Evening star., 1956-03-26
WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW sv FRANCIS s,Ann
1t Happens Every Spring
By FRANCIS STAkN

TAMPA, FLA. MAR. 26-one thing about the White
Sox they talk good pennant fight For years
Frank Lane and Paul Richards duet in the spring
Now Chuck Comskey sO-year front office boss and
Marty Marion are lifting their voices They almost sell their
bill of goods, too.
Look at it this way" Marion reasons "We won 81
last year. AS late September led the league
We finished five back of the Yankees and two behind
the Indians
Nov, you must remember that Minnie Minoso had an
Of year You'll recall that Dick Donovan pitching his
way to great when he had his appendix removed
Dick out for three weeks When he back he didn't
have it until the last few days Still. he Is He
easily could have been 20-game winner.
Carrasquel and Busby didn't help us much. Jim Rivera
finished in long, bad slump Bob Keegan did nothing
account of his So when all this is considered, what
makes the Yankees and Indians much better than us
MARION PREFERS TO REGARD Chicagos failure to
win the partly luck and partly
because the White Sox had such notable battedin
man Larry Dolby, whom they have I'VE lost 27
games and 10 two-run decisions he pointed out That
81 of the SO we lost all told
You take the of Billy Pierce" he continues. 1T
isn't in the cards for Billy to lose six by Four
of them by 10 and the others 80
Another like 1855 and he'll probably take header
off some high bridge
Pierce perhaps the stylish efthander the
lean League pitched beautiful ball. His record was
only 1910 but he had the best earnedrun average of ALL
only 1877 He struck out 157 running his streak of more
than 100 strikeouts per to six years in Six
of his wins Shutouts.
When Marion was shown clipping from Cleveland
newspaper in which ShorStop Chico Carrasque with
the Indians blasted him. Marty refused to defend himself
seriously
80 I'm bad manager" he grinned. well, maybe
Chico is right
MARTY'S FORMER BOSS, General Manager Frank
Lane of the Cardinals rushed to aid, however,
when he read Carrasques criticism In part Chico was
quoted saying:
when l am lousy Marion not tell just He tell
everybody. Richards tell nobody else Marion tell me
am lousy when am good sometimes
That's not true" said Lane who engineered the pur-
of the Venezuelan the Brooklyn chain in 1885,
II like Chico understand He's good boy But nobody
worked harder than Marion to help him. If Marty made
mistake it in conf1dng in newspapermen who wrote
what Marion didn't intend to be written.
But not good season for Chico, who oatted only
256 and did not field well in previous years In the
hope that Rookie Luis Aparicio will field better than Car
rasquel the White Sox traded Chico and Jim Busby to
Cleveland Aparacio fast Che stole 48 bases for Memphis
last year. but his bat mark was only .273
CLOSER INVESTIGATION reveals that it is trio
singing the praises of the Sc Sox Another vice president
John Rgney joins Comiskey and Marion. The eXptcher
who married to Dorothy Comskey secretary OF
the club makes with the lyrics this way:
Last years record of the pennant contendng teams
show that the White Sox the only one to finish one
the three major departments They were rSt IN pat
ting, second in fielding and second in pitching.
Yankees led in pitching but fifth in batting
and third in fielding Indians led in fielding but were
sixth in batting and third in pitching Now tell me now
the Sox can be dismissed pennant contender"
Maybe they can't but statistics can be twisted all sorts
of ways instance the sox adept as to be
in pitching how those 81 lost by one and
tuo-r