9 WFDEDNsAY; JM~tAR 9%11 46 THE MICHIGAN DI.LY PA(C:ETUUP1T OF THE KEYBOARD By MARY LU HEATH Associate Sports Editor UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE last week of Tony Cuccinello, 37-year-old veteran third baseman for the White Sox, is significant of the trend in baseball and other professional sports these days. Cuccinello was not the victim of a bad season in 1945. In fact, the aging infielder was leading the American League batters going into the final day of competition this fall. He relinquished first place to George Stirnweiss, Yankee batsman, before the day was over, Presumably, he would have been one of the last men the Sox would want to turn loose for the coming season. He evidently has no intention of retiring, according to the Associated Press account of his release, which states that "Cuccinello has ambitions to continue as an active player." As a free agent, he can sign with any other club desiring his services. The plain fact is that the White Sox, like the other Major League clubs this year, will be turning all of the old-timers out to pasture. There is no place on the nines of today for the veterans who kept the game going during the war. THE DISCHARGED SERVICEMEN are coming back into baseball. The Wakefields, Williams, and Di Maggios, with their agility and power, are causing big league managers to put the accent on youth in 1946. It seens almost ungrateful on the part of the owners to rid themselves of superfluous talent at the expense of the veterans. Baseball was admittedly on its last legs in 1945. Many doubted whether the 16 teams would be able to field 144 pltyers this year if the war continued. The transportation diffi- culties were as bad as ever. Only the persistence of veteran players, many of whom had no business playing, kept the sport alive last year. It is certainly regrettable that they are deprived of their chief liveli- hood (in most cases, it isn't their only one) now that they have outlived their usefulness. If they feel resentment toward the youngsters, that is understandable. They should, however, and will, bow out gracefully. They were hopeful youngsters once themselves, with the same infinite enthusiasm and amazing resilience in their legs. They should be able to understand that standards change in the flicker of an eyelash. Wrestlers Hold Try out Matches For Starting Berths on Saturday RECONVERSION . . . ELMER SWANSON, star hurdler from 1943-44, back after more than a year in service for a crack at the existing Field House records. CAN HE DO IT AGAIN? ueI rn of Star Hurdler Raises Querie o-. Servicemen Athletes Quintet Splits Parl; of Upsets 0er Weekend SuirprPes llini Five Then Is Spilled by MSC By HANK KEISER Michigan's basketball squad went from one extereme to another in the short space of three days, winning a dog-eat-dog battle from Illinois, one of the ton teams in the country, last Saturday, then dropping a match, in which they were favored, to an up- start Michigan State team, Mon- day night. In one of the most thrilling con- tests ever played at Yost Field House, a near-record crowd of seven thousand spectators watched Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's Wol- verines fight it out with the Illini's highly-touted quintet, last Satur- day, overcoming a six-point deficit to tie up the game with a minute of rlay remaining. The winning point was made by Glen Selbo, who was awarded two free throws, at this point, as a result cf a pushing pen- alty called against Illinois. The final score read, 49-48. Monday evening, however, was a different story asCoach Ben VanAl- styne's MSC Spartans bounced back from a 47-39 beating at the hands of the Wolverines earlier this season, to down the visiting Michigan crew, 49-36. There were 8,549 enthusiastic fans who saw the two quintets play a neck-and-neck first period to a 19-18 halftime score. After the start of the second frame the Spartans pulled ahead of Oosterbaan's five to rack up 30 points to Michigan's 18 in the re- maining time. At first the shooting of both teams was inaccurate but as the contest progressed MSC found its eye sufficiently well enough to lead by 13 points at the game's conch- sion. "It was just like the Ohio State game earlier this season," com- mented Oosterbaan, "The boys were tense and keyed up and couldn't seem to click. I don't think they had enough rest after their tough game with Illinois, two days before." Bob Harrison, the Maize and Blue's high-scorer to date garnered the top individual Wolverine score of 11 points. He was closely followed by Selbo, with ten markers. The high- est point total for both teams was racked up by MSC's center, Matt Mazza, while Spartan forward, Sam Fortino, copped second place honors. Mazza sunk 