Season of the Slugger

Larry Jansen, pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants, spends his leisure moments slicing up baseballs with a knife. He is convinced that there is a mysterious something inside the new balls that makes them take off like spaceships--especially when his pitchers are on the mound. In a recent exhibition game, Giant hurlers blew a five-run lead and suffered a shameful 8-7 loss to the University of Santa Clara. Two days later, the Giants wasted an eight-run advantage and lost 17-16 to the lowly San Diego Padres. Last week they even let a pitcher clobber them when Los Angeles' Claude Osteen rapped out two singles, a double and a homer to lead the Dodgers to a 19-3 slaughter.

Such double-digit scores tell a great deal about the 1970 season so far. The Giants' pitching staff, which has a horrendous 5.74 earned-run average, is not the only one ducking line drives. The Mets' Jerry Koosman, who compiled a brilliant 17-9 record for the world champions last season, has won only two of nine starts. Fastballer Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals is struggling to improve a sub-par 4-3 record and a 4.26 ERA.

Alive and Strong. Baseball men like to say that pitching is the name of the game. But now that the pitcher's mound has been lowered and the strike zone reduced, the name seems to be slugging. One day last month, National League hitters slammed a record total of 26 home runs; two days later the musclemen in both leagues hit a record 46 homers. And along with the rain of homers there has been a positive cloudburst of singles, doubles and triples. In the first six weeks of the season, A.L. batters hit at a .253 clip, a 13-point increase over the same period last year. Says St. Louis Manager Red Schoendienst: "I can't decide if the ball is more alive or people are getting stronger. All I know is that the baseball flies."

Whatever it is, the teams with the hitters are setting the pace. The Minnesota Twins, leaders in the A.L.'s Western Division, have a budding murderers' row in Rod Carew (.404), Tony Oliva (.329) and Harmon Killebrew (.319). The Baltimore Orioles are running away with their division on the strength of Frank Robinson's .378 average and Boog Powell's 13 home runs and 37 runs batted in. In the National League, the front-running Cincinnati Reds have already hammered out 67 home runs with Tony Perez leading the league in homers (17) and RBls (48). Even the New York Yankees, whose performance last season was one of their worst ever, are getting into the act. Their team average of .245 is a full 15 points higher than their cross-town neighbors, the Mets, and Roy White and Danny Cater are among the league's top five RBI leaders.

No one is ready to say where it will all end. In a recent game against the Mets in San Francisco, the Giants' weak-hitting shortstop Hal Lanier poled a towering drive over the left centerfield wall that traveled at least 430 ft. It was Lanier's second homer in three years.

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