Evening star., 1938-04-16
G|ANTSFACEF|GHT
ASYANKEESR ROMP
Battle Starts With SWoosh
Here Monday With Firing
General Next Day.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer.


NEW YORK. April 16.-The clients
having been worked into a suitable
lather by as fancy a lot of spring
ballyhoo as Connie Mack, the old
est inhabitant, ever saw. the 1888
big league baseball campaign at last
Is on the verge of getting down to
business
1t starts with swo-o-sh at Wash
1ngton on Monday afternoon. when
President Franklin D. Roosevelt IS
scheduled to watch a couple of very
long shots the Nationals and Phila-
delphla's Athletics. bang each other
about At the same time, up in Bos-
ton, the champion New York Yankees
will begin what looms as another grand
march, against the Red Sox, weather
permitting.
Only the two tilts are on Mondays
program. but on the following day the
cannonading will become general on
all fronts. The Giants. two-time
champs in the National League and
slim favorites to win again, open
against the Boston Bees at the Polo
Grounds.
Hot Race Looms in National
As for some seasons past, prospects
for a genuine pennant fight between
two or more clubs are wrapped up in
the National League, which has taken
a kicking around from the magazine
writers this spring. In the opinion
of ma jority of experts, the Giants
again will get their toughest compe-
tition from the Chicago Cubs. with
the st. Louis Cardinals and Pitts
burgh Pirates also breathing down
their necks, maybe.
Nothing of the kind is forecast in
the American League. where the YAM
KEGS are deemed to have such a bulge
over their nearest neighbors that only
a general falling apart of the veteran
team could deprive them of third
world championship. The experts
might be proved wrong. as often they
have when they stuck their collective
necks out but that's the way they
feel
Di Mag Losing $1,000 per Week.
What's more remarkable about the
rush to get on the side of the Bronx
members is the fact they will face
the Red Sox Monday without their
greatest player, Joe Di Maggie, in the
lineup. Myril Hoag. who figures to
clout close to so points under Di Mag
elos potential figure. will occupy
Giuseppe's centerfield post. Yet the
champs. who finished l3 games in
front of Detroit last season, appear
so powerful otherwise that they drew
the votes of So out of so baseball
writer's in the Associated Press an
nual plebisclte.
Di Maggio's stubborn holdout for
10000 and Col. Jake Ruppert's equal
ly hard-headed refusal to offer him
more than S25,000, has done much
to enliven the training season. A lot
of the boys thought they we're fooling,
but it doesn't look that way now.
Starting Monady, Joe will be losing
approximately $1,000 each week in
salary and it will take him close to
a month to work himself into real
pldyllk COIlOIuloll NllcIi OIlCC AiC OOCo
report.
Chisox Heavily Hit.
Offhand, the second most important
occurrence of the conditioning cam
paign was the broken leg suffered by
Luke Appling. shortstop and main
spring of the Chicago White Sox, who
finished third in the American League
last year. 1t was a hard blow to
Manager Jimmy Dykes. With Appling
certain to be out for month of the |
campaign. the Sox might have diff
Guilty cljnging to the first division
The Cleveland Indians, with scrap
ping new manager in Oscar Witt, look
the best dark horse in either league
Their only apparent weakness is at |
second base, but that, admittedly, is
bad place to have weakness. Detroit
the popular choice to chase the
Yankees home, has a similar gap at
third base, and the Red Sox are short |
on pitchers. Also, they're getting no
younger.
The Cincinnati Reds. with wise old
Bill McKechnie calling the signals, |
are likely to be the surprise package
of the National League and should |
climb out of the cellar up to fifth or
sixth place. In Harry Craft and Frank
Mccormick they have two good looking
young hitters.