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Seaver coming in light
By MILTON RICHMAN
UPI Sports Editor
NEW YORK (UPI) — Tom Seaver figures Joe Frazier
has the right idea.
He’s coming in light, too.
Ordinarily, Tom Seaver’s best fighting weight is
somewhere between 205 and 208 pounds, which is about
what he seems to pitch best at Joe Frazier likely will be
somewhere in that same neighborhood for Muhammad Ali
at Madison Square Garden Monday night.
Tom Seaver got on his bathroom scale Thursday mor
ning, the indicator went to 207 and stopped, and that made
his day for him.
“Sandy Koufax gave me a tip a few years ago,” says the
New York Mets’ two-time Cy Young Award winner. “He
told me always try to go to spring training a few pounds
light. In that way, he said, you can go down there and not
worry about taking off five ‘bad’ pounds. You can go down
there and put on five ‘good’ pounds. So what I try to do is
go to spring training five pounds underweight. I’m pretty
sure I’ll be able to do it this year.”
Looks Better Now
Tom Seaver looks much better right now than he did
three months ago after the Mets were beaten in the world
series by the Oakland Athletics.
“If you ask me what I remember most about the
series—from a strictly personal sense I mean—it would
.have to be how exhausted emotionally and physically I
was after it was all over,” says Seaver, a 19-game winner
during the regular season who wound up with one no
decision and a loss against Oakland.
“I didn’t pitch badly in the series, but that’s not what
they pay off on, do they?” he asked.
Nights longer, knickers snazz
By Ira Berkow
NEW YORK - (NEA) - Gene Sarazen, now nearly 72
years old, has made history and has seen history made. He
thinks he was there when today’s energy crisis was
launched. The year was 1956; he was playing a round of golf
with President Dwight Eisenhower, at Burning Tree Coun
try Club in Maryland.
“The President had just hit into the rough,” Sarazen
recalled recently. “Just then, a messenger came with the
news that the Suez crisis was about to blow up, that France,
Britain and Israel were confronting the Russians in Egypt.
“Ike rushed right off and made peace. And the Russians
stayed in Egypt. 1 think they could have been persuaded by
those other countries to get out of there. Their presence in
Egypt today is a great influence in the Arabs having the
courage to buck the world on the oil issue.
“If only Ike had gone rummaging for his ball in the rough
for 10 minutes, the course of world history might have been
changed.” Sarazen chuckled at the odd notion.
For the last several years, Sarazen has been suffering
what he calls his own personal energy crisis, though one
would hardly guess it.
He seems as robust, as doughty and as likely to shoot a 66
(which he did recently) as when tramping courses on the
way to British and U.S. Open, PGA and Masters titles as far
back as 1922.
Sarazen still tugs on those antediluvian yet snazzy
knickers. And he says he can hit the ball as far as he ever
could, though now he’ll employ a 4-wood where once he
plucked from his bag a 4-iron. His hole-in-one last year at
Troon during the British Open was an international sensa
tion.
Almost every morning before dawn now, though, he in
voluntarily gets up. An aching bursitis in his right shoulder
rouses him from his sleep. He ambles into the bathroom
where he draws for himself a hot bath, for temporary relief.
“So I only get three, four hours sleep a night now,” he said.
“It saps me of energy — my own energy crisis,” and he
smiles, a kindly but craggy smile.
Not only has the pain reduced his time on the golf course
— now only two or three times a week — but it has cut down
his shelling. For years, he and his wife Mary would walk
along the beach beside their winter residence on Marco Is
land (“My Shangri-la,” says Sarazen) and collect shells. But
walking has become a chore for him because of his lack of
sleep.
Meanwhile, the real energy crisis might affect him in an
other way. This could be the first year that he will miss the
Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga. He has made them all
since missing the very first one in 1934. His double eagle on
the 17th hole of the final round on the way to winning the
1935 Masters was selected by Golf Digest as “the most
famous shot in golf history.”
“I usually drive up to Augusta from Marco,” said Sarazen.
“But with the gas shortage, I’d have to take a plane, and
transfer planes a couple of times. That would take a lot out
of me.”
Sarazen says he sees a similarity between the Depression
Days and today. He remembers the car he was awarded in
1932 for winning both the British and U.S. Open title. “It was
a jet-green, twin-engine Packard,” he said. “It cost $7,000 in
those days, and only made 4 or 5 miles to the gallon. But
times were terrible. People didn't have enough to eat. I
never felt comfortable driving that car. I got rid of it the
next year.
“Today, people may begin to resent the big money guys
make playing golf. Like an Arnold Palmer. I hear he makes
several million dollars a year in his businesses. And I see
where the 100th pro on the money-winning list earns $20,000
and he doesn’t even win a tournament.
