The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, April 3, 1941, Page 5

By DIiLLON GRAHAM Sports Editor, AP Feature Service LAKELAND, Fla. — The outlook was dark at the Detroit camp here last spring. It's much brighter now. But still the chances are that the Tigers won't repeat their 1940 sur- prise feat of copping the pennant. shortstop. had an amng pack and there was some doubt if he would play at all. Higgins hadn't looked so good the year before at third. Rowe Think back to last March: There wasn't figured on for much pitch- were two big uncertain experiments ing and Tommy Bridges was frail —clu ’ dy York was being and getting older. Buck Newsom iried at first base and Hank Green- | had won 20 games for two straight berg was making his debut as a|years and many doubted his abil- fly ser. Dick Bartell, whom the|ity to do it again. There were a Cubs were willing to let go be-|bunch of young pitchers named Yank Rookie Gets Checkup Phil Rizzuto, right mong the young major league baseball players high on the draft l?st, me Rizyzuto,xroolde shortstop of the New York Yanks, is pic- tured being given his physical exam at St. Petersburg, Fla., where *4e Yanks are training. Rizzuto may be deferred because of a kid- ney_ailment. ‘&‘&\\\\\\\\“\\“«\\\“\\\\\\\\\\\Mfl\|Mm"lIHII"IIII/IIIIII/III/IIMI/MV/// 2 They’ll raise a SWEER when you appear with cheerful S 3 B KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY “CHEERFUL AS ITS NAME* When buying bourbon ask for OLD SUNNY BROOK by name National Distillers Products € Corporation, New York, N. Y. zzZZ77 NN\ 7 A N\ Distributed by NATIONAL GROCERY COMPANY Seattle, Washington i BRINGING UP FATHER REMEMBER-DON'T YOLI DARE LEAVE THIS HOUSE TONIGHT- M GOI OUT AND WILL BE [ ING I.NEVER MISS A BACK EARLY-DO YOU HEAR?| WOR cause he was slowing up, was at' Joe and nobody knew what they | The veteran Charley Gehringer was tentatively set at second. He| | | st ; e S R .. THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1941 __ TIGERS STACK UP AS THIRD PLACE (LUB SAYS GRAHAM could or would do. Well, the Tigers held together d wen the American League championship, | Now, although a year older, Geh- ringer is in much better shape and says he'll be as good as last year.| Bartell apparently is no slower and Eric McNair is around to spell| him. Higgins had a fine year at third, Rudy was a success at first | and Greenberg became one of the! loop’s best flychasers while continu- ing his hard hitting. | But Greenberg is eligible for| the draft and may be cailed dur-| ing the season. If he goes the Ti- gers will fall. Everyone admits that Rowe, al- | though he worked hard, was pret- ty lucky to win 16 games last year. Bridges hardly will do better than his dozen. Hal Newhouser and John Gorsica, who won 9 and 7, re- spectively, should turn in even bet- ter records. Until shown otherwise, | Big Bobo Newsome must be count- ,ed on for another 20. And there | with Hal White, who won 16 at are several good looking rookies, Buffalo, probably the best. The situation definitely is an improvement over last spring but! | —Gehringer and Bartell can't go on | forever, the draft may get Green-| | berg, Rowe should slough off, the! | hot summer | against gny of the rookies becom- | ing overnight sensations. | year and theyll surprise me just! | i | I | nrobably will worry | Bridges and the chances are small| The Tigers surprised me last as much this year if they finish| better than third. . THUMBNAIL PREVIEW | Infield fair Outfield ...good | Catching -.good Pitching fair | Hitting % good Finish .. proba;:ly 3rd or 4th — - — | Brooklyn is the largest of New | York’s boroughs in population, with 2,698,285 persons. Try a classified ad in The Empirs | Churchill Meets the Mascot PETERSBURG MAN TRIES TO END LIFE Despondent Pioneer Leaps from Ferry Float in Fu- tile Drowning Effort Despondent over the fact that he was going blind, so blind that it was impossible to correct or save his eyes, John Wahl, about 68, of Pet- ersburg, leaped from the ferry float at the foot of Seward Street shortly after 6 o'clock last night in an al- leged attempt to end his life. Wahl was in the water less than a minute, according to Wayne Thompson, who witnessed the pio- neer jump. Thompson and Herb Redman, residents of the Marine Apartments, rushed down to the float and pulled the already-uncon- scious Wahl from the water. Juneau Firemen raced to the scene on an alarm being sounded and in 15 minutes had Wahl revived and | in an ambulance bound for St. Ann's Hospital. When recovering with the |aid of oxygen and artificial respira- tion, Wahl said: “Why didn’t you