Bo Throws the Book at Angels; Royals Hand McCaskill 2nd Loss

He hit a ball in Arlington, Tex., that nearly touched down in Dallas.

He threw out Seattle’s Harold Reynolds from the warning track on the fly, turning a certain sacrifice fly into a Kansas City Royals’ legend.

He bounced routine grounders to shortstop and wound up stomping on first base, waiting on the throw.

Now, if Bo Jackson can learn to pull the ball, he just might be a player.

Friday night, the Angels and their American League earned-run average leader, Kirk McCaskill, ran into Bo, the man and the myth, and ended up contributing another chapter. Bo Jackson--Raider running back, Royal left fielder and, now, the world’s strongest spray hitter--turned on an outside slider by McCaskill and turned it into an opposite-field, three-run home run that powered Kansas City to a 6-1 victory over the Angels at Royals Stadium.

It came on a pitch that used to leave Jackson flailing--low and away. It came on a pitch that, according to McCaskill, “98% of the guys don’t hit out.”

It landed high up in the seats beyond the right-field foul pole, Jackson’s 14th home run of the season and his seventh to the opposite field.

There once was a book on how to pitch Jackson. As recently as 1988, it suggested working him outside and enticing him to lunge at the ball, thus neutralizing much of his strength.

Soon to commence are book burnings all across the American League.

“I think everybody has to continually change their book on Bo,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said, “because he keeps making quick adjustments. What the book said a year ago does not necessarily hold true now.”

The problem, Rader says, is that Jackson, as a hitter of major league pitches, is still growing up.

“To say there’s a pitch that gave him a problem is unfair,” Rader said. “He’s still so much in a developmental stage. He’s just starting to understand the art of hitting.”

But, he’s learning, he’s learning.

In successive at-bats against Angel pitching, Jackson crushed opposite-field home runs. Last Sunday, wily veteran Bert Blyleven tried to sneak a change-up by Jackson in the ninth inning. It cost him a shutout. Friday night, with two runners on base in the first inning, McCaskill tried to bait Jackson on the outside edge of the plate. It turned a 1-0 Angel lead into a 3-1 Royal advantage.

“It looked like a pretty good slider,” McCaskill said. “I’d thrown him one early in the count and he didn’t look good on it. So I thought I’d throw him another.”

You might say Bo adjusted.

“I didn’t think it was out,” McCaskill said, “but he’s so strong. Once it got over the infield, it took off like a rocket.

“Obviously, the guy’s an amazing athlete. No doubt about it. There are certain guys in this league who can outplay the dimensions of any ballpark.”

McCaskill never really recovered from the home run. In the second inning, he served up a two-run single to Kurt Stillwell and in the fourth, a double to Brad Wellman and another single to Stillwell amounted to a sixth Royal run. After walking Kevin Seitzer, McCaskill found himself out of the game, his 3 2/3-inning stint being his shortest of the season.

In the process, McCaskill (7-2) lost for the first time since April 23 and watched his ERA leap from 1.69 to 2.27, establishing teammate Chuck Finley (1.88) as the new league leader.

He also made a winner of Kansas City starter Charlie Leibrandt for only the second time since April 28. Leibrandt (4-6) limited the Angels to six hits in nine innings--and no runs after the first, when Brian Downing doubled and scored his team’s run on a ground-out by Johnny Ray.

Ray also hit a ball that died on the warning track in the sixth inning and Bill Schroeder, in the fourth, drove one to the left field wall that Jackson intercepted with a leaping catch.

“That was the real difference tonight,” Rader said. “Bo hit one out and we had two that didn’t get out. We’re five feet short on a couple and they had a little excess.”

On a pitch Jackson didn’t used to be able to hit.

“They’ve been pitching me that way this year,” Jackson said. “They’re trying to get me chasing a ball way out there. They’re throwing the same pitch out on the corner.

“I’m not complaining. Luckily, I’ve been getting most of them.”

Jackson then turned modest, conceding that “the ball was carrying well tonight. If we were playing in (the Angels’) ballpark, they would’ve hit at least five balls out.”

But they didn’t in this ballpark, on this night. Jackson’s did. And for that, Kansas City Manager John Wathan said, there is a reason.

“Bo’s ball (tonight) is going to carry anywhere, at any time, at any temperature,” Wathan said. “It’s just strength. He can hit a ball out of any part of the ballpark.”

No one is safe. And just wait until he starts pulling the ball.

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill didn’t catch Bo Jackson’s home run in its entirety. His eyes were attracted instead to the back of his right fielder, Claudell Washington. “First I saw WASH,” McCaskill said, smiling. “Then ING. Then TON. That told me the ball was hit pretty good.” . . . . McCaskill walked four in 3 2/3 innings, suggesting that the location of his pitches was lacking, but Angel Manager Doug Rader waved that suggestion off. “A lot of times, ‘location’ is a catch-all,” Rader said. “That’s like saying, ‘It’s a virus.’ Location goes a little bit farther than that. (McCaskill) just overthrew early. When that happens, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. You just hope a guy having the kind of season he’s having will show some patience and adjust. It just didn’t come tonight.”

Moving a step closer to full strength again, the Royals announced that they will re-activate George Brett from the disabled list before tonight’s game. Brett, sidelined since April 29 because of a torn knee ligament, tested the knee on the Cybex strength machine Friday and was cleared to play by the Royals’ medical staff. Kansas City Manager John Wathan said that he will break Brett in slowly, however, using him primarily as a designated hitter during the next two weeks. The Royals were 20-16 in the 36 games they played without Brett. . . . Other Kansas City roster moves: The Royals also recalled infielder Bill Pecota from triple-A Omaha, outrighted pitchers Stan Clarke and Rick Luecken to Omaha, placed outfielder Gary Thurman (wrist) on the disabled list and acquired pitcher Terry Leach in a trade with the New York Mets. Leach, a right-hander, was 0-0 with a 4.22 earned-run average in 10 games with the Mets, who will receive a minor league player to be named later in the deal. Pecota was batting .245 with 19 RBIs in 41 games with Omaha.