Slats' Sox

It was midwinter, and Martin Whitford Marion, manager of the Chicago White Sox, was already lost in a bright dream of spring. His team, he announced with admirable brevity, was going to win the American League pennant. Sportswriters snickered. It would be a close race all right. Maybe the Sox would finish third--after the Yanks and the Indians.

For the moment, everyone had forgotten that "Slats" Marion had a habit of calling his shots quietly and accurately.

He was one of that new breed of managers: the nice guys. Like Brooklyn's Walter Alston and Boston's Pinky Higgins, he never felt the need for loudmouthed bluster. Slats was the man who was managing the St. Louis Browns in 1953, when they became the Baltimore Orioles, and he said out loud that he had a lousy ball club. He was fired for his honesty. "Defeatist," mumbled the Orioles' General Manager Arthur Ehlers, choosing a strange word to describe the skinny scrapper who had made himself "Mr. Shortstop" on the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals of the 40s.

Warm-Weather Cheers. Chicago's optimists had a hard time believing Slats. The Sox, after all, had an unnerving and persistent failing called a June swoon, a mid-season slump that started them sliding toward the second division. But last week, even the diehards agreed that Marion's cold-weather prediction might pan out. The White Sox took two out of three games from the disintegrating Yanks; they split a four-game series with the Boston Red Sox and at week's end they were scrapping with the Yanks and Indians for the league lead.

For the first time in decades, the White Sox are operating with a first-line player in every position. Behind the plate, Catcher Sherman Lollar is a new man under Marion's managing. A journeyman backstop under former White Sox Manager Paul Richards, he is now hitting around .270; his pegs to second scoot low and fast; he handles his pitchers with skill. And the pitchers have responded. Newcomer Dick Donovan has racked up a 13-3 record. Veteran Billy Pierce, pitching tight ball, has won 7 and lost 6. Harry Byrd, a castoff Oriole, has won 5.

Locker-Room Tears. In the infield, ham-handed First Baseman Walt Dropo, an adequate fielder, is hitting well enough to hold down the cleanup slot. Second Baseman Nellie Fox, a consistent .300 hitter, has picked up new tricks in the infield, e.g., learned to go to his right for ground balls, under Marion's coaching. Shortstop Chico Carrasquel, not hitting up to par, is still one of the best in the business. Third Baseman George Kell, healthy again after a knee operation last winter, is the old pro who saves the game with a stop or a hit in the clutch.

In the outfield, Minnie Minoso, fighting a dismal batting slump, was found quietly weeping in the locker room after one sorry performance last week ; he came back at week's end to hit a two-run homer against Boston. Minoso teams up with Jim Busby and Jim Rivera to make one of the fastest outfields in baseball. Busby has saved so many games that one newspaper headlined: Winning Pitcher: Busby.

With the June swoon well behind them, the Sox are thinking and acting like champions. And the man who is thinking and acting one jump ahead of them is that slim workhorse, Manager Marion. Last week Slats Marion got just the kind of compliment that a professional appreciates most. White Sox General Manager Frank Lane gave him a new contract to run through the 1957 season.

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