Page Twelve THE MCHIGN DALY Thursday, August 1, 1974 Late rally tips Wheels By ROGER ROSSITER Wheels at Rynearson Stadium Special To The Daily last night. YPSILANTI-Rookie quarter- THE AMERICANS marched backs are not supposed to win 67 yards to score the game win- professional football games. It ning touchdown with just 2:12 seems, however, that no une left on the scoreboard clock. told that overused cliche to the Reed completed three passes Birmingham Americans' fresh- in the five-play drive, tossing to man signalcaller. Al Jenkins for 14, Ted Powell Matt Reed, who was substi- for 32, and Dennis Homan for tuting for the injured George 12 in setting up his scaring Mira, took command when the gIllp. going got tough and rolled 11 Trailing 11-7 entering the fi- yards around right end to give nal quarter, the Wheels put 11 the Birmingham Americans a points on the board, Jue ex- 21-18 victory over the Detroit clsively to the loping stride of Major League Standings AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE East East W Pct. W L Pct. OGB w I Pet, Gn Philadelphia 53 50 .513 - SCleveland 52 4 5 15 2' Ptsbugh 054.81 3f llaltimore 52 50 .5 0 3 Montreal 49 53 .40 3y/. Milwankee 51 52 .495 4! New York 45 56 .446 7 Newroirk 51 .485 6, Chicago West42 59 .416 10 west Los Angeles 67 37 .644 - Oakland 61 43 .587 - Cincinnati 63 43 .594 5 Kansas City 51 50 .505 $ " I Houston 55 50 .524 12 Texas 53 52 .505 8', Atlanta 54 51 .514 13' Chicago 51 51 .500 9 san Francisco 48 58 .453 20 Mlinnesota 50 54 .481 11 San Diego 44 62 .415 24 California 41, 64 .390 20I Yesterday's Results Yesterday's Results Montreal 7, Chicago 4, 1st Kansas City 3, Minnesota 2kMonteal 4, Chicago 0, 2nd Texs' 7, Oakland 6 Ptishnergh 8, New York 3 Balimnore 7. Cleveland 4 Atlanta 9, San Francisco 0 Boston 5, Detroit 4 Cincinnati 4, Hoauston I New acrk 4, Milwaukee : St. Louis 9, Philadelphia 8 Caitornia 14, Chicago 4 Los Angeles at San Diego, inc. Today's Games Today's Games Chicago (Stone 3-3 and LaRoche Detroit (Fryman 4-6) at Milwau- 1-3) at New York (Apodaca 3-5 and kee (Slaton 8-11), night. Sadecki 4-4), 2, twi-night, New York (Pagan 1-2) at Cleve- Montreal (MeAnally 6-12) at a land (J. Perry 10-8), night. Philadelphia (Twitchell 5-3), night. Baltimore (Garland 3-4) at Bos- St. Louis (MeGlothen 12-7) at ton (Lee 11-9), night. Pittsburgh (Brett 12-7), night. Texas (Brown 8-8) at Kansas San Diego (Spilner 5-6) at Los City (Dal Canton 5-4), night. Angeles (Downing 3-5 or Zahn 1-1), California (Figueroa 1-2) at Min- night. neslota (Corbin 6-3), night. Cincinnati (C. Carroll 5-3) at San Oakland (Holtzman 1l-11) at Francisco (Caldweli 9-3), night. Chicago (Bahnsen 8-12), night. Only games scheduled. running back Jesse Mimms. Mimms' electrifying 55 - yard gallop down the west sideline gave the Wheels a 15-14 ad- vantage. On Detroit's next possession, he raced around right end down the opposite sideline ill the way from the Detroit 1') so Birmingham's 26. The 64-yard jaunt set up Eric G'ithrie's knuckleballing 29- yard f i e 1 d goal. But the 18-14 advantage and the Wheels' first win were pitt asunder by Reed's heroics. DETROIT scored the game's first touchdown in the second quarter when quarterback Bub- ha Wyche found tight end Brii-e Cullen all alone in the middle of the Americans' secondary with a 10-yard scoring strike. Earl Sark got Birmingham on the board at the half with a 27-yard field goal 14 seconds before the gun. Birmingham took its first lead, 11-7, in the third quarter when Carl Bartles plunged for a one- vard score and Reed hit Paul Robinson for the action point. The strike was set up by two Reed completions and a 15-yard penalty on the Wheels' Clyde Glossen for clotheslining Homan when he was out-of-bounds. "OUR GUYS just never gate un," said victorious coach Jack Gotta. "What more can you say than that." Despite his team's inability to stop Birmingham's w i n . i n g drive, Wheels' coach Dan Bais- ture announced, "We played good defense." Good compared to past performances, perhaps, but failures in the secondary led Boisture to moan, 'We're still I o o k i n g for defensive backs." AP Photo DENNIS MACHOLTZ (80), tight end for the Detroit Wheels, is wrestled down after a short gain by Cecil Leonard and Ross Brupacher. CLARKE COGSDILL Some AT LONG LAST, almost everyone agrees that the time has come to overhaul the Detroit Tigers. Even Jim Campbell and Ralph Houk - who sac- rificed what little was left of their vet- erans' market value to shoot for a divi- sion title this year - have admitted as much. So, even if the Bengals pull a New York Mets trick and run off a long win- ning streak to take it all, you can bet a lot of Detroit ballplayers will be either on other clubs or in Sun City by this time next summer. Almost everyone is aware of the brilliant possibilities such a change- over offers. The Evansville farm club has some kids who look like they might become bona-fide m a j o r leaguers. Some of them are in line to replace still-valuable players, who can be peddled to other clubs in exchange for talent which the farm system doesn't have - pitchers. But the latter opportunity is chancy. Ever