Oldtimer Up

One day last August, moody Willard Hershberger, second-string catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, slit his throat with a razor. Few weeks later, pounding down the homestretch in the National League pennant race, first-string Catcher Ernie Lombardi sprained his ankle. On the eve of the World Series, Manager Bill McKechnie was on a spot. Lombardi's understudy was too green to be put behind the slugging Detroit Tigers at the plate.

"I'll get back into harness," volunteered Jimmy Wilson, the Reds' piano-legged, 40-year-old coach. Coach Wilson, father of a 117-year-old son, had been a great backstop in his day (once made 18 putouts in one game), had caught for the St. Louis Cardinals in three World Series, had caught for as well as managed the Philadelphia Phillies for five years (and transformed Third Baseman Bucky Walters into one of baseball's best pitchers) before fading to the sidelines two years ago. As Cincinnati's coach, Jimmy Wilson had done nothing more strenuous than exercise his arms at fungo hitting, exercise his lungs in first-base pep talks.

Back into harness went Wilson. And, when the last Tiger had been put out for Cincinnati's first world championship in 21 years, baseball's historians, many of them fat & 40 too, hailed Jimmy Wilson's performance one of the most astounding of all time. On rusty haunches he had caught six of the Series' seven games, handled his pitchers perfectly (especially his old protege, Bucky Walters), batted a better than average .353, and, despite a charley horse, chalked up the only stolen base of the Series.

Last fortnight, while Cincinnati's President Powel Crosley rejoiced over a $12 dividend for Red stockholders, President Philip K. Wrigley of the Chicago Cubs whined over his teddy bears. After spending a small fortune for players in the past three years, the gummed-up Cubs had finished in the second division. "Perhaps I ought to fire myself," he pondered publicly. But, on second thought--a few days after the Dodgers gladly paid the Phillies $100,000 for young Kirby Higbe, one of the Cubs' recent castoffs--President Wrigley fired Manager Gabby Hartnett.

Once before, when he had been displeased with his Cubs, Andover-bred Owner Wrigley hired a psychoanalyst to discover what was wrong with them. This time he hired a sportswriter, Jimmy Gallagher of the Chicago Herald-American. Jimmy Gallagher's first move as general manager: he got Oldtimer Jimmy Wilson, at a reputed $20,000 a year, to manage the Chicago Cubs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.