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All yon got to do is ask
Aot thrill enough for Vikina
By Murray Olderman
The tipoff:
AIV ‘P « ttles was given a special day by his
hometown of Newark, N.J., after his Golden State
Warriors won the NBA title last spring he found
himself in the company of two bodyguards for the
welcoming parade. “There are a lot of places in this
c°“ n try need bodyguards,” said Alvin “but
not here. And then he sent them off.
Q. I have heard about a pro football player whose chute
didn t open while he was skydiving but he saved himself bv
te a nn £ °^ n h 'i S Ch “ te pack - 1 wou,d ,ike ,0 know if this is true
and who the player was. - Jeff DiMuxio, Erlanger Ky
ref ’ v ~
ImO ■'"> \_
|hm|
> ° f Jim Marshall,
whn hl ■°Ju defens,ve end of the Minnesota Vikings
St il th2 e a n e l eryth,, ?§ from free form sk y di ving to getUng
wr»; X’VmbK 1 "" 8 wlgs An<l he Once ™ ,he
h u e bes ‘ hitting pitchers in baseball
"■story. I m talking just about pitchers who played that Dosi-
U~ ( .br««b..t (heir _ Sle „ Heine’ FdleZ.
That lets out Babe Ruth, of course. Among the pitchers I
leu3?amI e u3?amA aS partlcul t rly effective hitters were Wes Ferrell
a 193-game winner in the 1930 s who batted .280 for his 15 years
m the majors, and Red Lucas, who hit .281 in 16years (most
with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh). They were suchHne batters
they were used frequently as pinch hitters, and Ferrell had 38
COME HAVE EON!
GRAND
OPENING
< Saturday <
Feb. 28
10 A.M. To 8 P.M.
FREE
COFFEE • CAKE • COOKIES
-
Kids Crews!
I I wura I
I TEH I MWMIIIM
/ x\ &
Boys’Sizes Bto 18 sySO /
Men’s Sizes S,M,L,XL s 9°° / I
Ifll RE——
I [ Wl
toxtab
Solomon & sth Spalding Square I
nAmhI S h’ n zi h * S o^ reer Os more m °dern vintage, Don New-
Larsen h?? 242 27 D 0 r n k f ® r I h,a decade as a hurler and Don
, , r^ en f ? 42 00,1 Dr ysdale hit under .200 but had a career
RiS WiZ ifTh FS pL r e te Catfish Hunter of the Yankees and
f the Red . Sox among the better hitting pitchers
get tobat* eXCePt 11131 W,th 016 designated hitter they never
.. Q .’.^? at college has sent the most people to the NFL? - Jim
McWilliams, Springfield, Mo.
Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, which at last count had
put 262 scholars on pro rosters, followed by USC and Ohio
State. The Big Ten has been the biggest provider (1205) of pro
talent since 1920.
Q. In professional sports, does a head football coach have
greater responsibilities than a head basketball coach (all-year
basis) or vice versa? - M. E. Lazar, Oakland, Calif.
My nod goes to the football coach as the man who carries
greater weight relative to the success or failure of his team.
Paul Brown made grid coaching a 12-month job a generation
ago. Pro basketball has only recently insisted on its coaches
working the year round. And the nature of the games makes
basketball more dependent on the sheer talent of its players
for a winning formula. That doesn’t intimate coaching can
mold lousy football players into a winning team. You got to
have the horses in any sport.
Q. I would like to know when the old Federal Baseball
League started and what year it finished. I know Covington,
Ky had a team in it, and I think Portsmouth, 0., had one,
with a prominent member of the Reds coming over and play
ing with them. Any information about the league would be
gladly received. — Larry Dolan, Bellevue, Ky.
The Federal League became a threat to the structure of
organized baseball in 1914, raiding the established leagues
Among the players who jumped was Hal Chase, a mercuriai
star who later played with the Reds. But by the end of the 1915
season, the Federal League was out of business, its top
players absorbed back into the majors. Longtime Cincinnati
star Edd Roush also came out of the Federal League There
was a team in Covington, but my records don’t show one for
Portsmouth.
Parting shot?
I think the way ABC spaced the Olympic events
always saving the goodies till the end of the
was a big ripoff and stressed the essential commer
cialism of the whole thing.
