Lancaster Intelligencer Journal - February 1980

Sportsmen Turn Humorists

 

By Randy Montgomery, Intelligencer Journal Sports Writer

  

For once, the athletes and coaches weren't talking about winning or losing or how they played the game.

 

The messages were of special moments past and of hopes laced with optimism about the future.

 

Mostly, humor was the order of the evening.

 

The scene was Thursday night's 34th Annual Lancaster Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Banquet at the Host Farm. A sellout crowd of some 1,100 came to dine with the panel of sports world celebrities that included Philadelphia Eagles' coach Dick Vermeil and Phillies' manager Dallas Green.

 

Local administrator and former coach E. Jerry Brooks, currently the PIAA District Three chairman, was presented the George W. Kirchner Memorial Award exemplary of his long-time contributions to local athletics.

 

Vermeil, the Eagles' "Mr. Intensity," said he didn't consider himself a workaholic.

 

"I'm just a person who enjoys doing what he's doing,"' Vermeil said. "I'm a football coach, nothing more and, I hope, nothing less."

 

Aside from Vermeil's words, and the award presentation to Brooks, the banquet speakers presented nearly an unbroken string of jokes and one-liners.

 

Phillies outfielder Greg Gross deadpanned through an uproariously funny monologue of what it takes to be a part-time major league outfielder. He gave most of the credit for making it through last summer to Tim McCarver, who talked about what it's like to grow old gracefully at the tender age of 35.

 

"What does an extra man do to get ready (to play)?" Gross asked. His answer was simple.

 

"Nothing," he said. "'You sit around and play cards. What do you have to get ready for?"

 

Gross said McCarver taught him all he knows about playing the role of a part-timer.

 

"You've got to practice getting out of the dugout.' Gross said, repeating McCarver's rule for entering games as a late-inning defensive replacement. "'You don't want to trip on the top step."

 

And as a reserve, Gross said, McCarver stressed that the most important thing for the extra guy to remember is to pick the right moments to be seen by the TV cameras.

 

"If someone hits a home run, you've got to be the first one out to greet him on the top step," Gross explained. "That's not only to get the cameras on you but to let the fans know you're still alive.”

 

McCarver, who retired at the end of last season and is now a sportscaster for PRISM, said the signs were obvious that he was getting too old to play baseball.

 

"The telltale signs that you're too old," McCarver said, "is when you go out drinking on the road and your teammates order drinks and you order mineral oil.

 

"Or you can tell you're getting old when they want to make a second base coach out of you.”

 

McCarver also expressed concern over the problems his old batterymate, Phillies' pitcher Steve Carlton, might have this summer without McCarver behind the plate.

 

"It's going to be strange when Carlton's pitching and he looks up (to the broadcast booth) to shake me off," he said.

 

Pat Kelly, a part-time outfielder for the American League champion Baltimore Orioles and a devout Christian, admitted that the Orioles' little skipper, Earl Weaver, doesn't share Kelly's strong belief in God.

 

It's great to walk with the Lord," Kelly recalled saying to Weaver one day.

 

"Yeah, that's great," Kelly said Weaver replied. "But I'd rather have you walk with the bases loaded."

 

Kelly did get serious for a few moments, saying that playing in the World Series last year was his biggest baseball thrill.

 

"It's nice to win but it's even nicer to take a part in it," said Kelly, who hit .458 and cracked three home runs as a pinch-hitter. "Playing in the World Series was the thrill of a lifetime for me."

 

While Baltimore's baseball team enjoyed great success in 1979, its football team, the Colts, suffered through another forgettable fall. The Colts again finished last in the American Conference East Division as "'The Franchise," quarterback Bert Jones, was sidelined much of the season again with shoulder miseries.

 

Colts Joe Ehrmann, a defensive tackle, and linebacker Sanders Shiver think things will be better in 1980. Head coach Ted Marchibroda was fired after the season and replaced with former Eagles head coach Mike McCormack.

 

"With the changes in the organization," Shiver said, "we're looking forward to big things."

 

Ehrmann had the perfect solution for a better 1980. He looked over at Eagles' coach Dick Vermeil and offered, "I'm available, Dick."

 

Another football player present was Penn State defensive tackle Matt Millen, who spent the final weeks of the 1979 season in a Hershey Medical Center bed with a back ailment.

