Allentown Morning Call - March 4, 1980

Cold weather keeps some Phils from spring camp

By John Kunda, Executive Sports Editor

Spring training is one of your choicer sports assignments. It's a chance for a writer to leave the frozen tundra of his home and go south. But Morning Call sports columnist John Kunda found his reception at the Phillies' Clearwater, training camp yesterday a bit chilly. Temperatures were in the mid 20s and the wind chill factor was close to zero. John braved the cold and filed his first report from camp. He'll be with the Phils for the next two weeks and he'll try to answer the questions on the minds of Phillies fans. Can manager Dallas Green shake up the team? Can Greg Luzinski come back from a dismal season? Tune in today and every day in The Morning Call. 

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The grass is green, all right. And yesterday. the sky was pale blue, not a cloud in sight. The sun, it seemed, was smiling the way the Chamber of Commerce people said it would. The palm trees glistened because of it. 

"It was a pretty picture for 9 o'clock in the morning. Pretty, that is, looking from the indoors out.

Step outdoors and even a visitor from the cold and snow of the Northeast gets a severe shock. 

This isn't Florida an'd spring training for the major league baseball teams. Even football teams couldn't get heated up in this kind of weather. 

"It's crazy out there," said Philadelphia's Larry Bowa, one of the early arrivals at the Carpenter Complex. "You can't do much.”

By the time most of the Phillies showed up yesterday morning, the temperature was in the high 30s. The night before (Sunday night temperatures dropped into the mid-20s, making it the coldest March 3 since 1943.

"I've been coming here for 25 years," said Dallas Green, "and I'll be damned if I can ever remember it being so cold." 

Oh, there were some brave souls among the Phils. On with the long-johns, turtlenecks and jackets and out to the five fields that make up the sprawling Carpenter Complex. But -most of them stayed indoors working on the various muscle equipment and taking their physicals. 

Camp doesn't open officially until this morning, and, according to Green, "with a break in the weather we hope to get it going right away." Warmer weather is expected today. 

The weather took a turn for the worse over the weekend. The pitchers and catchers who were here for a week or so got some things accomplished. "The weather was good last week, near 70 and better," said Green. "What we're having today (Monday) is a freak." 

If you think the Phillies who are here are having weather problems, take note of what happened to three of them en route to camp. 

Greg Gross is snowbound in Mrytle Beach, S.C.; Lonnie Smith is stuck in snow in Spartanburg, S.C.,  and Dickie Noles spent Sunday night in an airport in Charlotte, N.C. 

"They all called and said they don't know when they'll get here," said Green. "I'm sure they'll make it in a day or two." Gross and Smith are en route by car. 

While Green and his coaches were anxious to get the physical end of spring training under way, General Manager Paul Owens went about his business, making what appeared to be small talk about the trading market. The pitchers' market, in particular.

Owens said this was "the slowest spring I can remember" in the wheeling-and-dealing department. "There's no action out there," he said. "Everybody's quiet." 

Owens, at the moment, anyway, seems to be content with what the Phillies have. He indicated he'll gamble with the corps he has in camp. 

"We can walk out of here (spring training) two ways," he said. "We can walk out of here in big trouble or we can walk out of here with a lot of strong arms." 

Seems he got some encouragement since he's been here. Especially from Dick Ruthven. 

"He (Ruthven) was throwing long and good for the last couple of days," said Owens. "The other day he threw for a solid 15 minutes and I asked him if he felt any pain. He said he felt fine, didn't have any pain whatsoever." 

Ruthven started the 1979 season with six straight victories. But after May 9. after he pitched a one-hitter against San Diego, the roof caved in. He won only one game after that. 

Elbow problems put the 28-year-old righthander on the sidelines. He was operated on during the offseason, and returned to hard throwing only the last month or so.

"He's been giving us some positive signs," said Green about Ruthven. "I don't want him throwing hard right now, but in another week or so, we'll let him go as hard as he thinks he can. He recovered well from the operation. Everything went fine." 

Herm Starrette, the Phillies pitching coach, mentioned that as recently as three days ago Ruthven threw at about 75 percent speed. "His natural tendency is to throw harder than he should, so I had to get after him a little," Starrette said.

Ruthven is a definite key this spring. If he can bounce back, the Phils staff will take a big dip. It'll create all sorts of alternatives. 

One Green talked about is pulling Noles back from the bullpen. With that, however, he'll have to hope that Warren Brusstar, another of the injured pitchers of 1979, can make contributions out of the bullpen.

Brusstar has been throwing well enough to give Green hope. "I saw him (Brusstar) smile for the first time in a year," said Green. "That's all I can go on for the time being.”

Brusstar, who was sent to Reading late in the season, had his 1979 season ruined by a shoulder injury. He was on a special work program on the offseason, and so far, it's working.

"It's still early," said Green. "Right now we're just looking for little things. I didn't see anything negative yet.”

Green smiled. "Oh, yeah," he said, "there is one thing – the weather. But that's gonna get good, too."