The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-05-23
TANKS FLOP ISpUzzLER
 TO BB FANS
Joe Mccarthy Just Figures Out There Isn't Much
 To Do

NEW YOtth, way zo- dilhcc fans have always felt that Tt can't happen here"-too much power, too much pitching, too much class Now that it has happened here, now that the Tanks have experienced a prolonged slump, the fans can't figure it out.
 Plump pilot Joe Mccarthy fidgets his bulk on the bench. He can't figure it out either This is strange scene for baseball, the pie ture of Joe fretting and wondering what to do next, experiencing some of the woes that have become daily | routine for managers like Casey | Stengel of the Bees and Connie Mack of the As.
 The Tanks in last place? The world champions in the cellar? It's unbelievable
 The players are bewildered. They grin, uncertainty, and say: Man ana. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll start to gol''
 He's Sphinx
 Mccarthy is quiet man. Stingy with his talk During the years that his team has been world champions he has kept his own counsel. Rarely has he conversed freely. And now that trouble has struck his forces, Mccarthy is even more tight-lipped.
 Slumps come. and go. He can't believe that his team won't some day catch fire and smash its way back to the top. But, how much longer? There isn't much he can do. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't make a trade within the American League. It would Ee difficult to corral valuable player from the National loop And does he want new players? Should he discard one of his own stars because of slump, perhaps temporary lapse? Only few weeks ago his team was hailed as the greatest in the land.
 Individually, his players ranked at the top, or around it. Can these players suddenly have dropped to minor league calibre?
 Around the league they're won dering whether this is just short-lived stretch of trouble or whether the Tanks actually have begun to disintegrate This team already has stuck together longer than any of the other great ma | chimes in baseball history. Has the law of averages caught up with it?
 Crosetti at short, Dickey behind the bat and Ruffing and Gomez among the pitchers are old in baseball age but the others arc in their peak years. The team really isn't old.
 Perhaps it is just that every thing has belted the Tanks simul- taneously. The batters aren't hit ing, the pitchers aren't pitching effectively and the fielders have been guilty of silly errors. Never before in McCarthy's long regime have the Yankees lost eight straight games Never before has the de- fense appeared as weak. Never be- fore has such fighting star as Crosetti been removed for sub- stitute.
 They Aren't Hitting
 None of the Yankees, save Joe DiMaggio and Buster Mills, late starters, and Buddy Rosar, re- serve catcher, are hitting over 300 The great Dickey has a puny .169 mark. Charley Keller, the youngster who was expected to challenge for the batting crown. is hitting .240, so poorly that he was benched
 Yankee fans are worried but not frantic. They point out that the Tanks have won by large margins for four years and that they can afford to give the other teams this early lead in the man. Ter of a head-star and still whip them.
 It is too early yet to say. But one thing seems certain: the Yan- kees, if they should regain their old stride, aren't going to run away witN this race Boston, Cleve- and and Detroit are definite threats The St. Louis Browns are greatly