Wilmington News Journal - October 26, 1980
Carlton and Brett choice of managers
NEW YORK (AP) – Steve Carlton of the Phillies and George Brett of the Kansas City Royals, opponents in the World Series, won the 1980 Performers of the Year awards in the annual poll of major league managers conducted by Baseball Magazine.
Left-hander Carlton, who was 24-9 for the world-champion Phils, collected eight first-places votes from the 12 National League managers and outdistanced teammate Mike Schmidt. Carlton got 54 total points to Schmidt's 31.
Montreal's Gary Carter was a distant third with 14 points. Los Angeles' Dusty Baker was fourth with 12 points and Keith Hernandez of St. Louis, the 1979 winner, was fifth with 11.
Third baseman Brett, who flirted with .400 most of the second half of the season and finished at .390, polled eight first-place ballots in the American League and had 58 points to 34 for runner-up Rich Gossage, relief ace of the New York Yankees.
Milwaukee's Cecil Cooper was third with 20 points, Baltimore's Steve Stone fourth with 18 and New York's Reggie Jackson fifth with 15.
Carlton led the NL pitchers with 286 strikeouts in 304 innings pitched and had a 2.34 earned run average in his 38 starts. Brett became only the second man in AL history to have more RBI than games played when he batted in 118 runs in 117 games. Brett had 24 homers and 14 game-winning RBI.
Hernandez's finish was the highest by a previous winner in the three-year history of the manager's poll. The NL votes were split up among a record 20 different players.
Ganter, Phils hit jackpot
By Len Holmquist
Harry S. Truman occupied the White House. The Korean War raged on. "Goodnight Irene" was the top selling song. The Cleveland Browns beat the Los Angeles Rams for the National Football League Title.
And the Phillies were swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series.
The year, of course, was 1950. Betty Ganter was still a teenager, just one year out of Wilmington High.
"I remember the Whiz Kids," said Ganter. "Granny Hamner, Robin Roberts, Jim Konstanty, Puddin' Head Jones. I've been a Phillies fan for a long time."
Just like thousands of other Phil-lie fans, Ganter got "pumped" when Dallas Green's guys made those miraculous comebacks to beat Houston and gain a spot in the World Series.
"I put pennants and signs up all over the lanes (Silverside)," she said.
As the Phillies and Royals got ready to do battle in Game Three of the Series, Ganter was doing some competing of her own in the Silverside Lanes Women's Major League. After an opening game of 193, Ganter's thoughts evidently wandered. Maybe they wandered to the upcoming Series game because without being aware of it, she started a string of strikes that attracted more attention from surrounding bowlers with every X that the automatic scoring machine flashed on the screen.
"I've had five or six (strikes) in a row many times," Ganter pointed out. "But when I looked up and saw eight in a row, I thought, 'Hey, only two more frames.'"
Ganter says she didn't feel any pressure on the ninth strike or the first strike in the 10th frame.
"But when I threw the 11th and turned around and saw all those people screaming, it shook me up."
Not known as a deliberate bowler, Ganter, a 25-year bowling veteran, grabbed her ball as it came out of the ball return, told herself, "I don't care what I get, it's still a good game," and let fly with her shot at a perfect game. The only trouble was, things didn't "fly."
"The ball seemed to go a little slower." Like slow motion? "Yeah, and when it (the ball) hit the pins, they didn't all crash at once like you usually see; they seemed to fall one-by-one."
When the final pin – the 4-pin – finally fell, Ganter threw her arms in the air (a la Tug McGraw).
"Things sure come at the most uncommon times. Here I was all 'pumped' for the Series and this (her 300) happens."
Ganter's perfect game is only the third ever bowled by a woman in Delaware. Rita Justice had the first, at Bowlerama, in 1973. The second was bowled last year by Edwina "Toots" Dempsey, also at Bowlerama.