Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current, September 08, 1977, Image 13

Griffin daily news., September 08, 1977, Page Page 13, Image 13

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Newspaper Page Text' IHHk a "***■ -- . *HI Billie Jean King Evert beats past. Stove beats future in U.S. Open By FRED ROTHENBERG AP Sports Writer FOREST HILLS, N.Y. (AP) — Chris Evert beat the past and Betty Stove beat the future to advance to their semifinal matchup at the U.S. Open tennis championships. The top-seeded Miss Evert provided a barometer for Billie Jean King’s continuing singles comeback Wednesday night with a 6-2, 6-6 victory over the former queen of women’s ten nis. Sports World yj An AP s P orts Analysis x By WILL GRIMSLEY i A/ AP Special Correspondent Connors still best Jimmy Connors is a chameleon, a man of complex moods and changing personality traits, but is still the best tennis player in the world, says Bill Riordan. Riordan speaks with authority. He is the Svengali who helped fashion two of the maddest geniuses of the game — the fiery, feisty Connors and the talented, tempestuous Hie Nastase. Nastase has made an early exit, a victim of his own un bridled temperament, but Connors, shrugging off an aching back, remains in the thick of the fight for the men’s U.S. Open tennis championship, to be decided at Forest Hills this weekend. “Jimmy can win it if he can get his head all together,” predicted Riordan, wealthy Salisbury, Md., businessman and promoter who recognized Connors’ latent talent when Jimmy was a fuzz-faced 16-year-old whom he later helped hoist to millionaire status. “It’s not Jimmy’s back you have to worry about, it’s his frame of mind. He is tom up emotionally. First, there’s his broken romance with Chris Evert — they both are still nuts about each other — and the split has left a heavy bruise. “He lost his father last fall. That had to be a traumatic experience. All those years he wasn’t at home but traveling the circuit with his mother. High strung as he is, he must be asking himself, ‘My God, was all this worth it?’ “Then I wonder who, if anybody, is calming him down. He is typically a volatile, high strung person. The one thing I think I was able to do for him when we were together was keep him loose.” Riordan managed Connors from 1972 through 1975 when the relationship was broken by Jimmy’s mother, Gloria. Connors’ career has been splotchy and erratic ever since. He won both the Wimbledon and U. S. crowns in 1974, establishing himself firmly as the world’s No. 1, but has failed in the last three Wimbledons and lost twice in the finals at Forest Hills. He has been plagued by an assortment of ills —a bad knee, injured thumb on his racquet hand, chronic back trouble. He began assembling a record of pullouts and losses in the finals. Questions have been raised: Are Connors’ problems physical or mental? Is this brilliant young talent going into an eclipse? “I don’t know,” acknowledges Riordan, “I am sure Jimmy’s ailments are genuine. He is a plucky guy. But he has been spoiled by quick success. He doesn’t work as hard. He is inclined to overeat and gain weight. Some of his confidence may be eroding.” Riordan said he first noticed Connors when the aggressive left-hander came East in 1971 to play in Riordan’s National Indoor Championships in Salisbury. “He was absolutely electrifying,” Riordan added. “I got one look at him and said, ‘This kid is going to be the best player in the world.’” Riordan and Connors formed a partnership in 1972, and one of Jimmy’s first pieces of equipment was a “black hat.” He became the game’s villain, an unreconstructed maverick. “It was a perfect marketing and merchandising gim mick,” Riordan explained. “This was the period of youth rebellion. Jimmy became an anti-establishment symbol. Intense, a gut fighter, he was a natural for it. “He spumed the offers of Lamar Hunt and Jack Kramer, threw the money-lenders out of the temple. He joined my minitour. On the court, he would give the crowd the finger and yell four-letter words. Off the court, he became the epitome of charm, a ‘Gee whiz, golly’ kid. “He played the game with hate in his heart, but once the match was over he knew how to deal with the public and the press. This made him the richest player in tennis. He also was the best. When he went all out, nobody could touch him. “Now, I dont know. He has a barrel of problems — physical and mental. They are trying to stereotype him now, fit him into a mould. But, by nature, he’s not a conformist. “What Jimmy needs is to shake off the shackles and be come the old Jimmy Connors — snotty, mean, arrogant, thoughtful, charming and the toughest, fightingest, strokingest tennis player who ever lived.” IV J ■ ** Aajjjf jft k Chris Evert About hours earlier, Tra cy Austin, the 14-year-old future queen of tennis, drove her Cinderella carriage to center court. But Miss Stove turned the clock to midnight with a powerful 6-2, 6-2 triumph. In the other women’s quarter finals matches today, No. 2 seed Martina Navratilova, the Czech expatriate now playing out of Dallas, faced No. 10 Mima Jausovec of Yugoslavia and third-seeded Virginia Wade of Britain met Wendy Turnbull, • W?' Betty Stove the No. 12 seed from Australia. With all the hoopla attached to Miss Austin, the most famous school girl this side of Amy Carter, a pair of men sneaked less dramatically into the semifinals. Guillermo Vilas, the No. 4 seed from Argentina, could do no wrong in his 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 rout of unseeded Ray Moore of South Africa. Vilas has a Saturday semifinal date with Harold Solomon, the No. 12 seed from Silver Spring, Md., who wore /.F ♦ > - m.w« » *.'