3,000: High Note Of A Hit Parade

THE MOST GOLDEN OLDIES
In this compilation, achievements so far in 1979 are listed on the top line following each player's name; career statistics are on the bottom line
HITTERS
NAME	AGE	TEAM	AVG.	HR	RBI
Manny Mota	41	Dodgers	.353	0	3
			.304	31	436
Lou Brock	40	Cardinals	.321	5	32
			.293	149	894
Pete Rose	38	Phillies	.312	3	49
			.310	153	1,003
Willie Stargell	38	Pirates	.297	22	58
			.283	451	1,452
Carl Yastrzemski	40	Red Sox	.280	20	73
			.288	403	1,599
Tony Perez	37	Expos	.278	11	57
			.283	321	1,341
Rico Carty	38	Blue Jays	.261	8	42
			.299	200	847
Willie McCovey	41	Giants	.258	14	51
			.271	519	1,533
PITCHERS
NAME	AGE	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	ERA
Gaylord Perry	40	Padres	10	10	3.12
			277	216	2.93
Fred Norman	37	Reds	10	9	3.30
			99	95	3.59
Phil Niekro	40	Braves	15	16	3.74
			212	187	3.12
Luis Tiant	38	Yankees	9	6	3.86
			213	154	3.19

On the humid evening of Aug. 13 in St. Louis' Busch Stadium, Cardinal Leftfielder Lou Brock, age 40, led off the fourth inning of a game against Chicago by hitting a hard line drive directly back at Pitcher Dennis Lamp. The ball caromed off Lamp's bare hand, painfully bruising three fingers, and bounced crazily into foul territory. Brock made it safely to first base without drawing a throw from Third Baseman Steve Ontiveros, who had picked up the rebound. Bedlam attended this seemingly unremarkable infield single. The crowd of 44,457 rose to render the Brock locomotive yell—"Lou! Lou! Lou!"—which is heard as often in St. Louis these days as Budweiser commercials. Stan Musial, demigod from another epoch, debouched from the stands with 80-year-old Cardinal Board Chairman August A. Busch Jr. in tow. Cameras flashed and microphones were thrust in Brock's beaming face so that he could impart his impressions of the moment to the adoring multitudes—all of this, mind you, smack in the middle of a big league ball game. Brock told everyone how happy he was it had happened at home, "it" being his 3,000th major league hit.

This mad scene will most likely be repeated in a few weeks, with different dramatis personae, when Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox, also 40, gets his 3,000th hit. Yaz needed only 15 after last weekend to become the 15th player in history, the seventh in this decade, and with Brock and Pete Rose, the third in the last two years to achieve 3,000. Accumulating that many hits may be as much a tribute to staying power as to ability, but what is truly remarkable about the three gaffers is that they are all still important to the success of their teams. Brock has been among his league's batting leaders all season, and so, naturally, has Rose. Yaz, battling off one injury after another, has played in all but six of the Red Sox games. On July 24 he hit his 400th career homer, and when he joins Brock and Rose, he will become the first American Leaguer to have more than 400 home runs among his 3,000 hits (Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Musial have done it in the National League). For all of their success this year, Yaz, Brock and Rose are not the only Golden Oldies on the premises. There are 17 active major league players who are 37 or older, and most of them are enjoying seasons that players 10 or 15 years younger would happily exchange for their own.

Willie McCovey's 14 homers for the Giants this year have made him the leading lefthanded home-run hitter in National League history, and he needs only three more to pass Ted Williams for eighth place in the alltime rankings. San Diego's Gaylord Perry has moved into second place behind Walter Johnson in career strikeouts, with 3,130 to Johnson's 3,508. In addition, Perry is only 23 victories short of 300 for his career. Three hundred wins are to a pitcher what 3,000 hits are to a batter, and, interestingly, there are now 14 players in each category. Yaz will give the hitters an edge unless Perry can even the score. In the modern game 300 wins seems less attainable than 3,000 hits. If and when Perry makes it, he will become the major leagues' first 300-game winner since Early Wynn in 1963, evidence that the hitters are lasting longer these days.

