Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Monday, April 8, 1974
Page 6
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CINCINNATI, O. — Atlanta pitcher Phil Niekro claims he was hit in arm while attempting
to bunt a pitch for Reds’ pitcher Clay Kirby, but umpire John McSherry calls it a strike.
Braves won. 5-3. (UPI)
Downing to pitch
against Braves
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -
“This start will be no different
than the rest," says southpaw
Al Downing of the I ajs Angeles
Dodgers.
But it may be.
Downing starts tonight for
1 xjs Angeles against the Atlanta
Braves in the opener of a four
game series, and that means
he’ll be squarely in the sights
of Braves’ slugger Hank Aaron
as Aaron looks for Home run
No. 715 to break Babe Ruth’s
record.
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“I won’t react to it any
differently than I have any
other start during my 11 years
in the major leagues,” Downing
said shortly before the Dodgers
left for Atlanta.
“That doesn’t mean I’ll be
able to totally disregard the
situation. But it will be Henry’s
moment, not mine. I’ll be
aware of what I have to do.”
Downing has, of course, met
Aaron before. Aaron’s only two
homers off the Dodgers last
year were at Downing’s ex-
pense —a hanging curve at
Dodger Stadium and an inside
fastball at Atlanta.
Downing remembers the
home runs, but also remembers
that he was 2-0 against the
Braves last year and holds a 5-
0 career mark against Atlanta.
“He’s made a lot of pitchers
unhappy. He’s going to eventu
ally hit 715,” Downing said.
“What we’re going to try to do
this week is win four games
from the Braves.”
★★★★★★★★
SPORTS
★★★★★★★★
|| STANDINGS |
By United Press International
East
w. 1. pct. g.b.
St. Louis 2 0 1.000 —
Philadelphia 11 500 1
New York 11 .500 1
Chicago 0 0 .000 1
Montreal 0 0 .000 1
Pittsburgh 0 2 .000 2
West
San Francisco 3 0 1.000 —
Los Angeles 3 0 1.000 —
Cincinnati 2 1 .667 1
Atlanta 1 2 .333 2
San Diego 0 3 .000 3
Houston 0 3 .000 3
Saturday’s Results
Philadelphia 5 New York 4
St. Louis 8 Pittsburgh 0
Cincinnati 7 Atlanta 5
San Francisco 3 Houston 2
Los Angeles 8 San Diego 0
Chicago at Montreal, ppd
Sunday’s Results
New York 9 Philadelphia 2
Atlanta 5 Cincinnati 3
Los Angeles 9 San Diego 2
San Francisco 8 Houston 4
Chicago at Montreal, ppd, rain
Pittsburgh at St. Louis, ppd,
rain
Monday’s Probable Pitchers
(1973 won-lost records in
parentheses)
Ix)s Ang at Atlanta—Downing
(9-9) vs. Reed (4-11)
Cin at San Francisco—Nelson
(3-2) vs. D’Acquisto (1-1)
only games scheduled
American League
By United Press International
East
w. 1. pct. g. b.
New York 2 0 1.000 -
Baltimore 2 2 .500 1
Detroit 2 2 . 500 1
Boston 11 .500 1
Milwaukee 11 .500 1
Cleveland 0 2 .000 2
West
California 2 0 1.000 —
Oakland 2 1 .667 Vz
Minnesota 11 .500 1
Kansas City 11 .500 1
Texas 1 2 .333
Chicago 0 2 . 000 2
Saturday's Results
California 3 Chicago 2
Kansas City 23 Minnesota 6
New York 6 Cleveland 1
Milwaukee 5 Boston 4
Detroit 3 Baltimore 2
Texas 2 Oakland 0, night
Sunday’s Results
Oakland 8 Texas 4
California 4 Chicago 4, tie, 10
inn
Baltimore 5 Detroit I,lst
Detroit 8 Baltimore 4, 2nd
New York 7 Cleveland 1
Minnesota at Kansas City, ppd,
rain
Boston at Milwaukee, ppd, rain
Monday's Probable Pitchers
(1973 won-lost records in
parentheses)
Cleveland at New York-
Johnson (4-2) vs. Medich (14-9)
I I
I standings
By United Press International
Eastern Conference Playoffs
Best four-out-of seven
w. 1.
New York 3 2
Capital 2 3
Boston 2 2
Buffalo 2 2
Western Conference Playoffs
Best four-out-of-seven
w. 1.
