Baseball doubleheader vs. Western Michigan 1:00 p.m., today. at Fisher Stadium SPORTS Men's Tennis vs. Northwestern 2:30 p.m. Friday The Michigan Daily Wednesday, April 4, 1984 Page 9 I NLEAST Tanner s Bucs looking good. .. .Johnson's Mets bring up rear By RICH WIEDIS W ITH THE DEATH of the Wheeze Kids, the closing of the Lumber Company, no new Birds in sight, and a sleeping northern giant who has yetto unfreeze, there is no dominating force in the National League East in 1984. The division this year will be the most competitive in baseball because, as New York fans know, there is always a race for the bottom as well as the top. The cellar series will be tight but not even Manager Davey Johnson's new computer will keep the Mets from submerging victorious. The computer says that Rookie of the Year Darryl Strawberry (.257, 26 HRs, 74 RBI), former Cardinal Keith Hernandex (.297, 12, 63) and slugger George Foster will make a winning 3, 4, 5 combination. It is impossible, however, for a Met infield of Hubie Brooks, Wally Backman, and Jose Oquendo to keep the Mets afloat. The loss of Tom Seaver will be offset by some strong young pitching, Tim Leary, Walt Terrell, Ron Darling and lefty Sid Fernandez. But, despite the potential, Johnson's computer will print out inexperience, and last place. The Chicago Cubs do have the experience, Bill Buckner will be at first, Ron Cey at third and Larry Bowa will play short. This defensively solid line- up plus Gold Glove second baseman Ryne Sandberg will keep the Cubs from falling behind the Mets. Pitching will be Chicago's major problem. The staff compiled the league's worst team ERA (4.09) last year and completed only nine games. In the bullpen, Chicago will be counting on Lee Smith, who led the league in saves (29). There has been no successful title defense in the NL East since 1978. That year the Phillies repeated their division title but this year they won't. The Cincinnati veteran backbone of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez that last season miraculously transformed the Phils from mediocre to menacing, are gone. The Phillies also dealt away Ron Reed and National League Championship Series MVP Gary Matthews. The pitching, as always, is strong with Cy Young Award winner, John Denny (19- 6, 2.37) and Steve Carlton (15-16, 3.11). Mike Schmidt, who refused to be called one of the Wheeze Kids, will have to breathe Madlock hard to carry this team. The St. Louis Cardinals this year can truly be called Birds of Prey. They will be praying that pitchers Joaquin Andujar (6-16, 4.16) and Bruce Sutter (9-10, 4.23) can rebound from sub-par performances in 1983. Another Cardinal question is second baseman Tom Herr who was hitting .323 before he was sidelined with knee problems. If Herr does not bounce back from surgery, Andy Van Slyke will come in from right field to play second, George Hendrick (.318, 18, 97) will move to right, and David Green (.284, 8, 69) will play first. If things come around for Manager Whitey Herzog, St. Louis wll be right in the thick of it. For three years the Expos have had a potential dynasty, and for three years they have failed to capitalize. Some claim that there is a lack of motivation, others that baseball tradition looks unfavorably on teams from Canada. In either case, the Expos signed Pete Rose to try to change things. Montreal still has three players who started last year's All-Star game: Gary Carter (.270, 17, 79), NL stolen base leader Tim Raines (.298, 11, 71) and MVP runner-up Andre Dawson (.299, 32, 113). Gone, though, are All-Star first baseman Al Oliver and second baseman Manny Trillo to San Francisco, as well as Warren Cromarte, who left to play in Japan. Expo pitching is strong, led by Steve Rogers, Bill Gullickson and Charlie Lea, but baseball tradition is stronger and the Expos will finish second. The Winners - Chuck Tanner's Pittsburgh Pirates. Tanner is a motivational genius and this year he has a young squad that knows how to win. National League batting champion Bill Madlock (.323, 12, 68) deemed his club the "Toothpick Company." Pittsburgh will win games by picking away at opponents. The Pirate infield is solid up the middle and potent at the corners. Workhorse Dale Berra (161 games) will play short with solid fielding Johnny Ray at second. Jason Thompson, who had an off year in 1983, will play first and Madlock will be at third. Catcher Tony Pena (.301, 15, 70) won a Gold Glove last year and is destined to become one of the game's great receivers. The Bucks lost some strong hitting in Dave Parker and Mike Easler, but with their bats left some attitude problems. Tanner's strength wil be in his pitching staff. Proven starters Larry McWillliams (15-8, 3.23), John Candelaria (15-8, 3.25), and Rick Rhoden (13-13, 3.09) will pace the team. Rookie phenomenon Jose DeLeon flirted with three no hitters in 15 games and finished 7-3, while John Tudor (13-12, 4.09), who arrived from Boston in exchange for Easler, is the fifth starter. Tomorrow: AL West Frieder: the final word on 1984 Bill Frieder's fourth year at the Michigan basketball helm will not be soon forgotten. His Wolverines shook off their mid-season blahs and won four of their last five regular season games. Overlooked by the NCAA tournament, Michigan then rolled through the NIT field to claim