,m " THE SJlTU R.DAY E Y ENINe POST lE3Jm~JElE3JmI1JL/~ Jl([})1JJJu ~lN1' lPJJ«JJJMJEJEm. «JJm. lPJJ([JJE«JJJM? Whatever he may do, homer or pop-up, h e's puttinA some zap in the fine old Aame. , , • "E"idellfly you arell 'f aware whaf I am ;11 here f or !" < - Tuesday. March 6: was a nice ~n~y The fishing Oeets were plying the Gulf of for the first exhibition game of the season day in Orlando, Flonda, the only city In Mexico to the west. The lady jockeys were and eve rybody was talking idly about Wil­ the hemisphere that harbored both Mick­ booting home winners in Miami to the lie Mays's knees, Sparky Lyle's ankle, Leo ey Mouse and Harmon Killebrew. The south. And, on all sid es, the baseball camps Durocher's temper and Richie Allen's sala­ twenty-six million tourists who visit the were rustling after a delayed start induced ry . But before the afternoon was over, state each year all seemed to be converg­ by rigidity of the "whereas" clause at the they would all be talking about a twenty­ ing on the town. Disney World was al,ive bargaining table. six-year-old retreaded outfielder named with cartoon heroes and kids. The racmg Over at the spring-training headquarters Larry Eugene Hisle- because he was about cars were spinning at Sebring to the east. the Minnesota Twins were getting ready to become the pioneer in the most contro- " THE SJlTUR,DAY EYENlHe POST July /AuAud ' 73 argument when Quilici offered the um­ pires a batting order with ten names. They finally subsided after the Minnesota man­ I agement said it had advertised the experi­ ment when selling tickets, grumbled that it wouldn't happen again and then watched Larry Hisle whack a home run with two men on base and another with the bases loaded . .. It felt kind of weird sitting in the dug­ out while my teammates were on de­ fense." Hisle renected later. ,.) don't think I'd like the job full time since I en­ joy defense almost as much as hitting. I killed the lime by studying the Pittsburgh pitchers and by drinking a lot of wa ter at the cooler." Maybe it was causcd by the seven-hour day, the five-day week or the four-week vacation, to say nothing of the fact that earthmen these days stare at a quarter of a billion television screens in 100 countries from Albania to Zambia. But whatever the reason, the 1970's came hustling into sight wrapped in dollar signs surrounded by people with the time and money to lavish on something called "the entertain­ ment buck." It took 200,000 of them to buy one minute of commercial time on the Super Bowl telecast: 5,000,000 of them to syndicate a race horse, and 100,000,000 of them to build a stadium. It was a time when most ski-country families had two or more snowmobiles in the barn, when America added 300 golf courses a year and when the National Hockey League expanded overnight from ~ six teams to twelve and then to fourteen. - You could watch lIungarian soccer play­ -_/ ers kick field goals from the 50-yard line or North Carolina basketball players heave three-point baskets from 30 feet out. There were sixteen teams in two divi­ sions in one hockey league and ten teams I in two divisions in the competing league: seventeen teams in four divisions in one basketball league plus ten teams in two divisions in another; twenty-six teams in six divisions in two conferences in one Il football conglomerate. and twenty-four teams in four divisions in two baseball leagues. And as for the public: bewildered and bewitched maybe, but free-spending versial experiment on the leisure-time him to bat for the Minnesota pitcher all definitely. "They're really pouring it on," scene. He was the first "designated hitter" afternoon, and so Hisle a good "glove The New York Times observed as things of the baseball season. man" would spend his lime marching heated up. "When the little guy suddenly As the tenth man on a traditionally from the bench to home plate without gets a lillIe money, he spends it." nine-man team, Hisle wasn't sure that af­ ever touching a glove. To make a long story short, when he ternoon whether he was a pioneer or a History had to wait a few minutes be­ started spending it on something else, the guinea pig. He did know that he had had fore Hisle made his debut as the "dh" in baseball people started looking around for four shots at steady employment in the the box score because the other team was ways to recapture his interest and his wal­ big leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates. who play in the a­ let. Then, when nine of the twelve clubs for whom he once built a miniature bat­ tional League. The rub was that the Twins in the American League drew fewer than a ting average of .205, and that he had been play in the American League, which had million customers in 1972, the stampede passed from Albuquerque to SI. Louis to voted in January to try the new rule for was on. The villain: the 6-foot4-inch Minnesota without playing any games dur­ three years, except in interleague games: pitcher with overpowering stuff. The vic­ ing the previous winter. He also knew that the World Series, the All-Star Game and tim: the man waving a baseball bat 60 1/2 Manager Frank Quilici had "designated" exhibitions. So the Pirates put up a big feet away. The reason, suggested Gabe " THE SRTU RDAY EYENINC POST July /AuAust '13 Paul: "The pitchers and the stadiums grew the lineup fo r Rochester, hit .295, drew Now it's 1973, and the mail is pouring too big." admiring glances from the St. Louis Cardi­ in to the American League. Suppose, peo­ Larry Hisle didn't realize it at the time, nals (who we re looking for a pinch-hitter) ple wanted to know, the Minnesota club but that was his cue. Actually, the cue and made the big leagues as a specialist. has a weak-hitting shortstop. Can Harmon had been sneaking up on him. In 1895, Choo-Choo Coleman, the litlle sign Killebrew be designated to bat for him? the infield fly rule was adopted to keep painter who had kept Casey Stengel in No, the experimenters answered patiently, smart infielders from tricking unsmart chuckles on the chuckling Mets a decade he can swing only fo r the pitcher. base-runners. In 190 I, it was revised to earlier, came out of retirement fo r the oc­ Does that mean the "dh" must always protect the innocent. In 1920, the spitball casion. Laying aside his pa intbrushes in bat ninth in the lineup, where the pitcher was outlawed. In 1950, the strike zone Florida, he revived his baseball career as usua ll y bats? Not necessarily. Pitchers bat was defined (ann pit to top of knee). In the leadoff batter for the Tidewater ninth most of the ti me because they're 1963, it was defined again (top of shoul­ Mels-since his contributions as a catcher usually the weakest hitters on the team. de r to bottom of knee). In 1969, would had always been suspect, anyway-and But theoretically, they may swing any­ you believe armpit to top of knee again? had such a heady time that he charged the where in the lineup- and so may their Then men walked on "designated hi tters." the moon, the Mets won Q. - Suppose the manag­ the pennant and the red- er wants somebody else to ink wretches of the Ameri­ bat for the designated hit­ can League began clamor­ Exclusive Medicatio11 ... ter later in the game; is ing for somebody, any­ that possible? A - Yes, but body, to put more clout then that man becomes into the old ball game. En­ Does More Than Help Shrink the official ':dh" in the ter the tenth man: the batting order and the o rigi- "designated hitter." nal hitter is out of the He arrived in 1969, dur­ Painful Swelling Of game. ing the same summer Neil Q. - Suppose Al Kaline Armstrong arrived on the Hemorrhoidal Tissues is the designated hitter shore of the Sea of Tran­ and, later in the game, Quility, but nobody paid Manager Bill y Martin much attention. Still, in Due To Infection wants to use him in right places like Rochester and field on defense. Legal or Syracuse and Toledo, he Also gives prompt, temporary relief not? A. - It's legal, but was often the talk of the then Kaline becomes the town: the man who did in many cases from pain right fielder and Detroit nothing but bat for the and itching in such tissues. plays the rest of the game pitcher, and Alexander without a designated hit- Cartwright be damned. ter. HEN hemorrhoidal tissues name-Preparation H*. Tests by He was experimental that Q. Does this mean that summer, his stage was W swell, become inflamed and leading dOC[Qrs upon hundreds and in every American League the International League infected-it can be very painful for hundreds of patients verified game for the next three (highest minor) Jnd his im­ the sufferer. But doctors have found Preparation H gave similar success­ years, there will be ten pact on the seas of base­ a remarkably successful medication ful results in many cases.