Allentown Morning Call - August 8, 1980

Boos turn to cheers as Carlton gets 17th

By Ted Meixell, Call Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA – When Dallas Green strode to the pitchers' mound at Veterans Stadium last night to relieve Steve Carlton with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, he received a standing boo from the assembled multitude of 31,397. 

When Tug McGraw was announced as the Phils' reliever, he received a polite, if not enthusiastic round of applause. But when the feisty little lefty needed only one pitch to induce St. Louis second baseman Tom Herr to bounce into a Larry Bowa-to-Manny Trillo force-out to preserve a 3-2 Philadelphia win (Cy Young Award candidate Carlton's 17th against 6 losses) on Getaway Day, the crowd stood as one in a loud ovation.

Carlton entered the ninth with a 4-hitter and a 5-1 lead, but George Hendrick rang a double off the fence in right-center and scored on shortstop Mike Ramsey's line single to right with two put. When "Lefty" walked light-hitting pinch hitter Steve Swisher, Green decided he'd had enough. 

"I thought he lost a little bit of his stuff in the eighth inning," Green said with a shrug, "and when he started struggling with his control against those guys (Ramsey and Swisher), I decided it was time to make a move. 

"Hey, I'm sure 'Lefty' would've found a way out of it, but I just felt a little better with a fresher guy in there. It certainly wasn't the peoples' choice, though, was it?" 

Green then gave the press the first legitimate Carlton quote in four years – albeit one that was second-hand and rather brief. "I told him, 'I've got McGraw,' " Green said, "and he said, 'O.K.'" 

"Sure they booed him (Green)," McGraw said mischievously. "But when they saw it was me coming in, they said, 'Oh yeah, all right, it's Tug. ' " Then he thought back to last season and grinned. "Last year at this time, though, if they saw it was me coming in they'd holler, 'It's One-Pitch, Grand Slam McGraw. Get that bleep bleep out of there,'" he said.

For four innings, it looked as if neither team would get a hit, much less score a run. And Cardinal righthander John Fulgham, who came out on the short end of another mano-a-mano with Carlton April 26 when Carlton threw a 7-0 one-hitter, actually looked a bit more impressive. 

Carlton was touched for only a walk to Keith Hernandez through four innings, although several Phillies, notably Golden Glovers Garry Maddox, Mike Schmidt and Trillo, were impressive with the leather. But Fulgham was perfect through four and had the Phillies waving at his slider like so many matadors waving at bulls. No one hollered, "Ole," however. 

It began to look like Fulgham might get the better of the rematch when the Cards scored an unearned run in the top of the fifth. 

And it was St. Louis's dynamic duo of Tito ("call me Tito. Terry makes me cringe.") Landrum and Ramsey that did the damage, although their contributions weren't exactly accompanied by thunder and lightning. Yes, Tito Landrum and Mike Ramsey… not Hernandez, Hendrick or Ted Simmons, the Cards' regular bombers. 

Landrum, who started the game with only 15 previous at-bats, reached on a two-base error. His one-hop liner handcuffed Schmidt and rolled under a tarpaulin in left. Landrum moved to third on Ken Reitz's grounder and scored when Ramsey hit a chopper over Carlton's head and barely beat Bowa's desperate, on-the-run throw for the game's first hit. 

The Phils won the game by scoring all ' three of their runs in the bottom of the fifth. Their hits were their first of the game and their runs their first in the two-game set against St. Louis.

Schmidt became the Phils' first base runner when he worked Fulgham for a leadoff walk. Maddox forced him at second, but Trillo's double into the leftfield corner – the Phils' first hit of the game – sent Maddox scurrying to third. 

Bowa followed with a line single near the leftfield line to score both runners. Trillo was right on Maddox's heels as they crossed the plate, because Landrum decoyed nicely on the play and had Maddox retreating to tag up.

"On a play like that," Maddox said, "they tell me, 'As soon as the ball's hit, you're going on contact.' When I see it in the air, I have to go back. It's something you do by instinct. Landrum was coming hard, but he decided at the last moment he couldn't get to it. 

"Yeah, I heard Manny coming. But I knew he couldn't catch me." Carlton bounced a single between Hernandez and Herr for the third run.

Carlton, who Green feels has no really serious competition for the Cy Young Award, struck out only four, far below his norm. Green credited the Cardinals for that. "Hey. they're a good-hitting team. They come up swinging." 

The Phils left for a 12-game road trip that begins with a game with the Pirates tonight in Pittsburgh and continues in Chicago and New York. They won 8 of 12 on the home stand, and Green was pleased. 

"It's a good way to start a trip. We split this one (series), but we won all the others."' 

And, despite the reception they gave him in the ninth inning, the fans are pleased too.

