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Atlanta Catcher Joe Torre explains it all in one word: "Pitchers." There are too many good ones, he says. "Each team used to have only one or two good pitchers, and you could expect to face second-liners, in doubleheaders at least. Now each team has six or so good ones." Richie Allen, leftfielder of the Philadelphia Phillies, agrees: "There are more good pitchers today, quite a few more. And they have a better idea of how to move the ball around, how to make a batter get himself out." They do indeed. Before this week is out, National League pitchers are likely to break the alltime season shutout record of 164, set way back in 1908, when the game was played with a dead ball doctored with everything from spit to slippery elm. In 1961, the year when all those hitters were belting the seams off the ball, there were only three pitchers in the majors with an earned-run average under 3.00. This year there are 59. None of them can boast a won-lost record that comes close to Denny McLain's, but their performances nonetheless have been spectacular.
Veterans and Rookies. For St. Louis fans, there is no one like the Cardinals' Bob Gibson, 32. Hero of last year's World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Gibson leads the National League in strikeouts this year (with 230), has pitched twelve shutouts, and run up a 20-7 record. "Bob challenges the hitter more than any other pitcher," says Cardinal Catcher Tim McCarver. "He just gets out there and says, 'O.K., baby, here comes the big one. What are you going to do about it?' " The Los Angeles Dodgers' Don Drysdale, 32, labors for a ball club mired in last place, 251 games off the pace. But he has still compiled a 14-12 record, and this June he broke Walter Johnson's 55-year-old mark of 56 consecutive scoreless innings. He obviously has something on the ball. Nobody is quite sure what, although there is suspicion in some quarters that, whatever it is, it may be moist and illegal.
The San Francisco Giants' Juan Marichal, 30, is another distinguished veteran. He claims a wide repertory of 13 pitches, all of which he can throw with great accuracy. Says Giant Pitching Coach Larry Jansen: "If you put up a six-inch target 60 feet away, Juan would hit it nine out of ten times." This year marks the fifth season that Marichal has won at least 20 games; his 25-7 mark is second only to McLain's. By contrast, Baltimore's Dave McNally, 25, makes do with only three pitches—fastball, curve and a slider that he perfected just last spring—yet he has put together eleven straight victories since last July's All-Star break. Then there is the Cleveland Indians' Luis Tiant, 27. A hard-luck hurler in 1967, he lost seven games by one run and finished with a 12-9 record. "If I am lucky," says Luis, "I kill them." This year he has been lucky, winning 19 out of 28 decisions.