Wilmington Morning News - January 1980

Phils draft pitchers; a Luzinski to Chisox

Compiled from Dispatches

PHILADELPHIA – The Phillies looked for pitching help and came away with four pitchers in the two phases of baseball's annual January free-agent draft. Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox liked a Phillie's bloodline and took a chance, drafting Greg Luzinski's brother Bill.

The Orioles' first choices were a mammoth first baseman and a right-handed pitcher.

The Toronto Blue Jays had the draft's No. 1 pick and used it to select and sign 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher Colin McLaughlin from Woodbury Conn., who com piled a 12-2 record and a 2.30 earned run average for the University of Connecticut-Storrs last year.

The Phillies' first-round pick in the secondary phase was righthander Tony Ghelfi of LaCrosse, Wisc., the 14th pick overall.

Scout Don Williams reported Ghelfi, who attends Iowa Western Junior College, "has a good strong arm with very good velocity." But he said the 18-year-old needs more pitching experience, especially on his breaking ball.

Another righthander. Ron Richardson, 18, of Albany, Ore., and Lin-Benton Community College was taken on the second round.

In the secondary phase, the Phil lies drafted lefthanders Jim Harris, a 20-year-old sophomore at Ranger (Texas) Junior College, and Steve True, 19, of Seminole (Okla.) Junior College.

The secondary phase covers free agents who were drafted previously but didn't sign. The regular phase is for junior college players, college dropouts and high school seniors graduating in January.

The Orioles' first choice in the secondary phase (11th overall) was Michael Young, 20, an outfielder from Haywood, Calif.

The 6-feet-3, 195 pound Young attends Chabot Junior College in Hawyood. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.

The team's second selection in that phase of the draft was Michael Kreymborg, a right-handed pitcher from Tulsa, Okla.

Kreymborg, 19, attends Bacone Junior College in Muskogee, Okla, where he transferred from the University of Arkansas. He is 6-feet-5 and weighs 180.

In the regular phase, the Birds thought big 6-foot-6 to be exact. Their choice was first baseman George Dummar, 19, from Milford, Conn., who carries 225 pounds on his tall frame. Picked 26th in the first round, the last choice overall, Dummar, 19, a drop-out from Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Conn., bats and throws left-handed.

The Orioles' second choice in the first phase was Chris Willsher, a right handed pitcher from San Carlos, Calif. The 19-year-old Willsher attends San Mateo Junior ' College in San Carlos. He stands at 6-feet and weighs 180 pounds.

The White Sox, hoping there's more of a family resemblance than just a last name, made Bill Luzinski, 20, their first selection. Bill apparently was drafted for his potential, not his career statistics at Miami Dade North Community College.

Luzinski, a 6-foot, 185-pound right-handed hitter, was the seventh selection of the regular phase.

Luzinksi, who played third base last spring for Miami Dade but was benched at mid-season for erratic offensive and defensive play, played in just 24 games. In 76 at-bats, he hit .210 with three doubles, one homer and 15 RBI.

"He played outfield in the fall and liked it much better," Rokeach said. "But he's just an average outfielder. Throwing is probably the worst part of his game. His arm is questionable. He has an excellent attitude but he doesn't like comparisons with his brother."

"The boy looks a great deal like Greg; he's a powerfully built young man," said Roland Hemond, general manager of the White Sox. "He's gaining in experience down there. They play a heavy schedule. His hitting is supposed to be where his potential lies.

"We liked his bat and his strength. He comes by it naturally. It's a big-strength family, I guess you could say we're stockpiling "Baby Bulls" since we've also signed Orlando Cepeda (former major leaguer known as the "Baby Bull") as a batting instructor. He'll be working with Luzinski eventually."

Philly ump to call ‘em at dinner

National League umpire Eric Gregg has accepted an invitation to speak at Monday night's 31st Wilmington Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association annual dinner.

