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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1946)
Duck Nine Drills For Crucial U. W. Series By TOMMY WRIGHT CO-SPORTS EDITOR Back in 1941, the Emerald s co-sports editors liob t’laveue and Ken Christianson inaugurated tlie Babb Athletic award. The trophy contributed by the Babb Hardware company of Eugene, was given to the outstanding graduating athlete from the University of Oregon. Bobby Anet, the all-American captain of Oregon’s 1939 National Collegiate Athletic Association bas ketball champions, was the first to receive the award. Since then, the trophy has not been awarded. And to get the \\ ebfoot sports page hack on a pre-war basis, the sports staff plans pro motion for renewal of the award in 1946. When Bob and Ken set the ball rolling back in 1941, they referred a list of eligible athletes to the Duck fans, who voted for their favorites. Then taking those names nomi nated by the fans and allowing a selected committee com posed of leading Northwest sports writers and Univeristy officials to make the final selection. The Emerald sports staff proposes to use the same plan for this year’s selection. As soon as a list of eligible athletes are compiled, it will l.c announced on these sports pages. Students will be able to vote for their choice by placing tfie names in boxes to be located in Taylor’s, the College Side and the University Co-op. Those named by the fans will be referred to a committee composed ■of: Dr. Harrv K. Newhurn, president of the University, Dean Virgil D. Earle, Anse Cornell, Lair II. Gregory, sports editor of the Oregonian, Dick Strite, sports editor of the Eugene Regis ter-Guard, George Hertz, sports editor of the Portland journal, Art Litchman and Tommy Wright, co-sports editors of the Emerald. BALL DIAMOND OR FARMER’S FIELD Yesterdav the spring1 term intra-mural softball schedule for 1946 received its inauguration. From nearly everyone of the plavers who saw action Wednesday came the big complaint about the sorrv condition of the fields which have been set aside for softball. And take it from us the beefs are really legitimate. It seems that with over 300 Oregon students taking a very active part in Intramural softball this year the diamonds which don’t look quite so much like farmer Brown's newly 'plowed field could be provided. We wonder how long the different houses and organizations having teams in the league will be able to hold enough interest under present conditions to keep the game going. The caliber of the games at any rate is going to be very low if they continue the schedule on the present playing fields. A ground ball hit in the infield has at least a 50-50 chance of eluding the infielder no matter how good a player he is. Even if the ball doesn’t take a bad bounce off of one of the uncountable rocks and clods of dirt, the chances of the defensive player getting a fast start to get in front of it are slim. It is going to be a bad war for the pitchers. Even the best of them won't be able to keep the number of runs down, es pcciallv after a few infielders catch bad ones in the teeth and become a little ball shv. SUGGESTIONS NUMBER ONE AND TWO After doing all this beefing about the condition of the fields perhaps we should make our criticism a little bit constructive. ( >ur first suggestion is to move the games up a terrace onto the grass east of McArthur court and onto the hard top KOTC parade ground. In the latter case it would leave the leftfield ouite short, but still would be an improvement over the present diamonds where the right fielder in one game and the left fielder in the other are running over each other chasing flys. Suggestion Number two is to really go to work on the diamonds as they are now. A few loads of clay or at least some dirt without the millions of pebbles in it, would fix up the infields. There won’t be too many complaints about the outfields. The present set-up of limiting the play to one-hour games (,■■ seven innings whichever is shorter seems to meet with ev ery one's approval and will speed tip the play. However, it does give a team with a big lead in the early innings an opportunity to stall out the time it the umpires don't keep the tilts going. Sore Arms Put Four Regulars Out of Action Coach Hobby Hobson put his charges through a three-hour drill yesterday as the league-leading Oregon Ducks took a two-day rest before meeting the high-flying Washington Huskies here Friday and Saturday. Four regulars took the day off with sore arms and bruised hands. Jim Norvell, the third sacker, had his throwing wing in a pack and Spike Johnson is scheduled to see a Portland doctor Saturday about his flipper. Lefty Bill Long warmed up briefly after pulling a muscle in his salary wing in the first inning of the final Idaho game. Lyle Pet tyjohn, the big right hander who won the second Vandal contest, is still favoring a sore hand he picked up batting in the seventh inning of that game. He hit a ball up on the handle of the bat and it temp orarily crippled his throwing hand. Dick Wilkins turned out to day for the first time and worked on the hill against Barney Koch’s crew. He