October  11, 1991, Friday, City Edition

SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 29
LENGTH: 1217 words
HEADLINE: The New Rocket or just a dud?
BYLINE: By Steve Fainaru, Globe Staff
DATELINE: TORONTO

 BODY:
   When Scott Erickson is in uniform, he looks almost made up, as if he were a model hired to play a ballplayer in a television commercial. His dark, longish hair rakes the back of his neck, and his features are classic; it is often said that he resembles actor Christopher Reeve.

If everything goes well for him, the postseason may mean to Erickson what the gulf war meant to Arthur Kent. Already popular in the Twin Cities, the telegenic pitcher is a National Sports Figure waiting to happen, provided he can somehow duplicate his first half this season, when he won continuously between April 16 and June 29.

    However, there is some doubt about whether Erickson can pitch that well again. During his 12-game winning streak, he was virtually unhittable. Asked whether the streak was reminiscent of Roger Clemens' in 1986, Jack Morris said, "Clemens never had that kind of movement." It reached the point where teams
checked constantly to see if Erickson's sinking fastball, which hurtles toward the plate like a 91-mile-per-hour boulder, was being doctored.

    The postseason may shed some light on whether Erickson was just a shooting star. A forearm strain, no doubt brought on by the violent thrust required of his sinker, prevented him from starting the All-Star Game and sent him into a hideous tailspin. Although he rebounded to win 20 games, even the Twins
acknowledge that he does not have the same exceptional stuff.

    "We knew that a kid who was throwing 83 coming out of college and shoots up to 91 was not going to be able to maintain that," said manager Tom Kelly. "It was just a matter of when it would happen. We figured he'd end up around 84, 85 miles an hour, and that's where he's at right now. And it's forced him to become more of a pitcher."

    "I don't see it that way," said Erickson. "I don't think he's seen me enough to make that kind of judgment. I feel like I can still go out there and throw as hard as I can. I think the velocity will be back up there."

    There is an interesting momentum to the star-making process in which Erickson now finds himself. With the best-of-seven American League playoffs tied, 1-1, and the series shifting to the SkyDome, there was an overwhelming sense during yesterday's offday that Erickson, who faces Toronto lefthander Jimmy Key, was the story.

    That determined, reporters tried doggedly to wrest some information from him about his past. Erickson is pleasant but guarded. He talks most willingly about his relationship with his mother, Stephanie, a computer programmer for Lockheed n Northern California whom he calls the night before every start for good luck.
"I have to hear those words, 'Good luck,' " he said.

    Erickson has described his mother as his best friend who even offers tips about his pitching. "Just some minor stuff," he said. "She's seen almost all my games, but she's still only a mom, obviously, so she doesn't know much about mechanics."

    Erickson is more evasive about his father, Don, who left the family when he was in junior high school and now is living in Louisville. Earlier this year, Erickson said of him, "He was loud and talked a lot, bragging and everything. I saw I didn't want to be that way."

    He said he speaks with his father only "if he calls me. I don't call him."

    Asked Wednesday what his father does for a living, Erickson said, "I'm not exactly sure."

    Erickson, 23, grew up in Sunnyvale, Calif., about an hour south of Oakland and not far from where Jays pitcher Dave Stieb was raised. His first sport was soccer. On his high school team, he said, he was required to wear black cleats, a style that has since become his trademark; his black socks touch the tops of his all-jet-black shoes, a curious image on the mound.

    The more you hear about Erickson, the more he seems like Clemens. Like The Rocket, he fashions himself as something of a rebel, not just with his attire but with the way he approaches the game. He has his own rigorous conditioning program and he sprints off the mound. Like Clemens, he emphasizes that he knows better than anyone else what he needs to do to prepare himself.

    Like Clemens, Erickson will be able to do anything he wants if he keeps winning. And from last September through June 24, that's really all he did. His only two losses during that period came when the Twins were shut out in his first two starts of the season; he was 17-2 with a 1.38 ERA.

    It was against the Red Sox in May that you began to realize how special Erickson was. On May 1 in the Metrodome, he threw a two-hit shutout that left many of the Sox in awe. Steve Lyons pulled reporters aside to say, "That's the best stuff we've seen this year." Erickson pitched in Boston five days later and
stuffed the Sox again; it took a three-run homer by Tom Brunansky to break up a streak of 30 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

    "His movement in the early part of this season was just incredible; I've never seen anything like it," said Morris. "I mean, I was sitting there watching like everyone else, and I was trying to figure out how he was doing it. I didn't find anything."

    "The first half of the season was just amazing," said Junior Ortiz, Erickson's personal catcher. "His sinker was breaking 4 feet. His ball was exploding." Asked whether Erickson ever approaches that same level, Ortiz said, "Not like the first half. But he's close to being there."

    "At times," said Morris. "He's really had to learn to pitch more instead of just relying on his stuff to get people out."

    It will be interesting to see whether Erickson can make the transition. Clemens did it. Purely a power pitcher in '86 - he threw almost exclusively fastballs in the 20-strikeout game - he has since become so versatile that former manager Joe Morgan criticized him this year for throwing too few fastballs. Although Clemens has never said it, it is believed that he began mixing up his pitches in part because of the strain it was putting on his arm.

Clemens started 35 games this year. Whether Erickson can do it remains to be seen. "I think we forget that he's still just 23," said Kelly. At this point, he appears to be in a denial phase in which he thinks he can heave the ball as hard as possible forever. "I don't see any reason why I can't throw as hard as I did before," he said.

    Erickson pitched well in his last three starts of the season, including a 9-2 win Sept. 24 in which he took a no-hitter into the seventh. Since the streak was broken, however, he is a mortal 8-6 with a 5.42 ERA. The pitcher said yesterday that the slump "destroyed" his season. But he is still regarded as a leading candidate to win the Cy Young Award in his first full season in the major leagues.

    Asked if he thought he deserved it, he said, "I don't know. It's hard to say how to look at it. The only thing a pitcher really has any control over is his ERA, and Clemens' is lower."

    At times, after Clemens' unbelievable season in '86, there were questions about whether he would have the staying power to attain greatness. It was uncertain whether his arm would hold up, or whether he would be overcome by his seeming inability to deal with his celebrity - whether he would just burn out.

    The same questions are being raised now about Erickson. But they have yet to be answered.