since the Denny McLain ripoff, other clubs have been hesitant to deal with Jim Campbell. Even when one points out that Texas would be much better off if it had kept Elliott Maddox (now hitting about .320 for New York) there's no doubt that trade kept the Ben- gals above .500 for 3 years. Tiger trades haven't always worked out, though. In fact, a pretty respectable list containing some good players can be worked up, showing players the Tigers dealt for who didn't come through. Only two of these players had gen- uinely awful records in Detroit. One was clearly a victim of circumstances he could not control. The only thing. they have in common is that they didn't perform the role the Tigers ex- Tiger deals flop pected of them when the deal for them was made. Needless to say, if next winter's swaps bring similar players to Tigerland, dis- aster will follow. CATCHER AARON ROBINSON came from the White Sox, in exchange for Billy Pierce, to fill a hole the late-1940s Tigers created in their lineup when they foolishly sent Birdie Tebbetts to Boston. He came billed as a lefthander with good power (ideal for Briggs Stadium) who could do the job behind the plate. Today's he's remembered mainly be- cause Billy Pierce became great, and made the Tigers look like fools. He's also remembered for a defensive lapse that might have cost the 1950 club a pennant. But, more to the point, he didn't reach the fences the way a left-handed slugger is supposed to in Detroit - 22 HR in 2 years - and when he started 1951 at a .207 clip, the Tigers let him go. FIRST BASE WALT DROPO was a key to the in- famous 1952 George Kell deal. A big right-handed slugger, he had a fantastic rookie year in 1950, batting .322 with 34 home runs in friendly Fenway Park. After a slump in 1951, the BoSox were willing to deal, and because the Bengals needed a power hitter, the move was semi-reasonable. Dropo hit close to his lifetime-aver- age .270 in Detroit, but except for 1952, he couldn't reach the seats consistent- ly. Defensively, he made some cynics harken to the glory years of Dale Alex- ander. SECOND BASE JOHNNY PESKY had been a star with the Red Sox. A good defensive player, he was also invaluable at getting on base ahead of Ted Williams and Vern Stephens, who drove him home con- sistently. Unfortunately, things just didn't work that way when he came over in the Kell deal. Pesky batted .254 in 1952 - well below his .307 lifetime average - and even though he hit .292 the next year, the Bengals didn't have the sticks to bring him home. SHORTSTOP BILLY MARTIN came from Kansas City in 1958 to offer the "inspirational leadership" the Tigers thought they needed for a pennant run, and proved for all time that a leader is worthless with- out some capable troops to command. The Bengals dealt him away the follow- ing off-season. THIRD BASE AURELIO RODRIGUEZ. Yes, Aurelio Rodriguez. When the Tigers got him in the McLain deal, they expected him to develop as a hitter with good power. The only power he shows much of is that which kills rallies. He lacks bat control, and can't lay off bad pitches. Ecchl In Eddie Brinkman, Detroit has all the good-field-no-hit players it needs. Minor- league batting phenom Danny Meyer has converted to third this year, and you can guess which popular Mexican ball- player is going on the trading block next fall. OUTFIELD AL SIMMONS, DON DEMETER and LARRY DOBY probably wouldn't have made a bad combination. Doby - the first black player in the American -League - had great years with Cleveland, but he went over the hill during the winter of 1958-59. The Tigers acquired him for - you guessed it - the 1959 season, and it took him less. than a month to prove he was through. Demeter was a competant enough outfielder in the mid-60s, but the Tig- ers made the mistake of thinking he'd be as valuable as Jim Bunning, who ran off 4 consecutive 19-game win seasons for Philadelphia. Al Simmons' is probably the strangest case of all. His stats for the 1936 Tigers were excellent - .327, 13 HR and 112 RBI. But he didn't do was he was sup- posed to do: guarantee Detroit a pen- nant. No way could you consider it his fault. As the Tigers knew when they got Sim- mons from the White Sox, the Yankees were going to bring up Joe Dimaggio, who proved to be as good as the West Coast scouts claimed. Hank Greenberg missed all but 12 games in 1936 with a broken wrist. - Pitchers Alvin Crowder and Eldon Auker, who accounted for 34 wins in 1935, won half that number in 1936. Mickey Cochrane went into semi-retire- ment. No wonder the Yanks won the pennant by 19 games that year. Al Simmons spent 1937 in Washington. PITCHER RAY NARLESKI - who else? A con- sistent winner in Cleveland, he went 4-12 with a 5.78 ERA for the '59 Bengals. The Tigers won games for good pitch- ers that year - Frank Lary, Don Mossi and Bunning all garnered 17 triumphs -but they still finished below .500. Na' leski was the main reason they didn't contend. These men all were good players. The Tigers needed them at the time they were acquired. None of them worked out. Jim Campbell would do well to keep their names in mind when he picks up his phone this fall.