Spring Heroes

The early days of any baseball season are traditionally characterized by astronomic batting averages belonging to unfamiliar names. Last week, with the season barely three weeks old, National League pitchers were still trying to find ways to deal with three young outfielders who had never looked so good before:

Don Demeter, 23, seemed too weak and skinny to be a big leaguer, but the Dodgers signed him for a paltry $800 bonus on the chance he might fill out and develop power. It seemed wasted money last season, when Demeter, a right-handed batter, hit a sickly .189 for Los Angeles in 43 games with only five home runs, eight runs batted in. But this year the beefed-up (6 ft. 4 in., 185 Ibs.) Demeter is suddenly a slugging terror, in his first ten games had six homers and 16 RBI.

Felipe Alou, 23, went to the San Francisco Giants as a slick fielder but an unproven hitter. This season the graceful right-handed hitter from the Dominican Republic actually outdid the incomparable Willie Mays in the early going, hit a fat .377, slugged four homers in his first 13 games. Says Alou happily: "I learn how to snap the bat."

Vada Pinson, 20, folded last year after only three weeks with Cincinnati, and was shipped off to Seattle. This season the well-built left-handed batter is hitting a snappy .357. Pinson blames his failure last year on a bases-loaded homer he socked in Pittsburgh in the second game of the season. "I'd never hit one with three on before," he explains, "and I started looking for the chance to do it again. I'm not that way any more. All I'm trying to do this year is get on base.''

In the American League, the Cleveland Indians got good pitching and devastating hitting--they had been expected to have neither--and led the league after winning nine of their first ten games. Much of the batting support came from a pair of light-hitting journeymen infielders who had been considered all but washed up. Third Baseman Woody Held, 27, a .204 hitter with only seven home runs last year, hit five homers, knocked in ten runs in his first eight games. Shortstop George Strickland, 33, who actually retired in disgust a year ago and returned only at the urging of Cleveland top brass, was hitting a whopping .360 in stark contrast to his lifetime average of .223. Says Strickland: "I don't want to analyze what I'm doing right. I'm just happy I'm doing it."

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