a I ra" I v.,,,I--j- - L- -L1 We nes Iy - Jun),-197 ImH ARMono^ v nIY Wednesday, June S, 1974 BY GIEOElGE Tigers, George Hastings i S rn World Team Tenn Is . . . i hWeeosi . .. here to stay? A READER PAGING through the sports page of his news- paper this summer might just run into something strange- a set of standings with the league initials "WTT" atop them. This year, for the first time since 1946, a professional league was founded in a sport in which nobody had ever tried it before, and the result has been World Team Tennis. Today, the new league is a month old. It drew a lot of pub- licity and some big crowds when it first opened, but since then the novelty has begun to wear off, and it seems fair to ask where this new professional sport is going. So far, attendance has gone pretty much as expected. The kick-off matches, especially the very first one in Philadelphia fea- turing Billy Jean King, were greeted by some fairly large groups of fans. Since then, however, the crowd numbers have receded throughout the league, below the point at which the owners claim to be able to make money. In Detroit, for example, the Loves played before 3,600 fans the first evening, but with one exception the crowds have been between 900 and 2100. With the number of people in the Detroit area who play tennis, this would seem like a low number. On the other hand, the quality of the sport as a spectator event for the fans who do come has been exceedingly good. The format the new league has adopted, despite all the criticism from th staid tennis elite, has been a success. The simplified scoring system has made for more drama and a briefer match. Games can be decided by one point - there is no deuce or advantage, and games don't drag on. That rule, plus the fact that every game played makes a difference in the final standings (in other words, it helps your team much more to win 6-0 than to win 7-6), forces the players to give their all on every point. There is no holding back or pacing oneself. The league also showed very early in the going that it was enlightened enough to make the necessary changes to make the sport a viabl spectator event. When the owners found that the matches were dragging on too long, they cut the number of sets from six to five, chopping a good half hour off every match and leaving a reasonable two-to-two and a half hour affair. But the most important thing, of course, is the quality of the play itself-and there the league, at least in Detroit, has shined. In the WTT, the best players in the world - the Billie Jean Kings, the John Newcombes, the Jimmy Connors, and the Roemary Casals - are playing top flight tennis every day in arenas that millions of tennis buffs can easily get to. The players, clearly, are behind the league, and that is one of its greatest strengths. The big names are willing to do a little extra to make the sport work, even if it means adding a little hokum for the benefit of the paying customers. When highly ranked players Tom Okker and Ion Tiriac came into town, they both hammed it up, playing their rolls as hot- headed Europeans to the hilt. When Newcombe came in, he stayed on the bench afterward and signed hundreds of autographs. All the players have been willing to take time and talk with the members of the press. Naturally, the doonisayers are already out in full force, pre- dicting that the league will not last for another season. And they are correct in saying that the financial losses the owners are going to suffer this year will make them think twice about continuing the business. a But on the other hand, there are some wealthy people be- hind World Team Tennis with enough money and patience to sit out two or three years of red ink in hopes that the league will catch on. If they do, the crowds might just start coming. There are a lot of people in America pl-ying tennis, and more take it no '-ery day - they will notice if the WTT continues to play top flight, ex- citing tennis. After all, in 1946 they said the National B-sketball Associa- tion would not last either. Aaron belts record-setting grand slam PHILADELPHIA 0P) -- Hank Aaron belted his 16th grand slam home run last night in the seventh inning of the Atlanta Braves' 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The 16th n grand slam put Aaron one