The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-06
MIG PHAIL TRYING'
 ITO BUY PENNANT' FOR DODGERS.
Spending Plenty for l04l Teaml-Q Quinn in Tough
 Spot
By JOE WILLIAMS

ny JOE WILLIAMS New York, Dec. 6.-Baseball has its hayes and have nots, too. MT. Larry MacPhail, to the slap-happy delight of every right thinking citi- zen in Flatbush is in the south spending dough like good will am- basSador from South America. He's trying gaily to prove it is possible to buy 8 pennant, the unhappy ex- periences of Mir Tom Yawkey of the Boston Red Sox to the contrary notwithstanding
 MT. MacPhail is one of baseballs hayes in that he represents a group which has given him the green light in purchasing material. This isn't an altogether generous or altruistic gesture. MT. MacPail had previous ly demonstrated that the way to make money in baseball was to spend money.
 Sooner or later MT. MacPhai1 is going to have a profitable winner across the river, and from the looks Of things it will be sooner This isn't going to make the gentleman look bad, nor his managet, whose rating as a dugout genius jumps dozen points every time Medwick, a Higbe or an Owen is added to the roster.
 Mir. MacPhail may resent being listed as representative of the cap- ttalistic party of baseball. If he wished to establish his liberal point of view, his tender feeling for the commoners, he would need only point to his Cincinnati record. There he was very much one of the have nots, working on an extremely thin bankroll, yet before he left he had assembled the solid makings of championship club
 So it seems safe to assume that MT. MacPhail can do it the hard way or the soft way, with dough or without. We have a private mo- tion about his current splurge. He just desn't like Cincinnati and he's determined to line up a team that will put stop to the Reds winning ways. You hear it said in base ball that MT. MacPhail left Cin- cinnati with bleeding heart and a crushed soul. For him gratitude was a word to be found only in the dictionary. They paid him of in sordid cash; what he yearned for was credit. for the main guy to get up and say, "Chum, I sure give you credit"
 Ambitious
 Behind all those spectacular deals, $150,000 for Medwick, (M. F., mean 1 ing MacPhail figures) $100,OOO for Higbe, $60,000 for Owen, $5O,O0O for Reese, may run feverish itany of revenge, with MT. MacPhail, after each deal, cackling, "This will do it, this will do it, this will beat the RedS!" This would be fancied closeup of the emotional MT. Mac Phail. Another intimate tintype would show the gentleman hard boiled, calculating the added box of- flee returns that logical and daring baseball deals almost invariably yield. The one positive practical thing We have noticed about MT. MacPhail is that he ceases to be im- practicable when it costs money. But We were talking about the hayes and have nots of baseball. By contrast there is MT. Bob Quinn whose position with the Boston Bees corresponds to that of MT. Mac Phail'S with the Dodgers. MT. Quinn has a bunch of fine young players in whom all the monied clubs of the league are interested. MT. Quinn needs money, hasn't any money to spend and wants to hold on to what talent he's got. To put it delicate ly, MT. Quinn is in one hell of a fix. We think even MT. MacPhail will agree that if MT. Quinn had the same freedom of purse, one of the teams to beat next year would be the Bees and not the Dodgers. It makes 8 big difference when you are in position where you can buy, and when you are in a posi- tion where sooner or later you must sell.
 Not So Good
 And how about the managers who operate with the have nots from year to year? Their chances of ever emerging from the purgatory of poverty to take bows in the great Landis fall dandruff festival, form erly known as the world series, can never be bright. True. some of the men who are habitually associated with cheap clubs probably deserve no better fate, but there is a cer- tain element of luck in all forms of success and that goes for base k.Q II nf fl,oY1o VVoa al a connections with wealthy and pro- greSSive clubs largely because they get the breaks. Others, just as capa- ble, throw snake eyes when they get the dice.
 Baseball people, for instance, will tell you there isn't better man. ager in the National league than Casey Stengel of the Bees. It was a laugh to all informed men in the league thatt he Chicago Cubs didn't break down fences trying to sign him when Hartnett was thumbed out. But as long as the Bees re- main where they are, where is Casey going? Exactly nowhere, and against the wind. The same goes for Doc Prothro of the Phillies. We'll do we remember the day Doc came to the majors. He had fine minor league record back of him. He was sure the Phillies' situation could be improved. At least there was one thing you could be certain of: The Phillies weren't going to sell any more stars. They were going to build for the future. We haven't seen Doc since the Phillies sold Hiphe for S1nAnn Mavhe be hasn't