that crown and finished with a 23-10 record. For a team that lost 20 games two years ago and finished in ninth place in the Big Ten last year, it was a con- siderable achievement. Daily repor- ters Larry Freed and Paul Helgren talked with Frieder about his players, the season that was, and next season. Here are the highlights from that discussion. DAILY: Earlier in the season you said that unless the team made the NCAA tournament youwouldn't feel it was a successful season. Now, having won the NIT, how do you feel about that? FRIEDER: Oh, I think it's been a great season. We wanted to get in the NCAA tournament and it didn't happen. Maybe it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because this was a great way to finish the season. It was a lot of fun and it certainly proved to people that we have a quality basketball team. DAILY: Looking back, what sur- prised you most about the season as far as the improvements made - and disappointments, if any? FRIEDER: ... Roy Tarpley, of course, has to be the biggest surprise. But I told people all along that he had worked the hardest over the summer. He was Most Valuable Player inthat summer league (Sandy Sanders). He did a great job. I knew he was going to be a lot better. It was just a matter of him getting an op- portunity and gaining some confidence and learning the game. DAILY: Did we just see the tip of the iceberg with Antoine Joubert at the end of the season? FRIDER: Well, I hope so. You'll see he's gonna play with a lot more con- fidence. He'll know the game better. He'll start to do the other things that. Tarpley-. invited to Olympic tryouts NEW YORK (AP) - Sophomore cen- ter Roy Tarpley was the only Michigan player among the 74 invited yesterday to try out for the U.S. Olympic basket- ball team. Tarpley was joined by such players as Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins of North Carolina, Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma, Chris Mullin of St. John's, Leon Wood of California-Fllerton, Keith Lee of Memphis State and Pat Ewing of national /champion Georgetown. The Olympic trials will be held April 17-22 at Bloomington, Ind. U.S. Coach Bob Knight has said he expects to pick 16 players for his original team, to be cut to 12 for the Olympics after a series of exhibition games against professional and amateur opposition. are important, like playing defense and rebounding. And he'll come back in a lot better condition. So that's impor- tant. DAILY: About Leslie Rockymore. In the second half of the season he did not contribute, at least not in the games. Do you think his problem had to do with his hand problem or was it something else? FRIEDER: He says no. He tells me it wasn't hishand. But we've got to get that checked out. I think the biggest thing is people have a little tendency to overrate DAILY: This is the second year in a row where McCormick has finished really strong. What is it that prevents him from being a dominant center year-round? FRIEDER: I think the Big Ten season wears on McCormick. It's brutal, it's tough. To play against quality competition Thursday night and then again Saturday afternoon, game after game, is very demanding. And I also feel that through most of the Big Ten season, everyone was keying on McCormick and that freed 'Certainly the Big Ten championship will be a goal next year, a realistic goal. But it will also be a realistic goal for other teams too.' - Bill Frieder FRIEDER: No. I have never talked to Eric Turner about the pros. I have never talked to Tim McCormick about it. I think they'll both be back. DAILY: Making the assumption that everyone's going to be back, now for the first time in your four years you have a set starting lineup. How much of a dif- ference does that make? FRIEDER: Oh, I thinkuthat's impor- tant. I think anytime you've got guys returning that have been successful it's a big thing for your program ... But even with that it's going to be a struggle next year because look at Illinois. Look at Indiana. You're looking at some of the other programs that did more than we did with everybody returning and great recruiting years coming in .. . Certainly the Big Ten championship will be a goal next year, a realistic goal. But it will also be a realistic goal for those other teams, too. So it's not going to be automatic and everybody's got to be prepared for it if it doesn't happen. But I'm sure we're going to be a good basketball team. DAILY: How much of a loss is Pelekoudas going to be? FRIEDER: It's going to be a big loss. He had 14 assists in the last two games and numerous steals. That's another thing I can't understand about Michigan. What a kid. What a kid. That shows you people don't know the game of basketball. DAILY: Were you disappointed with Michigan fans in that regard? FRIEDER: I was disappointed in that, yes. I really was. And yet -I'm smart enough to know that it's only a hundred or a couple hundred people. So it's by far the minority. DAILY: At one point in the season you were getting booed yourself during the introductions. Is there a difference between booing you and booing your players? FRIEDER: That's a big difference, yeah. I don't care about that. I can remember I used to boo (former Michigan basketball coach) Dave Strack. I used to boo him all the time. It (getting booed) might