The excuse is there; will Phillies use it?

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Sometime today Dr. Phillip Marone was to have inserted his arthroscope into Greg Luzinski's right knee, peered inside, and determined whether or not the Phillies' slugging leftfielder will need surgery.

The doctor, who has been puzzled by the nature of the injury, figures there is a "75-80 percent" he will have to operate. Which means Luzinski and his formidible bat will be unavailable to the Phillies for up to six crucial pennant-race weeks.

"I'm not very optimistic from what the doctor has given me the last couple of days," Manager Dallas Green said after his club bombed the Atlanta Braves, 17-4, yesterday in Veterans Stadium.

It seems the Phillies, who effectively, have been without the Bull since he hurt the knee while sliding into second base during a July 5 game in St. Louis, will have to learn to get along without Luzinski's long-ball threat, without his run-producing power.

"We won't have that problem (of scoring runs) if all the guys hit," said Green. "We have guys capable of hitting the ball."

That capability was in evidence yesterday, the Phillies grinding out a stadium record 21 hits – only one a home run – and 17 runs. Naturally, the club is not going to score that many runs every day. But the blossoming of the offense pointed out that the Phillies can win as a singles-doubles team.

"It (the injury to Luzinski) is an emotional situation for the team," said centerfielder Garry Maddox, who had his best RBI day in some time by driving in five runs. "Teams can get by with good pitching and good defense. Teams have done it. You can survive. You can win without Luzinski if we get the pitching, but he's missed tremendously offensively."

The Phillies, really, have no one capable of filling the gap Luzinski's absence would create. But the club can compensate by doing all the little things – sacrificing, moving runners, taking the extra base – it should have been doing all along.

Some might go so far to say the loss of Luzinski could be a blessing in disguise; that it will force the Phillies to play the kind of "grind it out" baseball Green has been preaching about since spring training. It is a theory Green does not accept.

"When you lose someone of Bull's caliber in a dogfight of a pennant race, it's not a pleasant thought," Green said. "If I can't get them to do those things with Bull in there, I'm not doing my job. So I don't know if it's any blessing in disguise by any stretch of the imagination."

Green and Luzinski have not been the best of friends ever since Luzinski likened his manager to a "Gestapo" leader. The description, one that many of Luzinski's teammates might agree with, did not go over well with Green.

In fact, between games of Friday's doubleheader with the Braves, someone asked Green if he had talked with Luzinski. "I'm not supposed to talk to him," Green retorted. "He's supposed to talk to me."

Luzinski, a man not usually given to making rash statements, dutifully met with Green prior to Saturday's game. It was a meeting Luzinski termed "no big deal," and one Green dismissed with a terse statement.

"Bull had an opportunity to give me his ideas and opinions," Green said. "I, in turn, had the opportunity to give him my viewpoints. We understand each other better."

The entire episode can be attributed to unfortunate phrasing by a frustrated ballplayer. That is not to say it should have been ignored, or that Luzinski should be excused. It was, however, merely an example of one man allowing his emotions to rule his tongue.

Like the myriad of other controversies in this dour season, it seems to be a thing of the past. Perhaps now, at last, the club can concentrate on winning instead of ignoring the press, granting interviews to drug law enforcement officials and worrying about who will be the next afflicted by injury.

After yesterday's thumping of the Braves, the Phils remained four games behind the Pirates in the National League East Division standings with fully 67 to play. Plenty of time.

The task will be to adjust to a lineup without Luzinski in as few of those remaining games as possible. The injury to Luzinski may well have presented the Phillies with a good excuse to fall out of the pennant race.

It's up to them not to use it.

Phils, Carlton Assault Braves To Set Vet Stadium Record

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA - "Well, guys, it was a day for record setting and you were there."

What Dallas Green said was true. The 17 runs and 21 hits his Philadelphia Phillies used to club Atlanta 17-4 Sunday afternoon were an all-time record for the 10 seasons there has been baseball combat at Veterans Stadium.

You have to wonder how Manager Green will feel about all this record setting if a guy named Gordon Pladson happens to shut his heroes out tonight when the Houston Astros reach town for a three-game series.

Whether they wasted some hits and runs or not the Phils did make it easy for their ace Carlton to pick up his 16th victory, tying Baltimore's Steve Stone for the most victories in both leagues.

Carlton gave up three runs in the second inning on a pair of walks, double by ex-Phil Bill Nahorodny, error by left fielder Lonnie Smith and a sacrifice fly. The visitors' other run came on second baseman Glenn Hubbard's homer in the fifth inning. Carlton allowed four hits and struck out eight in the seven innings he worked while improving his record to 16-5.

 "I wanted to take it easy on Lefty's arm and at the same time give my bullpen a little work," Green said. He used Dickie Noles in the eighth inning and Warren Brusstar in the ninth.

His hitters gave the manager the luxury of resting most of his regulars before the game was over. Garry Maddox led the assault on four Atlanta pitchers by driving home Me five runs with a triple, single and sacrifice fly.

 "I've been trying a lot of different things up there because I didn't want to sacrifice the entire season by trying to stick with my regular hitting style," Maddox explained. "I'm still only hitting .269 so I'm not satisfied with the way things are going. But at least I was able to help us win a game today.”’

