The Village Smithy
By Chester L. Smith, sports editor
Let’s run down the line and see why the Cardinals are the pick of the smart money to win the World Series.
Smart money, you must remember, disregards hunches. It plays the records and the percentages and collects from the soothsayers and the guys who run around peering into crystal balls.
Smart money may go for a ride this time because it disregards the patent fact that the Browns, at the finish of the season, were on the rise, had won nine of their last 10 games and could very well carry on their drive with such success that they would win. But if smart money loses on this number, it will get it back on the next, and the next.
Smart money notes that the Cardinals, as a team, batted .268 and the Browns .252. To this it adds the footnote that the American League was admittedly weak in pitching this year, while the Nationals turned up with an assortment of casters that was below pre-war level beyond doubt but was far from bad. Putting it another way, the Redbirds had stouter stuff to face on the mound and still out-batted their rivals.
Smart money also does not overlook a 10-point difference in the fielding averages, in favor of the Cards. The figures on defensive play are apt to be misleading, in that a player may wind up with a near-perfect mark simply because he doesn’t have the ability to get close enough to hard chances to fumble them, but there they are, anyhow, and can’t be laughed off.
Smart money surveys the infield and learns that the Redbirds are hitting heavier than the Browns at three of the four positions. Sanders has it on McQuinn at first, Verban on Don Gutteridge at second and Whitey Kurowski leads Mark Christman at third. That leaves the shortstop in the hands of Luke Sewell’s team, Vernon Stephens, one of the great young players of the day, over Martin Marion. The edge in points is 24. But wait, Marion happens to be generally acclaimed, the peer of all major league shortfielders, a master even though he doesn’t hit .270.
“Marion could bat .200 and play for me every day,” Frankie Frisch remarked one day not long ago. The thin man can come up with plays that are uncanny. So, the conclusion must be that here, if anywhere, the averages don’t quite match the facts. Actually, smart money reasons, because it has seen it with its own eyes, the Cards lose nothing to the Browns with Marion matched against Stephens. It would be a brash critic, indeed, who would not accord the National League something of a margin at this point.
When it comes to the catchers, smart money rests its case on Walker Cooper, the successor to Bill Dickey as the top man in the mask and pad in either circuit. Cooper had an ill-starred series against the Yankees last fall, but that was the law of averages catching up to him. Today, he holds a .317 diploma at the plate and has gone through one of his biggest campaigns. No Brownie backstop has batted as high as .250. Hayworth, Turner and Mancuso are known for their reliability but not their brilliance.
Smart money has to remember that Morton Cooper’s luck in World Series competition has been uniformly bad, but that was one club – New York. The Bombers combed him hard until last fall when he gained an even division of the spoils, winning his first start and losing the second. But “the book” says that the Cardinals can throw more big winners on the hill than the Browns, including Ted Wilks, who dropped only four decisions all summer, and might easily become the pitching star of the series.
In comparing the outfields, smart money sets Stan Musial apart from the others and bets on him. Musial finished behind Dixie Walker for the league batting title, losing any chance he might have had of catching the ancient Dodger because of an injury that kept him out of the lineup for a protracted period. The Donora Dandy is the one terrific outfielder on both sides. He is the type that ranks with the DiMaggios, Slaughters and Medwicks of former years. The Yanks cut him down to a reasonable size in 43, that’s true, but it’s almost too much to expect the Browns to do the same. Natural sluggers of Stan’s stature can’t be handcuffed too long.
Smart money will pay not the slightest attention to what happened in September when the Cardinals went to pieces and were knocked out in something like 20 out of 25 games, including a string of eight they lost to the Pirates. If more than a passing thought is given to this disaster, it will be pointed out that if was merely the inevitable slump, and that the real class of the club was proved when, defeats and all, it still was able to hamstring the other seven teams and stay so far ahead that even Billy Southworth, who can build up a man’s-sized worry on nothing at all, was able to sleep easily.
That’s smart money’s attitude – which should make it a breeze – unless the Browns win.