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Sports
by Ly
Phil Clark
Homers are
flying in the
Major League
There are several theories on
why there are so many home runs
being hit in the Major League this
year.
Is the ball juiced? Not likely. If
it were, everybody would be hitting
home runs, not just the so called
home run hitters.
Skip Carey of the Braves broad
cast crew said the other day that he
believes a lot of the home run con
troversy has to do with the interpre
tation of the strike zone by today's
umpires.
Carey contends, and he sees a lot
ot games, that the umpires have
taken away the area from the bell to
the armpits, or letters. Anything
above the belt is not called a strike
anymore. Thus, the hitters can zero
in on the area from the waist to the
knees.
Given that advantage, most
home run hitters will jerk it our.
That's Carey’s theory. But, it makes
sense if, indeed, that is the case.
Let's watch a few games, looking
particularly for this trait.
But, the most accepted theory on
the prevalence of homers is the de
cline of pitching. With expansion,
some 22 new pitching jobs opened
up, and the talent was already thin
in the pitching corps.
At any rate, the hitters are
whacking the daylights out of the
ball. Gary Sheffield of the Marlins
had 11 homers through games of
last Sunday, as did Matt Williams
of the Giants. There were an addi
tional hatful who tut eight or nine
in April.
But, I’ll tell you something.
There are a lot of young sluggers
out there who can flat out hit the
ball a long way, juiced up or not —
guys like Frank Thomas of the
White Sox, Juan Gonzalez of the
Rangers and Ken Griffey of Seattle.
Andres Galarraga of Colorado will
hit a lot of homers, playing 81
games at Denver, as will the reju
venated Ellis Burks. Both sluggers
had nine in April.
Today's group of young stars
might never be compared to the
1950 legends such as Aaron, Mays,
Mantle, Killebrew, Robinson and
others, some of whom continued to
whack long balls into the 60s.
Todays starts might not play
long enough to break any records.
Too much money too quickly elim
inates the need to play a dozen years
or more. But, if guys like Thomas,
Gonzalez and Griffey have the de
sire, the doors are open.
Thomas, a Columbus native, is
just 25. He played baseball at
Auburn, and even played a year at
tight end while Bo Jackson was
still there. Thomas is just the fifth
player in Major League history to
hit better than .300 and have 20
homers, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored
and 100 walks in three consecutive
seasons.
Think about that for a few min
utes. Those are amazing statistics.
The other four to do it are Hall of
Famers Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth,
Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams!
And, Thomas is not alone. Grif
fey and Gonzalez are both a year
younger at 24, and both are rolling
up impressive numbers, though
Griffey says he is not a homer run
hitter.
But, you couldn't prove that by
Griffey's 1993 season, could you? I
mean, he did hit 45 out of the park.
Already Gonzalez, in just his
fourth season, has won the last two
American League home run titles,
just edging Griffey last year with
46.
While Berry Bonds is generally
considered the best player in the big
leagues, he is 29. One wonders how
many more years he will play.
Bonds has made so much
money, he certainly doesn't have
that as an incentive, the young
guns are gaining on him, and they
apparently won’t let up, although
Gonzalez is off to a slow start this
year.
The ball isn't juiced up. It’s just
a few of the outstanding young hit
ters making lots of noise. It’s the
same young hitters who have dom
inated for the past several years,
when there was no talk of the juiced
up ball.
Resurgent Talton dispatches Terrell
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Lon Talton continued his strong second half, throwing
a two hitter against Terrell In the GISA playoffs.
PHS sends five to state
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
Although Perry High School came in third
at the region meet Thursday, Coach Mike Vick
ers will send six runners in five events to the
state meet in Jefferson May 13-14.
"We did about as well as we thought we
could do," said Vickers of his team's perfor
mance. "Dodge County and Appling County
had too much speed for us."
The Indians won the region title, finishing
the meet with 127 points. The Pirates at
tempted to scuttle the Indians, however, they
fell 10 points short. Perry finished the event
with 77 points.
Vickers said a key to the performance of
Dodge County and Appling was the field
events, where Perry is thin.
Tarvis Felton qualified in two events, taking
second place in the 800 meter run and second in
the high jump. Felton completed two laps
around the Panther track in 2:05 minutes. His
high jump was 6’6", which is four inches
higher than his season start, said Vickers.
The Panthers just missed having two quali
fiers in the pole vault, with Tcrruya Williams
and Terrance Hill having vaults of 12 feet, tied
for second. However, Hill was given third place
Graffiti
remains
undefeated
By JIMMY SIMPSON
Special to the HTJ
Family Footwear ended a four
game losing skid, and Graffiti Hair
Salon managed to keep its record
unblemished, after posting wins
Thursday in girl's junior softball
league action at Ochlahatchee Field.
