Word: shortstop
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...which makes Minnesota's Tony Oliva, 25, just about the luckiest hitter in baseball-and close to the best. In 1964, as a baby-faced Cuban farm lad who spoke practically no English ("Tony talks so bad," cracked Fellow Cuban Zoilo Versalles, the Twins' shortstop, "that he even says 'ain't' in Spanish"). Outfielder Oliva hit 32 home runs and batted .323-thus becoming the first rookie ever to win the American League's batting championship. Last year, playing with a bad knee and a painfully bruised hand, he drove in 98 runs...
...years. All-Star Second Baseman Joe Morgan, 22, whom the Astros plucked three years ago from California's Oakland City College, was hitting .315 until last week, when a batting-practice liner crunched into his right kneecap, putting him out for three weeks. With Rookie Shortstop Sonny Jackson, 21, a .296 hitter who fields like a jackrabbit and steals bases on the side (24 this year), the Astros have one of the best doubleplay acts in the league...
...hard to conceive. "I don't understand it at all," says his shy, slender wife Alma Rosa, 21, who has known Juan since she was twelve, married him at 16. "Juan is never angry-even when he gets up in the morning." Roseboro's own roommate, Dodger Shortstop Maury Wills, insists that Juan Marichal is "a nice guy-and a great individual." He is that all right. He is the grinning practical joker who passes around a perfume vial labeled "Apple Blossom," which actually is a stink bomb. He is the "Dominican Dandy" who dresses all in blue...
Grate's 0-for-3 was far more serious. The sophomore shortstop, who started season hitting like George Scott, has been in the throes of a slump the last weeks and was popping feebly to opposite field yesterday...
With a righty going for Yale, shortstop Jeff Grate will probably return to the middle of the Crimson lineup...