Funny Bounces

As he surveyed a scene of jubilation in the New York Met clubhouse one night last week, Manager Yogi Berra felt it necessary to caution his players about overconfidence. "The ball," he warned, "can take funny bounces." Yogi should know. As recently as Aug. 30, the woebegone Mets were languishing in last place in the National League's East Division and the only question was how soon Berra would be fired. Last week, several funny bounces and one winning streak later, the resuscitated New Yorkers were locked in a do-or-die struggle for first place with the Pittsburgh Pirates in an East Division race that has been a free-for-all among losers.

While the Mets were climbing out of the cellar, four other teams--the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh--backed in and out of contention. Going into the last three days of scheduled play, there was even the theoretical possibility of an unprecedented five-way tie. Rainouts on the weekend complicated matters further, forcing the Mets to face consecutive doubleheaders with the Cubs.

The daffiness of the N.L. East contest befits the embarrassing maldistribution of talent between the league's two divisions. Consider the Houston Astros.

Though they were 17 1/2 games behind in the tough West Division last week, they had still won more games than any of the six teams in the East. The team that wins the East, in fact, will do it with a humiliatingly low winning percentage of something slightly above .500.

No matter. At a point when the Reds, Oakland A's and Baltimore Orioles had already won spots in the playoffs, the National League's wild, wild East became an exciting and totally unpredictable show. Though the Mets, for example, have been one of the weakest power-hitting teams in either league this season, over the past two weeks they unaccountably went on a home-run jag.

Pittsburgh, another erratic team that has moved between last and first place this season, found its second wind after firing Manager Bill Virdon on Sept. 6 and replacing him with his predecessor, Danny Murtaugh. The club that will have survived the final, crucial weekend will go into the play-offs against Cincinnati with the kind of odds-defying momentum that swept the Mets to a surprise World Series victory in 1969.

Nevertheless, on paper at least, the 1973 Series figures to be another showdown between Cincinnati and Oakland--barring any more funny bounces.

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