THE MICHIGAN DAILY Ohio Cagers 4Lge Michigan in Overtime, -44 -41 THIRD COMING UP?: olverine Wrestlers Vie for Third Conference Crown By MURRAY GRANT When the Michigan wrestling squad They are also seeking to break their takes to the mats on January 13, losing streak, for in the eight meets they will be in quest of their third held so far between the two schools, conference championship and their Michigan has won five in a row after second consecutive title. losing the first three. The Wolverine wrestlers might be Wolverines To Face 0. S. U. called the "perpetual runner-ups," The fourth meet finds the Maize when it comes to mat championships. and Blue of Michigan pitted against During the fourteen years that the the Scarlet and Gray of Ohio State Conference meets have been held, University. The twenty-two matches Michigan has placed second six held between the two traditional riv- times; third three times; fourth only als have ended in fifteen victories for once and fifth twice. Thus the Wol- the Wolverines, six wins for the verines have amassed a very fine Buckeyes and one tie. Thus when record during the past fourteen the Maize and Blue grapplers meet years. the Buckeyes they will be aiming how Do We Compare? for the sixteenth victory and their But what of the schools on this rlfth consecutive win over the Buck- year's schedule? How do we stand eyes. p in comparison to them through the Tndiana provides the opposition for ynecoparisonatohemhdrushthgthe fifth conference meet this seas- years that we have had wrestling on and stiff competition it will be. squads? Our first meet this year is For in the twenty matches between with the University of Northwestern ny grapplers, and in the seventeen meet- the Hoosiers and Michigan, the Wol- ings with the Wildcats thus far, the verines have been able to cop only Maize and Blue wrestlers have won seven wins. The Hoosiers, on the- sixteen of them. The only setback other hand, have won twelve mat- suffered at the hands of Northwest- en oe has ende in a tie. ern came in 1931, giving the Wolver- Mnthelsee S eotWin Ines a ten game winning streak to nce Championship chgan protect in their first meet with North- matmen invade the campus of the western since 1943. University of Minnesota to do bat- The second meet this season is tle with the Gophers. This year's against the University of Illinois, and match will be, surprisingly enough, here the matmen have not fared so only the second time these two tra- well. Although these two schools ditional rivals have met on the mat. have met oinly seven times, the Wol- Last year in their first encounter the verines have been able to bring back Wolverines soundly trounced the only two victories. So this year's Gophers by a score of 25-3, and when meeting will have both the incentive February tenth rolls around the to wipe the grin of cockiness off the Maize and Blue grapplers will be "Fighting Illini" and the desire to seeking their second win over Min- keep the conference championship nesota.- here at Michigan in the minds of Thus as the wrestling season ap- the grapplers. proaches, the University of Michi- In the third match of the year the gan wrestlers will have much at matmen travel to Lafayette, Indiana stake, what with the impressive rec- to meet the Purdue wrestlers, who ord they have amassed, and the were last year's runner-ups in the quest for a second straight Confer- Big Ten meet. The Boilermakers ence championship. Therefore, this will be out to even up the score this year should find a determined wres- year since they were beaten 'by a tling squad taking to the mat for the single point in the Conference meet. University of Michigan. ,_ V' #Itakiit the wOun44 By BANK MANTHO Daily Sports Editor This column is written by Bill Mullendore, sports night editor. By BILL MULLENDORE MARTIN MARION, shortstop of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals, is rated as the best at his position at every point in the baseball world- except Cincinati, home of Deacon Bill McKechnie and the Cincinnati Reds, and a young gentleman named Eddie Miller who also does quite a bit of shortstopping during the summer months. Down Cincinnati way the fans will tell you that their man Miller can do everything that Marion can do, and a few more things besides-and they have the figures to prove it. Marion, they say, is a great shortstop, but he is not even the best in his own league, let alone in baseball. The neutral observer might be inclined to dismiss these claims as pardonable pride on the part of naturally prejudiced rooters, but for the wealth of statistics compiled by the good people of Cincinnati in support of their hero. After all, wasn't Marion the National League's Most Valuable Player? And what's all this talk of his being the equal of the immortal Hans Wagner, if he can't claim supremacy in his circuit? Publicity, say the fans from Cincinnati, publicity and Marion's showmanship as