The Cardinals, Their Pitchers

Out on the mound, the poker-faced Negro pitcher calmly munched on his toothpick and watched the New York Giants straggle up to the plate. Then Sam ("Toothpick") Jones of the St. Louis Cardinals slowly cocked his right arm and fired in his whistling fast ball. When Toothpick headed for the clubhouse one night last week, he could look back on a slick two-hitter. And the Cardinals had won another one, 5 to 1 to stay in front of the National League pennant race.

Whether the Cards can make it all the way to the title depends largely on Jones and his pitching colleagues in one of the best mound staffs in the majors. By the word of the experts, pitching was the fatal flaw of the Cards at season's start. But Jones has lately found the proper groove (his season record: 7-3), and Larry Jackson has a nifty 2.83 earned-run average and a 10-4 record. And, best of all, the Cardinals are getting a buoyant boost from their pair of bonus babies plucked off an Oklahoma cotton farm: Von and Lindy McDaniel. Von, only 18, has won four, lost one, has a 2.741 ERA; Lindy, 21, has won eight while losing five. Of big brother Lindy, who had only a 7-6 record last year, the Cardinals' manager and old Detroit pitcher Freddy Hutchinson cautiously says: "There's no doubt in my mind that he's going to get faster and stronger as time goes along." But kid brother Von leaves Hutchinson fumbling for words. "I don't know what the hell to say," he admits. "It's beyond anything I've ever seen."

As important almost as their fast balls is the fizz of excitement the McDaniel boys have injected into the Cards. Behind the McDaniel-fortified pitching staff, the Cards' aging stars are bursting with new life. At 36, First Baseman Stan Musial is no longer able to play through both games of a doubleheader, has a little trouble now and then getting his legs to catch up with pop fouls. But he can still hit a baseball with deadly precision, is second in the league in batting (.342), homers (21), and runs batted in (67). Giant castoff Shortstop Al Dark, 34, is hitting a solid .295, holds the infield together with his big glove and his spark-plugging chatter. Even Walker Cooper, the Cards' great catcher of the '40s, is creaking his 42-year-old bones off the bench to pinch-hit home an occasional key run.

All season long, the mercurial league lead has gone to the team best able to patch up its fundamental flaws (the Phillies cannot hit; the Redlegs are weak in pitching; the Dodgers are getting old; the Braves are injury-prone). Back in St. Louis, fans are betting already that the fast balls of Jackson and Jones and the two kid pitchers from Oklahoma have turned the Cardinals into the one solid team in the pennant scramble.

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