Wednesday, May 17, 1972 THE MICHIGAN DAIUY Page Fifteer Orioles maul slumping Tigers From Wire Service Reports lar with one out in the first Tribe stalled Texas blanked three consecutive home runs, DETROIT - A two-run double inning after Cuellar had given driving in five runs to back the by rookie John Oates and a up two Tiger runs. From then CLEVELAND-Bobby Mu Rooker tossed a four-hitter and three-hit pitching of rookie towering solo homer by Boog on, Alexander gave up just three first hit in 23 at-bats touched the Kansas City Royals capi- Burt Hooten as the Cubs crush- Powell, plus a long, stellar re- hits, including a solo homer by off a three-run uprising in the talized on a pair of Texas er- ed the Philadelphia Phillies 8-1 lief job by Doyle Alexander, led Norm Cash in the fourth, -to fifth inning that enabled the rors for a 5-0 victory over the last night. the Baltimore Orioles to an 8-3 even his record at 1-1. New York Yankees to beat t Rangers last night. ** h CleelanIdiancis 3-11 otice Ragr last n ight o victory over the Detroit Tigers last night. The loss was the third straight for Billy Martin's pennant-bound Tigers. Coupled with the Cleve- land Indians' defeat to the resur- gent New York Yankees, 3-1, De- troit remained one game out of first. Alexander relieved Mike Cuel- Baltimore scored three runs in the fourth off Tom Timmerman, 2-3, on consecutive doubles by Powell and Brooks Robinson, a walk to Paul Blair and Oates' double. Cash's homer tied the score 3-3 before Powell blasted a 415- foot homer off the upper deck facade in right-center field. tokens subway Bob Andrews N. Y. C. sports .. . ... the new Triple Crown?' IN THE world of professional sports, one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed is the coveted Triple Crown. In major league baseball, the player talented enough to lead his league in batting average, runs batted in, and home runs, will cop the rare distinction. However more often than not, the leadership in one of these categories can' be quite elusive. In the field of horse racing, the words Triple Crown have become more of a legend than a reality as the task for a three- year old of pacing the field in the Big Three of racing (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes) can only be described as overwhelming. Citation, in 1948, was the last of the equine species to per- form the trick. There is however, a new type of Triple Crown, just as rare or even more so than the above two, that might be presented to the massive populace of the city of New York. That's right fans, the possibility exists that Fun City could earn the dubious honor of seeing three of the professional teams it so dearly supports and loves fall by the wayside in'their respective championship finals. Indeed, May 1972 will not be the talk of the town as far as sports goes in the Big Apple. First, the New York Knicks put on a valient show against the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the greatest powerhouses the NBA has ever witnessed. Startling enough, the initial battle was all the Knicks as they made the Lakers wonder if this champ- ionship series would end up as they usually did for them. But awesome Wilt Chamberlain and the rest of the Laker. squad proved to be too much for the injury-riddled hoopers from New York (no Willis Reed and, after game one, no Dave De- buschere) and they swept the next four games to capture a long deserved title, especially for a guy named West. Now that the cage scene was over, anxious New York eyes turned their attention upon the beloved New York Rangers, who were in the unfamiliar role of competing in the finals to determine the Stanley Cup winners. Only the most veteran Ranger disciples could remember the glory days when a member of the Broadway Blue would skate around displaying the supreme symbol as the Rangers had not won the cup for approximately 30 years. This time, their opponents were to be the bruising Boston Bruins, a team they never really seemed to get along well with. Nevertheless, even with the motive of terminating this long agonizing drought in the Rangers' favor the big breaks were to fall for the ,bang-bang Bruins and before a praying SRO crowd at Madison Square Garden, Boston blanked the Rangers, 3-0 to take the series 4 games to 2. For the Rangers, it means more unbearable frustrations and hope that next season the Messiah would finally arrive. For Boston, thanks to a little help from B. Orr, they received a heroes' welcome when they returned to Beantown. So the action finally ended at the arena on 7th Avenue and 33rd street and the fans who came hoping to witness a joyous event in a normally dreary city, had to depart with a feeling that could best be described as empty pride. Now that all matters were decided in the NBA and the NHL, New York support shifted to the suburbs (Uniondale, Long Island) where the New York Nets are currently battling the Indiana Pacers for the championship of the ABA. As mentioned at the start, one category usually proves very tough in the quest for the "Crown" and this series might be the toughest for New York. The amazing Nets, the Cinderella team of one of the younger professional leagues in America, defeated the Pacers Monday night, 110-105 to even their best-of-seven series, 2-2. This feat is greater than that accomplished by both the Knicks or Rang- ers. With the momentum slightly on their side, there is a slight chance that the Nets will prevail and spoil New York's shot at the "Big Three". However, two of the remaining three games still to be played will take place at Indiana, where the Pacers are usually tough, and if the ball continues to bounce as it has all through this infamous month for the New Yorkers, odds are that the Nets too will succumb and the first Triple Crown for losing will belong to N. Y. C. behind the four-hit pitching of Mike Kekich and Sparky Lyle. The