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About Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 1977)
Cincinnati unleashes fury on Braves, 7-3 CINCINNATI (AP) - That sleeping giant in Cincinnati has awakened with a roar. “Our attitude has changed in the lockerroom and on the field,” said rightfielder Ken Griffey, hitting hero in the Cin cinnati Reds’ 7-3 victory Mon day night over millionaire pitcher Andy Messersmith and ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ SPORTS ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Will anyone get a hit off Dennis Eckersley? By The Associated Press What does the future hold for Dennis Eckersley? Will anyone ever get another hit off him? —ln 1975, he was named American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News for a 13-7 record and 2.60 earned run average. —ln 1976, he became only the sixth Cleveland pitcher to strike out 200 batters in one season. —And Monday night — the record books will record it as May 30,1977 — the Indians’ 22- year-old right-hander pitched a 12-strikeout no-hitter in besting Frank Tanana and the Califor nia Angels 1-0. How about 1978? Perhaps an other no-hitter. Maybe even be fore this year is over. “This is my first time I caught a complete no-hitter,” said catcher Ray Fosse, “but if I’m around Cleveland much longer, I’m sure I’ll catch more of his.” In his previous outing, Eck ersley had beat Seattle 2-1 in 12 innings and held the Mariners hitless over the final 7 2-3 in- Mayfield had a good game LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - “Mayfield had a heckuva game,” Kentucky football Coach Blanton Collier said after his Wildcats ended Auburn’s 30- game home winning streak 16 years ago with a 14-12 upset victory. “He scored eight points —two for Kentucky and eight for Auburn.” His two extra-point kicks made the difference in that 1961 game, but it was a blocked field goal attempt by Mayfield, one of the victims of Saturday night’s Southgate, Ky. night club fire, that permanently in scribed him in sports trivia cir cles. After blocking Mayfield’s field goal attempt, Auburn’s John McGeever alertly picked up the ball and raced 82 yards for a touchdown. The moment WATER HEATERS by Waldorf i [«MPoar|—| • | 30 GALLON CAPACITY GLASS-LINED NATURAL OR [ LP GAS & ELECTRIC HEATERS I jjt j Beautiful White 1 Enamel Finish. Plus a full selection of FABLE-TOP & UNDER COUNTER MODELS. TRAILER WATER HEATERS " NOW IN STOCK BUCKLES HARDWARE CO. 409 West Solomon St. Phone 227-5503 FREE PAVED PARKING the Atlanta Braves. The Reds, who have now picked up three full games on the Los Angeles Dodgers, talked confidently of overcoming the lead. Cockiness has returned to the two-time world champions. “They (the Dodgers) are scared, very scared,” said nings. The no-hitter gave him a streak of 16 2-3 innings without allowing a hit. The major league record is 23 by Boston’s Cy Young in 1904. The Angels did not come close to a hit. They managed only two baserunners — one when Eckersley walked Tony Solaita on a 3-2 pitch with two out in the first inning and the other when Bobby Bonds struck out to open the eighth but reached base when the third strike also was a wild pitch. In other AL games, the Balti more Orioles defeated the Min nesota Twins 9-7, the New York Yankees nipped the Boston Red Sox 5-4, the Milwaukee Brewers edged Chicago 4-3 in the opener of a doubleheader but the White Sox took the nightcap 8-3, the Seattle Mariners swept the Texas Rangers 7-4 and 9-3, the Oakland A’s downed the Detroit Tigers 6-3 and the Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1. But Eckersley, a 6-foot-2,190- pound right-hander, was the star of the Memorial Day base- was caught for posterity in a photograph widely displayed throughout the south. At the time of his death, Mayfield, 35, was head football coach at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Ala., about 100 miles north of Auburn. “They throw it up to me down here all the time,” Mayfield said a couple of years ago of the photograph that showed him kicking the football directly into