Pirates & Peanuts

Bags of peanuts in hand, Bing Crosby and three little Crosbys clumped into the dressing room of the spring-training Pittsburgh Pirates. Said Part-Owner (25%) Crosby to Pitcher Kirby Higbe, as he popped a peanut into his mouth: "How's things, Kirby?" With a shudder, a Pirate locker man grabbed Bing just in time to arrest the flight of a second peanut. Bad luck, explained the locker man--eating peanuts in a dressing room.

The Pirates are authorities on bad luck. Last year the club finished in the cellar. The trouble was more than peanut-eating: there had been too much all-night poker and drinking. Since then Manager Billy Herman had resigned, and several troublemakers were traded. Now the club is under the firm hand of Billy Meyer, who had managed the crack Yankee farm team in Kansas City, where he trained most of the top present-day Yankees.

This season, though no one thinks they are championship material, the Pirates are looking better. Part-Owner Crosby seemed pleased with them, and the feeling was mutual. In pre-game practice at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field, the Pirates obligingly rifled 80% of their hits squarely at Bing. Crosby, a fair country ballplayer, stopped the ones that wouldn't knock out his front teeth, clowned on the rest of them. He hit fungoes, played around with a catcher's mitt (see cut). Then Bing watched morosely while his peanut-jinxed Pirates lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-3. A week later the Pirates took on the Cleveland Indians, and 4,200 Californians could see how Cleveland's Bob Feller earns his $87,000 a year. In the five innings Feller pitched, he struck out six Pirates, allowed no hits.

The Pirates' real treasure is 25-year-old Left Fielder Ralph Kiner, and so far this year he has not sparkled. Two years ago, trying to win a place in the big league, Rookie Kiner had clouted 14 homers in spring training, but had fallen apart in mid-season (though his 23 home runs led the league). Last year Kiner took it easy in spring training, hit an infinitesimal .090. Then he banged 51 homers, to tie with the Giants' Johnny Mize for the home-run crown.

This spring training, coasting along, Kiner is experimenting with a "standing swing": planting his feet a yard apart at the plate, and belting the ball without stepping into it. This unnatural stance (also used by Joe DiMaggio) takes maximum wrist-snap and timing. Kiner still hasn't got it down right. Against Feller, he struck out once, flied out once. But he expects to top his 51-homer mark this season, earn his 200% raise (to about $30,000).

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