Allentown Morning Call - September 12, 1980
Ruthven, Phils clip Mets, 5-1
NEW YORK (AP) – Dick Ruthven left his curve ball in the bullpen last night, but it wasn't that important against the hapless New York Mets.
"I had good stuff in the bullpen, but when I got to the mound I had no breaking ball," said Ruthven, who scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Bake McBride in the Philadelphia Phillies' 5-1 victory over the Mets.
Ruthven, who combined with Tug McGraw on a nine-hitter, had no trouble sending the Mets to their 12th consecutive defeat, the club's longest since 1963. But he was more concerned with the Phillies' pennant hopes.
"I think the pennant race is even, but the team that uses its ability to the utmost will win," he said, referring to the Phillies' pennant fight with the Montreal Expos and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ruthven scattered eight hits in eight innings of work.
Ruthven, 15-9, struck out eight and walked two before getting last-inning relief help from McGraw.
The right-hander was just as damaging with his bat. He doubled with one out in the sixth, advanced to third on a single by Pete Rose and scored on McBride's fly to center, breaking a 1-1 tie.
The Phillies added three insurance runs in the ninth on a pinch RBI double by Del Unser and a two-run single by Pete Rose.
Mike Schmidt supplied the Phillies' first run in the fourth, crashing a long home run to left off Mets starter Ray Burris, 7-11 . It was his 38th homer of the season.
The Mets tied the game in the fifth, scoring their first run in 24 innings, dating back to Sunday in San Diego. They loaded the bases on a walk to Wally Backman, a single by Bill Almon, a forceout on an attempted sacrifice by Burris and a sharp single to center by Mookie Wilson. Joel Youngblood then hit a sacrifice fly to right.
The Mets have now lost 24 of their last 27 games and are within five of tying their longest losing streak set in 1962, the first year of the club's existence.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, Phillies and Montreal Expos, locked in a three-way race for the National League East Division crown, came out even in coin flips yesterday to determine the location of a special playoff game.
In the event of a two-way tie among any of the three teams, the game would be played at 1 p.m. Oct. 6.
The coin flips determined that Montreal would play at Philadelphia, Philadelphia at Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh at Montreal.
‘The Kid’ shines and Green says ‘I told you so’
By John Kunda, Executive Sports Editor
News Item: Phils' Bystrom throws a shutout in his first major league start.
"The Kid" got a big piece of the action a lot sooner than he thought. The new Whiz Kid (sorry about that, Rich Ashburn) responded with the coolness of a veteran.
Good going, Marty Bystrom.
The man smiling the most over Bystrom's success (5-0 over the Mets) is Dallas Green. Bystrom is one of Green's kids, no strings attached. Green touted this kid right from the start.
It's an "I-told-you-so" story with a happy ending.
Green was sold on "The Kid" the day the Phils signed him out of Miami Dade Junior College. And it was Green, as the Phils farm director, who labeled "The Kid" as a future star.
Bystrom made his tout look very good. It could have happened sooner but Bystrom never got out of the box in spring training. A thigh injury put him on crutches, a disappointment to him as well as to Green.
"Too bad you can't see this kid," Green had said during spring training in Clearwater. "He's big league right now."
When Larry Christenson came up lame last week, Green" didn't hesitate to replace him in the four-man rotation with Bystrom, a 6-5, 22-year-old whom they say could play racquetball almost as well as he pitches.
Never mind that the Phils are fighting for their lives in the National League East. Bystrom, rookie or not, got the assignment, and with the way he performed had to add a touch of depth to the pitching staff. And it's depth that is so vital in the September stretch run.
Bystrom is just one of the handful of pluses for Green, who knows perhaps more about the happenings in the farm system than anybody in the organization. For more than a dozen years he was "the man in the field" on the farm.
It isn't only Bystrom who is making things pleasant these days for Green. Kids like Bob Walk, Lonnie Smith and Keith Moreland are doing their bit, too.
All of them had been touched by the Green influence in their early days in the minors. Could you imagine where the Phillies would be without the 1980 edition of the Whiz Kids?
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News Item: George Welsh's name mentioned (again) as candidate for another football coaching position.
Right now, George Welsh is preparing his Navy football team for its opener against Virginia. And for those who know Welsh, a Coaldale native who played football for Navy, preparation is intense.
Welsh doesn't go around looking for football jobs. It seems they come to him. And the latest one involves Notre Dame.
Yes, Notre Dame, that national college team that has ardent fans coast-to-coast.
Dan Devine announced that he's calling it a career, thus opening up the most-glamorous (and pressure-filled) college coaching job in the country.
Since Welsh has been at Navy, his name has come up a half-dozen times when another job opens. Last year, you'll recall, he was mentioned as a strong candidate for the LSU position.
And. then there is the Penn State thing. Welsh was a top aide to Joe Paterno before he left for Navy. Some say that when Paterno packs it in, Welsh will take over.
However, Paterno, when he became athletic director to go along with his coaching duties, said he expects to coach for 10 more years. It doesn't seem likely that Welsh could wait that long.
At any rate, Welsh's name is mentioned with Notre Dame. So are the names Lou Holtz of Arkansas, Terry Donahue of UCLA, Tom Osborne of Nebraska and Jackie Sherrill of. Pitt. Also Hank Stram, your friendly radio and TV commentator who had a glorious record with Kansas City.
You can forget about Don Shula. His name was mentioned the most, but only recently, he signed a long-term contract to stay with the Dolphins.
Nothing is expected to happen on the Notre Dame front until after the season ends. Perhaps by then, a thousand more names will be added to the list.