Chicago 2 2
Detroit 2 2
x-Milwaukee 41
IjOS Angeles 1 4
x-clinched
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.# 1137 Meriwether St 1
Mathews may draw fine
By MILTON RICHMAN
UPI Sports Editor
ATLANTA (UPI) — One more pitch, one more flick of
those 40-year-old miracle wrists of his, and Hank Aaron’s
troubles will be all over.
Not Eddie Mathews’ though.
He’s in for some more bad news, coming from the same
source it did last time, the baseball commissioner.
Now that he’s back home, Hank Aaron can hardly miss.
With Atlanta opening an 11-game home stand tonight
against Los Angeles, Aaron is odds on to hit at least one
into the seats before the Braves wind up at home a week
from this coming Thursday against San Diego.
Hank Aaron will hear from Bowie Kuhn immediately
after he breaks Babe Ruth’s home run record. He will
hear in the form of a diamond studded $3,000 wrist watch
with the numerals 715 implanted in solid gold.
Eddie Mathews will hear from the commmissioner also,
but in an entirely different way.
Bowie Kuhn’s message to him more likely will be in the
form of a fine, possibly as stiff as $3,500, and that’s pretty
stiff because $5,000 is as high as the commissioner is
allowed to go.
Mathews challenged Kuhn’s authority last Friday night
when he said he would not start Aaron in either Saturday
or Sunday’s game in Cincinnati.
Kuhn got right back to Mathews.
He told him he had unlimited power under the rules of
baseball.
“I can suspend you for the rest of your life,” Kuhn said.
That shook Mathews up a bit.
He backed off.
Now Kuhn feels he has to follow through, and if
Mathews is at all curious how the commissioner usually
does this, he should check with Charlie Finley, something
of an expert on the subject.
For his part, Hank Aaron is anxious to get no. 715 over
with, not only because he has been shooting at it now for
the past few years, but also because it will bring him relief
from some of the questions. Not all, but some.
Bad Day
He didn’t look good at all at the plate or in the field in
Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Reds, being called out twice on
strikes, grounding out feebly in his only other time up and
letting George Foster’s sixth inning fly ball drop for a
double before departing in the seventh.
The natural question in many minds was whether Aaron
tried as hard as he could, or had he made only a half
For Aaron
The sooner the better
By RICK VAN SANT
United Press International
Hank Aaron is going home
and the oddsmakers will give
you 3-1 odds he passes The
Babe in the next 11 days.
For Aaron, the sooner the
better.
“I’m hoping by tonight it will
all be over with,” he said,
remaining calm in the face of
all the pressure surrounding
baseball’s greatest record.
Aaron matched Babe Ruth’s
career home run mark of 714
with his first swing of the
Pearson wins
• • • but barely
DARLINGTON, S. C. (UPI)—
There were still 112 miles to go
in Sunday’s Rebel 450 but the
cars were parked on the front
stretch of the Darlington Inter
national Speedway.
David Pearson was in the pits
discussing strategy with his
crew while the other stock
car drivers waited for workmen
to complete a welding job on
part of the third-turn guardrail
knocked down by Lennie Pond.
“They told me they didn’t
know if we had enough gas to
finish but we decided to go
ahead and try because we knew
we would probably lose for sure
if we tried to stop to get some
more,” he said.
Pearson’s Woodßrothers Mer
cury captured the checkered
flag but just barely. Crewmen
had to bring him a can of gaso
line to get the car to Victory
Circle to celebrate his third
straight Rebel win and his first
at a superspeedway this year.
Pearson dipped low going into
the first turn with ten laps to
go in the race to grab the lead
from Bobby Allison’s Chevrolet
and take his fifth win in seven
Rebel races.
Coasting Race
Allison said after the race he
thought that the Rebel could
have easily ended in a “coast
ing race.”
“I started sputtering with
about five laps to go,” he said.
“I knew I was running out of
gas but I didn’t know about
him.”
Allison just managed to get
across the finish line before
Buddy Baker, whose Dodge was
the only other car in the same
lap with Pearson. Donnie Alli
son, in a Chevrolet, finished
fourth while local favorite Cale
season against the Cincinnati
Reds Thursday, then had to
weather a weekend storm of
controversy before flying back
to Atlanta.
Aaron and the Braves begin
an 11-game home stand tonight,
opening against the Los An
geles Dodgers in a nationally
televised game.
Aaron said he figured to play
tonight and Manager Eddie
Mathews agreed the 40-year-old
slugger probably would start,
although he reserved a final
decision until just before game
time.
