Indian Sign

"I caught some pretty good pitching staffs in my time," said Cleveland Manager Al Lopez, "but this tops them all." Ex-Catcher Lopez (Brooklyn, 1930-35) was in a mood to crow. By this week the Indians had won eleven straight, 38 of their last 47 games, had pulled themselves up from ten games off the pace to a lead of two and a half games over the New York Yankees in the nip & tuck American League pennant race.

Though Cleveland's famed sluggers, Luke Easter, Flip Rosen and Larry Doby, were wallowing in a batting slump, and the team was hitting a dismal .265 (sixth place), Lopez was getting above-standard performances from Pitchers Mike Garcia (16-7), Bob Lemon (13-9) and Early Wynn (12-11), as well as from lefthanded Reliefer Lou Brissie (59 hits in 74 innings). But the man who was really cracking the whip in the Cleveland pennant drive was Righthander Bob Feller. The onetime boy wonder, who has never had a losing season since he came to the majors, was having his best ever. His 19 victories (four defeats) leads both leagues in his 13th year in the majors, puts him well on the way to 25 wins for the season.

Ex-Fireballer Feller has slowed down with age (32), but more than makes up for it in experience. "I don't pitch as fast as I used to," says Bob, "don't know whether I could. I guess I'm only about 85 or 90% as fast as I used to be. I don't try fast balls so much. I mix them up a good deal by trying curve balls and sliders. Hitters aren't afraid I'll hit them with wild pitches like I used to, so it's harder to pitch to them. They know I've got good control."

But Feller, whose big ambition is still to win a World Series game,* thinks he will get a chance at it this year: "The most difficult thing in this game is to get up there. We've done that, and I think we'll stay." Manager Lopez, violating every tradition of the trade, is sure of it. "I don't look for a letdown. We're where we are because of our pitching, and the boys know that. The hitters will still be trying to help more and they should."

The Brooklyn Dodgers, the runaway leaders in the National League race, virtually settled the issue last week, once & for all, by whipping the second-place New York Giants in three straight games, bounded off to a 12 1/2-game lead this week.

*In 1948, after Cleveland won the second pennant in its history, Feller lost two games to Boston, had to be taken out of one.

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