Word: robin
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...much of a team, but for the moment it is more than enough that they boast the best pitcher in baseball. This season, as for many a long summer, Philadelphia's oft-punctured pride rides high on the strong right arm of a visiting Middle Westerner named Robin Evan Roberts...
...about as colorful as the third fellow from the end in the class picture. The few real fans in town felt like Huck Finn trying to warm up to the Widow Douglas: "It was rough . . . considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways." Robin Roberts was an earnest young man interested only in giving the enemy its lumps, while the fans, as one of them explains it today, were looking for a player "who can give us lumps in the throat...
...lacks in hitting; Granny Hamner at shortstop is a real pro; Richie Ashburn and Del Ennis belong in any man's outfield. As for pitchers, though, unless Southpaw Curt Simmons gets back his "bonus baby" form and until the trade for the Cardinals' Harvey Haddix pays off, Robin Roberts is the Phillies' only reliable performer...
...Hubbell's spectacular screwball, Walter Johnson's terrifying fast ball, Bobby Feller's strikeout touch. Pitch for pitch, many of his contemporaries have what the trade calls "more stuff," pitches that are harder, faster, or trickier. But better than any of them now on the mound, Robin Roberts can put the ball where he wants. There is one precious-diamond word for him-control...
Even an intentional walk is alien to Robin Roberts' kind of pitching. He plays the percentages, counts on his control to put the ball where the batter can hit it, but not safely. "Take a .333 hitter," says the Phillies' Coach Wally Moses. "Well, he's only going to get a hit once out of three times. Take Willie Mays: he comes up about 500 times a season, and he hits 50 homers. Hell, that's only one in ten. It'd be silly to walk him. Well, Roberts figures those are pretty good odds...