McGeever’s abdomen. “This is Auburn territory,” he continued. “The guy won a hundred dollars on that in an amateur photography contest... He sent me a thank you note.” Mayfield, a native of Harlan, Ky., insisted that he ended up in Alabama by accident. Manager Sparky Anderson. “We can win easy, if we play consistent baseball,” said Grif fey, who had three hits, two runs batted in and two stolen bases. “We’re coming,” said Pete Rose, who broke a long drought with his first game-winning hit of the season. ball show, giving the 13,400 fans in Cleveland Stadium some thing to remember. “I had a good feeling after the fifth inning,” he said. “The most exciting inning was the seventh. I got chills. I knew it was coming. I had everything, good command of all my pitch es. In the bullpen before the game I didn’t have good stuff, but that was a good sign be cause when you’re bad there, you’re good in the game. “I didn’t talk to anybody in the dugout. Duane Kuiper came up and tried to talk to me but I told him to shut up because I just wanted to concentrate on the game.” Tanana allowed only five hits but yielded a run in the first inning when centerfielder Gil Flores missed a shoestring try for Kuiper’s line drive and it rolled to the fence for a triple. Kuiper raced home on Jim Nor ris’ suicide squeeze bunt. Orioles 9, Twins 7 Lee May drove in five runs with two homers and Rick Dempsey knocked in three runs with a single, double and triple for the Orioles. Baltimore took a 7-4 lead on May’s second homer, a three-run shot in the sixth, and increased the margin to 9-4 on Dempsey’s two-run double in the seventh but had to withstand a three-run Twins rally in the seventh plus a rain delay of 1 hour, 40 minutes in the ninth. Yankees 5, Red Sox 4 Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles drilled consecutive home runs in the second inning for the Yanks — Jackson also singled home the tie-breaking run in the fourth — Mike Torrez scattered seven hits and cen terfielder Mickey Rivers, who had three hits, threw out the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning. Carlton Fisk hom ered for Boston while Bill Lee lost to the Yankees for only the fifth time in 17 career decisions. Royals 4, Blue Jays 1 Rookie Joe Zdeb delivered a tie-breaking single in the sixth inning and Buck Martinez dou bled home another run. BASEBALL By The Associated Press American League East ..W L Pct. GB Balt 26 17 .605 - NYork 26 20 .565 1% Boston 23 21 .523 3% Milwkee 25 25 .500 4% Cleve 19 22 .463 6 Detroit 17 26 .395 9 Toronto 18 28 .391 9% West Minn 28 17 .622 - Chicago 25 19 .568 2% Texas 21 21 .500 5% Calif 23 23 .500 5% Oakland 22 23 .489 6 K.C. 21 23 .477 6% Seattle 21 30 .412 10 National League East ..W L Pct. GB Chicago 28 15 .651 - Pitts 26 16 .619 1% S Louis 27 18 .600 2 Phila 24 19 .558 4 Montreal 18 25 .419 10 NYork 15 29 .341 13% West Los Ang 33 14 .702 — Cinci 21 23 .477 10% S Diego 23 28 .451 12 SFran 20 26 .435 12% Houston 19 27 .413 13% Atlanta 17 31 .354 16% With the game tied 3-3 in the eighth and Reds’ runners at first and third, Rose singled off reliever Rick Camp for the go ahead run. Griffey then tripled to break it open. “We are now picking each other up, doing what we each should do,” said Griffey, who boosted his batting average to .324. “In the early part of the year, Foster, Bench and Morgan were all going for the long ball. Now were are all playing together,” Griffey said. He is convinced the Dodgers have taken notice of the Cincin nati resurgence. “They shouldn’t worry about us, but they will. We have a long way to go, but if we do the way we know how, we will win it,” said Griffey. His three-hit outburst sig naled a breakthrough for the spray-hitting outfielder who lost the National league batting title on the last day of the 1976 season. “Messersmith had given me more trouble than any pitcher in the league my first two years. He throws his fastball just out of the strike zone. It’s a great pitch to swing at, but hard to hit,” said Griffey. Rose and the Reds crowded around a clubhouse television set after the game, cheering as the