The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-11
RED AND WHITE SOx CROSS BATS FOR FIRST TIME
Dykes Club Riddled By In= juries as Hub Series
 Opens; FOxx There
BY ROBERT WEBB

United Press Staff Correspondent
 Boston, May 11--(UP)- Letting the sports chips fall where they may:
 Manager Jimmy Dykes presents his shell-shocked Chicago White Sox to Boston today for the first time this season Considerable hard luck has made the Chisox a far less formidable outfit than the 1888 team which won 86 games to wind up third, behind only the Yankees and Detroit :. Sportswrit- CTS picked Chicago to finish fourth this season but Jimmy Dykes will need all the best of 1t to beat out the Red Sox for that spot.
 Chief offensive threats on last years team were shortstop Luke Appling, 1886 batting champion, and the leaden-footed Zeke Bonura at first base Both these men have gone Bonura went to Washing ton, when he held out this spring, in return for Joe Kuhel, 8 much better fielder but a poorer hitter than Bonura.
 First Sacker Wanted
 Chicago fans did not like the deal because Bonura, with his ability to bat home runs when the going was tough, had developed into one of the most popular players on the team The other day Kuhel in- jured his foot badly and now Dykes has no first baseman Appling won't be much help because he broke his right leg during an exhi- bition game late in March.
 Dykes indicated he needed pitch CTS when he picked up Gabby Frank Gabler, waived out of the National League The former Bees and Giants hurler beat Philadelphia last week 10-4 in his first start under new colors Perhaps he'll have another chance here although the White Sox, who have won only 2 of r, play in Boston only twice this trip.
 If Jimmy (Muscles) Foxx con- tinues to bat in runs at his present rate, he'll drive 262 across the plate before the season ends ,. Last sea- son, Hank Greenberg led the Amer ican League Battering Rams with 183 runs batted in |. The slugging Detroit first baseman struck out 101 times so don't be angry when Foxx misses that third one and starts fo rthe bench with the run- ners still on base.
 With the season 20 games old, Boston's Big Six" have established themselves as the most consistent group of batters in either league Cramer has failed to hit safely in only four games, Vosmik in three, Foxx in three, Cronin in five, Hig- gins in nine, and Chapman in four Cramer and Vosmik rank as the best one-two combination in the game today.
 Two Cleaner Upper
 A New York writer asks why Joe Cronin keeps himself in the clean up spot with such batters as Joe Vosmik and Jimmy Foxx on the club Answer is that both Cronin and Foxx are cleanup batters :. And when Foxx can't drive in the runners batting number three, Cro- min generally does the job Vos- mix wouldn't qualify for the clean up hearth He's more valuable when he tries for singles only No distance hitter, last year Joe hit only four homers.
 The Tanks may do bit of trad- ing before the season is much old- CT {. The club must cut five play CTS to get down to the player limit Possibly three of their 13 pitch CTS will bite the dust The cham pions would swap couple of thei' second-string hurlers for a good in- fielder Frank Crosetti is hitting poorly and Billy Knickerbocker has already replaced Flash Gordon at second base.