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AL LOPEZ Leads his Cleveland Indians Indiansagainst against the New York Yankees in the theallimportant allimportant series starting tonight Indians Calmly Await Yank Invaders Leaders of League Face Lopat Tonight TonightOpening Opening Series in Cleveland Without Easter and Hegan Gromek Will Be on Mound MoundBy By DICK FALES FALESUnited United Press Sports Writer CLEVELAND Ohio May 12 The old cry of The Yankees are coming has lost its terrorizing effect here hereNot Not so many months ago the warning of the Bombers arrival precipitated fear among the local citizenry But today on the eve of the first invasion by the defend ¬ ing world champions everyone calmly awaited the outcome as if it were just another game gameThe The reason for the optimism stemmed from the Indians earlyseason perform ¬ ance They stood ready for the Eastern teams two full games in first place The majority of the Indians games have been played on the road and most of the 17 wins were made without the services of three regulars regularsManager Manager Al Lopez faced Tuesday nights Yankee opener without first baseman Luke Easter and catcher Jini Hegan both of whom have muscle ailments Centerfielder Larry Doby nursing a chronic leg injury may not be able to Play either eitherLopez Lopez although predicting nothing re ¬ garding the Tribes pennant chances nev ¬ ertheless surveyed his athletes with more calm than usual usualRosen Rosen League Leadw LeadwWe We dont have the big boy Easter he said but were still winning Al Rosens leading the league in homers and BBIs Harry Simpsons leading in hits Ray Boone is batting above 300 300The The pitching Lopez continued is as good as we hoped We got wonderful relief from Sam Jones in Boston and that really helped We needed that stopper stopperAnd And Gromek he exclaimed That first game in New York was the one that showed em emHe He referred to the 10 shutout adminis ¬ tered by Steve Gromek in the Tribes first New York game this year Tomorrow night Gromek will try a repeat performance Once again he will face lefthander Eddie Lcpat who owns a remarkable 339 life ¬ time record against Cleveland ClevelandThe The Indians front office shared Lopez enthusiasm but tried to tone down thoughts of Yankee pushovers Interest will be up for the series a spokesman re ¬ ported and we expect about 25000 or so tomorrow night The Yankees still attract the crowds crowdsBut But general manager Hank Greenberg said it was the Indians not the Yankees who draw the crowds this year yearWithout Without DiMaggio theyre just another team he said The crowds come out to see the Indians If its the Yankees they beat its just that much better
