It's That Time Again

It was all wrong somehow, completely out of character. There were the Pirates and the Giants, well out ahead and comfortably in control and with nothing to do but keep winning and counting the days until they would get together to see who would play the Baltimore Orioles or the Vida Blues. But what everyone forgot was that this was the National League. And suddenly it reverted to lunacy. Long gone are Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds and Forbes Field and Sportsman's Park, but midsummer madness is still the province of the National League.

First, the Dodgers closed in on the Giants. Really nothing so unusual about that; the Dodgers are always closing in on the Giants when it isn't the Giants closing in on the Dodgers. But over in the Eastern Division where St. Louis had come awake while the Pirates were threatening to collapse into the Monongahela, the big team was suddenly neither the Pirates nor the Cardinals but the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs? Aren't those the guys who spend the balmy days of August and September leaning against the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field, only occasionally bestirring themselves to help Ferguson Jenkins (see cover) on his way to another 20-victory year? Well, in this case they seemed to be bestirring themselves often enough to go in lively, happy pursuit of a pennant that has eluded them for more than a quarter of a century, but never more exasperatingly than during the past few seasons. Once, only two years ago, they almost had it won, only to blow an 8�-game lead and leave Manager Leo Durocher feeling like a man trying to catch jellyfish with a wooden spoon.

What makes the Cubs' performance all the more surprising is what has happened to the Pirates, who at one point were so far ahead that the only real excitement in Pittsburgh—after Willie Stargell hit another homer—was visiting the Mellon Bank to see if the division title already had been deposited there. As late as the end of July the Cubs were 11� games behind Pittsburgh, but then things began to go sour for the Pirates. They didn't hit, they didn't pitch and they didn't feel well. Roberto Clemente was aching again, which usually precedes wondrous things, but this time nothing happened when Roberto said, "Ah."

By the second week in August, Chicago had drawn to within seven games of the Pirates, who next lost a four-game series to St. Louis, putting the Cardinals solidly in the race. Pittsburgh's most frustrating game, however, may have been the one just last Saturday against Cincinnati. Three times Pirate runners were thrown out at the plate, and those three unscored runs were the margin of the Reds' eventual victory. By Sunday, Chicago was 4� games behind Pittsburgh but down only three games in the loss column. And the Cubs suddenly appeared masters of their own destiny. Following a lengthy stay at home, in September they get to play the Pirates and the Cardinals in 11 consecutive games.

So the long, bad trip is ending with the North Side of Chicago drugged by pennant fever and hallucinating about baseball games in October. And this time the dreams have happy endings, unlike the nightmare of 1969. Jenkins swears nothing of the sort will happen this season. "We're hungrier now," he said the other day, "and we aren't going to tire in the stretch."

If staying in ball games is the way to keep refreshed, then Jenkins has a point. The Cub pitching staff already has an amazing total of 61 complete games. Last Friday, opening the team's long home stand, Jenkins started his 30th game. He also finished for the 24th time this season, prompting one person to wonder whether Jenkins was running a campaign to put relief pitchers on welfare. Not really. He merely is enjoying his best season in baseball.

After a shaky start in which he gave up two runs in the first inning, Jenkins shut out the Astros for the rest of the game. He won 3-2 to become the first 20-game winner in the league. He also became the first pitcher to win 20 games five seasons in a row since Warren Spahn accomplished the feat during 1956-60. Robin Roberts was the last righthander to win 20 or more for five straight seasons, from 1950-54 (like Spahn, Roberts went on to make it six years in a row). But for the purpose of proper historical reference, Cub fans must go back to 1906-11 and Mordecai (Three Finger) Brown. Billy Williams, the team's sometime cleanup hitter who only now is beginning to sometimes clean up the way he did in 1970, remembered Mordecai—or somebody like him. "You're going after the club record of Medicare Brown," he told Jenkins. "Mordecai," said Jenkins. "Mordecai!"

In a more sensitive clubhouse, Williams' gag might have been cause for a brawl since the Cubs have their geriatric set. Jenkins, at 27, is a youth among the regulars. Ernie Banks, who remains the best loved of all, is 40. Last week kids tramped through the ball park with a sign that said, WIN A PENNANT FOR ERNIE BANKS. Banks had been to bat only 60 times during the year and it was obvious he was not going to win a pennant by himself. Ron Santo is 31 and is not having a good year. Williams, 33, has been erratic. Jim Hickman is old enough (34) to have bleeding ulcers, and Randy Hundley, 29, is shelved again with a knee injury. When two of the team's kids, Don Kessinger and Glenn Beckert, were recently announced as having appeared in their 1,000th game as Cubs, the fact brought first applause and then a buzz of conjecture. Was this team going to die of old age before it won a pennant?

Actually the Cubs' big problem has had more to do with base hits than baseball age. Beckert has been batting around .350 all season, and Joe Pepitone has been above .300 most of it. John Callison occasionally wins a game with a timely hit.