A Family Affair

Baseball gets its full share of brother acts,* but rarely has it seen the likes of the two strapping young men from the tiny (pop. 218) Ozarks mining town of Alba, Mo. At third base for the champion New York Yankees stands Cletis Leroy Boyer, 25. At the same hot corner for the National League's revitalized St. Louis Cardinals is Kenton Lloyd Boyer, 30. By his performance so far this season, each could lay claim to a singular honor: classiest third baseman in baseball.

Cannon to First. Both are uncommonly nimble and uncommonly sturdy--equally adept at knocking down vicious line drives with their chests, or charging home plate to scoop up a dying bunt. And both have the kind of 90-mm. arm to make the long throw to first. But the talents do not stop there.

Hulking (6 ft. 2 in., 200 Ibs.) and heavy-legged, Kenny is, surprisingly, one of the fastest men on the Cardinal team. He is also the team captain, a power hitter and the most dependable ballplayer on the club. "Kenny's our big man," says Manager Johnny Keane. "And he'd be the big man on any club in baseball." Boyer's own quiet appraisal is considerably more modest: "As long as I help the club win, I don't care about statistics." The figures speak for themselves. A seven-year veteran, he has failed to hit .300 only twice. His record this year: a .333 batting average, 22 runs driven in. He has led National League third basemen in double plays four times, won the Gold Glove award as the league's best-fielding third baseman the last four years running.

One for the Moon. If anything, Brother Cletis is an even flashier fielder, so good that Yankee Coach Wally Moses, who has watched many a third baseman come and go, calls him "as good as I have ever seen." His one fault is at the plate--a lightweight lifetime batting average of .226. enough to make a Yankee wince. But this spring the Yankees took him firmly in hand, changed his stance and taught him to harness his wild, one-for-the-moon swing. Last week Boyer was batting .368--tops on the team; he had hit five homers (including his first grand slam), driven in twelve runs. Manager Ralph Houk moved him up six notches in the line-up (to second), and even Yogi Berra was impressed. "When you see anybody hit two homers into the upper deck in Washington," said Yogi, "he ain't what you would call an ordinary hitter."

All told, there are seven Boyer brothers, and three others have so far tried their hand at professional baseball. Two more are on the way up. "Everybody tells me," says Mrs. Mabel Boyer, "that each of my boys turns out a little better than the next older one." On the chance that Mama is right, scouts from 14 major-league clubs have visited Alba this season, to watch Ronnie Boyer, 17, play a dazzling third base for the Alba High School Wildcats. Ronnie's batting average: a lusty .500. The scouts had only to shift their gaze a bit to see still another Boyer in action: Sophomore Leonard, 16, playing a fine shortstop for the same Wildcats and hitting .350.

* Notable examples: Vince, Dom and Joe DiMaggio: Dizzy and Daffy Dean.

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