The Daily Record

NEW YORK (IP) The major league leaders are in for an almost complete shakeup this season and the chief victims, as of today's production level, will be batting champion Stan Musial and home run king Ralph Kiner.

With only about one-fifth of the season remaining, both appeared in extreme danger of being replaced. And for each of them it would be a severe blow.

For both of these famed sluggers are swinging to etch their names even more indelibly in the record books.

Musial, shooting for his seventh National batting crown could tie the immortal Rogers Hornsby and then need only one more to match the great Honus Wagner.

Kiner already holds the record of leading the National League seven straight years in homers and would like to extend the game's greatest reign from point of consecutive years.

NEAR DOOM

Each appears doomed. Musial, who won last year with a .336 batting mark, is some 26 points in back of Monte Irvin's .338 at the moment. Kiner, with 28 homers, needs a miracle to overtake pace-setting Eddie Mathews of the Braves, who leads with 39.

But the big two have plenty of company in the matter of dethroned departmental leaders.

Only Robin Roberts as the big pitching winner, Musial in the matter of doubles and Minnie Minoso in stolen bases will hold their crowns. And Minoso faces a battle against Jim Rivera, with whom he is tied at 20 for American League base larceny honors.

For the rest of the 1952 heroes, it's wait 'til next year.

In the American League, Larry Doby led last season in runs, homers and runs batted in. Now he has but 59, 18 and 70 respectively, against Minoso's 87 runs, Al Rosen's 33 homers and Rosen's 116 run batted in.

MAKING HITS

Rosen also is making a run at the batting title with a .326 average while defending champ Ferris Fain is clubbing only .269. Nellie Fox, who led in hits, has but 67, far off Mickey Vernon's leading total of 162.

Vernon also sets the pace with 35 doubles against leader Fain's 16, while Bobby Avila, who led last year in triples, has only two against 11 for Rivera. In the pitching department, Bobby Shantz came up with assorted miseries which ruined his hopes and Eddie Lopat is the percentage leader with a 13-2 mark.

Musial will save some of his honors in the doubles department but he will lose out as runs and hits leader. Duke Snider is 10 ahead of him in runs with 101 and Richie Ashburn's 162 hits are 22 better than Stan the Man's total.

Hank Sauer, crippled by hand injuries, is out of the runs batted in race, which led last season. Hank's total of 45 is far back of Roy Campanella's leading 115. Peewee Reese, who led in 1952 with 30 stolen bases, has but 16 which leaves him back of Bill Bruton's leading 23.

All in all, there are going to be a host of new departmental leaders when the season closes--but nobody will lose as much as Musial and Kiner. Without an ache or a pain, they are the tough luck guys of 1953.