The Waco Times-Herald du lieu suivant : Waco, Texas • 55

Records Show What a Hit! Your irst AUTO BANK Entrance 420 Washington IBST Waco Page 23 Thursday April 17 1952 Reasons Why Kiner Chet owler's Career In Baseball Has Been Varied ew men in baseball can claim a more varied career than Chet owler new general manager and field manager of Vernon in the Longhorn League As a player owler spent three years in the majors with Cincinnati and the Boston Red Sox He later 12 years in the Texas League and four in the International League Last year he became a club owner acquiring the Shawnee franchise in the Sooner State League This year marks his first crack at a managerial job 8 Government Depod tory Clubs in Closet CLEVLEIaAND (NEA) Slug ging Al Rosen established himself as a big leaguer in 1950 by becom ing the first rookie to win the American league home run crown in 35 years During the winter months he took golf lessons and when he re ported to the Indians for spring training he did just about every thing but stick a tee into home plate He had become a hopeless upper cutter trying to swing a bat like a golf club Rosen took his troubles to Sam my Snead "Do you think so much golf could hurt my batting?" Rosen asked "All I can say" replied Snead "did you ever see me swinging a baseball bat?" Rosen taken his golf clubs out of the closet since to 60 Ever since Kiner showed that he was capable of hitting the ball over the fence the idea of shattering mark has weigh ed heavily upon him This help a record 6 With heavy hitting east around him Ruth reached the plate more often The at bats for the two men are misleading in this case Ruth aver aged 481 official at bats per sea son and average is 542 but with Row explod ing all around him the Bambino was coming up more often as indicated by his 1847 passes in 15 seasons which add up to a vast number of turns at the plate Kiner has walked 660 times 7 Ruth was the better hitter With his late start the result of three years of military service Kiner never hopes to approach grand total of 714 homers Aside from that Ralph never will reach Babe's lofty batting averages The Bambino was just an all around great hitter His lifetime average was 342 and his highest mark was 393 Kiner has been over 300 in only three of his six campaigns and his best figure was J13 in 1947 just no Ruth! 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Bank with ormer Tyler Hurler Gets Great Start in Coast Loop Bill Reeder who opened the Pacific Coast League season by blanking Portland 2 0 on one hit for San rancisco won only fourand lost 10 for the last place Tyler East Texans in the Big State lea gue last year A native of Dike Reeder was purchased by Tyler from Lynchburg of the St Louis Cardinal shain last July The big righthander who now lives at Sul phur Springs pitched for the Card nals in 1949 Despite unimpressive record many Big State League umpires rated him the top pitcher of the Class circuit NATIONAL 8 BANK new manager of the Temple team of the Big State League John Trowbridge of the Temple Tele gram tells of career as follows: rancis was born in East St Louis HL but moved to Gran ite City Ill early in his youth At Granite City he played four rears of high school baseball and mmediately upon graduation joined the Moline Hl team of the Class Mississippi Valley League which was managed by his uncle Riley Parker The year was 1930 Salty plaved at Moline until midseason 1932 when he was sold to Beaumont of the Texas League In the fall of 1933 the speedy young shortstop was sold to the Detroit Tigers but was optioned back to Beaumont for the 1934 season In 1935 Parker went to spring training with the Tigers but when the season opened he was on the Toledo roster of the American As sociation Again under option On July 22 1936 the Tigers brought Salty up The big leaguest last New Car irst Day Parker recalled the date from his memory like it had been yes terday Why? "The first day I was in Detroit I was given a new car" responded the smiling Parker By this time the old cigar had been discarded and a new one was in its place unlit of course Detroit Chevrolet dealers gave a banquet on July 22 1936 and invited all the Tigers to at tend Only six players showed up and those six were presented with new cars It might be well to mention that at that time the Tigers were the darlings of the baseball world They were owners of two straight American League pennants and of the championship having vanquished the Chicago Cubs in the series of 1935 "Most of the players who attend the banquet were really put out when they heard about the new cars that were handed Salty said reminiscingly "Only two of the players Tommy Bridges and Charley Gehringer seem to resent it" Recipients of the shiny autos besides Parker were Schoolboy Rowe Goose Goslin Gerry Walk er Jack Burns and Marvin Owens What a memory this man Parker possesses Bade to Minors The season of 1936 was a suc cess in another way for the 25 year old infielder In the fall he married his grade school sweet heart Thelma Millard from East St Louis Tragedy struck In the season of 1937 Parker was sold to Indianap olis in the Dizzy Trout deal and in mid season he broke his shoulder The shoulder injury hampered him to the extent that in 1938 he was sold to Tulsa back in the Texas League and then to Shreve rort for the magnificent sum of 100 "That was a blow at the time said Parker "But as it turned out it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me" At Salty who by this time was a veteran of 26 be gan' his managerial career "Bob Tarleton who at that time was head of the White Sox farm system and Walter Morris busi ness manager at Shreveport were responsible for starting me on the managerial path" Parker related needed someone to manage Lubbock and I was given the job" In 1939 Salty managed the Lub bock team In 1940 he was drafted by Marshall for he still was a pretty fair hand at shortstop and was given the managerial reins Cobb Greatest Record books settle the argn ment in favor