"All I hope is we make as good showing next year as Harvard did against Yale last Saturday," said Casey Stengel the Boston Bees' new pilot, in an interview Wednesday at the offices of the Boston National League Baseball Club. He declined to be more specific about the club's chances in 1938.
"The door to big-time baseball is always open to good college players, the former manager of the daffy Dodgers continued. "We don't want them while they're in college. They've got to finish their education. But when they're finished we'll be glad to give them a good stiff course over here."
The Bees' new head-man expressed satisfaction with the team's showing in the latter half of the past season. With no specific deals up his sleeve, he will leave today for the Milwaukee minor league convention accompanied by President Robert Quinn and latter attend the National League trade-fast.
"But if we see a chance to really strengthen the team, we'll snap it up," Stengel stated.
For Jim Turner and Lou Fette, pitching sensations who turned in 20 wins apiece for Boston in their first year of major league ball, he had nothing but praise. "These boys ironed out the defects that originally kept them out of the majors by years of hard work in the face of plenty of discouragement."
Eliminating Flaws Important
"The willingness to work patiently at eliminating flaws is much more important than pure ability," he went on. "Too many rookies fade out of the picture after two or three years of competition because everyone else in the league gets to know their defects better than they do."
Not always a baseball man, Stengel revealed that for two years he studied at a dental school. On learning that Harvard has a school of dentistry, he said, "It's just as well I didn't go there; I probably would have lasted only one year."
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