The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-04-23
Sn1aI|Crowds
Worry Major
Club Owners
Only 1897 See
Cincinnati Reds
Whip Cords, 10
BY JUDSON BAILEY

Associated Press sports Writer
The IL games that have been
played in the new Major League
baseball season have convinced
almost everybody that the new
balata ball is just that-a lot of
balata-but the deafness of the
ball has not alarmed as many
persons as the deadly emptiness
of the stands for the early
games.
Weather reports in wartime
are of necessity scant and the
first reaction to the shrinkage in
attendance was TO blame ii on
unreasonable conditions such as
caused postponements Of all four
Eastern openers on Wednesday.
UnfavOrable weather has
been responsible in varying
degrees and in certain instanc-
es, such as the tiny turnout of
$500 fans in big Yankee Stad-
ium yesterday to see the
American eLague champions
edge out the Washington Sen
atOrs, "a.
On the other hand it had Moth
ing to do with the TACT that only
1897 persons went TO Crosley
Field in Cincinnati to see anoth-
err pitching classic in which the
Reds again whipped the world
champion st. Louis Cardinals,
10 in ten innings.
The small attendance goes
deeper than the weather. Many
thousands of baseball fans are
now in military service and
countless others are too busy in
war work TO get to games on
eek-day afternoons. The Major
Leagues may have % play more
night games and possibly will
experiment with morning con-
tests.
CINCINNATI seconG- day crowd
was drop from 27,709 on
Wednesday in spite of the fact
that there was every reason TO
expect duplication of the spec
atcular struggle which the Reds
and Cards waged the day before.
A repeat performance is ex.
actly what the few fans pre-
sent received, too, for Lefty
Ernie White of the Cards and
the Veteran Ray Starr of the
Reds pitched scOrelesly till the
last of the tenth. Then LOnnie
Frey, who had led off the 18th
inning the day before with a
single and eventually carried
the winning run across, did it
again. He hit safely, was sac
rificed to second, went to third
on q single by Max Marshall
and came home on another
single by Bert Haas.
Starr gave five hits and no
walks, while White was touched
for six safeties and an equal
number of passes.
The Brooklyn Dodgers. gloat-
ing over the tough time their RI
walls were having II the West,
meanwhile easily thrashed the
New York Giants, SO, in their
getaway before 1918 fans at
Ebbets Field Ed Head pitched
six-hit ball and his teammates
got him four runs in the first
three innings. The Giants would
not have been any competition
at all except for Manager Mel
OFT, who made foui of their hits
and batted in both their runs.
The Chicago Cubs turned the
tables on the Pittsburgh Pirates
with a 4-3 triumph. A long fly
by Phil Cavarretta with the bas-
es loaded in the seventh was
needed to break a tie score al
though Claude Passcau and Ed
die Hanyzewski held the Pirates
TO five hits.
At New York Joe Gordon
came through with the first
home run of the Major League
season, but it took double by
Roy (StOrmy) Weatherly with
the bases loaded in the last OF
the ninth to bring the Yankees
from behind and subdue the
Senators. The Yanks were
outhit Sc.
Tex Hughson, 22-Came winner
last year, chalked up Victory
Nov. by shutting out the Phila-
delphia Athletics, 10, on three
hits, but the once fcrocious Red
Seekers were held 10 two hits
themselves by Jesse Flores and
Roger Wolff. However, one was
{. fourth-inning double by Pete
Fox, who cot across with run.
Virgil trucks pitched a 40
four-hit shoutout tor Detroit
against the Cleveland Indians
TO avenge the Tigers opening
day whitewashing.