Flag Day

At Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, one day last week, 28,000 Kings County baseball fans solemnly sang The Star-Spangled Banner, climax of an elaborate Flag Day ceremony. Then they sat down to watch the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, running neck & neck for the lead in the National League pennant race.

When the sun had set that afternoon, the Dodgers were one up on the Reds. Luke Hamlin had pitched a two-hit shutout, had chalked up a 2-to-0 victory. But Brooklyn's cheers were all for swart, swaggering, 28-year-old Joe Medwick, who, in his debut with the Dodgers, had driven in one of their two runs.

Joseph Michael ("Ducky") Medwick is one of the hardest-hitting outfielders in baseball. During eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, he averaged .338 at bat, drove in 873 runs and scored 771 runs himself (including 145 homers). Last year, when Leo ("Lippy") Durocher left the Cardinals to become manager of the Dodgers, he yearned to take along Ducky, his longtime roommate and protege. Dodger President Larry MacPhail, a red-headed go-getter, wanted Medwick too.

President MacPhail two years ago offered Cardinal President Sam Breadon $200,000 for Medwick. Breadon h-mmmm-phed. Last year, when he repeated his offer, Breadon h-mmmm-phed again. Last week, with the Cardinals in seventh place and hopelessly out of the running, Breadon finally surrendered. To Brooklyn went Medwick (and 33-year-old Pitcher Curt Davis, who has failed to win a game this year*) in exchange for four Dodgers and a bagful of cash, the contents of which remained undisclosed--other than it was more than the $185,000 the Cardinals received for Dizzy Dean two years ago.

Was there something prophetic, Brooklyn asked, about Medwick's joining the Dodgers on Flag Day?

* Possible reason: Cardinal Manager Ray Blades, who was supplanted last fortnight by 47-year-old Billy Southworth. In 39 games this season, bench-jittery Blades used 107 pitchers, permitted only six to finish the games they started.

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