Evening star., 1941-04-13
BY JUDSON BAILEY,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

bS uSudl, dlt Gllc u uIl4p CoAu ~
this years major league baseball
pennant dealing. The only trouble
is that nobody knows yet which are
trumps.
Most of the clubs drew 10 or Il
youngsters for spring and will keep
two or three or half a dozen and
discard the rest. Out of the 40 or
so freshmen who stick in the big
game, 5 or 10 will be stars and one
or two may swing championship
in the direction of their team.
That is what the New York Yam
KEGS, for instance, hope to get from
their novice infielders, Phil RizZuto
and Gerry Priddy; what the ST.
Louis Cardinals expect of Catcher
Walker Cooper, Pitcher John Grod-
zicki and other fancy freshmen, and
what the Brooklyn Dodgers hope for
from Outf1elder Pete Reiser along
with veteran additions.
Last Years Rockies Shine.
Last year the standout rockies
were Peewee Reese of Brooklyn, Lou
Boudreau and Ray Mack of Cleve-
land, Dominic Di Maggie of the
Boston Red Sox, Bob Kennedy of
the Chicago White Sox, Mike Nc
Cormick and Joe Beggs of Cincin-
natis world champions, Walter
Judnich of the st. Louis Browns,
Harold Newhouser of Detroit, Chet
Ross and Carvell RoWeu of the Bos-
ton Bees. Vern Olsen of the Chicago
Cubs. Sid Hudson of Washington.
Frank Gustine of Pittsburgh and
Tiny Bonham of the Yankees.
To begin with, the Yanks have
Rizzuto and Priddy, who played to-
gether for one term at Norfolk and
two Whirlwind seasons at the YankS'
Kansas City farm and last season
were unquestionably the best sec
ond-base combination in the minor
leagues.
They were so good in spring train
ing that Manager Joe Mccarthy
benched Shortstop Frank Crosetti,
a fielding Whiz; moved Second Base
man Joe Gordon to first and sold
Babe Dahlgren, his regular first
sacker for two years.
Cards Have Many Youngsters.
RizZuto, a stocky, dark little fell
low of Italian parentage, batted
BAT last year and has been one of
the leading Yankee hitters this
spring. Priddy, native Californian,
hits longer ball. Together they
have been pulling off two and three
double plays game most of the
spring.
The Cardinals came up this spring
with one of the biggest patches of
promising prospects. Walker Cooper
is big. strapping kid brother" of
the Cards pitcher, Mort Cooper, and
will give baseball its first brother
battery act since Wes and Rick
Ferrell were separated He hit 1902
for Columbus in the American
Association a year ago and this
spring has lived up. as we'll as
possible, to the extravagant claims
made for him by Branch Hickey and
the other Cardinal brain trusters.
Grodzicki, big 24-year-old right
handler, was the sensation of all
frst-year pitchers in the grapefruit
league and something of surprise
even to his own club.
Other Good Hurlers.
He has been a chain ganger for
five years, and had tryout with ST.
Louis last year. But he had to have
q minor operation at the training
camp and never got going. 1t was
because of his mediocre 3-3 record,
mostly in relief at Rochester, that he
was overlooked in the winter book
But he spent the cold months play
ing ball in the Canal Zone, and
showed blazing fast ball and good
control when the exhibition games
started.
The Cards also have potentially
fine pitchers in John Gornicki,
Howard Krist, Herschel Lyons, Ernie
White and Preacher Roe. Then, too,
there are Outf1elder Harry Walker
and Infelder Steve Mesner who may
wind up as regulars.
No other team can match the
Cardinals in quantity. but several of
them think they can in quality.
Pete ReiSer looks a sure star for
Brooklyn In fact, he has taken the
center field job away from the vete-
ran Dixie Walker, who was the lead
ing batter, of the Dodgers last year.
Reiser Is Versatile.
ReiSer was super-colloSal fire
cracker in 1889 spring training. He
was a 19-year-old ShortStop belong
ing to Brooklyn's Elmira farm who
went South so manager Leo Durocher
occasionally could lounge in the
shade. The first eight times Reiser
went to bat in a Dodger uniform he
got eight hits, including two home
runs.
Then he hurt his knee. After that
he had lot of trouble, including an
injured elbow, and 1t took him until
the middle of last season to get
wound up again. BY mid-August he
was hitting .378 and had stolen %
bases in 81 games for Elmira. The
Dodgers sent for him.
He came back as an outfelder, but
when Harry Lavagetto was downed
bN appendicitis, he moved to third
base, position he never had played
before. He was ticketed for right
field this year, but the Dodgers
obtained the veteran Paul Waner
after his release from Pittsburgh
and he looked good So Durocher
Just switched Reiser to center, where
he also never had played. That
shows how much confidence the
Dodgers have in their prize rookie.
Stringer Cubs Prize.
One of the most publicized new
comers is Lou Novikoff, the mad
Russian" whom the Chicago Cubs
count on for a regular outfielder
and a lot of base hits.
He led the Pacific Coast League in
hitting (.363), in home runs (4D,
runs batted in Q7D, runs scored,
total hits and total bases while
with Los Angeles last year.
But beyond this he seems TO be
the most colorful personality to
come into the big leagues since Dizzy
Dean, his present teammate. Novi-