Sport: New Season

(See front cover)

If the dullest bush-leaguer who figured in the baseball fiction of Ring Lardner had been much more rustic and addle-headed, he would have been very much like Floyd ("Babe"') Herman, outfielder for the Brooklyn Robins since 1927. Herman is celebrated for allowing fly-balls to drop on his head, for transforming a homerun into a triple play (by passing two other base-runners), for carrying a lighted cigar in his pocket. But, because he is a powerful batter and at times a competent fielder, he is by no means a liability to his team. Last week Babe Herman was the central figure in the most important baseball deal of the training season. Brooklyn's new manager, Max Carey, who is trying to turn a clownish collection of eccentrics into an orderly big-league machine, announced that he had traded Herman, Gilbert (third baseman) and Lombardi (huge catcher) to Cincinnati in even exchange for two in-fielders—Joe Stripp, Tony Cuccinello—and Catcher Clyde Sukeforth. In a trade with St. Louis, Brooklyn last month acquired a hard-hitting outfielder who may make up for the loss of Babe Herman —squat, red-faced Lewis ("Hack'') Wilson, who made 56 homeruns in 1930 and was last winter traded to St. Louis by the Chicago Cubs after a number of run-ins with Manager Rogers ("Rajah") Hornsby and the late William Wrigley Jr.

Further notice that the 1932 season was about to start was provided by a long-anticipated ceremony in St. Petersburg, Fla. Colonel Jacob Ruppert, near-beer-brewing owner of the New York Yankees, conferred with his most celebrated employe, George Herman ("Babe") Ruth. After much palaver and publicity, Ruth signed a one-year contract for $75,000. Then he tossed a half-dollar into an imitation Spanish wishing well and went to play in a practice game against the Boston Braves, in which he failed to make a hit.

By last week, most big-league teams had been in training quarters for five or six weeks. Training trips, which are more for whetting the baseball appetite of the public than for conditioning players, have been starting a few days earlier every year. This season John McGraw created a shrewd sensation by taking his New York Giants to Los Angeles instead of San Antonio. There, last week, they played a pre-season series against the Chicago Cubs, which Philip K. Wrigley inherited from his father and which trains at Wrigley-owned Catalina Island. Later the Giants lost a night game to the Hollywood Stars, 2 to 1.

With no developments like last year's introduction of a less lively ball, this year's training season has been chiefly distinguished by squabbles between players and owners who, despite the fact that baseball has not suffered greatly from Depression, cut salaries from 10% to 50%. By last week, after the first exhibition games, observers were able to evaluate the 16 big-league teams.