Baseball: On Top with Old Smokey

There in the clubhouse he sat, in his undershirt, a snaggle-toothed grin giving him the look of a Saint Bernard that had broken into its own brandy barrel. “It feels good,” murmured Manager Walter (“Smokey”) Alston of the Los Angeles Dodgers. “It always feels good to win.”

Smokey Alston smiling? The Dodgers winning? It was only yesterday that the collapsible Dodgers blew a four-game lead in the final week and presented the 1962 National League pennant to the San Francisco Giants. And it seemed only the day before that Bobby Thomson of the Giants deposited a dinky drive into the leftfield seats at the Polo Grounds to beat the Dodgers in a playoff for the 1951 pennant. Now the stage was set for another whirlwind finish that would leave the Dodgers flat on their backs, muttering dazedly: “Wait till next year.”

“Another Game.” All was in readiness last week when the Bums rolled into St. Louis for a last three-game series with the onrushing Cardinals. Two weeks before, the Dodgers were coasting six games ahead of the pack. But then the Cards won 19 out of 20, and the Dodger lead dissolved to one slim game. For the first time in years, lines of fans stood all day outside Busch Stadium waiting for the ticket gates to open. “We’re ready,” promised Cardinal Manager Johnny Keane. As for Alston, he would only grunt: “Another game, another series.”

Back in Los Angeles, Dodger fans sighed and waited for the worst. In nine years, Alston had delivered three pennants, two world championships, eight first-division finishes. But this was a time for heroics, and Alston hardly seemed the man to ignite any team. He was still the dour, noncommittal ex-shop teacher from Darrtown, Ohio, the fellow who struck out the only time he ever got to bat in the big leagues, the homespun country boy who played percentages so devoutly that the Dodgers paid a fulltime statistician to do his arithmetic. Every fall Alston signed a blank contract, then waited till spring to find out how much the Dodgers were going to pay him (currently: $45,000)—if indeed he was still on the payroll. “We all get fired sometime,” he shrugged. “The only question is when.”

But for once every percentage play clicked, and every move was blinding genius. To pitch the first game, Alston called on Veteran Lefthander Johnny Podres, bad back, so-so record (13 victories, 10 losses) and all. The slugging Cards got only three hits (including a home run by Stan Musial), and the Dodgers won, 3-1. “We hated to lose that first game,” admitted Cardinal Manager Keane. Gritted Musial: “We’ve got to win the next two.”

When the Cards looked out to the mound next day, there stood Sandy Koufax, No. 1 in the National League in won-lost record (23-5), strikeouts (284) and practically everything else.* The Dodgers’ regular rotation called for Koufax to work the last game, but that fell on Rosh Hashana, and Sandy refuses to pitch on Jewish holidays. Alston also started hulking (6 ft. 7 in., 250 Ibs.) Frank Howard despite the fact that Howard was 0-for-19 in St. Louis this season. So naturally Howard crashed a two-run homer, and Koufax needed only 87 pitches, 66 of them strikes, to spin a nifty four-hitter for a 4-0 shutout, his eleventh of the year.

“E for Effort.” At last, in the final game, the Cards started hitting and ran up a 5-1 lead. The Dodgers got back three runs, and Alston had one last inspiration. Casting around for a lefthand pinchhitter, his eye fell on Dick Nen, 23, a farmhand who had shipped in from Spokane just that day. Sportswriters snickered. “How do you spell that?” asked one. Replied another: “N for Nothing, E for Effort, N for Nothing.” But at bat in the ninth, Nen took the first pitch. Zip! A strike. Crack! A fastball sailed onto the rightfield roof for a game-tying homer.

The game went on for three scoreless extra innings, the pressure mounting with every pitch. Dodger Centerfielder Willie Davis led off the 13th with a single. And then the Cardinals cracked. With one out, Second Baseman Julian Javier scooped up a grounder, looked toward second, hesitated, went to first—and heaved the ball clear into the Dodger dugout. Davis jogged to third, scored easily seconds later on a soft grounder by Maury Wills. Three quick outs, and the Dodgers had a 6-5 victory, and a clean sweep of the series.

By week’s end, the Cardinals had lost another game (to the Cincinnati Reds), and the Dodgers had won another (from the Pittsburgh Pirates). With only eight games to play, all at home, and three of them against the ineffable New York Mets, the Dodgers had a bulging five-game lead. Bring on the Yanks!

* But in the Year of the Pitcher, only one of a still-growing club of 20-game winners. Last week, by beating the Los Angeles Angels, 3-1, Baltimore’s Steve Barber (20-12) swelled the membership to nine in both leagues—most since 1956.