Dodgers dropped their third straight game. The skid was triggered by two lopsided losses to the Reds over the weekend. Rookie Tom Hume, who was bombed for six runs in the first inning of his big league debut last week, went seven innings, allowing three runs. Dale Mur ray, 2-1, notched the victory with two shutout innings. George Foster continued his home run binge, slamming his seventh in the last six games for his 11th of the season. The series continues tonight with unbeaten Gary Nolan, 3-0, facing Buzz Capra, 1-5. ‘Just the stooge 9 who drives Foyt pockets biggest paycheck INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Ag ing but ageless A. J. Foyt, pock eting the biggest paycheck of his long and already legendary racing career, humbly called himself “just the stooge” who does the driving. “I’m really a man of few words. There’s not much to say,” the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 somberly told about 2,000 persons at the annual victory banquet Monday night. Padres sweep doubleheader under Dark management By The Associated Press “We’ve got a lot of young players, a lot of good ones. I’ve got to find out who can do what,” Alvin Dark said. The new manager of the San Diego Padres took a look at just about everyone and found out that Mike Ivie can hit the ball. The Padres set a National League record by using 41 play ers in their doubleheader sweep of the San Francisco Giants 12-8 and 9-8 Monday and the teams set a major league record by using 74 players in the twinbill. “Well, I got a look at all of them,” said Dark, who took over his new job a few hours before the Memorial Day dou bleheader and made one key change — moving Ivie from the No. 5 spot to third in the batting order. WESTERN SIZZLIN STEAK HOUSE 1412 N. EXPRESSWAY GRIFFIN, GEORGIA 30223 TELEPHONE 228-1064 A zk V ® It's All Right Here!! Begin Your Summer With A Special Treat. Banquet Facilities Just For You. ‘f didn’t talk to anybody 9 Eckersley pitches no-hitter for Indians CLEVELAND (AP) - “I didn’t talk to anybody," Dennis Eckersley said of his conduct in the Cleveland Indians’ dugout while on his way to pitching a no-hitter. “I told the only guy who tried to talk to me to shut up. I just wanted to concentrate.” The tension broke after the 22-year-old right-hander struck out Gil Flores for his 12th strikeout and sealed a 1-0 victory over Frank Tanana and the California Angels Monday night. “It’s not a matter of how good a pitcher you are,” said Eckersley, who now has pitched 16 2-3 consecutive no-hit innings, counting his last start. “It’s a matter of how lucky you are. The 13,400 fans at Cleveland Stadium cheered Ecker sley’s every pitch in the ninth. After Eckersley fell behind Bobby Grich 2-1, catcher Ray Fosse went to the mound for a reassuring word. Eckersley then fired two strikes. Pinch hitter Willie Mays Aikens flied to left and that brought up Flores, who had a .351 batting entering the game. But after Flories took the first pitch for a ball, Eckersley fanned him on the next three pitches. One of the first men to reach the mound and hug the third-year hurler was Fosse. “There’s nothing prettier or nicer than being involved in a nohitter,” Fosse said. “Os course I knew he had it all the way,” Fosse said. “Early in the game he blew them away with his fast ball. Then he had a good breaking ball late in the game. The only thing I had to do was remind him to tuck his shoulder in.” Fosse said Eckersley threw 114 pitches and about 40 per cent of them were breaking balls. Eckersley said the most exciting inning was not the ninth but the seventh. “I got the chills. I knew it was coming. I had the same feeling two years ago against Chicago, but I didn’t get it that time,” he said. The Indians got their run in the first, after Duane Kuiper tripled on a liner which got past centerfielder Flores. Kuiper scored on a suicide squeeze buunt by Jim Norris. Eckersley escaped trouble in the eighth after Bobby Bonds reached first on a wild pitch after striking out. Don Baylor then hit a grounder to shortstop. The umpire called Bonds out as the Indians got the