He went to Norwood High School, which produced Richie Hebner and Billy Travers, his coach had the right connections, he had a machine gun of an arm Was it any wonder, then, that the Pittsburgh Pirates sought Larry Brown right out of high school?

Until, that is, they discovered his intention of attending Harvard. Only nobody told the Yankees, who went right ahead and drafted the Massachusetts schoolboy flame-thrower the same year that Mickey Rivers and Ed Figueroa first donned pinstripes.

To the Yankees, Brown said no thanks, see you in four years, to Harvard he nodded yes. Yesterday at Soldiers Field, the batsmen for MIT wished that Brown had chosen the Yankees.

Hurling two-hit ball over the first five innings, the Crimson sophomore a paced Harvard to its 14th (against a single setback) and his fourth (against no set-backs) triumph of the season, a 10-0 pasting of the helpless Engineers.

Slide Rules

The latter would have enjoyed more luck had they brought slide rules instead of bats to the plate against Brown and three relievers, who allowed neither hits or runs over the final four frames.

The Crimson bats, meanwhile, were loud enough to accompany the 10 runs with 16 hits, four by second baseman Mike Stenhouse who also drove in two runs and scored a pair himself, including Harvard's first in the opening inning on a wild pitch.

Two walks, an MIT miscalculation (known as an error for other teams) and a Stenhouse single--all with two outs--produced three more runs an inning later, and after Tommy Joyce and Dave Singleton connected for run-scoring shots in the third inning, school was out. Reading period in.

Stenhouse singled and later scored again in the fourth, ditto Singleton in the fifth, and Harvard concluded the afternoon's offensive showing with two New York Life Insurance runs--the result of four consecutive singles--in the eighth. The Crimson had at least one hit in every inning, all 16 being for one base.

Harvard hurlers, on the other hand, were having as much trouble with the MIT attack as the Yankees did acquiring Mike Torrez. They faced but four batters over the minimum, as the Crimson swept to its sixth straight Greater Boston League triumph.

As for Brown, he's now eligible to be drafted by any major league team upon completion of his college career, a prospect to which he looks forward. With Hunter, Gullett, Figueroa, Holtzman and now Torrez, the Yankees don't need another pitcher, anyway.