Evening star., 1937-04-01
Y0UNGSTER GIVEN
EDGE IN Town LOOP
1t Is Treason in Brooklyn
Camp to Rate Rookie
With Van LingIe.
BY JOHN LARDNER,

~ ~LEARWATER, Fla, April Il
I Some Of the boys who have
I been taking Bob Feller with
~ out chaser down Louisiana
way will tell you that Bobby's fast
ball is the fastest thing that has come
along since Old 81 left the rails but
around the Brooklyn training camp
that sort of stuff is treason, not to
speak of heresy. How can a beardless
STRIPPING from the sugar bush be faster
than Van Lingle Mungo?
I expect that the Mungo-Feller con-
troVersy is going to rage all Summer.
The two foggerS will operate in diff
ferent leagues, so that there will be
no way of getting direct line of
comparison between their rival veloci-
ties. The American Leaguers who
whiff on Feller's stuff will say, in self
defense, that Robert is the fastest
pitcher since Walter johnson. The
National Leaguers who miss Mungos
hard one by a foot will say, as they
have said for three years, that big
Lingle serves the swiftest poison on
six continents.
Giants Lean to Feller
OF COURSE, some of the blades in
the National League-notablv a
handful of traitorious. muckraking
Giants-already have seeded from
Mungo in favor of Feller These rem
egades were blown off their feet by
Feller's fast one in an exhibition
game with Cleveland, and a couple
of them, such as Burgess Whitehead.
now are swearing on deck of Korans
as high as your hat that little Bobby
is the faster man.
I've never looked at such speed"
says the perjured Whitehead.
But it gives me pleasure to add that
other Giants. like Dick Bartell, mind
full Of their fealty to their own league,
continue to hold out for Mungo.
"Feller is fast, but Mungo is faster"
says Rowdy Richard. ''Feller is no
fun to hit against, but Mungo's fas.
one burns the beard of our chin"
In the Brooklyn training camp they
agree with Bartell, which is curious on
the face Of it, because there is no love
lost for Richard in Brooklyn. But
any booster of Mungo's : find an
audience among the Dodgers. The
Dodgers are very proud of big Lingle,
the Pageland prairie fire.
Not Enough Evidence.
EOR myself, I've seen Mungo many
times, and I've only seen Feller
work one inning. That was an unLa ppy
inning, against the Yankees, toward
the close of last season. 1t was the
only inning Feller worked that day,
and admit that there wasn't enough
evidence there to base an opinion on.
But, justly or not, must tag along
with the Mungoites until the infant
from Iowa has been up little while
longer and has shown more stuff
Around the two leagues. they tell
you that the following pitchers are
the fastest in the business, as gen.
eral thing: Dizzy Dean, Roy Parnclee,
Johnny Allen. Hal Schumacher.
Schoolboy Rowe, Charlie Ruffng. Lon
Warneke and, to be sure, Mungo and
Feller.
Fellows like Lefty Grove and Bill
Hallahan, who still are in the game,
had speed to burn a few seasons ago,
but today they rely more on experience
and cunning than on sheer oomph.
OF all the fire. -ballers now fireball-
ing, Mungo and Feller stand out
Mungo because he has satisfied most
base ball men over the last three years
that he is the fastest pitcher since
Johnson, and Feller because OF the
sensational circumstances Of his debut
and because OF his threat to Mungo' S
supremacy.