As Fast as Feller?

Ever since Cleveland's Pitcher Bob Feller burst on the baseball scene 18 years ago as "the fastest man since Walter Johnson," baseball scouts have combed the bushes and sandlots looking for another speed-bailer. "Faster than Feller" became the standard label for any strong-armed busher with speed, and since "Rapid Robert's" heyday, countless youngsters have been called "another Feller." None has managed to live up to his press clippings. But last week baseball men were finally convinced that another Feller had arrived in the person of burly (6 ft. 2 in., 207 Ibs.) Robert Lee Turley, a fireballing righthander for the Baltimore Orioles.

"Bullet Bob" Turley threw two convincers last week. First, going a full ten innings against Cleveland, Turley pitched a 4-hitter (striking out five) and won his third game of the young season, 2-1. Later, against the Boston Red Sox, Turley left the Boston batters gaping as he reared back and struck out eleven of them in an eight-inning stint (he was lifted for a pinch hitter) and won his fourth game of the year.

"Lightning Bolts." The 23-year-old righthander has drawn raves all over the American League circuit. "He's the fastest thing I've seen since Bob Feller was at his best," said New York Yankee Manager Casey Stengel. "This fellow throws lightning bolts." Baltimore's Catcher Clint Courtney, gingerly waving a sore hand, says, "Turley's the fastest guy I ever caught."

The object of this acclaim takes his successes as calmly as his failures. Early in the season Turley pitched dramatic no-hit ball for eight and one-third innings against Cleveland, then lost the game 2-1 on a single and a home run by Larry Doby. Ordinarily, a pitcher would make crestfallen excuses. Not Turley. "I've always been amused," said he. "to read the statements pitchers make when something bad happens to them. 'The pitch got away from me.' they say. This one got away from me--350 feet away. I threw Doby the precise pitch I wanted to feed him. In the same situation, I'd do it again." "

Head & Heart." Turley learned his poise the hard way--in the minor leagues as a youngster of 16, with Belleville, 111. in 1946. He moved up gradually, learning as he went--to Aberdeen, S.D. in 1949, Wichita in 1950, San Antonio in 1951.

Toward the end of last season, after two years in the Army, he got a chance with the St. Louis Browns (now Baltimore's Orioles). Turley won only two and lost six with the hapless Browns, but his strike-out record was impressive: 61 in 60 innings.

Last week his strike-out record was still impressive: 53 in 51 innings, leading the American League. And though fireballers are notoriously wild, Turley has only given up 29 walks and has a minuscule earned-run average of 1.76. Part of the credit for Turley's new-found control goes to Baltimore's Pitching Coach Harry ("The Cat") Brecheen, Turley's roommate on road trips. Says Brecheen: "He has all the equipment he needs. He has size, strength, head and heart. All he requires is experience. He'll be a great one."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.