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No Hard Feelings
Ex-Tiger reliever Wapnick says
he's confident about the future
despite his demotion.
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
Financing
Available
S
longer a Detroit Tiger
or a major league
baseball player, but he's not
unhappy.
"I feel good," the
righthanded reliever said. "I
have no hard feelings" about
the Tigers' releasing him
May 1, less than two months
after he came to the team
from Toronto's minor league
system.
"They (Tigers) have to do
what they have to do.
They're not playing well and
they don't know why, so they
have to try things."
Wapnick, who was return-
ed to Toronto and assigned
to Triple A Syracuse, declin-
ed to discuss the Tigers'
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56
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1990
Steve Wapnick:
Back in Syracuse.
troubles. "Once I get back up
to the majors, I'll be glad to
talk about it," the 24-year-
old Californian said. "I felt I
did a decent job.
"It was an honor to break
into the major leagues with
a team like the Tigers and to
play for a manager like
Sparky Anderson, who's the
best in the business," said
Wapnick.
"I want to tell the Tigers
`Thank you for letting me
get my feet wet, for letting
me pitch in the big
leagues.' " He said he's glad,
however, to be back in
Syracuse, for whom he
played prior to the Tigers. "I
grew up with all the guys in
this organization. If I can't
be in the bigs, I'd like to be
in Syracuse."
And Wapnick expressed
confidence in himself.
"I'd like to be the stopper
from the right side in the
majors, and even though I
had a 6.43 earned run
average, I know I can do it,"
he said. "But I've only
thrown in seven ap-
pearances, including spring
training, which is very little
for me at this time of year.
I'm a hard worker and I'm
going to do everything I can
to get back to the big
leagues."
Anderson told Wapnick his
release "was news to me"
and told the Detroit Free
Press he would have pre-
ferred sending both Wapnick
and outfielder Johnny
Paredes, who hit .125 and
also was released, to the
Tigers' Toledo farm club.
Tigers' general manager
Bill Lajoie said Wapnick
"didn't come along as we
would have hoped. He had
one pitch working one day
and not the next. We had to
get down to 10 pitchers. I
hoped he could be the 10th."
Instead, left-hander Brian
DuBois was called up from
Toledo.
Wapnick, who is Jewish
and has relatives in Detroit,
had a 0-0 won-loss record in
four games with the Tigers,
pitching only seven innings.
He allowed eight hits, five
runs (all earned), struck out
six and walked 10. 0
Hawks Feel The Heat
As Windsor Wins Title
The Detroit Pistons may
not know it yet, but there's a
new Heat in town. And
they're finally celebrating a
championship, too.
On Sunday, the Herzl Heat
of Windsor — not those guys
from Miami —upended the
Chalutzim Hawks, 38-30, to
win the 1990 Great Lakes
AZA Council Basketball
League championship and
thus join the Pistons in be-
ing perhaps the only other
Detroit-area team this year
to celebrate a first-ever
league crown.
And although it was 61
years in the making — as
compared with the Pistons,
who took only 32 seasons to
accomplish the feat in the
National Basketball Associ-
ation — the victory is every
bit as savory.
But the Heat had to beat
not one, but two, undefeated
teams Sunday at the Maple-
Drake Jewish Community
Center to win the title: both
Chalutzim and the L'Chaim
Matzo Balls were unbeaten
in regular-season play.
Chalutzim won the Ontario
Division — in which the
Heat were the runners-up
with a 6-1 record — and
L'Chaim won the Michigan
Division.
Herzl advanced to the
championship game by
defeating the Matzo Balls,
54-45, in one of two
semifinals Sunday morning.
A forfeit to Chalutzim by
last year's GLC champion
Akiba Hooters made it an
all-Ontario Division title
game.
In the championship game,
the Hawks, 7-0 in the
regular season, challenged
Herzl most of the way.
But the Heat, remember-
ing an earlier 44-32 loss to
Chalutzim in the regular
season, pulled away in the
late going of the title game
Sunday to win the playoff
crown, 38-30. Mike Rosen-
baum led the winners with
15 points, while Mark
Lieberman and Matt Kovin-
sky each contributed eight.
Mike Kam, Jeff Klein and
Bryan Silverman, with 10
points each, accounted for all
of the Hawks' scoring.
Winning the Great Lakes
playoff capped a champion-
ship season for the Heat,
who began by winning the
1989 B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization Regional Con-
vention Basketball Tourna-
ment.
Interestingly, the Hooters
also began their trip to the
top by winning the 1988 re-
gional tourney. The Hooters
then defeated Herzl, which
was formed in 1929, for the