THME MJCllIf-AN *?'A4i r 9a Baseball Team To Open Season at Oberlin .___ 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! - 1. ' 'II SiV ~~ - K - ~ lob, jt167/ :i{ : :"X1'8;.4 } ";t : Let's all follow the leaders to the { r . MICHIGfN "]EmUUU & UNION wF- v With the Music of BILL Sl4WYER Featuring a "BOOGIE WOOGIE" CONTEST X1 1 1 1I 1