Practice Makes Perfect

It stands to reason that if a fellow pitches enough no-hit games, he is bound to win one sooner or later. Two months ago, against the New York Mets, Cincinnati's lim Maloney, 25, pitched ten innings of hitless ball -only to lose the game 1-0 when Johnny Lewis, a .245 hitter, homered in the eleventh inning. Last week in Chicago, Maloney tried and tried again.

The Chicago Cubs did not hit a ball out of the infield until the eighth inning. But lim walked ten men, hit another, stretched the count to 3-2 against 14 batters. He loaded the bases on walks in the third inning, got out of that jam when Chicago's Billy Williams grounded out. In the ninth, he loaded them up again, but Don Landrum obligingly popped up to the infield. Maloney's teammates did their bit to contribute to the tension -by doing practically nothing at the plate. After nine innings, the score was still 0-0.

On into extra innings it went. "The same thing is going to happen again," moaned Maloney. In the top of the tenth, Cincinnati Shortstop Leo Cardenas finally hit a home run, to make it 1-0. Then the Cubs came to bat. Jim walked the first man he faced. Then he bore down. Billy Williams flied out, Ernie Banks bounced into a double play, and whooping, dancing Reds mobbed their hero on the mound. "Now that I've finally won one of these," said Maloney, "I'm confident I can do it again."

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