ptember 14, 1968 apoplexy doughbelier THE MICHIGAN DAILY Pace Seven Denny McLain tries for his 30th victory today on national television. What do people think of him? A well-known maga- * zine presents him as having a thoroughly brash, personality and McLain complains publicly. He is rumored to be the most unpopular player on the Detroit Tigers. This material about McLain sounds as if it's straight out of a gossip column. None of it has anything to do with his ability. The only other well-knows information about him is that he drinks 100 bottles of Pepsi-Cola a week and has an attitude that tends towards hedonism. Nobody has bothered to offer any rational theory for why he has won so many games. Has the nation always been this cynical about its sports heroes? Not a chance. Back on October 1, 1927 when the follow- ing story appeared in The New York Times, the country wor- shipped its leading sports figures' as if they were giants. Their top hero could eat 14 hot dogs at a single sitting, treat money as it was toilet paper, or be the best-pitcher in baseball if he wasn't an outfielder. It was an entirely different attitude. But it was no more objective. What has happened to this gargantua phenomenon? It is best to treat society's top performers as lower-than-normal human beings, or consider them a larger-than-life? Has America grown up or has it gone senile? Use your own imagi- nation. Babe Ruth scaled the hither- to unattained heights yesterday. Horhe run 60, a -terrific smash off the southpaw pitching of Zachary, nestled in the Babe's favorite spot in the right field bleachers, and before the roar had ceased it was found that the drive not only had made home run history but also was the winning margin in a 4 to 2 victory over the Senators. This also- was the 'Yanks' 109th tri- uluph of the season. Their last league game of.the year will be played today. When the Babe stepped to the plate in that momentous eighth inning the score was deadlocked, Koenig was on third base, the result of a triple, one man was out and all was tense. It way the .Babe's fourth trip to the plate during the af- ternoon, a base on balls and two singles resulting on his other visits plateward. The first Zachary offering was a fast one, which sailed over for a called strike. The next was high. The Babe took a vic- ious swing at the third pitched ball and the bat connected with a crash that was audible in all parts of the stand. It was not necessary to follow the course of the ball. The boys in the bleachers indicated the route of the record homer. It dropped about half way to the top. Boys, No. 60 was some homer, a fitting wallop to top the Babe's record of 59 in 1921.. While the crowd cheered and the Yankee players roared their greetings the Babe made his triumphant, almost regal tour of the paths. He jogged around slowly, touched each, bag firm- ly and carefully and when he imbedded his spikes in the rub- ber disk to record officially Homer 60ihats were tossed into the air, papers were torn up and tossed liberally and the spirit of celebration permeated the place..- The Babe's stroll out to his position was the signal for a hankerchief salute in which all ' the bleacherites, to the last man, participated. Jovial Babe entered into the carnival spirit and punctuated his Ringly ystrides with. a succession of snappy military salutes. Ruth's homer was a fitting climax to a game which will go down as the Babe's ,personal triumph. The Yanks scored four runs, the Babe personally cross- ing the plate three times and bringing in Koenig for the fourth. So this is one time where it would be fair, although not original, to record Yankee vic- tory 109 as Ruth 4, Senators 2. There was not much else to to center. Lazzeri was an easy third out. the game. The 10,000 persons who came to the Stadium were there for no other purpose than to see the Babe make home run history. After each of Babe's visits to the plate the expectant crowd would relax and wait for his next effort. They saw .him open with a base on balls, fol- low, with two singles, and then clout his epoch-making circuit smash. The only unhappy individual in the Stadium was Zachary. He realized he was going down in the records as the historical home run victim, in other words the goat. Zachary was one of the most interested spectators of the home run flight. He toss-; ed his glove to the ground, mut- tered to himself, turned to his mates for consolation and got everything but that. There is no denying that' Zachary was putting everything he had on the ball. No pitcher likes to have recorded after his name the fact that he was Ruth's victim on his sixtieth homer. The ball t;iat the Babe drove, according to word from official sources, was a pitch that was fast, low and on the inside. The Babe pulled away from the plate, then stepped into the ball, and wham! According to Um- pire Bill Dinneen at the plate and Catcher Muddy Ruel