Allentown Morning Call - May 19, 1980
Ryan finally gives Astros what they’ve been waiting for
HOUSTON (AP) – Houston's million-dollar pitcher. Nolan Ryan, finally gave the Astros what they'd been waiting for. striking out a season-high 10 Philadelphia batters yesterday and allowing only four hits in a 3-0 shutout that ended a five-game losing streak.
Ryan. 2-3, hit 98 miles per hour with three of his pitches, but said his breaking pitch was the difference.
"Sometimes your reputation precedes you." Ryan said. "If somebody's expecting my fast ball and my breaking stuff is working, it might cause them trouble."
Ryan caused the Phillies plenty of trouble, allowing only one runner to reach third base, on a fifth-inning triple by Manny Trillo.
He walked pinch-hitter Greg Gross and yielded a single to Pete Rose to start the eighth inning but then thrilled the crowd by striking out the next three batters.
Ryan's 10 strikeouts marked a season high.
"I've always been better in the latter parts of the game." Ryan said. "I get in a groove and for some reason I don't get tired."
Rafael Landestoy and Terry Puhl hit run-scoring singles in the second inning to provide Ryan with all the cushion he needed.
Landestoy led off the first inning with a single off Randy Lerch. 0-6. was sacrificed to second by Puhl and scored the first run on Jeff Leonard's single.
Luis Pujols doubled and Ryan walked with one out in the second inning before Landestoy and Puhl hit consecutive singles to add two Houston runs.
Philadelphia didn't mount a scoring threat until the fifth when Manny Trillo hit a two-out triple over Cesar Cedeno's head in center field. But pinch-hitter George Vukovich grounded out to end inning.
Chances of a strike good
NEW YORK (AP) – Negotiations in the stalemated baseball contract talks abruptly broke off yesterday, four days before the May 22 strike deadline.
Representatives of the owners and players attended two bargaining sessions with federal mediator Kenneth Moffett but met together for only two or three minutes before the talks ended.
Moffett declared a recess and returned to Washington, C. with his counsel, David Vaughn. The mediator said he and Vaughn would remain in touch with both sides and that he expected to call them back into session before the deadline of midnight Thursday.
"I can't see any light at the end of this tunnel," Moffett said dejectedly. "The chances for averting a strike are not good.”
He said there would be not be any talks yesterday.
The atmosphere in these talks turned decidedly frigid Friday when both sides rejected proposals from the other.
The owners turned down a suggestion that the rest of the contract be settled while the difficult free agent compensation question is placed on hold for two years and a study committee examines the question.
The players dismissed an owners' bid to continue all terms of the expired 1976 agreement through the start of the 1981 season while bargaining continues.
At Sunday's meeting. Moffett asked the player association representatives a single question on behalf of the club owners.
"The question was 'What is deficient in the owners' proposal as it relates to impasse and retroactivity?” the mediator said.
The owners' representatives repeated the question and, in a joint statement by league presidents Lee MacPhail and Chub Feeney said "We have indicated that the clubs will continue to recognize all of the players' rights during this season and that any improvements in a new basic agreement will be retroactive when a agreement is reached. With these assurances in place, there is nothing to be gained by the players if they strike."
Marvin Miller, executive director of the union, called it "a nothing proposal, one which would have the players work throughout the season under terms of a four-year-old agreement."
On retroactive elements. Miller said, "If I give you zero, retroactively, it's still zero."
Miller seemed angrier than he has for some time during these talks.
"There is clearly an attempt to con the players into accepting no improvement in their contract, to accept 1976 terms while the owners collect 1980 revenues. They're attempting to get a year free with no improvements," he said.
Miller also was annoyed at a question-answer document which was distributed to players over the weekend, attempting to show that there would be no point to a strike.
"It's a foolish attempt on the owners' part." Miller said. "The players basically tear them up. The ones who don't, resent the owners talking down to them.”
Miller was asked if a strike could be averted.
"It's late in the day," he said.