Boston, wasn't he?"
 Danny certainly had been great up at Boston. And if he came through, the Yankees looked pretty we'll set, didn't they, Joe?
 You can say for me that if MacFayden is the pitcher he was for the Red Sox we'll breeze in without a deep breath. You know we've got the power"
 As he spoke, fat person who had just made his sixth home run in training camp, an unprecedent- ed performance even for him, waddled to the bench. Power? You said it-even at 40!