“It’s funny. I remember I made about $1250 total for win
ning the British Open and the U.S. Open in 1932. And it cost
me $2,000 to take a boat across the Atlantic.”
But Sarazen has nothing against discreet loot. He tries to
persuade his 15-year-old grandson Matty a good listener
who “puts good shoulder into the ball” — to be a golfer. “I
tell him,” says Sarazen, “that if he becomes a pro, I’ll be
happy to wear out my soles lugging his money to the bank.”
This is not to say Sarazen feels sorry for himself. “I re
member visiting Bobby Jones before he died,” said Sarazen.
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Since then, Seaver has kept active, playing some golf in
the pro-am portion of the Bing Crosby tournament at
Pebble Beach, Calif., and hunting quail.
He also watched the Super Bowl game on TV and
disagrees with those who felt it was a Super Bore.
“The game wasn’t exciting, but that doesn’t mean it
was boring to watch” Seaver says. “Not to me, anyway.l
enjoyed seeing Miami’s professionalism. The ball club
was very well coached. Bob Griese? I thought he showed
as much composure as you could possibly ask for in that
situation.”
USES HIS HEAD
Tom Seaver would naturally appreciate a performer
like Griese, who can use either his arm or his legs but
whose real specialty is using his head. That’s Tom
Seaver’s chief asset also.
In the Crosby pro-am, he played in the same foursome
with his father, Charles Seaver, a member of the U.S.
Walker Cup team in 1932; big George Bayer, who used to
hit ‘em plumb into the next county when he was on the
tour, and 17-year-old Mac Hunter, Jr., grandson of Willie
Hunter, the 1921 British Amateur champ.
Charles Seaver has gotten a thrill now and then
watching his boy perform, but this time it was the other
way around.
“I can’t begin to tell you the feeling I had watching my
father play golf at 62 as good as I’ve ever seen him play,”
Tom Seaver says. “He had a 33 on the front side of Spy
Glass on his own ball.”
His son, who had a 48, wanted to let his father know how
he felt about the performance, so after it was all over Tom
Seaver walked over to him, shook his head and said:
“Nice going. You just barely beat me, Dad.”
/
GENE SARAZEN
“He was in a wheelchair and had been crippled up for the
last 20 years of his life. It was very sad to see. I thought how
lucky 1 was that I was still healthy enough to play a lot. I
said to Bobby, ‘We’re the same age, we married in the same
month and year, June, 1924, and our wives are both named
Mary. We had a lot of successes and we had a lot of fun. We
didn’t do too badly.’
“Bobby said, ‘Yes, Gene, that’s right. We didn’t do too
badly at all.’ ”
((NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.I
WHL
standings
By United Press International
w. 1. t. pts gs ga
New Eng 26 19 2 54 177 160
Toronto 23 23 4 50 191 170
Cleveland 22 19 5 49 146 148
Quebec 21 22 345 169 156
Chicago 20 19 3 43 140 143
Jersey 20 25 242 135 170
West
w. 1. t. pts gs ga
Houston 26 14 4 56 177 118
Edmonton 25 21 0 50 167 158
Winnipeg 23 21 4 50 169 168
Minnesota 21 24 1 43 166 175
Vancouver 19 28 0 38 168 196
LosAng 18 29 0 36 143 186
Thursday’s Results
Houston 5 Quebec 1
Cleveland 5 Toronto 3
(Only games scheduled)
Friday’s Games
Winnipeg at Edmonton
Chicago at Minnesota
Quebec at Los Ang
(Only games scheduled)
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Griffin karate
members win
The Griffin Karate Club had
four people place recently in the
third West Georgia Karate
Tournament in Newnan. It was
presented by Dana Rhodes.
Dana Crosby won third place
in the Junior Division free
fighting; Hank Ellison won
second place in advanced men’s
form. The highlight for the
Griffin students was the battle
for first and second place in the
intermediate division free
fighting between brother and
sister Mark and Susan McGee.
Susan finally got the winning
point giving her first place and
Mark second.
There were many demonstra
tions, including judo and a
breaking demonstration by
Howard Jones, one of Rhodes
black belt students. A
demonstration of advanced
kicking techniques and form
was also performed by Dana
Rhodes, instructor of the Griffin
Karate Club and the tourna
ment director.
Superstar decathlon
Doing best at what they’re worst at
ROTONDA, FLA. - (NEA)
— Brian Oldfield who stands
6-5 and weighs between 270
and 320 pounds — depending,
he says, on the heat — had
come to Rotonda last August
to tear the competition apart.
