THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, June 18, 1974 1
ยง~e SanMJs7a./ Kaline topples Texas;
Horton as DH
Hok saysno Birds blank Minnesota;
John Kahler --f . . - - .... _ ... .L L -.
THE MORE ONE looks at the Detroit Tigers, the more one has
to question the tho'ght processes of manager Ralph Houk.
The Tigers happen to be hot at the moment; going into last night's
game with Texas, the Bengals had won seven of their last nine.
But the moves of the Miracle Major remain mystifing to all.
It is a well known fact that, for over a month now, Willie
Horton has been playing in pain. The slugging outfielder has a
pair of injured knees that have severely restricted his mobility in
the outfield and totally eliminated what little speed he had on
the basepaths.
Friday night, Willie re-injured himself when he got trapped
off second base in the opening inning, and had to make a
belated slide back to the bag. He had to be lifted in the fourth
inning for Ben Oglivie, and did not see any action on Saturday.
It has been Houk's custom in recent games to pull Horton
around the seventh inning for one of the Tiger's many defensive
replacements.
Unfortunately, the Tigers cannot afford to see Horton idling
on the bench, since he possesses one of the few effective bats on
the club. At last report, Willie was batting .304, easily leading the
Tiger regulars, with 15 homers and 39 RBI's. When you consider
that the nearest Tiger to Horton in the home run race is Ed
Brinkman, the value of Horton in the lineup becomes obvious.
Any other American League club possessing a slugger with
aching knees would automatically make his the designated hitter.
But Houk has not done so with Horton. Willie continues to play in
the outfield, while Al Kaline is the Tiger DH.
Kaline is reaching the end of a long and distinguished
career with the Tigers. His
goal this season is to reach'
the 3,000 career hit mark,
and barring any disasterous
mishaps, he should make it.
He became a DH in his quest
for the 3,000 hit plateau. Playing'
the outfield would have exposed
Kaline to the assorted minor in-
juries that have plagued him
throughout his career, while be-s
ing a designated hitter was a'
safer way of reaching a cherish-
ed goal. Horton
But though his legs are aged, they are still in better shape
than Horton's injured limbs. Kaline has always done what was
necessary for the good of his team and would not complain if
asked to return to outfield duty.
So why hasn't Houk made the move? The Major insisted
before spring training began that "Kaline is my DH." And
Kaline has been his DH, except for a few occasions when Al
has asked for a rest.
Houk would appear to prefer having his best bat playing only
half the game to changing his designated hitter. Such a move,
he reckons, would be construed in some circles as a sign of panic.
In this circle, Houk's failure to move is construed as being a sign
of stupidity.
Horton will continue to play in left field, suffering in silence,
his knees restricting his defensive movement. Around the seventh
inning, if the Tigers are ahead in the contest or hopelessly out of
it, Dick Sharon or Ben Oglivie will take over in left with their
somewhat feebler sticks.
Tiger fans will continue to wonder why, but only Ralph Houk
knows, and he isn't telling.
Major Leaue Standings r.
%a, rerry wins anot1er
By The Associated Press
ARLINGTON-Al Kaline belted a two-run
homer with two out in the 10th inning, giving
the Detroit Tigers a 6-4 victory over the Texas
Rangers last night.
Kaline's fourth homer of the baseball season
followed a single by Mickey Stanley and pro-
vided reliever .lohn Hiller, 7-4, with the victory.
The Rangers tied the game at 4-4 with a
four-run rally in the ninth inning. Jim Fregosi
belted a three-run honier off Detroit starter
Woodie Frymnan and Len Randle tied it with
a solo blast.
Ben Oglivie keyed a three-run second inning
with a double to give the Tigers an early 3-0
lead. Jim Northrup opened the Tigers' second
with a single and moved to third on a single
by Freehan. Oglivie then doubled to make it
1-0.
Aurelio Rodriguez' sacrifice fly gave Detroit
a 2-0 lead and Ed Brinkman's single to tuft
center one out later made it 3-0. Freehan hit
his third homer of the season leading off the
Detroit fourth to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
Cuellar dazzles
BALTIMORE - Baltimore's Mike Cuellar
notched his ninth straight victory, winning a
five-hit 1-0 decision over the Minnesota Twins
on a sixth-inning home run by Bobby. Grich.
Grich lined his eighth homer of the season
into the left field bleachers just after loser Vic
Albury, 2-6, had picked Mark Belanger off
first base for the second out of the inning.
Belanger opened the inning with Balti-
more's third hit of the game. The first two
were by Brooks Robinson-a single in the
second and a double in the fifth.
Cuellar, 9-3, permitted only three Twins to
advance beyond first bace. Glenn Borgmann
singled to open the Minnesota sixth and
moved around to third on a sacrifice and an
infield out. But Rod Carew, the American
League's leading batter who entered the game
with a .396 average, grounded out.
Carew reached in the opening inning on a
forceout after Jerry Terrell singled. He stole
second but Cuellar retired Larry Hisle and
Harmon Killebrew. Carew and Hisle singled
with two out in the ninth but Killebrew flied
out to end the game.
