Allentown Morning Call - October 26, 1980
Phils have good chance to sweep postseason awards
By John Kunda, Executive Sports Editor
Items of interest heard along the way:
What are the chances of the Phillies completing a postseason sweep? I mean, the National League MVP, the Cy Young Award and the rookie of the year award. From here it looks pretty good. There seems to be no doubt that Steve Carlton will be the Cy Young winner. Was there any better pitcher this season in the league? Mike Schmidt, the best home run hitter in both leagues, has a better than even chance of winning the MVP Award. Schmidt's offensive strengths have been talked about for years. Overlooked might be the fact that he's almost as strong defensively. Post-season games, the playoffs as well as the World Series, don't enter the voting. Only the regular season counts. Rookie of the year? How about Lonnie Smith? What a job this kid's done since making the team. It'll be weeks before voting results will be announced. A sweep would just add more icing to the multitiered cake.
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Dave Bristol has knocked around baseball – and has been knocked around by baseball. He just completed his first full year as the manager of the Giants, his third managerial job in the majors. Bristol is one of those tell-it-like-it-is guys. He admires Dallas Green. "He (Green) did a great job with Philadelphia," said Bristol. "But it's pretty easy for him to run a strong ship. He's solid with the Philadelphia organization and he knows he isn't going to get fired even if he doesn't cater to the whims of the high-priced players."
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Here's a look at what was going on at the World Series trading market: The Mets want a lefthanded pitcher, a third baseman, and most of all, a star. A lot of teams want one of the Met relievers, Neil Allen or Jeff Reardon, but the Mets are offering John Stearns and Joel Youngblood. The Yankees want a righthanded pitcher and righthand-hitting outfielder. For exchange, Yanks are looking to move second-liners, Ron Davis and Jim Spencer. They'll try for Dusty Baker or Dave Winfield. then go after Don Sutton or Dan Spillner. The Pirates want a hitter and have a catcher, Steve Nicosia, and a pitcher, Bert Blyleven, to offer. The Phillies? They have lots to offer. What they want most is a good powerhitter, preferably lefthanded. Some baseball experts think that Larry Bowa and Greg Luzinski, the two most mentioned as not being part of the world champs next year, might not have the market they think.
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As a golfer, Tom Watson makes a lot of money, something like a half -million dollars this year. But as a gin player, he's got lots to learn. On the flight from Philadelphia to Kansas City last week, Watson lost $32. He lost it to one of his Kansas City friends. Watson, his wife and his friend and his wife were returning from Philadelphia after watching the first two World Series games. "We'll be back (to Philadelphia)," he said, not too concerned that his favorite team, the Royals, were two down at the time.
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Sometimes advance planning doesn't work out. Take the case of the Montreal Expos. They had a grand bonfire, burning 10,000 pennants that read, "Expos, 1980 National League Champions." The Phillies know about that kind of stuff. In 1964, they had thousands upon thousands of World Series tickets printed. They put some of them to use – they sent them out in pairs to the folks on their Christmas card list.
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Easterners in Kansas City last Sunday were enraged with the selection of the televised NFL game. They were all hoping that one of the local stations would be carrying the Eagles-Dallas game. No such luck. We were stuck with the Bills-Dolphins game. The Chiefs-Broncos game came on an hour later. That wasn't much better, either.
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The man from Columbus, Ohio, says "you can tell your people back home that Gerry Faust will succeed Dan Devine as the Notre Dame football coach. "Gerry Faust? Yep, Gerry Faust, the successful head coach at Cincinnati's Moeller High School. If Faust would get the N.D. job, he would be the first of Notre Dame's 24 head football coaches to come directly from the high school ranks. Faust has developed countless major college football players, including five who are on the Notre Dame roster at the moment.
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Don Zimmer, the recently fired Red Sox manager, was hanging around World Series headquarters in Philadelphia. He didn't mind telling how tough it is to manage in Boston. "I know of no city which is more intense or more demanding than Boston," he said. They've got to have a winner. Finishing second is not good enough. ' ' Zimmer vows he'll be in baseball next year, "even if it's in the Florida State League. " Who'll take over the Red Sox? Ted Williams's name was mentioned, so was Hawk Harrelson's.
Cheers & Jeers
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor,
"No-talk Phils are Unpopular Winners During This Series" read John Kunda's column on Oct. 21. Unpopular with who? The Phils fans? No way! With the almighty reporters? Yes!