people leave me alone?” s ‘This morning the old man is in St. Ann's Hospital, “doing very much better.” Wahl was sent to the Pioneers’ | Home at Sitka from Petersburg two weeks ago, but returned to Juneau recently. Here he went to Dr. Rob- ert Simpson for an optical exam- ination in an attempt to get glasses to correct his failing eyes. Close ex- amin: rswed that mere glasses {would not aid or correct the fact that Wahl was going blind. His was a constitutional defect, possibly age, that was causing the weakened optical nerves, said Dr. Simpson. T— Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays a visit to the hattalion D YOLI SAY-- THAT'S MORE THAN I_KIN SAY ABOUT THE THINGS YOU of the Royal Scot Fusiliers that he commanded during the World Was and is introduced to WELL-I'M GONNA TAKE IT EASY-AN I'M_NOT GOIN' TO LET ANY( DISTURB ' the mascot, Sandy. ! Gave Miller | | 1 | | | | OH-DEAR-I FORX W PICTURES HOME NUIMBER-VLL CALL LIP ‘AND THE NUMBER JIGGS-WHAT'S TH' MATTER? WHY SN'T HE ANSWER ? "Blind Luck” Start Signal Fancy Bee gh‘b_ristop Tells Just What Boosted Him Along in Baseball By FELIX R. McKNIGHT AP Feature Service SAN ANTONIO, Tex. April 3.— | Blind luck, molder of many careers, has sent baseball a gabby little guy who is storming along towards be- ing one of the great shortstops of all time. Eddie Miller is the name Tiny, but bull-shouldered, Eddie currently performs in a most amaz- ing manner for the Boston Bees. Only by a quirk of fate he isn't in the New York Yankee infield. But that’s another story—a painful story to the Yanks, Spectacular afield, the five-foot, nine-inch 165-pounder is also one of the most valued Bee hitters. Home runs, triples and doubles bounce off his big bat. Briefly, he's that something they've been dreaming of for years—a great fielding shortstop who can hit, and hard. The story of Eddie Miller starts |some 10 years ago. Out in the back of his house near the Pitts- burgh ball park—“so close I could | just roll out of bed into left field” —a %qare-jawed, handsome lit- tle fellow banged a ball against the side of the house. He dived to | his left and right to catch the re- bounds. Out in a vacant lot he learned how to run the bases. Eddie tried hook and belly - slides into his “bases"—large stones laid in the grass. Through high school Eddie played baseball and finally a Pittsburgh scout saw him. Off to Springfield He was sent down to Spring- field,” Ohio, with a couple of kid pitchers for a shot at Class C ball. The manager looked over his trio and decided to let them hang around a couple of days and then ship them home. ! On ' the second day the locals were playing a spring exhibition game, Eddie and his two doomed pitchers were In a pepper game far out on the left fleld baseline when' the game wore into the ninth inning. The' manager waved Eddie in to pinch "hit. Eddie picked out the biggest hat he could find and walked to the plate. The first two pitches were steamers on the outside corner. “I missed 'em both a mile,” Ed- dy confesses. “I was ready to take my cut at the third, miss It and pack up for the trip home. The third pitch came ripping down the middle and I swung with sverything I had. I connected. The ball cleared the center field fence for a home run. “I stayed with Springfield that season. But do you know some- thing? I never hit another home run down there!” Eddie’s blind luck—and he says| it was genuinely blind for he, “might” have had his eyes closed| on -that eircuit blow—started his bright career. In 1935 he was sent to Toronto, but finished the year in the Pled- mont League, He stuck it out with Toronto in "36 and became a Cin- innati chattel in 1938, playing at Syracuse. The Reds traded him to Newark, Yankee farm, for Wil-| lard Hershberger. The Yanks sent Eddie down to| Kansas City in '38. He was fast rounding into true form there, but the Yanks sold him to the Boston Bees. 3 Starts in 39 So Eddie, started his big league career in '39 with Boston. He was| 3oing great guns until one day Le charged out into center field for a high fly, collided with Al - Sim-| mons ' and broke his leg. For| months he nursed the leg along— was dble to start the '40 season with the Bees. Last season Eddie Miller was great, even with his feeble leg. He! hit .276, but he drove in 79 runs, and lashed out 13 home runs, In the' first spring game with the St. Louis Browns he tapped three Brownie hurlers for a home run, two doubles and single. | ALL SALE OF SPRING DRESS FABRICS Exciting! - - - Colorful! - - - New! A wonderful assortment in everything that’s new for spring dress mate It’s your chance to make you've wanted