The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-18
DIMACGIO'S BID FOR TOP SALARY
 IN MAKING NOW
Seasons Performance Is Certain to Inspire High
 Demand
BY PAUL SCHEFFELs United Press Staff Correspondent


 United Press Staff Correspondent)
 New york, (UP) Tt takes no poll of the Yankee Stadium's pay- ing clientele to figure out that Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees Is headed for one Of two distinct niches in baseball for 1042
 After six years of the most effi- cient siugging in either major league Joe will either turn out to be the highest paid diamond performer for next season or will be baseball's most prolonged holdout. Only proxy Ed Barrow of the Yankees or Joe, himself can determine into which category his next-season activity will fall.
 DiMaggio, admittedly the No. 1 batter of his club, has never been the No 1 man in the salary division of the American League. Tn the past few years, Bobby Teller of Cleveland, Buncky Newsom and Hank Greenberg of Detroit, have finished ahead of him in the dia- mond's dollar department.
 The lean Slugger from the Pacific Coast League makes in the neigh borhood of $30,00O to $40,O0O this Ceason and 1t takes no stretch of the imagination to predict that the bar- gaining will range around the $50,- 900 mark next year.
 Sparks Entire Team
 Wherever the Yankees finish this year, Joe's 1922 argument will be based on the argument that "as Di- Maggie went, so went the Yankees" |" The records will bear him out, too.
 Take the start of the season. Di- Maggie began in grand style, bang ing out hits with electric rapidity and fielding with his usual effort less race. Result--the Yankees rocketed to the top of the Amer ican League.
 But the bane of all hitters, great and small, caught up with Joe and he fell into a slump that pulled his batting average below the 300 standard for the first time in his career. Result-the Yankees plum meted into second division and fifth place. They looked so bad that sev- eral experts wrote them out of the pennant race. Charley Keller was 8 flop and Tommy Heinrich couldn't hit. The Jerry Priddy-Phil Rizzuto infield combination didn't click. Even Bill Dickey wasn't hitting.
 Then DtMaggio's record hitting streak for consecutive games began and the entire club got under way with it. Joe's average began a steady climb and as his hits multi piled both Keller and Heinrich found their batting eyes. Dickey's come- back was startling and his bat once again became something to conjure with.
 Credit Goes To DiNFaggio
 Even the pitching got better and the club became molded into such offensive whole that by July 1, traditional midway mark in the majors, the Yankees were up in first place two games ahead of the Indians. And throughout, Di- steady hitting set the tem- DO.
 By July 3, DiMaggio's bat had carved out a new all-time record for hitting safely in consecutive games. On that historic day, he slammed out his 18th homer of the year to hit safely in his 18th consecutive game, bettering by one the former mark set in 1897 by Wee Willie Keeler.
 The Yankees as a club kept pace with Joe by setting a new home run record. They hit 40 homers in 25 straight games ending July 2-sur- passing the former mark of 26 in 17 consecutive games set by Detroit last year.
 And If you think, come bargain ing time next year, that "pal Joey" will neglect all these details when swapping salary arguments with cousin" Ed. well - think again.