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Baseball Team To Open Season at Oberlin
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HERE TODAY
. . .By HARVEY -RANK
Sports Editor
Navy-Stocked Squads
Are Unknown Factors
Both Outfits Need More Outdoor Practice;
Oberlin Is Given Edge on Mound Material
BEST HURLER-BUT HE CAN'T PITCH:
Japanese Language Instructor Works Out as
Moundsman on Coach Fisher's Varsity Nine
Weather permitting, the Michigan
baseball team will make its 1944 de-
but Saturday afternoon in a double
header with Oberlin College on the'
latter's field.
As it will be the first game of the
season for both schools, each team
will take the field as a relatively un-
known quantity. Oberlin has been
well reinforced by Navy material and
boasts one of the largest squads in
the school's history. There are no
lettermen in the bunch, but many
of the Navy trainees have had ex-
perience with other college nines or
in semi-pro ranks.
Coach Guy Throner has run into
difficulties with the weather just as
Michigan.has, and up until last Tues-
day had not been able to get in any
outdoor practice. However, the squad
of 51 hopefuls has been practicing
since March 27th and is in fairly
good shape.
Boasts Strong Pitching Staff
Throner has five pitchers who have
stamped themselves as college ma-
terial and is also strong in the re-
ceiving department. As Michigan's
weakness to date centers around the
pitching staff, Oberlin may hold an
edge on the mound. Oberlin from all
reports expects to be well-balanced in
other departments.
At Michigan the situation is still
a bit clouded. &oach Ray Fisher has
been juggling his lineup constantly
in an effort to strike an effective
combination. His latest assemblage
finds Elmer Swanson, veteran catch-
er of last season, shifted to first base;
Golf ers Meet
Detroit Squad
]here Saturday
The golf season gets off to an early
start this-Saturday when the Michi-
gan squad meets the University of
Detroit team at the University Golf
Course.
This will be the first time the
Wolverines have met the Titan golf-
ers who will have to depend largely
on their freshman members. The
Michigan linksmen won the confer-
ence championship last year by edg-
ing out Northwestern in the final
rounds.
No scores have been turned in as
yet, and Coach Courtright will sim-
ply have to draw the, names for
Saturday's match out of the hat.
Phil Marcellus, captain and the only
returning letterman, will, of course,
be among those playing. All the oth-
ers trying out for the team will play
a game Saturday afternoon, and then
the permanent squad will be picked
for the remainder of the season.
The boys have been working hard
in spite of the rain and cold, and
Coach Courtright expressed the opin-
ion that the team should be in excel-
lent shape when they meet North-
western University on Saturday, April
22.
In addition to Phil Marcellus there
are five other returning squad mem-
bers from last year's team. Duncan
Noble, Bob Reichert, Ken Berke, Paul
O'Hara and Bob Welling all show
promise as do several others who are
trying out for the first time.
letterman Charlie Ketterer holding
down second; experienced Bruce
Blanchard who operated at third
last yeer, roaming the shortstop po-
sition; and speedy Bob Nussbaumer
brought into the outfield to play the
hot corner.
Stevenson To Catch
The catching duties center around
big Bob Stevenson, a Marine trainee
with several years experience on col-
lege and semi-pro outfits under his
belt. The starting pitchers for Satur-
day's twin-bill remain in doubt. Lefty
"Bo" Bowman seems certain to draw
the assignment in one game while the
other will probably go to Dick
Schmidtke, Al Willers, or Elroy
Hirsch. Fisher also has Ralph Strem,
Bob Wiese, and Art Renner for first-
line reserve duty.
The outfield is still a problem,
mainly because there is such a wealth
of material to choose from. Bob Gre-
gory, a former student at Oberlin,
will probably get the call in left, and
Don Lund, a mainstay of the '43 out-
fit will go in center. The other posi-
tion will be filled by ither Bob Ren-
nebohm, Wiese, or Hirsch.
Team Looks Good
This combination produced some
long hitting and airtight fielding in
yesterday's practice tilt in which it
faced a team composed of probable
second stringers. For eight innings
the effective pitching of Bowman,
Strem, Hirsch and Wiese held the
seconds scoreless with only four hits,
while the defense did not commit any
misplays.
In the ninth, however, the first
stringers were the victims ofahthree-
run rally off pitcher Glenn Eicher as
the result of two hits, a base on balls,
and three errors. The uprising was
not costly as the "A" team had piled
up 17 runs in the earlier innings-by
taking advantage of numerous .tihely
hits coupled with a liberal allowance
of passes and 11 errors.