compared to the quiet unassuming Miller. Anyway, here's the case for Mr. Miller. USING AS A takeoff point the fact that both Miller and Marion have been around the circuit as regular shortstops for the past five seasons, some enterprising individual has burned up a great deal of paper in poring over the record books and securing some sort of a comparison between the two men. The results, for what they may be worth, give a decided edge to the man from Cincinnati and place Marion-Mr. Shortstop to St. Louis and most points East-as a poor'second. Wolverines Break Winning Streak Of Six Straight in Thrill Kell, Rifenbnrg, Geahan, Risen, Star in Contest (Continued from Page 1) time margin after the Buckeyes had come from behind to tie things up with two minutes of the half remain- ing. The game got off in a rush. Risen, who led both teams in the scoring column with 19 to his credit on seven field goals and five free throws, put Ohio in the lead on a charity toss, out. Kell's field goal put the Wol- verines back in the lead momentar- ily, but at this point Buckeye guard James Sims went on an individual spree, scoring seven straight points to give the Bucks a 34-29 margin. Coach H. G. Olsen's squad con- tinued out in front until three min- utes from the end of the game when the all-but-beaten Wolver- ines got up off the floor to fight back once more. With the score 37-32 Rifenburg caged a free throw, and Geahan added two more to make it ,37-35. Risen in- creased Ohio's lead to four points with a field goal, but Kell and Geahan then came through to send the game into overtime. The defeat was the first in eight starts for Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's five, while Ohio State notched its fourth win in five outings by beat- ing Michigan and also got off to a successful start in its defense of the Big Ten title. Risen's 19-point total was tops for both squads. The tall center used his height to good advantage, scor- -Packed Till ing all of his field goals on rebounds and close-in-shots. Geahan of Mi- chigan placed second in the scoring column with 10, followed by State's Grate and Michigan's Kell with nine each. Rifenburg totalled eight for the evening. MICHIGAN Fg Ft Pf Tp Mullaney, f 1 2 1 4 Geahan, f 3 4 2 10 1erce, f 1 0 0 2 Harder, f 0 0 0 0 Lund, c-g 2 0 2 4 Rifenburg, e 3 2 3 8 Lindquist, g 2 0 3 4 Kell,g 3 3 3 9 Gregor, g 0 0 2 0 TOTALS OHIO STATE Grate, f Dugger, f Caudill, f Risen, c Pfeiffer, e Huston, g Sims, g Amling, g TOTALS 15 11 16 41 Fg Ft Pt TP 3 3 3 9 2 2 2 6 0 1 1 1 7 5 2 19 0 0 0 0 3 0 4 6 1 1 5 3 0 0 0 0 16 12 17 44 Only in the batting average de- partment does the Spiderman from St. Louis rate the edge, hav- ing finished each season several notches higher in the final stand- ings. But wait, say the Miller rooters, and point to the all-im- portant "runs batted in" column where statistics show that, while Miller may have made fewer hits, he made them count for more runs. Miller has driven 320 tal- lies across the elate for a team scoring 2911 runs over the five- year span. The best Marion could produce was 273 RBI's for a team scoring 3687 runs. Thus, Miller has not only driven in more runs, than his rival but he has done it with a much less offensively-mind- ed teams. The truth of the matter is that neither man is particularly potent at the plate. Both are just average hitters who would never get by in the big time but for their fielding talents, which, in each case, are nothing short of sensational. The concensus of opinion that Marion is the better of the two, however, is refuted by a glance at some more statistics. Over the same five-year span Miller has compiled a fielding aver- age of .973 against Marion's .961. In doing this he has played in 57 more games and accepted more chances per game. Miller has made fewer errors, participated in more double plays, and generally con- ducted himself with more compe- tence than Marion. Here are the figures: hi heigt tv go Kadvnaemco-TTL The r ANN ARBOR BAN K 101 South Main. .and 330South State -6 Extends To YOu A H HAPPY N EW YEAR 1 Speed Skaters To Meet Monday DETROIT, Dec. 30--(AP)-Speed Skate Champions o seven states and two Canadian Provinces head a top-notch field of 150 entrants in the Detroit Free Press' Invitational Midwest Skating Championships Monday at Belle Isle. Michigan contenders, led by Vince Bozich of Detroit, Saginaw's Wrona sisters and Dorothy Koinis and Detroit's Lorraine Sabbe are certain to have plenty of outside competition from a field including 18 Ohio representatives,,seven from Wisconsin and a bevy of Champs from Illinois, Missouri, Connecticut, New York and Canada. The meet, first major event of the state's outdoor season, is sanc- tioned by the Michigan Skating Association and the Amateur Skating Union. II .1 JOHN MULLANEY G PO A. E TC DP PCT. Marion Miller 699 1340 2188 143 3671 431 .961 756 1718 2509 116 4343 533 .973 Preiea! fr TIME? But even that does not