Yarborough, from nearby Tim
monsville, finished fifth in his
Chevy.
A total of seven cautiorf flags
slowed down the racing with a
red flag interrupting it for 38
minutes.
Charles
pockets
$44,066
GREENSBORO, N. C. (UPI)
— You’d think a guy who just
won $44,066 swinging a golf club
would have some confidence
about his next tournament.
Not so with Bob Charles.
The left-handed New Zealand
er won the $220,000 Greater
Greensboro Open with a 14-
under par 270 Sunday, posting a
final-round 68 on the 7,021-yard,
par 71 Sedgefield Country Club
course.
And then the 38-year-old
Charles promptly ruled himself
a noncontender in this week’s
Masters at Augusta, Ga.
“I’ve played in 14 Masters
and I think my best finish was
15th,” he said. “The course is
just not suited to my game. A
shorter hitter is at more of a
disadvantage at Augusta Na
tional than anywhere else.”
Charles won here on the 72nd
hole when Ray Floyd, who was
tied with him, took a bogey five
on the 431-yard, par four 18th.
Floyd flew the green with a
nine-iron, chipped back 20 feet
past the hole and left the putt
short.
Charles caught Floyd on the
71st hole when he dropped a
five-foot putt for a birdie 3.
hearted effort knowing the Braves preferred him to get
the record back home.
Aaron never so much as blinked when the question was
put point blank to him —had he gone all out?
“I did the best I could,” he said, softly, in that almost
delicate way of his. “I played the best I could.”
“Some people will naturally think you held back,” one
newsman offered. “
“I can’t help what people thnk,” said Aaron. “I played
the best I could. It’s not that easy.”
Guesses a Lot
In common with most hitters, the good and the bad ones
Hank Aaron guesses a lot. With Clay Kirby pitching for
the Reds, Aaron kept guessing fast ball and Kirby kept
fooling him with sliders.
“Sliders, sliders, sliders,” he muttered to Ralph Gan
after Kirby struck him out the second straight time in the
third inning, immediately following a three run homer
by Darrell Evans.
Evans noticed Kirby’s fast balls and never saw a slider
all day, but nobody pitches to lefthanded hitting 26-year
old Evans the same way as Aaron even though Evans did
hit 41 home runs for the Braves last year.
One thing overlooked in all the controversy over
whether Aaron was or was not going to play those first
three games in Cincinnati was the fact the Braves had
committed what could have amounted to a colossal $1
million blunder.
All they really had to do this winter was switch their
first three playing dates of the season, a relatively easy
matter and something that is done by other clubs all the
time.
Started at Home
They could have asked to play their first three games at
home. Fred Fleig, who supervises the putting together of
the National League schedule says he would have had to
be receptive to such a request.
The Braves never asked.
They goofed.
It could have cost them at least a million, which is
roughly what they figure to make now on this cun-rent
home stand.
Hank Aaron preserved the “integrity” of baseball with
his 714th Thursday and the ball club all that money when
he didn’t hit 715 Sunday.
The commissioner is giving him a watch.
The Braves ought to build a civic statue of him.
Al Downing was scheduled to
pitch for Los Angeles. Aaron hit
two home runs off Downing last
season.
Aaron sat out Saturday’s
game against the Reds and had
a bad day Sunday in the series
finale. He went 0-3, striking out
twice on called third strikes
and bouncing out weakly to
third baseman Dan Driessen.
“I did the best I could,”
Aaron insisted after the game.
“I wasn’t satisfied with my
performance, but I was satis
fied we won the game.”
Darrell Evans’ three-run
homer helped the Braves to a 5-
3 victory, their first of the
season.
Braves officials, who desper
ately wanted Aaron to have the
opportunity to hit No. 715 in
Atlanta, plan a tumultous
celebration when it comes.
They also hope the aura of
anticipation fills the Atlanta
ball park.
“I guess the name of the
game is money,” said Aaron.
“The Braves have the right to
promote the one thing they
have going for them —and
that’s me right now.”
Fear that Hank’s record
breaking homer would be hit
away from home prompted the
weekend’s controversy.
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In defiance of Baseball
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn’s
directive that Aaron play at
least two of the three games
here, Mathews decided not to
start Aaron Saturday or Sun
day.
Immediately after Saturday’s
Aaron-less game, Kuhn called
Mathews and gave him a direct
order to start Aaron Sunday or
face unspecified “very serious
consequences.”
As Mathews put it, “I backed
off,” and Aaron played Sunday,
but it certainly was no fence
busting performance.
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