Page Eight
THE SUMMER DAILY
Tuesday, August 7, 1973
-Sed & seem, Help from above:
Teddy Sizemore ...
. .Movin' 'em around 0 *
Dan Borus
I
CHICAGO-THE FIRST PLACE St. Louis Cardinals sprinted
onto a cloud-covered Wrigley Field to take their pre-game
practice swings. On the hill for the warm-up was Redbird
pitching coach Barney Schultz, whose knuckleball helped the 1964
Redbirds to a stunning come-from-behind victory in the topsy-
turvy National League Pennant race.
The first guy in the cage was number 41, a second baseman
by trade, and he was performing the most delicate of batting
feats, the line drive single to the opposite field, with a droning
consistency. Every outside offering landed in right field.
Later the fun loving Redbirds held a mock home-run hitting
contest (after all, how real can a home-run hitting contest be if
your team is dead last in the majors in round trippers and
Henry Aaron and Darrell Evans have more homers than your
entire ball club). Everybody in the starting lineup plays, espe-
cially with the inviting ivy covered walls of Wrigley. Everybody,
that is, but number 41, red Sizemore. Sizemore continues with
that little line drive to right.
"Keep your head down, wait on the pitch, keep your bat
down, Go. Every time in right field."
"They don't pay me to hit them," he tells a reporter, "they
pay me to move Brock around."
It is a long way from Fisher Field to moving Brock around
but Teddy Sizemore, the man traded even up for Richie-Dick
Allen, has made the journey. None the worse for wear, Ted
Sizemore looks just like he did when he was the premier back-
stop for the 1964-66 Wolverines.
At 5-9, 170, Sizemore looks more like a Serbo-Croatian studies
major than a college backstop. But Sizemore caught and did
much more.
"He did everything we asked of him," recalls assistant
basketball coach Dick Honig, who was assistant to Moby
Benedict during the Sizemore years. "The only problem
Teddy had then was that he wanted to be a home run hitter.
You know, he'd hit one out of the park, and he'd think he
could do it whenever he pleased. It took us some time to
correct that."
"It's overworked," an effusive Honig continues, "but Size-
more is an example of a guy who made it because he worked
at it. On his team, there were guys with much more ability, but
none worked harder than Teddy."
Teddy started working the moment he suited up in a Maize
and Blue uniform. Brought from Detroit's Pershing High School
to play short, Sizemore donned the catcher's equipment when
number one man Pete Adams was injured prior to the team's
departure to the baseball pastures of Arizona for spring training.
A miniture Lou Gehrig-Wally Pipp epic unfolded as Sizemore
took the job away and never lost it. In fact, the following spring
Adams declined to try out.
Actually Sizemore wasn't altogether enthralled to be going
behind the mask again. "But I wanted to play ball. We needed
a catcher and I could do it (it was his high school and sandlot
position). It's as simple as that," Sizemore said.
The Arizona trip confirmed what almost everyone had
taken for granted: That Theodore Sizemore could play with
the best behind the plate and he wasn't going to take abuse
from anyone. Sizemore's .342 was the second best average on
the squad.
The Big Ten race began in earnest and the sophomore from
Detroit stood in. But he did so with a handicap-a painful knee
injury that prevented him from playing late in the season.
Dave Campbell, a teammate of Sizemore on the Cardinals
and on the 1964 Michigan team, speculates that if Sizemore
was completely healthy he would have lead the team to the
Big Ten championship.
Sizemore ended his rookie (sophomore) year hitting at a .281
clip with no home runs and 14 runs batted in. His next year the
junior jinx hit Teddy and he could only manage .248 ("I tried
for too many homers that year." He hit two).
It was his senior year that Sizemore came of age and the
scouts came with money in hand. He led the club to yet another
second place finish, batted .315 with 22 runs batted in, was
selected as the All Big Ten catcher, and drafted by the Los
Angeles Dodgers who saw in him the perfect Dodger-little power,
good speed and hustle, and field ability.
Yet Sizemore was not exactly pleased with his season.
"I missed playing in the NCAA's, we never won a title in
my years at Ann Arbor. All three seconds and by one game,
too," said Sizemore. "I blew it against Purdue my senior year
when I tossed a ball away.
The Dodgers went to work on Sizemore and made him into
an infielder-what Moby Benedict was going to do until Adams
got hurt.
"The toughest thing," Sizemore revealed, "was learning to
. throw and run all over again. At second you never throw over-
handed but that's all you do as a catcher.
The Dodgers never had any doubts either and they brought
the Michigan native up in 1969. Sizemore more than lived up to
Walter Alston's expectations when he swatted .21 and earned
Rookie of the Year honors. The next year he batted .306 and
looked to be the new Jackie Robinson.
But the Dodgers unloaded him even up for a slugger, some-
thing they had never had but always wanted. Sizemore became
a Cardinnal where he has been the second baseman ever since.
Batting practice is over and the field is cleared. The Cubs
take the field and Ferguson Jenkins begins the game by throwing
two quick strikes to Lou Brock. The third pitch is high and away.
The fourth pitch is on the corner, Brock sticks out his bat and
the ball takes off to left for a double,
Number 41 takes the first pitch and on the second moves
Brock around with a sacrifice. Another day in the life.
II uEiz III IhE31I
By The Associated Press
DETROIT - The old baseball
chiche which proudly proclaims
that the game isn't over until the
final out has found a new cham-
pion-the seemingly never aging
Detroit Tigers. Last night, with
a little help from Providence, the
Tigers came through in the
pinch.
