Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-04-01
Hassef at First Base
Only Major Change
Over Last Year
Priddy at Third. Ruffing
And Gomez on Mound,
Moy Slow Champs
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla, April L.
The ld-champion New York
Yankees continue to look terrible IN
spring training. giving rise to the
faint hope among rival American
League clubs that the big fellows"
will not make complete mockery of
the approaching race. What with
the war and everything else, that
would be almost too much.
1t would almost appear that Man
ager Joe Mccarthy shares similar
hope; that he would like to give
his rivals a fighting chance and
maybe even get thrill or two out of
the thing himself. He is making no
great effort to whip his sleeping
giants into midseason form, but Is
permitting them to come along
slowly and easily. The sore arms
and stomach ailments that beSet his
veterans do not make Joe miss a
chew on his cut plug.
Everything viii be all right" he
says placidly. After all, this is the
same club that won the World Series
from Brooklyn in five games. Some
of the boys haven't been hitting and
I've seen better pitching than we're
getting, but you can't make q club
like this get excited about winning
exhibition games To them it's Hike
playing poker for fun. They simply
won't do It,"
Only Sure Change Is at First.
It is not exactly the same club
that won last years race by II full
games over the Boston Red Sox, but
it probably is just as good The only
change for sure is at first base,
where Buddy Hassett, from the Bos-
ton Braves, has replaced Johnny
Sturm, gone to the Army. Hassett Is
not quite the fancy fielder that
Stunm was, but ne is little better
hitter and he gives the Ysnks q
needed lefthand batter in their in
field.
Red Rolfe doesn't know, himself,
whether he can hold down his third
base job. The COLTS that made him
miserable much of last season and
which permitted him to play
through the World Series only on
sheer nerve, has let up little, and
he has worked out for the last four
days. He says that it will be cou-
ple of weeks, at least, before he
knows whether he can stand the gaf
Of steady play.
Priddy Unlikely to Last
That means that Gerald Priddy
almost surely will start the cam
paign at the hot corner, although it
is doubtful the boy from Kansas
City can last, whether Rolfe returns
or not. Priddy still shows no signs
of hitting lick. and it would not
be surprising to see the veteran
shortstop, Frankie Crosetti, at third
before long.
Outside of those two spots, the
Yankees are the same murderous
outfit. They still have the games
greatest player, Joe Di Maggie, IN
center field. it's greatest catcher, Bill
Dickey, and its greatest second base
man, Joe Gordon. They still have
the awesome Charley Keller in left
field and q pitching staff so good
that it almost was overlooked last
year In the face of the teams gen.
eral excellence.
Looking for a possible weakness.
the eye travels to two veteran
pitchers, Red Rufflng and Lefty
Gomez. After all, they won Is games
apiece last year, and 1t scarcely
seems in the cards they can reach
that mark again. Rufing is 81 and
even last season had reached the
same-a-week stage. Gomez at 80
can't go the route any longer.
Well on for Pitchers.
But what If this is the year that
both of them fail? That would leave
Mccarthy only with Ernie Bonnam,
Marius Russo, Marv Breuer. Spud
Chandler, Alley Donald and Norman
Branch of last years starters, and
o couple of sensational looking new
corners named John Lindeu and
Melvin Queen.
Ken Sears, the smuggling young
catcher from Newark, has been
something of a disappointment, and
camp observers are inclined to pre-
dict that Aaron Robinson from
Kansas City viii beat him out OF the
third-string catching job. Buddy
Rosar Is, of course, the clubs sec
ond-string backstop, the man who
will take over If Dickey ever slips.
Men have grown old waiting for
Dickey to do that.