In addition to Gregg, two University of Delaware football All-Americans, Scott Brunner and Herb Beck, will attend the dinner, which will be held in the Gold Ballroom of the Hotel du Pont.

Approximately 20 area, regional and national, sports celebrities are expected to be featured, with Al Meltzer, prominent Philadelphia sportscaster, to be the evening's toastmaster.

Gregg, a native Philadelphian, became professionally involved with baseball in 1971 when he began umpiring in the New York-Pennsylvania League. He made his major league debut in September 1976 after four seasons in the Pacific Coast League.

Phillies' fans might remember Gregg's controversial call last September during a game with the Pirates at the Vet. Gregg ruled that catcher Keith Moreland's sixth-inning blast into the left-field stands was a fair ball, only to have his decision overruled by umpire-in-chief Doug Harvey.

As for Brunner, he played behind Jeff Komlo, 1978 All-American and another WSBA guest, for three seasons. He responded to his opportunity to start by quarterbacking the Blue Hens to a 13-1 won-loss record and a national Division II championship. His efforts, which included a school record-tying 24 touchdown passes, earned him College Division All-American recognition in the annual American Football Coaches Association poll.

Brunner, son of Temple backfield coach John Brunner, also was named to the second team of the Associated Press'" All-American poll for Division 1-AA and II.

Beck, who became the first Blue Hen football player since quarterback Don Miller to start in four consecutive seasons, was an AP Little All-American. The 250-pound offensive guard was a major reason for Delaware's impressive offensive average of more than 450 yards a game.

In his four years, the transfer from the University of Georgia played three different positions for Coach Tubby Raymond. He played two seasons as a defensive tackle, earning AP All-American honorable mention in his sophomore year, then he moved to offensive tackle in his junior season, when he attained a second-team berth in the AP's All-American selections.

In addition to Gregg, Brunner, Beck and Komlo, who started for the Detroit Lions in his rookie season, featured guests expected to attend the WSBA dinner include the Phillies' Pete Rose, The Sporting News' Player of the Decade for the 1970s; Ken Singleton, Orioles' outfielder and runner-up in the American Leagues' MVP voting; and Eagles' quarterback Ron Jaworski, who finished third in National Football Conference passing with a 76.8 ratio.

Presiding at the banquet will be Caesar Alsop, a seven-year member of the News Journal sports staff, who last week was selected present of the WSBA. Alsop succeeded Henry Freeman, former assistant sports editor at the News Journal and now sports editor of the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune.

Injured players still top priority for Phils’ Green

By Ray Finocchiaro, Staff Correspondent

Dallas Green says the Phillies' walking wounded are healing rapidly and he looks forward to his first full year as Phillies' manager. But will the Phillies' players be ready for Green's spring-training regimen, which is structured to separate the men from the boys with big bucks?

Green laughs off suggestions that the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla., will look more like Parris Island or that anyone who drops a pop fly will have to run the gauntlet to get to his agent.

"I just think we can organize ourselves a bit better than we've done in the past," Green said before last night's Wilmington Sportwriters and Broadcasters Association banquet at the Hotel du Font's Gold Ballroom. "Spring training had been tailored to letting the players get themselves in shape and that didn't work out as well as we'd have liked.

"I prefer a program that will prepare the players for a 162-game schedule. We'll have a refresher course on fundamentals, as well as a conditioning course. I think that's why we had as many injuries as we had last year. We weren't in as good a shape as we thought we were."

Green doesn't think there will be a strike over the Player's Agreement, which expired after last season. He says he's planning on starting spring training as scheduled. Actually, Green's timetable will include an extra week's work for surgically repaired players like catcher Bob Boone and pitchers Dick Ruthven, Larry Christenson, Warren Brusstar, Jim Wright and Jose Martinez.

"That'll be my 'cripple week,' although they won't be crippled by then," Green said of the early start for selected Phils. "That will give those players some time to have supervision without the stress of a tough spring training."

