Gert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

HE shaggier the dog stories,

the better readers of this
column seem to like them.
Okay, then, here’s a favorite
of Clarence M. Olson, manager
of Swift’s Pard dog food de-
partment in Chicago:

A man and a dog came into
a bar where the man ordered
two martinis. When they came
he handed one to the dog who
promptly drank the cocktail,
ate the glass until only the base
and the stem remained, walked
to the door and left.

The bartender viewed this
with amazement and an-
nounced that it was the craz-
lest thing he had ever seen.

“Yeah,” the man said, “he’s
a dumb dog. The stem is the
best part.”

50d Bes Os

And then, of course, there
was the dog who was complain-
ing to another dog that he felt
poorly. Nothing physical .. .
just bored, always tired, never
really in top form.

“Why don’t you see a psy-
chiatrist?” the friend suggested.

“How can I see a psychia-
trist? You know I'm not allow-
ed on couches.”

xt Ces x

Sportsmen have done a great
deal to break down the barriers
between East and West, but
some still remain. The East
European countries could make
a real contribution to interna-
tional friendship by entering
the European cross-country
championships. At present the
socialist countries remain out-
side the International Cross-
Country Union, for no discern-
able reason.

It isn’t that they have no
good cross-country runners. On
the contrary, each year chaps
like Kuts, Zatopek and Chro-

Pi

*

Youth from all countries will take part in an inter-~
national sports program this coming August in Mos-

mik take part in long distance
races sponsored by the French
Communist paper, l’Humanite
just a week before the Inter-
national Union’s championship
event.

Wouldn’t it be sensible to
combine the two — or rather,
let the newspaper stage its
races at some later or earlier
date, thus allowing Soviet,
Czech, Polish and Hungarian
distance runners to compete in
the ICCU race?

a bes Bes

A note for philatelists. The
Soviet Union now leads the
world with 84 different issues
of sports stamps. They feature

football, gymnastics, hockey,
gliding, parachuting, etc.
One for the book. The

USSR’s Nina Dumbadze, holder
of the women’s discus world
record, appears on a Czecho-
slovak issue, but not on any
Soviet stamp as yet.

bes 5° it

Curling is a booming sport
in B.C. and the decision to hold
Macdonald’s Brier in Victoria
during this province’s centen-
nial year will give the game an-
other shot in the arm.

Brier teams expect to find
ice and snow wherever they go
at the time of the curling clas-
sic. Victoria will surprise them.

bes 5 e 3 5°

Let’s close with some college
humor. A tobbacco farmer was
explaining why he refused to
allow his daughter to enroll at
the university:

“J started getting mad when
they told her to go to the
registrar’s office to matriculate,
but by cracky, I shore put my
foot down when they said she
had to use the same; curriculm
as the men!”

cow, as part of the World Youti Festival celebrations.
Photo shows Canadians participating! in an earlier festival.

mookie nuriers at Yankees’ camp wat

Eadie Lopat in action. |

No fluke kings after 154 games,
Yankees, Dodgers will prove it

By JIMMY MORAN

They say that there is no truer test of form than the 154-game schedule in the
big leagues. That's a truism confirmed by history.

There are no fluky pennant winners. Occasionally there is

a surprise, but

that is different than a fluke. When there is a surprise winner it means that the true
form of the champion was not apparent to the outside observer. But the real class was

there all the time.

Take the forthcoming sea-.

son, for example. In the Na-
tional League three clubs have
the ability to win the pennant.
These are Brooklyn, Milwau-
kee and Cincinnati.

On the other hand, any. win-
ner other than the Yankees
in the Amercan League would
be a fluke. The possible ex-
ception would be the Indians.
Their triumph, while perhaps
not a fluke, would certainly
rate as a surprise.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

1. NEW YORK — The true
strength of the Yankees is
down the middle — Berra, Mc-
Dougald and Mantle — and at
the top — Casey Stengel, Dit-
mar will help ,but the Yankees
still need pitching. But then,
what team doesn’t?

2. CLEVELAND — Regard-
less of any other deficiencies,
the Indians must be regarded
as the top pursuer simply be-
cause of their pitchers.

3. DETROIT — The Tigers
will move up two places over
their 1956 finish. Lack of pitch-
ing depth of infield problems
rue them out as a true pennant
threat.

4. BOSTON — The Red Sox
infield is terrible. Sullivan and
White both fell off badly last
year. This team with Williams
and Piersall, at times will look
great, but by season’s end will
again have broken a lot of
hearts in New England.

5. CHICAGO — The Chisox
are on the road down. Lopez
will get the most ‘of what's
there, but what’s there is re-
stricted in quantity, even of
men like Pierce, Doby, Minoso
and Fox remains high.

6. BALTIMORE — Richards

alone is worth one place in the
standings. We'll give him an-
other because the Orioles have
more farm prospects to choose

MICKEY MANTLE

from than other tailenders.

7. KANSAS CITY—This club
can score runs, particularly at
home. But it lacks pitching,
infield finesse and, outside of
Simpson, has no hitters among
its outfielders.

8. WASHINGTON — When
Chuck Stobbs is your top pitch-
er it can be assumed that you
have pitching troubles. Dres-
sen has other problems, too,
but there’s no point in be-
laboring the obvious.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

1. BROOKLYN — This is the
outstanding team in modern
National League history. You
can’t pick against them, regard-
less of how highly you rate
the top challengers, simply be-
cause they, like the Yankees,
keep rebuilding even while
winning. This year, for ex-
ample, the Dodgers have more
good-looking rookies than any
other team. The burden of
proof rests with the challeng-
ers.

2. CINCINNATI — Tebbets
has the greatest wrecking crew
since Murderer’s ‘Row. If the
Dodgers falter, the Redlegs will

win. When estimating the
pitching bear “in mind that
McMillan, Temple and Bell
down the middle are worth at
least five extra wins for each
pitcher. é

3. MILWAUKEE — This 1S
an over-rated ball club. The
Braves had a chance to sneak
in last year but goofed. The
greatest weakness is the in-
ability of even the brightest
stars to come through in vital
ball games. Perhaps the fact -
that County Stadium is always
sold out makes each game
seem like a World Series gamé:
A ball club can’t keep up that
kind of momentum all season.

4, ST, LOUIS — The Cards
will be plenty tough. Musial
and Dark alone assure that.
Sam Jones will help, and
Mizell should be even better:
Past disappointments should
not tempt you to sell this team
short. They could move up.

5. NEW YORK — The first
impulse was to tab the Giants
for the best lefthander in the
league and Mays is in a class
by himself,

6. CHICAGO — Pitching
alone should help the Cubs
move up a couple of notches
from the basement. Drabowsky
and, Kaiser seem to have the
stuff. But, oh that outfield!

7, PITTSBURGH — The Pir-
ates are a good example of how
hard it is to catch up. They
get better each year, bu the
other clubs aren’t idle, either:

8. PHILADELPHIA — No
other club in either league has
the infield problems that
plague Mayo Smith. Even his
fairly good pitching suffers be-
cause of the leaky infield. Be-
sides, the club has absolutely
no power .There are too many
big outs in the lineup.

e' Reprinted from Labor's

Daily.

APRIL 12, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 14°