Sudden Sam, the Shutout Man

It is hardly Samuel Edward McDowell's fault that he is not the most noticeable player in baseball. He goes out of his way to be noticed. A 23-year-old lefthander who pitches for the Cleveland Indians, "Sudden Sam" McDowell can throw a baseball faster than anybody else in the American League, and he stands 6 ft. 5 in. tall--"two inches of which," someone once noted, "is hair." Sam's taste in clothes is provocative. He showed up for work this spring looking like Black Bart--black ranch pants, black coat, black neckerchief, black cowboy boots and black Stetson. As far as Cleveland Manager Birdie Tebbetts is concerned, "McDowell can wear a breechcloth and feathers if he wants"--so long as he mows down American League hitters the way he has ever since the 1966 season started.

In Cleveland two weeks ago, Sam shut out the Kansas City Athletics 2-0, allowing the A's just one base hit--a pop-fly single. Six days later he beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0, tying a major-league record by pitching his second straight one-hitter; the lone hit this time was a bloop double that barely eluded the outstretched glove of Cleveland's first baseman. Last week he went twelve innings against Baltimore--allowing only one run, striking out ten batters--before giving way to a relief pitcher with the score tied 1-1. The Indians lost the game 3-2 in 15 innings, but McDowell's record was still unblemished: four victories, no defeats--plus 59 strikeouts in 53 innings.

Lowest in the Majors. That kind of pitching should make McDowell the sensation of the young season. But he had to share the spotlight last week with San Francisco's Willie Mays--who hit the 512th home run of his career, thereby breaking Mel Ott's 19-year-old National League record--and with his own Cleveland teammates. At week's end, the Indians were leading the second-place Baltimore Orioles by two full games. McDowell's fellow pitcher Luis Tiant had yet to lose in three starts, and the entire Cleveland pitching staff boasted an earned-run average of 1.60 --lowest in the majors.

Cleveland's Manager Tebbetts is not quite ready to claim the pennant--or a niche in the Hall of Fame for Mc Dowell. "A pitcher isn't a great pitcher just because he wins four straight," grunted Tebbetts. "Personally, I think McDowell is going to be great. But let's not put the monkey on his back."

Playing Little League, Pony League, Colt League and high school baseball in Pittsburgh, McDowell had thrown 40 no-hitters by the time he was 17. One day in 1960, he pitched Central Catholic High School to a 4-3 victory over South Hills Catholic High--collecting 18 strikeouts, batting a game-winning home run--and 20 big-league scouts posed for a group photograph in the stands. Sam signed with Cleveland for $77,000, spent five uneventful years bouncing back and forth between the minors and the Indians--uneventful except for his 41st and 42nd no-hitters against Spokane Indians and Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League.

Last year McDowell finally went to Cleveland to stay. It was a bad year for the Indians: the team to beat in the American League was supposed to be the defending champion New York Yankees, and the Indians did that all right--they wound up fifth while the Yankees finished sixth. But McDowell established himself as the American League's top pitcher, winning 17 games against eleven losses, posting an earned-run average of 2.18, striking out 325 batters in 273 innings--more per inning than the Los Angeles Dodgers' Sandy Koufax.

Wet Guess. Now there are hitters around the American League who insist that Sam is even more sudden than Sandy--but nobody knows for sure, because McDowell refuses to have his fastball timed. "Koufax is one of my idols," he explains, "and I'd hate to find out that I'm faster than he is. Of course, I'd hate to find out I'm slower too." Because Sam's "hummer" breaks sharply--down instead of up--he has also been accused of throwing an illegal spitball. Not so, says McDowell: "I wouldn't know how. But if people want to think I'm throwing a spitter, that's fine with me. It'll keep them guessing up there, and that's what my job is all about."

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