The Michigan Daily - Monday. September 26. 1988 - P


THE SPORTING VIEWS

Tigers don't deserve
pennant, only thanks

BY MIKE GILL
Detroit Tiger Matt Nokes needed
fa be sewn up. And while the needle
" 4nd thread jabbed into him, the
Boston Red Sox sewed up the
American League East.
Somehow, hope still glowed for
Detroit on Friday night. The Yankees
were three outs away from dissecting
.Boston. The Tigers, with a dramatic
Sthree-run ninth, were three outs from
.' moving to 3 1/2 games out by
-beating Baltimore. Visions of last
year's made-for-Hollywood finish
:,anced in Tiger fans' heads.
Instead, Boston rallied, and Nokes,
who suffered a spike wound that
ivould require four stitches, threw
into the right-field stands, allowing
Baltimore to win. It was over.
BOOM. The bottom fell out.
And this time there would be no
resurrection.
Didn't you think the race was over
on Labor Day when Boston moved
into a first-place tie with the Tigers?
Didn't you think it was over two
weeks ago yesterday when Detroit
played 18 innings in the Bronx,
scoring one run in the top of the
>18th, onily to lose?
, And didn't you think it was over
last Sunday when Detroit lost to
x Baltimore, and Boston won its last
three games against New York?
YEP. But somehow, maybe only.
for the most optimistic, hope
remained.
The fact is, the Tigers slipped.
They lost 10 games in the standings
from the middle of August to the end
of September.
A slide? A fallout? A slump? A
r choke? A massive choke?
A change in their fortune.
But what a fifth-place team. And
for fiat, it's worthy of a big thank
you. A season that died in the
September cool was mighty warm,
worth lots of fun, during the drought-
wrenched summer months.

THE TIGERS are not the most
exciting team. Often, three-up-three-
down innings are the norm. But on a
July night, you could sit on your
front porch and watch the cars, or
you could go to the ball park and, see
the Tigers.
So thanks, Darrell Evans, for your
effort.
This may be Evans' last week as a
Tiger. The old man has lost a step
this year. Now you watch a career
come to an end. Strike three goes
by. And he stands there lifeless, as if
to say, "Yeah, life is turning on me."
Yet last week, to chants of
"Darrell, Darrell, Darrell," Evans put
his 399th home run over the fence.
The next night, he hit his 400th.
THANKS, Alan Trammell, for
playing hurt, for keeping the boy in
the game of baseball, and for so
many clutch hits. Everyone
remembers the grand slam to beat the
Yankees that lofted the Tigers into
first back in June. Now we overlook
the base hits in the eighth, ninth, or
tenth that spark a rally. We take that
for granted.
Tigers take two
Baltimore (AP) - Pinch hitter
Fred Lynn's grand slam in the ninth
inning gave the Detroit Tigers a 7-4
victory over the Baltimore Orioles
for a sweep of their doubleheader
Sunday.
Jack Morris allowed only a
seventh-inning single to lead
Detroit in the opener, 2-1.
The Tigers took sole possession
of second place in the American
League East and trail Boston by 4
1/2 games going into the last week
of the season. Any combination of
three Detroit losses and Boston
victories will eliminate the Tigers
from contention.

Thanks, Jim Walewander, for
telling the world how to decorate an
apartment. Taking garbage bags and
arranging them in different
configurations is the most unique
wallpaper one has seen this side of
the Western world. We offer this
truly American idea to Barbara Bush
and Kitty Dukakis as they are faced
with undoing Nancy Reagan's work
this January in the White House.
Thanks, Sparky, for being
Sparky.
Thanks, Mike Henneman, for
countless scoreless innings.
Thanks, Larry Herndon, for going
out in style. The legs are gone, but
solid play has graced Detroit since
1982.
Thanks, Guillermo Hernandez, for
a few saves, and for providing us
with a scapegoat. As Roy Rogers
might say, "Happy Trails To You."
So finally, thank you, Tigers.
They are a team that should not
have held first place from June to
September. First place is for a team
filled with healthy hitters, healthy
pitching, and All-Stars at most
positions. That's not the Tigers.
Instead, a bunch of overachievers
were held together by the glue of
their white-haired manager, beat the
odds, and gave the city of Detroit a
pennant race that should never have
occurred in the first place. Don't
forget that.
The history books will record that
in September 1988, the Tigers
showed their age, showed that they
didn't deserve to be one of the elite,
showed that they needed to start
rebuilding - showed that this was
the beginning of the end.
They may be right. But hey.
Remember that this group of guys
-made of little talent but lots of
guts - with a break here, a dream
there, gosh darn - might just have
done it.

Associated Press
Jack Morris pitched a one-hitter Sunday for his 14th victory, helping the Detroit Tigers
to a doubleheader sweep.

I.

Jets pass on by

Lions for 17-10 victory

PONTIAC (AP) - Ken O'Brien
was willing to take what he could
get, which turned out to be plenty
against Detroit.
O'Brien completed 27 of 38
passes for 253 yards and two
touchdowns yesterday, leading the
New York Jets to a 17-10 NFL
victory over the Lions.
The Jets rolled up up 316 total
yards while holding the Lions to
183.
"They play awfully loose in the
secondary," Jets coach Joe Walton
said. "It's tough to get behind them,
so we had to play the short game."
With the score tied 10-10,
O'Brien fired a 26-yard pass to
Wesley Walker, who was wide open
I in the end zone with 9:39 remaining

in the fourth quarter.
"We put that in especially for this
game," O'Brien said. "It's just slow
developing. You can't rush it. It's
almost like a broken play. If they
give you that much protection, it's
tough for the (defensive back) to
cover that long.
"I had to find him first. He just
kind of showed up wide open. I'm
not sure how it happened. I'm just
glad it did."
O'Brien, the No. 2 passer in the
AFC, also hooked up with Freeman
McNeil for a 10-yard touchdown in
the second quarter. But he had his
string of passes without an
interception snapped at 211, the
second-longest in NFL history, by
Raphel Cherry in the third quarter.

Former Green Bay star Bart Starr
holds the record with 294 passes
without an interception.
Garry James scored on a 1-yard
run for Detroit in the third quarter,
the first touchdown yielded by the
AFC's No.1 defensive team in more
than 10 quarters. The Jets had won
their two previous games by a
combined score of 68-6.
Detroit's Eddie Murray and the
Jets' Pat Leahy each kicked 39-yard
field goals in the first quarter.
"Anytime you lose a game, it's
discouraging," Detroit coach Darryl
Rogers said. "It's discouraging to
our players, the owner, to the whole
organization. (Our record) doesn't
mean our people aren't playing hard
and aren't going to continue to play

hard and continue to improve.
"I don't question our players'
morale at all."
i

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DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 30, 1988
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