Friday, April 5, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Nine
FrdyAri , 93 H MCiGNDALMPgMNn
Aaron
clob ers
record
'714th
CINCINNATI (1P)-Ageless Hank
Aaron shed the ghost of Babe Ruth
yesterday.
"It's a load off my back," said
the Atlanta Braves' slugger after
tying baseball's most revered rec-
ord by slamming his 714th home
run in his first at-bat of 1974.
The victim was Jack Billingham,
who explained, "You don't make
mistakes to Henry Aaron."
But the Cincinnati Reds, the
defending National League West
champions, recouped after the
epic shot and rallied to a 7-6 vic-
tory in 11 innings. Pete Rose,
who doubled home the tying run
with two out in the ninth inning,
doubled again with two out in the
11th and scored the winning run
all the way from second base on
Buzz Capra's wild pitch.
Concealing the pressure of his
long chase of Ruth's record, Aar
said he'll show more emotion whe
he claims the record-breakir
715th homer.
"I'll probably run around ti
bases backward," said the r
served superstar.
Catcher Johnny Bench said ti
pitch Aaron hit was a fast ba
outside. "It was cranksville," sa
Bench.
Rose, who watched the histori
shot sail over his head in lef
field, said: "I knew it was gone
It made me mad. I didn't mini
it being a homer, but you're al
ways disappointed when it hap
pens with men- on base. Bu
Henry deserves it."
Aaron certified the momento
feat by going to the edge of ti
stands to kiss his wife, Billye, h
bride of five months. Sitting wi
on her were Aaron's father and trailing at one point 6-1.
en brother. "It's just another home run
ng Vice President Gerald R. Ford now," Aaron said. "If we had
saluted the homer, calling the won, I'd probably be over there
he feat "a great day for you and a in our clubhouse drinking cham-
e- great day for baseball." Ford pagne."
then wished Aaron "good luck for Billingham, who, in a 1973 inter-
he No. 715 and a good many more." view claimed he would never give
ll, Aaron later grounded out to third Aaron the home run, no matter
id base in the third inning and walk- what the score, described the his-
ed in the fifth, later scoring on an toric pitch:
C error. It was his 2,062nd career "I threw the ball and it didn't
t run scored, tying him for third sink. It came into him over the
. place on that all-time list with outside of the plate," said Billing-
d Willie Mays. ham.
I' The home run came in his "I had thrown him curves. The
- 2,965th major league game. Ruth one fast ball I threw him up until
t played 2,503 games in 22 years. then he took for a high strike,"
Aaron has had 2,890 more times the 31-year-old pitcher recounted.
us at bat than Ruth. The Atlanta "He deserves it," Billingham
he slugger has averaged 35.5 homers continued. "He's the greatest I've
is a year for 20 seasons. Ruth fin- ever seen. It's unfortunate he hit
th ( ished with a 32.4 average. . it against me."
"Tying the record is great, but AAron's 714th home, run vas for-
breaking it is another thing," mally recognized in the U.S. Sen-
Aaron said. ate yesterday with a resolution of
Aaron's homer staked Braves' congratulations.
bi starter Carl Morton to a 3-0 lead. In the House, the announcement
o His last three 1973 homers also was greeted by a standing ovation.
o came in games Morton pitched. The resolution, adopted unani-
0 The soft-spoken Mobile, Ala., mously and by voice vote, extend-
0 native talked of the initial excite- ed congratulations for tying Ruth's
0 ment, but said it was dulled con- record and said Aaron had brought
4 siderably when the Reds staged a "great honor to his team, his race,
0 comeback for a 776 victory after ; and himself."
0 .. ____
0
1
0
0
0
Q ,..1... .. .
0
0
6
Rewriting the record book
ATLANTA
Garr rf
Lum lb
Evans 3b
Aaron If
Office of
Murrell ph
Tepedino lb
Baker of
DaJohnson 2b
Oates c
C Robinson ss
Morton p
P Niekro p
House p
Aker p
N Miller ph
Capra p
Total
ab
4
5
4
3
0
0
5
3
4
5
3
0
1
0
38
h bi
0 01
3 0
1 0
1 31
0 0l
0 01
0 01
0 0
0 0
0 0,
0 0lI
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0;
6 3
CINCINNATI
Rose If
Morgan 2b
Driessen 3b.
