Bucs Rap Phillies, Ruthven

Spring Training

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) - Willie Stargell's first-inning single with two men on base produced the winning runs in the Pittsburgh Pirates' 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in exhibition baseball Sunday.

The game was stopped by rain after 5½ innings.

Pirate starter John Candelaria gave up two hits including a fifth-inning solo home run by Ramon Aviles. He got his first win of the pre-season. Dick Ruthven lost his first.

Tim Foli singled and Dave Parker doubled before Stargell cracked his single. Candelaria added an insurance run in the second when he singled to score Bill Madlock from second base.

Pittsburgh scored again in the third, when Parker singled and advanced on singles by Stargell and Madlock.

✔ John Ellis and Buddy Bell drove in two runs apiece as the Texas Rangers defeated Baltimore 7-4 in exhibition baseball Sunday, extending the losing streak of the Orioles to six in a row.

Ellis launched a six-run second inning with a solo homer and hit a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the fifth. Both rallies came off Scott McGregor, who allowed 11 hits in five innings while dropping his third decision of the spring.

Bell singled home the last run in the second and had an RBI double for his third hit in the seventh. Al Oliver also contributed three hits to the 16-hit Texas attack.

Ken Singleton and Gary Roenicke hit solo homers in the Baltimore third off winning pitcher Doc Medich. The Orioles also scored twice in the second on an RBI single by Mark Belanger followed by Al Bumbry's double.

The Orioles have lost 10 of their last 12 games and have a 7-12 Grapefruit League record. The Rangers are 8-14 after losing their first nine exhibition games.

✔ The Philadelphia Phillies have cut four players to reduce the National Baseball League team's roster to 32, seven above the 25-man limit for opening day April 11.

Catcher Don McCormack, infielder John Poff and pitcher Paul Thormodsgard were sent to the Phillies' minor league complex for further assignment, the Phillies announced Saturday.

Pitcher Burke Suter, who the Phillies drafted from the Boston Red Sox' Triple A farm team in Pawtucket, R.I., during the winter meetings, was also dropped from the squad.

✔ Tippy Martinez is testing the patience of Manager Earl Weaver again, but the Baltimore Orioles' relief pitcher is no longer on shaky ground.

After Martinez was rocked for six hits and three runs during a recent two-inning exhibition stint, Weaver refused to budge from a previous stand to remain open-minded about the left-hander.

"He's always struggled down here,” Weaver reiterated, "and I made up my mind I wasn't going to judge what he did during the spring. It's hard to do, but that's why I said it in the first place."

A couple of seasons back, Weaver lost just about all of his confidence in Martinez when he failed time and again out of the bullpen.

But Martinez came on strong last year, posting a 10-3 record with three saves and a 2.88 earned run average while helping the Orioles win the American League pennant.

It’s No Longer A Question Of If, But Of When

By Murray Chass, N.Y. Times News Service

CLEARWATER, Fla. — If the baseball players strike, Tom Seaver says, he will take his family on vacation to London or Paris. If the players strike, Ron Guidry says, he will go home to Louisiana and fish for bass.

Seaver should make his plane reservations and Guidry should dig fishing rod out of storage because question no longer is will the players strike, but rather when they will. Barring an unexpected, last-minute move by the owners, the executive board of the Major League Baseball Players Association is certain to set a strike date when it meets in Dallas Tuesday.

Ray Grebey, the owners' chief negotiator, and Marvin Miller, the players' labor leader, are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator today in Palm Springs, Calif.

The players, however, will view the request as too late and will proceed with their vote Tuesday.

"I still favor a late May date, but the guys I have talked to want to go now and not come back until we get what we want," Mike Marshall of Minnesota, the American League player representative, said Saturday.

The Yankees apparently are ready now, too. They met before their game with the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday and were said to have been virtually unanimous in the view that the strike should begin before the season. Reggie Jackson, the player representative, declined to disclose the players' feelings, but said that only one player had differed with the majority.

“My personal feeling is we shouldn't wait," said Jackson. "I kind of learned as a child once you start something, you should go through with it."

Why the players should strike to puzzle the owners. The players, their employers say, have no issue over strike. Their combined salaries and benefits are unparalleled in professional sports.

