Inside Pitch (statistics Through Aug. 26)

Reggie Jackson, who is 38 years old and three home runs shy of 500, last week explained the concessions he has had to make to his birth certificate.

"I think my bat began to slow down two years ago," he said. "I started to cheat, looking for the fastball, and I got away with it." Boy, did he ever. He hit 39 home runs for the Angels in '82.

Last year he didn't get away with it. He was so conscious of beginning his swing in time to catch up to the inside heat that he eventually lost all his timing. He hit .194 with a mere 14 homers.

This year he has a respectable 19 homers in 410 at bats, 63 RBIs and a .234 batting average that he wishes was 15 points higher. "The boys with good smoke, if they throw it here the first two times I'm up, I got to sit down," he says, rubbing his hand across his chest to indicate the inside fastball.

"It's tough to deal with the fact there are some pitches I can't hit. I could open up sooner like I did last year and try to handle them that way, but that'd mess up my swing for a week, so I've got to take my medicine. But maybe my third time up, maybe they're getting a little tired, then I have a chance to hit one. I'm still as strong, it's just not as often."

Terry Pendleton, the Cardinals' rookie third baseman with the .322 average, hit his first major league homer last week in Cincinnati, and C.J. Cherre, the team's traveling secretary, went to the seats in rightfield and offered the fan who caught the ball a bat, a ball and a Cardinals cap. The fan told Cherre no thanks.

Later in the game Cherre sent two messengers with two $50 bills. First they offered $50. Then they upped that to $100. Nothing doing.

Cherre said he told the fan that Pendleton might one day like to have the ball for the trophy case in his house. To which the fan, who said he was unemployed, replied, "I don't have a house."

Pendleton was philosophical. "I'll take the money and he can have the ball," he said. "Maybe he thinks I'm going to break Henry Aaron's record."

Detroit's Milt Wilcox thinks it's a fair trade—he has a healthy right shoulder and a 15-7 record, and all it costs is a couple of days of bad breath and B.O. The bad smells are caused by DMSO, a drug vets use on horses and that some athletes have been daubing on their bodies the past few years to reduce pain.