GREAT BALLS of FIRE : In a season when more home runs than ever are being hit, fans and players alike have questioned whether the baseballs being used are really all they’re cracked up to be.

Is it livelier baseballs or deader arms? Is it stronger athletes or lighter bats? Is it an earthquake or simply a shock . . . the good turtle soup or merely the mock?

Darrell Porter? No, Cole Porter.

And what does the famed composer have to do with the record pace at which home runs were hit during the first half of the major league season?

Well, no one else has a definitive explanation for it either.

As long as the Rawlings Sporting Goods Co., which has manufactured all of the major league balls since 1977, insists that its Haiti factory isn’t producing a more explosive ball in memory of deposed Baby Doc, then earthquakes and turtle soup are valid suggestions.

This much is certain: Be it a livelier ball, a deterioration of the pitching or bigger and stronger hitters, there haven’t been this many lightning strikes since Roy Hobbs.

Consider:

--With each of the American League’s 14 teams having played 80 games, or one shy of half-a-season, there had been 1,334 homers, 219 more than last year’s midseason total and 334 more than 1985. The current AL pace projects to more than 2,600 homers, obliterating the major league record of 2,290, set by the designated hitter league last year.

--Through a similar span in the 12-team National League, where pitchers hit, there had been 938 homers or 152 more than last year and 291 more than 1985. The current NL pace projects to more than 1,800 homers, breaking the league record of 1,683, set in 1970.

More?

--A total of 34 American Leaguers hit 20 or more home runs last year, with eight hitting 30 or more and one, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jesse Barfield, hitting 40. This year, through 80 games, there were 53 on a pace to hit 20 or more, including 24 who were on a pace to hit 30 or more and four who were on a pace to hit 40 or more. The Oakland A’s Mark McGwire, of course, continues to flirt with a pace of 60 or more and, with 33 at the All-Star break, needs just six more to set a major league record for rookies.

--In the less volatile National League last year, a total of 18 players hit 20 or more home runs, with three hitting 30 or more. This year, through 80 games, there were 33 players on a pace to hit 20 or more, including 15 who were on a pace to hit 30 or more and six who were on a pace to hit 40 or more.

If the projections hold, 67 players--or about a fifth of all the non-pitchers--will hit 20 or more homers and 10 will hit 40 or more. Never have so many hit so many.

In fact, eight players--Eric Davis, Mike Schmidt, Tim Wallach, Cory Snyder, Joe Carter, Brook Jacoby, Bill Madlock and McGwire--have already hit three homers in a game this season. In only one other full season did that rare event happen with greater frequency.

There were three homers hit in a game 12 times in 1979.

Is it any wonder then that many are comparing the 1987 ball to a Titlist.

Or that DeWayne Buice, the nomadic Angel relief pitcher, insists that it is similar to the Commando Special, which he encountered in the Mexican League, the Commando being designed to increase run production, Buice said, which it did, a Mexican jumping bean.

Or that Minnesota’s Bert Blyleven, who gave up a record 50 homers last season, recently shook his head and said:

“I think that some of these balls, instead of having one rabbit in them, have three or four. I’ve gone through a lot of families.”

Is it any wonder that Mike Scott and Rick Rhoden and Don Sutton, authors of the right scuff, aren’t the only ones cutting up baseballs?

Mike Schmidt did it because he didn’t initially believe the ball was livelier. Schmidt, the National League’s leading active authority on home runs, cut into a 1987 and a 1986 ball, extracted the cushioned cork cores, dropped them from shoulder height and found that the ’87 core consistently bounced two inches higher.

“Maybe the core loses compression when it sits around,” Schmidt said, alluding to the ’86 ball. “But, I now believe that the core of this year’s ball is livelier and that the ball itself is wound tighter.

“I think that it probably carries another five feet or so. A lot of guys who had warning track power before are now hitting home runs.”