In reply, however, the players ask why the owners want to force a strike. The owners are forcing it, their employees say, by demanding compensation for free agents, by abandoning the pension contribution formula involving baseball's national television revenue and by ignoring the players' proposals.

Baseball may not be the steel industry or the coal-mining industry, but feelings are no less aroused and intense.

When the owners met in Phoenix last Tuesday, one of those present said, they displayed "a show of strength and solidarity which we haven't experienced in the past."

"All we ask for is equity for free agents," he said. "If the players don't want to give it, let the chips fall where they may. If they strike, we're prepared for it. We have been, philosophically, for some time."

If there is a strike, it most likely would last longer than the 13-day strike in 1972, which forced cancellation of 86 games. If the owners have not been interested in averting a strike by dropping their compensation demands, they do not figure to drop them as soon as the players walk out. Conversely, if the players have not accepted free-agent compensation until now, they are not likely to accept it later, whether in the first week of a strike or the third month. If they were to accept it later, they might destroy the effectiveness of their union, which many players view as the owners' aim.

A strike also figures to be lengthy because of the status of the players' proposals. their most recent package, they modified some proposals and withdrew others. However, that package is on the table only until April 1. Once it is removed, the players will revert to a more severe stand on the proposals. Their proposal on free-agent eligibility, for example, would again be four years instead of the modified five, compared with the present six.

The players feel that if they are to improve themselves, they must strike. The only thing they have not been certain of is the timing of a strike. Some want to strike late in May, when crowds begin growing, because they feel a strike then would have greater financial impact on the owners.

"It looks like they want a strike," Seaver said. "I don't know why. I don't know if they think the players who play the game are imbeciles or it's part of their game plan. I can't figure it out. I just think there's going to be a strike – and they want it."

No Progress

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) – Strike two or play ball?

That question will almost certainly be answered in Dallas Tuesday, but a bet on at least the setting of a strike date by major league baseball players is as safe as a wager on Spectacular Bid.

Representatives of the Players Association and team owners met for more than nine hours Sunday with Ken Moffett, deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.  And, in the word of the union’s executive director, Marvin Miller, “nothing happened.”

The Players Association’s executive board will meet in Dallas Tuesday to determine when and if a strike will be called.  The “if” no longer seems to apply.

“This was a complete waste of time,” Miller said of Sunday’s meeting with the owners.  “There isn’t the slightest basis for their calling the mediation service with no intention of negotiating or listening to our viewpoint.

“This entire day was spent on the owners’ demands, nothing on the players’ proposal.

Phils Cut Four

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) – The Philadelphia Phillies have cut four players to reduce their roster to 32, seven above the 25-man limit for opening day April 11, the National League team said.

Catcher Don McCormack, infielder John Poff and pitcher Paul Thormodsgard were sent to the Phillies’ minor league complex for further assignment, the Phillies said Saturday.

Pitcher Burke Suter, who was drafted from the Boston Red Sox’ Triple-A farm team in Pawtucket, R.I. during the winter meetings, was also dropped from the squad.

Under baseball rules, the Phillies must offer Suter back to Boston for half the $25,000 winter draft price they paid.  If the Red Sox don’t want Suter back, the Phillies can assign him to one of their minor league teams.

Red Sox Get Rader

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (UPI) – The Boston Red Sox, desperately looking for catching help, today acquired journeyman backstop Dave Rader from the Philadelphia Phillies for cash or a player to be named later.

Rader, 31, has a lifetime average of .253 in eight major league seasons.  The Red Sox will be his fifth club in the last five years.

In his major league career, the left-handed hitting Rader has belted 27 homers.  He was a No. 1 draft choice of San Francisco in 1967 and played for the Giants from 1972-1975.

He was traded to St. Louis in 1976, to the Chicago Cubs in 1977 and to the Phillies before the start of the 1979 season.  Last year, he appeared in 31 games for Philadelphia, hitting .204 with one homer and five RBIs.

General Manager Haywood Sullivan indicated the club was not finished in its search for catching help.

“We’re always looking,” he said.  “We may not be through yet.”

Reading Phillies:  Few Vets May Return Here

By John W. Smith, Asst. Sports Editor

CLEARWATER — Will the Reading Phillies have many familiar names in 1980?