Perry is not the only elderly pitcher around. Atlanta knuckleballer Phil Niekro is leading the major leagues in complete games with 17 and innings pitched with 250. He collected his 200th career victory earlier in the season. Fred Norman has a winning record for the Reds, I and Gray Panthers Jim Kaat and Luis Tiant have been effective for the Yankees. Willie Stargell is still pounding home runs for Pittsburgh, and Montreal's Tony Perez is driving in runs with youthful consistency.

Manny Mota of the Dodgers needs only one more pinch hit to set a major league career record of 145 in that esoteric category. Brock, Rose, Yaz, McCovey, Perry and Stargell must all be considered prime candidates for the Hall of Fame, and it is heartening to have them with us yet.

Few of these good old boys seem to be contemplating retirement. Yaz is signed up through the 1981 season. McCovey has at least another year remaining on his contract, and though he is ordinarily the mildest mannered of professional athletes, he bristles at even the slightest suggestion that he is getting a bit long in the tooth. Perry looks as if he can throw his reputedly unsanitary "sinker" forever, or at least as long as Niekro can loose his butterflies. Rose's contract with the Phillies will take him past his 41st birthday. Stargell is enjoying a second athletic childhood.

Only Brock will pack it in after this year. Nothing can change his mind about that, he said after his milestone hit, particularly now that he has assured himself of a grand exit. Brock is something of a phrasemaker, and when, in the hullabaloo following his 3,000th, he was reminded that he was bowing out on top, he remarked, "I always wanted to orchestrate my own exodus." No one expected such sweet music from him after his flat .221 performance in 1978. Even teammate Ted Simmons, as loyal a Brock booster as any of the fans shouting "Lou! Lou! Lou!" concedes that "it looked like the end for him last season. But by June of this year it was very clear this was not the case." Brock came out smoking and led the league in hitting for several weeks in the spring. A "mechanical defect," not advancing years, brought him to grief in '78, he stoutly maintains. He discovered too late last year that he had been hitting off his back foot. A simple adjustment in his stance corrected the deficiency, but Brock had the Lord's own time convincing the doomsayers that Judgment Day was not at hand. "A couple of people believed me," he says. "Ninety-eight per cent did not."

The accepted view around St. Louis was that he had done enough already. He was the game's single-season (118) and career (917) stolen-base record holder, and his .292 career batting average and 2,900 hits seemed sufficient credentials for the Hall of Fame. So what if he missed 3,000 hits? He should be content to play part-time this year, leaving the heavy duty to abler bodies. However, this view did not take into account Brock's fierce pride.

To prove he could still perform, he had to buck baseball's conventional wisdom about aging. Every player, says Brock, "is on a collision course between ability and desire." The "thoroughbred athlete" feels the crash first, but there are others clamoring to anticipate the accident. Owners, managers, journalists, fans, all want to be the first to forecast the athletic demise of the veteran. "The burden of mental anguish on the older player is placed there by those who can hardly wait to say, 'I told you so,' " says Brock. "There is this myth which says that at a certain age you automatically can't play. That attitude has existed for a hundred years in baseball, and no matter what you do, in spite of your determination and desire and your track record, you find yourself caught up in it." Older persons know this attitude extends well beyond the confines of professional sports. Who, indeed, is to say who is old, and when? Scott Fitzgerald considered himself decrepit at 30; Shaw complained in his 90s that youth was wasted on the young.

But many athletes stubbornly refuse to accept the infirmities of age and insist on staying that one season too long. "For some players, total ego satisfaction is dependent on being recognized as an athlete," says Dr. Bruce Ogilvie, professor emeritus of psychology at San Jose State, psychological consultant to the U.S. Olympic team and a pioneer in the field of sports psychology. "They [athletes] cannot imagine not receiving this recognition. Nothing else in life can give them their strokes. This can be a most compelling factor in extending a career beyond its normal boundaries. Finally, the love of the game and the love of the lifestyle make an athlete want to extend it as long as possible."