Similarly, Whitey Herzog, the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager, has the cores from a 1987 and ’86 ball sitting on his desk.

“I’ve dropped them hundreds of times, and this year’s ball always bounces higher,” Herzog said. “It may not be very scientific, but it’s always the same. It’s a superball. I’d like to be able to tee it up.”

Scott Smith, a Rawlings spokesman, said he has been besieged by inquiries and that the company’s engineers “are legitimately irritated by it because we continue to satisfy the tests and specifications that the two leagues require.”

Smith likes to cite a recent test conducted by USA Today and Haller Laboratories of Plainfield, N.J., in which the 1987 ball was measured against some of its predecessors. The result: The 1987 ball was slightly deader.

Does Pete Rose, the Cincinnati manager who holds the all-time record with 4,256 career hits, believe that?

“I believe the ball is juiced,” Rose said. “I’ve seen more tape-measure home runs. I’ve seen more opposite-field home runs. I’ve seen more line drive home runs by guys who aren’t home run hitters.”

Atlanta catcher Ozzie Virgil, who never hit more than 19 homers in a season, already has 20. Boston third baseman Wade Boggs, who has never hit more than 8 homers in a season, already has 16. Angel right fielder Devon White, who never hit more than 14 in six minor league seasons, already has 17. Rafael Belliard, Pittsburgh’s 5-foot-6, 150-pound shortstop, hit the first of his career. Philadelphia utility man Greg Gross hit his first since 1978.

The drift is clear--at least to Angel Manager Gene Mauch.

“I have no problem with a guy centering the ball with his “A” swing,” Mauch said, “but a guy hitting it out to the opposite field with a C or D swing . . . that’s ludicrous. Is the ball livelier? I know damn well it is.”

After Mike Young used what Mauch considered a C or D swing to beat the Angels with two home runs in Baltimore, Mauch gave his pitchers permission to cheat in response, what seemed to be a facetious invitation to use the spitball or scuffball or any other illegal pitch. Mauch is 61. This is his 28th year as a major league manager.

“I know my eyes are older, I know my ears are older, but when I stand in the outfield during batting practice,” he said, “I can tell by the speed of the ball--by the shrill of the ball--that it’s going out unbelievably faster.

“There is a difference in the ball, but if there is, so what? I mean, since there is, so what.”

There is also a difference in the pitching, Mauch believes. Part of it is the dilution of talent stemming from the addition of 10 teams since 1961. Part of it is the change in economics, the willingness and/or necessity now to go with inexperienced pitchers.

Said Milwaukee General Manager Harry Dalton: “I’ve given up on the lively ball tack. I believe it’s the pitching. I’ve never seen it this thin. Look around. How many clubs are holding onto veterans who seem to be past their peak and rushing kids up before they’re even ready.”

The addition of 10 teams translates to a minimum of 90 new pitching jobs. The depth isn’t there. In addition to the record home run pace, both leagues are producing a record pace for runs. Only two teams in the American League and three in the National Leaguehave an earned-run average of less than 4.00.

The American League’s cumulative ERA of 4.49 would be the highest in the 27 years of expansion. The previous high was 4.22 in 1979. Likewise, the National League is heading toward an expansion high with a cumulative ERA of 4.21. The previous high was 4.05 in 1970.

“There is more unproven pitching in the big leagues than at any time I can remember,” Mauch said. “People are advancing kids to the big leagues with one or two years of experience.

“That’s not to say their stuff isn’t good, it’s just unproven. They don’t know how to throw the curve ball and there’s a lot more 2-and-0 and 3-and-1 counts. If the hitters’ pitch shows up more, it means there’s going to be more hitting.

“People like to claim that guys are bigger and stronger now, but how about the ’56 Reds (with the powerful Ted Kluszewski, Ray Jablonski, Wally Post, Gus Bell, Ed Bailey and Frank Robinson) or the ’47 Giants (with the equally intimidating Johnny Mize, Willard Marshall, Walker Cooper and Sid Gordon).”

