DETROIT TIMES, MAY 5,1941 PAGE 15 Smashing 455-foot Homer Inside Briggs Stadium
Cfeettsacdamii * SPORTS EDITOR Brigg* Stadium Crowds Shrinking Attendance at Now Can See Yankee Week-day Games Is * - m jgiß sHSn r J&k wHMKMii 'lf*' for Themselves Laid to Employment NIGHT BASEBALL SEEN AS SOLUTION Connie Mack the other day told the writer he thought the Yankees were the team to beat for the pennant, but that the yfflSetlc-. A... ..A ... ? <>, "*¦' aYSajP-' Zißtoaufi. -ajg+y /*£•:.*. . . , „ - atdmim Vk/' %' . New York club was plagued with “ifs.” A .1 ' " ;Wiw ids., Yesterday at Briggs Stadium a of more than great crowd 455-FOOT HOMER SECOND; DOTTED SHOWS COURSE OF BALL 43.000 Tiger fans saw some of the “ifs’' for the first time. They CHARLEY KELLER SMASHING HIS IN LINE saw Phil Rizzuto and Gerald Priddy at shortstop and second By EDGAR HAYES of the longest, but that a smash by Rudy York into the left Manager Del Baker was plenty mad when Umpire John base, respectively. They convert. field lower stands near the bullpen was a little longer, Jimmy' called Billy Sullivan out at third in the second inning. saw Joe Gordon the first base When Charley Keller leaned on Buck Newsom's three and Quinn The fans saw Joe McCarthy's great double play combination Foxx also hit one into the upper deck, far out towards center Quinn got a good razzing from the crowd and once paid a short two pitch and sent it on a line against the base of the center —Rizzuto and Priddy—in action. The youngsters, up from field, one afternoon. visit to the Tiger bench to warn Birdie Tebbetts and Dick field game, Kansas City, turned on the heat in a brace of dazzling double bleachers in the second inning of Sunday's he In the dugout there was much discussion over the blow. Bartell. Baker was still mad after the game and insisted plays. They were started by started conversations and debates in every corner of the stands. Schoolboy Rowe held out for a homer by Chet Laabs which, he Sullivan was safe. Priddy. Was it the longest ball ever hit inside Briggs Stadium? If insisted, hit the base of the bleachers in center field. After warning the fans for years, the ball club finally took At first, Gordon had little not, who hit one farther? Record books don't measure the Charley's hit was a line drive out about 455 feet. He steps and ejected a fan who jumped on the field to chase a foul chance to show Detroiters what length of home runs so the memory of man must come to the scored easily, even with one of the fastest outfielders in the ball. The police escorted him out but were booed for their he could do in the new position. rescue. In the press box it was agreed Charley's hit was one business chasing the ball. troubles. Two women were hit by fouls, but not hurt. He was in only a couple of plays. Gordon was a great sec- ond baseman. McCarthy thinks he will be a great first baseman. Maybe he will. 'Had Lotta Horse OH YEAH? Newsom, Rudy York Pace Tigers While Charley (King Kong) Keller smacked one of the longest home runs ever hit inside Under Me' in Briggs Stadium; at bat the SO WHAT?, To 10-1 Triumph Over Yankees Yankees collectively didn't show much of their old championship | power. A double DiMaggio Derby-Arcaro by •r was the only other extra base 43.741 See Game; hit as Buck Newsom held the LOUISVILLE. Ky.. May 5 New Yorkers to five. Eddie Arcaro, 26-year-old New- Keller Homers In the pitching department, port. Ky., jockey who rode Whirl- WmKBBUKKBBBm ___ Inside Park two of New York's biggest “ifs" away to a 561,000 victory and a - a v. . ¦cm. s v ->j ->vs-& /• am. .-^ii are Vernon Gomez and new record in ihe Kentucky ¦J& .yu/vAL. -i 'a, /*¦¦' ¦¦/*!% ffißm today refused to take much credit Charley Ruffing. Gomez is By LEO MACDONELL for his sensation feat. staging a comeback and thus “I just hail a lotta horse under When in the mood. Buck New* far has done well. me," the hide Italian rider de- 'nm and Rudy York can be very clared. "He was the runningest v jdestructive. i|||l ' j# son-of-a-gim I ever s a | on. I ?\ The Yankees found that out Red's 18th Year couldn't hold him. (Sunday at Briggs Stadium when The once great southpaw "We broke about last. The race was run Ihe the pair—a grand total of 424 won a couple games way Ben of and •tones {trainer) planned it, ex- pounds of dynamite—paced the then dropped a tough duel t cept that Whirlaway made his Tigers to a smashing victory' over Bob Harris in St. Louis, wher move sooner than we wanted the New Yorkers. 