Baseball: Restoring the Balance

No single event better illustrated the pre-eminence of the pitcher throughout the 1968 baseball season than the July All-Star game. The best batsmen in both leagues struck out 20 times and collected only eight hits as the National League eked out a soporific 1-0 victory. One disgusted spectator called the game “the biggest bore of my life.”

No one was bored by last week’s All-Star game. Held in Washington’s new Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, the contest clearly reflected the re-emergence of the crowd-pleasing “long ball.” In the second inning, Cincinnati’s Johnny Bench blasted a two-run homer off the New York Yankees’ Mel Stottlemyre, who was ultimately tagged with the loss. Washington’s Frank Howard sent a towering drive over the centerfield fence in the American League’s half of the inning. Then the Nationals sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs as San Francisco’s Willie McCovey belted the first of two home runs. Even St. Louis Pitcher Steve Carlton, the game’s eventual winner, lashed a run-producing double. Detroit’s Bill Freehan came back with a homer, but that still left the Americans on the short end of an 8-2 score.

American League Manager Mayo Smith of Detroit then rushed in the ace of his own mound staff, Denny McLain. The Tiger righthander had flown home in his personal Lear jet to have his deteriorating teeth examined, returned just in time to dress and warm up for the fourth inning. McCovey greeted McLain by rapping his third pitch over the rightfield fence for the fifth home run of the game.

There might have been a sixth but for Boston Leftfielder Carl Yastrzemski, who robbed Bench of his second homer with a leaping catch against the fence.

After that, Cleveland’s Sam McDowell and Boston’s Ray Culp combined to retire the next nine Nationals in a row. But the damage had already been done. The National League wound up with a 9-3 victory, its seventh straight in the series.

The real winners were the batsmen of both leagues, who collected 17 hits and 35 total bases. Better hitters? More likely, this season’s narrowed strike zone and lowered mounds have restored the balance between hitters and pitchers.