Evening star., 1938-03-30
GR|FFS IMPROVED,
DECLARES HARRIS
But It'll Be Difficult to Climb
Because Whole Loop Is
Tougher, He Says.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,


ORLANDO, Fla, March 30.-Let
Stanley (Bucky) Harris tell about this
approaching American League base
ball race. Stanley is the still young
and handsome manager of the left
hand Washington Senators, and he has
a story to tell.
Here" said Bucky, making himself
comfortable, Il have a much better
ball club than I had last year. when
we finished sixth. That's a cinch,
because we now have Zeke Bonura on
first base He drove in 100 runs for
the White Sox last year, while Joe
Kuhel was knocking in 81 for us.
'All right. So you ask me do I
think we can climb out of sixth place,
being as we now have Bonura. All
can answer is: Will you kindly look
over those five teams that finished
ahead of us last year and try to pick
out the one we're going to displace.
This American League right now is
the toughest I've seen in my expert
ence. The Yankees naturally are fa-
vorites Then, there is Detroit, Chi
cago. Cleveland and Boston. all of
whom finished ahead of us. The least
thing could make a difference of three
or four places in any Of these clubs.
Yanks Need Full Strength.
'It's so close, in my opinion, that an
injury to any one of the Yankee regu-
lars. like Gehrig, Dickey or Di Maggie,
could throw them out of first place
And, don't forget. they've been getting
by long time without any real hard
luck of that sort The moment they
slip little bit they'll be caught and
passed. And this Detroit bunch is hot.
If we're going to gain a notch, sup
posedly we'll have to do it at the ex-
pense of Boston. Have you seen that
club? All right, then you know it's a
good one. All Joe Cronin needs is for
one or two of his young pitchers to
come through. and he'll be right up
there in the fight. And he's got five
who answer that description.
SO where does that put us?
don't know, honestly. I wouldn't be
surprised if we finish second-or sixth
again. I've got two young southpaw
pitchers, Ken Chase and Joe Krakaus-
kas. Both have all the stuff in the
world, but both are wild as hares. If
both of them settle down and hold the
opposition, we'll be up in the race.
Otherwise, probably not
We've got the hitting, plenty of it.
There's enough of it, in fact. that
Cecil Travis. who hit .344 last season.
is in sixth place in my batting order.
Our fielding is pretty good, too. It's
Just case OF finding some pitchers
to 60 with Wes Ferrell Monte Weaver
and Jim De Shong.
Simmons a Pleasant Surprise.
The most pleasant surprise I've had
Is Al Simmons. You know, we asked
waivers on him during the winter and
nobody wanted him. I'm glad now
that nobody did It must have hurt
AIS pride, because he got himself in
the best shape in years. and is hitting
the ball almost like he did in the old
days.
Another funny thing. This kid
Jimmy Wasdell practically had beaten
Kuhel out of his first basing lob be-
fore We traded Joe to the White Sox,
He had been hitting the ball out of
sight-seven home runs in five games.
I'm going to keep him on the SQUAD,
but he's a left-hand hitter like all the
others. Funny how one team will
start getting left-handers and can't get
anything else, isn't it?
What do you hear about Di Mag
gio? Is he going to sign for that
s25.C00 the Colonel's offered him? I
hope so. because he's the greatest
player in the game today. Greater
than Gehrig now. They tell me that
both Joe Mccarthy and Col. Rupert
think they can win without him.
Well, they can't. Not the way this
American League race is now.
And don't be surprise! if this Gin
cinnati team shows them something
in the National League. We played
them the other day and this new first
baseman of theirs, Frank Mccormick,
can hit ball country mile"