Up & Coming

The San Francisco Giants trailed the Boston Red Sox 4-0 as they went to bat in the first inning of an exhibition game at Phoenix, Ariz. last week. Boston's lead lasted less than five minutes. The Giants' Utility Infielder Ed Bressoud led off with a home run. Outfielder Willie Mays hit a triple to deepest center field. First Baseman Orlando Cepeda walloped a 450-ft. home run, and Outfielder Jackie Brandt followed with another homer--all off Ike Delock, Boston's winningest pitcher last year. In his box behind third base, the Giants' President Horace Stoneham smiled broadly. "This is a real team," he said. "We'll be there all the way this season, and if we win it, there may be no stopping us for five years to come." Nobody seemed to mind that the Giants eventually dropped the game on a late-inning homer by Boston's Frank Malzone, 9-7.

Young & Eager. For Horace Stoneham's Giants are young, eager and bursting with base hits. Last year they scored more runs (727) than any other team in the National League, led the league for brief periods until early August, when the inadequate pitching staff finally folded completely. Explains Manager Bill Rigney: "We had to borrow tomorrow's pitching today, and it finally caught up with us." The Giants finished third, behind Milwaukee and Pittsburgh.

But over the winter, the Giants took on new strength while their chief rivals sagged. Milwaukee's second baseman and sparkplug Red Schoendienst, recovering from tuberculosis, will be out of play all season, and the Braves looked unimpressive as they dropped 15 of their first 21 spring training exhibitions. Pittsburgh's second-place Pirates gave up power that they could ill afford to lose when they traded Slugger Frank Thomas to the Cincinnati Reds. In the winter trading, the Giants picked up two established starting pitchers: Jack Sanford, 29, who won 19 games for Philadelphia two years ago, and aging (33) Sam ("Toothpick") Jones, a hard-throwing curve-bailer who led the league last year in strike-outs (225), was second in earned-run average (2.88), managed a 14-13 record for a St. Louis team that scored fewest runs in the league. With Lefthanders Johnny Antonelli (16-13 last year) and Mike McCormick (11-8), and slow-balling Righthander Stu Miller (whose 2.47 earned-run average was the league's best last year), the Giants have the best group of pitchers in years.

Butcher in Field. Thanks to good fortune with rookies, the rest of the Giant team looks solid. First Baseman Cepeda, 21, a big, amiable Puerto Rican, broke in last year with a .312 batting average, 25 home runs, 96 runs batted in ("I butcher in field," he says, "but you forget bad field when I hit"). Catcher Bob Schmidt, 25, hit 14 homers as a rookie last year. Third Baseman Jim Davenport, 25, hits adequately (.256), fielded so brilliantly in his freshman season that he is already considered one of the major's best glove men. Switched to shortstop, Andre Rodgers, 24, a onetime Bahamas cricket player, seems finally to have solved big-league pitching, was leading the team in batting average (.414), as the Giants broke camp at week's end.

The Giants' young outfield is fast and young, can hit and field. Rightfielder Felipe Alou, 23, sprays line drives to all fields, set seven batting records in the winter league of his native Dominican Republic. Back from two years in the Army, Leftfielder Jackie Brandt, 24, is an established hitter (.298 with the Giants in 1956) who can cover a wide range. Between them stands the incomparable Mays (.347 with 29 homers, 96 runs batted in last year). In reserve: Sluggers Leon Wagner, 24 (.317 last season), and Willie Kirkland, 25 (14 homers in 1958). Cracks Stoneham: "With Willie Mays, Alou and Brandt out there, we might go all year without letting a fly ball drop."

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