Baseball

Col. Jacob Ruppert of Manhattan has something in common with the groundhog and the katydid. Even as they foretell spring and frost, so does he regularly punctuate the calendar with his annual statement: "The Yankees are stronger than last year." Last week Col. Ruppert so stated, and its followers throughout the land then knew surely that Baseball was at hand again. The season opens April 12. After their month of limbering, exercising, exhibition games in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California, it was possible last week to cast up a rough account of how the 16 major teams stand this year.

American League. It causes Col. Ruppert acute agony to see his world champion Yankees lose a game. And agony was the Colonel's brew one day last week. On their way North, the Yankees lost to the Memphis Chicks 5-to-4. Manager Joe McCarthy was disgruntled by the failure of his batters to hit minor league pitching. Two days earlier he had been appalled when Pitcher George Pipgras who had done better than anyone else in training at St. Petersburg, lasted only four innings against the Birmingham Barons.

Despite last week's mishaps experts generally concurred in Col. Ruppert's estimate of his team. Manager McCarthy's most promising rookie is a shortstop named William Werber for what has been the Yankees' weakest spot since 1927. Charles Devens, onetime Harvard footballer, has surprised everyone by pitching so well that McCarthy may not send him to Newark for further schooling.

Contenders with the Yankees this year may well be the Washington Senators with a young manager, Joe Cronin, 26, to replace Walter Johnson, and their old Leon ("Goose") Goslin back in left field after three years with the St. Louis Browns.

The Philadelphia Athletics have two problems: 1) laws prohibiting Sunday baseball; 2) rookie outfielders to replace Haas and Simmons, whom Manager Cornelius McGillicuddy had to sell, along with Infielder Dykes, to the Chicago White Sox for $80,000 last autumn.

The White Sox may be the surprise team in the league, though Simmons has suffered from a torn hand, tooth-pullings, weak ankles and rheumatism since the team went into training.

The Cleveland Indians with practically the same lineup as finished fourth last year probably belong in the first division.

Detroit's Tigers have a promising pitcher in Lynwood Thomas ("Schoolboy") Rowe, son of a circus acrobat.

The Boston Red Sox under their new owner Thomas Yawkey and the St. Louis Browns, with some new outfielders and pitchers, still look weak.

National League. The Chicago Cubs, National League champions, were less discouraged than they might have been by an accident to Outfielder Cuyler last week. In a game against Hollywood he fractured his right leg sliding to second base. He broke a bone in his foot a year ago and got back into the lineup in time to help his team win the pennant. More discouraging to Manager Charles Grimm has been the failure of his new pitchers to round into shape, though he has a staff of able veterans--Malone, Bush, Root, Warneke --to fall back upon.

It looked last week as though the National League race would be closer than the American. The St. Louis Cardinals with Rogers Hornsby and Frank Frisch in the infield, have the best pitching staff in the league.

The unpredictable Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Athletics 10 to 5 last week and are hoping this year to use Rosy Ryan, a pitcher who dropped out of the major leagues six years ago.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, generally conceded to be the club to beat, will be strengthened this year by Freddie Lindstrom in centre field, flanked by the two Waner brothers. The health of brilliant but fragile Pitcher Steve Swetonic may be a deciding element in the club's success.

Jewel Ens, coach of the Cincinnati Reds, who picked the Cubs a year ago, last week lacked the temerity to select his own team for the pennant, said he thought the hard-hitting Philadelphia Phillies would "overpower the league."

Manager Terry of the Giants last week got his nose severely bruised by a line drive when he was leaning against the grandstand talking. His fattest pitcher, Fred Fitzsimmons, soon heartened him by giving Detroit one hit in seven innings in a game the Giants won, 7 to 0.

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