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Sox May End Longest Flag Famine Have Best Chance Since 1919 Season SeasonManager Manager Richards Believes Team Has Proper Balance To Go All the Way in 1954 1954By By OSCAR FBALEY FBALEYUnited United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK N Y aMy 5 The Chicago White Sox havent won an American League pennant since 1919 longest flag drought in the big leagues but it begins to appear today as if this may be the year at long last lastThe The Windy City warriors have been struggling up the comeback trail ever since the Black Sox scandal They came close in 1951 when the GoGo Sox led the cir ¬ cuit for 44 days until their midJuly col ¬ lapse lapseBut But baseball men agree generally with lean Paul Richards that this is the best team he ever has had hadIt It is a team some sources caution which lacks power But you cant prove it with the early records It works out actually quite the opposite oppositeThe The supposedly weakhitting White Sox are leading the league in team production of home runs In their first 18 games only once were they held to less than six hits five times going into double figures Their average has been close to nine hits per game which is quite a distance from com ¬ plete anemia anemiaThus Thus it would seem that the Sox have sufficient power and certainly they have the pitching Billy Pierce isnt rolling yet but it is inconceivable that he wont Virgil Trucks Is after another 20game year on the strength of a brilliant onehitter onehitterKeegan Keegan Johnson Come Through ThroughBob Bob Keegan didnt throw a complete game last year until late August Already he has gone two full games and needed only ninthinning help in another Don Johnson is added help having acquired a slider at Toronto last year which won him 10 games in a row Sandy Consuegra joined the united effort with a twohitter against the As and Harry Dorish with a new delivery he calls a slip pitch looks like a first class fire ¬ man manAmong Among the new faces in addition to Johnson are third baseman Grady Hatton from the Redlegs outfielder Johnny Groth from Baltimore outfield rookie Bill Wilson and outfielder Willard Marshall from the Redlegs The calibre of some of these addi ¬ tions has yet to be proved but the three men they gave the Redlegs for Marshall arent even in Cincinnati anymore proving there was some profit in the deal dealDefensively Defensively the Chisox are tops with Ferris Fain Nellie Fox and Chico Carras quel sparking an infield in which Hatton alternates with Cass Michaels at third The outfield seems capable with Groth Wilson and Minnie Minoso getting the current call over Marshall Jim Rivera and hustler Eddie Stewart StewartWell Well make a better run at em this time Richards promises The Yankees are weaker and I think they made a mistake when they traded Vic Raschii RaschiiWe We are stronger he adds Last year against lefthanded pitching I had to use four lefthanded hitters Fain and Fox would play against lefthanders anyhow but now I can spot Groth for Rivera and Hatton for Michaels MichaelsRichards Richards also counts on teams like Detroit and Baltimore giving the Yanks mor trouble this season than they did in the past
