THE prime purpose of journalism is to shed light. And our main medium for such illumination is the printed word. The words for this week's cover story on San Francisco Giants Pitcher Juan Marichal are those of Sport Writer Charles Parmiter, working with a good infield of correspondents, all under the editing eye of Senior Editor George Daniels. Parmiter's story sheds new light not only on the sport but also on the science and sociology of baseball.

Two components of the cover story clearly demonstrate another method of illumination: the graphic arts. One is the cover itself, the first for TIME by California Artist Gerald Gooch, who, having once aspired to a career in professional baseball, approached his commission with zest. His nine sequential oil studies of Marichal in the act of making a single pitch are a rare example of an artist catching this kind of action. "You will notice," says Gooch, "that the three panels from upper right to lower left, in a diagonal line through the center, sum up the action of the pitch. It's sort of a slow-motion sequence. It's what you see at the ball game. The action shown in the other panels happens too fast for most persons to see. I decided on nine panels because there are nine innings in a baseball game and nine players on a team. The panels are in threes because there are three outs to an inning, and also--it's three strikes and you're out."

To Cartographer Robert M. Chapin Jr. fell the intricate assignment of showing precisely what happens to the baseball as Marichal pitches--fastball, screwball, slider and curve. Marichal posed his right hand and ball grip for the four photographs in the diagram that illustrates the cover story, and made several suggestions and corrections in the drafts of Chapin's drawing. It should be pointed out that Chapin brought some baseball credentials of his own to the task. He once pitched for the Pirates --the Park Road Pirates of Washington, D.C.

SINCE 1961, when the Exhibition Center was opened in the Time & Life Building, upwards of 3,000,000 people have attended its art shows and educational exhibitions, which are open free to the public seven days a week. Last week the New York Board of Trade presented its Business and the Arts Award to Time Inc. for making the center available "as a showcase for major art presentation."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.