 

Millen talked of football as a learning experience.

 

"If I never play football again, it's not the end of the world," Millen said. "I know football is not the most important thing.

 

"Just enjoy whatever do and go at it as hard as you can. When you look in the mirror you know if you've done it or not."

 

Millen also said he's confident he'll go in the upcoming draft.

 

"I'm a first-round pick," Millen predicted. "If you don't believe it, ask coach Jimmy Carter. I'll be a first-round pick and I'll see you in Afghanistan.”

 

Two former major league pitchers, new Phillies manager Green and Orioles' public address announcer Rex Barney related some of their experiences as struggling young athletes.

 

Green recalled his first major league appearance for the Phillies and then manager Gene Mauch. It came in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

The first pitch he threw was to Maury Wills and Wills ripped it for a double, Green said. His second pitch, to Willie Davis, also went for a double, scoring Wills. On his third pitch, Duke Snider slugged a long two-run homer.

 

That brought Mauch to the mound. He asked Clay Dalrymple, the catcher, "Is his (Green's) ball moving?"

 

"Gee, I don't know," Dalrymple replied. "I haven't caught one yet."

 

Barney came up to the Brooklyn Dodgers with the reputation as a hard thrower.

 

"I could throw very hard," he said, "but I had a terrible time with direction."

 

His reputation as a hard thrower with little control grew, and several Rex Barney jokes became popular. Jokes like, as Barney related them, "If home plate was high and outside Rex Barney would be in the Hall of Fame." Or, "Rex Barney could throw a ball through a brick wall if only he could hit the brick wall."

 

Gordon Beard, the Maryland sports editor for the Associated Press, had a quip for practically everybody.

 

"The Colts have added 13,000 more seats (to Memorial Stadium)," Beard re ported. "That means they now have 33,000 empty seats."

 

The Phillies gave McCarver a choice for 1980, Beard suggested. "'He could either go into retirement or become a ventriloquist and have Steve Carlton sit on his knee," Beard said.

 

Lancaster County's Tom Herr, an infielder with the St. Louis Cardinals, said he expects the Cardinals to be in the running for the National League East title this year and that he thinks he has a good shot at making the club.

 

Hershey Bears' player-coach Doug Gibson introduced Bears' center Claude Noel and, looking at Vermeil, reportedly a teetotaler, said, "When you're coaching, how can you possibly not drink?"

 

Eagles' halfback Billy Campfield stressed continued improvement as the Eagles' goal for 1980 and the Lancaster Red Roses' Sylvester Cuyler encouraged people to come out and see the Roses, who 1 he promised would get better.

 

Toastmaster Marvin Miller introduced World Class swimmer Birch Davidson and All-America High School soccer player Keith Fulk from Elco.

 

Lancaster mayor Arthur Morris opened the banquet and By Kintzer, president of the Lancaster Sportswriters and Sportcasters Association, presented the Kirchner award to Brooks.

Phillies’ Blues Rest On Green

 

By Randy Montgomery, Intelligencer Journal Sports Writer

  

The first thing you notice about Dallas Green is his size. The Phillies' new manager is a huge man. He stands six and one-half feet tall and tips the scales at 245 pounds.

 

And Green is loud, very loud. Attempt a one-on-one conversation with Green and you get the feeling he's shouting his words to everyone and anyone in the room. When it was Green's turn to speak at last Thursday's Lancaster Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association banquet at the Host Farm, you wondered if he would even use a microphone.

 

Green is the man chosen to lead the Phillies from the doldrums of last year's fourth place finish in the National League East Division. Green's reputation is that of a straightshooter. He doesn't mince words. He says what's on his mind.

 

That has caused some problems.

 

Late last season, after he had taken over in the dugout for the departed Danny Ozark, Green blasted his team in the press after one of its frequent losses. His words of criticism didn't go over too well with several of the Phillies who had become accustomed to the easy-going Ozark, who rarely vented such feelings publicly.

 

The crisis passed. But the players and the public learned that Green's message, whether you like it or even believe it, comes across loud and clear.

 

These days, counting down the final weeks to the beginning of spring training, the manager's message is that the Phillies will be better. than they were in 1979. Green contends that people who are looking only at Pittsburgh, Montreal and perhaps St. Louis as NL East contenders are just not being realistic.

