The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-19
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv WEsTBROOK PEGLER

the other day but the case reminded me of
the time Henry Morgenthau let me hold in
my own hands the French and Italian 1.O.U.'s
for their debts from the First World War.
These LOUIS are beautiful engravings
adorned with cupids and cornucopias and they
millions of dollars.
The Italian notes were signed in the florid
hand of the late bum of buns, II Duce, Mus
solini. AL Of them were kept in heavy ma
Mia envelopes in a strong-rooln in the Treas
ury under the disused front stoop on Penn
sylvania Avenue, and they may be still there,
although, we must consider the possibility that
some bleeding-heart took them home and left
his own I.O.U.'s instead, which would be
worth at least as much, at that, because the
| value of these beautiful mash-notes could be
written in the symbols Of a s%coreless tie. At
auction, some stamp nut might pay us a few
hundred thousand for the whole bundle and
that would be our chance to recover a little
salvage.
This day, We had Ty Cobb and iris Speaker
at our little ball-yard, where the Cleveland
Indians are training. Ty had come over from
| California to see a friend and we will dis
pense with cracks to the effect that this prop
osition refutes itself because Mr.. Cobb does
have friends and he is a mannerly gentleman
in his role of private citizen. MIR. Speaker
is working with the Cleveland club, coaching
the outfielders and he and Rogers Hornsby,
both, are trying to rub their wisdom and
knack into the hitters.
We had them, Cobb and Speaker, and Horns
by, too, three ballplayers who, if their time
was now, would guarantee any club a pen
nant. If you want to argue that point, l will
waive it because it is bootless anyway, but
surely you wouldn't heckle our manager,
young Lou Boudreau, for dreaming Of a team
embracing these three and his own Bob Teller.
But what good were they now, except as
elder statesmen?
These old Wonder-men of baseball remind
you OF old generals, American, German,
French and British, long after the wars when
they do their memory-books and tell when
and how they sensed that a battle or a war
was won or lost, how they knew they had
hurt the enemy and felt him vince or sized
up his tactics and laie. for him. to do the
same thing again.
They studied one another for unconscious
characteristics, exploited them and kept their
observations secret.
Hank Edwards, Cleveland's best hitter. took
a bad tumble coming in for a pop-fly. 1t
was interesting to note Cobbs delicate courte-
sy III discussing this accident. He wasn't criti-
Ching the young man. He made him the ex-
cuse that we have a high sky with no clouds
for background. But, in his opinion, and just
as a matter of opinion, Edwards played the
ball wrong. He started a little late. And when
he saw that he was short he didn't leave
his feet and dive for the ball but struck out
his arm, lost his balance and was helpless.
So he dislocated his shoulder and went to
the hospital. The layman. of course, had
thought he made a gallant try under impossi-
BILE conditions.
Speaker used to gel the sround-keeper to
wet low the outfield with a two-inch hose
in his aging days. His cruising radius had
narrowed as his legs lost their spring and
- y hall ~ o,,ot - ~1~~~@L =. 4@ ,,-,->. |
and lay dead. Otherwise it would have
bounced TO the wall. He had caught the idea
from Wilbert Robinson. of the Dodgers, in the
World Series of 1920, in Brooklyn.
The aggregate age OF Robbie's infield was
about 200 years.
You couldn't drive a ball past that infield
with a rifle" Mr.. Speaker said to Mr.. Horns
by. Robbie said it must have come up a
heavy shower, just on the infield last night.
l was young myself then but l knew about
legs and when that Santa Claus infield come
over to Cleveland we gave them an infield
like concrete and they never got a look at
the ball"
When ne and Cobb were winding up their
baseball days with Connie Mack some of us
in the press-coop, being young then, used to
scott at that talk Of the legs beginning to
go. One day. early in the season, as Cobb
came in from the outfield, he grabbed the
legs of his pants and seemed to be lifting
his legs by hand.
"You didn't understand then, but will bet
understand now Mr.. Speaker said.
Mr.. Cobb said he was watching for this,
himself. He knew exactly when the legs be-
gan to 60. He didn't advertise it, but he
knew.
He could tell because, instead of getting
off with an effortless- spring. he had 10 talk
to the legs. He had to churn them and make
them go and, even though he actually worked
at it, he had lost a fraction of a second.
In his prime, he studied the pitchers. broke
when they were ommitte and got there
ahead of the ball, though pitchers and catch
ers knew he was hot. Now he had lost the
difference.
But his great speed. his shrewdness in study
ing the pitchers to know how great a lead
he could take and when to break would be
wasted these days, anyway. He had seen
Teller on the mound with his hands held
high and leaning Backward, almost off bal
ance He could have stolen Feller's glove. ex-
cept that probably, in those days, Teller would
have learned to watch the base-runners. Now
1t wasn't necessary because they played for
punches of runs and it was reckless to take
chances to steal a base when some one might
hit you around. He had seen q catcher, and
a very good man at the present style. actu-
ally take a step before throwing to catch a
runner
These men played both kinds of baseball,
the old kind. with the old, dead ball in the
days when II home runs was a record for
the season, and the new kind. that might
be called Babe Ruth baseball, when the record
rose to 80 and nobody bothered to steal and
the finesse Of the pitchers was outlawed, with
the abolition of the splitter, the sinner and
the little feathers that made a ball sail.
Alan Sotheron had a trick that persisted
even after the restrictions went on. The home
club still had custody of the balls and put
thel.. in the hole and Mr.. Sotheron would
patiently nick about three minute cuts on the
seam. close together, with a razor blade and
smooth them back with spit. Then, when he
needed to he would find the cuts ruffle LID