FOLLOWING THE BIG GREEN TEAMS

With Phil Sherman

Officially, I suppose, it's Spring—Spring with its baseball diamonds, lacrosse fields and tennis courts, all alive with striving athletes. But at present baseball is confined to the cage, tennis to the gymnasium, and only the hardy lacrossers get out and scrimmage in the mountainous snow banks that surround Hanover.

Basketball is all finished and Yale is the Eastern Intercollegiate League champion. I am sure that the Blue's victory will help the game a great deal, for it was the first title in basketball to come to New Haven in several years and Yale has just dedicated a brand new court which seats 2500 people. It was a queer finish, for the championship was handed to Yale by the result of another game, the Pennsylvania-Princeton affair, and the Quaker's single-point margin was enough to put Princeton out of the race after the Tigers had made a marvelous spurt during the latter half of the season.

The boards and the wooden stands are gone from the western wall of the gym, and the place has been cleared for a small baseball diamond with its surrounding nets. The thud of ball against glove, the crack of bat, and the language peculiar only to baseball are the sports symphony to which Dartmouth is attuned at present.

Looking over the team during these preparatory weeks, the vista seems just about the same as last year. The letter men are many and the same faces are out for the same positions. Whether this is a good sign or not remains to be seen. All-veteran teams in the past have fallen down lamentably and a little dampened enthusiasm might help a great deal at this stage, for this baseball team has a tremendous responsibility ahead of it. In other words, if we are to salvage any glory out of a dismal year of athletics, it is up to these baseball fellows.

Football struck an awful slump, and then the veteran teams of basketball and hockey ended the season with unimpressive records. The hockey team didn't win a major game, and the basketball team ended the league season with a 5-5 average, the same as the year before.

So we turn to our favorite sport of baseball and wonder what is in store. There is so much difference between putting a team down on paper and comparing it with another team, name for name, and then seeing the actual results unfold on the ball field.

Dartmouth looks very good on paper, for instance, but when Dartmouth faces Yale to open the season on April 15 the Big Green will not have had any outdoor practise due to weather conditions. And Dartmouth will be looking at the speed ball of Yale's Mr. Broaca, who throws a very mean speed ball. That's just one instance, but it is liable to be a crucial instance.

It is going to be a hard combination for sophomores to break into, for every position on the team shows a letterman present, and there are even a few left over. Let's take a look.

Last year's pitching staff was composed of Arthur Boisseau, Bob Miller and Way Thompson. So is this year's. Folks who follow Dartmouth baseball can never forget the pitching performances turned in by Boisseau for two years. He's somewhat of the type of Arthur Shires, now with the Braves, but for all his cockiness, he has the stuff and it was a real blow to the team when he was forced out in the middle of last season with a sore arm. He had turned in a wonderful performance against a great Pennsylvania team, and he was sent right back the next day to pitch parts of a double header against Yale. It was too much for his arm to stand, and it simply would not hold up. Now he's hitting the comeback trail down in the gym, and no one wishes him more success than this writer.

Way Thompson is a good, dependable, steady pitcher, whose senior year should be a fruitful one. Bob Miller, for all his wildness, is an effective hurler.

Behind the bat we have Ken Weeman, who caught all the league games last year, but Ken will be pushed by several other candidates, notably young Bill Clark of Exeter who is coming up to the varsity for the first time. Jack Hill, his running mate as halfback last fall, is a pitcher, and possibly these two might be worked together.

The infield is entirely up in the air. Last year nobody knew what position they were playing, and letter men were shifted blithely around before each game. The same situation seems unlikely this year, because of the fact that Frankie Spain is eligible as a shortstop and that means a great deal to Dartmouth at this time.

Spain is rated as a brilliant ball player. He is supposed to fill the shoes of the departed Red Rolfe, and his eligibility makes a great deal of difference to the team defensively.

But the other positions are a toss-up, and figure out this tangle for yourself: Roald Morton is normally a first baseman, but last year he played four games at second; Loppy Rich played third, short and second: Buster Snow played short and third; and Tommy Maskilieson played third and short. Out of the welter of infield lettermen only Jimmy Chesnulevich was a stationary figure, and he won his letter as a second baseman.

Now just what is going to be done with all these people we don't know, and it is seen that they can't all fit into the same infield together. I don't think that there will be much outside competition although Walter Keady, son of the old Dartmouth coach, is an improved player and young Dick Hurd and Phil Conathan are both first-base aspirants.

Look at the outfield. Jake Edwards, Hafey Arthur and Smith O'Brien all won their letters out there last year and they are all back again.

Hitting will be the deciding factor, and Dartmouth appears to be one of the lightest hitting teams in the league, and when that is the situation it takes a lot of pitching to put the team over.

A bit of good news for listeners-in in the New England district is that all the Eastern League games, as well as the Harvard contest on May 27, will be broadcast. The games will be handled by myself and Ernie Barcella, who has done some good writing for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, and our station is WNBX of Springfield, Vermont, which should come in around 1260 kilocycles.

Here are the broadcasting dates: May 1, Princeton; May 5, Pennsylvania; May 6, Yale; May 13, Columbia (double-header); May 27, Harvard; June 17, Cornell; June 19, Cornell.

The lacrosse team, working out in biting weather, looks as strong a combination as Dartmouth has had in years. Coach Tommy Dent points out that the teams this year have been cut from twelve to ten men, and it seems that the positions eliminated are weak ones for Dartmouth anyway.

Led by Capt. Charley Shafer, the letter men available number Robert Dickson, Stan Britten, Bill Hitchcock, John Donovan, Bernard Silowitz and Babe Shea.

A strong freshman team of last year will send up much material to the varsity, including the following sophomores: Carl Fischer, Douglas Ley, Bob Hinman, Charley Knott, Bob Dyer, Dick Halvorsen, Billy West, and Howard Frost.