double play, but Eckersley said, “He (Bonds) was safe by a mile.” Sipping a beer in the locker room, Eckersley said, “This is the best game. I had everything. I was in good com mand of all my pitches. All that I had on my mind was winning.” During his first year with the Indians in 1975, the 6-foot- Foyt, who finished 28 seconds ahead of runner-up Tom Sneva in Sunday’s 61st running of the 500, earned $259,791 — more than SBB,OOO more than he re ceived for his third victory 10 years ago. This year’s top prize was not a record, but it made the 42-year old Foyt the first $1 million winner in Indy history. “We’ve had good days, and we’ve had bad days,” said the Houston driver, who extended Ivie responded with seven hits for the day, including a record tying five doubles. “It’s the kind of day you dream about,” Ivie said. In other NL games Monday, Montreal swept a doubleheader from the New York Mets 5-1 and 3-2, St. Louis crushed the Chicago Cubs 14-0, Philadelphia defeated Pittsburgh 6-4, Cincin nati downed Atlanta 7-3 and Houston stopped Los Angeles 5- 3. “I always thought he (Ivie) would be a good No. 3 hitter because he makes good con tact,” Dark said. “He’s not too fast, but when he hits the ball like that, he doesn’t have to be.” Ivie tied a major league mark when he doubled twice in a seven-run seventh-inning burst that carried the Padres to his Indy record to 20 con secutive starts. “It’s been a long, long wait. But myself and my crew, we were not going to quit. We never quit. We just kept coming back.” Foyt finished second to John ny Rutherford in last year’s rain-shortened race — one which he felt he could have won had it gone the distance. He complained bitterly at that time that Rutherford, similarly locked into second place a year victory in the opener. His five doubles in the twinbill tied a NL record shared by three other players. George Hendrick homered in each game for San Diego, which extended its winning streak to REGULAR or EXTRA CRISPY WEDNESDAY SPECIAL 9 pc. Family Pack Slaw ■ Potato - Gravy Rolls $4.89 Call And Your Order MH Be Ready 131 East Solomon Street — Phone 227-3678 1477 West Mclntosh Road — Phone 228-2432 CALL US ABOUT CATERING YOUR NEXT FAMILY OR GROUP MEETING fried Page 7 — Griffin Daily News Tuesday, May 31, 1977 u-BbL WK aHr Dennis Eckersley 2, 190-pound native of Oakland was named American League rookie pitcher of the year by the Sporting News. That year, Eckersley had a 13-7 record and a 2.60 earned run average. He slipped last season, posting a 13-12 mark with a 3,44 ERA. But he struck out 200 batters, ranking fourth in the league. His record now is 5-3. In his last start, Eckersley pitched a five-hitter in beating the Seattle Mariners 2-1 in 12 innings. He held the Mariners hitless over the last 7 2-3 innings. earlier when rain gave Bobby Unser the victory, had taken unfair advantage of yellow cau tion lights to improve his posi tion. But no protest was filed, and Foyt — angry but not dis couraged — vowed to keep try ing. Foyt, Rutherford and Mario Andretti all topped 200 miles per hour during practice this year, and Foyt qualified in fourth position — behind polewinner four games. Reds 7, Braves 3 A two-run triple by Ken Grif fey sparked a four-run eighth inning rally, giving Cincinnati its victory over Atlanta. Sneva and the Unser brothers, Bobby and Al, both two-time Indy winners. Rutherford, who started in the middle of the pack after an unsuccessful gamble to wrest the No. 1 spot from Sneva, was the first to be forced out. He blew an engine on the 11th lap and finished 33rd, but his pay check of $19,472 still was a record for last place. Most of the race was a duel between Foyt and Gordon John cock, who led 129 of the 200 laps around the 2%-mile track. Johncock fell behind by 22 seconds before Foyt made a crucial pit stop on the 182nd lap, but the 1973 winner regained the lead the next time around when Foyt went in for his final pit stop. Johncock passed Foyt just as he was leaving the pits, setting up what appeared to be a wheel-to-wheel race to thefinish. But on the next lap, John cock’s engine blew.
