The Stretch

Detroit's Tiger-hold on the American League was slipping. The Senators, with their four knuckle-ball pitching wonders, were up close. The White Sox, with something not apparent to the naked eye, were a third-place threat. And now Cleveland's amazing Indians jumped from seventh to fourth (winning 19 out of their last 28 games). The season had five weeks to go, and it looked like another dogfight to the finish.

So close a race could easily be jiggled, and last week American League managers saw, with a mixture of hope and horror, exactly what might do it: star players fresh out of G.I. uniforms. Washington had already been blessed with the return of Outfielder Buddy Lewis; Lewis was hitting a fancy .356. Charlie ("King Kong") Keller had come back, too, but too late to save the staggering Yankees. Cleveland's warpath Indians, who had just reclaimed (from a Texas shipyard) a potent hitter in Les Fleming, this week were due to get the cream of the crop-- Fireball Bob Feller.

Sense & Nonsense. It would take more than a handful of G.I.s to change the National League race. On their farewell swing through the East last week, Charlie Grimm's rampaging Chicago Cubs added to their impressive lead. They were now comfortably ahead of the only team that could make trouble for them--the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.

What made Grimm's Cubs run was not a roster-load of stars, but a compact team of workers, and a manager who knew how to get them to play together. Ham-fisted Manager Charlie ("The Banjo") Grimm looks like a man having fun. Standing in his third-base coaching box, he cups his big paws and joyously bellows out the count after each pitch. He wiggles and waddles back & forth, lets out an occasional piercing whistle, mimics rival pitchers.

He has a bag of gags that fans like. Two samples: he doffs his cap and, with a great show of respect, uses it to dust off third base to welcome any Cub who hits a home run; if a pitcher hits a homer, he topples over backwards in a mock dead faint. The more Grimm mugs, the better his Cubs seem to play.

"Jolly Cholly" Grimm learned the hard way to take it easy. During the '305, he won two Cubs' pennants in three years, then was banished to the minors when his '38 team began cracking in midseason. Rescued from Milwaukee last year, he had become philosophical enough to treat his adult hired-help like adults. He served beer in the dressing room after each game, and concentrated on getting team spirit. How well the spirit moves the Cubs is apparent in their record: they have won 42 of their last 54 games.

Stars & Averages. When Bill ("Swish") Nicholson, last year's home run and R.B.I. champion, began swishing air almost exclusively this year, Jolly Cholly left him strictly alone. Nicholson still has plenty of threat value, and four other Cubs--Hack, Johnson, Cavarretta, Pafko--have better than .300 averages. (Cavarretta's .363 mates him the present runner-up to Boston's Tommy Holmes for batting honors.)

Grimm's Cubs have pitching to match their hitting. Claude Passeau (won 14, lost 4) and Hank Wyse (18-8) are the two league-leading hurlers. Behind them is ex-Yankee Hank Borowy, whom the pennant-hungry Cub's management wangled out of the American League (TIME, Aug. 6) for a round $100,000 worth of players and/or cash.

This week at Wrigley Field, Grimm & Co. face the first of a dozen tough games with the second-place Cardinals. If the Cubs come through, there is little chance of their being stopped short of the World Series.

Says Grimm: "Holy Cats--I love it."

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