Mr. Kunda, as does most reporters, thinks sports figures, just because they are sports figures, must answer their questions. How would anyone want to be asked the same questions 162 times a year, and then be misquoted anyway. I'm speaking of the Larry Bowa "misquote" about Philly fans. Even if he meant it the other way, he has a right to his opinion and could just as well have been "off the record." That could cause a Dave Parker situation (battery throwing).
Rapping a player just because he doesn't comply with writers is just childish (if I don't get my way, I'll tell on you). I'm not a Phillie fan, I'm a Yankee fan who went through the same thing back in 1978. They were 14½ games back in August, torn apart by writers dwelling on the Steinbrenner, Martin, Jackson, Munson conflict and pitting them against each other. Luckily, the N. Y. papers went on strike about then. Well, baseball fans know the result. Boston. K.C. and L.A. didn't know what hit them. I prayed for that strike to last. It did, thank God.
Kunda calls these quiet ones "monsters on the field." Asinine! Maybe in the clubhouse where players deserve their privacy. Kunda says they hold a grudge against all reporters. If they only talked to writers they liked, everything would be whitewashed and others would cry in their beers.
How can a reporter covering a team "keep his fingers crossed that the no-talks also turn out to be no-stars. ". That's self defeating if you want to cover a winner. Jumping on Carlton is the lowest. But he doesn't talk! Ship him out! Barbara Wawa (Walters) offered him $25,000, thinking any dumb jock can be bought. Hooray for principles.
I'll just bet that K.C. reporter "begged" for an interview with a mike stuffed in Carlton's face. When he wins the Cy Young Award, he should send one of the talkers. If Kunda wants to interview talkers, put him on the political trail.
I'll bet if the writers have an award for the best scoop during the Series, they'll give it to the guy with George Brett's ailment. Now, there's a real baseball story.
Jeff Starr
Bethlehem Twp.
To the Editor:
Re – John Kunda story published in The Morning Call, Oct. 21. I believe it is time to hear from a fan concerning athlete's silence toward the media.
It seems Mr. Kunda deals with negativism (he uses the word negatism, a word omitted from my dictionary) by Steve Carlton toward the media with negative journalism, a style only too familiar to readers of the "Call" sports section. I think what it boils down to is the frustration of the reporter trying to write a story and not being able to write a story.
All those players owe me, as a fan, is a good performance on the field. They have been burned so badly, so often by the media that it's no wonder they have drawn into protective shells. Any interviews to writers or sports- casters is gravy.
One story is that Lefty turned down $25,000 to do an interview by Barbara Walters on her TV show. Now there is a man with principle and I admire him for it.
I wonder how well you handle criticism. I wonder if this letter gets published?
Randall D. Fritzinger
To the Editor:
After reading John Kunda's Oct. 21 column, your true colors have shown bright. After all the articles on "The City of Champions." he has the audacity to say "I'd love to see the Phillies win." Needless to say. he is a very poor liar. Wouldn't he really rather see the Phils lose – then compare them with "The Family." To that I say "Bull-Schmidt."
As far as the Phils being silent, consider this hypothetical situation. Larry Bowa calls a press conference in Allentown (or Kunda's beloved Pittsburgh ) and accuses him of gambling, dealings with prostitution and race fixings.
Get the message? Let's see how private Kunda is by printing this letter for a little fan reaction. No. you don't have to do that. Better yet, keep hiding behind his ballpoint and keep wearing his favorite suit – it's yellow and black. Who is Kunda really for? Webster's latest edition defines bandwagon, fan and sportswriter as one in the same.
Randy Koch
Phillies make a nice bundle
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The Philadelphia Phillies earned approximately $1.5 million in the National League Championship playoffs and the World Series, according to a club official.
William Giles, executive vice president, said the sum was a "rough guess" because exact figures won't be available for a month or so.
But he noted the postseason play enabled the club to earn a profit. Last year, for the first time, the club had no profit because its player payroll increased sharply. Giles said. He had said previously there also would have been no profit this year if the team had not won the NX Eastern Division.
The club took in $1.1 million in ticket sales during the playoffs against Houston and $645,000 in the Series against Kansas City. It got $300,000 for television rights to the games and a 15 percent commission on all concession sales at the games.
Giles said that total revenues for the playoffs and Series were about $2 million.
Meanwhile, city Managing Director Wilson Goode said the Phillies' victory parade Wednesday will cost the city more than $500,000. Police estimated that 500,000 people had lined the parade route from downtown to JFK Stadium in south Philadelphia.
Still not accounted for are overtime for police and salaries for fire department rescue personnel who were on duty.