Events & Discoveries

YALE 3, CORNELL 2

Like television and southern cooking, college baseball can be pretty awful and pretty good. Brown University, to take a case, looked pretty awful the other day in losing (with the help of nine errors) to Navy by a score of 16-3. At the same time Yale and Cornell were providing an afternoon of baseball that had high entertainment value, some good pitching, some stylish fielding and one catch that an old Yale man named Frank Merriwell would have been glad to claim. Yale, as it usually did in Frank's day, won, 3-2, for its 14th in a row in two seasons.

The game was played before a crowd of about 200 at Yale Field, which is complete with such major league comforts as a public-address system, a big electric scoreboard, printed score cards and a hot dog and soda pop salesman alert enough to switch to hot coffee when the sun vanishes into the clouds.

From this knowing crowd, a casual visitor could pick up all sorts of interesting information. For instance, Frank McGowan, scout for the Baltimore Orioles, was on hand. The Yale team had had the benefit this spring of a Florida training trip. Bill DeGraaf, the Cornell pitcher, was also Bill DeGraaf, the Cornell quarterback. Don Pruett, in right field for Yale, was the son of Dr. Hubert Pruett of St. Louis who, as Shucks Pruett of the old Browns, used to strike out Babe Ruth with (to the Babe) infuriating regularity. Ethan Allen, Yale coach, was the same Ethan Allen who played the outfield in both big leagues, wrote several baseball books, invented a parlor game called All-Star Baseball.

As for this game, it got off in big league style. Ken MacKenzie, the Yale left-hander and captain, forced the first three men who faced him to pop up feebly. He walked Nick Schiff to open the second inning, but a double play nullified that, and then MacKenzie went on to allow only two scratch hits until the ninth. In the fourth he was saved from some bad trouble when Jim Brown went after John Simek's long fly to left and dived into the bleacher seats for it. Brown managed to rise up and show that he had caught the ball, then collapsed. He was carried off on a stretcher but was able to start walking around before the game was over.

Ray Lamontagne, Yale center fielder, hitting in the cleanup position, was the principal offender against Cornell's DeGraaf. Lamontagne accounted for three of Yale's seven hits and sent a long fly to center to score Hassler with the winning run in the seventh. Without him in there, Bill DeGraaf—who pitched the full game for Cornell—certainly would have had a more pleasurable afternoon.

Yale's MacKenzie got in trouble in the ninth. After fanning Dick Meade, he walked DeGraaf (who hits No. 3). Nick Schiff thereupon singled to left, and after John Simek popped up, Cornell's John Anderluh singled to center for his first hit of the afternoon, scoring DeGraaf. Earl Taylor then relieved MacKenzie and walked John Marchell, hitting for Mott, to fill the bases. The hitter was now Clayton Haviland who had replaced Flynn at second base. Earl Taylor looked him in the eye, hitched up his pants like a pro and forced him to fly out to center. Totals: for Cornell, two runs, five hits, two errors. For Yale, three runs, seven hits, one error—and a firm hold on first place in the Eastern Intercollegiate League.

ON YOUR MARK

Down in T�a Juana, where the laws of Mexico look kindly on book-making, the Alessio brothers John and Tony closed their Kentucky Derby future book (SI, May 2, '55) and are now sitting back with a veteran air. Needles (2 to 1) is the favorite in their book, closely followed by Career Boy (5 to 2) and Head Man (4 to 1). After that come Count Chic, Pintor Lea and Terrang (all 6 to 1), Fabius (8 to 1), Ben A. Jones and Countermand (10 to 1), No Regrets (15 to 1), Besomer and High King (30 to 1).

The four "bad" horses, from the book's standpoint, are Count Chic, Terrang, Reaping Right and Ben A. Jones—the latter a 3-year-old chestnut not to be confused with Calumet Trainer Ben A. Jones, who may saddle a horse or two of his own in the big race. Count Chic, Terrang, et al. would be "bad" winners from the book's standpoint because of their relatively low esteem early in the winter season, when Count Chic, for instance, was rated 30 to 1. Not long after, Count Chic went to Florida and ran a smashing second to Needles, and the wagers poured in.