The Ten-Percenters

Pitching is supposed to be 90% of baseball--so how do you account for the St. Louis Cardinals? Two weeks ago, St. Louis was second in the National League, three games behind the Cincinnati Reds. Last week the roles were reversed, and it certainly had nothing to do with pitching. In ten games, St. Louis hurlers gave up 80 hits and 25 runs. But, oh, that other 10%! Battering opposing pitchers for 92 hits and 48 runs, the Cardinals won nine of the ten games--six of them in a row.

Nearly everyone in the line-up had a hand in the St. Louis assault and battery. Catcher Tim McCarver, whose lifetime average is only .278, banged out 16 hits in 36 trips to the plate to raise his 1967 average to over .330. There he found himself battling for third place in the standings with Cardinal First Baseman Orlando Cepeda, who won one game with a two-run homer--and clinched another with a three-run blast. Rightfielder Roger Maris, batting a solid .302, contributed an eleventh-inning double that drove in a winning run against the Houston Astros and an eighth-inning homer that beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2. Two other Cards --Centerfielder Curt Flood and Leftfielder Lou Brock--were batting well over .300 last week, and even Shortstop Dal Maxvill, the worst hitter (at .224) among the St. Louis regulars, did his bit with a tie-breaking single against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pitching? 90%? Tell it to the rest of the National League.

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