The U.S. Olympic shot-putter
was now entered in the sec
ond annual Superstar event,
a nutty kind of pseudo
decathlon.
“I watched the Superstar
show on television last year
and 1 was competing men
tally, like every other Hot
Dog in the country,” said
Oldfield. “1 was sitting home
and saying to myself, ‘lf 1
can’t do better than those
yokels. I’ll burn my jock.’ ”
Oldfield’s performance on
the Rotonda golf course alone
might have reduced him to
just such a pyromaniac. All
one had to do to get the pic
ture was watch Oldfield’s
caddy as the hulking golfer
sashayed back and forth
before he hit. The young cad
dy gripped the golf bag bet
ween him and Oldfield to
shield against a wild slice or
a flung club.
“I came down here to prove
how good I was,” said
Oldfield, as he trundled down
the fairway, “but I’m just try
ing to save face, now.”
Athletes the caliber of
Oldfield and basketball star
John Havlicek and miler Jim
BILLY KIDD: a skier
splashing.
Ryun and hockey ace Stan
Mikita and skier Billy Kidd
and swimmer Don
Schollander were testing
themselves in golf, bowling,
bicycling and other alien
sports over a two-and-a-half
day period. Someone had
asked the saloon-common
question: Who are the best of
the best athletes?
Someone el.4fe thought the
answer would provide a good
business gimmick. Flacks at
Rotonda, the community de
velopment which put up
money and facilities for the
event, say that the idea has
indeed helped peddle prop
erty. But it has hardly pro
vided irrefutable evidence as
to the best all-around athlete.
What passed for athletic
competition last year were
such awesome sights as ex
heavyweight champion Joe
Frazier dog-paddling to stay
afloat in the swimming race;
Johnny Bench disqualified
for running — running! — in
the pool, after his stroke
pooped out; Jean-Claude
Killy hacking up the golf
course until it resembled a
section of the moon; Johnny
Unitas going pit-pat on the
tennis court with one leg up,
like a teen-age girl on her
first kiss.
Enough, already. Oldfield,
home, begins to beat his chest
and emit triumphant howls.
Dick Allen of the White Sox
has his business manager
write ABC-TV, which
televises the event, and asks
to set a place for Allen next
year. John Havlicek wants in
as does Bill Toomey, 1968
Olympic decathlon cham
pion.
Besides this, a doctor in
Paramus, N.J., writes that he
could beat any of those char
acters at tennis or swimming
— even at the 100-yard dash.
Superstars my stethescope! A
plumber in Vermont wants
in. So does a bird-carver in
Kansas.
But only “recognized”
athletes are invited. And this
year, the contestants felt,
would be different. Last year,
only Bob Seagren, then the
lone participant who had
never before competed for
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808 SEAGREN, last year’s winner: a vaulter pressing.
cash prizes, truly prepared
for the competition. It turned
out, after the athletes were
confronted with their futility,
to be mostly a sheepish joke.
Auto driver Feter Revson
summed up the training for
most, after his victory in
swimming: “I have a pool in
my apartment. I walk past it
all the time.”
But this year: Nelson Bur
ton, Jr., the bowler, brought
two coaches, one for track
and one for tennis. Seagren
has been practicing for much
of the past year.
They are among 24
athletes, split into two groups
of 12 (shows one and two), in
vited to compete in the first
of two semifinals to deter
mine 12 finalists. The top
three in each group will then
compete in the finals in late
February. The athletes com
pete- in seven of 10 listed
events (they have a choice —
but cannot compete in their
specialty).
The first semifinals were
held and taped in August.
The competition between the
first group of 12 will be shown
on ABC-TV Sunday after
noon, January 27. The second
12 doing their stuff will be
televised the following Sun
day afternoon. The second
two semifinals will be held in
January and shown in early
February.
The financial incentive has
also been sweetened. Last
year, Seagren won the event
— which had a total of 10
athletes — and took home
nearly $40,000. The winner
this time may get over $60,-
000.
Nate Archibald had never
held a golf club in his hands
before. The 6-1 leading
scorer in the National
Basketball Association last
year was on the practice tee
wearing basketball warmup
pants Clt makes me feel at
home”) and borrowed golf
shoes. He wore no socks ( ,r too
hot for socks”). He stood on
the practice tee, stepped into
the ball and missed. He drop
ped his club without a pinch
of expression and strode
away.
Jim McMillian, the Buffalo
Braves’ forward, had earlier
found it incredulous that
Archibald would try his hand
at golf at all.
“Tiny,” said McMillian,
“what you doing in golf?
There wasn’t golf in the ghet
to.”
“I had to make a choice
here,” replied Archibald. “I
picked golf over swimming
because I’d rather look bad
on the golf course than drown
in the swimming pool.”
wr
/ Mg**"*?
