The Yankees That Look Like Mud Hens

The rightfielder answered to Arturo. A guy named Doc was behind the plate. The cleanup batter called himself Hector, and his claim to fame was that he once led the league in grounding into double plays. The whole squad was hitting .212. The program said they were the New York Yankees, winners of five straight American League pennants and 2-1 favorites to make it six in a row. Baltimore Coach Billy Hunter knew better; after all, he used to play shortstop for New York. "Yankees?" snorted Hunter. "They look like the Toledo Mud Hens to me."

Aching Legs. They were the Yankees, all right, but by last week they had lost 12 out of 21 games, were dismally mired in eighth place, 51 games behind the Chicago White Sox. Fans were staying away in droves (only 3 001 showed up at 67,000-seat Yankee Stadium for a game against Kansas City), and sick pay was costing $1,440 a day. Mickey Mantle, at $100,000 a year, was resting his aching legs on the bench. Roger Maris, a $72,000-a-year man, was sprawled in an easy chair in Independence, Mo., nursing a pulled hamstring muscle. Catcher Elston Howard, $70,000 worth of talent, was out of action for six weeks after an operation for bone chips in his elbow. To replace Howard, the Yankees shipped two players off to Kansas City in exchange for H. R. ("Doc") Edwards, whose credentials include a lifetime batting average of .244 and a tour of duty as a Navy medic.

It looked as though nothing short of a complete transfusion could help the slumping Yankees. Last week they dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Baltimore, and proved that it was no fluke by losing 2-1 in an exhibition next day against their cross-town baby cousins, the New York Mets. (The Mets had prepped for the game by losing six straight in the National League.) Then the Yanks shuffled off to Cleveland to swap condolences with an old friend, Pitcher Ralph Terry, who won 76 games for the Yanks before he was traded to the Indians last October.

For Mercy's Sake. "I enjoy seeing the fellows again," beamed Terry, who walked out to the mound, threw 70 pitches and walked off with his fourth victory of the year, a 4-0 shutout. Only three Yankees got to first base, and the game mercifully lasted just 1 hr. 40 min. --shortest of the season. "I wanted to win," explained Terry afterward, "but I wanted to make sure I didn't rub it in." If he didn't, the ninth-place Washington Senators did: they promptly took two out of three from the Yankees. Manager Johnny Keane grimly declared: "Anyone who figures we're washed up is just plain foolish." Maybe so. But the Yankees have yet to play their first game against Al Lopez' red-hot White Sox, who last week won five out of seven games to boost their league lead to 2 1/2 games. In 1964 the Yankees beat the Sox 12 out of 18, and Lopez can hardly wait to get even.' The Yankees are hurting," he chortled. "This is the year they lose." And who is going to win? "Well," drawled Lopez, "we've got a pretty good ball club out here in Chicago."

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