Baseball And The Challenges

By Jeff Young, Intelligencer Journal Sports Writer

Another baseball season, God and Marvin Miller willing, is very nearly upon us. If that doesn't mean anything to you, chances are you won't enjoy reading any farther.

But any baseball fan worth his portable radio has seen by now that this is a year of challenges for his game – not the least of which is trying to figure out just when Opening Day really is.

Anticipation, a feeling that fits right in with love and hatred as human emotions, is something a baseball fan understands well by the end of March. This year, he understands it better than ever.

That's mainly because this is bound to be an historic season in a turbulent era for baseball. The path of organized labor has been an important part of our history, and like it or not, organized labor is the biggest thing to hit baseball since the relief pitcher.

Of course, just as many baseball fans have long had their fill of negotiations and court cases, there remain the more basic challenges that each season passes on to its successor. These are the challenges in which baseball fans will revel forever – or at least until they can no longer afford tickets to the ballpark.

Playing For Keeps

While each new season means a new challenge every player, there are always those with something more on the line – an image, a contract, a career. Those are the players who will capture the audience.

They are the ageless veterans, like Willie Stargell and Pete Rose; pitchers like Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry. People will watch them outperform the kids one more time, and wonder when the years will finally catch up to them.

They are battle-scarred soldiers like Joe Morgan, Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Palmer, who are hoping to heal once again – even if only for a farewell performance. Some of these men will go out as Lou Brock did last year, a winner. Some will not.

Then there are the young stars, both healthy and hobbled. The healthy ones, like Dave Winfield, Ron Guidry and Jim Rice, are expected to command attention by performing. The hobbled ones, the Pat Zachrys and Bob Horners, will draw that attention with their potential – and the hope that it can be realized.

There is a rookie flash like Kirk Gibson, stepping into the Detroit Tigers' lineup just two years out of college. There is a vanishing breed like Bobby Bonds, the journeyman power hitter who is dealt from team to team and league to league. With the advent of free agency and long-term, clause-crammed contracts, future journeymen will join new teams only of their own accord.

There is an established star like Darrell Porter, who must deal with a bigger problem than any pitch he'll ever have to catch or hit.

And this year, like every year that will follow, there are free agents and prospective free agents. They are guys who are supposed to make the difference between second place and first, like Nolan Ryan. They are also guys who are unhappy with their teams or salaries, or both, like Garry Maddox, Bruce Sutter and Jerry Martin.

All of these players, and many more, face their own personal challenges this season. The fans will be looking on, waiting for their heroes to prove their mettle. Some are bound to be let down.

Outdoor Theater

But in any case, it's the unfolding of human drama that attracts. It's improvisational theater on a stage of dirt and grass – er, Astroturf. It involves entire teams as well as individuals.

And when it comes to teams, none will draw a more emotional, involved following than the one in nearby Philadelphia. After all, the Phillies are trying to erase from memory the biggest letdown of 1979. It will not be easy.

Meanwhile, the Expos must prove that no, they weren't 15 games over their heads last year. The Dodgers must lift a fallen image and reclaim their crown. The Orioles will try to prove again that yes, they have a lot more going for them than Earl Weaver, while the Brewers must answer to all the pre-season billing that sees them as the new champions.

Managers will face challenges, too. This season provides such cases as Billy Martin, who will now try to win with Triple A material in Oakland, and Jerry Coleman, whose credentials were established in a broadcasting booth. Even if they can keep their jobs, it will be no surprise when some of their colleagues cannot.

The anticipation is almost as stirring as a grand slam in the World Series. 

Phils Rip White Sox

Spring Training

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - Mike Schmidt's fifth home run of spring training combined with a homer by Garry Maddox in a nine-run fourth inning that propelled the Philadelphia Phillies to a 12-5 win over the Chicago White Thursday.

The White ahead 3-0 after three and were a half innings. Greg Pryor's second inning double off starter and winner Steve Carlton drove in two runs.

Loser Richard Wortham had a no-hitter going into the fourth, when Pete Rose hit a single off Wortham's glove.

