Sal's Dream

Lew Burdette must move over, Bob Turley tip his hat in respect. Last week a young (21) pitcher named Kazuhisa Inao completed one of the most amazing baseball feats ever. With his team behind 0-3 in Japan's world series, Inao pitched in the next four games, won all four to pull out the series. In the process, the broad-shouldered righthander pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings, went 18 innings without walking a man.

The son of a fisherman, Inao is tall for a Japanese (5 ft. 9 in., 165 Ibs.), is nicknamed "Sai," which means rhinoceros. He began his baseball career as a catcher ("The school team was short of a catcher, and I did not know the catcher's position was scorned"), switched to pitching in high school; signed by the Nishitetsu Lions, Inao helped pitch his team to pennants in 1956 and 1957, won a total of 56 games in two years. This year, with the season two-thirds gone, the Lions were 10 1/2 games out of first place--despite the fact that Inao had already won 16 games. Inao solved that problem with a late-season burst, winning 13 games in a row.

Of the seven series games against the Yomiuri Giants, Inao pitched in six. In the opening game the heavy-hitting Giants pickled his slider, beat him 9-2. He sat out the second game (won by Yomiuri 7-3), came back after two days of rest to lose a 1-0 heartbreaker, even though he allowed only three hits and walked nobody. The rain forced a day's postponement, and Inao's luck changed. He beat the Giants 6-4. Next day he relieved in the fourth inning, won his own game 4-3 with a tenth-inning homer. Inao got a two-day break as the teams switched cities, then he was back on the mound again. He hurled a three-hit 2-0 shutout to square the series, returned the next day to apply the clincher 6-1. "Unbelievable." said Eddie Stanky of the touring St. Louis Cardinals. "He looked as if he could pitch another nine innings." Said Inao: "I was tired after three games, but I told myself to think of the old days when I rowed my father's tiny boat in rough seas. Now I feel like an emperor." His first project: a trip to the grave of his father (who died this year) there to report proudly: "Dear father, I have fulfilled our dream."

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