Baseball: Thanks, Bill

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The Baltimore Orioles had just beaten the Kansas City Athletics 6-1 to clinch the American League pennant—Baltimore's first in 69 years—and the Birds were flying. The delirious Orioles poured magnums of champagne over each other's heads; beer cans, pickles, jars of mustard and cartons of milk sailed through the dressing room. Club Owner Jerry Hoffberger was heaved bodily into the shower. He staggered out soaking wet, grabbed a telephone, and placed a person-to-person call to a Mr. William O. DeWitt in Cincinnati. "Mr. DeWitt?" crooned Hoffberger. "I just want to tell you how much I appreciate everything you have done for us."

Bill DeWitt is the owner of the National League's Cincinnati Reds, and what he had done for the Orioles was to trade them Outfielder Frank Robinson, 31. Last week Robinson was leading the league in hitting (.316), home runs (49) and runs batted in (120), bade fair to become the first player since Mickey Mantle in 1956 to win batting's Triple Crown—and was practically a cinch for the Most Valuable Player Award. All the Orioles gave up in exchange for Robinson was Pitcher Milt Pappas (1966 record: 10 wins, 11 losses) and a second-string outfielder.

Can't Anybody Win? It was still a little early last week for a pennant party in the National League. First, somebody had to win the pennant—and the contenders all seemed to be doing their best to lose. The San Francisco Giants committed 23 errors in 13 games. The Pittsburgh Pirates' problem was erratic pitching: Woody Fryman allowed only four hits when he beat the Giants 3-1; but against the Atlanta Braves, he gave up six runs in four innings. The Los Angeles Dodgers had all they could do just to show up for a game. In addition to Sandy Koufax and his arthritic pitching arm, the Dodger sick list included Shortstop Maury Wills (damaged knee ligament), Pitcher Don Sutton (pulled arm muscle), and Outfielder Lou Johnson (bruised shoulder).

Of course, all these teams had something going for them too. San Francisco Pitcher Juan Marichal (23-6) kept the Giants' fading hopes alive by beating the Pirates 6-5—winning his own game with a ninth-inning home run. The Pirates got acrobatic fielding from Roberto Clemente and Matty Alou, plus timely hitting: in one game they spotted Atlanta a 5-1 lead and roared back to win 8-6. The Dodgers had Koufax, who breezed to his 25th victory (and fourth in a row), an 11-1 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. They got a bonus in the return to form of Don Drysdale, who looked like his old overpowering self when he shut out the Chicago Cubs 4-0. At week's end the Dodgers were leading the Pirates by H games, the Giants by 4. But it was still anybody's pennant, and none of the contenders were ready to go fishing quite yet. "This business is just battle, battle, battle," sighed Pittsburgh Manager Harry Walker, "every cotton-pickin' day."