Got a tough question about sports and the people who play
them? All you got to do is ask Murray Olderman. Write him
care of this newspaper. The most interesting questions will be
answered in this column. Olderman regrets that he cannot
write personal answers to all questions.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN I
College scores
By United Press International
East
Babson 74 Bryant 71
Bridgeport 93 Adelphi 89
Buffalo St. 81 Gannon 78
Connecticut 99 New Hamp. 54
Dominican 96 Cathedral 81
Fairmont 86 Salem W.Va. 76
Frank&Mrshl 82 J. Hopkins 62
Fredonia St. 64 Oswego St. 62
Holy Crss 82 N’eastrn Mass. 79
Husson 96 Maine-Ft. Kent 70
Jersey City 70 Bloomfield 48
Mass. 81 Providence 79 (ot)
MIT 87 Worcester Tech 79
Manhattan 90 Fordham 57
NY Maritime 72 Manhattnvl 68
Pratt 77 Newark-Rutgers 62
Robert Wslyn 84 Eisenhowr 76
Rochester 96 Alfred 72
St.Thos Aquinas 88 W. Conn. 75
Seton Hall 95 St. Peter’s 77
Suffolk 77 Salem Mass. 67
Trinity Conn. 68 USCG 64
Vermont 77 Rhode Island 76
Widener 60 Gettysburg 50
South
Baltimore 51 Md.-Balt Co. 45
Bethel Tenn. 64 Crsn-Nwmn 57
E. Tenn. 85 Morehead St. 70
Fla. Tech 105 St. Leo 85
Georgia So. 89 Ark. St. 82
Howard 68 Delaware St. 57
Loyola Md. 80 Geo. Mason 66
Mt.St.Mry’s 79 Salsbry St. 65
Norflk St. 101 Jhnsn Smith 82
N.C. Cent. 82 S.C. St. 81 (ot)
Pikeville 82 Berea 76
St. Augstne’s 78 Va. Union 76
Shorter 59 Georgia SW 53
Thos More 104 Wilberforce 62
Towson St. 89 Catholic 71
Va. St. 109 Shaw 102 (3 ot)
Winston-Salem 77 Eliz City 74
Midwest
Cent. Mo. St. 96 Lincoln Mo. 82
Cent. St. 62 Cedarville 49
Illinois Coll. 67 Mac Murray 64
Indiana 96 Wisconsin 67
Louisville 73 So. Illinois 72
Manchester 78 Taylor 77
Pittsburg St. 67 Ft. Hays St. 56
Quincy 67 Culver-Stockton 61
Southwest
Creighton 74 Okla. City 58
N.M. Hilands 87 Wstmnstr Utah
79
New Mexico St. 105 Drake 99
Tex.-El Paso 51 Brigham Yng
50
Texas Southern 106 Southern 90
Texas Tech 93 Houston 85
Tulsa 80 W. Texas St. 76
Utah 73 New Mexico 69
West
Fresno St. 87 San Diego St. 82
L. Bch St. 68 Fullrtn 66 (3 ot)
Oregon St. 69 Washington St. 55
San Fran 111 Loyola Cal. 77
Washington 67 Oregon 62
Gary Nolan
CINCINNATI (UPI) - Cin
cinnati Reds pitcher Gary
Nolan, who staged an amazing
comeback last season after
being sidelined two years with
an injury, has signed his 1976
contract, club officials an
nounced Thursday.
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Marti’s 66 leads TPC
By DAVID MOFFIT
UPI Sports Writer
LAUDERHILL, Fla. (UPI) — Fred Marti’s not kidding
himself.
He knows his lead in the rich Tournament Players
Championship is probably a fleeting thing, that if Jack
Nicklaus doesn’t catch him, someone else probably will.
After all, that 66 he shot in Thursday’s opening round
was one of those moments that has cropped up so
infrequently during the dozen seasons the 35-year-old
former college champion has been laboring on the pro golf
tour.
“Oh, I’ve had lower scores and probanly had better
rounds,” said Marti. “But, that was a real good round for
me, no doubt about it.
“That’s an understatement. Let’s be honest. It’s been
quite awhile since I had a round like that, longer than I
care to remember.”
There are a lot of Fred Martis on the pro golf tour, men
who make a living at the game but seldom step into the
limelight alongside the superstars like Jack Nicklaus and
Johnny Miller.
Sometimes, they even win a tournament, just like tour
rookie Bob Gilder did six weeks ago at Phoenix.
Gilder, who failed in his first three attempts to get
through the PGA’s qualifying school, won $40,000 at
Phoenix and only $1,070 at all the other stops combined.
But, for those four days at Phoenix, when he put
together rounds of 68-67-66-67 to finish six strokes ahead of
Miller and Hale Irwin, Bob Gilder was the best golfer in
town.
Anonymous Jim Kaat
235-game winner ignored
By Murray Olderman
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -
(NEA) — James Lee Kaat
would be perfect for an
American Express commer
cial. Only in his case, they
might fail to recognize the
name as well as the face.
Jim Kaat has won more
major league baseball games
than anyone in the world ac
tively engaged in throwing for
a living. You can look it up. He
has totalled 235 victories in a
career which stretches back,
on the big league level, to
1959.
Yet he’s so anonymous they
didn’t even have him listed
among the 200 game winners
in the most recent Book of
Baseball Records. Shame on
you, Seymour Siwoff.
You could put Jim Kaat on
"To Tell the Truth” and the
panel would figure him for a
tulip farmer. He came out of
Michigan’s tulip country.
Jim Kaat needs one of those
plastic identification cards at
a convention of baseball
players. He won 25 games for
the Minnesota Twins almost a
decade ago and pitched them
into a World Series. He won 20
games last year for the
Chicago White Sox, at the age
of 36. He still needs a co
signer to pick up a prescrip
tion at the corner drug store.