Asked for a current health report on the squad, which may have set a record for broken bones last season, Green was all smiles.

"Our health status is good," he said without hesitation. "Guys are working out every day now and the guys with injuries are repairing nicely. Boone's more advanced than anyone else, but Christenson is close and Ruthven's doing fine. As for Brusstar, we're just getting our feet on the ground but the trainers are optimistic."

Green was asked if the Phils planned a repeat of last year's infamous Tug McGraw bike ride down the West Coast that left Christenson 's collarbone a shambles and led to Brusstar's shoulder woes.

 Green managed a smile.

"Tug's talking about jumping off a cliff," Green joked of the Phils' clubhouse flake, "but I don't think he's taking anyone along with him on that one. I think that's an individual idea."

Green admits that the idea of managing the club from the starting gate gets him more excited as spring training draws closer.

"I'm thinking of new things we can do every day," he said, "and the juices are really flowing. I'm really excited about this. I'm ready to go – right now."

Mercifully – for the Phillies' recruits, anyway – spring training is still seven weeks away. But that will just give Dallas Green seven more weeks to think up new ways to get the Phillies back in shape... and on the right track toward the Eastern Division title they surrendered to Pittsburgh last season.

"I can't wait," said Green, the gleam in his eye reaching meteoric proportions. "I just can't wait."

Vermeil, Rose, Sanders get postseason awards

Compiled from Dispatches

Those who serve are not the only ones honored with post-season sports accolades. There are awards for the men who run the teams as well as the players who excel.

Dick Vermeil is such a man. Yesterday The Sporting News, a weekly publication, named him the 1979 National Football League coach of the year.

The Sporting News also named John Sanders, the San Diego Chargers' general manager, the 1979 executive of the year.

In another award announced yesterday, the Philadelphia Sports Writers' Association named Phillies first baseman Pete Rose the Outstanding Athlete of the 70s Decade.

Vermeil, 44, received 12 votes in a poll of 27 NFL coaches. He led the Eagles to an 11-5 record and a playoff win over Chicago before bowing out of the NFC playoffs in a loss to Tampa Bay.

Vermeil follows Seattle's Jack Patera, who was named coach of the year for 1978, and Denver's Red Miller, 1977.

Sanders, 57, received 10 of 47 votes of NFL executives. The Eagles' Jim Murray and Bears' Jim Finks were second with five each.

Sanders was named the Chargers' GM Feb. 16, 1976, after the team had suffered six seasons below .500. The Chargers were 6-8 in 1976, then improved to 7-7 in 1977 and 9-7 in 1978 before compiling an outstanding 12-4 record in 1979.

The 12 victories last season equaled the Super Bowl-bound Pittsburgh Steelers for the best record in the NFL and represented the most wins by a San Diego club since 1961 when the Chargers lost to the Houston Oilers in the American Football League's championship game.

Rose was named for his consistent production during the decade in which he played five positions and averaged .314 with 2,045 hits.

Earlier this year, The Sporting News also named Rose as the Athlete of the Decade.

Court kicks out Carpenter’s hide

By Tom Greer

Judge Murray M. Schwartz has ruled that the government must return a leopard skin and skull that were seized when they were mistakenly shipped into the United States for their owner, Phillies' executive Keith Carpenter. 

The trophy was taken by Carpenter on an African safari in the spring of 1977. It was seized on Sept. 26, 1977, when it arrived in New York en route from Kenya to Haiti on a Lufthansa Airlines flight.

Schwartz directed that the tro-. phy be returned to its point of origin, Frankfurt, West Germany. 

Carpenter's lawyer, William H. Uffelman, said that Carpenter had instructed his shipping agent in Nairobi not to send the trophy to the United States, but to Haiti, where a relative, Richard C. "Kip" du Pont owns a hotel.

The leopard was of the species panthera pardus, listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. 

