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• | I ■]* I l • [ • : ■ ! I | _ — Sox Attack With Small Arms Instead of Heavy Artillery ; ! | j . I Stengel Praises Comiskeys t For Making Most of Power Available to Lead Circuit By MILTON RICHMAN United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK, N. Y., June 25.— Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees feels the Chicago White Sox rate a six-gun salute for introducing a new type of winning offensive that features small arms instead of the usual heavy artillery. "I take my hat off to em," Stengel grunted. "In this day and age when everyone is tryin to pull the ball and hit it over the fence, the White Sox are man-agin to do all right by just meeting the ball and settlin for singles and doubles. "They know they dont have a lot of sluggers," he added, "so they play it smart. Instead of trying for home runs, they hit to all fields and string together a couple of hits for a run. Theyre a scrappy Tightin bunch and theyre gonna be tough all the way. "Everyone kissed em off this spring, but theyre provin you dont necessarily have to break down the fences to win ball games." Actually, the White Sox boasts only one bona fide home run threat. He is husky Eddie Robinson, the easy-going ex-Cleveland and Washington first baseman who has 15 circuit clouts to his credit already. Apart from Robinson, however, there is no one on the Sox roster who hits home runs with any degree of consistency. Hit Five Homers With Browns Blond Don Lenhardt is the closest approach to Robinson. The lanky outfielder from Alton, 111., has walloped six homers, but five of them were hit while he was with the St. Louis Browns earlier this season. Outfielder Zeke Zarilla, who doesnt play regularly, is next with five homers and then the list gets thinner and thinner. By whacking two homers against the Boston Red Sox yesterday, veteran catcher , Phil Masi boosted his total to four. Then ] come Nelson Fox, Orestes Minoso and Eddie Stewart with three each, Jim Busby with two and Chico Carrasquel with one. It is interesting to note that most of the homers hit by the White Sox were so timely that they were directly responsible for winning individual ball games. As presently constituted, the Sox are a far cry from such clubs as the Yankees, Red Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers, all of which lean heavily on their home run hitters. White Sox manager Paul Richards isnt fazed by the fact that his players arent always aiming for the fences. As a matter of fact, Fox, hitting .355 and enjoying the best season of his career, says one of the reasons he is doing so well is that he has stopped trying to "kill" the ball. "I was told that I was swinging too hard and was pressing too hard in an effort to get extra base hits," he explained. "They advised me to concentrate on just meeting the ball and I tried it and found it helped a lot." Even so, Fox manages to get his share of extra base hits and the three homers he hit this season are, counting from right to left, the first, second and third of his big | league career. "It doesnt matter how far you hit the ball, anyway," Fox explained with a smile. "The important thing is how often you hit it and where it lands." The bright young man from Chicago definitely has something there. CASEY STENGEL— New York Yankees manager takes his hat off to White Sox for their type of winning offensive.
