E.Y. the Type of Player Teams Rally Around

What does every successful baseball team have that losing teams don’t?

A 50-homer hitter batting cleanup? Maybe. But not necessarily.

A 25-game winner, a Cy Young Award pitcher? Nice. But not essential, either.

An ironclad defense, a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance double-play combination? It would help. But not that much.

No, what every dynasty team in history needed was that pest in the No. 1 spot, the leadoff hitter, the guy who opened the game for you. He didn’t scare anybody. The only thing he ever led the league in was at-bats and, you hope, runs.

He was seldom big. He never would strike terror in a pitcher’s heart the way, say, Mark McGwire would. He rarely had power, just finesse.

His job was to be a nuisance, a tough out, a bat manipulator, a schemer, as annoying as a mosquito in a dark room. He played the game one base at a time. He wasn’t a .350 hitter, but he got on base almost as often. He harassed the pitcher more than he hammered him. Every at-bat was a poker game, not a shootout.

The prototype of the breed was Eddie Stanky, of whom Leo Durocher once said, “He can’t run, he can’t hit, he can’t field--all he can do is beat you. “

The Dodgers have this all-important beat-you ballplayer in their leadoff spot. Eric Young. The Dodgers call him “E.Y.” They let him go once in the expansion draft but got him back when they realized their mistake.

Eric Young can run. He can hit, but he’s no Tony Gwynn. He can field, but he’s no Bill Mazeroski. But he can beat you.

How important is he? How important is any leadoff man?

The 1927 Yankees, generally conceded to be the finest team ever, had Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri--Murderers’ Row and all that.

But they also had a fellow named Earle Combs leading off. Gehrig drove in a then-record 175 runs that ’27 season. Combs scored 137. Combs went to bat 648 official times that year and led the league with 231 hits. He struck out only 31 times.

That’s another gambit the leadoff man must bring to the game: He mustn’t strike out. Eric Young had 568 at-bats one year. He struck out only 31 times.

You can always tell a leadoff man without a program. He’s the one who never swings at the first pitch. He spots the pitcher a strike. Because his job is not to swing. His job is to get on base. Any way he can--bunt, walk, single, force an error, beat out a grounder, get hit by a pitch. Another leadoff man, Ron Hunt, used to solve this by starching the sleeves of his long underwear and managing to get them in the way of inside pitches. He got hit 50 times one year alone and a National League record 243 times in his career.

E.Y. is not that shifty. But he did manage to get hit 21 times one season, second in the league. He walked 71 times last year. He would steal first base if he could. He stole 45 other bases last year, fifth in the league, and he has stolen 211 bases in five-plus seasons. A former wide receiver at Rutgers, he has 4.4 speed in the 40.

But it is not the SBs or RBIs or HRs that quantify E.Y.’s career; it is the OBAs.

This is a stat found in the far reaches of baseball’s decimals and stands for on-base average. Every leadoff man aspires to a 40%-50% mark in this. Young’s lifetime is .372, which means he gets on base almost four times every 10 at-bats.

“I am the igniter,” he was observing as he sat in the locker room at Dodger Stadium the other night. “The rally starts with me. My first job is to make the pitcher realize he’s been in a battle. Don’t let him sucker you into swinging at the off-the-plate stuff. Find out what he’s throwing, make him work to throw to you. Be a tough out and be able to let your teammates know what stuff he’s got this night.

“Do I set goals? Yeah, the World Series!

“For a leadoff man, the on-base average is almost more important than the batting average. It’s the real indicator of how you’re doing. The number you’re after is runs scored. You want to score at least 100 runs a season [Young had 106 last season, 113 the year before that]. The game is still Who-scored-the-most-runs, not Who-had-the-most-hits.”

No player has scored 200 runs a season (Ruth had the most with 177 in 1921) or walked 200 times (Ruth again, with 170 in 1923).

Young concedes he would settle for half of those totals consistently. “If you’re on base a lot, you score a lot,” he reasons.

E.Y. would like his initials to stand for “Every Year a Headache” for mound staffs. He would like to be the Dodgers’ point man in the capture of the pennant.

It also would point up the importance of the leadoff man. After all, in all those gaudy years Ty Cobb was hanging up averages of .420, .410, .390 and .385, there were no pennants. Even a Ruth needed a Combs.

The Dodgers had four guys hit 30 homers last year. But they had Young for only 37 games. If they hit that many behind him this year, home plate will have more dents than the Hollywood Freeway and the Dodgers will be Young at heart. And first in the National League.