Yes and no, depending on your definition of familiar.

Of the 13 R-Phils who had over 100 at-bats last year, only three or four will return. Of the 10 R-Phils who pitched in more than 10 games, perhaps none will return.

But five others whose names will be familiar to the real fans will also be back for their first full year in Reading

The three regulars who struggled most with the bat last year will be back for a second chance, according to current projections They are catcher Ozzie Virgil, first baseman Joe Jones and outfielder Jeff Kraus. Virgil was a .303 sticker with 29 homers and 98 RBIs at Peninsula two years ago; Jones was a .308 hitter with 17 HRs and 71 RBIs at Spartanburg three years ago: Kraus was a first-round draft pick four years ago.

Last year, the trio hit a combined .233.

Virgil Protected

The organization still thinks enough of Virgil that he was placed on the major-league winter roster to keep him safe from the draft. It's possible be could be advanced to Oklahoma City, but much more likely that he'll be kept at the AA level, where he can play every day, and where he still has to prove himself.

Jones and Kraus will be in Reading, unless the organization gives up on either — which is what will happen if

they don't improve this season.

The Oklahoma City and Reading rosters are even more unsettled that unusual this time of the spring, because of the week later start by the bigs. Still in the Philadelphia camp are four or five players who'll perform for O.C. this year (barring a trade) and four others were just cut to O.C. Saturday.

Moving up from Reading will be second baseman Jay Loviglio and outfielder George Vukovich. both members of the Eastern League All-Star team, and third baseman Pete Dempsey. who's done well in 1½ years in Reading. Loviglio and Vukovich were on the big roster, while Dempsey was still draft safe.

Infielders Len Matuszek and Luis Rodriguez and outfielder Orlando Sanchez moved up in the course of last year, when the injuries started coming in Philly, and are awaiting their first full year in AAA.

Popovich to Mexico

Infielder Nick Popovich has been dispatched to the Mexican League after struggling last year, and outfielder Ken Berger, who had two chances has been cut.

Outfielder Elijah Bonaparte is the other who might be back. He hit a creditable .283 last year, and was second in the league in steals But he could be a numbers victim. O.C. has five on its roster who played the outfield there last year and hit 270 or better, plus Vukovich. As of now, Elijah is on the O.C. roster, but may not stay there.

Among the pitchers, Bob Walk and Scott Munninghoff (a pair of winter-roster players) certainly earned promotion to AAA, where they'll be in the regular rotation. Ace reliever Jerry Reed also earned an AAA berth.

Of the other regular starters, Steve Ruling moved up in July. Sam Welborn was lost in the draft, and Cardell Camper is also on the O C. roster. Bullpenners Don Fowler and Pete Manos also ended at O.C. and Jesus Hernaiz is now a coach.

Camper, off his 8-7, 3.70 work last year, might ordinarily be a candidate for another year in Reading. But at age 27 with three years of AAA experience, he'll return to Reading only if it is decided that a veteran arm is needed as a steadying influence. There doesn't appear to be much room for him at O.C.

Five Late Arrivals

There will be room at Reading for five players who arrived there in July or later last year — pitchers Cliff Speck, Manny Abreu and Tom Hart and infielders Jose Castro and Steve Curry. All came up from Peninsula.

Speck went 3-5. 4.34 in nine starts for Reading last year, throwing four five-hit complete games (one of which he lost).

Hart was 0-1 in two starts the last week, after a superb season which saw him lead the Carolina League to both wins (14) and ERA (2.22).

Abreu was 1-1. 4.00 in nine games in short relief.

Castro hit .303 in 20 games after replacing Rodriguez as the Phils shortstop. Curry hit a meager .194 in 11 games as a DH, all in the last week-and-a-half. Castro hat .273 and Curry .267 at Peninsula. Jose will more than likely be at third this year, with Curry at second.

So that leaves room for at least 11 completely new faces on the Reading roster. Subsequent stories will deal with many of those, as well as some of the familiar ones.

PHIL-PHILLERS — A day-long rain, unusual for this stage of the spring, washed out Sunday's Reading-O.C. game. That meant two straight off days, because of Saturday morning's shower.

Tentative rosters will be announced Friday morning.

The Phils were due to play Jackson, the Mets’ farm, today and Tuesday.