THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...

October 8, 1946 ... No game scheduled ... Twelve hundred eager rooters, last night, welcomed home the Red Sox at the Huntington Avenue railroad station, with the majority waiting over a full hour to greet their heroes. The Red Sox special pulled in at 7:30 PM, fully 45 minutes after the Cardinals arrived at Back Bay station, where they were met by a handful of inquisitive newspaper men and photographers.

The faithful Sox followers avidly sought a peak of Ted Williams but they were disappointed. The Kid, in a rapid departure from the Sox special, was whisked away by a friend in a waiting automobile, with hardly a dozen witnesses verifying his presence. Also absent from the Huntington Avenue scene, were manager Joe Cronin and Mrs. Cronin, Tex Hughson and Bobby Doerr, all of whom got off the train in Newton.

The Red Sox players were very cooperative in posing for photos and snapping back remarks to the "welcome homers". Two of the more popular players in the crowd were Johnny Pesky and Rudy York. Other members on the train included Pres. and Mrs. Lou Perini of the Boston Braves, Duffy Lewis and Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Collins.

The Cardinals, many of whom were with their wives, appeared completely relaxed and impatient to get on with the business at hand. The crowd favorite in the train from St. Louis was Dizzy Dean, who readily obliged the fans and taking pictures and carrying on conversations.

The rumors about the trading of Ted Williams still are active. It is believed that Joe Cronin wants to trade Williams and that Tom Yawkey wants to keep him. Cronin has decided, it seems, that Williams is temperamentally unchangeable. He had hoped, like others, that Ted's service with the Marines had changed his perspective, only to be disappointed in recent weeks. Cronin has said he has talked to Williams about hitting to left field, or bunting against screwy defenses, until he was blue in the face. Williams has agreed to practice hitting to left, but once he has the bat in his hands, in a game, his resolution dissolves. The situation could be quieted with a simple denial from owner, Tom Yawkey, but there has been no denial.

St. Louis shortstop Marty Marion, today appealed across the battle lines to the Red Sox, asking the American Leaguers to forgo a few hundred dollars from the World Series radio rights, in order to get baseball's pension fund off to a good start. He wants the money to be put in escrow for the lean years. The pension plan was 98% of the negotiations with the owners. What the players want in baseball, is security for their future. Each player in the major leagues as agreed to pay $250 annually, and the owners will match that. That is about half of what the players committee has decided they would need. To be eligible, a player would need to have played five years in the major leagues. Then at 45 years of age he would be entitled to $50 a month. If he played six years he would get $60 a month, and so on up to 10 years and $100 a month which is the maximum.