 

"There's no possible way we can play as bad (this season) if we are sound physically," Green said. "At Montreal and Pittsburgh, everyone had super years (in 1979) and 1 they were both sound physically."

 

Physical Woes

 

But, being realistic, if there is one thing Green cannot be assured of as spring training approaches it's that the Phillies will be physically sound. The question marks are many, especially on the pitching staff, where no less than six pitchers are going into the season coming off either surgery or major arm miseries.

 

Included in that group are starters Dick Ruthven, coming back from elbow surgery, and Larry Christenson, who had surgery to repair his collarbone. In addition, recently signed free agent reliever Lerrin LaGrow had off-season elbow surgery and Nino Espinosa and Warren Brusstar both suffered shoulder woes last season. And onetime phenom Jim Wright is hoping to make another comeback, this time from a broken arm.

 

Despite that bleak report, Green is confident his pitchers will come back. And he says it with such conviction you believe him. Almost.

 

"They're repairing nicely, they're working every day at the Vet (Veterans Stadium),' he said. "They're making progress. I'm encouraged with all of the cripples.”

 

An early spring camp begins Feb. 25 in Clearwater. "We'll be trying to get some of the kinks out then," Green said.

 

Probably the biggest question mark among the pitchers is whether Brusstar will be able to bounce back as one of the league's best young relief pitchers.

 

"He's a super program under (Phillies' trainer) Don Seger," Green said. "But I'm not going to figure on him. It's only in the last two days he's started throwing a little bit."

 

Obviously, the Phillies need some bullpen help. Tug McGraw and Ron Reed were inconsistent last year and both have passed their mid-30s. A third reliever is needed to take some of the burden off of them.

 

Green acknowledges the need for a third dependable stopper. And LaGrow, coming off surgery, can't be counted on too heavily to plug the hole created by Brusstar's absence.

 

"They (McGraw and Reed) have reached the age where the added pressure put on them by Brusstar's getting hurt, that hurt them," Green said.

 

Noles in Pen

 

Green thinks one solution to the bullpen problem might be young Dickie Noles, who made his debut in the major leagues last summer as a starter.

 

"I like his belly, I like his stuff," Green said of Noles. "He has good makings for relief pitching. I see him doing Brusstar's job. He can be a punch-out guy, come in and get the big strikeout."

 

For a while over the winter it appeared help in the bullpen would come via a trade. Especially close to being completed was a seven-player deal for the Texas Rangers' Sparky Lyle. That, however, never advanced beyond rumor status because the Phillies and Lyle couldn't. come to terms on Lyle's complicated multi-year contract.

 

Green admitted he would liked to have had the veteran left-hander at his disposal.

 

"I was kinda disappointed, yes," Green said of the inability to make a trade for a reliever and especially one for Lyle. "The Lyle thing just didn't work out," he said. "We were close. We were in the last few yards of the dash. But at the time we just couldn't tie it together."

 

Green's efforts to solidify his pitching staff will be among his chief priorities in the Phillies' camp in Clearwater. But beyond the decisions to be made on who will wear the Phillies' uniforms this year, the Phillies' camp will be an interesting one simply because it is Green's first as manager.

 

How will things be different with Green at the helm instead of Ozark? The talk goes on and on about Green being a strict disciplinarian and how he will crack down on the team, doing away with the easy-going, do-as-you-please atmosphere that pervaded the camp in Ozark's final years.

 

Green, however, thinks the disciplinarian angle has been overplayed.

 

"Everybody is making a big play about the discipline business," he said. "When I say do something I want that something done," he said. "Somebody's got to run the ship.”

 

If nothing else this spring, with Dallas Green around, the Phillies will know who's the boss.

For GM Owens, It’s A Frustrating Winter

 

By Randy Montgomery, Intelligencer Journal Sports Writer

  

YORK — It's been a long, cold winter for Phillies' general manager Paul Owens. A lot like the long, hot summer the Phillies themselves suffered through in 1979.

 

These are not good days for men of Owens' ilk, the men who used to warm up the cold of winter by meeting in hotel lobbies and suites, making late-night telephone calls to wheel and deal baseball players. In the process they stoked the hot stove league fires.