14 points worth of bask- ets, and his teammate put in 12. Michigan's quintet will play a two- game series away from home this weekend. Friday night they journey to Chicago to meet the University of Chicago Maroons. The following eve- ning they face Northwestern at Evanston. Buy Victory Bonds! i 3 Torri-td Pace In ockey Scoring LeasTa uates with 21 Point Total; Squad Eyes Record Goal-Getting Mark By DES HOWARTH While the rampaging Michigan hockey team has been sweeping all op- position before it and setting several new scoring records, a terrific battle for scoring honors has waged among the members of the squad, with Gord MacMillan currently setting the pace. MacMillan, fast-skating center on the number two line, has banged in nine goals and has 12 assists for a 21 point total. Close on the heels of i the Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, star are his two wingmen, BillJacobson and Al Renfrew. Renfrew has scored eight goals with 10 assists, while Ja- cobson also has eight markers and two gaines to Toronto University re- cently by big margins, but Coach Vic Heyliger does not expect the Wolver- ines to have any easy time as Colo- rado has always proved tough for Michigan in the past. Michigan's chances for victory in the Colorado contests were brightened yesterday, however, when it was learned that Ross Smith, stellar Wol- verine defenseman, has again been declared eligible for competition fol- lowing clarification of his scholastic status. Ind uvidial Scoring Center MacMillan With its opening dual match' against Indiana, Jan. 19 in Bloom-; ington fast approaching, the 1946 varsity wrestling team will hold the first of the tryout matches to deter- mine starting berths on Saturday, Jan. 12 in Yost Field House. Winners To Compete The winners of these bouts will probably get the nod in the Indiana meet. Favored in 121-pound class are Lamg, and Forrest Dayton. Dayton, thought, is still suffering from an arm injury'incurred in the all-cam- pus wrestling tournament. Since Art Sachsel has quit the team, John Allred is the sole com- petitor at 128 pounds. The top man of the 136s is Navy trainee, Dale Rich- ardson. Wayne Smith, freshman from Fort Dodge, Iowa, heads the 145 pound division, but he is closely con- tested for the head spot by Pete Celments and Bob Jobson. The fa- vorites of the 155 pounders are Stu Snyder, Navy student who won his division's title in . the all-campus tourney, Marty Cranston, runner-up in the 155 class, .and Earle Russell. No competition will be offered Cap- Feller Agrees On '46 Contract CLEVELAND, Jan. 8 - (OP) - Bob Feller, speedball king of the major leagues, announced an all-star roster of instructors for his ex-servicemen's Baseball School today after signing the "best" one-year contract of his career with the Cleveland Indians. The strikeout star said no bonus clause' was attached to his 1946 con- tract, but asserted the paper was "the best I have ever signed." This year's figure was not announced but Fel- ler's previous top salary was a re- ported $40,000 in 1941, including a $10,000 bonus based on attendance. Feller and Tribe Vice-President Roger Peckinpaugh agreed they were "happy" about the contract signing Leading the list of instructions at the Tampa, Fla., training session for players returning from the armed forces will be Buddy Hassett, Tommy Bridges, Hugh Mulcahy, Bucky Wal- ters, Joe Dimaggio, Dizzy Dean, Char- ley Keller, Al Lopez, Lou Fonseca and Harold (Muddy) Ruel, assistant to Baseball Commissioner A. B. (Happy) Chandler. tain Bill Courtright, who is the top man at 165 pounds. The grapplers who tip the scales at 1.75 pounds will have a wide open chance to cop the starting berth. The favorites at this weight are Bob Bosworth, holder of the 175 pound crown from the tour- nament, footballer George Chiames, and Ward Peterson, an Ann Arbor product. At the present time, Walt Blumen- stein heads the heavyweights, but he will be forced to the limit by var- sity gridders Dan Dworsky and Stu Wilkins, neither of whom have wres- tled before. Coach Cliff Keen said that he had no way of telling how the team will By WALT KLEE With the return of Elmer Swanson to the scene of his former triumphs on the cinderpaths, the sports fans of the Midwest will be interested to see if a track star can return to the same form he had before his entry into service. Swanson, before he went into service, was Michigan's best man in hoth the high and low hurdle events. In 1943, his first year of competition, he garnered a second and a third in the high and low Crisler, Fisher, Munn Atternhng Athietic Meet Athletic Director H. O. (Fritz) Cris- ler, Line Coach Clarence (Biggie) Munn, and Baseball Coach Ray Fish- er are in St. Louis this week, attend- ing