and save ha the meantime. new robe needs. FRIDAY AND SATURD AT THESE FEAT LOW PRICES. Rayon Crepes Reg. 65¢c yd. Qe yd. Spun Rayons Reg. 85c yd. @29 Silk Poplin Reg. 135 1.1 Printed Jersey | B £ Original new prints, stripes, plaids, polka dots — Soft, smooth, pastel shades. There’s even glamorous hand Popular new blacks, whites and navy crepes. This is one sale you won’t want to miss. Reg. 1.95 screened printed jersey. “In Juneau B. M. Washable, crisp, bright, Perfect for Spring ward- the dresses ndsomely in AY ONLY URE - s S e Yyd. - - - — S 3 — It's BEHRENDS for VALUES!" BEHRENDS CO. QUALITY SINCE 1887 than 24 hours on the streets. “Casey Stengel taught me a lot still roaring when the next fight {about this game,” Eddie muses.!got underway. The announcers, de-| | came last season. |ing our classwork. He would teil ‘Roar Qut Disapproval of By GEORGE McMANU> KEEP RINGIN' FER “He taught me to hold the bat on, the end and take a cut. He taught’ me baseball was just a game in- stead of work. He has made field- ing 100 ground balls easy, where- as I used to labor at stabbing 25 of them.” To Eddie Miller, whom Casey, Stengel describes “as just about the best. shortstop in either league,” his biggest wallop out of baseball “We were playing the Glants in the Polo Grounds. Carl Hubbell was pitching. I got hold of a sink- er and sent it out for two bases to score Chet Ross and win that game, 2-1. “Why was . it so important (o me? “When I was a kid in high school we had a professor who sneaked in a little baseball conversation dur- us for hours about Hubbell's great screwball. “I would sit there and dream about some day batting against| the great Hubbell. “Well—I did!” —e———— Figl;l Fans TurnCheers InIo__Booes! Decision-Woman Shaves Head fo Wear Wigs By GEORGE TUCKER NEW YORK, April 3—Stepan Fetchit's valet is a prize-fighter. He was loudly cheered when introduced at the recent Golden Gloves match- es, but the judges were roundly booed when they gave him the de- cision, The crowd thought the other fighter won, It was so angry it was | CARE - I'M GOING spite their amplifiers, pletely drowned out. In her earlier days on Broadway Miriam Hopkins would live no- where but in Greenwich Village. Now she demands handsome suites in expensive hotels overlooking Central Park. were com- I wish Judith Anderson had been cast in the leading role of “The Corn Is Green” instead of Ethel Barrymore. Miss Barrymore has won great praise and has received continuous plaudits since the play opened, but I can't forget Miss An- That new novel of the Civil War, “Hang My Wreath,” reads like a comic strip. It doesn't go in for much character development, but not even Jack Armstrong, the All- American Boy, could get out of some of the situations you find in this short, fast novel. It was written by “Ward Weaver.” The New York Times says it has & sneaking suspicion that Mr. Ward Weaver bears a striking resems blance to an author known' as F. van Wyck Mason. A thumbnail description of Mr. “Weaver" on the book’s’ jacket says he is a bachelor who lives in a cabin in the Sierra Nevadas. But when a reporter telephoned to Inquire whether Mr. Weaver and Mr. Ma- son were one and the same, the publisher replied with elaborate subtlety, “Our lips are sealed.”” What has become of Lucy Cot~ | ton, former showgirl who married millions and who, for a while, shaved her head so that she could wear wigs to match her gowns? S eee derson in “Family Portrait,” nor cease regretting that I will never, probably, have a chance to see her in the Barrymore role. Her por- trayal of Mary in “Family Por- trait” was one of the two or three most memorable nights I have ever spent in the theater. Announcement that the Theater Guild has received two new plays from that long-absent son of Man- hattan, Eugene O'Neill, recalls that he was born exactly where the cen- | ter of Broadway now is. But neither | of the O'Neill dramas will be pro-; duced this season. They are so out- spoken that the Guild fears censor NN trouble. | l'(’]ll'lheerecent snow storms may not F “B RENT Juneau Liquor be the heaviest in the history of, Store Space this metropolis, but they caused! more traffic snarls and, coupled| Will Remodel to Suit Tenant. with the bus strike, annoyed pe-‘ See Percy’s Cafe Subscitoe 10 the Daiy Alasky Empire--the paper with the larges oaid circulation. destrians more than any I remem-| ber. In nearly a decade of living in New York I remember only one or two instances of snow remain- ing in considerable quantity mo:‘el TR, PHONE 374 GLACIER HIGHWAY DELIVERY DAILY TRIPS COAL——WO00D LUMBER —— GROCERIES PHONE 374 "“SHORTY" WHITFIELD