The Family Footwear girls used
a strong offensive showing to out
distance First Family Finance by a
13-2 score. Graffiti used a six-run
first inning to its advantage while
holding*onto an 11-2 win over
Pennington 111 Plumbing.
Graffiti stands atop the league
charts with a 5-0 mark. Pennington
111 holds onto the second spot with
First Family, both having compiled
2-3 marks. Family Footwear, with
the win, goes to 1-4 on the year.
Gaining credit for their play in
Thursday action was Ashton
Collins and Jessica Pennington for
Pennington 111, Amanda Ramirez
and Michelle Harris for Graffiti, Lee
Anne Sexton and Lesley Brannen
for Family Footwear, and Whitney
Dcyampcrt and Blairc Brown for
First Family.
In Tuesday action, Graffiti plated
16 runners cn route to a 16-8 win
over Family Footwear, while Pen
nington 111 reached the winner's cir
cle with an 18-5 victory over First
Family.
Pennington 111 sparked by a
strong defensive effort, including
the play of Alicia Powell. Katie
Beth Yclton and Heather
McWhorter were standouts on the
First Family group. Graffiti was led
by Heather Tucker and Britney
Simpson. Family footwear was
paced by Rhonda Denton and Anna
Harold.
honors due to missed attempts.
Boris King continued to rack up wins in the
discus, becoming region champ with a throw of
144 feet, four inches.
The 1600 meter relay team qualified with a
second place finish of 3:27, three seconds better
than their best time on the season. Vickers said
the team had been inconsistent, finishing some
races with times near 3:40.
Additionally, Fred Ragan just missed quali
fying in the discuss with a fourth place throw,
and John Martin finished third in the 1600 me
ter race, missing the state by two seconds.
"We had some good times in certain events,"
said Vickers. "I'm satisfied with the results."
Vickers said that he was somewhat disap
pointed in the season his thinclads have had in
1994. "It hasn't been bad," he said, "but, it
hasn t been good, either. 1 thought that we
would make a move and be a real good team."
Vickers said some of the problem behind the
track team's start could be traced back to the
success of the basketball program, giving the
track team a late start. He said the team was
also hit by key injuries.
"It was a very unusual year," said Vickers.
"It seems like we could never get going. We
had a lot distractions."
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Bill Hobbs, new golf pro at Perry Country Club, shows
the proper form on his swing.
Physicals slated for May 21
Physicals for all area high
school and middle school athletes
will be give May 21 at Perry High
School. The cost of the physical is
$5.
Chip McCarty, head trainer for
Perry High School and Westfield,
said that anyone wanting to partici
Houston Times-Journal
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
Lon Talton used just 87 pitches
to dispatch Terrell Academy 3-1 in
the first round of the GISA state
playoffs Thursday afternoon in less
than 100 minutes.
The win sets up a quarterfinal
game with powerful Stratford
Academy, which used six round
trippers from five batters to clear
cut Pinewood Academy 18-2.
Stratford Academy, 23-0, holds
two wins over Westfield in the reg
ular season. Stratford used a late in
ning explosion against the bottom
of the Hornet pitching staff to win
at Stratford 10-1. Westfield was
only behind 4-1 going into the
sixth inning of play. At Westfield,
Stratford exploded at the plate, win
ning 20-0, after scoring eight runs
in both the first and second inning.
The Hornets scored their runs
without the aid of a hit. Terrell
"outhit" the Hornets 2-1, with
Moody collecting both hits for Ter
rell and Thad Hawk getting a fifth
inning single to break up the no
hitter.
Westfield would score all three
of its runs in the third inning. Billy
Kitchens, Jeff Dehem and Matt
Shepley drew walks to load the
bases with one out. Hawk hit into a
fielder's choice for the second out,
as Kitchens was gunned down at
home.
pate in sports at Perry Middle
School, Houston County High
School, Westfield or Perry High
School must gel a physical. He said
that there would be no makeup day.
The physicals will start at 6:30
a.m.. and will be given by doctors
Please see Physicals, page 9A
page 6A
Saturday, May 7,1994 "Houston Times-Journal
Shepley strayed too far off sec
ond for comfort of Terrell pitcher
Richard Massey. Massey threw to
second to pick Shepley off. How
ever, his throw went into center
field, allowing Dehem to score the
first run of the game for the Hor
nets, tying the game at one.
