Evening star., 1960-01-27
WIN, LOSE OR
DNAV By FRANCIS STANN
Not So One-Sided

he RaSeh
"ferS olnner IN Louisville Chuck Dresser and while
the text OF his speech carried by the wire services
heCer was report that butterfly net had been thrown
over ne mead OF the little genius was possibility
lightly mentioned by Mr. Mike Barry editor of the
whimsical weekly called the Kentucky Irish American
There no great urge here to cross swords with the
otlngy gifted Mr. Barry, who is entitled his opinion
that Manager Dresser of the Milwaukee Braves converts
Hank Aaron into second baSeman Aaron will have to
nit 4O to stay even for the he will bestow upon the
opposition
Mr. Barry however is less impressive in pressing a
Iuacy charge against Dresser when he speaks Of the
physical danger to which star sugger Aaron might he
exposed at second base The epay man. it is pointed
out ruthessy haunted base runner crashing into
MS ond side To the precise words "A man covering
second base taking the throw then pvotng to throw
10 rst is completely vulnerable but he gets no protection
at all.
The runner deliberately knocks him down Everybody
knows It, including the umpire but nothing is done"
WELL, NOW, the book can refute this argument As
every schooooy knows Ty Cobb played major League
oaI games than anybody else in history 3O33 But who is
NO 2? Why Eddie Collins with 1926 And Collins was a
second baseman.
big league games, but at dozen of these have been
second oaSemen and shortStopsthe guys the middle
on the double plays Five second baSemen elected to
the Hall of Fame-elected, against appointed by the
Ola Timers committee Johnny Evers-and each one
played more games than Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse
mere were Collins and Nap Laoie Charley Gehringer
FRANKIE FrSch and Rogers Hornsby latter bringing
up the rear with 2259 are other second
men and shortstops who played we'll over 1000 games
including HonuS Wagner Rabbit Maranvile Luke Appnp
Joe Cronin, Peewee Reese, Dick Barten and Roger
Pecknpaugh
Right Nellie Fox physical pipsuueak has the
longest consecutive streak any active PLAYER
and he's still going strong His sidekck Luis Aparcio is
smaller If anything Somehow they manage avoid being
slaughtered.
medium Most were economy-sized Maranvile Frisch
Reese Bartel, Pecknpaugh and most of all Evers were
spare or ruhtS or ooth Maranve played 67O games at
shortsop despite being shipped the minors once for
miSbehavor and finally down only after he snapped
leg sliding home in an exhibition game at the ripe old
age of az.
Red Schoendenst, giant, spent year in the Army
and another in hospital with tuberculosis yet he's played
nearly 1900 games Larry Doyle the old Giant and another
IB victim played 1859 games Bobby took beating
or years with the Red sox surviving the base runners
stretch in the service migraine headaches back
aument caused him to retire after 1855 games
When Bucky Harris broke into the majors Cobb tool
oeao aim at the l4Opound rookie baseman of the
senators You do that again. Harris brashly warned the
great man, and I'll forget the double plav and
carve your legs to the shnbones took long look
at the rockies grim face and realized Bucky meant it.
-
ANOTHER TIME Lou Gehrig barreled into Harris at
second base, temporarily moving Bucky into short Ioft
Harris brushed himself off and bided his time The newt
time at bat he grounded the ned and was thrown ont
out not before his spikes had dug tidy pattern of Sits
in Gehrig'S foot. - w
he knew why l missed the bag and got his foot
bucky smilingly recoun the episode You know Gehrp
didn't give any trouble after that"
Al Simmons, who played the game to the hit was
giving Washngton's Buddy Myer and Joe Cronn hard
'e one summer Simmons was big and rough but Cronin
cooled him of Sunday at Griffith Stadium Joe took
loss from Myer on double play effort and when Simmons
attempted to block the throw to first base Cronn tried
to throw it through him.
lad riff lat
ball hit Simmons between the eyes The Athletics scraped
ther man of the ined and Simmons later even riped
Eventually, however, he to the hospital to have
his broken head mended
So it isn't all one-sided by any means In fact
Gehrnge of the bigger second basemen who plaved
1928 games was bearing noby against the break up
baserunnerS late 1942 he was 80 years old
But then ne offered to shovel the off his mothers
sidewalk and his spine went pop cracke snap The snow
shovel wrote finis for the old Mechanical Man.