One of Mauch’s own stars, Wally Joyner, believes that size and strength are factors, that a 5-foot-8 player today can do many of the things that only a 6-footer could do in previous generations.

“Compare the NBA to how it was 10 years ago,” Joyner said. “It’s two different games. You have 5-8, 5-9 guys playing above the rim. It’s not because the floors are made better. It’s not because the balls are different. The players work harder to get where they are. They can do a variety of things that used to seem too demanding.”

Texas Manager Bobby Valentine agrees.

“For one thing, there doesn’t seem to be the negative emphasis on strikeouts anymore,” he said.

“Instead of choking up and trying to make contact, you’ve got guys who are bigger and stronger standing up there with lighter bats and taking those big swings throughout the count.”

Jose Canseco hit 33 homers, struck out 175 times and won the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 1986. Pete Incaviglia hit 30 homers and struck out a league record 185 times. Now, amid the record home run pace, both leagues are also on a record strikeout pace.

Said Bob Boone, the Angel catcher: “I don’t know about the lively ball, but I do know that there’s been an infusion of young power hitters the last couple of years. Maybe it’s nothing more than a statistical aberration. If 10 guys came into the league last year and each hit 20 homers, that goes a long way toward explaining it.”

The theory has merit. The American League in recent years has been blessed with an impressive infusion of young sluggers.

Last year, when the league set that record with 2,290 homers, a group of 17 baby boomers, specifically Canseco, Joyner, Incaviglia, Danny Tartabull, Brook Jacoby, Joe Carter, Ruben Sierra, Oddibe McDowell, Jim Presley, Dan Pasqua, Mike Pagliarulo, Cory Snyder, Rob Deer, Kent Hrbek, Kirby Pucket, Gary Gaetti and Tom Brunansky, totalled 435 homers, impressive support for Boone’s aberration contention.

Amid the onslaught, of course, the pitchers may be justified in feeling persecuted. It starts with management’s belief that offense means excitement and ticket sales. First the mound was lowered, then the strike zone diminished.

Now, in fact, amid increasing uniformity as umpires graduate from the same training schools, it is said that the American League is no longer the league of the high strike, that it is on the same lower plane as the National.

Said Charlie Hough, the Texas veteran: “They’ve taken the high strike away. You can’t get it anymore. Now you have to be finer in a smaller area. The hitters are stronger. They don’t have to hit it on the nose to get it out. They’ve gotten comfortable hitting the pitch that’s down.”

And now, too, pitchers must contend with the possibility that they’re throwing a loaded ball. National League President A. Bartlett Giamatti, among others, believes there’s a definite correlation between the increase in homers and the increase in hitters charging the mound after being knocked down or brushed back by pitchers who see it as their one weapon in an otherwise losing battle.

None of it is conclusive, of course.

In a year of recycled pitching and an allegedly livelier ball, Jim Rice has only six homers, Kirk Gibson nine, Alvin Davis six, Frank White seven, Ernie Whitt six and Buddy Bell six. Explain that, Cole.

TALE OF THE LIVELY BALLS

The following statistics were compiled by the Elias News Bureau after each team had played 80 games or one shy of a half season.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Year HRs Runs B.A. 1977 1,014 5,033 .266 1978 864 4,756 .260 1979 971 5,275 .270 1980 913 5,044 .266 1981 Strike season 1982 974 4,954 .261 1983 954 5,113 .264 1984 912 4,816 .262 1985 1,000 4,967 .258 1986 1,115 5,299 .263 1987 1,334 5,494 .261

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Year HRs Runs B.A. 1977 852 4,384 .265 1978 621 3,828 .253 1979 775 4,155 .261 1980 644 3,889 .258 1981 Strike season 1982 629 4,038 .260 1983 695 3,883 .255 1984 631 3,934 .258 1985 647 3,716 .246 1986 786 4,016 .251 1987 938 4,419 .262