Allentown Morning Call - August 4, 1980
Smith-Rose combination key to Phillies’ 8-4 win over Reds
By Bruce Dallas, Associated Press Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Fleet rookie Lonnie Smith and veteran tactician Pete Rose made a good combination yesterday as the Philadelphia Phillies ran and walked past the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4.
"Pete’s been telling me whenever I want to go: he'll take the pitch. He helps me out with what to expect from pitchers, too," said Smith, who stole three bases and scored three times. Twice, Rose singled up the middle to drive in Smith after he had stolen second.
"If I get a bad jump, he (Rose) can foul it off or make contact," added Smith, who has 10 straight steals without being caught. Playing for the injured Greg Luzinski, Smith has gained the team lead with 20 steals.
He's had 16 since June 22, scoring 13 times after he has pilfered successfully.
"With Luzinski out of the lineup, we have to create a different situation," said Rose, 3-4, yesterday.
"We can't hit four home runs when we've only got one guy on the roster in double figures," Rose added. Mike Schmidt leads the National League with 27 home runs, but the Phillies haven't hit one since Schmidt connected against Houston on Tuesday, 34 innings ago.
'When you walk nine men and five score, you can't fault the hitting," said Reds' Manager John McNamara.
Cincinnati starter Bruce Berenyi, 2-2, took the loss, giving up six runs on five hits, but walking five in four innings.
Nino Espinosa, 2-2, got the win with the help of four double plays. Ron Reed pitched the last three innings to gain his seventh save.
Smith bunted safely to open the Phillies' fifth and stole second for the third straight time to spark a six-run explosion capped by Bob Boone's three-run double.
Rose singled up the middle to drive in Smith, a carbon copy of the Phillies' run in the third.
Rose stole second, then Berenyi walked Greg Gross and Schmidt to load the bases.
Garry Maddox's RBI sacrifice fly greeted reliever Mario Soto, Who then intentionally walked Manny Trillo and also walked Ramon Aviles to force in Gross. Boone then lined down the left-field line to clear the bases.
Singles by Ray Knight, Ken Griffey and Dan Driessen gave the Reds a run in the seventh. In the eighth, Dave Collins and George Foster singled and scored on Driessen's double to right. Joe Nolan had an RBI single in the second inning for the Reds' first run.
In the Phils' first. Smith walked, stole second and scored on Gross's double. Smith scored again in the third after singling to right and stealing second. Nolan, the Reds' catcher threw out Smith, but the rookie knocked the ball out of Dave Concepcion's glove, then Rose singled Smith home.
The only great man in the world was ‘The Duke’
By Gordon Smith, Call Sports Writer
It happens only once in a man's lifetime, which, of course, rules out such things as marriage, paying taxes, shooting lousy rounds of golf, getting drunk and getting up on the wrong side of bed.
Hey, I'm thinking about serious stuff. I'm thinking about all the years of wishing, hoping and dreaming coming to a glorious climax the day a child's hero makes it to the Hall of Fame.
To a kid in love with baseball and with everything remotely connected with the game, nothing can ever be as important as his team and his hero.
My team was the Dodgers – Brooklyn variety. Nobody in my crowd had ever heard of Los Angeles when I was a kid in love with baseball. The only great man in the world was "The Duke."
I'd never been to Brooklyn when I first fell in love with Edwin Donald Snider. Hell, I'd never been out of Rhode Island. My home by the sea, however, was a short distance from Brooklyn in nautical miles. Radio and television waves boomed against the Westerly shoreline.
Before I was eight, the Dodgers were already established firmly in my bedroom. There were team pictures of the 1949 and 1950 Dodgers on one wall. Every bubblegum card of every Dodger had a special spot on the woodwork surrounding my door.
The radio was my most prized possession. Not because I could listen to what would become known as "Rock 'n' Roll," but because I could listen to Vince Scully and Andre Baroush.
It was a small, white-faced, louvered-front GE radio, and it was always sent to the Dodgers' station – WOR, I believe it might have been. If anybody fooled with that radio, there was a high price to pay.
Once a cousin changed it to listen to a "Top 10" songs survey while I was outside playing. When I found out, I ripped her dress right off her back. We still don't talk. But that was the last time anybody fooled with my radio.
When my dad finally got his hands on our first television set (a used Sylvania), I became more of a recluse. I discovered that Channel 9 carried the Dodgers' games.
Fridays are especially memorable. Fridays were when dad came home from work, which took him away from home a week, sometimes two, at a time.
