Sport: Managers' Season

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Before a battery of cameras in the office of Owner Horace Stoneham of the New York Giants one day last fortnight, Manager William Harold Terry tore up his fat contract which still had a year to run, signed a new one for five years upping his salary to a reported $40,000 a year, highest current in the major leagues. One day last week Manager Charles Dressen of the Cincinnati Reds quietly walked into the office of Owner Powel Crosley Jr., quietly walked out again without any contract at all. It was no coincidence that the Giants had just slipped into first place in the National League and the Reds had just slumped into last place. With both major leagues entering the home stretch of their pennant races and fans already looking forward to the World Series a fortnight off, owners, players, and above all, managers, were looking backward with mingled satisfaction and rue as their six-month season drew to a close.

National League. After a season of chasing Charley Grimm's Chicago Cubs, who had managed to keep in first place from mid-June until the first of September, the Giants were last week trying to maintain a 27-game lead over the Cubs, with 17 games to play. Frank Frisch's St. Louis Cardinals, generally rated to finish first in pre-season prognostications, had managed to stay in the first division, not so much by the pitching of famed Dizzy Dean as by the performance of the season's outstanding batter, Outfielder Joe Medwick. whose average of .375 last week was leading the league. Easygoing Harold ("Pie") Traynor's Pittsburgh Pirates, after a runaway lead during the month of May, seemed likely to finish fourth.

Surprise team of the National League was Bill McKechnie's Boston Bees, who had decisively beaten both the Giants and the Cubs the past month and were still knocking at the door of the first division last week, despite the team's dependence on material recruited from the minor leagues. For their showing Boston credited Manager McKechnie's shrewd choice of two "old rookies," Pitchers Jim Turner and Lou Fette, who proceeded to win 18 and 17 games respectively this season, simply providing a fresh demonstration of the axiom that 30 is the best age for a pitcher. Competing with Charley Dressen's Reds for the tail end position were Jim Wilson's Philadelphia Phillies, with Burleigh Grimes's Brooklyn Dodgers just escaping the ignominy of the cellar.