of Ty Cobb as greatest of all baseball players There has always been much con troversy as to whether the Georgia Peach equalled the late Ruth Cobb played 24 years and Ruth played 22 Cobbplayed in 3033 games and Ruth played in 2502 games Cobb went to bat 11429 times and Ruth 8389 Cobb scored 2244 runs and Ruth 2174 Cobb got 4191 hits and Ruth 2873 Cobb hit 297 triples and Ruth 136 Cobb hit 118 homers and Ruth hit 714 Cobb had 5863 total bases and Ruth had 5893 Cobb stole 892 bases and Ruth 123 Cobb had a life time batting average of 367 and Ruth 342 Cobb holds 23 American League records Ruth holds 12 Top Bambino "Baseball Stars" a magazine now on the newsstands gives seven big reasons why Ralph Kiner of Pittsburgh a great home run hit ter will never break the late Babe record Here are: 1 The opposition switches more readily to a right handed pitcher with Kiner at bat When Ralph hit 51 homers in 1947 and increased his production to 54 two years later Pittsburgh fans visualized the day when Babe record of 60 would be broken With the passage of the seasons chances appear to grow dimmer for a number of reasons irst as a right handed hitter Kiner must face more good pitchers than the left handed hit ting Ruth did since the right hand ed hurlers in the major leagues outnumber the southpaws about two to one Hence if a lefty is working the opposing manager usually can find it convenient to switch to a right hander if Kiner is batting at a crucial moment The scarcer southpaws al ways available in the bull pen when Ruth batted 2 The best pitchers usually were on team During his home run years with the Yankees the Babe had on his side pitchrs like Herb Pennock Waite Hoyt Sam Jones Red Ruffing George Pipgras Bob Shawkey Carl and Joe Bush Pennock Hoyt and Jones each won more than 200 games in the big leagues That means Babe have to hit against them and they were the best in the American League The nearest thing to a consistent winner the Pirates have had during six years was Murry Dickson with 20 victories last season The good pitching therefore is constantly against Kiner 3 Power hitters who followed Ruth made the opposition more reluctant to walk him Although the Bambino set a major league record for walks with 170 in 1923 his tremendous number of bases on balls was due in part to caution rather than intention The pitchers tried to keep the ball away from the plate and eventual ly walked him Ruth batting fourth in his 15 years with the Yankees had batting directly be hind him Wallie Pipp then Bob Meusel and over the longest stretch Lou Gehrig All were dan gerous 300 hitters with Gehrig the most deadly of all Lou's life time average was 340 and he av eraged 35 homers per season Kiner has been fourth place hitter except in his rookie year when he batted fifth ollowing him in 1917 was an aging Hank Greenberg who hit 273 and col lected 25 homers Wally Westlake was behind Ralph during the suc ceeding three years with averages in the 280s and 24 homers at the most Last year Gus Bell and Bill Howerton alternated both under280 4 Babe have to play night games Whereas Ruth had no lights to bother him Kiner plays about one third of his baseball at night Last year he hit 29 homers in 98 dny games and 13 in 53 night games Apparently he hit a few more judging by those figures but there's an intangible factor All batters agree that the frequent changes from day to night reduce their general effectiveness 5 Ruth have psy chological burden Throughout his career the Babe had only his own record to break and he either did or he He hit 29 when that was the record increased it to 54 to 59 and finally Salty Parker Given New Auto as Detroit Greeting rancis (Salty) Parker is thef grabbed the veteran 31 year old in vecemDer In Nov 1944 the Army gave Salty a medical discharge and he was placed on the Montreal list of the International League Rickey Scorns Him ability as a manager and as a player was evidently look ed upon with scorn by the Ma hatma of Montague Street or Rickey denied Parker the chance to manage the club then after Parker had hit 302 in 1945 and had been declared the all star second baseman he was sold back to Shreveport for $75 Managing the Sports in 1946 Parker Drought the club in sev enth It marked the first year of independent operation for the Shreveport team Salty brought the team in fifth in 1947 fourth in both 1948 and 1949 and then came the beginning of the end of Shreveport sojourn The club still feeling the pinch of being an independent organiza tion landed seventh in 1950 and eighth in 1951 "The organization and the fans stand two bad years in a Parker reflected "We drawing well (an under statement) and as long as the fans come out to the park some change was Salty was waiting for another Texas League job to open up when Temple Eagle officials put the bee on him at last base ball meeting in Columbus Ohio IS) A If fill there for the season Pennants Both Yean His record? He won pennants in both 1939 and 1940 "I led the league in hitting at Marshall chimed Parker only time in my The two pennant winning years eaught the eyes of the Shreveport moguls and in 1941 Salty was brought in to take charge of the Sport playing fortunes Shreveport under Salty's guid ance finished third in 1941 In 1942 Shreveport finished second won the playoffs and landed in the Dixie Series to furnish Parker with his foremost baseball thrill By this time 260 Parker as he was known in playing circles had moved to third base not because he was slowing up but because the Sports always had a cracker jack shortstop on hand The fortunes of war caught Parker in 1943 as the Texas UM to iL WACO League disbanded He signed with St Paul of the American Associa tion as manager and staggered home with a sixth place war time club While at St Paul Salty be came associated with the dealings of the bushy browed ex mogul of the Brooklyn Dodgers Branch Rickey Parker was supposed to have managed the Saints with consent la 1944 but the Army WACO CHEVROLET CO 217 North 5th St Diol 4 2391 II A NK.