Sloughing Odds

No one was surprised, but Yankee rooters were unhappy. Their team last week:1) topped the Detroit Tigers 2-to-1 in 14 innings to win the American League pennant, their seventh since 1935; 2) convinced even die-hards that they will have to pick up speed by next week to take the World Series from the National League's young, speed-merchant St. Louis Cardinals.

The Yanks were tense and tired. Their hitting, never brilliant, was seriously off. The American League race had been a misnomer from August on, but this team had taken longer to nail down the pennant than any Yankee club since 1922. The only really bright spot was the pitching.

There the Yanks had what some sportswriters called the pitcher-of-the-year, a tall, broad-shouldered right-hander named Spud Chandler, who retired 14 men in a row against Detroit. First American Leaguer to win 20 games this year, he had an earned-run average of 1.69, the league's lowest since Walter Johnson.

But every moundsman has his jinx.

Chandler had pitched two good World Series games and lost them both. His Cardinal opposite, burly Mort Cooper, a 21-game winner this year, knows the power of such jinxes. Despite two years of brilliant National League hurling, Mort Cooper has yet to beat an American League team.

Less affected by baseball's innumerable hoodoos are the other names that should shine in baseball's biggest event: the Yankees' aging (36) Bill Dickey, a Gibraltar of a catcher for 16 years, who hits .348 in those games he feels spry enough to play; the Cardinals', shy Stan Musial, a sprinting outfielder who leads the National League in hitting (.358); Yankee third-baseman Bill Johnson, whom Connie Mack calls the year's best rookie.

Until last week the Yanks were10-to-6 betting favorites, despite the Cardinals' better record. The Cardinals won their pennant seven days earlier, their batting average tops the Yankees' by 23 points, their pitching staff has plenty of lefthanders, who are poison to Yankee batsmen. But winning World Series* is a Yankee tradition, they have better pitching reserves, and the first three games are in New York, a distinct psychological advantage. Last week, as the Yanks wearily ground out the pennant-cinching run, the odds sloughed downwards. By the time Spud Chandler hurls the opening ball, the betting should be even.

* Except from the Cardinals, who have beaten New York in two out of three.

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