chase me out of here a little quicker (laughs), but I don't really care. Rockymore. Because you check his statistics in Big Ten competition in his career and he's shooting probably less than 40 percent. So maybe it's a situation where he's a good enough player with the non-conference type of competition but not quite quick enough to get it off consistently and make it against the bigger, quicker people in the league. So that means he's just got to work, harder this summer to get that corrected. People can say what they want. How long can I go with a guy that's shooting 15 percent in Big Ten games? I went with him longer than most coaches would have. DAILY: How much is the trip to Europe going to help someone like Rockymore? FRIEDER: Sure, that's going to help him. It's going to help guys like (Robert) Henderson who haven't had the oppor- tunity. We're going to give kids oppor-, tunites they haven't had recently because of the way things went. And that's good because they're good players, too, and they need a chance. Tarpley a great deal. In the later part of the Big Ten and in the NIT they were keying on Tarpley and it was freeing McCormick. DAILY: As far as Paul Jokisch's future with the team. Do you feel a student-athlete can successfully play football and basketball? FRIEDER: Jokisch could. Ye h, because he loves to play and he doe 't tire that easily. I think he's going to be a good football player. I think when foot- ball's over, he'll come out for basket- ball. DAILY: How do you see him fitting in? FRIEDER: Well, I think one of the things we have to consider is a red-shirt. If he makes football and we're going well next season, we just might not have him play next season. DAILY: Eric Turner said .he's at least going to consider going into the NBA draft. Do you have any hunch about what he'll do? FRIEDER: No, I don't think he'll be going. DAILY: Have you talked to him? MS and PhD Candidates in Computer Science, IOE and Math If you want to assure your future, you can depend on ours... Harris can. make it happen Off Campus Interviews Tues., Wed., Thurs., April 17,18 & 19 Batsmen to take on tame 'Broncs By ROB POLLARD The Broncos from Western Michigan dcome galloping into Ray Fisher WStadium today for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader with Michigan. But judging from recent results these Bron- cos have been pretty easy to saddle lately. Western boasts a 5-14 record so far this season. The Broncos are coming off a weekend road trip to Kentucky which saw them drop doubleheaders to Iowa and host Murray State. "We have talent, but maturity is a matter of ex- perience and getting a chance to play," said WMU assistant coach Fred Stevens. WHEN ASKED to list his team's strengths, Stevens replied, "When you're 5-14, there are not very many strengths." The Broncos' main weapons are the hitting of senior outfielder Charlie Jackson and catcher Jim Markert. Michigan will. not see Western's best pitchers, senior Greg Brake and junior teams in the country. They'll be there when the bell rings." One Wolverine still not quite ready to answer the bell is shortstop Barry Larkin. Larkin has missed 13 games since spraining his ankle in Texas. He did not make the team's weekend trip to Ohio and is unlikely to see action this 'afternoon. "It depends if he can give me 100 percent," said Michigan head coach Bud Middaugh. "He probably won't play 'til this weekend." Middaugh will send Gary Wayne and Scott Kamieniecki-to the hill today against the Broncos. Both pitchers worked against Miami (O.) in a doubleheader last Friday. Kamieniecki took his first loss against two wins in the first game, yielding a seventh inning game-winning homer. Wayne raised his record to 1-1 by winning the nightcap, 5- 2. THE WOLVERINES are beginning to get their act together. After a horren- dous spring trip during which the team went 3-7, Michigan has won seven of eight ballgames. Middaugh's troops play most of their remaining games in friendly Fisher Stadium. Paced by the hitting of outfielder Jeff Minick and fir- st baseman Ken Hayward, the big Blue machine is starting to run on all cylin- ders. When asked which players he was pleased with so far Middaugh replied, "I'm awfully tough to please. I'd like to see a better performance each time out. A lot of the pitchers may not come out strong because I'm fatiguing their ar- ms by working with them between outings." Today the Broncos will get a chance to see just how fatigued the Michigan arms are. These same arms have yielded just 21 runs in the last eight games. Western will have to be more productive than that if they hone to Harris Government Information Systems Division (GISD) designs cus- tom one-of-a-kind systems incorporating an array of state-of-the-art technologies and advanced capabilities including: image and signal processing, real-time scientific software development, microproces- sor based data systems, high speed local area networks, optical signal processing systems and full systems architecture for hardware and software. Opportunities exist in the following technological areas: * Artificial Intelligence " Real-time Scientific Software Development " Interactive Graphics using ADA * Modeling and Simulation (systems performance evaluation) ! 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