Word: southworth
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...Labor Day, Southworth's boys met the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers in a battle that Boston historians may some day rank with Bunker Hill. With the help of six hits by Alvin Dark, Spahn won the 14-inning opener, 2-1, and Sain took the nightcap, 4-0. That dropped the Dodgers four games behind (and started them on their subsequent course down the league ladder...
...Martinet. Manager Billy Southworth had come a long way-up, down and up-since he was a Braves outfielder 27 years ago. He had been a Giant under John McGraw, then one of the swaggering St. Louis Cardinals when they won the 1926 World Series. Three years later, Billy the Kid became manager of the Cards-and promptly got his nickname changed to Billy the Heel. The bristling "boy martinet" forbade his old buddies to drive their own cars, clocked them in at night, was fired in midseason when morale and the Cards hit the skids...
...years Southworth was out of baseball; but by 1935 he was on his way back via the minor leagues. In 1940, a changed Billy became manager of the Cards for the second time. This time he treated his ballplayers with almost fatherly solicitude (his own son was later killed in a B-29 crash), kept pace with their problems on & off the field. Under Southworth, the Cards won three consecutive pennants, two World Series. In 1945, Billy left St. Louis for a fat offer from the "Three Steamshovels," as Boston calls the rich contractors who own the Braves. The team...
Bunker Hill. Apart from Southworth, the Braves got most of their early-season drive from pepperpot Second Baseman Eddie Stanky, late of the Dodgers, almost a "playing coach" until he broke his ankle on a slide. It was Stanky who helped Rookie Shortstop Alvin Dark (now batting .331) off to his sensational start. Even without Stanky, Billy's boys picked up speed. For pitching, Southworth relied on two work horses-tobacco-chewing right-hander Johnny Sain, with two 20-game seasons under his belt, and lefthander Warren Spahn...
...this season (Southworth's third in Boston) the Braves' longest losing streak has been four games. "When we lose," says Southworth, "we never talk baseball. I don't reprimand the boys for their mistakes after a game. I let a man sleep on it and talk to him next day. He doesn't resent it that way. There's no browbeating on my team. Actually, I haven't any reason to think that there's a fellow on the Braves who dislikes...