The daily independent., 1937-07-21
Jays Play South Norfolk Today On Hunsucker Field
itch u. S. Davis Cup Team Gains Chance At En- 81 EX
By JACK CUDDY


This is the home of the Newark
Bears. They are leading the In
ternational League by 20 games.
Lift them out of class AA baseball
and they probably would finish
in the first division In eicler the
American or National League.
Is this the greatest minor lea-
CUE baseball team of all time?
Over here the answer Is. yes
The Bears are owned by the New
York Yankees, and there is much
agitation for an exhibition game
between the Bears and the Yam
KEGS to decide whether Gehrig.
DiMaggio, Gomez, and company,
should move out of the Yankee
Stadium and let Gordon, Donald.
Keller and company take over big
league chores.
What makes great ball teamP
Speed? I give you Keller. Newark
outfielder, chain lightning on the
base paths, a ball hawk. hitting
$50. A youth of %. Keller Is
ready to step into the Yankee out
field the moment Selkirk, DiMag-
gio or Powell shows the least sign
of faltering.
Cunning? Look at At.ey Don
aid, a raw, green youth who this
year has never known what 1t
means to 60 to the Showers
beaten pitcher. Donald starts. and
he wins. He ought to be good for
20 games in the American League
next year.
Power? There is one regular In
the Newark lineup-Richardson.
the shortstop-who is not hitting
300. The rest Of them are pow
dering that ball for better than
800 averages and in addition are
slamming out extra base hits that
bring those runs across IN
punches.
A ball club should have brains.
I give you manager Oscar Witt.
former third baseman Of the De-
troit Tigers in tine great days
when Tyrus Raymond Cobb was
running the bases with flashing
spikes.
Sometimes his boys throw to the
wrong base when runners are on
the paths, but they don't do 1t
often, for after the game, In the
clubhouse, Oscar talks to him In
that fatherly way of his. The next
time, somebody tries to run bases
against the Newark Bears, he
comes up out Of his slide wond-
ering how that ball got there a.
head of him.
How powerful is this minor
league team? Is it a better club
than the Baltimore outfit that had
Grove, Bishop. Boley and Earl
shaw? Do they have more power
than the Los Angeles Angels with
STATE and jain? The answer Is
yes. This is the reason:
This is a young club. There are
only two old men IN it-Bob
Seeds, and outfielder. and Rich
ardson, the shortstop. And they
are there for a reason. Youngsters
need balance and the only way to
give it to them is to put old heads
alongside them.
At the start of the Internation-
al League season the experts
picked Montreals Royals or the
Baltimore Orioles to win the pen
nant. No one, not even willy old
Oscar Witt himself realized the
power that this Newark ball club
packed. He could not foreSee, for
instance, that Joe Gordon, his
second baseman, would develop
octopus arms that would snag
anything hit to the right or left
of him; he had not idea that
Herschberger, his. catcher, would
hit for $50; he did not realize
that in Keller he had an outfield-
er who could roam far and wide
and peg runners out at the plate
with a throw that came in straight
and letter him.
Well, there they are - fast.
young. ambitious. blessed. with
talent beyond the dreams Of any
manager = the greatest Minor
League ball club of all times!