Swanson Shines at First
All of the potential-starters looked
good, turning minseyeral fine fielding
plays and playing heads up baseball
until the ninth-inning lapse. lmer
Swanson seemed right at home in his
new role at first while the whole in-
field clicked very well as a unit.
On the second team, first sacker
Tommy King - and second-baseman
Mike Farnyk turned in some out-
standing work, each getting a pair of
hits to accounnt for two-thirds of
their team's output. Willers and Jack
Hackstadt labored most effectively
on the mound.
The travelling squad of approxi-
mately 16 men has not been named
as yet. They will leave Ann Arbor at
9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Brown May Coach
Great Lakes Eleven
COLUMBUS, O., April 13.--VP)-
Paul Brown, a young man who be-
came the football scourge of the Big
Ten in just two years, is going to
Great Lakes Naval Training Station
as a Lieutenant (j.g.)-just at a time
when the Bluejackets may be looking
for a grid coach.
The 35-year-old head coach at
Ohio State University received notice
yesterday that he had been commis-
sioned in the Navy and ordered to re-
port to Great Lakes Monday.
By MARY LU HEATH
Hiroshi Yamamoto, Japanese lan-
guage instructor in the University,
tips the scales at 125 pounds, but in
the few times that he has pitched to
the varsity men on the Wolverine
baseball team in the cage at the Field
House, he has proved one of the most
baffling hurlers the boys have had to
face.
Although he handles the ball ex-
pertly, he will never play for Coach
Ray Fisher, because his teaching
duties would interfere with the work-
outs. In spite of this, he has taken
occasional turns on the mound in the
Field House practices.
Yamamoto is only 5 feet 6 inches
tall, and in his high school days at
San Pedro, Calif., weighed only 100
pounds.yHe still managed to play
three years of varsity baseball in
high school, and, most amazing of
all, he participated in football, bas-
ketball, swimming and track.
Holds Swim Record
He held the Southern California
interscholastic swimming title for the
50-yard crawl and the 5.0-yard back-
stroke distances. He was an all-
round track man also, broadjumping
22 feet 11 inches, putting the eight-
pound shot 49 feet 8 inches and hold-
ing down the' anchor position on the
relay team.
During the spring and summer
months, he played semi-pro ball. He
played against such major league
stars as Vince Dimaggio, Bobby Doerr
and Arky Vaughan when they were
just getting their start in organized
ball with the Pacific Coast Leaguers.
Goes To Japan
After he graduated from high
school, he was given a baseball
scholarship to Japan University in
Tokyo. This scholarship took care of
all his expenses and he was in Tokyo
from 1937 to 1941, taking his AB
degree in English literature. He had
never been in Japan before, as he
was born in Los Angeles.
Yamamoto' played five years of
college baseball; including three years
as a pitcher and two' at the shortstop
post where he earned All-Conference
honors. He was changed to the in-
field spot when he developed a sore
arm which made it impossible for him
to hurl. He had upped his weight to
Montreal Whips,
Blackhawks To
WinyStanley Cup
MONTREAL, April 13.--()-The
Montreal Canadiens scored three
goals in the third period tonight to
gain a 4-4 tie with the Chicago
Blackhawks and send the fourth
game of the final Stanley Cup play-
off series into a "sudden death" over-
time period.
Hector (Toe) Blake, veteran wing-
er, settled the issue after nine min-
utes and 12 seconds of overtime play
when he slapped in Butch Bou-
chard's pass for the winning goal.
The Canadiens, trailing 4-1 after
the second period, rallied to tie the
count in the third when Maurice Ri-
chard scored twice in the last four
minutes of pay.
150 during this time, and his five-'
year batting mark was .365.
After he returned to the United
States, he worked in Oakland and
Loomis, Calif., but was eventually
sent to the Marysville Assembly Cent-
er, the camp for Japanese aliens,
established at the beginning of the
war. He also spent some time at the
Tule Lake Relocation Center, where
The condition of Fielding H.
Yost, Michigan's Athletic Director
Emeritus, was today reported much
improved by University Hospital
authorities. Yost was confined to
the hospital after a recent acute
illness.
he organized a softball team for the
young men's group of which he was
the leader.
In December, 1942, he came to the
University to teach, and was among
the first Japanese instructors. He
finds it very easy to teach here, and
has never noticed any antagonism
among the students which the war
might occasion. He has a very per-
sonable interest in the present con-
flict, since his brother enlisted in
the U.S. Army before Pearl Harbor.
