Dodgers' Chances

The Dodgers were still easing the winter kinks from their muscles at Miami when Manager Charley Dressen called them in for a talk. Dressen wanted them to stop moping about last season, especially those horrible ten weeks when they blew a 13 1/2-game lead to the Giants, and then lost the pennant by a home run. "Forget it," said Dressen. "We have nothing to be ashamed of. It was nobody's fault in particular and it can't happen again."

On paper, last year's team was fine. Dressen had a fast, rifle-armed outfield (Duke Snider, Andy Pafko, Carl Furillo) which walloped 75 home runs, and one of the league's best infields (Billy Cox, Captain Peewee Reese, Cleanup Man Jackie Robinson, and Gil Hodges). It was an awesome array of hitters led by Robinson's .338. He had Most Valuable Player Roy Campanella (.325) behind the plate, and four topflight pitchers--Preacher Roe (22-3), Carl Erskine (16-12), Ralph Branca (13-12), and Clem Labine (5-1). But his strength was all in the front line. The Dodgers needed depth on the bench, good men to spell ailing regulars, and a starting pitcher to replace 20-Game Winner Don Newcombe, who was called into the Army in February. They also needed a little of that oldtime hustle.

In Florida, Manager Dressen put his boys on a strict diet, and got Miler Leslie MacMitchell down from the North to teach them how to run. Dressen taught his team the ancient, one-run squeeze play until everyone got it drilled into his skull. He picked up a pair of promising young fielders from the minors: Bobbie Morgan and George Shuba, both hitting major-league pitching at well over .300.

Pitching was the biggest problem. Dressen found two rookies who looked good: Ben Wade, who had a 16-6 record with the Pacific Coast League last season, and Johnny Rutherford, a right-hander with hairline control. Dressen liked Rutherford. "That kid," he chortled delightedly, "keeps nibbling at the corners of the plate." When the Giants lost two of their aces, Monte Irvin and Willie Mays, one by a broken ankle, the other to the U.S. Army, the experts started picking the Dodgers as the team to beat.

Last week, when they arrived home for the first of a three-game exhibition series with the World Champion Yankees, they still looked like the team to beat. For five innings Dressen hopped up & down in the coach's box, urging and needling, then sank back into the dugout and relaxed. Despite some atrocious base running, the Dodgers raked three Yankee pitchers for 14 hits, nine runs, went on to take the series 2-1. No one in Brooklyn was taking any bets, but the gloom hanging heavy over the city since October began to lift.

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