The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-28
ALL DEPENDS ON. HANK GREENbERG. AND J. s. ARMY.
Manager Del Baker Un. willing to Be Chased as
 Miracle Man"
BY JOE WILLIAMS

e'eeN- we are in the camp of the Detroit Tigers, the team that had no busi- ness winning the American league championship last year but did. Everybody said 1t was an inferior ball club yet 1t went to the seventh inning of the seventh and final ball game before 1t was defeated by the Cincinnati Reds in the world series.
 We were sitting back in the Fig CTS dressing room today talking with Del Baker the manager and we remarked that the team had dcne a good job.
 we should have done a better job," he said. We should have won in four games" He went into de- tails. It seems that if Hank Green- berg had taken a three and two ball instead of swinging at 1t which re- suited into & double play everything would have been different.
 Since 1t takes g. long time and lot of words to explain these theo- retical situations we'll skip 'efn. Un- til MT. Baker had mentioned the situation we hadn't given 1t much thought Actually the Tigers could have won in four games. But keep in mind, this is all theory. Per- haps If you sat around with MT. Bill McKechnie of the Reds, he could show you how his team-weu you know how these things go.
 All on Greenberg
 Now when you get to this camp there is only one thing to talk about. It is about Greenberg. He's more or less the ball club. When you get here late, as we did, you realize the whole story has been written. Either he's going to be drafted or he isn't. If he's drafted the Tigers are going to fall into the second division. If he isn't the Tig- CTS must be listed among the con- tenders.
 Normally you would say that just because they are the league cham pionS-well, they are the team to beat. But when you keep in mind all the things that happened in the American league last year you don't say or think that. It is & wide open question whether the best team won the pe1lnant. New York or Cleve- land was supposed to win the pen- rlai1t. New York didn't win because Dickey ard Rolfe didn't hit. Cleve- land didn't win because of an angry household. It was probably the first time in history that bunch of ball players ever got together and voted themselves out of a big world series cut.
 More than that, 1t was probably the first time in history that a bunch of ball players got together and said to themselves, ''WeIl make this guy sorry for this" All the time they were directing their fire at one nlar-ossie Witt. He was the manager of the Indians at the time. As 1t turned out they won more than one point. They whipped Witt. They got him fired. They got a new manager in Roger Peckinpaugh. They cleaned the slate from now or, they are on their ow1b-they are on their own simply to the extent that Peckingpaugh says, very quietly, Don't you think we have gone far enough?"
 By now you have probably asked yourself why have we brought Peck inpaugh into this picture? First of, Peckingpalgh is very likely to win the pennant this year. Second of, the guy who won the perrant last year - and when nobody expected him to win it-it is just like him. a nice, casual fellow. If you haven't kept 1t in mind we are still talking about Del Baker who manages the Tigers.
 There isn't a nicer guy to talk with, nor a tougher guy to get a story out of. It seems to me that he had become something of e mira cle man last year. He had taken club that had finished in the sec- ond division and put 1t in the world series. Didn't that make him & miracle man? More than once we had written just such 6 story. What did he have to say about that? Owner Guessed Wrong
 "All I've got to say about that" he said, "iS that MT. Navin told me once he never wanted me to manage his ball club"
 It seemed to us 1t was with some pride that Baker said that. The MT. Navin he was talking about hap pened to be the owner of the Tigers. In those days Baker was the third base coach. Apparently, in Navin's mind, Baker was meant to be Q third base coach, the toughest job on the ball club, for by the wave of the hand, to a guy rounding third can mean a ball game, in the ultimate 1t can even mean Q world series.
 If Navin had lived, which he didn't, Baker would never have be cn manager of the Tigers. That would have been all right with Baker. And this isn't a knock at Baker. We | happened to be sitting in Navin's | box in Detroit one day. Will liar. ridge, president of the American | league, was on oef the occupants. Baker was coaching at third base.
 See that fellow at third" said | Navin to Harridge. "Well, that's the SmarteSt man in baseball"
 So 1t was no surprise to us that | when Navin dded and Q fellow named Briggs-W. o. Briggs, who was sitting in the same box that day named him manager. We have all the respect in the world for Briggs as one of the great indus trialiSts in the nation but we are still dreamily pleased that in this case he exercised common sense. He must have said to himself, If Navin thinks that way it must be right"
 And so what happened. Every body in baseball, including Baker, picked the Tigers to finish anywhere but first. All of sudden a mild mira cle occurred.
 So when you come into the Tig- CTS camp you know all about Green berg, his flat feet, his importance tothe Tigers and you say to your- self that maybe Baker the man. ager is story and he says to you: