The Garter on the Sox

A baseball fan would imagine that any manager who had 1) never been fired, 2) finished no worse than second in 14 out of his 17 years on the job, and 3) just signed a two-year $40,000-a-year contract would be a contented man. Not the Chicago White Sox's Alfonso Ramon Lopez, 56. "I am," sighs Manager Lopez, "a sufferer." A chronic stomach problem keeps him from eating raw fruits and vegetables, and forces him to drink milk (which he detests) during White Sox losing streaks.

Insomnia keeps him pacing the floor un til 3 or 4 a.m. after night games. Insecurity keeps him melancholy. "I'm not a failure," he explains, "but I'm not exactly a success, either." A sportswriter once asked Lopez what he did for fun. "Fun?" Al protested. "How can you have any fun managing?"

Beating the New York Yankees, that's how. Exactly twice in the last 16 years, the Yankees have lost the American League pennant--both times to Al Lopez. He won in 1954 with the Cleveland Indians, a team that batted .262, slugged 156 home runs and won a league-record 111 games. He won again in 1959 with the "GoGo" White Sox, a team that batted .250 and hit only 97 homers but stole 113 bases.

Mightier Than the Ford. Now he is shooting for pennant No. 3, with a curious collection of castoffs and youngsters that Lopez calls "the best-balanced team I have ever coached." Last week the injury-ridden Yanks (TIME, May 14) were languishing in eighth place, taking their lumps from the Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators. Outfielder Roger Maris was still out with a pulled muscle in his thigh; Catcher Elston Howard, his right arm in a cast, was earning his keep as a TV announcer. Star Pitcher Whitey Ford (1964 record: 17-6) lost his fourth straight game and was banished briefly to the bullpen--prompting one wag to remark, "This year, the bullpen is mightier than the Ford." And all this while, Al Lopez's White Sox were winning nine out of eleven and leading the American League by two full games.

First Baseman Moose Skowron, late of the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators, is hitting a fancy .301. Leftfielder Danny Cater, ex of the Philadelphia Phillies, is the league's No. 3 batter at .328. Catcher John Romano, who bounced from the White Sox to the Cleveland Indians and back again, has three home runs, 16 RBIs to his credit. Pitcher John Buzhardt, who never won more than ten games in any of his six previous big-league seasons, is sporting a 4-0 record and an earned-run average of 1.53--second lowest in the league. The bullpen crew is headed by a couple of well-traveled knuckle-bailers: Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher, who between them have toiled for 14 pro teams. Their combined record this spring: two victories, one loss, twelve saves.

Off to the Showers. The garter on the Sox, of course, is Lopez. A shrewd tactician who believes in "percentage baseball," he calls practically every move his players make. One of his pet theories holds that batters tend to swing harder when they are ahead of the balls-and-strikes count, easier when they are behind. So he is constantly realigning the White Sox defense. "He moved me on every pitch for a whole season," one of Lopez's third basemen once reported.

When it comes to pitchers, says Bob Lemon, who pitched for Lopez at Cleveland, "Al could write the text on the mechanics of pitching. Why you use a certain pitch. When you use it. What pitch should follow another. Why it should follow." Lopez often signals for specific pitches himself, wastes no time yanking his starters at the first hint of trouble. In one game last year, Chicago's Joe Horlen had a four-hit shutout going after seven innings. "Good job," said Lopez, and packed him off to the showers. He called in Gary Peters to pitch the eighth inning, then sent for Wilhelm to mop up.

Soft-spoken and introverted, Lopez rarely bawls out his players for mistakes. "What's the use?" he says. "They're adults." And he almost never holds clubhouse meetings to discuss strategy or give pep talks. "I attended hundreds of those meetings as a player," he says, "and most of them were a waste of time."

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