Then Maddox reached first as Kevin Bell booted his ground ball, and Schmidt hit a 3-0 pitch to tie the game and collect his 14th RBI in exhibition play.

The 12-batter inning ended after Maddox came to the plate again, and homered to left with Rose on base.

Chicago's Lamar Johnson had a two-run homer in the seventh off pitcher Rawly Eastwick.

The Phillies lead all National League clubs with a 10-4 spring training record. The White Sox are 8-9.

✔ At Winter Haven, Jim Rice drove in four runs with a homer, single and sacrifice fly and Mike Torrez pitched five strong innings as the Boston Red Sox rolled to a 9-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Jerry Remy, Tony Perez and Gary Allenson had three hits each as the Red Sox exploded for 18 hits in their sixth victory in the last seven games.

Carl Yastrzemski, making his exhibition debut after a couple of injuries, had two hits as Boston's designated hitter. Rick Burleson, Butch Hobson and Rice also had a pair of hits.

Torrez, making his first start since injuring a hip March 17, blanked the Orioles on three hits before calling it a day. He struck out three and walked only one.

The Orioles picked up their lone run off Dick Drago in the sixth on a walk, a passed ball and two infield outs.

Danny Stewart lasted less than four innings for the Orioles, being pounded for 11 hits and seven runs. Tim Stoddard surrendered Boston's final two runs in the seventh. 

The loss was Baltimore's third in a row and fifth in the last six games. The Orioles over-all record is 7-9. Boston has an 8-7 mark.

✔ Elsewhere, Dave Parker's first home run of the spring, a tie-breaking, smash, helped the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.... Jeff Leonard socked a two-run home run and Craig Reynolds lined a run-scoring triple as the Houston Astros rallied for three runs in the seventh inning and edged the Montreal Expos 6-5. Rusty Staub homered to give the Expos a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Houston starter Nolan Ryan, the free agent who signed a contract at $1 million a year last winter. Ryan has given up 15 earned runs in 12 innings this spring…. Steve Garvey hammered a home run, two doubles and a single and drove in six runs to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 12-5 victory over the New York Rose Mets.

Veteran Hal McRae smacked a two-run homer in the sixth inning and Dennis Leonard, Gary Christenson and Dan Quisenberry combined to pitch a five-hitter in a 2-1 Kansas City Royals triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals…. Vida Blue scattered four hits over seven innings as the San Francisco Giants downed the Cleveland Indians, 7-1.... Ken Smith singled to drive in Chico Ruiz from second in the 10^th inning and then scored himself on Charlie Spikes' double as the Atlanta Braves beat the Texas Rangers 7-5.

✔ Major league baseball owners appealed to a federal basic agency Thursday for help in reaching a new basic agreement with players, but the director of the players' union promptly called the move a "stalling mechanism."

Talks between the two sides were recessed until Sunday a few minutes after Thursday's session began. A meeting planned for today was canceled.

"I regret they saw fit to waste yesterday, today and tomorrow," said Players Association director Marvin Miller. "I think this may well be a kind of stalling mechanism on the part of (the owners)."

Schmidt Hits Fifth

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Mike Schmidt's fifth home run of spring training combined with a homer by Garry Maddox in a nine-run fourth inning that propelled the Philadelphia Phillies to a 12-5 win over the Chicago" White Sox Thursday.

The White Sox were ahead 3-0 after three and a half innings. Greg Pryor's second inning double off starter and winner Steve Carlton drove in two runs.

Loser Richard Wortham had a no-hitter going into the fourth, when Pete Rose hit a single off Wortham's glove.

Smith With Phils

The Reading Phillies. who just missed the playoffs last year, and the Philadelphia Phillies, who missed by a considerable margin. entertain hopes of returning to the playoff scene they occupied in 1978.

What are their chances? John W. Smith, assistant sports editor, is in Clearwater. Fla., to report on the final stages of spring training for both teams.

Smith has covered the Reading Phillies in whole or part since they joined the Eastern League in 1967, and has covered all of the Philadelphia National League playoff games.

Smith's daily reports will begin in the Eagle on Sunday.