FiiDAY MAJC1H 25, 1949 T'VE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE --- ----- ------- ----- - ---- PAGE i TALKING SHOP with Bud Weidenthal associate sports editor Heusner Captures 1500 in NCAA Swin WHEN DICK WAKEFIELD left the University of Michigan in his sophomore year to play baseball with the Detroit Tigers under a $52,000 bonus contract he was pegged as one of the most promising rookies cif all time. Now, seven years later the same Wakefield is fighting for his very existence in baseball. AT BEST THE SLUGGING Chicagoan has been a disappointment to the Tiger management and to Detroiters in general who held great hopes for him . . . famed for his supposed natural ability to hit a long ball, he has faltered badly in the $ig timeand become the subject of much criticism. At Michigan Wakefield was a tremendous success. As a sopho- more he hit at a terrific clip and packed tremendous power on his 6 foot 2 inch frame . .. it was said at the time that no one was safe in the distant center field tennis courts when the Wolverine ace was at bat .. . Despite his tremendous size he is one of the fastest men in the game, and is a better than average fielder. In 1944, a typical wartime baseball year, he did bat .355 for the Bengals, but this was the excep- tion when it should have been the rule ... Everyone, including Dick himself, is aware of his trouble he's just too easy going, too happy-go-lucky to work properly at his trade . . . and to put in the tedious hours that go with smoothing out the inevitable flaws that come with the bigiump from college to the big time. HE'S STILL A COLLEGE BOY at heart, and it appears that he never has taken baseball seriously. He received his bachelor degree at Michigan in February after attending the University for 8 years. He was a well-known campus character and liked by everyone who knew him . . . perhaps he is too likeable, too amiable. A typical "good-time Charley" Wakefield is famed for his big black cigars and large automobiles that he drove around campus. He has that "well, you only live once attitude." The 232 pounds that he carried with him to Lakeland last month is "proof positive" of his philosophy of life .. . Steve O'Neill was quite patient with his hard-to-manage protege and gave him every encouragement and little punishment for his strange antics . . . Wakefield took a tremendous beating from the fans and Detroit papers. There are many who claim that this partially was the cause of his failure.. * BUT THE CINDERELLA boy's pumpkin is in for a rough ride now that fiery Red Rolfe is in the driver's seat for the Tigers. . the red-headed ex-Yankee has indicated publicly that Dick has got to produce or he's through. "If he wants to make this ball club, he'll have to make it the hard way by proving to me that he's a better ball player than Pat Mullin. He won't win that job on his reputation." This is the big year for Dick and he knows it-only too well . . his future in baseball is at stake. It appears that there'll be no second chance as far as Rolfe is concerned . . . this may be the impetus he has long needed-only time will tell . . . There's a lot of hard work and long hours between now and then ... Whether young Mr. Wakefield has the stuff that will put him out in the outfield for the Tigers on opening day, even his best; friends won't venture. to guess. Personally we like the guy and hope he makes the grade. Oosterbaan Expects 175 Men To Report for Spring Practice New Stars Old Timers In IGymnTest Wolverine gymnasts will play host to some of the finest colle- giate tumblers in the business when representatives of most of the Big Nine schools flock to Ann Arbor tomorrow for the Confer- ence Meet. The first Western Conference Gymnastics Meet ever to be held at Michigan will feature NCAA Champions, AAU crown wearers, and Big Nine titlists, but no title is secure with the amount of new talent competing. MINNESOTA, defending cham- pions, can point to Howard Swan- son Don Hedstrom, Jim Peterson Wings Lose In Overtime DETROIT - (A') - Rookie Gerry Plamondon scored his third goal of the game after 2:59 of overtime play to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings before 13,718 fans here last night. The triumph evened the Detroit-Montreal Stanley Cup semi-final series at one game each. and Herb Loken, as four reasons for repeating last year's feat. Three of the "Big Four" are former Conference champions with the fourth, Herb Loken, ready and able to unseat stal- warts in almost any event. Swanson, Hedstrom,aand Peter- son won the Big Nine titles on the parallel bars, flying rings, and tumbling events respectively with Peterson walking off with "All-Around" honors. Along with NCAA crown hold- ers, Joe Calvetti, high bar, and Gay Hughes, trampoline, Illinois will feature their sophomore won- ders, Frank Dolan, John Sharp, and Holly Echols. BOB SCHOENDUBE, Wolverine AAU and Conference 'tramp champ' will be on hand to defend his right totihese titles. Great things are expcted from "daily double" Pete Bar- thell, who had a bad day if he didn't win at least two events in dual competition this season. Teammate Ed Buchanan has also shown much promise on the trampoline and is expected to place high in the final stand- ings. The experts are picking Bruce Sidlinger, of Iowa, to take the trampoline event in spite of the tough competition. All senior~ athletic managers are requested to report to the 'M' Club Room of Yost Field House at 4 p.m. today for pic- tures. Please wear coats and ties. Michigan Fails To Score As Meet Gets Under Way (Special to The Daily) uled to be a different story as U CHAPEL HILL. N.C.-Blazing huge affair swings into a full pr( Bill Heusner, Northwestern's great gram of events. Six championshil distance star successfully defend- will be clecided tonight includir ed his 1500-meters title as the 26th the 50-yd. free style, the 150-y annual National Collegiate Ath- backstrcke: the 200-yd. brea letic Association swimming meet srk;tc20y.fe tl;i got undler away here last night. stroke: thle 220-yd. free style: to gl n board diving and the 400-yd. fr Michigan's defending champions style relay. failed to score. f ' Daily-Pete Mann CAN THEY DO IT?