Yankees scored their runs at the expense of Steve Hargan, making his first start after pitching only two innings all season. After Murcer singled with one out, Roy White walked and Ron Blomberg drove in one run with a double. Thurman Munson drove .in the second run with a grounder to third baseman Graig Nettles, whose throw to the plate was too late to get White. Rich McKin- ney's single made it 3-0. Kekich, 3-2, allowed four hits but only one runner got past first base through the first seven innings. When Kekich walked Adolf-a Phillips to lead off the eighth, Lyle came oni.The relieverwalk- ed Del Unser but retired he next three batters, although Phillips scored on a long fly and an infield out. (Akisox roll CHICAGO - Stan Bahnsen, Vicente Romo and Terry Fors- ter combined to hurl the Chi- cago White Sox to their sixth straight victory, a 2-1 decision over the Minnesota Twins last night. BoSOX breeze MILWAUKEE - Danny Ca- ter, a seventh-inning defensive replacement, singled in the tie- breaking run in the 10th 'and rookie Rick Miller followed with a three-run homer, pow- ering Ray Culp and the Boston Red Sox to a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers last night. Yesterday's scheduled home Mets streak baseball contest between Michi- NEW YORK - Bud Harrel- gan and Western Michigan was son broke out of a batting cancelled due to wet grounds, slump with a two-run double in The game will not be made up. a four-run second inning and Tom Seaver became the Na- tion League's first six-game Cubs explode winner asgthe New York Mets PHILADELPHIA - Chicago beat the Montreal Expos 7-3 Cubs' Rick Monday crashed last night. CHICAGO CUB JOSE CARDENAL (1) sneaks in past Phillies' catcher Tim McCarver to score in the fourth inning of last night's game in Philadelphia. The heroics however belonged to Chicago's Rick Monday, who smashed three consecutive homers to clinch the 8-1 win. SPORT SHORTS: Schaus named Purdue mentor By The Associated Press * WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. --George King, Purdue basket- ball coach and athletic director, announced his retirement as coach yesterday and named Fred Schaus, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, to succeed him. King will continue as athletic director. He has been Boiler- maker basketball coach seven years and athletic director 15 months. Schaus, 40. was akmoving force behind the Lakers this year as they won their first National Basketball Association championship. . CHICAGO-Owner Charles 0. Finley of the Oakland A's said last night that pitcher Denny McLain would decide to- day whether to accept a demo- tion to the A's Birmingham farm club or be placed on the voluntary retired list. "McLain wasn't pitching too well," said Finley, "and we thought the way he was going it would be better to send him down to Birmingham where he could pitch according to his feel- ings." "Both Williams and myself have faith and confidence in McLain and feel if he pitches regularly in the warm weather, he can make it back to the A's." The decision to demote Mc- Lain, whose stormy career also included a stop with the Wash- ington Senators before he came to the A's this year, was dis- closed Monday by Williams with the comment, "He just wasn't throwing the ball as hard as we know he can." . BUFFALO, N.Y. - George "Punch" Imlach, 51, on the mend after suffering a heart attack, called it quits as coach * DETROIT - Defenseman of the Buffalo Sabres yesterday, 'Gary Bergman has come to but said he would continue as terms with the Detroit Red general manager of the Nation- Wings on a three-year contract al Hockey League club. he described as "a good one-no, No successor was named, but .nefecr asrato -n Imlach said the coaching job m fact, a great one. had been offered to Jos Crozier, Ned Harkness, general man- who filled in for Imlach after ager of the National Hockey his heart attack Jan. 6. League team, announced the "Joe Crozier is our choice," contract signing yestrday -but Imlach said. "He deserves the job. He had been approached neither he nor Bergman would and we now are awaiting his say how much money was in- answer." volved. a Professional League Standings American League East National League East Cleveland Detroit Baltimore Boston New York Milwaukee w L Pet. G6, 14 9 .609 -- New York 13 10 .565 1 Philadelphia 13 11 .542 1! Pittsbuurgh 9 12 .429 4 Montreal 9 14 .391 5 Chicago 6 15 .286 7 St. Louis w L Pet. GB 19 7 .731 -- 15 11 .577 4 13 12 .520 511 13 13 .500 6 12 13 .480 61l 50 108 .357 10 Minnesota 16 7 .696 - Oakland 14 7 .667 1 Chicago 15 9 .62.5 1r/ ansas City 1r 15 .42361 Texas 10 15 .400 7 California 9 15 .375 7% Yesterday's Results New York 3, Cleveland 1 Boston 5, Milwaukee 1, 10 innings Kansas City 5, Texas 0 Baltimore 8, Detroit 3 Chicago 2, Minnesota 1 (Oakland at California, inc. Today's Games Oakland (Holtzman, 4-2) at California (May, 0-2), night Minnesota (Blyleven, 4-2) at Chicago (Bradley, 4-1) Baltimore (Dobson, 3-3) at Detroit (Lolich, 6-1), night New York (Kline, 2-1) at Cleveland, (Tidrow, 3-2), night Boston (Siebert, 2-1) at Milwaukee (Brett, 2-3), night Texas (Bosman, 2-4) at Kansas City (Drago, 2-2), night Los Angeles 17 10 .630 -- Houston 16 10 .615 '! Cncinnati 13 13 .500O3/ San Diego 12 15 .4445 Atlanta 10 17 .370x' San Francisco 9 20 .310 9 Yesterday'sResults Chicago 8, Philadelphia 1 New York 7, Montreal 3 Pittsburgh 4, St. Louis 3 Holuston 6, Atlanta 5 Los Angeles at san Diego, inc. Cincin ti 4, San Francisco 3, 1s. Citncinnati at San Feancisco 2nd, inc. Today's Cames* Montreal (MeAnkily, 0-2) a New York {Gentry, 2-1), night Chicago (Hands, 2-1) at Philadelphia (Carlton, 5-2), night St. Louis (Spinks, 2-1) at Pittsburgh (Blass, 3-1), night Atlanta (Reed, 1-4) at Houston (Dierker, 2-2), night Los Angeles (John, 3-2) at San Diego (Norman, 2-2) night Cincinnati (Grimsley, 1-0) at San Francisco (Marichal, 1-6)