Very important in Harvard considerations is ace reliever Norm Walsh. A righthander, Walsh was called upon again and again in the title stretch for the Crimson in 1973 to secure vital wins.

Lincoln will have to decide among a host of possibles to fill in the rest of the pitching staff. Terry Schlimbaum, a lefty, Steve Kitchen, a righthander, Frank LeBlanc another righthander, Jim Harold and Tom Pura, two lefties, are among the leading candidates for positions.

Also in contention are southpaws Keith Butler and Bob Larsen and righthander Nils Nilson, a junior.

"Let's face it," Park said, "in this league it is pitching that wins or loses games for you. We are concerned with the depth of our pitching and its consistency."

"Our problems right now are trying to gain this pitching depth," Park said, "and to determine the number one catcher."

"Talking about pitching, we won those last three titles on the pitching," Park said. "We had someone like Brayton we could call on for the big games. The season before that, we lost by one game, and you guessed it, it was the pitching that did us in."

The Crimson batmen will get their chance to try out the all-important pitching staff on the team's southern trip scheduled, as usual, for spring vacation.

"This year we are going to change our plans somewhat," Park said. "We're going to Atlanta first to play a few with Georgia Tech and then go on down to Daytona Beach where we were last year."

The Harvard baseball team traveled to Florida last year and came back with a sterling 13-0 record that left half of the coaches in this area amazed and the other half skeptical.

"13-0, that's a joke," Penn coach Bob Seddon said just before his team surprised Harvard 3-2 in its first game after returning. "Harvard will be hearing a lot about that during the year."

What many of the northeastern coaches did not really remember is that all of the southern schools begin their seasons the first week of March. By the time the Harvard squad gets to warmer climates, all of those teams will have played as many as ten or twelve games. That is quite a contrast from the Harvard players who have only donned gloves and carried bats within the cozy confines of Briggs Cage.

One advantage that the Crimson batmen have over much of their northern competition, though, is that their season begins immediately after they get back from the South. Columbia, for example, charges south in the middle of March for two weeks only to have to return to indoor practices for two more weeks when they got back. The Crimson, however, can go from playing field to playing field.

The Eastern League outlook calls for a tight race again this year. Pennsylvania, Dartmouth Cornell, and Brown as well as defending champion Harvard all look to be in the thick of the battle come the middle of May.

"Penn has to be favored," Park said. "They have their whole team back this year." The Quaker veterans are led by one of the finest pitchers in the East in Andy Muhlstock. Muhlstock recorded nine wins last year against two losses with a sizzling ERA of 1.69. He was the EIBL's leading winner and he pitched the most innings. He also sported a .344 batting average.

Cornell brought in a whopping 19 junior college transfers for this season and on that fact alone, looks to be strong. It was on a road trip to Cornell and Army last year that Harvard won the title, but it will take a very strong performance to repeat that sweep this year.