Word: hutchinsons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Tall and rangy (6 ft. 2 in., 205 Ibs.), "Old Stoneface" Hutchinson has the shoulders of a longshoreman and a face that might have been sculpted by Modigliani. He has been known to terrify rookie ballplayers merely by staring at them, and his temper tantrums are monumental: enraged by the loss of a close game, he has attacked the dugout watercooler, ripped his uniform to shreds, and pounded a concrete wall until his knuckles were bruised and bleeding. When Hutchinson was pitching for Detroit, recalls Yankee Yogi Berra, "I could always tell how he had done when we followed...
Picked by sportswriters to finish no better than sixth, Hutchinson's Reds are a genuine baseball miracle: an odd assortment of discarded has-beens and untested maybes who suddenly jelled into the only consistent team in the fiercely competitive National League. Third Baseman Gene Freese, traded away by four teams in three years, hit 26 homers for the Reds. Reserve Outfielder Jerry Lynch, woefully weak on defense, batted over .400 as a pinch hitter. Catcher Darrell Johnson, a Yankee castoff, hit a lusty .333. First Baseman Gordy Coleman, obtained from Cleveland, found Cincinnati's bandbox Crosley Field...
Particularly in his handling of Cincinnati's thin, erratic pitching staff, Hutchinson proved himself a master tactician. An iron-man pitcher in his own day (112 complete games in 169 starts), Hutch let his 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...
...cards in a paneled office that is necessarily equipped with a handy silver spittoon. He takes careful notes during pregame batting and fielding practice. "That way," he says, "I might notice that one of their guys is hurt, or pick up one or two other little things." Like Hutchinson. Houk has a fierce tem per-but he usually keeps it in check. "Temper hurt me a time or two as a player," he says. "I knew it wasn't going to help the club, so I said. 'Well, hell, let's put a rope...
Bookmakers confidently installed the slugging Yankees as prohibitive 5-12 favorites. Houk was quietly optimistic. But Hutchinson was not conceding a thing. "We played in a tough league, and we won the pennant," he said. "There's no reason why we shouldn't beat the Yankees...