Best in Years

The best-read column on the front page of the Detroit Free Press last week bore the byline "Winn Pennant." It spelled out in loving detail the Tigers' chances for winning the American League pennant. On the radio, local disk jockeys spun a cornball ditty called Go You Tigers. All over the city, banners and auto stickers proclaimed the team and its top hitter:

"WHO NEEDS MONEY? WE'VE GOT CASH.''

Infected with pennant fever, downtown Detroit hotels were cautiously holding open space for the first week in October; already more than 5,000 World Series ticket requests have poured into the Tigers' front office from faithful fans who have not seen a Tiger pennant in 16 years, have watched their team rattle around in the American League's second division for the past decade. But the best sign that the second-place Tigers themselves are sure that they can beat the hated New York Yankees is their own skillful, self-confident race for the flag.

Writh 16 of their 25 players new to the club this year, the Tigers no longer seem afflicted with tired blood. Rookies and rejects have blended smoothly together. "When you have a young team, as we do," says hard-hitting (.306) Outfielder Al Kaline, a nine-year veteran at 26, "everybody tries harder, because the new young players are trying hard to make it." Though the Tigers lack the down-the-line power of the Yankees, the big bats of First Baseman Norman Cash (with a .365 average to lead the league, 32 home runs) and Leftfielder Rocky Colavito (.291, 39 home runs ), have bailed the Tigers out of trouble.

Strong Starter. But the biggest Tiger asset, as Detroit tries to overhaul the Yankees, is Pitcher Frank Lary, 30. He is certain to become the second American League pitcher (after Yankee Whitey Ford) to win 20 games this season, and significantly, he has run up the best part of his lifetime record against the Yankees themselves. Since 1955, he has beaten the Yankees 26 times, lost only nine times; last week he moved into a series with New York sporting a league record of 19-7 and in front of the Yanks, 3-1. (Only pitcher who ever beat the Yankees more often was Bob Feller. His record: 30-37.)

Pitching in a league where most starters act as if a ball game were only six innings long. Lary is an anachronism: he has finished 19 of his 30 starts. He works on his own, with no strong relief staff to back him up. The Yankees' ace 22-game winner, Whitey Ford, on the other hand, has completed only nine of 32 starting assignments. Says Tiger Manager Bob Scheffing: "He's the best damned pitcher I've seen around in years."

Late Practice. One of seven sons. Lary comes from a pitching family; six of the Lary boys were pitchers in high school, college or professional ball; the seventh caught all the brothers. Lary's father, a cotton farmer in Alabama's red-clay country, set up a pitcher's mound and a plate in the front yard, made all his sons practice after their chores. After two years at the University of Alabama. Lary quit college to sign a contract with the Tigers, joined Detroit in 1955. won 14 games in his rookie year. The next season. Lary was foundering with a 4-10 record at midseason. Then he began experimenting with a knuckle ball, roared through the last half of the season winning 17 games to wind up with a 21-13 year. Said Ted Williams, then splintering splendidly with the Boston Red Sox: "He's got guts, and he'll fight you all the way. He's not very big. so there's a limit to what he can do. But he'll fool you.''

A dugout cutup, Lary was nicknamed "Taters" by Tiger teammates because he once wrote "taters" on a dining-car order blank, is a guitar-strumming hillbilly singer on an Alabama radio station in the off season. But Lary is not an ambitionless rube. He hopes to quit with his pension after three more years to develop a 40-acre Alabama water recreation area called Frank Lary Lake. ''Ten years in baseball would be enough." he says. "I should spend more time with my family. I'm not home enough to raise my kids."

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