Philadelphia Daily News - July 3, 1980
Carlton Heads All-Star Staff
NEW YORK (UPI) – Steve Carlton, the major leagues' leading winner, and Jerry Reuss, author of the season's only no-hitter, head a staff of eight pitchers named to the National League's staff for Tuesday night's 51st All-Star Game.
Named to the staff along with Carlton, who has a 13-4 record for the Phillies, and Reuss, 9-2 for Los Angeles, were six other pitchers who helped give the staff a composite 65-27 won-lost record and .706 winning percentage.
The other pitchers are Jim Bibby of the Pittsburgh Pirates (9-1), Vida Blue of the San Francisco Giants (9-5), although Blue was placed on the disabled list yesterday because of a bad back; J.R. Richard of the Houston Astros (9-4), Bruce Sutter of the Chicago Cubs (3-4 with 18 saves), Kent Tekulve of the Pirates (5-4 with 9 saves) and Bob Welch of the Dodgers (8-3).
This year's game will be played in Los Angeles.
Tommy John and Rich Gossage of the New York Yankees headed the staff of five starters and three relievers with a combined .716 won-lost percentage named earlier yesterday to the American League All-Star team.
Rounding out the staff along with the two Yankees are starters Steve Stone of the Baltimore Orioles, Larry Gura of the Kansas City Royals, Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays, Rick Honeycutt of the Seattle Mariners and relievers Tom Burgmeier of the Boston Red Sox and Ed Farmer of the Chicago White Sox.
•
Here is a list of American League All-Star reserves, as chosen by Manager Earl Weaver:
Tigers catcher Lance Parrish and shortstop Alan Trammell; Brewers first baseman Cecil Cooper and outfielder Ben Oglivie; Rangers third baseman Buddy Bell and outfielder, AI Oliver; Royals catcher DarreJl' Porter; Yankees second baseman Willie Randolph; Orioles outfielder Al Bumbry; Twins outfielder Ken Landreaux; Indians outfielder Jorge Orta, and A's outfielder Rickey Henderson.
Phils Muff Big Chance
By Thom Greer
MONTREAL – With benefit of the all-seeing, 20-20 vision provided by hindsight, it seems utterly ridiculous not to have kept Manny Trillo moving around third base toward home on Greg Gross' single in the eighth inning.
Sure, Gross' sharply hit single. was scooped up in medium-left field by Ron LeFlore. But any sixth-grader will tell you LeFlore could not shatter a plate glass window with a throw from 10 paces. A shoulder separation two years ago robbed his throwing arm of all power, and he possessed no accuracy before the injury.
Yet, third base coach Lee Elia threw a stop sign in Trillo's path at third. Meanwhile, Garry Maddox rounded second on the play as if he were turning into the stretch of the 200-meter run in the 76 Olympics.
GARY CARTER took LeFlore's awful throw, which was closer to the mound than the plate, and rifled the ball to Rodney Scott, who easily tagged Maddox out as he scurried back to second. That killed the budding rally, ended the inning and destroyed any suspicions the Phillies had of departing this city last night tied with the Expos for first place in the NL Eastern Division.
The Expos came back to score three meaningless runs in their half of the eighth to take a 6-1 victory and hand Steve Carlton his fourth defeat in 17 decisions to the delight of 23,233 fans at Olympic Stadium.
But the Phils' eighth provided the golden opportunity to get back into the contest. Why not take a chance? They'd already thrown away the game.
Literally.
The Keystone Kops were never more hilarious than the Phillies were last night.
Either Carlton was bouncing wild pitches over Bob Boone's shoulder to permit runs (Lefty threw two wild pitches which scored runs) or Carlton was picking off runners at first, only to see Pete Rose's throw to kill the advancing runner at second go astray (that happened twice). Or Boone was quick-throwing to catch a runner off second, only to see Trillo bounce the ball off the advancing runner's helmet.
The Phils showed their hitting ineffectiveness their first time at bat. They loaded the bases with nobody out and managed but one run.
