A Classic One-Two Punch

It wasn’t pretty. Sandlot ball.

They call this place the “chop shop.” This night, it was the slop shop. This isn’t the fall classic. It’s the pratfall classic.

Balls continued to fly out of here like popping corn. Part of it was atrocious pitching. But part of it is Atlanta, which is almost 1,200 feet in the air. Balls soar out of here like Greg Norman’s tee shots.

They have hit 10 home runs here in three games against, supposedly, the best pitching in the game. You’d think these guys were the 1927 Yankees.

Minnesota is in a rut. Every World Series they’ve been in, the Twins win the first two games at home, then lose every game on the road. They did it against the Dodgers in 1965, but then came home to win the sixth game and lose the seventh (to Sandy Koufax). In 1987, they lost three games in St. Louis but came home to sweep the last two games. These guys give new meaning to the term homers.

“Lucky” Lemke was at it again. Hit his second and third triples in his last four official at-bats. Triples are hit, normally, every other eclipse of the moon. But these guys hit them like most teams hit foul tips. There were three hit by the Braves on Thursday.

The Humane Society should have padlocked the place. Anybody who could watch this without wincing gets to watch kittens and cows floating down a flood.

Great baseball lineups, like pickpockets, work in pairs.

Look it up. The middle of the batting order has a brace of strong-arm muscle that can have your wallet in a moment.

First, there was Ruth and Gehrig. Then, there was DiMaggio and Dickey. Mantle and Maris. Mathews and Aaron.

And, how about Gant and Justice?

It’s in the nature of these matchups that one party or the other gets somewhat overlooked. He’s, so to speak, the silent partner. Stan Laurel to Oliver Hardy.

Everyone who follows the game is now aware of David Justice. The once and future star, the new prince of the game. If you could sell shares in his future, you’d have the wildest market in the game. Agents are lined up.

But it is in the nature of these one-two punches in the center of a lineup that one cannot star without the other. It is a pitcher’s nightmare. He can pitch around one batter, but two batters are out of the question and can be catastrophic.

So, one helps the other. They get better pitches to hit because of the presence of the other.

But it is in the nature of the show-biz that is sports that one of the players tends to come out in the public eye as the faithful companion of the other. Tonto, if you will. The sidekick.

Lou Gehrig was certainly overshadowed by Babe Ruth, Roger Maris by Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews by Henry Aaron. One gets above-the-title billing, the other gets “Also Featuring” on the marquee.

But, while Justice tends to prevail, Ron Gant is hardly to be expected to go around opening car doors and lighting cigarettes for him. Gant is a tremendous ballplayer in his own right.

Consider that, last year, he became only the 13th player in major league history to have a season in which he not only hit 30 home runs but stole 30 bases.

Then, this year, he did it again--and became only the third player in history to do that. The other two are Bobby Bonds and Willie Mays, which should give you an idea what kind of individual we are dealing with.

Gant has hit 32 home runs in each of the last two seasons. (Justice’s numbers are 28 and 21 for the same period, albeit he was injured some six weeks).

Gant drove in 105 runs this season. Justice plated 87.

Justice is bigger--three inches taller and 30 pounds heavier. But Gant is faster. He stole 33 bases last year and 34 this year. (Justice had eight and 11.)

Barring some mindless free agentry--and it is difficult to conceive of Atlanta breaking up this act, losing either one of these to any higher bid--these two are probably as linked in history as Heros and Leander, Scylla and Charibdis, Veloz and Yolanda or Chang and Eng.

One (Gant) bats right-handed, the other left-handed, but otherwise, pitchers do not see much difference in the two. To a pitcher, they look like King and Kong.

Each took a personal part in the 14-5 demolition of the Twins Thursday night. Justice delivered his second Series home run, a single and five runs batted in. He scored twice. Gant delivered two singles, a walk and a triple, batted in one run and scored three and broke up a double play. Justice is batting .320 for the Series; Gant, .381.

The eyes of the sporting public are on the feats of Mark (Lucky) Lemke. He is just supposed to be picking up ground balls, tagging runners at second base, hitting the occasional grounder to right to move the runners along. Not banging triples all over the place.

It always seemed to me that interviewing the manager after a game he has just lost 14-5 is a little strange. And Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly conceded of Lemke: “If we don’t find some way to pitch to him, he’ll keep banging us around.”

But you had a hunch Kelly knows the banging around he’s getting from the team of Gant and Justice is no fluke--and that there’s no way to pitch to it.

Before the game, Gant was standing by the batting cage, and an interviewer wanted to know: “Do you get good pitches to hit because of the presence of Justice behind you in the lineup?” Gant’s answer was diplomatic. “I get the same pitches no matter who is behind me. The pitchers try to get me out the same way.”

A blunter answer might have been “Yes--and he gets better pitches to hit because I’m hitting in front of him.”

Linked in the lineup, they may be linked in history. When they used to say “Break up the Yankees!” they meant Ruth and Gehrig. If the Braves are a new Murderers’ row, the league may before long yearn for separation of this new brace of hit men. Baseball knows trouble comes in twos.