t Ve,

‘September key

to record bid

By LESTER RODNEY

Tt
Babe R
antle
ever,
Vear of

Greenberg, who came
= With 58, had as many
Number 8S Mantle for the
“date, Y of games played to

Closes
ho: :

It igs :

Sottped possible to down or
that ee the growing notion
Young Ny New York Yankees
at the = 7 has a real chance
the Bae left. behind, by

M .
Ba Reus league teams play 154
Show, “th little long division
Presente ¢ 9 home runs re-
fameg S One for every 2%
to put it in more
, t-wo for

& lot
The 8 of

hit yy gees keen -fans know,
fembe, the month of Sep-
ign, ’, thd this is a chilling
hilinges = i wait for the

thonth . eptember is the
“On atte Weariness and ten-
Mer oF 4 he long hot sum-
{hough me after time at bat

8USt ang yo? June, July, Au-

nd salt of April. Nobody
p ™ September be-
Ce the Babe.

ther
Ung ¢ re been three stir-
Mark ove, weet to the Babe's
. fine jist the years, The first
or three years - after
That 0 Was set.
‘OMe gf, eu 1930, produced
Bame's loudest hitting in
Sa live ty and it was
in UY ball had been
Urerg auge the manu-
»  ~eague hea
Babe yo aS usual, re
rman of Brooklyn
average. to 393

Second j :
ein n batting

- & fierce] ;
W: yY unin-
® knocked in 199
T, @ mark that

ad nA end of
Bay 8S runns 6 homers

abe’g anning ahead of the
qd. Fourteen in
Ww; »b ave give

*8 Io a all he could eat
mal total of 56,
8gue record.
», Sho 0 er, in 1939,

ered 4) POX%, the thick.
> hiladey Tst baseman of

Dhig At .
ty his e Calleq ene, af-

tte, bY pit,

Rings to eee seemed
he Ruth

of August

Ing 55.

ree in Sep-

NEW YORK

here have been many other early challengers. to
uth’s home run record of 60, but by now Mickey
is off by himself as the most serious challenger
Neither Ruth himself, either in his record breaking
1927 or in any other year, new Jiramy Foxx and

tember and fell two short.
Twice he rapped home runs in
early innings only to have the
game washed out of the record
books by rain.

Hank Greenberg, who grew
up within a mile of Yankee
Stadium, where. Ruth did it,
gave it a big try in 1938..The
tall’ first. baseman and out-
fielder had 31 at the end .of
July to put: him 16° ahead of
the Babe’s mark for that. date.

He kept up his good pace
through early September.
Coming from an orthodox re-
ligious Jewish family, he had
previously taken off the high
holiday of Yom Kipper. Not
this year. He played, with the
family cheering him on, and
hit one.

With a week to go. Hank had
58 and excitment was high. In
the last week he hit the top of
the left ficld. wall a couple of
times, had his share of singles
and doubles, but couldn’t put
another one out of the park
and wound up tied with Foxx
with the top runner-up total.

Oddly eough, and it- Is just
an oddity, since there “is no
sound baseball reason for it,
the foremost challengers have
been righthanded «hitters —
Foxx, Greenberg, Wi lson,
Ralph Kiner (54), Willie Mays
(51 last year).

Among the hot early start-
ers of recent years who led
the Ruth mark for a while
but couldn’t keep it up, Roy
Campanella and Gil Hodges of
the Dodgers bat right, Stan
Musial and Ed Mathews left.

Mantle bats both right. and
left, shifting according to the
pitcher to suffer the minimum
disadvantage in field of vis-
ion and curves breaking away
from him. Given his other
attributes, this definitely does
not hurt.

Mickey and the Babe are
about as unlike as any two
baseball players you might
select. Mickey is a normal
looking 5-11 with strong,
graceful build, shy and non-
talkative. The Babe reared
out of a Baltimore orphanage
a thoroughly out-going, out-
rageously unathletic figure
with big round middle, pipe-
stem legs on tiny feet and a
mincing, inturned gait.

