Wilmington Morning News - October 30, 1980

Sports briefs (excerpt)

Compiled from dispatches

Phillies’ additions

The Phillies added Carolina League most valuable player Julio Franco and league batting champion Wil Culmer to their 40-man winter roster, the National League club announced yesterday.

Also added were first baseman Len Matuszek of the Phillies' Oklahoma City AAA farm club and Reading shortstop Ryne Sandberg.

The Phillies released outfielder Mike Anderson and veteran Tim McCarver, who moved from the broadcast booth to the dugout in September to become the first catcher to play four decades in the major leagues.

The team also assigned infielder John Vukovich and pitcher Dan Larson to Oklahoma City in the American Association.

Franco, a 22-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic hit .325 for the championship Peninsula farm team, which finished with a 103-40 record. He drove in 99 RBI to lead the Carolina League and was runner-up in runs and hits to teammate Culmer.

The 21-year-old Culmer, from the Bahamas, finished the year with a .369 batting average, hitting .413 in the second half. Culmer also led the league in runs, hits and total bases, was second in doubles and third in home runs.

Matuszek, 26, hit .305 with 28 extra base hits, including seven home runs, and 35 RBI in 67 games with the 89ers.

Sandberg, 21, hit .312 with 71 RBI and 31 stolen bases with Reading.

Better late than never

Firefighters and policemen who had watched the Phillies' march to the World Series, then missed the team's victory when called to the scene of the explosion and fire at Amoco Chemicals Corp. near New Castle, got a second chance Tuesday night.

About 75 of them cheered, drank beer and generally acted as if they didn't know who was going to win as they watched videotaped highlights of the Series' sixth game at the Holloway Terrace firehouse.

The second showing was staged by the News-Journal papers, with the videotape supplied by KYW-TV, Philadelphia's Channel 3, which aired the game on Oct. 21.

Some of the firefighters missed the ninth inning again. They had to leave to answer a distress call on the Delaware River.

And the Phillies won 4-1, again.