He'd come home weary, sometimes half-smashed. But everybody would be ready for him. A picnic supper was always ready, a pile of blankets waiting on a chair near the ' kitchen door. Friday nights were reserved for the drive-in theater, something new in the '50s, at least in our town.
The very first Friday night the television was in our house was also the first time I didn't join the family at the drive-in. I was so hooked on Dodger baseball that nothing else mattered in life.
Well, that Friday would be the first night I'd see the face of my longtime hero, "The Duke of Flatbush." And that would be the first time I'd actually see him hit a pitch onto Flatbush Ave.
If there had been any suspicions that "Duke" Snider wasn't the greatest man in the world, then they were surely wiped out that night. After hearing all those home runs over the radio, to see one on television well, il was like no thrill I had ever known.
I never went to the drive-in theater with my family again. Channel 9 came in terribly snowy in those days. There wasn't any cable-TV. But I had climbed to the top of our house after that first game I saw.
One friend stood in front of the television, and another stood on the front porch where he could holler instructions up to me... " A little more… That's it... Ooops! Back a bit... You got it... Beautiful!"
My folks sold the TV a few weeks later, convinced it was shot. I hadn't thought of how bad the reception would be on other channels the day I turned the antenna. But it turned out to be a bonus. A newer, larger (and I think, hot) television arrived. It seemed like "The Duke" was as big as life after that.
This particular set even had a "knife switch" where the antenna was hooked. "See," said Mom. "This way we can have the antenna set up so you can receive the baseball games without messing up the other signals."
Then she winked. She knew all the time. Seems only Pop was duped. Mom wanted a new set, too. Everybody has heroes. The big hearings were on television. Joe McCarthy was her hero's name, I think.
Anyway, whoever he was and whatever was going on didn't matter. It couldn't have been too important. It was only on in the daytime. The Dodgers and "The Duke" were on Friday night, the best night of the week.
Today "The Duke" is in the Hall of Fame. I think I helped him get there. I know I prayed harder for him to hit home runs than I did for anything else. Mom prayed for Joe McCarthy, too. Only I think God didn't hear her. He answered me this week by saying, "Welcome to Cooperstown, Duke."
Four more join Baseball Hall of Fame
COOPERSTOWN, N Y. (AP) – Duke Snider, Brooklyn's Duke of Flat-bush; Al Kaline, a 3,007 -hit man for the Detroit Tigers; old-time slugger Chuck Klein : and Boston owner Tom Yawkey were inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in colorful ceremonies yesterday.
The four new inductees made a total of 173 players, umpires and executives in the baseball shrine. Of the 47 living members, 25 were on hand to honor the new inductees including Snider's Dodger teammates, Roy Campanella, and Sandy Koufax.
Two other Dodgers, Ralph Branca, the man who gave up the famous home run to Bobby Thomson in the 1951 playoff, and Carl Erskine, who was warming up with him that day, also attended the ceremonies. Retired Detroit catcher Bill Freehan was the only Tiger teammate of Kaline's to attend.
"This is the proudest moment of my life," said Kaline, who was only the 10th player ever elected in his first year of eligibility. He paid tribute to his wife, two sons and father and mother who were in the audience.
The white-haired Snider, who started turning gray as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Boys of Summer in the middle 1950s, thanked all his former teammates, managers, the press and the fans for the honor.
Snider was the focus of one of the great baseball arguments in New York in the 1950s when the city had three teams. The Yankees' star was Mickey Mantle, the Giants' leader was Willie Mays and Snider keyed the Dodgers. All were centerfielders and fans talked endlessly about who was best.
"It was one of the rare times Casey Stengel was laconic when he was asked that question," said Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. "His answer was, he would take all three of them."
Klein, the only man to collect 200 or more hits in his first six seasons, received the honor posthumously with his great nephew, Robert Klein, accepting for him.
"Entrance into the Hall of Fame means that Chuck will live on forever," said his great nephew.
A crowd of some 3,000 lined the fences against the library steps of the museum in the town where baseball was supposedly invented in 1839.
Perhaps the highlight of the touching afternoon was the acceptance by Hall of Famer Ted Williams of the plaque in honor of Yawkey, the late owner of the Boston Red Sox.
"He was a man I loved," said Williams, "and a great sportsman. When I would sign a contract with him, he would always ask me if I was satisfied."
Williams received one of the largest hands of the day as he was introduced with the other living members of the Hall of Fame. It was the first time he has returned here since his own induction in 1966. He spends his summers fishing in Canada.
Also honored at the ceremonies were baseball writers Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle and New York Herald Tribune and New York and San Francisco Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges. Holmes and Hodges are both deceased.