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THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1966
THE j~MICIU-jGN DAILY
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Arizona,
Baseball,
and Augie
By GRAYLE HOWLETT
The late Nat King Cole struck
it rich in the early 40's with a song
called "Get Your Kicks on Route
66." One line in this hit designed
for those who motored from Chi-
cago to L.A. included a roll call of
cities along the way and went
somlething like this: "You'll see
Amarillo, Albuquerque, G a11u p,
New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona,
don't forget Winona, Kingman,
Bartsow, San Bernadino."
At this time Arizona was
merely along the way to where
you were going and the mention'
of Flagstaff, Winona, and King-
map was probably the most play
it had ever had.
In the early 60's a television
show called "Route 66" came out
where two modern knights of the
road traveled the same famous
strip glorified in the Nat Cole
classic. In one episode they drop-
ped off the route a little bit and
wound up in Phoenix. It seems
times had changed. A big sprawl-
ing city with beautiful buildings
and gobs of people appeared on
the screen without one cactus in
sight, except for that one in the
lobby of their million-dollar motel.
It was evident to every arm-chair
quarterback that Arizona was
booming.
Baseball Takes Hint
But this thought had already
occurred to a few major league
ballclubs and they were already
down among the sinus sufferers,
taking advantage of the dry heat
and increased prosperity. College
ballclubs also discovered that a
damp fieldhouse in the cold North
was somehow not the same as the
fresh outdoors, and they began
swarming to the land of the
cactuses.
Arizona and baseball go hand
in hand, and with the influx of
all the Northern ballclubs the local
citizens naturally want to see their
hometown institutions win, all of
which brings us to the Michigan
ball team and a fellow called
Augie Acuna.
Arizona Attire
Michigan baseball coach Moby
Benedict sat in his office dressed
in light cotton slacks and a thin
I. it
knit shirt more conductive to the
94-degree heat in Arizona he had
left a few days before than to the
April snow falling here in Ann
Arbor. On the other side of the
desk was assistant coach Dick
Honig dressed more appropriately
in winter slacks and a sweater.
Both sported deep tans, but
Honig's was probably more a re-
sult of the sun-Benedict was
still red over the forfeiture by
umpire Acuna to the Arizona
Wildcats.
Augie Acuna. The very name
makes you think that he must
have been named after long-time
major league arbitor Augie Dona-
telli and must resemble Charlie
the Tuna.
"Not so,' says Benedict, "he's
long and skinny and his namesake
is Augie Dogie.
Father and Son Team
"This was not something that
happened unexpectedly," contin-
ued Benedict discussing the game
'which resulted in his ejection and
the unprecedented forfeit-all en-
gineered by Acuna - "He's been
with us for years. He always man-
ages to give us a bad time. A few
years back he umpired a game
with us while his son was playing
third base. How unethical can you
get?
"Over the years we always ex-'
pect to get him and it seems like
everytime he officiates we get
beat. One time he struck out
17 of our boys, 13 on called
strikes."
Last Thursday, when the Mich-
igan nine moved from the Phoenix
area, where they had been playing
Arizona State, to Tucson to take
on the Arizona Wildcats, they
were dead tired from playing a
triple-header the day before and
were considering this phase of the
trip a low-point anyway. Honig
pointed out that "the reason the
boys don't like this series is be-
cause of Sancet (head coach
Frank of Arizona) and the treat-
ment they get especially after the
nice way everybody treats them
at Arizona State."
him down, and all the time I was
nipping at Acuna. When I left the
mound and went back into the
dugout our catcher, Ted Sizemore,
came walking over. When I asked
him what was wrong, he said that
Acuna ejected him out for kicking
dirt on the plate. I asked Ted if
he had and he maintained that
he merely asked Acuna to wipe
off the plate. That was enough for
me. I went out and told Acuna
off and if he was going to kick
Sizemore out, he'd have to kick
me out too. He did.
"Then came the seventh and the
forfeit. Actually, I don't blame
Acuna for not looking at the rule-
book when Dick (Honig) tried to
show it to him. As you know they
scored the tying run on an appeal
play which was the third out. The
rulebook was on our side because
you can't score a run on a force
play which results in the third out.
Sancet Carries Weight
"But Sancet came running
out, yelling, 'The run counts,
the run counts,' and apparently
Acuna believed him. When Dick
tried to put the game under pro-
test, Acuna wouldn't even an-
nounce it, something he's re-
quired to do. It seems that the
only person he would listen to
was Sancet.
"Then, when he finally resumed
play, everybody was sorta milling
around, not knowing what to do.
Acuna called three strikes on Les
(Tanona) before he could even
get in the box. Al Bara came
hustling up next not wanting to
get called out on strikes, and then
Acuna said that he had kicked
him out earlier. He had never in-
formed Dick and Al sure didn't
know about it. Then he forfeited
the thing. I think it was a sad
thing but the fact that Sancet
wants to count it as a victory is
proof of their attitude."
No Man's Land
Arizona is booming and it seems
that everybody is getting his share
as witnessed by all the advertise-
ments selling land in the cactus
states and the hordes of eager
buyers. But you can bet there's
one stretch of land around Tucson
which Benedict wants no part of.
SPORTS NIGHT EDITOR:
BOB McFARLAND
GRADUATING
ENGINEERS, SCIENCE
& MATH MAJORS
ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO
START AT $850 TO
$1200 PER MONTH?
For free information, send
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Sizemore and Benedict ... First To Go
Benedict quickly agreed, "San-
cet has to win at any expense. To
him, his record is most important.
He fattens up on these teams out
of the fieldhouse.
"Our boys never really got a
chance to get used to their field
before the game.
"This is especially rough on our
boys after the way Bobby Winles
(head coach at Arizona State)
went out of his way for them.
When their field was under water,
Bobby personally got out and
dragged and lined the Tempe high
school diamond so we could play
-and the game was with Wyom-
ing. Bobby's interest is in playing."
"I told their businessman when
I saw him in the afternoon before
the game," commented Benedict,
"that with the way things are
around here we'll probably get
Acuna.
"Sure enough we did and
trouble started immediately, It
was 2-1 in our favor in the bot-
tom of the second when Eddie
Leon, their shortstop, came up.
He's a boy whom they all like to
protect down there. When he
boots a ball, they call it a hit.
When he gets on because of an
obvious error, they call it a hit.
"Anyway, he takes two beauti-
ful pitches, the second one he even
swung at, and Acuna-calls them
balls. Instead of striking out he
gets another chance and triples
in two runs.
A Dirty Deal
"I went out to talk
(sophomore pitcher Zahn)
to Jeff
to calm
U
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SCORES
EXHIBITION BASEBALL
St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 1
Baltimore 2, New York (A) 0
Atlanta 3, Houston 1
Boston 8, New York (N) 7
Cincinnati 3, Minnesota 2
Cleveland 6, Los Angeles 5
Kansas City 5, Washington I
Chicago (N) 3. California 1
NBA
Boston 114, Philadelphia 93
St.,Louis 120, Los Angeles 113
NBA PLAYOFF FINALS
Eastern Division
W IL Pct.
Boston 2 0 1.000
Philadelphia 0 2 .000
Western Division
W L Pct.
Los Angeles 2 1 .667
St. Louis 1 2 .333
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