Word: elston
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...National League has had a virtual corner on talented Negro players. Seven of its top ten batters, its top four home-run hitters, its top four in runs-batted-in are colored; the American League has but one Negro among its top ten batters, New York's Elston Howard, none among the leaders in the other two categories. Though Negroes make up roughly 17% of the 200 players on National League rosters, this year's All-Star squad is 36% Negro. Last week, in the 30th All-Star game, their speed and power gave the underdog National League...
Maris, with four round-trippers in six days, was only one of a crowd: St. Louis Cardinal First Baseman Bill White, Boston Red Sox Catcher Jim Pagliaroni, New York Yankee Catcher Elston Howard also belted four apiece. Slender Milwaukee Rightfielder Hank Aaron topped them all with five in six days. Baltimore Oriole First Sacker Jim Gentile poked only two, but both came with the bases full; with the season only half gone, Gentile thus tied the American League record of four grand slams in a full season, one away from the major league mark of five set by Chicago...
...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...
...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, with men on base, the score tied...
...Elston's unshakable calm and concentration 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...