[Tiger Fan]

TIGERFAN'S SPORTING DAILY : TUESDAY APRIL 17, 1947

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
ROBINSON BREAKS THE COLOR BARRIER AND GOES DEEP
All eyes were on Jackie Robinson as he made his major league debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers at home against the Boston Braves yesterday. A hush fell over the crowd when Boston starting pitcher Warren Spahn plunked Robinson, the Dodgers leadoff man, in the ribs with his third pitch to the rookie. However, Robinson dusted himself off and trotted down to first without a glance at the Braves hurler. In the second inning, Robinson would get his revenge. He would drill a 3-run homer to leftfield for his first major league hit and help the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory over the Braves.

It was not an easy win though as Brooklyn scored 5 runs in the second inning only to see the Braves tie the game up 2 rbi's from Jimmy Brown and a double and a triple from catcher Phil Masi that each drove in a run. It was a sweet feeling for both Masi and Brown, neither of whom figured to be in the opening day lineup just a couple of weeks ago. However, trades that sent Phil Rizzuto and Rudy York out of town cleared the way for the two of them.

Boston came up short in their comeback as the Dodgers plated the winning run in the bottom of the 10th on an rbi single from Stan Hack off of Ken Holcombe. Holcombe was tagged with the loss while Mickey Harris, in relief of Rex Barney, got the win. Braves rookie first baseman Earl Torgeson went 0-for-5 in the game.

In other action:

The St Louis Browns blanked the New York Yankees for the second straight day. Cookie Lavagetto had 3 hits and drove in a run to help the Browns to a 3-0 win over the Yankees. 35 year old Archie McKain went 8 and 2/3 innings allowing just 6 New York hits. Bob Muncrief came on in relief to retire the final batter. Tiny Bonham went the distance, allowing 9 hits, to take the loss.

The loss was twice as tough for the Yankees who lost gold glove winning catcher Bob Scheffing for 4-6 weeks with a dislocated shoulder suffered during a collison with George McQuinn at homeplate. The injury leaves the Yankees with Mike Garbark and Aaron Robinson available to catch. Between them the two 31-year olds have combined to play in just 72 major league games.

In the lone National League contest, catcher Walker Cooper had 4 hits including a pair of homeruns to lead the St Louis Cardinals past the Pirates in Pittsburgh 8-2. The Cards rapped out 13 hits including 2 each from Ben Chapman, Stan Musial, Marty Marion and George Scharein. Al Jurisch allowed just 5 Pittsburgh hits in getting the complete game victory. The loss went to Ken Heintzelman who seemed to be pitching out of a jam all game.

TODAY'S SCHEDULE (1946 record in brackets)

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston (Andy Karl 21-10) at Washington (Joe Haynes 21-15)
New York (Dizzy Dean 7-9) at Detroit (Fred Hutchinson 17-17)
Philadelphia (Fred Caliguiri 3-2) at Chicago (Fred Biscan 10-10)
St Louis (Al Williams 12-10) at Cleveland (Bill Lohrman 19-8)

NATIONAL LEAGUE
St Louis (George Dockins 0-0) at Chicago (Vern Olsen 15-16)
Philadelphia (Hugh Mulcahy 10-9) at New York (Dave Koslo 17-18)
Cincinnati (Arnold Carter 18-15) at Pittsburgh (Preacher Roe 14-16)



HOCKEY AND BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS RESUME TONIGHT
There is plenty of exciting playoff action this even. The Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs are preparing for game 5 in their best of seven Stanley Cup Finals. The series is tied at two wins apiece after the Leafs hung on for a 3-2 win in Game Four on Sunday. Tonight's game is in Detroit.

In basketball the New York Knickerbockers and Philadelphia Warriors play the deciding game in their best of three semi-final series. The Knicks took the opener at home before falling in overtime at Philadelphia on Saturday. The other semi-final is a best of seven series and it has Washington leading Chicago 3 games to two. The Stags avoided elimination with a win at home Saturday but to prevail in the series they will need victories in Washington tonight and tomorrow. The Capitols expect guard Freddie Scolari to dress tonight after missing 3 games with an injury. Center John Mahnken is not ready to return to the Washington lineup.


BOXING NEWS
WORLD BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMP TO DEFEND TITLE VS EUROPEAN CHAMP
Fernando Gagnon, the bantamweight boxing champion of the world, has announced that he will defend his title against European champion Luis Romero. The fight will take place on Friday May 11 in Montreal which makes it a hometown fight for the champion who hails from a small town in Quebec. The 26 year old Gagnon is 32-3-1 with 27 knockouts. He won the world championship with a unanimous decision over Manny Ortiz after previously losing and fighting to a draw against Ortiz. This will be Gagnon's first title defense.

Romero, also 26, is from Arclia, Spain and sports a record of 20-6-1. He has 13 knockouts to his credit including one over Italian Guido Ferracin in October that won Romero the European title. Romero and Gagnon have not met before but Romero did fight against Manuel Ortiz a year ago. The result was a 6th round knockout victory for the American.

While on the topic of bantamweights I will mention a pair of contenders for Gagnon's title will meet in England on Wednesday. Gus Foran of Liverpool faces Warsaw, Poland native Benny Goldberg in a non-title fight. The winner will be next in line to face Romero for the European belt.