[Big Six]

Boston Herald, March 30, 1936

QUESTIONS ABOUND AS AL TEAMS BEGIN SEASON
Carrigan’s Red Sox Set Sights on Pennant

RICHMOND—As the Boston Red Sox play their way back to New England after a successful spring training, Bill Carrigan and his team face more questions than a team that finished the previous season in second place ordinarily must answer.

The Red Sox finished eleven games back of the Detroit Tigers last season and have lost an aggregate fourteen games in the standings to the Detroiters since 1933. Has time passed the Sox by? Must Boston rooters now content themselves with second place finishes and memories of the good old days when trips to the World Series were as normal as falling leaves each October?

Carrigan, who put his charges through their paces with his usual gusto this spring, does not think so. “We have some veteran players, especially on our pitching staff,” the Red Sox pilot conceded. “But the veterans we’re talking about are guys like Neal Brady and Waite Hoyt. They haven’t shown signs of slipping yet, and they threw well all spring long.”

Brady and Hoyt, indeed, looked good in preseason action. They might have been born in the nineteenth century, but there isn’t a manager in the American League who wouldn’t want them on their side. While both hurlers should one day find themselves in Cooperstown, both have some good innings left in their arms. Sox general manager Pat O’Farrell will have to search for their replacements soon, but he likely has at least one year before the need becomes immediate.

More alarming is the situation in the everyday lineup, where veteran soldiers like Frank Frisch, Judy Johnson, Lefty O’Doul, and Kiki Cuyler are showing signs of the decline that comes the way of every ballplayer. Carrigan is still able to write the names of productive batsmen like Chick Hafey and Martin Dihigo on his lineup card, and in Lou Gehrig, the Red Sox have the best hitter in baseball on whom to anchor their lineup.

The Bostons have one bright young star in their firmament, catcher Josh Gibson. To challenge clubs like the Tigers, players like Mel Almada and Moose Solters must continue to improve, and at least one from a group of infielders that includes Leo Durocher, Billy Werber, Jack Rothrock, and John Kroner must demonstrate that he can hold down a regular major league job.

O’Farrell did make one interesting signing during the off season, inking a young third baseman from Japan named Fumio Fujimura to a contract. Young Fujimura, who will turn twenty years old during the season’s first week, showed flashes of major league-quality talent during the spring. He will be sent to New Bedford for seasoning, but most “experts” who watched Fujimura believe he will make a big leaguer in time.

O’Farrell was, of course, one of the pioneers in integrating colored players into the major leagues, and one of the reasons for the Red Sox’ continued success has been the outstanding performance of Negro players like Johnson, Dihigo, Gibson, and pitcher Ray Brown. Once again, O’Farrell and the Sox appear willing to tap another possible source of baseball talent, and if Fujimura makes good, look for more men of his nationality on American professional teams in the year to come.

Today in Richmond, the Red Sox will meet a team that appears to be an up-and-comer: the New York Yankees. Gone is Babe Ruth and his once-devastating bat, but the Yanks have built a powerful lineup without him. They’ve accomplished this feat the Red Sox way: trading for a couple of key players while their homegrown youngsters develop their skills.. The Yankees last year acquired Dale Alexander and Luke Appling to man the infield corners, while younger players like Dixie Walker and Ben Chapman emerged as stars.

Now, the Yankees have a centerfielder whose play has elicited superlatives the likes of which haven't been heard in years. He is Joe DiMaggio, whom the Yanks purchased from the San Francisco club in the Pacific Coast League. DiMaggio, 21, has demonstrated the ability to hit for average and power, and his play in the center garden brings to mind a young Tris Speaker…