 

Owens is among the personalities along on the 1980 Phillies Caravan, which began its winter travels Monday in Trenton, N.J., and winds up today with a stop in Camp Hill. In between were stopovers in Allentown, Hazleton and Pottsville in addition to the appearance at Wednesday night's York Area Sports Night.

 

Besides Owens, the Philles' representatives on the caravan include manager Dallas Green, players Larry Bowa, Greg Gross and Randy Lerch and several members of the front office. Pete Rose was with the caravan Monday and Tuesday.

 

Owens admits his winter, the time of year when he used to swing into high gear on the trade front, has been a disappointing one.

 

An idea of the kind of off-season it's been for Owens is underscored by noting that the one trade "The Pope" did pull off this winter doesn't even come up during a conversation that covers topics like possible trades, Greg Luzinski's weight and the Phillies' prospects for 1980.

 

That single Phillies trade involved sending spare infielder Pete Mackanin to the Minnesota Twins for right-handed pitcher Paul Thormodsgard.

 

Oh THAT trade.

 

Owens also doesn't show much enthusiasm for the coming interleague trading session, set to begin Feb. 15. He doesn't believe there will be much action. Owens feels that mid-February is a bad time for general managers to attempt any transactions.

 

"I don't know what good it does," he said of the upcoming session. "The timing just isn't too good. They should hold it in March.

 

"This doesn't do us any good. We'll use this period just to eliminate the American League clubs (as potential swappers)."

 

Owens figures that if the interleague session was held later in the spring, after the beginning of spring training and after teams have had some time to evaluate their personnel, there would be more trading action.

 

But even a new time for the trading session probably would do little to produce sessions like those in the past, when scores of players those changed uniforms. Owens is quick to lament those trading days of yesteryear, when all he had to worry about were the players involved.

 

"They've taken all the fun out of it (trading), Owens says, repeating a statement he's uttered many times before in reference to the free agent market and the long-term and complicated contracts players now have. "Now there are eight, nine or 10 things you have to think about."

 

As for the 1980 Phillies, Owens there are no trades under discussion. says That, major though, change at any time, quickly could he points out.

 

For Owens, conversations with other trade-makers are an ongoing process. He doesn't reveal the names of players he's talking about in deals or the clubs he is talking to. All he admits is that he is constantly in contact with his baseball colleagues. But Owens sounds like feels the Phillies are pretty much set to attack the rest of the National League East with the team they have right now.

 

"We're not looking to make any major help changes," he said. "We need right-handed on the bench. We could use some an Ollie Brown- type player.

 

“As for relief pitching, we signed (Lerrin) LaGrow. I think he'll help. He gives us more depth. It think he might be a surprise."

 

Still, one of the keys to a better-than-fourth-place finish for the 1980 Phillies, in a division where the world champion Pittsburgh Pirates, the youthful and onrushing Montreal Expos and the improving St. Louis Cardinals figure to be in the pennant chase, is a healthy pitching staff. And that help is going to have to come from within.

 

"There's still a question mark on (Warren) Brusstar," Owens said of the young right-hander who missed almost all last season with shoulder woes. And of the two elder statesmen in the bullpen, Tug McGraw and Ron Reed, Owens admits, "Tug and Reed are both at the age, 35 and 36, where you start looking down the line (for additional help). We have some question marks on our pitching but every club is looking for that one more pitcher.”

 

One reason for Owens' optimism at a time when all teams are optimistic is left-fielder Greg Luzinski.

 

"Bull He's will bounce back, I'm sure he will,” Owens said. b"He's got his weight down. He’s been a leader for six years and if you know Bull you know he's the type of guy that will fight back in an effort to prove things to people."

 

Like the Phillies as a team must set out to prove they're better than a fourth-place club.

Sports Digest (excerpt)

 

From Intell Sports Staff And Wire Services

  

Baseball

 

Ruben Amaro will replace Tony Taylor as the Philadelphia Phillies first base coach this season, manager Dallas Green said. Amaro, 44, is an 11-year major league veteran and the Phillies' Coordinator of Latin American Scouting for the past six years. Taylor was recently named a roving minor league infield instructor for the Phillies. Amaro, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies, New York Yankees and California Angels before retiring in 1969.