Carpenter, 29, of Montchanin, is an administrative assistant for the Phillies and the son of Robert R. M. Carpenter president of the Phillies for 29 years. He also is the brother of Ruly Carpenter, Phillies president since 1972. The Carpenters have long been known as big game hunters. 

In February 1978, the Fish and Wildlife Service notified Carpenter that it had seized the trophy. The following July, the service attempted to fine him $5,000 for having violated the Endangered Species Act. 

In response, Carpenter submitted evidence that he had shot the leopard under license of the Kenya government and that its remains were shipped to the United States in error. 

In January 1979, the wildlife service found that Carpenter had not violated the act and that the shipment had indeed been accidental. It halted its civil proceeding, but indicated that it would seek forfeiture of the trophy. 

Last March, Carpenter filed a suit in District Court seeking to enjoin the forfeiture and to compel the return of the skin and skull to their West German point of origin. The government agencies filed a counterclaim, and both sides asked for pretrial judgment. 

Schwartz said the issue turned on whether the applicable section of the Endangered Species Act subjects such property to forfeiture when the owner himself has not violated the act. The government agencies contended that Lufthansa's delivery was all that was required for forfeiture, that regardless of who owned the trophy, the airline was at fault.

Schwartz said the government's interpretation assumed that the airline had violated the act when it unknowingly transported the species into the country at the direction of another party. That interpretation, he said, would place the burden on common carriers of inspecting their freight to assure that it did not contain any endangered species. Such a burden was not intended by Congress and the skin and skull thus were not subject to forfeiture, he ruled. 

Carpenter said yesterday that he still intended to ship the leopard to the hotel in Haiti.

Baseball talks get nowhere, as usual

By Hal Bock, AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK – Talks continued yesterday in stalled negotiations between the Major League Players Association and baseball, but there were no indications of any progress.

"We've been talking for 10 weeks with little or no progress," said Marvin Miller, executive director of the MLPA. 

Miller said discussions with Ray Grebey, who now heads baseball's Player Relations Committee, the owners' negotiating team, have followed the pattern of past negotiations. 

"The talks are in the same stage now that they were at this time four years ago, seven years ago and 10 years ago," said Miller. "It really doesn't seem to matter if they change representatives. Their tactics always remain the same. They stall along until there is a crisis from the point of view of time." 

That crisis could approach soon. Teams are preparing for the opening of spring training. The New York Yankees have the earliest start with some players due to report Feb. 14 to the team's complex at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"I am disappointed that there hasn't been more progress but there is ample time to reach an agreement," Miller said. "What is disturbing is that you hear rumors that the owners are telling each other, the players and the media that there really is no problem because if they don't reach and agreement by the time the season opens, it doesn't matter because the players will play without an agreement. The only response to that can be: 'Don't bet on that.’”

Player representatives met last week and some have sat in on the negotiating sessions. Among those present at talks this week were Bob Boone of the Philadelphia Phillies, National League player rep, and Mike Marshall of the Minnesota Twins, who represents AL players, Jon Matlack, player rep of the Texas Rangers, Don Baylor, the California Angels' player rep, and Steve Rogers, who represnts the Montreal Expos. Phillie teammates Garry Maddox and Mike Schmidt also sat in on talks as interested observers.

Miller also scorned Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's contention last week that "We're not making money in this business." 

"In my opinion, that's undoubtedly false," said Miller. "Under the law, if a company or an industry has financial problems and claims that in collective bargaining, they are obligated, upon request, to furnish supporting financial reports and data. Therefore, what baseball does in collective bargaining is to start off the first session by announcing they have no financial problems and there are no financial difficulties that will be a subject in these negotiations. 

"That effectively prevents us from having any right to financial data, because it's not an issue. That doesn't stop them from walking out of the bargaining room and telling reporters they have these terrible financial difficulties, all the clubs are losing money and so on, because there, nobody can challenge them. In the one forum where they would have to produce financial data to prove their statements, they make no claim of financial difficulty. In the one forum where they have to put up or shut up, they decide to shut up."