the' ball traveled on a line and land- ed afoot inside fair territory about half way to the top of the bleachers. But when the ball reached the bleacher barrier it was about ten feet fair and curving to the right. The ball which became Hom- er 60 was caught by Joe Forner of 1,937 First Avenue, Man- hattan, He is about 40 years old and has been following baseball for thirty-five years, accord- ing to his own admission. He was far from modest and as soon as -the game was over, rushed to the dressing room to let the Babe know who had the ball. For three innings both sides were blanked. The Senators broke through in the fourth for two runs.,. The Yanks came back with one run in their half of the fourth. Ruth opened with a long single to right and moved to third on Gehrig's single to center. Gehrig took second on the throw to third. Meusel drove deep to Goslin, Ruth scoring and Gehrig taking third after the catch. With two out in the sixth Ruth singled to right. Gehrig's hit was so fast that it went right through Gills for a single, Ruth holding second. The Babe tied the score on Meusel's single Wilson's art By ED HERSTEIN Special to The Daily DETROIT - Earl Wilson got them out when he needed to last night, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-0. The game was all Wilson's as the big righthander worked him- self out of jam after jam and hit his seventh home run of the sea- son to boot. It was the eighth con- secutive complete game by a Tiger pitcher. The victory; coupled with Bal- timore's 10-2 defeat by Cleveland, lowered the Tiger's magic number to 5 and, increased their league? lead to 9%/2games. Wilson's home came in the bot- tom of the eighth with Detroit leading 2-0, helping to wrap up his 13th Victory against 12 losses. Though he gave up ten hits, they were all,singles, and only the EARL WILSON last one was a line drive. Jim, "Catfish" Hunter (2-13) pitch- - ed well for the A's in a losing Wilson struck out nine includ- da ing the first two men he faced. Danny Cater then singled buta Bill Freehan cut him down trying to steal second on a 3-1 pitch. s . Dick MacAuliffe's second-deck homer on the first pitch of the NIGHT EDITOR: fourth gave Wilson the only run ROBIN WRIGHT he needed. When Mickey Stanley and Jim Northrup followed with singles and the count on Horton reached 2-0, it looked like the Bengals had caught up with the or Catfish. Then Horton went fish- a r League ing on a 2-2 offering, and Cash's *Standing second straight double-play ball got Hunter off the hook.A Back to back ground singles by AMERICAN LEAGUE Bondo and Reggie Jackson caused Detroit 94 54 .635 - the Tiger bullpen to stir in the Baltimore 85 64 .570 92 top of the seventh. But Don Wert Boston 79 69 .534 15 scoopedup Green's bouncer, jug- Cleveland 80 71 .530 15 scoe pNew York 78 70 .527 16z gled it for a moment, and fired Oakland 76 63 .510 18/ to Freehan who nailed Bondo by Minnesota 69 79 .464 25 inches. xCalifornia 63 85 .426 31 IxChicago 61 87 .412 33 Keough followed with a pop-up washington 58 91 .389 36 to Wert and Wilson finished off x-Late game not included the inning by picking Jackson off YESTERDAY'S RESULTS second with a blinding spin and Detroit 3, oakland 0 throw. New York 4, Washington 2 - Detroit upped its lead by a run Cleveland 10, Baltimore 3 in its half of the inning. North- Boston.3, Minnesota 0 rup led off with a single, and came SUNDAY'S GAMES all the way home when Freehan's Calitornia at Chicago pop fly fell between right-fielder Oakland at Detroit Jackson and Gree , who had rac- New York at Washington ed out froml second. Jackson's Minnesota at Boston throw to the plate was too late to get Northrup, but Freehan was NATIONAL LEAGUE out trying to take third. St. Louis 91 58 .611 - Again in the eighth, Wilson had xSan Francisco 79 68 .537 11 to work himself out of trouble. xcincinnati 76 69 .524 13 Jim Gosger and Ramon Webster xChicago 77 72 .517 14 threaded pinch singles through' x txatsr 75 72 .514 15 Pitutsburgh 71 76 .83 19 the infield. But Wilson bore down xPhiladelphia 69 77 .473 21 again. Campaneris flew to center - Houston 67 82 .450 24 and Wilson speared Monday's New York 67 82 .450 24 x~o Anele 6681 .449 24 ground shot up the middle to be- x-Late ganes not included. gin an inning-ending double play. YESTERDAY'S RESULTS Wilson gave up his first walk in Houston 4, St. Louis 2 the top of- the ninth, and one out Chicago 1, Philadelphia 0, 1st game later Jackson hit his second Chicago at Philadelphia, 2nd game, straight single, the only line drive inc. bythe A's all night. Manager New York 2, Pittsburgh0 by hAtlanta at Los Angeles, inc. Mayo Smith came out to the Cincinnati at San Francisco, in. mound, but stuck with Wilson. SUNDAY'S GAMES The lanky hurler struck out Green Pittsburgh at New York and Keough grounded to MacAul- Chicago at Philadelphia liffe, giving Wilson both his com- Cincinnati at San Francisco St. Louis at Houston plete game and shut out. Atlanta at Los Angeles Campus Motors I Petitioning n Soles and Service SPECIAL CLOSE OUT '68 American ...