Maranville & Friends

In St. Petersburg, Fla. last week, the score was 3-to-2 in favor of the New York Yankees, playing an exhibition game against the Boston Braves. In the eighth inning, Boston's famed Shortstop Rabbit Maranville, who in the fifth inning had hit his first homerun in two years, was on third base, with two out. New York's Catcher Kies threw to second, to catch a base-stealer. Maranville started for home. Instead of sliding face first, as usual, Maranville tried to run across the plate. As he reached in to touch it, his shin cracked against Rookie Kies's leg-guard. Maranville turned a somersault, landed with the lower part of his left leg grotesquely dangling. It was broken in two places, five inches above the ankle. Doctors who reset it at a St. Petersburg hospital doubted whether Maranville would ever play baseball again.

Gnomelike Walter James Vincent Maranville is one of the nine big-leaguers over 40.* He got his first big-league job, with Boston, 22 years ago when the regular shortstop broke a leg. If he had played 140 games this season, Maranville would have passed the record of Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner who played in 2,785. Famed for his basket-catches of infield flies, his picayune size, his antics on the field and off, Maranville hoped also to play until he had grandchildren old enough to watch him. When he was traded out of the big leagues in 1927, he stopped drinking, promptly came up again in 1928. He declined the job of managing the Boston Braves, lest it spoil his hitting. Said Maranville last week: ''I'm probably lucky I did not break my neck. . . . Look for me in the Braves' lineup by August. . . .''

By last week, most of the major-league teams which had been training in Florida, California, Louisiana and Mississippi since early March, had started north, playing exhibition games on the way. The season was scheduled to begin April 16, at Washington, with President Roosevelt as a spectator. Major developments since the Giants won the World Series last autumn: a uniform ball for both leagues, like the one used by the American League; new managers for five of the 16 major-league teams.

National League. Experts who last year picked the Giants to finish near the bottom of the National League had by last week voiced insubstantial guesses for 1934. After a month of training at Miami's Flamingo Park Polo Field the New York Giants last week appeared fatigued as they started toward their own Polo Grounds--named for the team's first playing field near Central Park. A livelier ball should militate against their winning pennant & World Series again this year. Manager Bill Terry's only change in a team built around four pitchers (Hubbell, Schumacher, Fitzsimmons, Parmelee) was a hard-hitting centerfielder named George Watkins to replace George Davis.

Contenders with the Giants this year should be the Pittsburgh Pirates (who had acquired Pitcher Red Lucas from Cincinnati and a 6 ft. 5 in.. 230 lb. rookie, Lloyd Johnson) or the Chicago Cubs (with their new outfielder, Chuck Klein, leading batsman of the league, bought for $125,000 from Philadelphia). The St. Louis Cardinals had a new pitcher, Paul Dean, brother of talkative Jerome ("Dizzy") Dean and a team of fast opportunistic young players. Philadelphia's weak point last year was pitching; Manager Jimmy Wilson was still trying to make up his mind last week which pitchers to keep from a staff of 13. The accident to Maranville left Boston with a weak infield. Brooklyn and Cincinnati looked much as they did at the start of the season a year ago. Brooklyn had a new manager, Casey Stengel, who watched practice at Orlando in a cream and crimson striped shirt. Cincinnati had a new owner, Radio Manufacturer Powel Crosley Jr. (TIME, Feb. 19).

American League. Most discussed team of the year was the Boston Red Sox. Owner Tom Yawkey spent $750,000 improving Fenway Park without waiting to see how his new and costly outfit would function. Most notable addition to the Red Sox this year is Pitcher Robert Moses (''Lefty'') Grove, whose arm last week was still too sore for use. At Sarasota, Manager Bucky Harris' only training rule was "No Swimming."

Favorites to win the American League pennant were still the Washington Senators and the New York Yankees. Only change in the lineup that won the pennant for Washington last year was at right field, Jonathan Stone for old Goose Goslin. The Yankees had two rookie infielders. Babe Ruth planned, in what will doubtless be his last playing season, to make his 700th homerun, get his 2,000th base on balls. Manager Joe Cronin of Washington called Detroit the team to beat. Detroit's new Manager & Catcher Mickey Cochrane, bought for $100,000 from Philadelphia, was not so sure. He and his men lost two games in a row to the Athletics, generally dismantled last autumn because they failed to make money. For the Chicago White Sox, leaving Pasadena, Calif, last week, the major question was still whether George Earnshaw would be as effective as he used to be for Philadelphia. Apparent tail-ender in the American League, this year as last, are the St. Louis Browns. The Cleveland Indians, under Manager Walter Johnson, last week won two out of three games against Washington.

Rookies. Training camps, run primarily for advertising, serve a useful purpose as a proving ground for young players. Biggest of this year's rookies is Jim Weaver, 6 ft. 6 in. pitcher for the St. Louis Browns. Most expensive is the Chicago Cubs' young Outfielder George Stainback, bought for $75,000 from Los Angeles. The Philadelphia Phillies' Out fielder Henry Oana is the only Hawaiian in the league. The New York Yankees have Floyd Newkirk whose pitching hand, like that of famed Mordecai Brown, onetime Chicago Cub, has only three fingers. Luckiest rookie was Glenn Chapman of the Dodgers who, on the first day of practice at Orlando, hit the first ball ever pitched to him by a big-leaguer for a home-run. Considered ablest last week, when most of their confreres were on their way back to minor league teams, were the Yankees' young second baseman and shortstop, Don Heffner and Red Rolfe, who last week seemed likely to be regulars this season. Heffner is a young Baltimorean who last year fielded brilliantly and had a batting average of .293 with the Baltimore Orioles. His main worry is his weight, 155-lb.; to increase it last autumn he drank a quart of cream every day. Robert Abiel Rolfe comes from Penacook, N. H., graduated from Dartmouth in 1931, batted .326 for Newark last year, when he was voted most valuable player in the International League. Redhaired, ruddy-faced, his stance in the infield is characterized by a noticeable stoop, feet pointed directly at the home plate. Last week, in an exhibition game at St. Petersburg, Rolfe's single, with two out in the ninth inning, sent Heffner home with the run that beat Newark, 6-to-5.

*The others arc Vance (Reds), Grimes (Cardinals), Luque (Giants), Rice (Indians), Jones (White Sox), Ruth (Yankees), Gonzales (Cardinals), Haines (Cardinals).

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