National League has good reasons to enact a designated hitter rule

By Marc Markowitz, Call Sports Writer

Leon "Bull" Durham was pounding batting practice fastballs into the upper deck of rightfield in Veterans Stadium the other night. "Whooee, Bull ! " manager Whitey Hertzog shouted at Durham. Yes, "whooee." But when Bobby Bonds returns soon from the disabled list, Leon Durham could be back on the bench. 

Make that Case 1 for the designated hitter in the National League. 

Make Lonnie Smith Case 2. He is hitting .348 and leads the Phillies in stolen bases with 21. Yet his playing status Is in doubt when Greg Luzinski returns from the disabled list at the end of August because without the Bull, the Phils have had about as much power as a 25-watt bulb. 

Need a Case 3? How about Pedro Guerrero of the Dodgers. He's a man without a position or, more to the point, a man with seven positions. He's hitting .342... and he's on the bench. And so is teammate Jay Johnstone. He's batting .317 and has been the best case for the DH in the National League since he arrived in Philadelphia in 1974. Johnstone seems to be the odd man in the outfield everywhere he goes, yet his lifetime average in the National League is .302. 

These cases, and more, will be discussed when the major leagues hold their annual summer meeting next , week in Detroit. The designated hitter question is priority number one. 

The latest scorecard shows five clubs in favor of adopting the rule the American League already has, three against and four undecided. The -Phillies are among the undecided.

"It takes all the strategy out of the game," says nay-saying manager Dallas Green. But Green appears to have resigned himself to the possibility that the Phillies will vote for it. 

"Our front office people are offensive-minded," he says, shrugging his shoulders. 

The proponents are St. Louis, Atlanta, New York, San Diego and Houston.

Four of the five have been lagging in attendance. In sports, the first assumption is the fans want to see more offense. That's why the American Soccer League is testing a new scoring system and the National League is considering the DH. In 1976, 9 of the 12 clubs voted against it. .

The Cards, Padres and Braves have pitching problems, so it's easy to understand their reasoning for the DH, but how about the Mets and Astros? 

"The Mets have to be considered a contender in the National League East simply because they have more pitching than most clubs," said Pirates' manager Chuck Tanner the last time Pittsburgh was in Philadelphia. 

And the Astros have Joe Sambito, Frank LaCorte and Dave Smith…  easily the best 1-2-3 punch in any bullpen this year. Houston, however, also has Denny Walling, another .300 hitter without a position. 

Now for the opponents: Pittsburgh, Chicago and Cincinnati. And those are shaky votes at best.

The Reds could change their mind, especially with the Johnny Bench dilemma quickly approaching. Bench has said this is his last year as a catcher, but there really isn't any place else to put him without breaking up one of the best starting units in baseball. 

The Cubs also have questionable pitching, but they're still playing day games at Wrigley Field, which is all you have to say about the conservative approach to the game there. 

The Pirates have a DH manager in Tanner, who uses Mike Easier, Lee Lacy, Bill Robinson, Willie Stargell and John Milner according to situations. And Tanner was a master at using the DH when he was with Oakland in 1977, juggling four outfielders effectively and still getting 351 at-bats from Billy Williams.

Conclusion: It's looking better and better that the DH will pass this time in the National League. 

But there still are the purists who insist that it's just not baseball with the DH, that all the strategy disappears when you have the ninth hitter. 

"I have to laugh at those people who say the DH takes the strategy out of the game," said Hertzog, who spent five successful years with Kansas City before going to St. Louis. "You still have to know when your pitcher's getting tired and when to remove him.

"The major difference in the National League from the American League is you have to have three good relief pitchers over hare and you get away with one over there. Look at Kansas City. If they didn't have (Dan) Quisenberry (21 saves), they'd be in real trouble. Over here, they wouldn't do anything. 

Hertzog is looking forward to the vote next week.

"It's going to be pretty close," he predicted. "It's going to be like 6-6 or 7-5. But we need seven votes for it to pass. 

"The one thing I can tell you is that people have changed over here – they're not as much in the Stone Age as they used to be." 

That may be the case with the passing of such hard-line conservatives as Walter O'Malley and Philip Wrigley. But, more and more, we're seeing players like Dave Kingman, Mike Vail. Bench. Guerrero, Johnstone, Walling and Luzinski who present such a strong case for the DH. 

Perhaps the Phils' Pete Rose summed it up best before Wednesday night's game. Rose has given every subject in baseball a lot of thought, and his ideas normally are provocative and timely.

"The best thing about the DH is you can rest a starter once a week." said Rose. "I think it would be great if it could be done on a rotating basis." 

That's what George Bamberger did in Milwaukee in 1978, giving 10 players the opportunity for more than 400 at-bats each. A team which finished last with a 67-95 record in 1977 was 93-69 in 1978. 

Perhaps that wasn't the only reason, but it presents yet another case for the designated hitter: The opportunity to give more people more playing time.