Success in Cincinnati

The peaceable-looking third-base rookie for the Valdosta (Ga.) Tigers was puzzled. Every time he came to bat, opposing pitchers seemed anxious to hit him in the head. He wondered if his manager had noticed. "Sure," said that helpful gentleman. "If I played against you I'd do the same thing. You just look like a guy who ought to be knocked down."

Last week, in the sleeveless flannels of a Cincinnati Redleg, Donald Albert Hoak, 29, was the man whom opposing National League pitchers wished most they could knock down. He was near the top of the National League with a .358 batting average, running the bases with happy belligerence, and defending third base with almost errorless skill. Cincinnati has seen nothing like him since Third Baseman Billy Werber drifted in from the American League in 1939 and fired the Reds to two pennants in a row.

No Bum He. Even Don is surprised. When the Redlegs got him from Chicago last fall, he was ready to quit baseball if he did not have a good year. "I'm not going back to the minors," he told General Manager Gabe Paul. "I don't want to become a baseball bum." Some Cincinnati fans suggested glumly that Hoak was a bum already--as a Dodger in 1954 and '55, he had looked poor next to Third Basemen Billy Cox and Jackie Robinson. Last year as a Cub, he was an unpopular and ineffectual replacement for handsome Ransom Jackson. He hit a piddling .215, set an embarrassing major-league record by striking out six times in a single game with the Giants.

The credit for his current success, says Hoak, belongs to one man: Redleg Manager Birdie Tebbetts. Like everyone else who has seen Don play since he left the sandlots of Roulette, Pa., Birdie recognizes the signs of greatness. But unlike Don's earlier managers, Birdie knows how to help his man use all his talent all the time. "The big thing about Birdie," says Third Baseman Hoak, "is that he won't let his ballplayers build up pressure. Besides changing my stance at the plate, he cut down my swing and has me moving around more in the batter's box. With Birdie you don't feel locked up. You're free to play your own game."

Novel System. Free to play his own game, Hoak has shown the rough aggressiveness that the beanballing pitchers sensed beneath his solid (6 ft., 182 Ib.) frame. His novel system for breaking up a double play (TIME, May 6) has forced a change in the rulebook.* Last week his timely hitting helped his team take two out of three games from the Giants; his smooth work at third left Shortstop Roy McMillan free to team up with Second Baseman Johnny Temple in one of the best double-play combinations in baseball. The Redlegs, who started the season slowly, are all playing their own game by now, at week's end were on top in the pennant race thanks to a twelve-game winning streak. "Some players," said modest Manager Tebbetts as he tried to disclaim credit for such crowd-pleasing play, "have to be on a winning club to do their best." Winning certainly seemed to suit ex-Castoff Don Hoak.

*Running from second to third, Don fielded a sure double-play grounder, was called out for interference, but prevented the Milwaukee Braves from getting another out by forcing the Redleg running from first to second. Now-such interference automatically costs the team at bat two outs.

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