Baseball

RELATIVE SUCCESS

September has turned into Up with Family Month. On Sept. 14, Ken Griffey Sr. and his son Ken Jr. hit back-to-back homers off the Angels' Kirk McCaskill—another major league first for the father-son combo. The next day, Cal and Billy Ripken of the Orioles hit homers in the same inning off David Wells of the Blue Jays, thus becoming the first brothers to have home runs in the same game for the same team since Billy and Tony Conigliaro of the Red Sox blasted a couple against the Washington Senators on Sept. 19, 1970.

On Sept. 5, Mel Stottlemyre Jr. of the Royals allowed one hit in seven innings en route to a 3-0 loss to the White Sox . Two days later, Chicago was beaten by Mel's brother, Todd Stottlemyre of the Blue Jays; Todd allowed one run in eight innings in the 3-1 victory. Said Chicago manager Jeff Torborg , "I'm glad Mel Sr. can't still pitch."

TWO-TIMER

On Aug. 8, the National League East -leading Pirates traded relief pitcher Scott Ruskin to the Expos. It's very likely that the Pittsburgh players will vote Ruskin a share of their postseason bonanza should they win the division title. That means Ruskin could benefit financially if his new team's rival succeeds.

Before the series in Montreal last weekend, Pirate catcher Mike LaValliere said jokingly, "We told Scott, 'If you do too well against us, no shares.' He just got a new truck. If he does well, we might have it repossessed. If he messes up, we might buy him some new tires."

LaValliere then said, seriously, that there's no way Ruskin would consider grooving a few fastballs to help the Pirates. He was right. In Montreal 's 4-3 victory over Pittsburgh last Saturday, Ruskin faced three hitters, allowed no runs and struck out two. On Sunday, as the Pirates lost to the Expos again, 4-1, Ruskin went 1? innings, gave up no hits and got two strikeouts—and the win.

THIN IS IN
Move over, Oil Can Boyd , you 147-pound brute. Now there's an even lighter pitcher in the majors—Dan Boone, the 142-pound lefthander who was recalled by the Orioles on Saturday from Triple A Rochester . Boone, 36, is the slightest major league pitcher since Bobby Shantz , who weighed in at 139 pounds while playing for several teams from 1949 to '64. According to Oriole p.r. director Rick Vaughn, Boone will have to go on a serious diet if he's going to beat out the lightest lightweight of them all, Kid Keenan, who pitched one game for the Cincinnati Kellys of the American Association in 1891. He weighed 95 pounds.

ROYAL SEND-OFF

Frank White 's career as a Royal will certainly end after this season. Kansas City has no interest in re-signing him, but White says he doesn't plan to retire. On Sept. 11, White got the 2,000th hit of his career, a double off Frank Wills of the Blue Jays, and afterward he said, "It was like 3,000 for me." White's first hit came in 1973 off Doyle Alexander , who, like White, was born on Sept. 4, 1950....