10 to 1. he held the LEFTY GOMEZ him to. I just couldn't hold him. A record Browns to three ’ season’s crowd of * He hurst out of like hits, but walked eight men. . one of Yanks ifs m.v hand a 43.741 fans acclaimed the mas- water blister. It was a breeze So far Ruffing hasn't sacre. The Tigers drew 42,165 created any great excitement and it is by eight lengths." customers for their opening gamo doubtful if the redhead will matchnhis 15 wins of last year. of the season with Indians, in- TRAINER WAS RIGHT the Ruffing is in his eighteenth year in the majors. dicating that the national pastime Arcaro's modesty, however, Ernie Bonham and Marius Russo 1 is in no danger of an attendance are a couple of good young failed to present his being gener- collapse in the Dynamic city. pitchers. But the former is not—or has not been in the best ally credited with a large share • in the It i \ RI’DY GETS 3 RUNS of health. He was a Johns Hopkins patient this Spring. Marvin victory. was pointed out 4 Jiil^l I that Whirlaway has often run out Newsom, Breuer didn t look too good yesterday after he relieved George in fine form, turned in under other jockeys, and in fact a masterly five-hit Washburn, a recruit up from the performance International League. had become known as a bad risk and at hat combined with York t« Steve Sundra. of course, is with Washington now and Monte ai ihe mu tnoIs. account for half of their team'* Pearson was sold to Cincinnati. Trainer Jones, who had Arcaro tallies. With his sixth home run as a rider for Lawrin in his Derby of season. York Rill Dickey is the accounted for supposed to be one of the key men in the win of 19.1 V insisted the Newport I three markers. Newsom batted Yankees' 1941 bid for championship honors. He is an "if man jockey was the man to keep home two. Whirlaway who. to date, hasn i caused any celebrations on Broadway. Red from [lulling any of his It was the Great 80-Bo’s sec- classic, Rolfe has been doing all right at irick- in the big and ond victory of the season a* third and it looks as if he has events proved him right. Today. regained his hatting eye. against three defeats. Whirlaway was being hailed as “Looks like 80-Bo Is on his possibly ihe greatest colt ever to way now.” Newsom admitted in Have Fine Set win the Derby. the Tiger dressing room after of Outfielders A. E. "Pinkie” Browne. Calu- the game. “And, 1 didn’t have In Keller. Joe DiMaggio, George Selkirk and Tommy Hen- met farm, exercise boy for Whirl- to work too hard. ’Course a away who hLo was exercise l>oy nice big lead helps. I’ll be rich. the Yankees have a fine set of outfielders. It may ;/¦ ¦ ¦ But. be that for Lawrin in 19.18 and for o\er that 'JO-wln mark when the Keller will challenge Black DiMaggio's rlaim to home run honors among Gold in 1924. threw some ligh* old rurtain comes down. You the \ ankees. Jake Powell is with San Francisco. Keller banged on the champion's temperament can count on old 80-Bo.” out 21 homers last season. by declining: Well, old 80-80, we re a-countin* "W htrlv who yuh. Marse Joe McCarthy is in his eleventh year manager- take* a rider on as of won't gel excited. He'« one of Both the Tiger homers thp Yankees, in came off a stretch which the Buffalo citizen never piloted Ihe best horses in ihe world if Marvin Breuer, who replaced the club to a spot lower than third, which is somethin* he has the right ridPr." George Washburn, the New York Joe is quite a manager and quite a guy. And we might add WINS Ml,*;*PURSE club's starting flinger. a hit of a gambler. If his reconstructed Yankees should Billy Sullivan also exploded n win The winner s time for the mile- homer for Tigers, the and they got a chance you.can the riehon- mark it down as further evi- and-a-quaricr classic. 2.01 2-5. nair catcher's second of the season, dence that he is a great manager. elipi»ed 2-5 of a second from the and Charley Keller blasted one for But we are on record as picking the Indians and Tigers Derby record set by Twenty Grand the Yankees that goes down in ahead of the Yankees in the standings when the curtain is drawn in 1911. His 561.275 share of the the books as one of the hardest in September and thus far $67,775 purse was the largest sum hit balls in Briggs Stadium his- we see no reason for changing our ever by a Derby horse. « tory. opinion. won m, All in all, the sixty-seventh an- Keller’s homer hit the concrete The record outpouring of customers for the game between nual running of the Derby was HR m at the base of the screen in dead ( renter field, the Tigers and Yankees at Briggs Stadium Sunday should put marked down a< one of the most a distance of 455 feet successful in the king history of at Test any fears that the great loyal (Continued on 16) and army of Detroit fans the Blue Grass Classic, and Col. Page fiave cooled off on Del Baker's gallant American League Matt J. Winn. 80-year-old director, champions. is already busy with plans for the Home Run Hitters VKSTEBDAV'S sixty-eighth running. Many of HOMERS F!*tch*r. Garni* Pirat**: R*ia*r, Doric- those who attended have already *r* Younc Olann: Dali**»an>trn, Cub*: Tigers Now a State Institution reserved seats for the I.u