Stout Steve

He is the sort who sprouts baseball's legends. Groundkeepers swear that they have tape-measured his mighty wallops at up to 600 ft. Of his speed afoot, it has been hazarded that if a race were to be run between him and an oak tree, the smart money would ride on the oak. Sportswriters fondly recall his beer-drinking exploits, like the time he hopped off a Cincinnati Reds bus during a brief stop to buy a case of cold brew, downed two bottles while getting his change. Former teammates remember being unable to get into his hotel room because he had stuffed towels under the door, turned on the shower's hot water full blast, and while resting on his bed, converted the place into a steam bath in an effort to sweat off a few of his 250 lbs. But the amiable giant who furnishes the stuff for such stories is no modern Babe Ruth: he is Stephen Thomas Bilko, 31, one of major-league baseball's most fascinating flops.

Currently with the Detroit Tigers in his 16th year of organized baseball, First Baseman Bilko has long been dubbed "the Paul Bunyan of the Bushes." The name is well earned for Bilko's minor-league record is formidable: in 1956, for example, he batted .360, hit 55 home runs, and knocked in 164 runs for Los Angeles, then in the Pacific Coast League. Such minor-league larruping at one time placed a $200,000 price tag around Stout Steve's bullneck, had won him four major-league tries before this year's with the Tigers. Each time he came up with personal hopes equaled only by those of his bosses; each time, sooner or later, he went back down. The old sad pattern seems about to be repeated.

"Best Chance Ever." The Tigers badly needed a first baseman for 1960--and as had happened before with other teams, Detroit's eye landed on Bilko, who had had a fine 1959 season with Spokane. The Tigers got Bilko for the $25,000 draft price plus a salary of $15,000. and Manager Jimmy Dykes made it plain that he was counting on Steve. In spring training, Bilko batted .304. hit four home runs and felt good: "This is my best chance ever. If I don't make it this time, I have no one to blame but myself."

In the American League season's first days, Bilko still looked good: he hit home runs on consecutive days against the Chicago White Sox. Then, as the weather grew warmer, came the seemingly slight difference in pitching between the majors and the top minors that is best described by Bilko himself: "Up here you see a good pitcher every day. Down there, maybe only five in seven days. And down there are a lot of young guys who don't know what they're doing yet."

"Up--or Else." To Steve Bilko, that difference has long been the one between success and failure. By last week he was hitting a poverty-stricken .135, was riding the Detroit bench, and had every reason to expect to pack. To Steve Bilko, it was a familiar story. "In the minors, you can have your ups and downs. But here, you got to be up all the time--or else."

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