Rookie Smith, who will inherit the left field territory on a regular basis if it turns out Greg Luzinski needs knee surgery, started the Philly offense with his second career homer off loser Rick Matula,6-9, to leadoff the game. The swift young man also contributed a pair of singles and scored three runs.

Pete Rose, who had singles his first three trips to the plate, feels Smith will help prime the offense if it does turn out Luzinski is lost after undergoing an examination by team doctor Philip Marone today.

"He makes a lot of things happen when he is leading off," Rose said. "I know he gives me a chance to do a lot of things with the bat. We certainly don't want to lose the power of Greg's bat. But it will be up to the rest of us to take up the slack if he can't play."

The Phils picked up three runs off Matula in the first. After Smith's homer, Rose and Bake McBride singled. The second run scored on a single by Maddox, the third on a fielder's choice.

After the Braves tied the score in the top of the second the home t team put the decision away with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

Carlton started the big move with a one-out single. Singles by Smith and Rose loaded the bases. McBride: singled home two runs. After Mike Schmidt was given an intentional walk, Maddox greeted reliever Preston Hanna with a triple down the right field line scoring three runs.

Three singles in the fourth inning produced two more runs. One worrisome note in the inning occurred when Manny Trillo was hit on the helmet by a Hanna curve and had to leave the game.

"It hit his helmet and grazed him behind the ear. Since we were well ahead I felt it best he come out," Green said.

The Phils punished Al Habrosky and Larry Bradford for three runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth to achieve the biggest offensive figures in the history of the stadium.

"A game like this gives the manager a chance to use his bench. It also gives all of us a chance to relax up at the plate without any pressure," Rose said. "We have enough hitting throughout this lineup to win a lot of games. We just have to keep doing it on a regular basis."

The game ended the season's series between these two clubs with the Phils holding a 7-5 edge.

Today Phillies Learn If Luzinski Is Sitting

Tales of Hoffman by Harry Hoffman

PHILADELPHIA — The 1980 season started with such great promise for Greg Luzinski. The man of muscles had worked harder than ever during the off season to hone his massive body into baseball playing shape.

Although he tried to shrug it off, the Veterans Stadium boobirds had crawled deep under his skin during 1979. Most of his previous seven years in town, The Bull had been the darling of the local fans, especially those who sit in the left field area where he plays defense and cannonades long home run shots.

Luzinski had felt so warm about his relationship with the fans he decided to show his appreciation three years ago. He bought a block of tickets in the upper stands in left field and donated them to be used by various charitable organizations. The area was dubbed "'The Bull Ring" in his honor.

Then came 1979 and a long slump that gradually made Luzinski the No. 1 target of the famed Philadelphia boobirds.

Luzinski knew and Manager Danny Ozark knew Greg's major problem was a pulled thigh muscle he suffered early in May that never really healed properly. Ozark tried to give the big guy as much rest as possible. But when a team is trying desperately to win a pennant, it's not easy for the manager to sit down one of his few long ball threats for too long a period.

Luzinski struggled through the most frustrating season of his career. He wound up hitting 33 points below his lifetime average of .285 with only 18 home runs and 81 runs batted in.

Since many of his critics, including general manager Paul Owens, blamed the season-long slump on excessive weight, Luzinski decided to appease them by really punishing his body during the winter months.

The regimen paid off. He looked trim when he reported to Clearwater for spring training.

His robust bat also looked good to the fans when the season started. He tore up the league in May while hitting .312 with eight homers and 18 runs batted in. Despite slumping in June he still was keeping his batting average around .280 while his 15 homers were second on the team behind Mike Schmidt.

Then the grand comeback got "kneed" early in July. Luzinski ran into a wall in St. Louis. At first it didn't seem serious. But the next day the knee ballooned and team doctor Philip Marone had to remove fluid from it with a needle.

Several days later Luzinski was on the disabled list. While he was trying to recuperate back home he had plenty of time to read the hometown newspapers and the reports being sent back from the recent road trip.

The Bull saw red when he read some of the comments being made by Manager Dallas Green. He spouted his feelings out to several writers who visited him during his Vet Stadium workouts. Luzinski thought Green was super critical of his players and used the press too often to mouth that criticism. Luzinski, in his own comments, compared his manager to a dictator.

When this analogy was relayed to Green the manager obviously was not elated. A meeting to clear the air was held Saturday. Apparently Green and Luzinski were able to discuss their problem without making it any worse.

However that talk did not help the Bull's major concern right now which is his puffed up right knee. Dr. Marone decided Saturday the knee is bad enough to warrant an arthroscope probe today at Methodist Hospital to determine if there is any serious damage there that will force major surgery.

Thus a season that began so big for the team's likeable slugger may end in total frustration. If Marone finds only a few loose bone chips then minor surgery might keep Luzinski out only two more weeks. However, if he finds a damaged cartilage then the time out would be at least six weeks and perhaps for the rest of 1980.

"I have to find out one way or the other,' Luzinski said. "All I know is the knee has not felt right for a long time. Last year I tried to play hurt and it didn't work out too well for the team or me. This time I want things to be right. I want to play and help us win the pennant. But I can't play if I can't run or swing the bat right.”

Dr. Marone's probe inside the knee today will determine if it will be another lost season for Luzinski.