tell the whole story. One might very logically point out that since Miller has participated in more games, he would naturally boast bigger totals in all departments, except of course, the final fielding averages. So the enterprising lads from Ohio have gone even farther and broken down the totals by seasons and even by games. They point with pride to the fact that Miller has in every campaign handled a larger number of chances per game played than Marion. Here is how they compare in this department. Year Marion Miller 1940 4.09 5.91 1941 5.08 5.33 1942 5.06 5.18 1943 5.13 5.70 1944 5.06 5.81 Looking over this table one can hardly come to the conclusion that Miller makes fewer errors because he doesn't try for the tough chances. In other words, he is no Zeke Bonura, who used to lead the first basemen every season simply because he never touched a ball hit two feet to either side of him. Miller, apparently, not only comes up with them oftener b'ut goes and gets them as well. IN THE double play standings, Miller has been in on average of 106.6 twin-killings per season as against Marion's 80.6. He has averaged .705 per game, while the best Marion could do was .617. Of course, it takes three men to make a double play, but the Cincinnati fans insist that their man is the more adept of the two. All of which seems to prove that the enthusiasm over Marion's ex- ploits may be just a little bit premature. Undoubtedly, "Slats" is a fine ball player. He may even have some claim to greatness. But in their enthusiasm for the antics of the lanky Cardinal shortstop the experts seem to have forgotten all about Miller. True, Miller didn't play on a championship team and has not made the haadlines with the same con- sistency that Marion has. He is not as colorful as Marion, nor as spec- tacular. Miller is just a quiet, workmanlike ball player who does his job the best way he knows how, which seems to be pretty good, the way the people of Cincinnati tell it. but Kell came back with a field goal from the foul line to put Michigan ahead. Risen made it 3-2 on a neat under-the-basket shot after wresting the ball away from several Wolver- ines. The rest of the half was a see- saw affair as the lead changed hands eight times before Rifen- burg brought the near-capacity crowd to its feet with his two quick baskets to send the Wolver- ines into their longest lead of the evening. Lund's tally a moment later was the final scoring of the half. Ohio State came back with a rush at the opening of the second period and threatened to haveathings pret- ty much its own way, as the Bucks whittled Michigan's lead steadily. Don Grate, all-Conference forward of last year, finally tied it up on a spectacular tip-in from eight feet _____ -_-._ _, [1 FL + 1 .r/ "I / Although you may be busy with your school and war work, don't forget to remember your friends on their birth- days or on other special occasions . . . . with GREETING CARDS ! We have a fine selection of both HUMOROUS and SENTIMENTAL CARDS. Francisco-Boyce 723 North University South Victorious Over North, 24-7 Iowa Beats MSC For Sixth Victory IOWA CITY, IOWA, Dec. 30.- Iowa's Hawkeyes romped to their sixth consecutive basketball victory here tonight, with a 66-29 win over Michigan State. The Hawks displayed few signs of brilliance as they trampled the same team Ohio State defeated 67-31 two days ago. Dick Ives, Iowa's usually high point making forward, was held to a mere five counters, and scoring honors were taken over by Herb Wilkinson with 14. Fortino and Rapchak led Michigan State with nine each. Despite the score, thesHawkeyes did not look like the same club that stopped Notre Dame last week. Fast breaks were not often in evidence and the Iowans took many futile shots. Had it not been for the extreme coldness of the Spartan forwards the 32-15 half time count in favor of Iowa might have been much closer. Play in the final period still was slow, but the work of Ned Postels made the Hawks look somewhat better. Ili MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 30-(P1) --Sgt. Charley Trippi, the former Georgia star and current pride of the Third Air Force eleven, was the chief contributor today in a 24 to 7 victory of the South-All-Stars over their Northern opponents in the an- t ' 'liii U nual Blue-Gray contest. Trippi, a member of the 1942 Rose Bowl eleven at Georgia, passed and ran the Blue lads into defeat before the game was many minutes old, pacing two drives for touchdowns in the first 18 minutes. So great was the superiority of the South's line that Blue running plays gained only 18 yards. Bob Hoern- schemeyer of Indiana almost passed the losers back into the running, however, with an even dozen com- pleted tosses, H UT ZE L' S. ANN ARBOR i TWENTY-EIGHTH AFTER -C ;HRI s 1TMAs better. l I exactly IRenoir F "The Scarlet Ptonmake Starring LESLIE HOWARD and MERLE OBERON To be given New Year's Eve - 8:30 and 11 :00 Performances 3i SFLE I I