hit once and that was quite a blow for the first trip to the plate this season. He sent Koch’s first pitch over the bank in left on the first bounce. Ineli gibility has kept him out of a uniform to date. Getty John Jones also worked on the hill after Hobson moved him in from centerfield. Tommy Wil liams, a frosh third sacker, hit the ball well and fielded his position without a boot in the Yannigan game. Washington will come into Eu gene with a three and one record and rates as a real threat to Ore gon’s spot on top of the loop. Coach Tubby Graves of the Huskies will probably us,e Max Soriano, a winner against Ida ho, against the Ducks in one of the games here. He is the younger brother of Dewey, for merly with tlie Seattle club in the coast league. Washington has the advantage of opening its road trip against the locals and will be able to toss its best pitchers in both games. The Huskies have also had a two day rest after taking two from the hapless Washington State Cougars, who finished their road trip with out a win in six tries. I i: 1 ' JP STAR HITTER." His 3 for 4 didn’t win for Hollywood last night, but Tony Lupien lias plugged a hole' tor Hollywood at first base. Kirsch, Crish Top Sluggers^ Saltzman Leads UO Hurlers The following are the statistics for the first four Northern Division conference games. PLAYER G AB R H RBI Ave. PO A E Ave. Morrison, u. 1 Dyer, ui . 1 Kirsch, 2b-cf .... 4 Crish, cf. 4 Santee, ss-cf . 4 Johnson, lb. 4 Lozoski, cf . 3 Saltzman, p. 3 Bropst, p ....'.. 2 Norvell, 2b . 4 Cohen, 2b . 4 Rodiger, c . 4 Dibble, cf. 4 Smith, ss . 2 Pettyjohn, p . 1 Long, p-cf . 2 Lehl, p . 1 Jones, cf . 2 Greene, c . 1 10 10 1.000 10 10 1.000 12 3 7 4 .583 18 3 9 6 .500 19 6 8 5 .422 15 5 6 6 .400 8 2 3 1 .375 9 2 3 0 .333 3 110 .333 17 5 4 0 .235 11 4 2 2 .182 15 3 2 4 .133 11 2 0 1 .000 1 0 0 0 .000 4 1 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 5 3 1 .888 5 2 3 .700 9 8 4 .847 37 2 0 1.000 0 1 1 .500 0 4 0 1.000 0 2 0 1.000 4 11 7 .681 10 9 0 1.000 28 5 0 1.000 9 1 0 1.000 1 1 0 1.000^ 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 0 .000 0 1 1 .500 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 4 135 37 47 29 .324 108 51 16 .908 Doubles—Crish 2. Dyer, Santee, Lozoski. Homers—Crish. Rodiger. Stolen liases—Norvell, Dibble 2, Cohen, Santee. Rocliger 2, Johnson. Sacrifices—Norvell. Double plays—Rodiger-Johnson. Saltzman-Rodiger-John son. Dibble-Johnson, Smith-Cohen-Johnson. Pitching Records PITCHER G W L IP SO W ERA Ave. Saltzman . 2 2 0 18 16 4 3 1.000 Pettyjohn . 1 1 0 6 3 2 1 1.000 Re hi". 1 1 0 2 2 0 0 1.000' Bropst. 1 0 0 / 5 6 1 .000 Long .1. 1 0 0 1 0 3 0 .000 4 4 0 26 15 5 1.000 Coast League Pitching.On Par With Majors, Says S. F. Boss SAN FRANCISCO—(UP)—Pa cific Coast League pitching right now is nearly on a par with the major leagues, says President Charles Graham of the San Fran cisco Seals, and that is the reason for the lowest early-season bat ting averages in the history of the circuit. Pointing out the fact that there already had been two no-hit per formances in the league this year, Graham said: “It is because the pitchers are in better condition than the bat ters. They all have good control and can go the full distance. Tak ing our club for an example, we have six men with earned run averages of less than two runs per nine innings. The case of Herschel Martin and Pete Fox of the Oakland Acorns substantiates Graham's claims to a great extent. Fox, a consistent hitter in the American League for 13 years, is batting around the .210 mark. Mar tin, late of the New York Yankees, can do no better. Graham denies that the ball is the old “dead" sphere used during the de-emphasis days of the home run clouter. "This is the same ball we used last year and at this time of the season in 1945 we were having flocks of those 14-10 ball games,” the elder statesman of west coast baseball recalls. “This is just the reverse of the average year,” he explains. “Usual ly at this time we have a bunch of .350 and .400 hitters because the batters are far ahead of the moundsmen in condition.” The dearth of hitting has been one of the surprises of the current season. Using the double-headers of Sunday, April 21, as an example, here are some results: Larry Jansen pitched a four hitter to down Oakland 5-2, and Rugger Ardizoia tossed a one-hit ter for a 4-0 nightcap Oakland win; Pete Jonas pitched onc«Wfe ’ ■ ball as Seattle bested San Diego, 1-0; Ad Liska pitched a no-hitter as Portland edged Hollywood, 1-0. Of course these examples just bring up the old question: Is the pitching really that good —or are the hitters in a slump ? Frankie Hayes Snaps String ST. LOUIS, April 24—(UP) — Catcher Frankie Hayes, the iron man in the iron mask, failed to work for the Cleveland Indians to day, ending a string of 312 consecu tive games in which he set an American League record for back stops. Hayes was replaced by rookie catcher Sherman Lollar, a 21-year old star prospect up from Balti more. Manager Lou Boudreau stressed that he had no fault to find wifck Hayes’ work, but that it was not necessary for catchers to work every day now that there is no longer a manpower pinch.