Daddy for the Twins

Nearly every baseball fan knows --whether he likes it or not -- that one of the teams in the World Series is al most surely going to be the St. Louis Cardinals, who were rolling merrily along at a .630 clip last week and leading the National League by 11 1/2 games. The other team? That, to understate the case, is a matter of argument. In the first four months of the American League season, no fewer than eight teams either held or shared the lead.

Last week there was a ninth: the Minne sota Twins. Not that the Twins weren't supposed to be up there: in the preseason dope, experts figured them for no worse than second. Yet two months ago, the Twins were stuck in sixth place, 6 games behind.

On paper, that is where they still belong. First Baseman Harmon Killebrew, at .253, is 28 points below his 1966 average; Rightfielder Tony Oliva, at .272, is 46 points off his lifetime mark. Pitcher Dean Chance does indeed have a 16-8 record, but Jim Kaat, who won 25 games in 1966, is 9-12 this year, and Jim ("Mudcat") Grant, who won 21 in 1965, is 5-6, with a 4.91 earned-run average. To top it off, the Twins last week were playing on the road--where they have lost 29 out of 57 games this season. So what happened? The Twins won their eighth out of nine games to stay H games ahead of the Chicago White Sox.

Duty Calls. The only reasonable explanation for it all is a fellow by the name of Calvin Coolidge Ermer, 43, who took over as manager when Sam Mele was fired on June 9. Ermer's total previous big-league experience consisted of one day in the uniform of the Washington Senators, during which he went 0 for 3 at the plate. But he had served a 20-year managerial apprenticeship in the minors. The first thing he did was break up the locker-room poker game. Each night on the road, to make sure his Twins got their beauty sleep, he personally tucked them in. When eight players missed his 1:30 a.m. bed check after a night game in New York, he docked them each $100. Relief Pitcher Ron Kline got personal attention of a different sort--get rid of that gut or go to the minors, ordered Ermer, and in two weeks Kline dropped from 235 Ibs. to 219.

Some of the Twins resent Cal's crack down. Pitcher Grant, one of the late-to-beds fined by Ermer, wants to be traded. But most respect his toughness, and the team's new dedication to duty ("They're playing for their lives," explained a Minnesota newsman) shows in the box scores. Since Ermer took over, the Twins have played 25 games that were decided by one run--and they have won 14 of them, including a 3-2 victory over the White Sox last week that won them the league lead.

The team's record--66 wins, 51 losses, for a percentage of .564--is still nothing to brag about. No team in league history has ever wound up in a World Series with a winning percentage that low. There is always a first time. At least that is what Las Vegas odds makers figure. Last week they made the Twins even money favorites to win the American League pennant.

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