♦’* * ; >■ '*■ Tigers’ Rusty Staub, left, dives for bag while Orioles’ Doug DeCinces dives for the tag. Staub was safe. Willie Horton’s brainstorm helps Texas defeat Twins By BARRY WILNER AP Sports Writer The time was right for a change. Willie Horton was hit ting just .156 against the Min nesota Twins and the Texas slugger decided something had to be done. So, before Wednesday night’s game, “I made up my mind to try to hit the ball to right field,” he recalled. The results of the designated hitter’s brainstorm were a homer and a double to right and a single in Texas’ 4-3 victory. “I haven’t been getting anything good to hit inside all year. I’ve been planning to hit that way since the first two months of the season.” The Twins used a shift on Horton, placing three infielders ' between second and third base. Horton beat the shift with a long opposite-field homer in the second, then smacked a double down the right-field line in the sixth to score Toby Harrah from first with the winning run. The victory was a different experience for Texas which had dropped four in a row and 12 of their last 18. The Rangers re mained eight games behind Kansas City in the American League West. Unfortunately for Texas and the rest of the AL West con tenders, Kansas City keeps right on winning. The Royals took their eighth straight victo ry Wednesday with a 10-7 deci sion over Seattle. In other American League action, the Yankees increased their Eastern Division lead to 3% games with a 4-3, 10-inning victory over Cleveland; Toronto upset Boston 3-2; Baltimore BASEBALL STANDINGS'" Baseball At A Glance By The Associated Press National League East ..W L Pct. GB Phila 85 53 .616 - Pitts 80 60 .571 6 Chicago 73 64 .533 11% S Louis 74 65 .532 11% Montreal 63 75 .457 22 NYork 54 84 .391 31 West Los Ang 85 54 .612 — Cinci 73 67 .521 12% Houston 68 71 .489 17 SFran 65 75 .464 20% S Diego 63 78 .447 23 Atlanta 51 88 .367 34 F7S if Tracy Austin down No. 10 Dick Stockton of Carrolton, Tex., 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. The other semifinal pairing will be determined today. Brian Gottfried, the No. 3 seed from Lauderhill, Fla., plays surpris ing Corrado Barazzutti of Italy and second-seeded Jimmy Con nors, Belleville, 111., meets fifth rated Manuel Orantes of Spain. While school bells were be ginning to ring around the country, Miss Austin — set to enter the ninth grade in Rolling Hills, Calif, a week from today topped Detroit 6-2 in 11 innings in the first game of a double header, with the Tigers winning the nightcap 11-5; Chicago beat Oakland 5-1 and California took Milwaukee 4-1. Royals 10, Mariners 7 Kansas City collected 18 hits, including four hits and two homers by Darrell Porter and four safeties by George Brett. The Royals overcame a six-run Seattle third inning. The Royals have won 19 of their last 22 games in busting open the AL West logjam that saw four teams battle for the lead throughout the summer. Yankees 4, Indians 3 Cleveland right-hander Wayne Garland was one out away from his first victory over New York, but Mickey Rivers’ Torres promoted CINCINNATI (AP) - Angel Torres, a 24-year-old left-hand ed pitcher, was promoted by the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday from their farm team in Three Rivers of the Eastern League. Torres is the fourth minor league player called up by the Reds in the past week. He was obtained by the Reds last May from the Montreal Expos in a deal that gave Cin cinnati two young pitchers in exchange for Santo Alcala. Torres, a native of the Do minican Republic, was 2-1 in 12 games at Three Rivers, with a 3.52 earned run average. Ear lier this season he was with In dianapolis and Denver of the American Association, where he had a combined record of 2-0 and an ERA of 7.28. American League East • W L Pct. GB NYork 85 54 .612 - Boston 81 57 .587 3% Balt 80 58 .580 4% Detroit 67 72 .482 18 Cleve 65 75 .464 20% Milwkee 59 85 .410 28% Toronto 46 90 .338 37% West K.C. 83 54 .606 - Chicago 77 59 .566 5% Minn 77 63 .550 7% Texas 75 62 .547 8 Calif 64 70 .478 17% Oakland 54 83 .394 29 Seattle 55 86 .390 30 — was given a professional ten nis lesson by Miss Stove, the 32- year-old native of The Neth erlands. “She just overpowered me,” said Tracy, standing tall on the court at 5 feet and 90 pounds. “I was lucky to get in a rally. Most of the time she just put the ball away off her serve, and hit winners off mine. She was too strong for me.” Miss Stove gave Tracy a pro fessional beating because she was able to see her pig-tailed two-run single up the middle tied the game. Garland then lost it in the 10th on singles by Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson and a throwing error by left fielder Bruce Bochte, which allowed Munson to score. Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 2 Dave Lemanczyk, 11-13, pitched a six-hitter for his first triumph in six starts as Toronto broke an 11-game losing streak. Roy Howell’s opposite field homer off loser Ferguson Jen kins, 10-10, tied the game in the sixth. Gary Woods, recalled from the minor leagues just last week, knocked home the decisive run with a single later in the inning. Orioles 6-5, Tigers 2-11 A pair of rookie catchers shared the spotlight in the dou bleheader split. Baltimore re ceiver Dave Skaggs drove in five runs, three on a bases- WK GOODYEAR MM | mswmrs | g winners g Kr 'Custom Power Cushion Polyglas' jq ■LB Goodyear's All-Time Bestseller BZB K" Pl O tar "•"*' Bffl u ■U S RpHpH for "Oi D7B-14 lEHI $2 09 JQ PJ" IT Belted tor . ■ E7B-14 $2.26 ■ L®— it, Strength CP I* gzs-u $2.58 JU P— ■ ■ —’T'lrl H7B-14 ■Sji $2.80~~ R W G7B-15 $2.65 —■J ■ 1 yXli DM ■■ A7B-'3 whitewall plus S1 73 H7B-15 M ■s7 88 ®LJI mWNHMHHHMMMHi F E T No ,rade needed Just Say 'Charge It.'.. JID &, See The Guys In The Winners Caps Ju pwc GOODYEAR MM HILL'S TIRE STORE r Guillermo Vilas loaded double in the 11th inning, to lead the Orioles to their first game victory. Lance Parrish, playing in only his second major league game, went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and four RBI in the nightcap. Parrish also hit his first major league home run. White Sox 5, A’s 1 Steve Renko, 3-0 since coming to the American League, combined with Dave Hamilton on a four-hitter for Chicago. Ralph Garr had a two-run homer and Don Kessinger a two-run triple for the White Sox. Angels 4, Brewers 1 Don Baylor, who has seven hits in his last eight at-bats and had reached base nine times in his last 10 at-bats, slammed a two-run homer to support Paul Hartzell’s five-hitter. Hartzell, 7-9, hurled his fourth complete game of the season. Page 13 — Griffin Daily News Thursday, Septembers, 1977 A*' Harold Solomon opponent as the enemy, not just some cute little kid. “Five or six years ago, I would have been sentimental, too,” said the 6-foot, 160-pound Miss Stove. “And I would have lost to her. “I never saw Tracy at all. I only saw the ball. “I considered her a com petitor, a very good competitor. She has a real good future.” Ms. King, a four-time cham pion here, had a wonderful past. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★A SPORTS ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Pistons’ Barnes granted parole By JOHN SHURR Associated Press Writer CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island state prison will soon be losing its best bas ketball player. Former All- American Marvin Barnes will be checking out next month. Barnes, who wound up behind bars last May for a probation violation, was granted parole Wednesday and will be return ing to the Detroit Pistons on Oct. 14. “He (Barnes) presented him self very favorably,” said Jo seph Galkin, Parole Board chairman. “He was contrite. He said he made two mistakes and he learned a heck of a lesson.” The 6-foot-9 forward was giv en a one-year suspended sen tence and placed on probation for three years in 1974 after pleading guilty to assaulting Providence College teammate Larry Ketvirtis. Judge Anthony A. Giannini of Providence Superior Court sent Barnes to the state prison May 16, saying the young athlete violated his probation by carry ing an unloaded pistol in his luggage. “I think he had a heck of a good shaking up,” Galkin said. “We have a feeling that nothing of h/ Jimmy Connors But if her comeback from knee surgery and a year’s retirement from tournament singles doesn’t progress, she hinted that she would retire per manently. “I’m really ticked with my play,” said the person most re sponsible for the growth of women’s tennis. “I played the big points badly. Chris played them much tougher. “I better be ready by October or November, or that’s it.” this kind will ever happen again. Maybe it’s good that he got this jolt this early in his ca reer. “Not too many people con the Parole Board. We got a feeling of real sincerity.” Galkin, who said Barnes was finishing work on his Provi dence College degree, said the board considered the parole early because the Pistons want ed to know when he would re turn to the team. “Marvin said he was looking forward to going on to bigger things (in basketball), but more important he’s going to go on and make a success of his life. “He hasn’t been frittering away his time there,” Galkin said. “We get a feeling that the experience he had was a sa lutary one.” Meanwhile, Bob Kauffman, general manager of the Pistons, said the National Basketbal Association team was “terribly disappointed” that Barnes will miss part of training camp. “We do, however, appreciate the consideration the Parole Board has given in granting him the Oct. 14 release date,” Kauffman said.