Angels Can’t Get Bats on Live Ball--But Fisk Does

Convinced that it is no optical illusion, Angel Manager Gene Mauch truly believes that the brand of baseball being used in the major leagues this year is packing something extra.

And after giving up eight home runs in his last three starts, including two during a 4-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox Sunday afternoon, Angel pitcher Willie Fraser is beginning to wonder, too.

“I not saying it is or it isn’t,” said Fraser, addressing the livelier-ball question. “I know I’m giving up home runs that I think are popups. I know an awful lot of home runs are being hit--all over.”

Time was when a pitcher would surrender a fly ball and turn his back on his outfielder, mentally notching the out and readying for the next hitter. No more, says Fraser.

“I’m learning to watch ‘em,” he said. “I used to say, ‘That’s an out.’ Now, I check to make sure.”

Case in point, Mauch and Fraser maintained, was Carlton Fisk’s ninth-inning home run, the second of the game for the 39-year-old catcher. Fisk sent it lofting over the right-field fence, a rare opposite-field home run for a career pull-hitter.

“Fisk earned his first home run,” Mauch acknowledged. “But the second, Mother Nature took care of. Mother Nature and some Haitian seamstress.”

Down in Haiti, where major league baseballs are manufactured, is where Mauch believes the evil is done. Somewhere along the assembly line, Mauch suspects, the baseball is crossbred with a Titleist and the eventual results are tee shots into the upper decks of stadiums across America.

Said Fraser: “The second home run Fisk hit came on a ball, outside the plate. He just got the end of the bat on the ball. He didn’t drive it. The ball just carried out of the park.”

Even Jim Fregosi, Fisk’s manager, was skeptical. “That’s the first homer he’s hit to right since (bleeping) 1968 in (bleeping) Waterloo, Iowa,” Fregosi said.

An interesting theory, this notion of a Rabbit Ball. One problem with it, though.

Sunday afternoon, someone named Bill Long took the same baseball and shut out the Angels with it, allowing seven harmless hits.

Mauch shook his head at such evidence.

“The most unusual thing about today was anybody pitching a shutout,” Mauch said.

Especially Long. This 27-year-old rookie had started just eight big league games before Sunday. And to those starts, he brings with him the kind of stuff Mauch has seen and forgotten hundreds of times in his 26 years as a manager.

“I have seen a thousand pitchers in my lifetime with stuff as good as Long’s,” Mauch said. “Good control, keeps the ball in the strike zone.”

Mauch compared Long to his own Jack Lazorko, a nine-year minor-leaguer who finally won his first major league game Saturday, but did allow that, “obviously, he has some special qualities. He handled himself real well out there.”

Maybe it comes down to the quality of the Angel offense. Forget the live ball theory. What was that about the dead bats?

“It looked like we had a few tired hands on the bat,” Mauch said. “Slow hands.”

Wally Joyner nearly broke up the shutout in the first inning, hitting a ball that bounced in and out of Chicago center fielder Ken Williams’ glove as his arm struck the top of the fence. A potential home run wound up a double--and Joyner was stranded at second when Brian Downing flied out for the third out.

The rest of the Angel attack against Long (3-1):

--Two singles and a pop double by Downing that was lost in the sun by White Sox right fielder Ivan Calderon.

--A single by Doug DeCinces.

--A pinch-hit single by Mark Ryal.

--A squib off the end of Jack Howell’s bat that skidded off Long’s glove. Originally ruled an error, a call to the press box by Mauch prompted official scorer Ed Munson to change it to an infield hit.

Only Joyner and Downing advanced as far as second base; no Angel runner made it to third. Long struck out six and did not allow a walk.

Meanwhile, Fraser’s record dropped to 2-4. He has not won since May 9. But during that span of five starts, he received no decision in a 3-2 Angel loss to Baltimore; lost, 3-0, to New York’s Joe Niekro; lost, 3-2, to New York’s Rick Rhoden; and lost again via a shutout to Long.

“It’s frustrating,” Fraser said. “You pitch a good ballgame and get a loss out of it. You can’t fault anybody, except maybe me. I’m the one who gives up the two runs or the four runs.

“(But) my ERA is not that bad. It’s in the mid-threes (3.36). If I keep my ERA around 3.50, the wins are going to come.”

Mike Witt used to have the same stigma--a talented young pitcher who always seemed to wind up on the short end of 2-1 and 3-2 scores. Fraser was asked if he had sought any advice from Witt, who knows the feeling.

“No,” said Fraser, “but I’m going to start.”

Angel Notes

With eight home runs in his last three starts, Willie Fraser has now allowed 13 for the season, tying him for most on the Angel pitching staff with Don Sutton. “I’ve always given up my share of home runs,” Fraser said. “In college, I gave up some that went 9,000 miles. I’m a fly-ball pitcher. You get a gust of wind blowing out to left-center field and I hang a pitch--the ball is gonna go out. I’m no sinkerball pitcher who’s gonna get 20 outs on ground balls. I’ve given up more (home runs) this year, but that’s more a matter of me getting adjusted to a new league.” . . . In his complaints about the “juiced-up” baseball, Gene Mauch has said that any pitcher is entitled to do whatever he can get away with to the ball--be it scuffing, cutting, Vaseline or saliva. But Fraser says he wouldn’t try it. “I think I’d be afraid to go out and cheat,” Fraser said. “If I did something to the ball, I’m afraid I’d look at the umpire like I was guilty. If I get a ball that’s scuffed from being grounded through the infield, I’ll try to use that. I don’t even know how to cut a ball. But if you can get away with it, more power to you.”

Sunday’s shutout was the second this season for White Sox rookie Bill Long. Long also two-hit the New York Yankees on May 5, his first start of the year after being recalled from Buffalo. Chicago Manager Jim Fregosi on Long: “I’ve seen him pitch a lot of times on the Triple-A level and he was always effective. (This year,) he was one of the guys fighting for a job but he just had an awful spring. That game in New York, he was under more pressure than any pitcher ever pitched under. His career was at stake. His life was on the line.” Long had the same feeling about his 2-0 victory over the Yankees. “That game, I went out there scared to death,” he said. “I knew that even with one bad outing, I’d be sent back down. So that was a big hump for me to get over. Now, I’m just trying to keep my job, that’s all.”