$1858 STUDENT ADY '8Javelins . . .. $259 5 01 -INC. AUTO. TRANS.-UIVERSITY '69's ARE HERE ! obta in petit 2448 Washtenaw Ave.oobtn i Phne: 434-2424 Room Mon., Thurs.-9-9 SIGN UP FOR 1, bat * net ' I uyG JCVGI I Varied offense key to Wolverine success By ELLIOTT BERRY Any casual observer of Michi- gan football last season could de- scribe the Wolverine attack in two short words "Ron Johnson." As the local gridiron heroes em bark On yet another season, the challenge to backfield coach Tony Mason this year will be to add enough diversity to keep the op- position at least a little bit off balance. All indications point to a free wheeling wide open Wolverine at- tack which will see the other three members of the backfield called on with greater frequency than last year. This optimism is based prima- rily on the most talented Michigan backfield personnel since the 1964 Rose Bowl Champions and a double-winged pro-type offense that should maximize its strengths. Apart from Captain Johnson, whom Mason calls "the best back in the Big 10,' the backfield sports quarterback Dennis Brown, full- back Garvie Craw, and either John Gabler or Paul Staroba at the flankerback spot. Brown is the primary factor in Michigan's plan for a wide open attack. As an elusive and speedy scrambling-type quarterback, he adds tremendous mobility to the attack. Brown has also developed into a fine passer which should make him a lethal threat running the .option, the most effective weapon of the last Wolverine quar- terback to play in the Rose Bowl, Bob Timberlake. At the other setback position is Garvie Craw, who last season, as a sophomore, blocked about as well as Johnson ran. This year however Mason insisted he will share a fundamental role in the ball carrying department as well as blocking. This new confidence in Craw- the-ball-carrier is quite apparent- ly more than hopeful cliches. For the first time in many seasons Michigan's fullback will be run- ning straight forward, taking handoffs and making power blasts through any hole that opens be- tween the tackles, instead of sweeping pitchouts which dom- inated Wolverine fullback rushes of the last six years. Fall practice has produced a heated battle for the starting birth at flankerback come Sept. 21. In- cumbant Junior John Gabler who played some fine football last year, has found himself chal- lenged by Paul Staroba and the two are presently deadlocked. This kind of problem has to be a rather pleasant one for the Michigan coaching staff which has been plagued with such a complete lack of depth for the last four years. While the problem of depth continues to torment the rest of the squad the offensive backfield ow open for rge seats: ISORY BOARD n RELATIONS ion outside 1548 S.A.B. INTERVIEW is in relatively good shape. Behind Craw junior Eric Federic and sen- ior Warren Sipp have both run well in practice. Backing up Brown at quarter- back is sophomore Don Moorhead, who Mason optimistically rated "the best sophomore quarterback in the Midwest." Unfortunately, there is really no one to back up Johnson. Kirby 'Sams, a hard running back, has beensidelined indefinitely withha head injury, leaving only convert- ed quarterback Jim Betts or soph- omore Lance Scheffler as the only possibility. 'hen again, if Johnson is forced to the side lines for any appre- ciable amount of time, Michigan title hopes will become pretty slim anyway. Happily Johnson has already shown himself to be a durable performer who, despite a badly broken bone in his hand, has been going at full power in practice. The offensive backfield has to be the strongest unit of the '68 Wolverines. The outlook get very encouragini with reports that the attack has been changed to a wide open one with a diversified arsenal of weapons. Almost as encouraging is the emotional strength generated by Johnson, whose leadership Mason describes as, "outstanding, he's a great captain." There definitely seems to be a few fundamental changes in this year's offense, the most obvious of which will be variation. Mason, was emphatic about one carry over from last season, "we're still going to run Johnson as much we can. You've got to be crazy not to play your best card." 3-0 Tiger Johnso n on the move win TELL IT LIKE IT IS U.ofM. for those who think about it in the post, present and future Lead your own campus tour Let both high school students and alumni in on the truth about U. of M. I NTERESTED? Phone 764-0384. or drop in of Alumni Assoc. office, ground floor of Union Remember Student Governors $10 EE per month and delivery Call. NEJAC, TV RENTALS 662-5671, SERVING BIG 10 SCHOOLS SINCE 1961 ' f - - r - Vw 'W -'%#- w-v- I r ," r; . ,...... : :. ,., i ,, . ii,. '.,. .:.\ ,. . .. ..,;}.; :;v. :+. '.:" :c . 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