Sport: To Win Games

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The woods are full of onetime baseball managers who have had their professional heads chopped off for finishing worse than first. Yet, for every head that falls, there are always plenty of new candidates willing to stick their own necks out. Last week two of them did so with every sign of willingness. A third, fresh from a grisly experience of his own, kept his collar buttoned tight.

The Brooklyn Dodgers, who came within two games of winning the National League pennant last season, dismissed Manager Burt Shotton, longtime friend of the departed Branch Rickey. Brooklyn's new manager: pepperpot Charley Dressen, 52, onetime Brooklyn coach in the razzle-dazzle era of Larry MacPhail and Leo Durocher, manager last season of the Oakland Oaks, Pacific Coast League champions. Dressen, who got a one-year contract, said that his policy could be expressed very simply: "To win games for Brooklyn."

The St. Louis Cardinals, who finished out of the first division for the first time in twelve years, already had the resignation of Manager Eddie Dyer. Last week they gave the job to gangling Martin ("Mr. Shortstop") Marion, 33, an infield star of Cardinal teams for the past ten years. Said Marty, the youngest manager in the majors: "I'm going to do my best to win the pennant."

In Boston, where pennant plans are often sowed, but seldom reaped, Red Sox Manager Steve O'Neill not only kept the job he took over from Joe McCarthy in midseason, but made room on his squad for deposed Cleveland Manager Lou Boudreau (TIME, Nov. 20). After nine years as player-manager of the Indians, Boudreau seemed perfectly willing to settle for a nice quiet job in the Boston infield.