Vender Meer and Northwestern Eleven Tie as Year’s Outstanding Failures A CHRISTMAS SOCK FOR SANTA —By jim BERRYMAN Win, Lose or Draw Redleg Showing 1 Snead Forgets By FRANCIS E. STAN. Yanks Bringing to Light Some Statistical Facts Against /HOLY HOLLY! HAVE Pains in When the Nats ran onto the Miami playing field against the world champion > I <»OT A HEADACHE! Yankees last season they did so with half of their regulars outhitting rivals In New York uniforms. Official American ( THAT IS CERTAINLY League batting averages, re- Rates Third leased today, are authority for this seeming phenomenon. BIG ORDER Golf For instance, Left Fielder Taft Wright of the Nats outhit Left Fielder S^A Triumph Selkirk of the in George Yanks. Cecil Travis outbatted Frankie Crosetti, Snead U. S. Open, both Buddy Myer and Jimmy Bloodworth socked for higher than Nabs averages Rice on Grid Pull $2,500 Despite Joe Gordon, and even Mickey Vernon’s mark was higher than that of his rival, Babe This means that Nelson Dahlgren. by the loose jaws of the year's Prize Flopperoos Ailing Teeth; official records the Nats were not thoroughly outclassed by the Yanks in Gets Vardon Prize batting average. By SID FEDER, Yet the Yankees won the pennant for the fourth straight time and Associated Press Sports Writer. By LARRY ROLLINS, the Nats finished NEW Dec. 18.—The most Associated Press Sports Writer, sixth. Specifically, New York ended the season 41>/2 YORK, In 1939 the games ahead of Washington. After the first three weeks of the season it resounding “flop” sports, j MIAMI, Fla., Dec. 18.—Sam Snead, country’s sports editors decided to- who said he still didn't was apparent the Nats did not belong on the same field with the champs; feel “in the day, was a toss-up between the col- pink,” headed back home that one team was a superclub and the other strictly second division. today for lapse of Johnny Vander Meer’s a physical overhauling, after Of course, not all of the statistical details have been For limp- presented. double no-hit pitching arm and the ing four times around the course instance, New York's team batting average was a 9 above good points gridiron woes of Northwestern’s in 271 strokes, just 9 under par, to Washington’s. Practically every Yankee, regardless of whether he was Wildcats. win $2,500 to prize in the Miami outhit by a Nat, socked for more total bases than his Washington counter- Voting in the Associated Press’ open, the year's final golf tourna- ninth annual on part. And subsequent official releases are likely to prove that when the poll the year’s ment. Yankees hit, they hit to drive runs across. biggest disappointment, the experts Two strokes off the pace going came up with a point tie in trying into the final round, the White to discover which took the biggest Sulphur Springs, W. Va., pro hit nose dive. Vander Meer was voted his stride yesterday and tied the Reason for Yanks' Is the No. 1 on 11 of 74 Superiority Deep-Rooted upset the bal- course record with a 6 below par 64 When Lou Gehrig was forced to end his career early last May the lots and Northwestern drew the top and breezed home two shots in front on 9, but on a basis- of man who picked up his first baseman's glove, Dahlgren, was no Dali of spot point Harold fJug) McSpaden, the three for a first place selection, two Winchester rifle from fire with a bat in his hand. Washington’s 21-year-old Vernon, a green Boston. for second and one for third—they “I'm still not busher playing his second season in organized ball and, since the close of feeling exactly up were deadlocked at 37 points. to snuff" grinned Snead, who' had the campaign, stamped as not ready for the majors, batted .257. This is a Vander Meer, after shattering all been out of tournament competi- long way from being par but it beats Dahlgren's mark. The Babe's best pitching records in 1938 with two tion for more than a month. “I ’Was a puny .235 effort. no-hit want straight no-run, perform- to have my teeth checked over, ances as a rookie with the and I Yet the averages do not present a complete tale. Dahlgren, ostensibly Cincinnati might not be able to go to Reds and winding up with 15 fresh- the Coast for the not within 20 points of being the hitter that was Vernon last season, Western circuit. young I man victories, ran into a combina- may be able to join the caravan was by the same token a far more dangerous batsman. Playing less than tion of the sophomore