Troubled Champs

The New York Yankees--among ball clubs the royalty and far-out winners of the 1958 American League pennant--faced up scornfully one afternoon last week to aging (35) Hoyt Wilhelm, knuckleball pitcher for the seventh-place Baltimore Orioles and long since cast off by the Giants, -Cardinals and Indians. Wilhelm, who had won only two games all season, thereupon pitched to just 28 batters and shut out the Yanks in a 1-o no-hitter.

Off the field the Yanks were also in trouble. Pitcher Ryne Duren and Coach Ralph Houk brawled at a champagne party celebrating the Yanks' pennant won last week. The squabble was patched up after Duren admitted he had drunk too much, but the management felt obliged to keep a squad of private detectives on the players to make sure they stayed in shape for the World Series. In the ensuing comedy of errors, one gumshoe (he was actually wearing gum-soled shoes) shadowed Star Pitcher Bob Turley for three days and discovered Turley seldom drinks anything stronger than soda pop. A group of Yankees led detectives a merry chase all over Detroit on an innocent quest for popcorn at the Y.M.C.A.

But at week's end, as they learned that Milwaukee's World Champion Braves had clinched the National League flag again, the Yankees were 7-5 favorites to shake off their miseries and win the series.

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