Throwing errors by Sparky
Lyle and Felipe Alou allowed Au-
relio Rodriguez to score all the
way from first base with the win-
ning run in the 10th inning, giv-
ing the Detroit Tigers a 5-4 vic-
tory over the New York Yankees.
Rodriguez led off the 10th with
a single to center off Lyle, 4-8.
Ed Brinkman then dumped a sac-
rifice bunt which Lyle fielded-
but threw wildly past first base-
man Matty Alan for an error.
THE BALL BOUNDED down
the right-field line, where it was
retrieved by Felipe Alou. Rodri-
guez, running all the way, scored
with a head-first slide when
Felpie Alou's throw to the play
bounced past Yankee catcher
Thurman Munson for the secod
error of the play.
Big Frank Howard had slam-
med a two-run pinch-homer with
two out in the bottom of the
ninth inning, capping a three-run
Tiger rally that sent the game
into extra innings.
The triumph, before a national
television audience and a Tiger
Stadium crowd of 51,001, lifted
the Tigers past the Baltimore
Orioles into first place in the tight
American L e a g u e East. The
Orioles, beaten by the Boston
Red Sox 5-3, dropped into second
place, one-half game behind De-
troit. Boston and New York are
both one game out of first.
WITH THE YANKS ahead 4-1,
Mickey Stanley led off the ninth
with a double off starter Mel
Stottlemyre. After Gates Brown
lined out, Willie Horton singled
and Lyle relieved Stottlemyre.
Lyle got pinch-hitter Al Kaline
to hit into a force-out, Stanley
scoring on the play, but the 6-
foot-7, 275-pound Howard, batting
for Norm Cash, hit his eighth
homer of the season into the
lower leftfield stands.
Gates Brown had put the Tigers
ahead 1-0 with an opposite-field
homer off Stottlemyre in the
fourth.
J THE YANKEES moved in front
2-1 in the sixth when Ron Blom-
berg bounced a two-out double
over Detroit right fielder Jim
Northrup's head. New York add-
ed two more runs in the seventh
on run-scoring singles by Horace
Clarke and Roy White.
Until the ninth inning, the kay
play in the game was Blomberg's
two-run double in the sixth.
With two out, Roy White sin-
gled and Bobby Murcer drew a
walk from Detroit starter Mike
Strahler. Blomberg then hit a
sinking liner which Northrup ran
in on, apparently hoping for a
shoestring catch. But the drive
hit in front of him and bounced
over his head to the wall, allow-
ing both runners to score.
STRAHLER walked Munson to
open the Yankee seventh inning
and then Fred Scherman came
in to pitch. He retired the first
two batters before Clarke sin-
gled home Munson, who had
reached second on Felipe Alou's
ground out.
0's gored
BALTIMORE - Carlton Fisk
smacked a two-run single to high-
light a four-run outburst in the
first inning that started the Bos-
ton Red Sox on their way to. a
5-3 victory over the Baltimore
Oriles last night.
The Red Sox collected five hits
off Baltimore's starting pitcher,
Doyle Alexander, who did not last
out the first inning. With one
out, Luis Aparcicio singled and
Reggie Smith hit a long double to
left-center for Boston's first run.
After Carl Yastrzemski struck
out, designated hitter Orlando
Cepeda drove home Smith with a
single, Rico Petrocelli doubled
and Fisk hit his two-run single.
Eddie Watt then relieved Alex-
ander, 6-5, and gave up a bunt
single to Rick Miller before get-
ting out of the inning.
Unbeaten Reggie Morst gave
up a two-run homer to Merv Ret-
tenmund, his sixth of the season
in the fifth inning but posted his
fifth victory of the year. He need-
ed relief hetp from Bob Bolin
in the ninth, when the Orioles
scored their final run on a pinch
single by Boog Powell.
Tommy Harper hit a solo
homer for Boston in the ninth,
his 14th of the season.
Major League
Standings
AMEAICAN AEAGUE
East
W A Pct. G1
Detroit 60 50 .545 -
ltimore5 5 49 .542
Boston 59.51 .536 1
New Yoo 01 sl5 .5351
Milwankee 52 57 .477 7
Cleveland 43 70 .381 it'
West
tOakland t3 40 .568 -
Kansas City 64 49 .566 -
Minnesota 55 53 .509 6
Chicago 55 57 .491 8.
California 51 57 .472 10.
Texas 41 68 .376 21
Results
Boston 5, Baltimore 3
Detrsit 5, Ne, York 4, 10 innings
Cleveland 7, Chicago 3
Other clubs not scheduled
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East
a
St. Louis
Chicaen
Pittsburgh
Philad ephia
New York
w L Pt. GB
01 51 .545 -
56 56 .500 5
54 55 .495 51''
54 56 .491 6
52 t0 .464 9
49 00 .450 10"1
feared singles hitter pose during
his Michigan playing days. In
1964 through 1966 Sizemore was
a catcher for the Maize and Blue,
although he had been brought to
Michigan to be an infielder. The
Dodgers finally converted the All-
Big Ten catcher to a second
baseman. Today Sizemore plays
his baseball for the St. Louis
Cardinals for whom he plays
second and bats in the .280s.
f f LsAgles 60042 .02. -
C icinnati 67 47 .588 31
f }san Francisco 61 49 .555 7".
.r: :B,::. ouston 5857 5 .04 13
Atlanta 52 64 .448 10'.
San Diego 37 73 .336 31?'.
ftesults
%17Montreal7, Chicago 3
Houston 5, Cincinnati 4
New York 10, St. Louis 3
Los Angeles at San Diego, night
Other clubs not scheduled
Summer Daily
SporIts