I have heard one ballplayer
explain Mickey’s prowess by
calling it “timing,” another
speaks of his “strength,” an-

" other

MICKEY MANTLE

BABE RUTH

of the high velocity
swing which neither “upper-
cuts” nor “chops wood” (hit-
ting upward or downward),
and still another points to
the rippling follow - through
where you see how he has
marshalled all the power ‘of
his back, legs, shoulders and
arms into the impact.

He is all of this, plus newly
mature and a better judge of
pitching, and barring the pos-
sibility of injury to which he
has been prone in past years
there seems no sound reason
why he can’t top the Babe’s
mark. The fact that nobody
has ever done it isn’t much of
an argument. The breed is
stronger, the fences closer, the

ivelier. ;
“ar Shi doesn’t do it this
year, he still has plenty of
time. He is 24, and Ruth was
32 when he set the record.

The Babe’s greatness as a
hitter didn’t lie in a one year
total. It was year after year
blasting. Much less in focus
in the foreseeable future is a
challenge to his lifetime total
of 714 home runs. To give you
an idea, the top total held by
an active player 1s Ted Wil-
liams’ 394, and this 1s prob-
ably Ted’s last year.

Crowe

a hero

via Gustafson

By BERT WHYTE
When B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders trotted out
on the turf at Empire Stadium last Saturday night, Leos’
coach Clem Crowe had his fingers crossed knowing that
he would be labelled either a hero or a bum within the next
hour. His fate rested in the hands of quarterback Jerry

Gustafson, untried import tak-
ing the place of Arnie Galiffa,
dropped by Crowe. To make
the situation even more tense
Galiffa had led Toronto Argos
to an unexpected win over
Montreal Alouettes that after-

. hoon.

Gustafson came through bril-
liantly, led the revamped
Lions to a 45-15 win over the
Stamps, and. Crowe relaxed
visibly, grinned widely and
told reporters, “I’m av genius.”

Galiffa was fired because
he couldn’t run _ although
everyone admitted he was a
fine passer. Gustafson dem-
onstrated -he could pass and
run. The statistics show that
Lions made 260 yards rush-
ing, to 138 for the Stamps. In
the air Lions gains 144 yards
to 145 for Calgary. Jerry tried
19 passes, campleted 9.

In a recent column -I wrote
that all Lions needed to make
the playoffs was a good quar-
terback. Gustafson seems to
fit the bill.

From the opening kickoff,
Gustafson didn’t look like a
man under the gun. He was
as relaxed as an old pro, al-
though it was his first game
of Canadian football and his
debut in professional ranks.
The second time Lions had
the ball he led them 50 yards
to a touchdown in 11 plays.

In three previous losing ef-
forts Lions rang up 11 miser-
able points, Under Gustafson’s

direction they scored 45 and
made it look easy.

Gustafson is just out of
Stanford, where he was a good
but not outstanding player.
The NFL’s San Francisco
49ers had him down in 27th
place on their draft list. Jerry

looked like-a man without a
future.

Crowe picked him up on the
Sayso of his backfield coach,
Vic Lindskog, who had seen
Gustafson in action and liked
what he saw. It was a big
gamble for Clem, for he had
to bounce popular Arnie Gal-
iffa and plenty of fans were
sore about that decision. If
Jerry * hadn’t come through,
the “Bring Back’ Arnie” club
would have. lifted the stadium
roof,

Gustafson showed a bit of
everything. He mixed up his
plays nicely, took to the air
when the Stamps concentrat-
ed on the line, advanced along
the ground when the opposi-
tion expected a pass play.
And he led Lions to the big-
gest win in their three-year
history.

% * *

In Toronto, Arnie Galiffa
took to eastern-style football
like a duck to water, connect-
ed on 20: of 33 passes for 271
yards and led Argonauts to
a 51-28 victory over Sam Etch-
everry and Montreal Alouettes,

Send n:

Make Your Dimes and Dollars Count to

. STOP THE SELLOUT OF
B.C. RESOURCES

ond

HELP ELECT A PROGRESSIVE
MAJORITY

Donations -To:
LABOR-PROGRESSSIVE PARTY
503 Ford Bldg., Vancouver, B.C.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 15