Evening star., 1940-03-07
From the
Press Box
Yonks 'Scroping Along
In Title Fashion
BY JOHN LARDNER.

ACco d1C Juoe Od1Cy oC1 1dpIiS dloIlS.
"They amt so hot" a critic told
me as we watched Joe McCarthy's
champions tossing balls around in
the sunshine What would become
of them if they lost Di Maggie,
Dickey, Gordon, Crosetti, Rolfe and
Ruffing?"
never thought of it in just that
way. What would?
Thus, we see that the Yanks are
lucky to be in the league at all, let
alone winning pennants. One little
accident might mean the difference
between success and failure-a train
wreck, for instance, or 10 tons of
dynamite placed beneath Yankee
Stadium and touched off at the right
time. Then, of course, you would
have to deport all the Kansas City
Blues and set fire to the town of
Newark, N. j. 1t might happen
any day and where would Mccarthy
be then?
That's the trouble with the
Yankee ball club. All their success
depends on 80 or 40 keymen. Or
70 or 80. Like the Maginot Line,
they lack depth.
Coteher Diekey Appeors
As Keystone Player
Granted, however, that the team
looks pretty good on the surface
and it does-who exactly is their
keystone player? What individual
accident might damage the Yanks
to the extent of costing them the
pennant?
Two years ago I think lot of
observers would have answered
with the name of Lou Gehrig. Yet
what happened? A year later ILL
ness smote Gehrig and drove him
from baseball for life. And the
Yankees won the pennant by II
games.
Joe Di Maggie is regarded, prob
ably with justice. as the best ball
player now in the game. Di Maggie
hurt his ankle in the second week
of the 1899 season and was out of
action for month. When he re-
joined the team the Yankees were
in first place and leading the
league by as much, proportion
ately, as they did when the season
ended.
A strong school of thought down
here in the orange juice country
believes that Will Dickey is the
man who holds the Yankees to-
gether.
''Di Maggie is a great ballplayer," !"
says Joe Cronin, manager of New
York's hottest pursuers, the Red
Sox, "but the Yanks could get by
without him. Take Dickey out Of
there, and they'd really be in
trouble"
MeCorthy's Lieutenont,
HoIf Of Pitching
Well, of course, that's true in the
comparison of almost any outfielder
and any catcher. A good thinking
catcher, leader-of the type of
Cochrane, Hartnett, Schalk anG
Mancuso-can make his presence or
his absence felt to a degree that
no outfielder, no matter how hard
he strokes the ball, can match.
Dickey is not only McCarthy's
lieutenant on the field but ne
pitches at least half the ball game
for every pitcher. Even the willy
Rufus Ruffing leans heavily on
Dlckey's judgment. Mccarthy is the
held boss-make no mistake about
that-but in the business of calling
the enemy hitters Dickey repre-
sents him pretty completely.
The Cronin faction, the where
would they be without Dickey
school of thought, is opposed by
another, to which your correspond
ent tends to subscribe. This might
be called the try-and-get-the-baI-
out-of-the-infield faction, with spe-
clal emphasis on the men in the
middle, Frank Crosetti and Joe
Gordon. This means that much of
the Yankee success depends upon
the phenomenal impenetrability of
Gorden and Crosetti. Phenomenal
impenetrability? Well, you know
what mean. Try and hit it past
them.