Bull Rampant

One relief pitcher touts a comic strip featuring a zany resembling himself. The first baseman is renowned for raising hell and racing thoroughbreds. The second and third basemen are hosts of a radio show. Other players dabble in transcendental meditation. But none of that for the single-minded leftfielder who gets his kicks from brutalizing a baseball with a 36-oz. bat.

The kicks have been rapid-fire this season because no one is bashing the ball like Gregory Michael Luzinski, 24, of the Philadelphia Phillies. Called "Bull" in deference to his taurine power, Luzinski leads the National League in home runs, runs batted in, 26 and 88 respectively last week, and bullying pitchers. That parlay keeps the Phillies winning and within striking distance of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It also has Phillies fans planning for the playoffs.

Through no fault of his own, the Bull's emergence has come as a surprise. In 1973 he hit 29 home runs, but few noticed because the Phillies were deep in last place. Last year he tore ligaments in his right knee and lost half a season. This spring the Phillies grabbed First Baseman Dick Allen, who led the American League in home runs and controversial publicity last year, and taciturn Greg was again forgotten. But only briefly. Luzinski, for one, is not surprised by his showing. "Basically," he says, "I'm just playing up to my ability."

Gentle Giant. Son of an electrician in Chicago, Luzinski lit up North Side Hamlin Park from the day he first stepped up to bat. In high school, he also played linebacker and fullback, and led his team to two undefeated seasons. The football recruiters, envisioning another Dick Butkus, swamped him with offers. Says he: "John McKay called to ask me to come to U.S.C. the day I signed with the Phillies." The club's pitch included a bonus of about $50,000.

At 6 ft. 1 in., 225 Ibs., Luzinski looks more the linebacker than the leftfielder. But he is a gentle giant. Second Baseman Dave Cash, a Tom Thumb by comparison, calls him "fat boy" with impunity, and Shortstop Larry Bowa gets away with announcing that "if Dave and I were playing for the Reds, Johnny Bench would have 120 runs batted in by now." But Bowa also remembers the time he goaded the Bull once too often. "He came at me, I ducked, and he hit John Vukovich instead. Then I ran into the bathroom and locked the door."

Luzinski prefers to direct his aggression at a baseball. "I enjoy crushing it and hitting it out of the yard," he says. His 26th home run this season, over the center-field fence of Busch Stadium in St. Louis, was hit so hard that Fellow Slugger Allen could remember only one other with which to compare it. Says Allen: "My first year in the Eastern League there was a guy who could shoot a ball high from a cannon, jump into a Jeep, drive to center field, jump out and catch the ball. One night someone asked him to aim at the center-field wall. He pulled the cord and the ball was gone. That's what Greg's shot looked like."

The Bull has the ability to rifle singles as well as home runs, and last week he was batting .311. Patience is the key. "My hitting zone is from my belt to my knees," he says, "and I concentrate on hitting strikes." For a man his size he even has speed. He has been clocked at 4.3 seconds from home plate to first base. "I could steal a base every series if I got the green light," he says. He rarely gets it because Manager Danny Ozark prefers not to risk injury to the man who rings up so many of his team's runs. With Cash and Bowa preceding him to the plate, Luzinski has ample opportunity to drive in runs. "We have cruisers and PT boats," says Catcher Bob Boone of the Phillies' attack. "But Greg is the battleship and he gives our navy respect."

The armada steamed into Pittsburgh last week and won two of three games from the first-place Pirates. The Bull and the Phils have finally arrived, says Relief Pitcher Tug McGraw. Resurrecting a battle cry he sounded when the Mets charged to the 1973 pennant, he tells skeptics, "You gotta believe."

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