Rookie Hunt

In baseball's never-never land of spring training, optimism ran as high as hotel bills. From Havana to Santa Catalina everyone was eating on the cuff and getting sunburned. Ballplayers loafed, with a studied attempt at ease, in the lobby of Havana's de luxe Hotel Nacional. At St. Petersburg, where the champion St. Louis Cardinals trained (and were picked last week as the odds-on favorite to cop the 1947 National League pennant), barelegged players galloped around the clubhouse after practice, yipping and snapping towels. All clubs are tied for first place--until the season opens.

The theme of this spring training was summed up in one sentence by Manager "Muddy" Ruel of the St. Louis Browns: "It is more important to see how the youngsters are going to play than to win games down here." After almost five years in which big-league baseball had produced little new talent, the accent was on rookies. There was likely to be a dugout-full of new names--such as "Yogi" Berra, Bobby Brown, Johnny Van Cuyk, Ted Kluszewski and "Puddinhead" Jones--in the big leagues this year or next.

Bobo Finds One. Every rawboned, greenhorn pitcher who straggled in from the bushes was being compared with Walter Johnson; every ham-handed hitter was a potential Babe Ruth. At Orlando, Fla., Old Pitcher "Bobo" Newsom got in on the talent hunt. He strolled into the Washington Senators' camp with a rookie named Rufe Leonard in tow. Said Bobo modestly: "I don't say he'll be the fastest left-handed pitcher in the American League, because I'm not quite sure he can throw harder than Newhouser. . . ." Last week, Rufe steamed his smoke ball past bewildered batsmen for five innings. The experts agreed that Rufe would probably do.

A big share of the thousands of words a week filed by sports writers were about the Rufe Leonards rather than the Stan Musials. At Pensacola, Fla., the Dodgers had 242 rookies attending a baseball school at an abandoned Navy airbase. One good bet: Negro Jackie Robinson will start the season in Brooklyn as a first baseman.

The St. Louis farm system, not so dried up as some said, had grown a skinny, 20-year-old shortstop named Bernie Creger, for whom the Chicago Cubs would give a half-interest in Wrigley Field. Yet Creger had little chance to break into the Cardinals' crack lineup: to do that he would have to beat Marty ("Mr. Shortstop") Marion out of his job. At Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the up-&-coming Boston Braves were proud of bespectacled Earl Torgeson, who swings something like Ted Williams.

Hank Hits Two. One of last year's mysteries was the failure of the American League to uncover any outstanding rookie (the National League dug up about half a dozen). This year the Americans had a star candidate in right-handed Pitcher Art Houtteman. Of all places, he will play in Detroit, which many think already has the best pitching staff (Newhouser, Trout, Trucks, etc.) in baseball. The Boston Red Sox, rated even money to win their pennant again, hope to fill their big hole in right field with an ex-Marine rookie, Sabath ("Sam") Mele.

The established stars were taking it easy, letting the rookies have the play. They wanted to be in shape by mid-April when base-hits begin to count, not in March. But last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates' big Hank Greenberg let out a notch. Result: two home runs in one game.

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