Who Is the Man?

It was the closest pennant race in the American League since 1948, when the Cleveland Indians, the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics eased into August in a virtual tie.* Now it was the Indians, Yankees, White Sox and Red Sox scrambling for the flag. Their four managers were on the spot. Each one was expected to win; each one was looking wildly for help. There was a chance for each of them, and a single new pitcher or long-ball hitter or sure-handed infielder could make a big difference.

The White Sox, staggered by the temporary loss (appendectomy) of 13-game-winning Pitcher Dick Donovan, might well find that man in aging (32) Connie Johnson. A righthanded pitcher called up from the International League, he has four complete games, five victories, and a 2.20 earned-run average to show for a month of play. Johnson is the White Sox's late-season hope.

The Indians, also hurting for pitchers, thought they were home free when they bought Sal ("The Barber") Maglie from the beaten New York Giants. But The Barber has been taking a trimming in the American League. His new teammates have been leaning with much more assurance on the batting skill of another oldtimer, Outfielder Hoot Evers, 34, bought from the Baltimore Orioles just last month (after a fading career with Detroit, Boston and the Giants). With a couple of timely homers, Evers helped the Indians recover first place after the near-disastrous week that saw them lose three straight games to the seventh-place Senators.

The Yankees, hard put to find some of the midseason magic that made them champions five years in a row, are just beginning to demonstrate some of their old tricks. Patching, shifting, always finagling with his lineup, Manager Casey Stengel still manages to keep the Yankees in contention. In August, "Bullet" Bob Turley began to look like the pennant-winning pitcher he seemed to be when he was bought from the Baltimore Orioles, but Righthander Don Larsen, home from a summer on the Yankees' Denver farm, is the man who makes the difference. With three victories in three starts, he has helped to revive an old Yankee habit: making those pin-stripe uniforms convince a ballplayer that he is just a little better than he ought to be.

The Red Sox had placed their hopes in hard-hitting Ted Williams. When he broke off a legal skirmish with his wife and returned to baseball, Ted found the Sox in seventh place; at week's end they were in fourth, only 3 1/2 games off the pace. Though Ted's big bat was a factor in the resurgence of the Red Sox, most of the credit goes to their little (5 ft. 6 in., 150 lbs.) shortstop, Billy Klaus. A veteran castoff from the Indians, Cubs, Braves and Giants, Billy, at 26, has been batting back and forth between the minors and majors for nine years. Everywhere, he looked pretty good; nowhere could he make the grade as a major league player. Even with the Red Sox, Billy had to wait his turn while Milt Boiling, Owen Friend and Eddie Joost took their cracks at his position. Then, when his chance came, he caught fire.

He is not a sensational fielder (though he manages to stop the tough ones), he throws with remarkable lack of grace (yet he manages to get the ball across the infield on time), and at the plate he looks as if he could not hit at all (but he is currently slapping the ball at a surprising .300 clip). Like the Cardinals' ex-Manager Eddie Stanky, what Billy knows best is how to win ball games.

* Cleveland finally won the race, beat Boston in the World Series.

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