-Michigan's defending NCA I champions opened defense of their collegiate crown at North Carolina last night as a distinct u iderdog. Pictured above is the squad which carries Wolverine hopes for a repeat victory. Front row (left to right) Matt Mann III, Bernie Kahn, co-cap- tain Bob Sohl, Tommy Coates, George Eyster. Top row (left to right), John McCarthy, Charlie Moss, Bill Kogen, Ralph Trimborn, Dave Tittle, co-captain Dick Weinberg. Free styler Gus Stager rounds out the twelve-man Michigan squad. FISHER'S COMIN' OUT PARTY: ' Nine Plans Intra-Squad Tilt Today IEUSNER stroked the distance grind in 19:04.8, only five seconds short of Jack Medica's NCAA rec- ord, to stave off a strong bid from Stanford's Ralph Sala who fin- ished in 19:16.1 to shave more than a half minute off his last year's fifth place time. Forbes Norris, Harvard's Olympic distance man took third, Emil Estoclet of Yale was fourth and Roger Watts of Iowa State took the last place. Thus, at the end of the first day of the three-day meet Northwest- ern leads with six points followed by Stanford with four, Harvard with three, Yale with two and Iowa State with one. Meanwhile, the three powers of the meet, Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan, scheduled to battle it out for the title, were all score- less. TODAY, HOWEVER, is sched- ,I anUors B sob Anclel-son, .Joe Verdeur of La Salle, Bill Smith of Ohio State and Bruce Har- lan of Ohio State will be on hand to defend their respective Candidates for spring foot- ball practice which opens Mon- day are asked to draw their equipment from Henry Hatch at the field house this week. Equipment may be drawn after 2 p.m., eitherFriday or Satur- day. titles in the 50, breaststroke, 220 and diving and all but An- derson are favored to repeat. In a business meeting preceding last night's lid-lifter, Wolverine swimming coach, Matt Mann, was named first vice president of th College Swimming Coaches Asso ciation of America. He had previ ously been second vicepresident. Jack Torney of the University o Washington was named president Provided the balmy spring weather that has been in and out of Ann Arbor all week holds up, Wolverine baseball coach Ray Fisher announced plans to move outside today and try to get an intra-squad game going. The Michigan nine will be the first of the spring sports to move from the confines of the Yost Field House to the actual prac- r t ment of several of his ball play- ers, commenting particularly on Leo Koceski and big Lefty Mor- "While Koceski is not a pol- ished hitter, he has made great strides from the way he reported for the first day of practice," Fisher said. He added that Mor- rill has made quite a bit of prog- ress both over last season and his early year workouts. The Wolverines went throtigh anoaher lengthyy practice session in the cages yesterday afternoon, with both the hitters and- the pitchers getting their share of the work. Freshman wrestling award winners are asked to report to the equipment room in the, Field House to bermeasured for sweaters. tice field. :The Wolveine out- fielders have been working out- doors for the past few days. getting in needed fielding and throwing practice. WITH THE SEASON'S opener only nine days away, the Maize and Blue could use a lot of out- side work to get themselves in proper shape for theGeorgetown tilt, as the transition from indoor practice to actual game conditions is a tough one to make. Fisher praised the improve- TUXEDO and TAILS RENTALS ALL NEW - ALL SIZES Locally Stocked See RA8IDEAURIHARRI S 119 So. Main St. Phone 6924 Eddleman Best in Conference CHAMPAIGN, Ill.-(J)-Captain Dwight Eddleman, of the Uni- versity of Illinois Western Conference basketball championship team, has been elected most valuable player in the Big Nine. The Illini are in Seattle, Wash., where they meet Oregon State Saturday for third place in the NCAA finals. Eddleman, Centralia, Ill., high school graduate, finished the 22 games of Illinois" regular 1948-49 season with 301 points, four less than the Illinois record set by Andy Phillip in 1943. ~~. . . . O ' k-;- ff LET'S GO! ... to he v.. DE POty BEER - WINE -- MIXERS DRIVE-THRU COURTEOUS SERVICE NO PARKING Daily 10 A.M. - 10 P.M. - Sunday, Noon - 7 P.M. 114 E. Williams Phone 7191 v'i4 "h. Y"Y'"{Yd'i .+:<'Yk. + :d"4?:v . ,. . i Over 175 men are expected to .report for Michigan's spring foot- ball practice which gets under way next Monday. Coach-of-the-Year Bennie Oos-' terbaan is returning tomorrow Grant lected Puck Captain Wally Grant, speedy Wolverine right wing was elected by his teammates as Michigan's hockey captain for the 1949-50 season. At the same time, Wally Gacek was given the "most valuable player" award by a vote of the squad. Coach Vic Heyliger announced that seventeen members of the 1948-49 team were awarded Major letters. from a trip to the Pacific Coast where he combined speaking en- gagements for various alumni groups with a well-earned winter vacation. He will confer with his assistant coaches, Jack Blott, line coach; George Ceithaml, backfield; and Bill Orwig, ends; to complete plans for the practice drills which will last until May 14. The plans at present list five sessions for next week and, after a spring vacation layoff, six prac- tices a week until the middle of May. The first week the players will concentrate mostly on movies of last year's games, and chalk talks. However, if the weather is good, Oosterbaan intends to take his charges outside to get some of the kinks loosened up before the concentrated drills begin after va- cation. smartest numbers in town .........................., You always get a bright "hello" when you wear a Van Heusen striped shirt! 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