Friday, ,liy 12, 197' Tiger FVER SINCE I was old enough to tell the difference between a catcher and a second baseman, I have been a loyal Tiger fan. Many are the hours I have wasted listening to Ernie Harwell and George Kell broadcast the adventures of my heroes, and no one was more ecstatic than I, when the Bengals brought the pennant home, where it belonged, in 1968. So it was a shock when, while watch- ing the Tiger-Twin telecast Wednesday night, I found myself rooting for the Twins. And as the Twins sent Detroit down to its fifth straight defeat, 11-6, I came to this conclusion; Every true Tiger fan should hope for a complete collapse of the club on the field for the rest of the season. Traitorous thoughts like this deserve full explanations, and one is forth-. coming. As everybody knows, the Tigers are on old ball club. Twelve players on the current roster are over thirty, with most of this number are approaching or beyond 35. SOONER or later, the Tigers will have to undergo substantial rebuilding. It would be less painful for the club to start rebuilding now, breaking in the fan wants osses young players while the veterans are still good enough to keep the team from. plunging all the way down in the stand- ings. The team won't win any champion- ships while this is going on, but the foundations will be laid for future suc- cess. The Phillies, for example, paid their dues by- sticking with the young- sters, and are now an exciting, contend- ing ball club. But the Tiger management seems to be :n no hurry to introduce new blood. And indeed, why should they be? Tiger fans seem perfectly content to see the club as it is. Detroit is one of the top baseball towns in the country, and the Tigers seem des- tined to draw at least a million and a half customers to Tiger Stadium this year. With John Fetzer's pockets lined with money, there is no really urgent cause to improve the club. This is where the disasterous season comes in. If the Bengals come through with .500 ball, General Manager Jim Campbell will have an excuse to continue the stand-pat policy he has followed throughout the last few trading seasons. But on the other hand, if the Tigers limp home in last place, well below .500, there will be no hiding the fact that changes will have to be made. And even the conservative Campbell will be forced to mak « them. JIM CAMPBELL has an incredible amount of either inertia or patience, de- pending on your point of view. Aurelio Rodriguez has been with the Tigers for four years now, and he has yet to hit over .230. (He is currently batting .212.) Yet Campbell patiently waits for him to develop as a hitter. But Rodriguez is a phenom compared with Jim Northrup. The 35-year-old outfielder has been with the club for 10 years, and they are still waiting for him to come into his own as a hitter. Northrup keeps them hanging on by going on hitting streaks (one last week) that stand out like Everest from the plain of his feeble batting prowess. A Tiger collapse would send Northrup into the waiver list and make Rodriguez trade bait, both to the benefit of the team.E It would also serve to finish off the Miracle Major. Ralph Houk was a tired old failure when with- the Yankees, and, if anything, he has gone downhill since. A new manager (Frank Robinson?) would helpXspark the rebirth of the Bengals. But there is a lot that could be done now to rejuvenate the team. First base for the Tigers has been manned this year by Bill Freehan (.280, 3 HR, 13 RBI) and Norm Cash (.224, 6 HR, 10 RBI). Twenty-three RBI's is an in- excusable number for any team's first basemen. MEANWHILE down in Evansville, a young first baseman named Reggie Sanders is hitting .286, with six homers and a club leading total of 41 RBI's. It certainly would not hurt to bring up Sanders and see what he can do. Hand him the position on a regular basis, as the Yankees have done with Otto Velez, and if he fails, he equals the accom- plishments of the veterans. It is with people like Sanders, Tom Veryzer, Marvin Lane, and Dave Le- manczyk that the future of the Tigers belongs. Let them prove what they can io. The Tigers will attempt to break their losing string at Kansas City tonight, with Mickey Lolich going against Steve Bus- by. Go get 'em Royals. WFL Sharks rip Stars, 14-7 From Wire service Reports