Can Anyone Win This Thing?

By J. D. Reed

Four teams stage a daffy scramble in the National League East

Sliding into third base one game last week, Andy Van Slyke of the Cardinals could not see that Jim Morrison of the Pirates had missed the throw from the plate and was only pretending to tag him. Exasperated, Cards Third Base Coach Chuck Hiller tugged Van Slyke to his feet and sent him sprinting down the base line. But the rookie outfielder was waved out before he reached the plate. The reason for the rare judgment call? According to Rule 7.09 (i), a coach cannot "assist" a runner. Given the circumstances, the regulation seemed unnecessarily strict. In this season's tight, tense National League East race, any assistance, even driving a runner home in a Sherman tank, should be allowed.

September may be cool for the rest of baseball (American League Leaders Baltimore and Chicago have secure margins; the Dodgers seem safely ahead in the N.L. West), but in the unstable East, four struggling teams have remained within three games of the lead all month. Pittsburgh, Montreal and Philadelphia have exchanged the top slot almost daily, and defending World Series Champion St. Louis has lurched to within half a game of the summit.

Anticipating a four-way tie, league officials have already flipped coins to determine the pairings, Pittsburgh at Montreal and St. Louis at Philadelphia.

How to explain who is doing what to whom, and why, in the four-team limp-off is a mystery even to the participants. When questioned, players squint into the middle distance, managers scuff the artificial turf, and fans in Winnie's, a watering hole on Crescent Street in Montreal, stare mournfully into their Molson's beer. Says St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog: "It's the craziest race I've ever seen."

It is easier to say why none of the teams ought to win--slumping superstars, shallow bullpens and error-prone infields--than to predict which one eventually will do so. "Pitching's going to win it," claims Expos Manager Bill Virdon, intoning a baseball verity. If so, perennial bridesmaid Montreal should have a slight advantage on the mound. Still, Ace Hurler Steve Rogers, the first pitcher in the N.L. to record 17 wins this season, has lost three of his last five games. Top Reliever Jeff Reardon has muffed eight critical saves, causing such consternation among Montreal fans that they even booed his wife Phebe when she recently appeared on the field at Olympic Stadium for a charity presentation.

Leftfielder Tim Raines leads the league with 73 steals, but Slugger Andre Dawson (.306) has been in and out of the lineup with a knee problem. Says Third Baseman Tim Wallach, who recently emerged from a batting slump: "Now it's not just a star or two, but nine players every day." The real pressures are mental, claims Virdon, who declared a double victory last week even before the war was over. Said he: "We've managed to stay on top and retain our sanity." Virdon spoke too soon; his team immediately dropped back to third by losing to the Chicago Cubs, 8-0.

The tense and touchy Phillies are having troubles of their own. Premier Hurler Steve Carlton (lifetime record: 298 wins, 199 defeats) has recorded only 13 victories. Pete Rose, 42, is having his first sub-.250 season at the plate and is not happy about being benched occasionally. "I'm not a four-day-a-week player," he says. Sixto Lezcano and Joe Lefebvre, picked up in mid-season trades with the ever woeful San Diego Padres, are pinch-hitting for some of the slumping veterans. None of this pleases All-Star Third Baseman Mike Schmidt, who is leading the league with 36 homers despite a modest .250 average. "There's too many good ballplayers to choose from, and there's no set lineup," he complained last week. "We're stifling the talent." Angry Manager Paul Owens responded by reeling off the sinking batting averages of his high-priced talent. "It's enough to make you sick," he said.

The revived Pirates believe in new names. Slugger Dave Parker, the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1978 and star of the 1979 World Series, has faded as the Pirates have rallied from eight games off the lead in June. To compensate, Shortstop Dale Berra, Yogi's 26-year-old son, is tagging critical hits, and righthanded Starter Lee Tunnell, 22, has bolstered the Pirates' hurling with a 28-hitless-inning streak in his first full major-league season. Curiously, the Pirates play slightly better on the road (38-33) than at home, where they are 39-37. Says Tanner: "Every game is a mini-World Series. It may be great for baseball, but it's bad for the heart."

"If somebody told me back in spring training," says St. Louis' Herzog early last week, "that after 142 games my best starter [Joaquin Andujar] would be 6-13, the world's best reliever [Bruce Sutter] have only 18 saves, I'd have stayed home." Indeed, even if the Cardinals won all of their remaining games, they could not equal the 92 victories that swept them to the World Series last year. But the Cardinals are scrapping, sacrificing and stealing to make up for that woeful pitching. Their winning run against the Cubs last week was achieved in typical hard-won fashion. Leftfielder Lonnie Smith hit a single, slid into second on a ground out and raced home on another single by Centerfielder Willie Mcgee. Not exactly stylish, but it worked. As Herzog put it, "Oh, we run and do things."

Running in place is the prime activity. At week's end, with 15 games to go, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were tied for first place, while Montreal was 1 1/2 games back, two games ahead of St. Louis. Musical chairs seems likely to continue until season's end, Oct. 2. Pessimists predict that the eventual victor may even capture fewer than 82 games, the low for a pennant winner, set by the 1973 Mets. Will one team pull away from the crowd? Unlikely, says Herzog. "If you go bass fishing at 5:30 and you haven't caught any by 8:30, chances are you're not going to." --ByJ.D. Reed. Reported by Nick Auf der Maur/Montreal and Don Winbush/ Chicago, with other bureaus

With reporting by Nick Auf der Maur, Don Winbush This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.