When he reports to the
Philadelphia Phillies for spr
ing exercises, he will be align
ed with his third major league
team in four years. He’s a
perfect relic in Philly for the
Bicentennial Year.
The fact is that at the age of
37, Jim Kaat feels it’s nice to
be wanted as an athlete.
“I knew that our team was
in a process of change,” he
says in a bit of understate
ment, since Bill Veeck bought
the White Sox this winter and
set up a trading table in a
hallway, "and I knew that the
Phillies had scouted me last
year and were looking for a
lefthand pitcher.”
On the last day of last
season, he went to Chuck
Tanner, then the manager of
the Chicago White Sox, and
asked to be traded to the
Phillies.
He is a big (6-4.5), imposing
man with a strong face, big
jaw and the gait of a guy who
makes his living in a physical
way. He is from the Dutch
farm country of Michigan,
where he attended Hope
College and where the local
hero was an old major league
pitcher of Dutch descent nam
ed George Zuverink. But he
was inspired to play baseball
by his own father, who was a
great Connie Mack admirer.
Page 11
Kaat signed for a bonus ot
$4,000 with the Washington
Senators organization, and
when they were moved to
Minnesota in 1961 he was
firmly placed on their
pitching staff. And remained
there for the next 13 years.
He feels some of the lack of
attention during that period
was due to his stolid per
sonality and that, with the ex
ception of 1966 (when he won
those 25), he did not have real
ly big years, like Sandy
Koufax did.
“They don’t remember it
when you win 18 or 19 games a
season,” he says.
But there was a remarkable
consistency in his pitching,
even if it wasn’t always ap
preciated. “In Minnesota,” he
says wryly, “winning 14
games sometimes wasn’t
enough.”
He had to redesign his
pitching style in midcareer
because he tore some tendons
in his left elbow that hobbled
him most of three years and
forced him to rely less on pure
speed — “although I was
never really a power pitcher”
— and more on guile.
In this he was aided by
Johnny Sain, a pitching coach
for whom he has great respect
and who imbued him with a
sense of pace and style.
Going to Chicago late in
1973, he rejoined Sain, a vital
factor in his resurgence with
the White Sox as a 20-game
winner the last couple of
years.
“I don’t blame Minnesota
for trading me,” he says. “I
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Griffin Daily News Friday, February 27, 1976
It is performances by people like Gilder that give the
Fred Marti’s hope.
And that hope combined with an unexplanablely hot
putter had Marti in the lead at the end of the first day of
play in the TPC although Nicklaus, a stroke behind, still
had two holes to play when the round was suspended by
darkness.
Nicklaus could catch or pass Marti today before the
second round begins. If he doesn’t, the “Golden Bear” and
a dozen others are within three strokes and Marti
recognizes that it is probanly only a matter of time before
that lead evaporates.
But they can’t take Thursday away from Marti.
“My putts all went right in the middle,” he reported
excitedly, a big grin bathing his face. “I was really
anxious to play. I felt I could birdie them all.
When they are going in like that, you really get
confident.
“I hit some good shots and I hit some awful shots,” he
said. “The big thing was that when I hit the ball close to
the hole, I made the putts. I had nine oneputt greens. I
can’t remember when I did that before. That’s what it
takes. Some guys can drive the greens, I can’t.
Also, I was lucky. When I hit a bad shot it always got to
a place where I had another shot.”
The big question for Fred Marti now is whether that
luck will hold up long enough for him to win his first
professional tournament. It would be a big win since the
$60,000 first prize is more money than Marti has ever
earned in a full year.
But, he’s not kidding himself.
'(gy)
1W /
1 1/
i I
was 10 and 2 in ’72 when I frac
tured my wrist sliding into se
cond base. The next year, I
just went bad.”
The art of pitching has
changed considerably in the 16
years he has been in the big
leagues. He has experienced
the phenomenon of the bullpen
as a starting pitcher’s
greatest aid.
“During a game,” he
rationalizes, “you try to get
through the batting rotation
three times. But the further
you go, the more the percen
tages increase that the hitter
is going to catch up to you.
“The first time up, you
catch him cold. The next time
he hits the ball good, but it
goes right at somebody. He’s
adjusted to your rhythm now.
So it makes sense to go to a
relief pitcher quickly.
“It’s a complete change of
pace when somebody like
Rich Gossage (the fire-balling
White Sox reliever) comes in.
He can throw the ball past
anybody. When I first came up
to the majors, there was no
way he was going to be a relief
pitcher. But now the relievers
can fire smoke. And I don’t
feel bad when they lift me for
one of them.”
He is a man interested in go
ing into electronic com
munications — he has done
some pky-by-play broad
casting t ‘he Twin Cities —
or coaching. It is easy to
visualize him, with his poise
and articulacy, as a major
league manager some time in
the future.
That's if somebody
remembers the name.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN I
Pete Rose
CINCINNATI (UPI) - The
latest tribute to Pete Rose is,
believe it or not, a driveway.
Western Hills High School
officials planned a ceremony
today to name a driveway in
front of the school in honor of
the school’s most famous
alumnus.
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