Word: elston
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...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...
...mended. In the outfield, the Yankees' weak link is Leftfielder Hector Lopez, who not only has a poor arm but stirs prayer in the breast of Manager Casey Stengel every time he wanders after a fly ball. Behind the plate, both the Yankees' Yogi Berra and Elston Howard have arms strong enough to discourage any base-stealing ambitions of the generally fleeter Pirates...
...boosters, Custer College has "higher scholastic standards, a better basketball team, and a lower rate of pregnancy" than any little coed college in the Midwest. The haloed hoopster of the basketball team, a stilt-high science major named Ray Blent (played with engaging cyclonic dis-coordination by Robert Elston), is in love with the pert, bouncy girl cheerleader (Nina Wilcox). When $1,500 in fix money is anonymously planted in his overcoat, visions of marrying his sugarplum dance momentarily through Blent's troubled head. Between the girl, the game, and his duty, poor Blent is soon hooping around like...