Baseball Season: One of the Greats

It's still too early, of course, to post-mortem the 1962 basebell season, but as the year, with the schedule two-thirds completed, goes into the top of the seventh, now is an appropriate time to stand up and stretch and look back on what has so far been the most exciting season in recent memory.

We've had it all this year, brilliant pitching and fabulous hitting. We've already had four no-hitters, a 20-game winner, and 209 strikeouts by a pitcher, who hasn't worked since July 17. We've had Floyd Robinson's six-for-six, grand-slam homeruns in a single inning by Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew. Tommy Davis's 112 RBI, and Stan Musial's consistently great hitting.

We've had an amazing crop of rookies: Tom Tresh, Bernie Allen, Dick Radatz, Manny Jiminez, Dave Stenhouse, Cal, Koonce, and Rod Kanehl, and we've seen potential stars suddenly come into their own--Tommy Davis, Frank Howard, Richie Rollins, Don Drysdale, Chuck Hinton, to name only a few.

We've had new faces, new teams, new cities, new stadiums -- and we've had the reassuring continuity supplied by the old pros reaching for records: Stand Musial, Warren Spahn, Early Wynn, and Robin Roberts.

We've had fine years from our established stars, but we've also seen injuries and slumps cripple a virtual All-Star team: Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Frank Lary, Al Kaline, Sandy Koufax, Gene Freese, Minnie Minoso, and Gill Hodges.

We've had the return to baseball of those old wrecks Casey Stengel and the Polo Grounds (though not Bill Veeck, yet). We've had three of the best teams in the history of baseball (the Giants. Dodgers, and Yankees) and one of the worst (the amazin' Mets).

We've had the spectacular base-running of Maury Wills, two fine All-Star games, Calvin Griffith's shrewd trading, and Charles Finley's loud-mouthed bufoonery. We've had a lot of most things and a little of everything.

Finally we've seen two great teams eventually pull ahead of their leagues, and we can look forward to the first coast-to-coast World Series and probably one of the best in history. There may be rioting in Africa, but baseball fans wouldn't ask for more.

The story of the American League so far this season is straight-forward. The Yankees have suffered a series of injuries and slumps, but these have only bound them to the league lead and prevented them from going into orbit, as everyone predicted.

As a team, New York leads the league in only one category, won-lost percentage. Their team batting average is .258, third in the league and well below last year, and they are second both in team fielding (.981) and pitching (E.R.A.3.79). From these statistics the secret should be clear. Though both as a team and as individuals they lead the league in no major division and placed only one man (Mantle, of course). on the elected All-Star-team, they have the highest general level of personnel in the American League.

Over the off-season, partisans of other A.L. hopefuls like Al Lopez and Bob Scheffing pointed, to the loss of shortstop Tony Kubek and the impossibility of repeat performances by Roger Maris and Luis Arroyo ("Relievers Don't Repeatl" an article in Baseball Digest maintained) as reasons for a Yankee collapse in '62.

The Yankees refused to be lulled by their fantastic '61 season. During the winter they wheeled and dealed, trading for reliever Marshall Bridges and bringing up from their rich farm system rookies like Tom Tresh, Joe Pepitone, and Phil Linz.

The new faces, especially Tresh, prevented New York from slipping too far behind when their great stars like Mantle were injured. Manager Ralph Houk refused to panic when his team ran into heavy weather in May and June. Drawing on the most impressive bench in baseball, he effectively platooned in the outfield Johnny Blanchard, Jack Reed, Hector Lopz and Yogi Berra, and the Yankees never fell beyond striking distance of the league lead.

On July 4, with Mantle back, the Yanks were in first; and through July they increased their lead to five full games over second-place Minnesota.

Meanwhile injuries to stars of similar stature have had devestating consequences for the Detroit Tigers: not surprisingly, pitcher Frank Lary and outfielder Al Kaline were both hurt in games against New York.

Detroit, last year's miracle team, is currently in seventh place 13 and a half games behind the Yankees, although only a half a game out of the first division. The may sound mediocre, but with a string of injuries and slumps Detroit is lucky to be able to field a team at all.

Slumps have hit the Tigers as hard as injuries. In spite of his 30 homeruns. Norm Cash in not last year's "Stormin' Norman," His .244 B.A. and 58 RBI don't approach his totals of last year at this time: .365.27 homers, and 92 RBI.

Infielders Jake Wood and Steve Boros, catcher Dick Brown, and pitcher Don Mossi have fallen far below last year's performances. It remains to be seen if the release of highly-touted rookie pitcher Howle Koplitz from the Army and the return of Kaline can boost Detroit back into the first division where the club belongs.

The Tigers aren't the only team to drop below the '61 record. While Baltimore holds steady in fourth and may well move higher, Cleveland and Chicago are having trouble holding their own. Both underwent face-lifting during the winter, and both are probably worst off because of them.

On the left is personified in the slender form of Chuck Schilling the dilemma of the Boston Red Sox. Do you leave a .220 hitter in the lineup? Or do you bench one of the greatest fielding second basemen in the history of the American League?

