The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-26
(Reg. U. s. Pat. Office) By JACK CUDDY

United Press Staff Correspondent New York, June 26- UP) - Brooklyn, that beautiful borough of churches and Chowder houses, a paradise to it's natives and a paradox to the rest of the world, provided baseball today with what could be one of the greatest dia- mond mysteries of all time-"dem breath-taking buns, the Dodgers" :" There always is something new and different in Brooklyn-never a dull moment-but the evolution of Manager Leo Durocher'S seventh place "Dodderers" of 1914 to the current crew of Dandy's who are threatening to steal the national league pennant takes every slice of cake on the plate.
 Always before the team was sup posed to be good and the EDbets field field faithful went to the park to swear at and not by the players when they failed to live up to ex- pectations. This year the whole thing is in reverse. The baseball expjerts, viewing the Dogers in spring training at Bear Mountain, N. Y. shook their heads sadly and said that the fans would have to wait til next year"
 So what has happened? With only scattered changes, few of which were supposed to have been for the better, dem buns" rose to heights sublime. They have been in first place for nine days now and if the altitude has made them dizzy they haven't shown any signs of it.
 In the recent set of games with their eastern rivals they won 16 out of 19 games, pennant pace in anybody's league. During that time they had winning streaks of eight games and seven games. but of course both of those were small stuff" for this years Dodgers. Earl fer in the season they ran up an 11-game string, and though they have had their losing lapses, the most they have lost in a skein is six games on their last western junket.
 The wise guys" insist that the Dodgers are due to crash just as soon as the supposedly stronger western teams begin to move in this week, but there is an answer for that one in Flatbush, too. It just happens that seven of the II games in that first wild winning streak were run up against the invaders in their first trip east, two in a row against the champion Cardi- nals, two against the Reds and three straight from the Pirates.
 A quick analysis of the Dodger personnel reveals no real clues as to why they keep, winning. Last years major league batting cham pion. Dixie Walker, was rattling the fences at 1885 clip at this stage of the 1914 campaign. Right now Dixie is l07 points below that 278
 Goody Rosen, who wasn't even a regular last year is the leading light among the hitters with .336 mark and the help of Luis Olmo at driv- ing in runs can't be overlooked. He's leading the league in that im- portant department with 54.
 Yet the Dodgers have only three regulars, Rosen, Olmo, and infielder Eddie Basinski hitting above 300. The tipoff, though. may be in the fact that collectively the club now leads the league in batting with a .278 mark.
 Afleld, however, they still are the Dodgers. seventh in team fielding with only the Jaybird Phillies out ranking them in making errors.
 The pitching, which was supposed to have been collapsible and may be the teams Achilles Heel" is made up of a staff that is very old" at one end and very young" at the other. Key men are oldster Curt Davis, who has won six and lost six and youngster Hel Gregg, who has won nine and lost four, but has miseries in his back that prevent him from being at his best Rockies Clyde King, reliever who has won four and lost none, Cy Buker, Vic Lombardi (5-2), Leroy Pfund (3-D and oldster Art Her. ring G-O give Durocher an as- sortment to say the least.
 In the meantime, Ebbets Field Is rivaling Coney Island as Brooklyn summer resort with paid attend ance of AIS, ,258 to date and the sea- son not half gone. No wonder owner Branch Hickey found it ex- pedient to pay tribute to his 'fero- cious gentlemen