The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-10

emotionally upset and in half an hour the headaches set in.
 With due allowance for the war, there are two assets held by the Dodgers as of today. The first is that the slogan "age before beauty" never wang truer than in these times of selective service. No one knows how long baseball will hang together, but as long as we have the game we'll have most of the Dodgers to play it.
 There are men subject to the draft, of course. Don Padgett, Pee- Wee Reese and others may follow Cookie Layagetto and Herman Franks. But the Brooklyn lineup, including the topIsix pitchers, aver ages slightly more than 30 years. The boys have been around and they've been paid well enough to afford homes, wives and children. These things are dependencies.
 Point one leads into point two which is the fact that on the Dodger roster now is the bulk of the 194i league all star team. Mickey Owen, Billy Herman, Arlxie Vaughan, Joe Medwick, Pete Reiser and Whit Wyatt all appeared at Detroit last year. This season it is reasonable to assume they will be chosen again, and maybe Dolph Camilh and Kirby Higbe too. Mellow
 Tn that paragraph you will find the names of eight players but if you are 8 Brooklyn fan you might add that Dixie Walker and Reese rate place, too. I won't argue with you there. You are right. The obvious conclusion Is that there isn't much material to be proved at Brooklyn. The stun is there and 1t is pretty mellow. The question is--iS 1t too mellow?
 I say no, not for another year at least. Take the infield. The quartet of Camalli, Herman, Reese and Vaughan can't be touched within the league. It. has power on ofKense and it is stingy enough on defense. AS for speed, it will do nicely. And for reserves there are Les Burge, Lew Riggs, Alex Kampouris and in 2 really tight pinch, the great Drrocher.
 All right then, look at the out field. Where can you find the equal of Walker, Rsieer and Medwick. Tn St. Louis2 Maybe. But in St. Louis you can't find the equal of that first line and still come up with 8 second to match Augie Galan, John Rizzo and Padgett, if the latter stays with the squad. For sheer depth, 1t is tops and this season depth is important.
 Back up this defense with Mickey Owen and the Young Clif Dapper and you can have the catching problem settled. The Cardinals can't top Owen and Dapper unless Mickey's World Series nun affects his play. That isn't probable be- cause Owen is smart enough to realize that everybody makes ct least one mistake. The series was all but lost by then anyway.
 Should Do Better
 The crucial department always Is pitching and St. Louis takes an ad- vantage heres but not a great one. fxigbe and wyatt won s22 games apiece last year. With Brooklyn's power to bolster kfn, Larry French should do better With the flock than in Chicago. Hugh Casey, Curt Davis and the venerable FitS aren't kids, but neither axe they likely to blOW easily.
 Back of the regulars are four me prospects from the minors Bob ChIpman, Ed Albosta, Ed Head and Chet Kehn, all strike out artists. If one proves really good cr two het4 ter than fair the Dodgers should win 100 games again. And the figure of 100 games has been good enough Co win so of the ! National League pennankg decided since 1900.
 Call back on July 4~wesu tTg tas front vaave,