Lou Boudreau, when he was the player-manager of the 1948 pennant-winning Cleveland Indians, was asked if there was a secret to the Indians’ success.
“Yes,” Boudreau replied. “We beat the brains out of the bums.”
The Indians that year were 32-12, 20 games over .500, against the Washington Senators and the White Sox, the two bottom clubs. Because of this edge, the Indians finished their regular schedule tied with the Red Sox for first place. Cleveland won the playoff and went on to beat the Boston Braves in the World Series.
Boudreau’s harsh, but nonetheless accurate, appraisal of the necessity of fattening up against the weaker teams floated to mind Friday at Comiskey Park when the forlorn Oakland Athletics arrived for a three-game weekend series.
There is no need to characterize the A’s as “bums.” They seem to be good enough fellows. But a juggernaut they are not. They have the third-lowest player payroll in either league–a miserly $19.4 million–and a five-man starting rotation that went into the new season with a total of only 30 big-league victories.
A soft touch, precisely what the struggling White Sox needed. The Sox also would have another crucial advantage. Alex Fernandez, their pitching ace, would be matched against Carlos Reyes, an obscure 26-year-old right-hander.
Fernandez carried an eight-game winning streak, his career high, into the game. He had not lost since Aug. 5. As for Reyes, he took the field with four big-league victories, but none as a starter.
In addition, the White Sox had a double whammy. Fernandez was 7-0, with an 0.81 earned-run average when the game-time temperature was lower than 50 degrees. Friday, Fernandez barely got under the wire. The thermometer came in at 45.
Two hours before the game began, in the Comiskey Park dining room, a dozen major-league scouts, many from far-flung outposts, were discussing Fernandez and how he has grown into a premier performer.
“He now has four quality pitches,” observed Ray “Snacks” Shore of the Philadelphia Phillies. Shore, who has been on the beat for the last five decades, listed the Fernandez repertoire–fastball, curve, slider and a better-than-average changeup.
Shore pulled out his scout’s little black book.
He checked it and then said, “And his control is improving.”
Joe Klein, now scouting for Detroit and previously the general manager of two big-league clubs, expressed admiration for Fernandez’s competitive spirit.
“As long as he has his drive, he’ll be a big winner,” Klein said. “It’s too bad you can’t cut him open and get a bottle full of whatever he has inside and pass it around to the other pitchers.”
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“You think that highly of him?” asked Stan Williams, another veteran scout.
“I sure do,” Klein said. “I’d go down the river with him,”
Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, the White Sox broadcaster and a former American League RBI king, pulled up a chair.
What about this guy, Hawk? You see him all the time.
“First, I want a ham sandwich,” Harrelson said. “I didn’t have much of a breakfast.”
Gordon Lakey of Toronto summoned a waiter. “Get the man a ham sandwich. And hurry,” Lakey ordered.
It was delivered, pronto.
Hawk took a big chew, swallowed hard, washed it down with ice water and was ready:
“For the last two months of last season, he was dominating. He was the best pitcher this side of Greg Maddux. He’s not a prospect anymore. He has arrived. He pitches ahead in the count and that tells you everything: He has supreme confidence in himself.”
Anything more, Hawk?
“Yes, if I had to win one game, I’d pitch Alex Fernandez.”
You can guess the rest.
The weakling Oakland A’s hammered Fernandez for 11 hits and six runs in a 7-2 rout.