Evening star., 1938-04-04
MORALE Of G|ANFS'
HIGHEST IN CAMPS
Di Maggio's Absence Upsets
Yanks-Cards Unbalanced.
Surprise in Bosox.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press SPORTS WritAr.

NEW YORK. April 4-Returning
from 4 spasmodic tour Of the train
Ing camps from Louisiana through
Florida. the thought persists that the
best-looking team of the lot were
your old pals, the New York Giants,
as handled by Wrttin' Bill Terry.
Even though they do belong to that
new minor league-the National-the
Giants are the calmest, most assured
crew Of the lot They know they
are as good and maybe a little bet
ter than they were the last two sea-
sons, when they were good enough
to finish No. l.
Considering that beating they took
from the Yankees in the World Series
last fall, their morale and confidence
is the more remarkable. Their camp
was almost the only one of dozen
visited where there was not heard a
whisper, sooner or later. Of petty
strife between individuals, or where
the manager was not distracted about
something or other.
Di Mag's Holdout Jolts Yanks.
The Yanks, at first glance. appeared
to be as sanguine as their rivals
across the Harlem river They
moved around in the early days of
training like the champions they are
But as time went on and there was
no news from Joe Di Maggie, the
Rupert menage lost some of its con-
VITALITY. Right now they are not
very happy.
They have discovered that Di Mag
gio is an important young man, and
that without him welding his stick
in the No. 3 slot the Yankees are
only good ball club Without him.
they haven't looked champions. and
II Joe Mccarthy still thinks he can
win with Jolting Joe in San Fran
cisco he is very tenacious thinker
Almost nobody else does.
OF course. it still is considered GER
tain that Di Maggie will come along
presently and sign for the $4,000 he
has been offered But, at the same
time, it becomes more evident every
day that he was wise to hold out.
He has taught his employers some
thing they honestly didn't know.
Cards Not Deemed Threat.
Maybe Mccarthy suspected he
couldn't get along without Di Maggie,
but Col Jake Rupert didn't. Joe
has them by the short hair now, and
you may bet that Rupert is wishing
he hadn't been quite so firm with the
Di Maggie scion. Much as he loves
pennants, the colonel can't back down
now without loss of face.
The Cards could finish almost any
where in the first division, except at
the top. They are, perhaps. the most
poorly balanced team in either league.
That is to say, they have two of the
games most dangerous hitters in
Ducky Medwick and John Mize and
a pair Of its top pitchers in Dizzy Dean
and Lon Warneke And it looks as
though their third baseman will be
Sammy Baugh, the football player.
who never before played a lick of
professional baseball and even now is
being taught the rudiments of hit
ting. You can't beat that for con-
traSt.
Red Sox Really Good.
Team likely to spring the biggest
surprise is the Boston Red Sox. Joe
Cronin has a really good team, even if
Joes legs are beginning to creak q
little when he goes down for grass
skinner. All the Sox need is for a
couple of their young pitchers to come
through, and in young Jim Bagby
they may have found = great one. It
looks . long shot. but, after all, q
freshman named Clin Melton won the
flag for the Giants last year.
The next best bet is that Cincin-
natl will climb up to about fifth place
in the National League. and then get
progressively tougher as the seasons
roll by.