jinx and an again when it comes back to Texas." twice as many games, Dahlgren, it seems safe to say, drove across approxi- assortment of ailments this year. Snead Rallies Gamely. mately three times as many runs as Vernon. He finished the season with only Several months ago Snead suf- inaeea, tne Datting averages lau to readily tell the story of why the five victories and nine setbacks and fered a pain in his back. After tossed an Yankees, for the fourth straight year, spread-eagled the American League only eight complete games. examination three teeth were extracted and he felt field. The Red Sox had the highest team average. Three clubs, including Wildcats Prove Tame. better. He said that he have the Nats, stole more bases. Joe Di Northwestern’s Bill might another Maggio won the batting championship well-publicized tOOth nr twn nnf on behalf of the Yanks with .381 but Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams of de Correvont and Company were ‘‘I hope to be in better form hailed as a sure-fire hit in Ten when Boston hit more home runs than he did. So did Hank Greenberg of the Big I get back into circles, with possi- competition,” he said. Tigers. championship Snead's burst of bilities. Yet. the Wildcats turned sub par golf, his In short, the Yankees were not exactly bums but neither did second in two years (he won they out to be the wild ones at the only Miami outclass the rest of the league on the offense. We mean, the reason open in 1937 with a they the dinner table, won only three of record 267) came when most of cleaned up is more deep-rooted than the first major American and were the early League eight games blanked in leaders •tatistical release shows. four. were folding up. McSpaden rallied Third on the list of disaDDOint- heroically with a 4 under par 31 on the ments came the Cincinnati Reds final nine holes for his 67 and 72-hole Case Finished as Most-Talked-of Nat and their sorry World Series show- 273, but the recovery came too lote. ing. Given an even chance of tak- Getting away from the Yankees now. Washington landed three One by one. the other ing at least one game from the pace setters hitters the .300 class. with a among Buddy Lewis, .319 average, ranked dropped from the running, and a mighty Yankees on the hurling 12th the Taft with .309. was comparative unknown. among league regulars. Wright, 22d, and strength of Paul and 28-vear-old Derringer Bud Williamson of Port George Washington Case, with .302, was No. 28. Of the trio by far the Bucky Walters, the National League Wavne, Ind., came up with his second 66 of most-talked-about player w’as Case. standard bearers lost four straight, the tournament for third place at 276. This marked Case's sophomore year in the big show and for the winding up in a 10-inning comedy Another youngster, Ben Hogan of second season in a row he of errors, for which the voting climbed above the .300 mark. Actually, George White Plains, N. Y„ finished with editors gave them nine first-place a Isn’t a .300 hitter. Not by the usual standards, anyway, and even Manager 68 and 277 for fourth a stroke nominations and 33 points. place, Bucky Harris has said as much. The extra hits he in front of National picks up through his Sam Snead’s collapse in the na- Open Champion unusual him above the Byron Nelson. speed pull rank-and-file. tional open and the record of the Worsham Gets in Monev. Case stole 51 bases to make a show of the rest of the highlv-touted Rice football team pilferers, McSpaden earned *1.250, William- M the of the in winning only one of 11 games graybeards writing game used to call them. He did this son, $1,000; and losing to such gridiron little Hogan, $750, and Nel- before spending the final month of the season on the bench due to a son, $600, 1 fellows as Sam Houston were voted sore arm. He was far and away the Nats’ best drawing card on the Ed Oliver of Homell, N. Gene a fourth-place tie at 18 points. This Y.; road, ranking above even the remarkable Dutch who won 20 ! Kunes of Philadelphia and E. J. Leonard, was just a half a point higher than Brawl-Weary Eagles of Oklahoma Colonial Quint (Dutch) of games behind which, at was Swing Harrison Little Rock, support times, unpardonable. the New York Baseball Giants’ nose- Ags,Oregon Wary Ark., tied for sixth place at 279, each There is a that Case never will dive into the National sec- suspicion break Ty Cobb’s record League's collecting $400.