Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 10, Number 48, DeMotte, Jasper County, 17 October 1940 — Sportlight [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Sportlight

by GRANTLAND RICE

'T'HERE is one thing to be said about the Yankees. As a team, win or lose, they have been the most consistent machine of all time. They came up and ruled the game for four years—as a team. When they crashed—they fell apart as a team. No one can look back on the campaign of 1940 and pick out any

Yankee goats. Not one goat or two goats or three goats. They rose and fell together. It was a general and widespread disintegration. Their pitching fell far off from old time form. Their hitting took a terrific slump. Their once almost miraculous defense developed leaks, fore and aft.

No one can throw the blame on Bill Dickey, Red Raffing, Lefty Gomez, Joe Gordon, Red Rolfe, Frank Crosetti or Joe DiMaggio. They all hit the soapy chute, head and head, arm in arm. Part of this was physical. Part of it was psychological. Part of it was the iron shod turn of nature. There is no such thing as perpetual motion—upward or downward. Life is so constructed that one learns more from defeat than from victory. This is an invaluable law of compensation. If it weren’t that way, what an upside-down existence this would be. The Yankees, on one side, were assailed by a physical downward drifting—Dickey, Ruffing, Gordon, Gomez and others—stars who had been factors in their phenomenal supremacy. They were attacked, on another side by too much success. They were rated 3 to 5 shots against the field as the 1940 season opened. They were kick-ins. This was bound to have a bad effect on the entire team. I mean psychologically. Explaining the Why I have been asked over and over how an entire team could hit the gravel road in a bunch. It wasn’t just a matter of three or four important cogs through the first three months —but Dickey, Ruffing, Gomez, Gordon, Rolfe, Cro'setti, Sundra—to mention only a few. In the first place, don't forget that the Yankee battery of Ruffing and Dickey was one of the greatest in baseball along with Mathewson and Bresnahan—Johnson and Streit— Brown and Kling—Grove and Cochrane—Waddell and Shreck—Alexander and KUlifer—on and on. DiMaggio remained the leading factor through the team’s last desperate charge before most of the cast fell apart. Bill Dickey has been a major factor for many years. He is a 12-year veteran back of the plate. Dickey is the only catcher in history who ever drove in more than 100 runs four years. Red Ruffing has been one of the most effective pitchers in the old clutch year after year. But Red finished with a bad arm after the last World Series and he has never been the old Red since. In fact, one of the smartest baseball experts, I happen to know, still believes that if the Reds had won that fourth game in Cincinnati—which they had bottled up—they might easily have won the series. How” Because Ruffing and Gomez and Pearson all had bad arms and were useless the remainder of the route. The Eire Spreads Here was the triple battery—Ruffing and Dickey—Gomez and Dickey—Pearson and Dickey—that largely through wear and tear—the drift of the years—lost a good part of its effectiveness. From here the fire began to spread to batting eyes. The Yankees demonstrated their old time thunder with the war club, here and there. But all you need do is look at the batting averages, compared to a year ago. Buddy Rosar and Henrich and Selkirk held their own—or better. Rosar has turned in a fine assisting job. But no team can have such men as Dickey, Ruffing, Gomez, Pearson, Gordon, Keller and Crosetti take such a dip and still keep winning. Not against such teams as Detroit and Cleveland, who had both the pitching and the hitting, and who were removed from the old Yankee shadow. Looking Them Over Dick Bartell helped to make the Tiger infield. Hank Greenberg again was a major factor at bat, plus high-class work in the field. Schoolboy Rowe came back with a rush —and Buck Newsom was one of the star pitchers of the year. Charlie Gehringer may be slipping after long and brilliant service, but be is still a great ball player. Cleveland in Bob Feller has one of the great pitchers of all time—•ae v o may finish as the greatest it a e army doesn’t “interfere.”

Grantland Rice