JACKSONVILLE - Guard O. Z. White's TD fumble recov- ery with 2:08 remaining in the fourth quarter gave the Jack- sonville Sharks a 14-7 victory over the New York Stars last night in the first WFL game celebrated in this metropolis. A boisterous crowd of 59,112 saw Florida grad Tommy Dur- rance fumble at the goal line, only to have White fall on it in the end zone for the decisive seven points. THE WINNING touchdown was set up when Shark Ike Las- siter's blocked a punt at the New York 20 and linebacker Rich Stulman subsequently ran to the Stars' 7 with 2:50 to go. Shark speed-demon Alan Wy- att romped 87 yards with a punt return in the second quarter for the game's first score. But the Stars knotted the count, with 1:41 left ip the first half on an 8-yard TD pass from quarterback Tom Sherman to end George Sauer, formerly of the New York Jets. Both teams' "action points" failed, and they retired to the lockerrooms at halftime tied, 7-7. In the fourth quarter, the Sharks, led by quarterback Kay Stephenson, initiated a strong drive only to have Grant Guth- rie's 36-yard field goal attempt blocked by New York tackle Harry Espes. The game was well-received by the fans and may be indica- tive of a prosperous WFL fu- ture. To make the evening per- fect, the patriotic halftime show was cut off by a power failure. Yankees nip-Royals KANSAS CITY (P) - George "Doc" Medich allowed seven hits and Bobby Murcer doubled home one run and scored the other in the first inning, lifting the New York Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals last night. Medich, 10-7, yielded four of the Royals' hits in the first two innings. He struck out eight and walked two. Elliott Maddox doubled for the Yankees with one out in the first. Murcer followed with his run-scoring double and went to third when Hal McRae bobbled the ball in right field for an error. Ron Blomberg then drove in Murcer with a ground ball. Maior League Staodinas AMERICAN LEAGUE East W L Pet. GB Boston 47 38 .553 - Baltimore 46 38. .547 Y Cleveland 45 38. 542 1. Milwaukee 43 41 .512 3Y! Detroit 43 42 .506 .4 New York 42 43 .94 5 West Oakland 48 37 .565 -- Kansas City 42 42 .500 5 Chicago 41 43 A90 6% Texas 42 46 .477 7 e Minnesota 40 47 .460 9 California 32 56 .364 171/ Yesterday's Results Boston 12, Texas 3 Minnesota 5, Cleveland 2 New York 2, Kansas City 1 Chicago 4, Baltimore 3 Other clubs not scheduled Today's Games California (Figueroa 04-1) at Bos- ton (Moet 2-I), night. Oakland (Holtzman 9-10) at New. York (Dobson 6-11), night. ' Detroit (Lolich 10-9) at Kansas City (Busby 11-8), night. , Cleveland (J. Perry 8-7) at Min- nesota (Corhin 5-2), night. Texas (Jenkins l0-9) at Milwau- kee (Wright 7-10), night. Baltimore (Alexander 4-4) at Chi- cago (Kat 9-6), hight. NATIONAL LEAGUE East W L Pet. GR St. Louis 43 41 .512 - Philadelphia 43 42 .506 ! Montreal 40 42 .48 2 Pittsburgh 37 45 .451 5 Chicago 37 46 .446 5 New York 36 48 .429 7 West Los Angeles 6o 28 .682 - Cincinnati 49 37 .570 10 Houston 4¢ 41 .529 13 Atlanta 46 42 .523 14 San Francisco 39 49 .443 21 San Diego 38 53 418 23% Yesterday's Results Cincinnati 4, Chicago 3, 10 innings Other clubs not scheduled Today's Games Cincinnati (Carroll 5-2 ad Go- lett 9-6) at Pittsburgh (Rooker 5-6 and Demery 0-3) 2, twi-night. Atlanta (Capra 9-3 and Harrison 6-10) at It. Louis (Gihbsn 5-8 and Forsch 0-1), 2, twi-night. Chicago (Reuschel 8-6) at Hous- ton (Wilson 5-6), night. Montreal (McAnally 6-9) at- San Diego (Jones 5-13), night. New York (Seaver 66) at Los An- geles (John 13-2), night. Philadelphia (RUthven 3-7) at San Francisco (W'Acquisto 7-7), night, Promising Tiger rookies? Sick of the same old tired faces in the Detroit Tiger lineup day in and day out? Folks like Bill Freehan, Ed Brinkman, Jim Northrup, and Mickey Stanley. So is Daily columnist John Kahler, and he writes about it on this page. Here are some suggestions for Manager Ralph Houk in an effort to provide the ancient Bengals. with some new blood. All these new men have well-earned reputations. The new lineup: Leading off in center field is Kleindienst, followed by s e c o a d baseman John Dean, designated hitter H.R. Haldeman, third baseman Fred La Rue, leftfielder Sears, short- stop Liddy, first sacker E. Howard Hunt, rightfielder Sneed and the stubby catcher, L. Patrick Gray.