TO BE SURE, Steve Rogers and Steve Carlton were only luxurious pieces of garnish; the much bally-hooed "Duel of the Titans " in the battle for first place was more a comedy of errors and left the Expos two games ahead of the Phillies. Rogers survived to get the win, his 10th. but was blistered with seven hits along the way.
Carlton, however, was worse. He was finally lifted by Manager Dallas Green after 7⅓ innings. It was the first time he has been removed from a game since May 1 and only the third time this year.
"I thought Steve struggled all night," Green said. "But over and above that, we could have put the game away in the first inning. We, outhit them and did everything but outscore them. We had a hell of a lot of chances to win it, or at least make it more interesting.
"I'm happy (to win two of three in Montreal), but not really pleased with the way we played the game tonight. If Rogers had beaten us, I wouldn't be so upset. But we contributed to that."
Green did not bother to count the ways. But they were numerous:
1- The Phils' abject failure to score more than one run in the first inning.
2- The eighth-inning debacle. "I have no real difficulty with not sending Trillo," Green said, letting Elia off the hook. "But Garry is a well-schooled player. He knows he goofed. Maybe he will make it up tomorrow with a couple of hits." Maddox said he thought he could get to third if Trillo scored and slipped trying to get back to second.
3- The Expos' second run in the third inning. Andre Dawson doubled, went to third on a sacrifice fly and scored on Carlton's first wild pitch.
4- The Expos' third run. Scott got on base by a fielder's choice in the fifth inning. He was credited with a steal of second when Carlton picked him off first, but Rose's throw to catch him at second was late. He was credited with a steal of third when Boone caught him off second, but Trillo's throw hit him in the helmet. He scored on Carlton's second wild pitch.
5- Carlton's failure to keep Rogers off base. In the second inning, Carlton slopped up a curve to his counterpart, who came into the game hitting a hefty .176, that Rogers ripped to center to drive in Warren Cromartie for the Expos' first run. Carlton walked Rogers in the fifth and seventh.
"I don't think he (Carlton) had a real good concentrating game," Green said of Carlton. "I don't think he had himself all together tonight. Certainly the bottom line indicates he didn't.
"I don't know why Lefty was not concentrating. But he's only a human being. Everybody will have days like that."
Boone, however, saw no problem with Carlton's concentration. The catcher said it was more frustration.
"He made good pitches," Boone said, although confirming that Carlton's usually explosive slider was not among them. "But I think he'got frustrated about not being in a good mechanical groove all night. And then there were the three runners he picked off base and they all advanced. That was frustrating to him. He also had trouble finding his spots. The two wild pitches bounced in front of me because he was trying too hard to make sure he did not leave them hanging over the plate. The entire night was very unusual for him." J"
IT WAS AN EVEN more unusual night for the Phillies' slump-ridden hitters. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4. Boone was 0-for-4.
And astoundingly, Greg Luzinski took another 0-for-4 to extend his ofers to 19 with only two hits in his last 41 times at the plate. Included was a strikeout in the first inning with the bases loaded.
"I had a good swing at the first pitch," Luzinski explained. "Then he got the" cotint to 2-2 and made a super pitch to get me.
"But I feel close," he added, without noting he has taken extra baiting practice in an effort to extract himself from the slump. "I felt I found the flaw in my mechanics yesterday. The thing with me is that I've got to swing myself out of it. I'm not going to panic."
Neither is Dallas Green.
"The one good thing about baseball," the manager explained, "is that the sun will always come up tomorrow.”
4 Winners
There were four winners last night in the Daily News Home Run Payoff contest. In the third inning of the Phillies-Expos game, Martha Harrison of Williamstown, N.J, won $10, plus tickets on a single by Garry Maddox.
Winners of tickets only were William J. Wall of Philadelphia, Mary-beth Donahue of Doylestown, and Lawrence Jackson of Glenolden.
To date, the Daily News has paid out $9,765.