Evening star., 1938-03-01
NATPREXY'SV|EW
NOT TRUE T0DOPE
McCarthy's Team, Except.
ing Lazzeri, Same as 1887
World Champs.
BY GRANTLAND RICE.

tive lAVOtlLeS III his DOOk 70 WIN Lle
American League pennant race again
and Clark Griffith says he will be
surprised If they do. When the base
ball experts get around to foretelling
the result of the scramble that will
start in mid-April, the chances are
that more of them will string with
Doyle than with Griff
Griff knows his baseball-nobody
will try to take anything away from
him on that-but it is going to be diff
Acult for anybody to forget how the
Yankees looked the last time out. The
way they wound up the pennant race
and then went on to throttle the Giants
In the World Series was so impressive
that the onlookers stopped comparing
them with their rivals and began to
wonder If they could have beaten the
Yankees of 1927.
That. as Benny Leonard once said
when they were arguing whether or moi
he could have beaten Joe Cans, was
going back long way to dig up some
body for q fellow to lick But it was
necessary to 90 back 10 years to find
. team that combined power and
pitching and fielding skill toll degree
the Yanks achieved.
. Tigers Are Formidable
But all that, to snare line from
kipling. is all showed behind us, long
ago and far away. This is 1898 ana a
new race looms With little better
break in luck than they had last year
the Tigers will be more formidable. In
spite of Gehrig and Di Maggie and
Dickey and Selkirk, the Yankees can't
muster as steady an attack as the
Tigers over the span of season-or
couldn't last year, when the Tigers
finished on top In hitting.
Last year the Tigers cracked ur
when Mickey Cochrane. Schoolboy
Rowe and Tommy Bridges were forced
out Of action. With a smoother run
OF luck, little better pitching and
that hammering attack working again
the Tigers may be tough to stop-as
tough as Grid thinks they will be, for
the Old Fox really thinks the Tigers
are the ones who will tip the Yankee
apple cart this time.
Threatening, too, are the White
eox, who have some good pitchers,
and added to their punch by the &C.
QUESTION OF Gerald Walker. The In
dams, under new management again
Oscar Witt, this time-may not
have enough to win the pennant, but
II Witt can straighten them out they
might make good run for it, since
there Is plenty of ability spread OUT
along that Cleveland playing roster.
.... Their Own Attitude.
1. So much for their leading foemen
What of the Yankees themselves =?
This really is the most important
phase Of the matter because. when
last seen, the Yankees looked as
though nobody could beat them but
themselves. That is, that nobody had
much of q chance with them unless
they began to take themselves too
much for granted and allowed their
superb faith in themselves to grow
into overcon1idence.
And there didn't-and still doesn't
appear much danger of anything
Ike that happening. Not with Joe
Mccarthy in command of the Rupert
forces. For while Joe isn't harsh in
his methods and doesn't make much
noise about it, he is q relentless driver.
Ne wants to win every ball game by
10 runs and every pennant race by 20
games. and if the Yanks should fail
1t will not, be because they were not
IN there pitching and swinging from
the heels.
The team will be very much as it
was at the close of last season. bar
ring the absence of Tony Lazzeri at
second base. The Yanks are going to
look strange without Tony for a while,
since Tony-with Lou Gehrig-sur.
vlved the decline and fall of the 1927
champions and was as much a part
OF the new team as he had been of
the old. He slowed down and seemed
on his way out more than cnce-and
tnen took new grip on himself and
came slogging back-and for the
last two years had a major role in
the winning of the pennant and the
world championship.
He could have been with the YAM
kees still. but he figured the time had
come for him to quit playing when
the series rolled to an end last fall
and he went to the Cubs as a coach
Gordon at Second Base.
Inls leaves second base for young
Joe Gordon, who was coming up from
the Newark Bears for a shot at Il
anyway, even II Lazzeri had stave1
Now Gordon has no competition for
the job. but those who have seen him
tell me that he would take it awav
from anybody who might be thrown
into a tussle for 1t with him. Witt.
who managed the Bears last wear.
isn't fellow who goes around talking
loosely about anything, and he saws
that Gordon not only is ready for the
major leagues, but within few years
will be grouped with the greatest Sec
ond basemen Of all time. That is q
long order for anybody to fill, but the
kid must have plenty of stuff-or
everybody who has looked at him must
Be loony.
For the rest. there is the now.fa-
miliar crew-Gehrig, Crosetti, Rolfe,
Di Maggie. selkirk. Heinrich, Hoae,
Dickey and q pitching staff led by
Red Running, Vernon Gomez and
Monte Pearson. with Johnny Murphy
to do the mopping up and possibly .
younsster or two to I'LL in here and
there.
Power and pitching and fielding
skill and an able, relentless manager
--plus the spirit and confidence that
come with the success thay have had
these are the Yankees assets. A lot
can happen to any ball club over the
stretch from April to October, and q
lot can happen to the Yankees, OF
course. But they are 2 to S In Doyle's
book-and that makes them the short.
est-priced favorites in the history OF
the game.
(copyright, 1888, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Inc.)