Every time varsity baseball coach form Shepard talks about last season, gets a peculiar gleam in his eye.

"I've never seen anything like it in sports," he said. "It was almost a miracle." Starting the season with one outstanding pitcher plus a fairly run-of--mill group, the Crimson compiled amazing 21-21 record--a mark no Harvard team had matched since 1885. The Crimson had three magnificent , and the rest of the starting one played up to the very limits of its .

Harvard enters the 1965 season with almost as uncertain as last --but Shepard is enough of a realist know that once-in-a-lifetime miracles occur twice in two years.

Ever since the time of Abner Doubleday, baseball pundits have been proclaiming that "pitching is 75 per cent of the game." If the maxim is true, Harvard will gave roughly 25 per cent of a baseball team this year.

The three mainstays of last year's pitching staff have all departed; Lee Sargent, who had a 5-0 record and an amazing earned run average; Andy Luther, and a 1.96 ERA; and Paul Del Rossi, now with the New York Yankees' Toledo farm club in the International League, who compiled an 11-1 mark last year.

The three most likely candidates for The Crimson pitching staff are Kent Metchell, John Scott, and Jerry Mechling, who save a total of 28 innings of varsity experience behind them. Mitchell and Scott pitched a bit for last year's team and performed quite creditable--but against rather inept opposition. Mechling was a star for the JV team.

Three sophomores--Larry Melfa, Paul Thornton, and Jim McCandlish--are also prime candidates for the pitching staff. But at present, the whole pitching situation is in a state of flux, and will not become and less confused until the team takes its six-game Southern tour over . "I've been worrying for four weeks." Shepard said, "about whom to start the first game with."

The rest of Harvard's starting lineup . If the members of the team play as well as they did last year, the Crimson will have at least a respectable season--even if the pitching star doesn't .

The Crimson's starting catcher will be senior , Whose main asset is one way he handles pitchers. "He was one of the big reasons our staff was so effective last spring," Shepard said. At the plate, Miller is no terror; he batter .238 last season. But he is a good clutch batter, and knocked in 18 runs with 20 last season.

Like Miller, first baseman John Dockery's a contributions to the team are not accurately indicated by his batting average, Dockery, a catcher-turned outfielder first baseman, is an excellent defensive player, a timely hitter, and a fine tunner. He batted only .240 last year but knocked in 11 runs with 15 hits and stole 17 bases.

Second baseman Skip Falcone provided one of the many pleasant surprises of the 1964 season. After a year with the JV team, Falcone won a starting position of the varsity and was the squad's fourth leading hitter with a .293 average. Falcone and shortstop Tom Bilodeau give Harvard one of the best collegiate double-play combinations in the East.

Bilodeau suffered an injury on the team's Southern tour last year, but returned to the lineup midway through the season and batted .279. With him in the lineup, Shepard said, "our infield suddenly came together and there wasn't a better infield in New England."

When Bilodeau was out of the lineup last season, sophomore Jim Tobin subbed for him--and what a substitute! Tobin batted .351 for the year, leading the team in hitting. When Bilodeau returned, Tobin was shifted to right field, but since Harvard has a plethora of good outfielders this year, Tobin will play at third base.

Outstanding Outfielders

The Crimson's outfield is outstanding, both offensively and defensively. One of was the play of sophomore George Neville; he won a starting berth on the southern tour, and before the season and Neville had been named the center fielder on three all star teams. Neville hit .345 for the year and ranked second in the Eastern Intercollegiate League with a .405 mark.

The other members of Harvard's our field trio are senior Mike Patrick and sophomore Dan Hootstein. Patrick had a willant sophomore season when he based .295, but tailed off last year to .368. One of the season's few disappointments Patrick would really boost the team's offensive thrust if he regains his sophomore form. Hootstein is the only sophomore in the starting lineup. A knee injury kept him out of freshman ball last year the keys to last year's fine performance out his progress this spring has been highly encouraging.

It seems quite doubtful at present Harvard can repeat as the EIBL champion against such strong teams as , Princeton, and Dartmouth. The Crimson's hitting and defense should probably be as good as they were last year.

But the anna's of baseball, on every from sandlot teams to the Boston Red Sox, are strewn with unsuccessful teams which had hitting, defense, speed, power--and no pitching. Barring a recurrence of the 1964 miracle, Harvard's pitching is going to cause problems this year, and if you haven't got it there, you must haven't got it.