Schilling inadvertently solved the problem earlier this season when muscle injuries forced him from the lineup. But the sophomore infielder is back, and his huge glove and tiny bat pose a familiar problem for Manager Mike Higgins. If he can't afford to have Schilling out of the lineup, he can barely afford to have him in it either.

In his first seasons as Cleveland's General Manager, Gabe Paul will bear the onus of guilt for the most damaging trade of 1962: Vice Power and Dick Stigman to Minnesota for problem-child Pedro Ramos. While Power is hitting and fielding as well as ever, Ramos has won four, lost eight and compiled an E.R.A. of 4.58. The Indians have stopped hitting (team B.A.: .248) and have no power hitters to speak of. They could be headed for the second division.

As for the Go-Go White Sox, they've stopped. Despite Floyd Robinson and Joe Cunningham, Chicago is sixth in team batting (.253) and has only 65 homers, the lowest total in the majors by far. Finally, even the great Luis Aparicio has slowed up; White Sox speed is a thing of the past.

Out of the second division into the power vacuum have soared the Minnieota Twins and the Los Angeles Angels. Brilliant front-office work has matched fine handling of the teams by managers Sam Mele and Bill Rigney, and although the Angels are showing sings of folding (a nine-game losing streak in July and drop into third place), both teams could easily score a first-division finish.

Rigney and pitching coach March Grissom have handled the L.A. pitching staff superbly. With only one consistent starter, Ken McBride (11-4), the staff has totalled an incredible 316 appearances in 106 games this season. Although only McBridge has over eight wins, Dean Chance, Bo Belinsky, and Don Lee have been effective both as starters and relievers, and Rigney has even coazed good performance from the like of Ryne Duren and Eli Grbas.

The Minnesota Twins, though, will undoubtedly make the first division, and when they do, owner Cal Griffith will get the honors. It was Griffith who made the Twins infield, recommending that All-Star Richie Rollins and rookie Bernie Allen get the third and second base spots and trading for Vice Power, the league's fine stall-round first baseman. If Griffith seems to have slipped in trading Don Lee to Los Angeles for Jim Donahue (now in the minor leagues) well, the younger Donahue may still make it bigger than Lee in the future.

Critics claimed that the Twins rookie infield would wilt in the summer and with them the whole team. So far this appears unjustified. The team did slip in July, but has now won nine of its last eleven games. Bernie Allen has raised his batting, average to a respectable .267, and after a brief slump Rollins is still hitting .311.

Besides the new faces, Minnesota has its (relatively) old standby's, Earl Battey Lennie Green, Bob Allison, and Harmon Killebrew. The Twins have a real weakness, however, and it is a big one. After righhander Camilo Pascual and southpaw Jim Kaat, starting pitchs are hard to find.

From second-place Minnesota it's a long drop to the Boston Red Sox, but it needn't have been. Manager Mike Higgins has consistently mishandled his young team, and although the Red Sox have crucial weaknesses, they should be flirting with the first-Division teams rather than battling to stay ahead of ninth-place Kansas City.

Shortstop Eddie Brescoud, former National Leaguer, was close to the essence of Higgins mismanagement when he said recently that the American League emphasized power at the expert strike zone which doesn't happen all the time -- he's been bombed. Higgins manages the Red Sox as if Jackie Jensen, Ted Williams and two or three other forty-homer men were in the lineup. The face is, of course, they aren't

Even if Higgins had his team running as much as it should Boston couldn't hope to be too more higher in the standings. Desperate no-hitters by right-handers Earl Wilson and Bill Monbouquette, Red Sox pitching has been a sad disappointment this season. 1961's Rookie of the Year Don Schwall has been terrible. When he's gotten the ball within three feet of strike zone--which doesn't happen all the time -- he's been bombed.

Monbouquette and Wilson may have their names inscribed on a plaque in the Hall of Fame, but they've been terribly inconsistent all season. Then there's the now you-see-him-you-don't man. Gene Conley. After an excellent beginning, he has been not only in constant but like the others in consistent.

Satistics tell the whole story of ninth-place, third in team fielding, and last in team pitching. Ken Wickersham has pitched good ball for the A's, but the rest of the staff is unbelievably bad, and shares with the Mets the distinction of being the only one with a team E.R.A. of over 5.

National League fans will remember a new addition to K.C.'s bullpen crew. Former shortstop Granny Hamner player-manager of a Kansas City farm team was recently called up as a relief pitcher, and in his first outing pitched two scoreless innings against Baltimore.

Pitchers are one thing--probably the only thing--that last place Washington has in any abundance. A fine young staff including rookies Dave stenhouse, tom Cheny, and Don Rudolph recently showed Boston why Jimmy Piersall claims the Senators have the best pitching staff in the league.

since the first All-Star game, Washington has played well over .500 and played ball spoiler to the Angels by Sweeping a crucial three-game series in Los Angeles to drop Rigney's team well behind New York, Behind genuinely first-rate pitching the Senators took two straight from Chicago, split four New York, and took three of four here. It will be a long haul, but Washington could be starting a five-year plan that when completed, will land them in or close to the first division