BASEBALL'S WEEK

AMERICAN LEAGUE
If nothing else, Minnesota learned a good deal about anatomy. There were graphic lessons on the human knee, jaw, hip, eyes and back. A period of convalescence—perhaps as long as a month—was prescribed for Harmon Killebrew, who aggravated an old knee injury. Rich Rollins, sipping everything but cider through a straw since his broken jaw was wired shut, tried to help by hurrying back to the lineup, but couldn't keep the team from losing four of six and falling to 10th place. Dick Stigman learned how to keep his eyes on the catcher's mitt and also, with an assist from Frank Sullivan, how to get more hip action into his pitching motion. Then he shut out the Angels on three hits. The Twins were willing to bend over backward to help each other, but Camilo Pascual's problem seemed to be that he was bending too far. Pascual, a 20-game winner last year, lost his third straight. Coach Gordon Maltzberger felt that Pascual was occasionally leaning back too far midway in his delivery. "This cuts down on his view of home plate," Maltzberger explained. Nineteen-game winner Jim Bunning (0-2) of Detroit was also winless. He allowed the Red Sox just one run in 12 innings before being removed. Detroit lost 4-3 in 15 innings, but only after good pitching and more timely hitting enabled Hank Aguirre and Don Mossi to beat the Yankees twice. In all, New York lost three times and slipped to fifth place. Pitching, the team's main concern, was iffy. Whitey Ford and Bill Stafford were hit hard. On the positive side were Luis Arroyo's first win since last July and a five-hitter by Stan Williams. Roger Maris hit two homers in his first two games after returning to the lineup, but Mickey Mantle was still recuperating. Boston got fine pitching and Manager Johnny Pesky could smile even when Eddie Bressoud doubled into a double play. Frank Malzone was thrown out at the plate and Bressoud doubled up trying to stretch his hit, but the Red Sox won. 6-1. Billy Hitchcock, the Baltimore manager, wore a grin, too. Twenty-year-old Dave McNally beat the Indians 8-1. And Luis Aparicio and Al Smith, obtained from the White Sox last winter, batted .524 and .450 last week. Chicago reaped less benefit from its end of the deal. Ron Hansen hit .385, but Hoyt Wilhelm was used just once; Pete Ward hit .143 and Dave Nicholson .250, though the latter had two homers, one a grand slam. Juan Pizarro has not allowed an earned run in 18 innings and Ray Herbert blanked the Athletics. If happiness is a thing called good pitching, Los Angeles Manager Bill Rigney had reason to be glum. He used a record-tying nine pitchers in an 11-10 loss to the Twins. The next day he used just one pitcher, Don Lee, who shut out the Twins. Cleveland pitchers held the opposition scoreless for 18 innings, but all was not rosy. The reason was a fresh coat of canary-yellow paint that was applied to 25 rows of seats in the lower deck of Cleveland Stadium, producing a poor fielding background for infielders. A few hours after an opposing coach expressed concern that a pitcher might be decapitated by a line drive, Mudcat Grant was struck on his pitching arm by a batted ball. Orlando Pena won both as a reliever and as a starter, and for three days Kansas City basked in the glory of first place. Washington, thanks to some uncommonly lusty hitting and Dave Stenhouse's five-hitter, was satisfied to move as high as eighth.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

One full second I must wait,
Before I throw it to the plate.

With this in mind, Houston pitchers have been trying to add poetry to their pitching motion so they will not violate the balk rule. In fact, they even have another ditty to remind them:

One thousand one, one thousand two,
Here it comes, just for you.

There was some unpoetic writing that also gave the Colt .45s pause for thought. One San Francisco sportswriter called them "a miserable ball club." Another asked if the Giants were going to charge admission for the rest of their games against the Colt .45s. In retaliation Houston, with a 13th-inning homer by Jim Campbell, stifled the Giants, if not the San Francisco writers. Chicago, without even being insulted in print after a 5-1 loss to the Giants, rebounded with a 4-0 victory. No one found fault with their 1.35 ERA. There was only one thing lower than Bob Buhl's 0.36 ERA and that was Bob Buhl's 000 BA. He has been hitless in 80 at bats dating back to 1961. Frustrated Los Angeles hitters did not hit their first home run until their 10th game, when Frank Howard, representing the team's 338th at bat, came through. The only two reliable hitters have been Howard (.447) and Tommy Davis (.300), now hospitalized with a leg injury. During the first two weeks the rest of the team hit .179. Sandy Koufax pitched a two-hit shutout. He is still giving tender care to his famous index finger, cutting down on his cigarette smoking after learning that this affected his finger. Koufax also wears a heated glove while on the bench. It was obvious, judging by their 17 errors in 11 games, that few other Dodgers had hot gloves. Johnny Edwards of Cincinnati, a .462 batter last week, traced his hot bat to a 45-ounce one he swung 100 times each day last winter. Bob Purkey, still out with shoulder miseries, underwent X-ray treatment. Things were tough all over, but Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski managed to keep a stiff upper lip. It was not that he wanted to, but simply because he sported seven stitches there after a careening grounder caught him. Al McBean gave up 10 hits, yet preserved his shutout against the Reds by stranding 12 runners. Curt Simmons of St. Louis beat his former Phillie teammates for the 11th time in 12 tries by leaving 13 of them on base. "No one should have to work that hard to win one ball game," he said. Carl Sawatski pulled a delayed steal of second base, delayed in the sense that it was his first theft since entering the majors in 1948. Felipe Alou of San Francisco did not get credit for a stolen base, but the run he scored all the way from first on a single to short center still counted. Orlando Cepeda made three outs in one at bat. He first hit into a double play on a balk pitch that did not count and then, given a life, struck out. Philadelphia (see page 18) also had its woes after a hot start, making seven errors in two days and losing four games in a row. One of those setbacks was against Milwaukee's Lou Burdette, who beat the Phillies for the seventh straight time. Claude Raymond won twice in relief, Eddie Mathews hit the 400th home run of his career, Hank Aaron his 300th. Life was good and the Braves led the league. Then they met the Mets. A ninth-inning rally gave New York its first win in nine games. Ron Hunt, applying the reverse theory that if you can't join 'em, beat 'em, hit a two-run double that defeated the Braves, who still technically own him. New York obtained Hunt on conditional basis from the Braves and has until May 9th to retain him or return him. A day later New York won again and there were faint murmurings of Break up the Mets. They were working under a good-luck charm. No Robbery, a horse partly owned by Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson, who also owns the Mets, won the Wood Memorial last week. To keep pace, the Mets, naturally, had to win, too. Now, if No Robbery can win 97 more races by Sept. 30....

TWO PHOTOS

YOUNGSTERS in starring roles were Indians' Sam McDowell (20), who struck out 13 in shutout, Mets' Ed Kranepool (18), who batted .375.