CATCHING 1860 TODAY

Today they will all be fought out--the Civil War, the assault on monopolies, the clash of have's and have-not's--when the Chicago Cubs dare to meet the New York Yankees. As in the 60's, "Gin'ral" Lee, ace pitcher of the underdog National League club, will try to stop the "Damnyankees." That the Yankees are a monopolistic and "have" organization cannot be disputed, since they comprise one of the highest-salaried teams in baseball and own a farm system that makes them look impregnable for the future. Will the Ruppert beer-filled rifles riddle the Windy City Cubbies? Will Manager Joe McCarthy, the only man who has ever managed both a National and American League pennant winner, become the first to win three World Series in a row? Will the Chicagoans succumb meekly, as they did not long ago to the same Yankees, in four games? One-quarter of these questions will be answered on Wrigley Field today.

There is one good reason why ball-minded Harvard men will be cheering for the underdog this time, despite their stand in the last Civil War. It is not because the owner of Juicy Fruit and Spearmint was rich enough to buy a sore-armed Dizzy Dean; not because of Big Bill Lee, the speed-baller with the movie profile. Both of these have shown fight--Dean, whose fast ball has passed on and who now pitches with his heart; Lee, who took the mound on four out of five days during the pennant spurt. Rather it is because of that Irish catcher who hails from around these parts. The count was two strikes and no balls on this lad last week; there were none on base and two out; the score was tied, and the game was to be called at the end of the inning. And he hit the next Pirate pitch into the left field stands for the one and only hundred thousand dollar home run in baseball history. The other day reporters asked him when he would name substitute O'Dea as starting catcher, since he himself had two sprained fingers on his throwing hand. He replied that he would push in the teeth of the writer who said O'Dea would play today. O'Dea may have to catch this afternoon, but Gabby Hartnett, active or inactive, has roused the cheers of the baseball world for the "Southern" side of the 1938 World Series.