Gaylord greases
CLEVELAND - Cleveland's Gaylord Perry
won his 12th straight game, beating the Chi-
cago White Sox 4-3 on Jack Brohamer's run-
scoring single in the ninth inning.
Frank Duffy, who earlier scored two of
Cleveland's runs, reached base on an error,
was sacrificed to second and scored on Bro-
hamer's hit off reliever Cy Acosta, 0-3.
Perry, 12-1, who pitched a five-hitter and
struck out nine batters, including Richie
Allen four times, has not lost since Opening
Day.
A single by Joe Lis tied the score 3-3 in the
eighth inning for the Indians.
Earlier, Jorge Orta's two-run homer in the
top of the eighth gave the White Sox a 3-2
lead. Orta hit his first homer of the baseball
season following a single by Pat Kelly.
Frank Duffy scored Cleveland's first two
runs after base hits to give Perry a 2-1 cushion
before Orta's blast.
Pirates Dound
PITTSBURGH - Richie Heber drove in
three runs and KecuHrett hurled a seven-hitter
as the Pittsburgh Pirates whinped the Los
Angeles Dodgers 7-3 and posted a four-game
winning streak for the first time this season.
Both teams scored in the second inning but
the Pirates broke the deadlock with four un-
earned runs in the fourth off loser Don Sutton,
6-6.
Manny Sanguillen reached on an error by
shortstop Bill Russell, took second on an
infield out and scored the lead run on a single
by rookie Mario Mendoza.
Mendoza took second on a single by
Brett and scored on a double by Gene
Clines. Both Brett and Clines came home
when Richie Hebner's two-out pop fly to
shallow center fell for a double behind Jim
Wynn, who apparently lost the ball in the
lights.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the sixth
to trim the lead to 5-3 but the Pirates scored
twice in their half of the inning with the help
of a sacrifice fly by Hebner and a passed ball
by catcher Steve Yeager.
Barr blanks
ST. LOUIS - Gary Thomasson drove in two
runs with singles and pitcher Jim Barr scat-
tered eight hits, leading the San Francisco
Giants to a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Car-
dinals.
Barr, 4-3, scored one of the San Francisco
runs during a two-run rally in the eighth that
rapped up the game for the Giants.
In the seventh, Barr worked a walk off John
Curtis, 4-7, went to third on a double by Bob-
by Bonds and scored on Curtis' wild pitch.
Thomasson then lined a single to center to
score Bonds.
AMERICAN LEAIGUE
East
w L Pet. GB
Boston 35 26 .574 -
Cleveland 32 29 .525 3
Detroit 32 29 .525 3
Baltimore 31 30 .508 4
Milwaukee 29 29 .500 41'
New York 32 32 .500 4',
west
Oakland 33 29 .532 -
Texas 32 31 .508 1?,
Kansas City 30 30 .500 2
Chicago 27 30 .474 3,
California 27 36 .429 61,
Minnesota 25 34 .424 6%
Results
Baltimore 1. Minnesota 0
Cleveland 4. Chicago 3
Detroit 6, Texas 4, 10 innings
New York at California, inc.
Boston at Oakland, Inc.
Today's Games
Kansas City (Splittorff 6-6 and
Pattin 1-3) at Milwaukee (Travers
0-0 and Kobel 3-4).
Chicago (Pitlock 2-1) at Cleve-
land (Johnson 3-3).
Minnesota (Decker 7-4) at Balti-
more (Grimsley 6-7).
Detroit( (LaGrow 5-5) at Texas
(Bibby 9-8).
Boston (Moret 0-1) at Oakland
(Holtzman 7-7).
New York (Tidrow 5-5) at Califor-
ala (Ryan 7-6).
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East
W L Pet. GB
Philadelphia 34 29 .539 -
St. Louis 31 30 .507 2
Montreal 28 28 .500 21/
Chicago 25 33 .431 6Yc
Pittsburgh 25 34 .420 7
New York 24 37 .393 9
west
Los Angeles 44 21 .681 --
Cincinnati 37 25 .590 6
Atlanta 34 27 .571 7
Houston 32 33 .494 12
San Francisco 32 35 .478 13
San Diego 27 42 .389 19
Results
Cincinnati 12, Montreal 3
Philadelphia 7, Houston5
Atlanta 8, New York 1
San Diego 7, Chicago 5
San Francisco 3, St. Louis 0
Pittsburgh 7, Los Angeles 3
Today's Games
San Diego (Freisleben 5-2) at Chi-
cago (Bonham 4-9).
(Los Angeles (John 10-1) at
Pittsburgh (Demery 0-2).
Houston (Osteen 5-6 or Roberts
5-7) at Philadelphia (Schueler 3-7).
Montreal (McAnally 4-6) at Cin-
cinnati (Kirby) 5-3).
Atlatan(Harrison 5-7) at New
York (Stone 2-4).
San Francisco (Bryant 2-7) at
St. Louis (Foster 1-5 or Thompson
0-2).
Doily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
Horton takes a cut
Willie Horton takes a powerful cut at a Bruce DalCanton knuckleball during action in last Sun-
day's Tiger-Royals contest. The Motown slugger is currently tied for the league lead in homers
with 15, and, if his knees hold up, stands a good chance of having his best season in the majors.