Gagliano ph
Hall p
Carroll p
Geronimo
T Perez lb
Bench c
Griffey rf
Rettenmd cf
Concepen ss
Billinghm p
Kosco ph
Nelson p
Crowley ph
Foster ph
Foster ph
Chaney 3b
Total
ab r
5 3
4 0
4 1
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
5 1
5 0
4 0
5 0
5 1
1 0
1 0
0 0
1 0
1 1
0 0
I10
42 7
h1
3
2
2
0
0
d
0
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
0
13
Two out when winning run scored.{
Atlanta 300 120 000 00-6
Cincinnati 100 010 031 01-7
E-Driessen. DP-Atlanta 3, Cincin-
nati 1. LOB-Atlanta 6, Cincinnati 8.
2B-Driessen, Concepcion, Rose 2. HR--
-Aaron (1), Concepcion (1), T. Perez
(1). SB-Morgan. S-Oates, Evans.
WALLABEEO
AP Photo
HIENRY AARON TRIUMPHANTLY APPROACHES home plate, his jubliant teammates and a respectful Johnny Bench after crashing
home run number 714 yesterday afternoon in Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium to tie the immortal Babe Ruth's home run record. The his-
toric shot came on the first at-bat in the first inning of the new baseball season for the Braves slugger and sent the sellout crowd into
thunderous approval.'Aaron's homer off veteran right-hander Jack Billingham cleared the left field fence about 380 feet from home
plate and was retrieved by a Cincinnati policeman on special duty for the purpose of retrieving the ball. The Braves' management
announced that the ball and bat were locked up at once. Aaron's whacking of the three and one fastball served up by Billingham stak-
ed Atlanta to a 3-0 lead but the Reds later rallied behind the bat of Pete Rose to edge the Braves, 7-6 in 11 innings.
Morton
P. Niekro
House
Aker
Capra (L,0-1)
Bellingham
Nelson
Borbon
- Hall
Carroll rw.J-01
IP H RERBB
7 8 3 3 2
1% 4 3 3 1
0 0 0 0 1
11,3j 0 0 0 0
j 1 1 1 1
5 5 6 4 4
2 0 0 0 0
2 000 0
1 1 0 0 0
1% 0 0 0 1
sO
6
2
0
3
1
3
1
1
0
1
--
OPENING TWINBILL TODAY
W -Capra. PB-B-encn.
52,154.
°i--x:0 3. A-"-
0
)IMICh
By FRED UPTON
"Play ball" will be heard once
again in Ray Fisher Stadium to-
day when the Michigan Wol-
verines take on the University
of Detroit for a doubleheader at
two pii.m
Both teams are inexperienced
and .will show quite a few new
faces.
Titan coach Bob Miller lost his
top three hitters to graduation
and all three' will be replaced by
excellent freshmen prospects.
First baseman Gar Frantz was 7
for 17 in their trip down south
during vacation. Two new out-
fielders will, begin new careers
also. Mike Yourchock is in right
field and Steve Friedman is in
left. Yourchock also had a good
southern hitting streak, going 7
for 12,
POTENTIALLY the Detroiters
look good for tlhe future, if not
now. Last year they were 26-17
and the nucleus is very young.
Sophomores occupy third and
short with only one senior start-
ing.
During their spring trip the
Titans were 3-2 and the infield.
committed only two errors.
igan
"Yes, I'd have to say th,
infield is as good as I eve
here," said an enthusiastic
ler. "Potentially within the
year or so we could be
strong. We're exciting bt
experienced."
Don't start feeling sor
the inexperience of U ofI
Today's lineup for Michiga
contain three freshmena
completely new infield fror
of last year.
MICHIGAN COACH Moby
dict said, "Six out of the
starters are new. If that
inexperience, I don't know
is."
faces
Two members of last year's
team would be back if they
hadn't been drawn away by the
pros.
But one has to look ahead to
the future and the future looks
like this for the infield lineup
today: Senior Pete Ross (former
pitcher) at first, sophomore Dick
Walterhouse at second, freshman
Ed Clegg at third, and senior
infield leader Chris Burak at
short.
The outfield for Michigan will
sports.
NIGHT EDITOR:
BILL STIEG
be composed of Midlandite fresh-
man Mark Grenkowski, sopho-
more Dan Damiani, and senior
Mike DeCou.
Gregg Buss, a familiar name to
Michigan basketball and baseball
fans won't crack the starting
lineup because of two knee opera-
tions, one to each knee. "Such a
hard working kid," Benedict
says. "If you want to see same-
one succeed, it's Gregg Buss. He
has super effort."
