view raw text
Yanks Hunting Rizzuto Replacement Phil, Pressing 37, No Longer Steady Must Purchase or Trade For Shortstop When Farm System Fails to-Produce By MILTON RICHMAN United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2, The No. 1 item in the notebook of every New York Yankee scout today is "find a replacement for Phil Rizzuto." Rizzuto will be going on 37" at the start of next season and neither he nor the Yankees are deluding themselves into believing that he will be able to play in as many as 135 games next year. In fac there is doubt that he will be able to play in that many eames this year. Ordinarily, in a case like this, the Yankees simply would dip into their vast farm system and come up with a ready replacement for Rizzuto. Thats precisely what they did in 1941, when they reached out to their Kansas City farm of the American Association to bring in the young, ambitious Rizzuto to take over for fading Frank Crosetti, who had played a bang-up shortstop for them since 1932. This time, however, its not so simple for the Yankees. To begin with, they have no one in their entire farm system who is even remotely ready to fill Rizzutos shoes. The closest approach is Woody Held, but even he is having some difficulty hitting opposing pitchers at Kansas City. So the Yankees are in trouble and. they .know it. The only course open to them is to purchase or make a trade for a topflight shortstop. Favor Harvey Kuenn If the Yankees had their choice of any shortstop in the American League, they Would grab Harvey Kuenn of the Tigers in a minute. But they dont have their choice and Detroit isnt the -least bit inclined to let them do any grabbing of the sort. - At the moment, the only two shortstops in the circuit that the Yankees might have any- chance of getting are "Pete Runnels of Washington and Billy Hunter of Baltimore, but Casey Stengel isnt especially fond of either one even though each would come, quite high. There is a good chance that the Yankees will turn to the National League as they have done so many times in the past five years. Their best chance of making a NL deal would seem to be with the Cardinals who 1 have a pair of shortstops in Alex Grammas and Solly Hemus. But the Yankees probably would be a lot more interested in Roy McMillan of -the Redlegs, lor example, or hustling Johnny Logan of the Braves. Logan, who was raised in Endicott, N. Y., which is little more than a fungo drive from the Yankee-operated Binghamton club in the Eastern League, had an offer to sign with the Bronx Bombers and the Dodgers shortly after World War n. "I thought it over awhile," Logan said, "and I decided that with "Pee Wee" Reese at Brooklyn and Rizzuto in New York there wasnt much of a future in either of those places for me. So I picked the Braves and Im tickled with the choice." Milwaukee, of course, has no intention of getting rid of Logan. So it looks like the Yankees would be stymied there, too. .
