(4 of 5)
He plays a lot of middle-70 golf (he bats and chops wood lefthanded, golfs and throws right-handed).
Rules & Responsibilities. When Terry decided to make him field captain in 1938, Ott objected: "Why Bill, I don't know the rules. How can I be captain?" Terry threw a rulebook at him and ordered: "Study them. You're captain." Soon Ott's bleacher friends, who always shouted advice to their favorite right fielder, noted the little difference that responsibilities made and began calling him Ottie. So did the players and the management. Then Terry quit the bench for a front-office job. The Giants' secretary, fidgety, coffee-drinking Eddie Brannick, had an idea: "God gave us some thing. Let's use it." Giants' President Horace Stoneham agreed. Ott was the surprise something.
Skeptics wondered if he was too mild-mannered. But Mel convinced himself that he had to be "as tough a bastard as his players forced him to be." He has been tough enough since, but has not be come a managerial giant. A third, eighth and fifth place finish in three years is not much of a record. The club's current collapse is all but a managerial disaster.
Ott's apparent inability to straighten out his star pitcher, Bill Voiselle, who be gan by winning eight straight and then lost six in a row, is a case in point. After being twice knocked out of the box, Voiselle was leading the Cardinals 3-to-1, with two out in the ninth, when a 53-minute rain interrupted proceedings. Instead of putting in a game-saver for the thoroughly cooled-out Voiselle, Ott left him in, and the Cardinals won the game. Afterwards, Ott fined Voiselle $500 for not wasting an out side pitch after getting a 2-0 count on the batter, who would have been the third out.
When Ott, in desperation, rescinded the fine last week, Voiselle responded by being knocked out of the box the first inning.
Far from bailing out the culprit pitchers, as Ottie hoped, the hitters have flopped too. Disaster is contagious. If Ott didn't know that 37-year-old Ernie Lombardi couldn't go on hitting home runs right & left, and that 38-year-old Phil Weintraub was a chronic slumper (and a strictly minor-league first baseman), he was whistling alone in the dark.
Prospects & Prejudices. It will be quite a miracle if Manager Mel brings order out of his current chaos. If not, his job is probably in no immediate danger; the Giants' management is notoriously paternalistic, and prone to dream sweet dreams about the future.
Clearly enough, the future has its bright aspects. Besides question-mark Voiselle, there are two top sophomores on the present club: Third Baseman Napoleon Reyes (25), and Shortstop Johnny Kerr (22). Cuban-born Reyes is a flashy, high-stepping crowd-pleaser. Lanky Johnny Kerr is a speedster, and already one of the top short fielders in the game.
Some day, too, Sluggers Johnny Mize and Babe Young will come home from the wars. Meanwhile, Carl Hubbell's new farm system should produce some help. Whether or not Mel Ott can eventually build the really big-time club the Polo Grounds' potential million-a-year customers deserve is another matter.