Word: bullpens
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...starting pitchers try to work themselves out of jams instead of yanking them at the first sign of trouble. "If I keep taking you out," he said, "you'll never learn how to pitch. You can't keep looking back over your shoulder at the bullpen." Forced to pace themselves carefully, the youngster starters worked on control, wasted few pitches. Little League Alumnus Joey Jay, 26, dumped by the Milwaukee Braves after seven disappointing seasons (lifetime record: 24 wins, 24 losses), came alive and won 21 games to lead the National League. Cocky Jim O'Toole...
...earned-run average, second best in the league. Fast-balling Rookie Ken Hunt, tamed of his wildness, posted a 9-4 record. To steady his young pitchers, Hutchinson relied on 31-year-old Bob Purkey, whose assortment of knucklers and sinkers earned him an 11-4 record. In the bullpen, he called on Bill Henry and bespectacled Writer Jim (The Long Season) Brosnan, who also uses brains on the mound, to save a total of 19 games...
...Throwing a baseball is an unnatural activity," says lanky, crew-cut Don Elston. 32. "It stretches and strains the muscles." But, as top relief pitcher for the lowly Chicago Cubs, Journeyman Ballplayer Elston is doing what comes unnaturally-and doing it uncommonly well. Trudging in from the Wrigley Field bullpen with monotonous regularity, he has appeared in 18 of his team's 43 games, won five of its 17 victories, and saved five other games-three last week alone-for hard-hit Cub starters. Says an admiring teammate: "Don Elston is the best 'short...
...short man," or "fireman," is the most exacting in baseball. He works on no regular schedule, must constantly be ready for his manager's call. On a team well supplied with dependable starters, he may dawdle unnoticed day after day on the bullpen bench, get his exercise only by pitching batting practice. Not on the floundering Cubs. Elston pops up and down like a jack-in-the-box during games, warming up, anticipating a frantic signal from the dugout. He is called in most often when the Cubs' predicament is most precarious-e.g., in the late innings...
...make him the most successful relief pitcher in the National League. But the frequency with which he works takes its toll. "There are times." says Elston wearily, "when the physical strain is such that I just can't pitch." Still, Fireman Elston has no desire to quit the bullpen for the regular rotation of a starting pitcher. "I don't want to be a starter," he explains. "I'm a success in the job I'm doing...