Connie Mack Expects Close Fight for Pennant; Believes Yanks Are Not as Powerful as Expected

"It looks as if we will have a very good season, at least as far as the American. League is concerned," Connie Mack, Manager of the Philadelphia Athletic, told the CRIMSON at the Copley Plaza Hotel yesterday afternoon.

"There are six teams that have a good chance to win the pennant and competition is always good for baseball," the Grand Old Man of baseball went on to say.

"Before the season opened it looked as if the Yankees would walk away with the pennant again, but it does not seam that way now. Of course, I still think the Yankees will be right up there fighting, but Cleveland, Chicago, Boston and Washington will also battle it out to win the top position."

Cleveland Strong

"Cleveland has the best pitching staff in the League, now that Bob Feller has found himself." The Athletic's mentor added, "Feller is young and he didn't know too much baseball when he started, but I think no will turn in an excell ent performance this season."

As for Boston's Red Sox Mack Said, "Boston has a good team and it is getting better all the time. Lefty Grove looks better than at any time since he left the Athletics. I expect the Red Sox to show a very strong drive for the pennant."

Questioned about his own team Mack said. "We are going to play good ball. Nevertheless the team is young and inexperienced. I do not expect that they are championship material. It takes quite awhile to build up a really powerful team, but they are getting better every season; that is all I can hope for."

DiMaggio Got "Lesson"

Mack would not discuss the DiMaggio holdout siege except to say. "He is still pretty young and he will learn. Most of us feel that this affair has taught him a good lesson."

As for the future in baseball for young men, as stated, "baseball is a good business, and there is always an opportunity for the man who has the ability to make good. Players in 1910 got a quarter of the salaries men receive now, and most of them today are successful business men with good incomes.