Phnte, by Acre BEFORE THE BATTLE, fans sleep outside the park gates BUMS' FAN h the Brooklynite. He MICE AND MANAGERS' best -laid plans go awry un- to get choice seats for The opening game of the series. typifies the fierce enthusiasm and der pressure, as Joe McCarthy (1.) and The fans' hysteria affects players, upsets +he averages grim determination of a World Series learned when their teams met in 1941

SAFE! Mickey Owen dives to the dirt YOU CAN'T DOPE plays like this, in A MUFF like this cost the Dodgers a THRILLS AND ACTION make to beet a throw to Yanks' Red Rolfe. which steals second World Series game last year. Plays like -not the calculations A slide may decide a championship end Reese drops ball. That's baseball this give baseball dopesters gray hair of the expert guessmes +ers

futility in the post- season classic. And Cardinal club. The A's, seeking a And all the twenty- two -year -old diately to mind, as well, perhaps, as they were made by a player who carne third straight world title, gave them Mr. Rohe did was to assure a Cub that of . into the series the "most valuable" considerable thought in preseries defeat! He was the series' leading All three -Snodgrass, Zimmerman man in his league! strategy meetings. hitter, and fielded brilliantly. He and Lombardi-ranked as major - league Then there is the batting record is author of the tripled and scored the first nm in the stars. Lombardi still does, of course. of ; also of . statement that one John Leonard Mar- opening game as the Sox triumphed Yet each perpetrated unforgetable 13y every way of figuring, these men tin, better known as Pepper, didn't 2 -1. He tripled with the bases full blunders in series history. were "doped" to play the lead roles even get a tumble in those clubhouse to win the third game 3 to 0. And It was Snodgrass, back in the 1912 in their team's world title fights- conclaves. "I don't remember his name then, after the Cubs had tied it up at competition between the Giants and Cobb in 1907, 1908 and 1909; Hornsby coming up once," said Mike. After two games each by winning the fourth the , who dropped the in 1926 and I929. Cobb had won the all, John Leonard had but an even (they also took the second), he played fly ball, a lazy, drifting fly ball that batting title in each .300 in 123 ball games, a leading role, offensively, in the final you or I could have caught, which of those three years. In all, Ty won and that's hitting on the weak side two Sox victories which clinched the opened the championship doors to the the A. L. crown twelve times, in- for an . He had stolen sev- championship. Red Sox in a bitterly fought series cluding nine times in a row! His life- enteen bases, And then -Babe Adams. Babe was which went eight games -one tied. It time major- league batting average And then Pepper started to . a young , destined for great- was Zimmerman who chased Eddie was .387. And hit And field. He drove out ness, but he was a long way from Collin over home plate in the Polo And yet his composite World Series twelve hits in twenty -four times at being a great pitcher when he dic- Grounds with a decisive run in the average was .262. He hit an even .200 bat to tie the series record. He stole tated the result of the -j909 World 1917 renewal, and set up two addi- in 1907. He touched .368 the next five bases. He was unstoppable, and Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates, tional runs which proved conclusive year. but slumped off to .231 in 1909. perhaps more than any other man in his team, and the , led in the settlement of the world title of The Detroit Tigers were beaten all series history swung a world title, by Ty Cobb. He had been up with that year. three times. practically alone, to an inferior team. the Pirates in 1907 briefly, appearing Hornsby, who led the National And this is the fellow that not only in four games and compiling a record AND it was Lombardi, the hard- League hitters seven times, including the A's themselves but nobody else of no victories and two defeats. He working of the Cincinnati six in a row ( 1920 -1925) , went into remembered in the presence analyz- went down to Louisville and did so Reds, who put on the now -famous the 1926 competition against the New ing. He just didn't "figure" ...! well he carne back to the Pirates in "snooze" act to make the Reds' rout York Yankees with a regular season Then there was the case of George 1909, His record in 1909 was good- by the Yankees in the 1939 competition batting mark of .317. He hit .250 in Rohe. You have to go back a long twelve and three. But it wasn't such complete, final and humiliating. And seven series games, but the Cardinals way to pick up his trail, I906, when as to figure him as a winner of THREE all had the misfortune to unfold those won in spite of his woful slump. the great Cub team of Tinker to Evers games in the series. travesties at a time when the glare In 1929, then a member of the Cubs, to Chance, a superb combination But that's just what he did-three was the most intense, when their ac- he took a .380 average into the battle which won 116 games over the Na- victories, each of them a six -hit game. tions stood out in such bold relief as with the Philadelphia Athletics. His tional League season --still the major His earned -run average was a re- to make them unforgetable. five -game series showing was an league record --moved against the old markable 1.33. His final victory was One last clincher in this series to anemic. .227. "Hitless Wonders," the Chicago White an 8 -to -0 shutout which gave the Pi- show how dopey the World Series Contrast that, now, with Pepper Sox, top -heavy choices for victory. rates the world championship. Babe dope can be. This one involves the Martin, George Rohe and Babe Adams. Adams -just a rookie, trying to get important baseball by- product, strat- The record of these three is quite ROBE started at third for the White along! egy, and carries us back to the 1933 different, Sox only through necessity. The Against the tense World Series back- battle between the New York Giants Back in 1931 the Philadelphia Ath- regular , Lee Tannehill, ground. the bizarre also has flashed and the Washington Senators. We letics, one of baseball's great teams, had been shifted to short in an emer- from time to time in a further flaunt- are in the fifth game, with the Giants met the St. Louis Cardinals, just a gency, and the light- hitting Rohe, ing of the dope which says this set of leading the series three games to bunch of ambitious fellows who had ticketed for return to the minors, came games should be productive of the one, but with 's Senators a tough fight qualifying for a series in to play the far corner. This, the finest baseball of the year. In this fighting back desperately. Now, in appearance. and Jim experts decided, was all that was regard, the names of Fred Snodgrass the eleventh , the Senators, Bottom ley were the big men on this needed to assure a Cub victory. and come imme- (Continued on Page 34) 3