Japanese Baseball Different
The main difference between Jap-
anese and American baseball, he
thinks, is that the Japanese "do the
game," and the American "play the
very specialized kind of ball, starting
at the end of February, when they
run from seven to ten hours per day
during the first week.
Baseball for the Japanese perform-
er is intensive work. He never allows
himself to relax for a minute, and
plays the game from a mental point
of view instead of from the physical
standpoint of the American. A Jap-
anese pitcher will throw 500 balls in
two hours without resting. One rea-
son that the Japanese player works
from the mental standpoint is that
physically he is much slighter of
build than the American.
Take Game Seriously
The Japanese seriousness in at-
tacking the game is emphasized by
the fact that they play two seasons
annually, a period in spring and one
in autumn. The college conferences
are the Big Six and the Big Five. A
team will play at least seven to eight
practice games before it will even
tackle a conference opponent. Then
it will finish all its games with one
squad with a series of three contests.
To take a series, a team must win two
out of three.
The catcher is the key man on the
squad because the game is played
from a mental standpoint. The
games are also tighter, because of the
lack of sluggers, and many of them
wind up as pitcher's battles. Yama-
moto believes that individually Jap-
anese players are as good performers
as American boys, but they lose to
American teams because they lack
the certain spirit of being a unit.
Use American Slang
However, there are similarities be-
tween the two styles of playing which
have become more marked since Am-
erican outfits toured Japan in the
early thirties. One influence which
Americans have made on the game is
in the phraseology. All Japanese
players use familiar American ex-
pressions like "I got it," "strike,"
"steal" and "hit," although Japan-
ese names for the terms do exist.
Yamamoto 'has seen no major
league games, because he has "never
had the time, especially since he has
been teaching." Nevertheless, he was
able to prove troublesome to Fisher's
men by "placing" his pitches. This
illustrates the motto of the Japanese
player: "Use Your Head."
Editor's Note: The following column was written by Dave Loewenberg, a night
editor on The Daily Sports Staff.
By DAVE LOEWENBERG
ANYONE familiar with sports events will never forget that memorable
day of Jan. 1, 1928, when Roy Reigels, Georgia Tech's halfback ran the
wrong way for the Engineers, making it possible for Southern California's
Trojans to score an 8-6 victory over an amazed Tech team in the annual
Rose Bowl classic.
However, it wagl only two days later that a great Michigan athlete,
Gabe Joseph, was to perform the same turnabout feat, only this time it
occurred on the ice rink:
A strong Princeton sextet was invading Ann Arbor for the first
time and was anxious to maintain the prestige of Eastern athletic
squads. Going into the last half of the second period, the Wolverines
held a commanding 3-1 advantage, and victory seemed almost certain.
Suddenly there was a wild scramble for the puck 'in front of the
Michigan goal and Joseph, in his anxiety to get the puck out of danger,
- lost track of himself for a second, and pounded the puck past the
Michigan goalie.
This feat so unnerved the Wolverine net tender that he allowed six
goals to fly by him in the closing minutes of play.
The newspapers naturally saw in this an excellent opportunity
to combine the feats of Reigels and Joseph and both boys became fam-
ous as a result of their freakish exploits.
JOSEPH finished out the year as Michigan's high scorer and experts were
acclaiming him as one of the finest rookies in the nation. Joseph, in
addition to winning his Michigan letter that year, was also presented with
a Princeton letter by the members of the Michigan team.
It was in 1930 that Joseph really hit his stride. In addition to being
Michigan's high scorer for the third consecutive season, Joseph captured
the Western Conference individual scoring championship, and was gen-
erally acknowledged as the top-ranking hockey player in the Midwest.
Joseph's best game that year was the Minnesota contest, when he
pulled the "hat trick" against the Gophers, giving the Maize and Blue
a 3-0 victory and an eventual Conference championship. Incidentally,
this marks the only time that Michigan has ever beaten Minnesota on
its home rink.
After Joseph's spectacular exhibition in the Minnesota tilt, Emil Iver-
son, the veteran Gopher mentor, said "Joseph is one of the finest hockey
players I've ever seen in action."
Joseph's stellar career was culminated by his being selected as a
unanimous choice on the All-America teams of College Humor Magazine
and the Detroit Free Press.
Strange as it seems, Joseph looks back with fondest recollections to
.the time he first tried out for the hockey team. "Coach Lowrey will never
admit it," exclaimed Joseph, "but believe me, I was cut three times from
the squad before I was even given a chance. Apparently, I didn't make a
very good impi'ession on him," explained this diminutive star.
ODD, ISN'T IT!
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With the Music of
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Featuring a
"BOOGIE WOOGIE" CONTEST
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