Young Orioles

Baseball's freshest sight in the still youthful 1960 season is a juvenile band of Baltimore Orioles. The man most re sponsible for the fact that the Orioles are fluttering giddily around the top of the American League: Manager Paul Rapier Richards, 51, a sharp-featured, sharp-thinking Texan with a rare talent for developing young players. Last week, while kids with autograph books were besieging his long-forlorn Orioles in the lobby of Manhattan's Hotel Roosevelt, Richards ordered a breakfast of prune juice, dry cereal and coffee in suite 727-729 and leaned back to talk about the task of building a winner from scratch.

"When I went to the Orioles in 1955 as field manager and general manager," said Richards, "I went on the condition I would have the money to pay the bonuses to get young players. We signed up a lot of kids four, five years ago. I talked to all of them myself. Then we had to make some deals to stay alive until they got here."

Glove Men. Richards readily admitted that his team has no super star, no candidate for the batting title. "We try to choke off their runs, keep them down and let them give us the game," he said. "Our style is like punting and praying in football, or just hitting it back in tennis. You've got to start with the defense. If you can't get the other fella out, you can't win the game, no matter how many runs you score."

To get the other team out, Richards has the youngest regular infield in the majors. Third Baseman Brooks Robinson, 23, has become one of the league's best glove men since he came up three years ago. Shortstop Ron Hansen. 22, Second Baseman Marv Breeding, 26, and First Baseman Jim Gentile, 26, are all rookies, but they already mesh so well that the Orioles lead the majors in double plays.

.30-.30 from the Mound. Onetime Catcher Richards is particularly proud of five pitchers who are 22 or under--the finest group to come up in years. The two brightest rookie stars: Southpaw Steve Barber, 21, with a record of 4-1, an earned run average of 1.67; Chuck ("El Stiletto") Estrada, 22, with a 3-1 mark.

"Barber was pitching Class D ball down in Pensacola last year," says Richards. "Won seven and lost eleven. Temperamental kid. We told him if he could get hold of his temper he could make it with us, and he did. We knew Estrada had it. He won 14 and lost six at Vancouver last year. With all our kids, we develop a basic pitch they can get over when they have to with some stuff on it. Estrada's strike pitch is a fast ball that drops. Barber's is a slider. His fast ball moves around too much to get over every time.

"But they all got stuff, all five of the kids. I catch them now and then in practice, but it's not a good idea. They'll throw that ball right past your glove and knock a hole through you. I have trouble getting an infielder to warm them up between innings. Everyone wonders where the kids get all their confidence. You'd have confidence too if you knew you could throw hell out of the ball. It's like having a .30-.30 out there on the mound."

Brainwashing. The danger in depending on such youngsters is the uncertainty of how they will react to fame and stress. Richards is worrying already as the endorsements begin to flow in and the clippings pile up. "This 'sophomore jinx' that people talk about is just the fact that some kids can't take publicity," says Richards. "You've got to make your kids able to stand up under it. You can spend all the money in Fort Knox for a player, but if you don't train him how to act off the field as well as on it, the money's worthless. You practically have to brainwash them."

Richards is willing to take his chances. To bring the kids to heel, he relies on a small hard core of veterans led by Leftfielder Gene Woodling, 37, who is hitting a steady .315, and scrappy Catcher Clint Courtney, 33. When August rolls around and the big hitters begin to come through for New York, Cleveland and Chicago, Richards knows he will have to rely on his young pitchers and his stout defense. "When those other guys start hitting," says Richards, "we'll be deeper in pitching than any team. The kids will relieve as well as start. We don't worry about hurting feelings on this ball club."

At week's end, after a series with the Yankees, the Orioles were in first place. No one thinks the Orioles can go all the way--except the young Orioles themselves. "They don't talk much about it," says Richards, "but the whole club thinks we can win. I don't know if we can or not, but if that's what they think, it's fine with me. I know one thing: the team that gives away the fewest games will win the pennant."

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