The Sweat of His Brow

At Cincinnati's Crosley Field last week, Pitcher Schoolboy Rowe, a lantern-jawed giant of a man, was in trouble. He glanced around, mopped his brow with his fingers. Two Cincinnati players were on base, and a dangerous man was stepping up to bat. Schoolboy fired the ball in toward the plate.

It came in without turning--Batsman Bert Haas could almost count the stitches --but took a wicked dip just before he swung. Haas barely ticked the ball, which dribbled a few feet. It was an easy put-out at first. Roared Haas: "That was that sweat ball!" The sweat ball (which is a spit ball parading as an accident of nature) is illegal. But the umpire shook his head and the game went on. Schoolboy Rowe of the Philadelphia Phillies grinned; whatever it was, that pitch had gotten him out of many a tight spot.

At 35, Lynwood Thomas Rowe, still called Schoolboy by everyone, is pitching with his head instead of his arm. He no longer has the blazing fast ball that made him Detroit's delight 13 years ago. He has been sent down to the minor leagues twice. Now, with six victories and no defeats, he is one of 1947's two leading pitchers (the other: Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves).

Giant Trouble. Several managers in the National League suspect Rowe of throwing sweat balls. They can't prove it. Four weeks ago at the Polo Grounds, Schoolboy threw one that did a dipsy-doodle. It veered crazily downward the same way a knuckle ball does--and everybody knew that knucklers are not Schoolboy Rowe's specialty. The Giant batsman struck out by a foot. Manager Mel Ott rushed out of the dugout to protest; he demanded to see the ball.

Rowe obligingly rolled it in from the pitcher's box on the ground. By the time it reached home plate, if not before, it was dry. Growled Ott: "Sliders and sinkers revolve--you can't see the stitches on the seams as they come to the plate like you can with a spitter." Other pitchers--Rip Sewell, Fred Ostermueller, Claude Passeau--have been unofficially accused of using "spit-sweat" balls in pinches. They deny it, and so does Schoolboy Rowe.

"There is only one way to stop it," suggested one Philadelphia pitcher. "Make the spit ball legal again." Said Schoolboy Rowe with a straight face: "Oh, that's a dirty habit."

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