Troy Nuss walked to load the
bases. Lon Talton then hit a dying
flair to centerfield that bounced out
of the centerfielder's glove for an er
ror. Shepley and Hawk scored on
the play to give the Hornets the 3-1
lead, a score that would hold up for
the rest of the game.
Terrell would threaten in the
sixth and seventh innings. But, Tal
ton would shut down both threats.
After striking out the lead-off
batter in the sixth, Dismukes
reached on a Hornet error. Webb
followed by walking after five
pitches.
"We came close to pulling him,"
said Bert Brown, head coach of the
Hornets, who said that he decided to
stay with Talton for one more bat
ter.
The next Terrell batter, Webb,
batting in the number four slot of
the order, hit a pop-up to second for
the second out. Talton got the final
out of the inning on a tap back to
the mound.
"If there was a big point to the
game, that was it," said Brown. "He
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John Martin crosses the start/flnlsh line In first after one lap in the
1600 meter run during the region track meet Thursday afternoon.
Hobbs joins P.C.C.
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
New Perry Country Club golf
professional and general manager
Bill Hobbs is excited about the fu
ture of Perry Country Club.
"The club has undergone some
stressful situations in the past two
years," said Hobbs, referring to a
1992 fire that burned the clubhouse
down. Because of the fire, Hobbs
said that club membership has de
clined slightly in the past two
years.
Since the fire, Perry Country
Club has rebuilt its clubhouse, re
built the bunkers and resprigged the
course, with the back nine to open
later this year.
"It was an opportunity at a
growing club," said Hobbs.
"Within the next two years, this
place will be turned into one of
Central Georgia's finest golf
courses."
Another factor that brought
Hobbs to Perry was Southern hos
pitality. "In pursuing the position
down here, I heard a lot of com
ments that the people of Perry were
good people," said Hobbs.
And, said Hobbs, the words that
he heard were true. "Everybody has
been super nice," said Hobbs.
"They are doing whatever they can
to help. It's been an easy transi
tion."
Hobbs said his stay at Perry
Country Club will be service ori
ented. "Everything we do is for the
members," he said. "We want ev
eryone to feel like this is an exten
sion of home. We want our mem
bers to make themselves at home,
have a good time and enjoy them
selves.
"Golf is a game anybody at any
age can play," said Hobbs. "One of
the jobs of a golf professional is to
promote the game of golf and the
had thrown 70-75 pitches at that
point, and we thought he might be
getting tired."
In the sixth, Moody doubled
with one out. However, Talton re
sponded by getting the next batter
to look at a called third strike for
the second out. The final out in the
inning came when Miller tapped to
Shepley who threw to Lance Wal
ton, stranding Moody at second.
"We got two components to
day," said Brown. "We got good
pitching and good defense. We
didn't get the third one (hitting).
"If you do not hit the ball, but
have pitching and defense, at least
you have a chance. That's what we
got today."
Even though his team didn’t col
lect but one hit, Brown said there
were a couple of balls that could
have given the Hornets a good day
at the plate.
Jake Walls hit a shot to left in
the third that Brown said could have
gone for a homer if Walls had got
ten under the pitch. In the second,
Clay Smith hit a fly ball to deep
center that was held in by the wind.
Shepley also flirted with two dou
bles, stinging two balls just on the
foul side of third base.
However, it was Talton who car
ried the day, allowing a two-hitter,
striking out seven and walking one.
Please see Hornets., page 9A
future of the game. We are here to
work with anybody and promote the
game of a lifetime."
Up next for Hobbs and Perry
Country Club is the Perry Classic,
which is scheduled for July 18-19.
Hobbs said Perry Country Club
would host over 100 professionals
and 40 amateurs in the tournament,
which draws players from across the
state.
"We also have a membership
drive going on," said Hobbs. "We
want to get the membership built
back up now that we have a new
clubhouse."
Hobbs said he was also currently
recruiting and interviewing for the
position of assistant golf pro at the
club.
Please see Hobbs, page 9A
Shelton and
Brown conquer
P.C.C. scramble
The team of Danny Shelton and
J.D. Brown shot an even par 36
over the first nine holes of the
Perry Country Club to win a
P.C.C. Men's Golf Association
afternoon scramble Thursday.
Second place was a little more
crowded as three teams came into
the clubhouse one stroke behind the
pace of Shelton and Brown. How
ever, the deadlock was decided
through a regression starting at the
third hole.
John Reid and Ken Ray took
home second place honors after
holding par on the third hole. Rod
ney Bridges Jr. and Jerry Tigner bo
geyed the hole, as did Jerry Kimsey
and Bob Jahns.
James Rich, head of the P.C.C.
Please see MGA, page 9A