ahead of Willie McCovey on the National League list. Lou Geh- rig, New York Yankee great, holds the major league record GRIMACING IN PAIN, Oakl with 23. the 11th annual Shrine night By The Associated Press DETROIT-A two-run double by Aurelio Rodriguez climaxed a four-run first inning that car- ried the Detroit Tigers to a 4-1 victory over the Oakland A's and a split o ftheir twi-night doubleheader. Oakland took the first game 4-0 behind the three-hit pitch- ing of Ken Holtzman. THE TIGERS gave Lerrin LaGrow, 4-4, all the runs he needed in the first inning of the second game. Leadoff man Ron Cash was safe at second on a throwing error by Dick Green and scored on Gary Suther- land's triple. Mickey Stanley then walked and Dick Sharon hit a bloop single over second base, scoring Sutherland. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, then Rod- riguez blasted relief pitcher Paul Lindblad's first pitch. The A's got their only run Major Leag AMERICAN LEAGUE East W L Pet. GB Boston 28 23 .548 - Mlwaukee 25 22 .531 1 Baltoere 24 It.478 3x Clev-eland 24 21 .4781312 Detroit 24 2I .487 3Y. New York 25 28 .471 4 West Oakland 30 21 .589 - Kansas City 26 25 .509 3Y, Texas 21 25 .509 3Y2a Chirago 2 23 .100 4 California 24 28 .462 6 Minnesota 21 26 .448 6 Yesterday's Results Oakland 4-1, Detroit 0-4 Chsicato 9, New York 2 Texas 9, Cleveland0, orfeit Kansas City 8, Baltimore 0 Milwaukee 4, California 3 Boston 4, Minnesota 3, 11 inn. American League Texas (Bibby 7-6) at Cleveland (Johnson 2-2), night. Kansas City (Dal Canton 3-3) at Baltimore (McNally 4.4), night. Oakland (B~lue 4-5) at Detroit (Coleman 6-6), 8 p.m. California (Ryan 7-5) at Milwau- kee (Slaton 6-6), night. Btoston (Tiant I-I) at Minnesota (Goltz 3-0), night. New York (Tidrow 4-6 at Chicago (Pliock 2-0), night. Michigan Daily Sports off LaGrow in the first oa sin- gles by Sal Bando, ReggieJack- son and Deron Johnson. HOLTZMAN handcuffed the the Tigers on three singles in the opening game. Bando drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, Ray Fosse slugged a two run double in the fourth and Joe Rudi's sixth homer of the baseball season in the ninth inning closed out the scorin. ue Standings NATIONAL LEAGUE East W L Pet. Ga St. Louis 21 22 .542 - Philadelphia 28 24 .538 - Montreal 22 21 .512 1Y Chicago 19 76 .422 5T New York 21 30 .412 6. Pittsburgh 18 28 .391 7 West Los Angeles 37 15 .712 - Cincinnati 30 10 .60 6 Atlanta 21 24 .538 9 Houston 27 26 .509 10% San Francisco 27 27 .500 11 San Diego 18 38 .321 21 Yesterday's Results Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 3 Cineinnati 6, New York 3, 10 inn. Montreal 5, Houston 0 Pittsburgh at Los Angeles, Inc. Chicago at San Diego, inc. St. Louis at San Francisco, inc. National League St. Louis (McGlothen 7-2) at San Faracisco (Caldwell 7-3). Atlanta txiekro 1-3) at Philadel- phia (Lonborg 5-5), night Montreal (Torrez 4-4) at Hous- ton (Osteen 5-4), night. Chicago (Hooton 2-5) at San Diego (Palmer 0-0), night. Pittsburgh( Roker 1-4) at Los Angeles (Rau 5-1), night. O's blanked BALTIMORE - Al Fitzmorris of Kansas City, given home run support by John Mayberry and Amos Otis who combined to drive in five runs, checked Bal- timore on three hits and hurled the Royals to an 8-0 rout of the Orioles last night. Fitamorris, 5-2, with second baseman Frank White contribut- ing two fine fielding plays, faced only two batters over the mini- mum. Tribe forfeits CLEVELAND - Last night's baseball game between Texas and the Cleveland Indians was forfeited to the Rangers with the score tied 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning when unruly Cleveland fans poured onto the field after the Indians scored the tying run. The game goes into the books as "a 9-0 Texas victory, but all records count. Sox rock CHICAGO-Dick Allen blasted his first grand slam homer in the American L e a g u e and Bucky Dent added a two-run shot, powering the Chicago White Sox and Wilbur Wood to a 9-2 victory over the New York Yankees last night. Allen's shot off loser Pat Dob- son, 3-8, came with two out in the fifth inning and put the White Sox on top 5-2. and catcher Gene Tenace (18) falls to the ground after spraining his ankle in tae frst game o doubleheader at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The A's won the opener, 4-0.