Allentown Morning Call - April 19, 1980
Phillies’ Vote… maybe politics is a dirty word
By Jack McCallum, Call Sports Writer
There are many things in this world I'd like to see but never will. I'd like to see, for example, Robert Dole as a celebrity disco judge on "Dance Fever," but that is my problem, and I will deal with it in time.
Another thing I'd like to see is a conversation between the Phillies' Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt a conversation that goes something like this:
Pete: Hey, Schmitty, how goes it, big boy? Did you see Carter's sanctions against Iran? What did you think?
Mike: Well, I think the more action the better at this point, Peter. Personally, I think we've "laissez-f aired" enough.
Pete: Yes, Schmitty, but don't forget that the safety of the hostages should be the President's chief concern. Saber-rattling at a time like this isn't going to get us anywhere.
Mike: A point well taken, Peter. I just hope Mr. Carter is able to settle this on a diplomatic level and turn to the economic problems which are really plaguing our people.
In point of fact, though, I will never see that dialogue. I recently had a political conversation with Pete Rose that went like this:
Me: Pete, who are you voting for for President?
Pete: Me? Who gives a crap, anyway?
Well, you heard it here first, sports fans. Pete Rose indicating his favorite for president. Somebody named Crap. And I didn't even know he was in the race.
You can learn a lot around a professional baseball team's locker room – a lot about catching tarpon in Florida, a lot about tax shelters, a lot about anatomy and various interesting things you can do with it. But you will not learn much about politics.
Now, this is not going to be one of those Michael Novak-"Joy of Sport "-type sociological analyses on why baseball players aren't politically active. They just aren't. I suspect it's because relatively few graduated from college and that intellectual discussions do not have much place in baseball tradition and that their comfortable salaries have removed them for the most part from the daily concerns that bother most of us and might force us to go out and vote. But then I'd be sounding like Michael Novak.
Now, there are Phillies with political opinions. Dave Rader had a lot of them, for example. He was traded to the Red Sox. Perhaps there's a message there.
At any rate, I could have done things according to the Fourth Estate handbook and asked each Phillie who he' was voting for, but then I would've sounded like some sort of weirdo like Walt Whitman on assignment for "Sports perhaps. So 1 decided to invoke artistic license and analyze whom I thought some of the Phillies would vote for:
Pitcher Steve Carlton: Lefty would look for the candidate who refuses to be interviewed and who steadfastly refuses to put himself in the public eye. Therefore, he would not vote.
Manager Dallas Green: In another life, Dallas Green was a megaphone. His booming voice carried easily to all corners of the Phillies' spring training grounds in Clearwater, and it has already become a team joke. He would therefore be drawn to the man on the soapbox – the classic, stumping, instant orator. He would vote for John Anderson. Unfortunately, Dallas Green thinks John Anderson is a second baseman at Oklahoma City.
Catcher Bob Boone: If Boonie has any consistency at all – and that's what he's known for – he would have to go for the union choice, Ted Kennedy. As the National League player representative, Boone spent much of the winter and spring articulating his feelings about players' rights.
Shortstop Larry Bowa: As someone who was cut from his high school baseball team four straight years but became an All-Star, Bowa knows about underdogs. His vote would go to someone who came out of obscurity and rose to the top. Larry's for Jimmy.
Third baseman Mike Schmidt: On Mike Schmidt's gravestone the epitaph will read: "He was cool." Mike Schmidt does everything cool, whether it be hitting home runs or striking out. About the only man of true cool in this race was Howard Baker. A Phillie fan must hope that Schmitty stays in the home run race longer than Baker stayed in the presidential race.
Relief pitcher Tug McGraw: Frank Edwin McGraw is even nuttier than he appears to be. He talks to everyone. He mugs for the fans. He sticks his tongue out at opposing hitters. Give Tug's vote to the only flake in the race. Give his vote to Jerry Brown. And now that Brown's out of the race, Tug can write him in. That's a nutty thing to do.
Leftfielder Greg Luzinski: Before he lost his weight and put cm his shades, there was simply nothing interesting you could say about Greg Luzinski. Put him down for his political counterpart, George Bush. And Bush can't even get the ball out of the infield.
First baseman Pete Rose: Let's see. Pete wants somebody with a lot of money and a gung-ho attitude. A guy who would rather go headfirst into Iran than do a fancy hook-slide around it. With John Connally safely away from the red phone until 1984, put Pete down for Ronnie Reagan.
Utility infielder John Vukovich: Vuke is 32 and has never played in more than 75 major league games in one season. His career average is .161. He made the Phillies' roster this year only because he worked on becoming a backup catcher. Everybody respects John Vukovich, but nobody would vote him to the starting team. Vuke, meet Adlai Stevenson.
Expos’ home opener a 7-5 success
MONTREAL (AP) – Gary Carter drove in four runs with a single and a three-run homer that capped a five-run fifth inning rally and gave Montreal a 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday in the Expos' home opener.
Carter's blast, his second of the season, came against starter Dick Ruthven, 1-1, and scored Andre Dawson and Larry Parrish. Dawson had walked and Parrish had singled.
Parrish's single had brought home Ron LeFlore to narrow the gap to 4-3 before Carter unloaded his homer. Chris Speier later stroked a single to left field to knock in the fifth run of the inning.
The Phillies overcame a 2-1 deficit in the fourth against starter Scott Sanderson, l-o, when Mike Schmidt hit his first homer of the year with Bake McBride aboard after a double. Greg Luzinski followed Schmidt with a towering homer into the left-field bleachers, his second of the season.
Schmidt had given Philadelphia a 1-0 lead in the third inning by stroking a -single to drive in Pete Rose, who had also singled. But the Expos scored twice in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Carter and Speier's triple to right field.
The first run of the inning was set up when Ellis Valentine singled and stole second, one of five steals by the Expos in the game. Valentine advanced to third on the same play when catcher Bob Boone, who made three throwing errors in the game, threw the ball into center field.
The Phillies added their fifth run in the eighth with the help of two Montreal errors. Reliever David Palmer threw high to second base on Larry Bowa's fielder's choice, and second baseman Rodney Scott fired the ball past first as he attempted to turn Manny Trillo's grounder into a double play. The error enabled Boone to score.
Veteran lefthander Woodie Fryman came on to retire the next two batters, ending the inning. He allowed only a two-out single to Schmidt in the ninth to record his first save of the year.
Palmer, who complained of a sore elbow all spring, made his first apearance of the season and did not allow an earned run in 2⅓ innings.