June Hunt

The first time 17-year-old Bob Hansen stepped into the pitcher's box for his Central Valley (N.Y.) high-school team this season, the bases were loaded. He calmly struck out the next three men. Then he pitched two no-hit, no-run games and struck out 34 batters in the process. They were his 26th and 27th victories in a row. So a nice man from the Chicago Cubs breezed into Bob's home town, the sleepy little Hudson River hamlet of Harriman, just ahead of a nice man from the New York Yankees.

It was a violation of baseball's written code for them to talk to Bob about a job in professional baseball until he finished Central Valley High School. But there was no law against talking things over with the local coach. While the talks were going on, Bob Hansen pitched his third straight no-hitter. More big-league scouts showed up.

Last week rangy, phlegmatic righthander Hansen began to feel the pressure: a rival batter hit safely to right field. It was the first and only hit off Hansen this season. Said Bob with the air of a man who intends to stop a bad habit: "Boy, I'm glad that's over with."

Bob Hansen, a short-order man in Shorty's lunch counter after school and on weekends, is just the kind of kid the major leagues go after: big, cool and hardworking, with a good pair of hands. The scouts, baseball's ivory hunters, have seen plenty of high-school wonders flop in the big time--but Bobby Feller was only 17 when scouts found him in Van Meter, Iowa, and they always hope to find another. Among Bob Hansen's technical skills: a blinding fastball with which he mixes a tantalizing change of pace, a wide-breaking curve, a .461 batting average.

Scouts from 13 big-league ball clubs (only Detroit, Cleveland and the Philadelphia Athletics were unrepresented) will probably be around for Bob's graduation in June, when he will be fair game. They will be willing to pay him a fat bonus--maybe as high as $25,000--for deciding to sign up with a big-league team. Right now Bob Hansen is indicating no preference, but as a matter of pure sentiment he has always been a New York Giant fan.

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