No Higher Compliment

There is no higher compliment in baseball than a bunt.

Crosley Field, July 1953. Robin Roberts is on the mound for the National League in the All-Star Game. Mickey Mantle comes up in the second inning, 21 years old, the most dangerous power hitter in the American League, with the wind blowing out. He squares and lays one down. Roberts fields it himself and throws him out at first.

Years later, asked to name his favorite All-Star moment, that is the one Roberts picked. Not a strikeout. A bunt. Because Mantle looking at that wind and deciding a bunt was the better idea told Roberts everything he wanted to know.

The year before, Roberts had gone 28-7 with a 2.59 ERA. He threw 330 innings, completed 30 games, and walked 45 men all season. He won 20 of his last 22 starts. No National League pitcher has won 28 games in a season since.

The writers gave the MVP to Hank Sauer of the fifth-place Cubs, who led the league with 37 homers and 121 RBIs. Sauer 226 points. Roberts 211. Joe Black, a rookie reliever with 15 wins, finished third at 208 and somehow collected more first-place votes than Roberts did. Oscar Fraley of UPI wrote that anyone who could tell a bunt from a punt should be flabbergasted, and figured most of the voters had never heard of Robin Roberts.

There was no Cy Young Award until 1956. For a pitcher in 1952, the MVP was the only trophy in the building, and the writers were counting home runs. Roberts finished second and never came that close again.