meetings of the nation's top ath- letic officials, which began yesterday. Among the organizations in ses- sion are the National Collegiate Ath- letic Association, the American Foot- ball Coaches' Association, and the American Association of College Base- ball Coaches. Crisler will attend the special meet- ing of Big Ten representatives, which Western Conference Commissioner K. K. L. (Tug) Wilson called when he learned that nine of the Conference's athletic directors would 'be in St. Louis this week. Fisher, who is a vice-president of the baseball coaches' group organized last spring, will attend an executive session of the organization, while Munn, one of the representatives of football teams in this district, will give a report on the recent season. Phis will be one of Munn's last offi- cial acts for the University before he leaves to take over duties as head football coach at Syracuse March 1. An unprecedented number of foot- ball rule changes will come up for consideration in the first post-war session of the NCAA, including fresh- man eligibility. hurdles in the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Chicago. A year later he took the individual titles in both events with the sur- prisingly good times of 8.9 seconds for the 70 yard high hurdles and 8.1 second for the low hurdles. In dual meet competition in Yost Field House, Swanson has turned in times just one-tenth of a second off the records held by another Elmer, Elmer Gedeon, of the 1938 and 1939 Wolverine teams. The question of a veteran return- ing to pre war form has already been answered affirmatively in several other sports. Baseball has seen Hank Greenberg, Virgil Trucks, Charlie Keller'and others start in right where they left off. But as many baseball stars played everyday on service teams it was merely a matter of changing uniforms. In other cases the men experienced difficulty. But track is different. There is no opportunity to keep in condi- tion. The muscles called upon in the sport are seldom used in ordi- nary walking and running. The question remains. Can Swanson carry on where he left off. In practice so far the hurdler has shown up well. If he continues to im- prove at the same rate as in the past weeks we may see the Field House records change hands from Elmer to Elmer, Gedeon to Swanson. G MAC MILLAN.. 9 RENFREW .... 8 JACOBSON . 8 CELLEY ......9 GRANT........8 HILL ........ .1 SMITH.........2 KUZNIER..... 2 ARNOT ......, 2 SULENTICH 2 COS SALTER. STARRAK 1 MARSHALL. 0 STEADMAN. 0 JOHNSON . ... 0 TOTALS 52 A Pts 12 21 10 18 9 17 6 15 4 12 6 7 3 5 1 3 1 3 0 2 0 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 55 107 Pen 0 Min. 2 " 0 " 0 " 10 " 9 " 0 " 4 " 2 " 10 " 2 " 6 " 2 2 55 NEIL CELLEY - Eveleth, Minn., wingman who is one of the leading Wolverine scorers. nine assists. Altogether this line has totaled 56 points, or an average of eight per game. Neil Celley, Walt Grant, and Wally Gacek, the number one Michigan line, trail with 37 points. Celley, who has notched nine markers, leads this trio with 17 points. Grant, who scored four goals in the Sarnia game, ran his season's total to eight and has added four assists. Gacek has 10 points. In the seven games to date the Wol- verines have tallied 52 goals and need only 24 more to beat the all-time high set in the 1936-37 season. The Wolverines need seven more victories to set another mark in the win col- umn and eclipse the record of 13 es- tablished in 1937-38. Tomorrow the Wolverines will leave for Colorado Springs to meet Colorado* College in a two-game series on Fri- I-M Results Allen Rumsey "B" 29, Fletcher "B" 26 Green "B" def. Tyler "B" (for- feit) Allen Rumsey "A" 33, Wenley House 14 Fletcher "A" def. Baldwin "A" (forfeit) Green House "A" 30, Lockwood 17 Hubbell Re-signs Contract NEW YORK, Jan. 8---(P)-Carl Hubbell, who pitched for the New York Giants for 16 seasons and has served as director of the club's farm system for the past two years, has signed a new five-year contract as farm director, Secretary Eddie Ran- nick said today. i day and Saturday. Colorado dropped - i iI CLIFF KEEN will be holding an intra-squad contest this weekend to determine who will wrestle for the Wolverines against Indiana. fare during the campangn, as there is no knowledge of the opposition available. Kenn expressed that he was pleased with the work of the squad and the fine spirit shown to date and stated that such work does not stay unrewarded. it II I- I-M STANDINGS I t . R@ ':i:.. : r ; . s ' r; : . x . ,a / L 3 ; , ' i.';.- '' . t-s . * * * * * * * * * * * I' ~*dv TONIC T at 8:00 Don't let your studies get you down! Attend the Navy Musical Comedy I I FRATERNITY "A" Sig. Chi.................. S. A. 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