More major league clubs will investigate "momentum pitching" as a viable alternative to

the arm-killing, paint-by-numbers, minimalist style that gradually took over

after the "no windup"

motion was adopted in the 1960s . . .

Briefly, former Red Sox journeyman Dick Mills has developed a delivery he claims increases

velocity while decreasing arm strain. If you watched Tim Lincecum matching up with Phils No. 1 Cole Hamels, you saw the momentum delivery in action. The Giants' vest-pocket

ace towers 5-11 and tips the scale at a robust 170. Take a look at Lincecum's delivery (videos available on MLB.com) and pay attention to four things: 1. His length of stride. 2. His three-quarter arm slot. 3. The low position of his hands as he begins a slow turn and the arm speed enhanced by the momentum generated by the long stride. 4. The high right leg whip on his follow-through. Doing these basic things, according to Mills, makes it possible for the arm to "just go along for the ride." The mule work is done from the waist down. Last night, the Phillies were scheduled to face Diamondbacks phenom Mac Scherzer, who used his version of the MD to retire all 13 hitters he faced in a dazzling, seven-strikeout mop-up debut against the Astros.

Mills spent years studying the deliveries of Hall of Fame pitchers dating to grainy film from the Deadball Era. He found that length of stride and acceleration through the delivery was a common denominator in what he calls the "Hall of Fame delivery." At the core of this lower-body-based technique is a length of stride Mills teaches at clinics for pitchers of all ages and experience levels that should be at least equal to a pitcher's height. It's not coincidence that the reed-thin Hamels achieves great results using a lefthanded version of the delivery Mills teaches. It appears most of the great ones figure out what works on their own. Dick's crusade is to reduce the number of pitchers whose arms are being put at risk by conventional but flawed dogma.

When I'm King of the World . . .

For batting average purposes only, an April hit will count as

1.5 hits for all batters struggling under the Mendoza Line of .200 . . . This adjustment will be based on a humane premise that no hitter should find himself gridlocked on the dreaded interstate. Thus, Ryan Howard's wretched journey down I-77 would have been an adjusted .266. Conversely, any regular still batting more than .400 at the end of April is probably way over his head. That player's knocks would count 0.75. So a guy who unfurls a 40-for-100 month would be hitting an adjusted .300, a number closer to reality and his lifetime average . . . Howard's latest April from Hell recalls the dismal first month suffered by Bill White, another prominent Phillies first baseman. When GM John Quinn acquired shortstop Dick Groat (who showed up old and slow) and All-Star first baseman White from the Cardinals before the 1966 season it appeared to be game, set and match in the NL. And when Quinn traded an untested sinkerballer named Ferguson Jenkins and a couple of deep reserves for veteran righthanders Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl, the experts

began to plan the coronation that was deferred in 1964. White, a future National League president, was 6-for-42 in 18 April games, a gelid .143. As the season neared mid-May, White was still between the Mendoza Line and .220. Media types began

peppering manager Gene Mauch with questions about White's epic slump. One day, Mauch rolled the "What's wrong with White?" variation over in his febrile mind for a full minute and snapped, "Just think of the fun Bill White is going to have getting back to .300." White never got close to .300. He was too buried by the accumulation of at-bats. But he did have a lot of fun getting to .276. And he salvaged the season by hitting 22 homers and driving in 103 runs. Now, just think of all the fun Howard is going to have getting back to .250.

When I'm King of the World . . .

Playboy magazine will rethink it's decision to run several racially inflammatory headlines with a 5,000-word piece by Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock . . . When the suits who produce ESPN's "The Sports Reporters" decided to end my 13-year audition, my former chair frequently was

occupied by the physically enormous and enormously talented Whitlock. It was Whitlock who deflected Mike Lupica's waspish ripostes with the precision of an exterminator spraying industrial-strength Flit. The friction led to the exit from the panel of the man who has replaced the late Ralph Wiley as the most influential black sports journalist in America. Like Wiley, Whitlock is hot and in demand. Which is why Playboy asked him to write 5,000 nonsport words for next month's edition on a nonsports theme of his choosing. So he submitted what will be a controversial indictment of a criminal justice system where 1 in every 100 Americans is incarcerated, a staggering number from the drug culture. Whitlock chose California's swamped prison system and interviewed an impressive list of sources, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The headline over the piece is scheduled to read, "The Black KKK" over a subheadline, "Hip-Hop Is Killing Black America, and it's time to do something about it." Whitlock says the loathed KKK acronym does not appear in his piece, nor is the Hip-Hop culture a central theme. Despite a stinging column by Whitlock on Friday denouncing the decision of Playboy editorial director Chris Napolitano to publish the controversial headlines, the magazine says there will be no changes. Stay tuned on this one. *

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