THE STARTING pitchers for
Michigan will probably be south-
paw Art "Ace" Adams and righty
Chuck Rodgers. They will oppose
lefty Pete Kraeher and righty
Tony Kaseta.
None of the Michigan starters
went the full seven innings during
the Florida trio and thus the
bullpen should be prepared. "I
don't know who's good in the
bullpen yet. Everyone likes to
start," said Benedict. Ross was
the main relief man last year
but is at first now. It will be
interesting to see whether Ross
will resume his former role.
Behind the plate for the Maize
and Blue will be senior John Lon-
char. "You won't find a better
college catcher," are all the
words that Benedict needs to
describe this man. "We're an
w-fully good defensive ball club
when Lonchar is catching."
The back up catcher is a fresh-
man, Ted Mahan. He'll be the DH
for the club and has a great
swing. He could catch some to-
day with Lonchar moving to
first, especially if Pete Ross is.
needed in relief.
Yesterday in practice the team
spent most of the day working
on the double-play combination,
relays and cutoffs.
"OUR DOUBLE-PLAY is en-
couraging. We spent a lot of
time getting the footwork down.
E1en more mistakes are made in
relays and cutoffs and base
running. We have to work and
work and work on these aspects,"
commented Benedict.
Miller said that the Wolverines
have "as good a pitching staff
as any" and went on to predict
the title for Benedict.
But the saying goes, "You play
one game at a time" and there's
two today against Detroit, and
two again tomorrow against
Eastern. "Pray for good weath-
er," said Benedict.
... makesV
concrete
feel like grass
Gymnasts off to- slow
start at NCAA meet
at University Park
SHOW TIMES
Mon.-Sat., 7:15 & 9:00
Sun., 5:30, 7:15, 9:00
it
L
Y
1
1
SCORES I
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 7 Atlanta 6
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Oakland 7, Texas 2
* ABA PLAYOFFS
Indiana 91, San Antonio 89
Virginia 116, New York 115
NIIL
Philadelphia 4, N.Y. Islanders 0
Pittsburgh 4, Buffalo 2
4444
The very new look in shoe fashions this season is the
crepe sole look . . . and Bass has captured this look
beautifully in a whole new collection of styles with
rich, thick Squee-gee soles. The look is fashion . . .
but the genuine leather uppers and "Down-Maine"
craftsmanship tell you these shoes give good, honest
wear and value.
special To The Daily
The Michigpn gvmnasts, riddled
by inj'iries, got off to an extreme-
v s5 rst'rts in vps*°r 's onen-
irng of the TXvid rn'vzrdNCA A (Thm-
nastics f'hgmnionshinG at Penn
State ?nd -s a result found them-
selves.. saddled in seventh place
out of the eight competing schools.
After compIetion of vesterday's
Comvnlsorv session Iowa State
held the lead with a score of 160.45
followed by California with a 159.20
mark. The Wolverine gumnasts
compiled a weak 152.15 score.
The Maize and Blue tumblers
failed to score higher than 24.7 in
each of the first three events and
the slow start put the Wolverines
behind the eight ball from the on-
set.
"Our sidehorse re-lly killed us,"
lamented Coach Newt Loken. "We
didn't do to well in any of the first
three events but we did improve in
the final three."
"You have to be in the 26
scoring range in order to score
well, especially with this type of
comnetition," emohasized Loken.
"All eight schools are in there
reasoniably close so we're hop-
ng to improve our position to-
morrow."
Though the Michigan team per-
formance wasn't very bright,
there were a few outstanding in-x
dividual efforts. Richard Bigras'
score of 9.05 in the vaulting ex-
ercise was good enough for a
sixth place rating, while both
C'arev Culbertson and Bob Dar-
den finished near the top in the
high bar.
The Wolverine gymnasts were
selected as an at-large represent-
ative for the NCAA Meet when
Western Independent Champion
Air Force failed to score the
necessary minimum of 300 points.
Injuries to such key perform-
ers as Captain Monty Falb and
J. P. Bouchard plus the air of
'incertainty that clouded the
Volvwrine practice sessions for
the last month 9ire factors work-
ing ainst Loken's auna.hbt E
MMMMMOOR
Watch University of
Michigan's
best
pool players compete for places on the
team to play MICHIGAN STATE.
Men's and Women's competition at
THE MICHIGAN UNION
BILLIARD ROOM
* -
ATTENTION
PN
ng
Clerical, Technicals, Ll
U of M AFSCME
Steering Committee meeti
I %LEEhAV A....:1 0 9 l -....I
ii
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