BRIAN OLDFIELD: a put
ter swishing.
— Griffin Daily News Friday, January 25,1974
— Business was solemn at
poolside, during the competi
tion of the second annual
Superstar event here. But
Bob Seagren, last year’s win
ner, could not mask his ner
vousness behind his glitter
ing smile. He asked Mike
Burton, the Olympic gold
medal winner in distance
swimming, how to warm up
for a serious dip.
“Breathe deeply, breathe
deeply,” replied Burton. “It’s
good for the hyperventila
tion.” Seagren breathed
deeply, breathed deeply, and
began to complain of dizzi
ness.
So went the giddy pursuit
of excellence in seven sports
other than the ones these
superstars normally compete
in. The winner will receive
over $60,000. And fans of such
athletes as John Havlicek,
O.J. Simpson, Jim Ryun, Stan
Mikita and devotees of jocu
lar sadism, may tune in on
ABC-TV in late January and
February to view the com
petition.
As several paddled around
in the pool to warm up,
Havlicek stood in his lane,
hugging himself. “I’m going
to conserve my energy,” he
said. “Besides, I don’t really
like to get wet.”
So much for pool high
lights.
In tennis, Billy Cun
ningham did surprisingly
well. When he was asked if he
had ever taken any lessons,
he said he had. He was asked
what he learned. “That I need
more,” he said.
Weightlifting was surely
one of the most dramatic
events. It was held out in a
field under a 100-degree sun.
A crowd of spectators gasped
and held their breaths along
with the puffy contestants.
The specter of Joe Frazier
hung over this event. Frazier
last year had modestly
guessed he could lift 300
pounds. He was certainly
strong enough. Yet when lift
came to jerk he was found
bereft of technique. He held
the bar with hands too close
together, legs too level, and
staggered around like a tipsy
waiter with a tray aloft.
Frazier failed to lift 170
pounds.
Several did surprisingly
well. Lee Evans was one. He
weighs about 145 pounds, yet
he lifted 190. He squinched
his eyes, grit his teeth, let out
a fierce grunt, and up! When
he returned to the tent where
the mighty contestants sat
cowering from the nasty sun,
there was an admiring round
of applause.
Baseball hitting was a tra
vesty for many. One reason
was that the pitching ma-
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West Solomon St. Griffin, Ga.
chines was rather defective,
like Nolan Ryan on a moody
day. It took five pitches to get
a strike. And when the ball
finally came over the plate it
was often sort of shooed away
with a wave of the bat.
The 100-yard dash eventu
ally got underway (Oldfield,
shockingly won in a walk),
followed by the mile bike
race, the half-mile run, the
bowling (Mike Burton was
the dubious star when he .got
a one and a three in two sepa
rate frames), the tennis and
the obstacle course.
The 95-yard obstacle
course was patently pre
posterous, as grown men
scrambled over a 12-foot
wall, crawled through a 10-
foot tunnel, pushed football
blocking sleds for eight
yards, danced through 10
tires, bounded over a 12-foot
water jump (some bounded
through it), tried to leap over
a 4 1 /2-foot high jump (some
leaped into it) and ran over
two hurdles to finish. It may
not prove anything
athletically, but most agreed
that this event would be good
training for an escaping purse
snatcher.
Throughout the competi
tion, the question remained:
did any of this prove any
thing? Was any one athlete,
or any particular group of
athletes, superior to any
other?
Don Schollander didn’t
think so. “Superstars are
competing,” he said, “but it is
not a superstar competition.
It’s not like a true decathlon
because all of us don’t train
in all the sports.”
Bill Muncey, the 44-year
old hydroplane race cham
pion, wasn’t sure what it
proved. “But 1 did want to
show people that a hy
droplane driver is an athlete.
And since I’m the oldest com
petitor here I also wanted to
show that old guys can hold
their own. I don t know if I
proved any of that. One thing
I’m sure of, we’re all pros and
we all want to do well. But if
we don’t we won’t be
destroyed. After all, none of
us are competitive virgins.”
Seagren believes the com
petition is a valid athletic
test. “We’re all starting
equal,” he said.
Unquestionably, the
athletes were not clowning.
Money and pride are major
factors in attitude. It was
surprising to see how shaky
some athletes got. Seagren,
for example, admitted that
he choked in a losing tennis
match. Havlicek explained
that he got more nervous in,
say, bowling than in a basket
ball playoff game. “In basket
ball, he said, “I know my
limitations and my abilities.
Here, I’m not sure what I’m
capable of.”
W ■
BILLY CUNNINGHAM: a
shooter swatting.