Baseball: Flying High

Pity the poor Baltimore fan, for this is not his year. He saw the supposedly invincible football Colts humiliated by the New York Jets 16-7 in January’s Super Bowl; three months later he watched in utter disbelief as the Bullets, boasting the best record in the National Basketball Association, managed to blow four straight games in the playoffs to the New York Knicks. But hope is on the wing again. Last week, at the season’s midpoint, baseball’s highflying Orioles enjoyed a lavish 10½-game lead over the second-place Boston Red Sox in the American League’s Eastern Division. With a won-lost percentage over .700—by far the best in either league —the Orioles have clearly established themselves as the team to beat in 1969.

A sizable share of the credit goes to Pitcher Dave McNally, 26, a smooth, powerful lefthander. Last season, he won 14 games and lost only two after the All-Star break, winding up with a 22-10 record as the Orioles finished in second place behind the Detroit Tigers. This year he has already won eleven straight games. His overpowering performance has given the club a quality it had sorely lacked—leadership for a fitfully effective mound staff.

As far as the record books show, Mc-Nally is one of the few major-league players in history from Montana. Though Billings Central Catholic High School did not even have a baseball team, McNally made an impressive mark in American Legion ball. In 1960 he carried Post 4 to the Legion World Series with a brilliant 18-1 record that included five no-hitters and 259 strikeouts in 105 innings. In the Series, he struck out 47 batters in three games, and scouts from ten teams scrambled for him. Baltimore finally picked up the 17-year-old fire-bailer with an $80,000 bonus and packed him off to the Victoria, Tex., Rosebuds.

Two years and 23 minor-league victories later, McNally made his debut with the Orioles by pitching a two-hit shutout against the Kansas City Athletics and winning a permanent place in the starting rotation. But then he became one of those supposedly sure bets that never quite pays off. Until last year, he had only one good season (13-6); that was 1966, the year the Orioles won the pennant and took the World Series in four straight. In 1967, he tore a tendon and developed something of a paunch, finished the year with a disappointing 7-7 record. Before the start of the 1968 season, however, he underwent some strenuous arm therapy to stretch the tendon, lost 15 Ibs. and showed up for spring training in mint condition for the first time in years. His slider, an essential pitch for a lefthander throwing to a right-handed batter, returned better than ever. McNally was on his way.

Broken Laces. Now he is one of the most respected pitchers in baseball. Perhaps his chief asset is strength. Although his motion is deceptively smooth, McNally comes off the mound so hard that he regularly snaps his shoelaces. As evidenced by last year’s performance, his 5-ft. 11-in., 190-lb. frame is not easily sapped by the heat. Says Manager Earl Weaver: “Dave has it all, and when he puts it together, it can be a no-hitter any time he pitches. When his control is right, he’s just about unbeatable.”

For all McNally’s invincibility, the Orioles are hardly a one-bird flock. Pitchers Tom Phoebus and Jim Palmer have 16 wins against four losses between them. Slugger Frank Robinson has snapped back after a dismal season last year, and is currently the league’s second best hitter with 17 home runs and an average hovering around .330.

Outfielder Paul Blair is also among the league’s top ten batters, and First Baseman Boog Powell is second in RBls with 70. All that supporting power should make the Orioles a shoo-in for the American League playoffs. Still, Baltimore’s oft-burned fans can be pardoned for glancing over their shoulders occasionally and wondering whether things will look as good come October as they do in July.