Sports

Page 12

Saturday, July 24, 1982

The Michigan Daily

Tanana's two-hitter downsTigers

4

By JOE CHAPELLE
Special to the Daily
DETROIT - Detroit's season attend-
ance tally may have passed the one
million mark last night, but the Tigers
were short on hits as they succumbed to
the Texas Rangers, 3-1, before 27,320
fans in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers only
garnered two hits on the night.
The Tigers did not get on the
scoreboard until the sixth inning.
Ranger pitcher Frank Tanana gave up
a walk to the Tigers' Alan Trammell to
start things off.
TRAMMELL advanced to second
when Lou Whitaker grounded out to fir-
st.
Tom Brookens, the next Detroit bat-
ter, doubled to right field bringing
Trammell home. Brookens double was
only the second hit that Tanana gave
up in the game.
The Rangers pulled out to an early
lead in the second inning which they
maintained throughout the contest.
Dave Hostetler gathered the first
Ranger hit of the ball game when he
lead off the inning with a single to right-
center field.
HOSTETLER advanced to third after
a single by George Wright, and came
home when Mike Richardt hit a boun-
ding ball into left field for another
Ranger single.
Texas picked up another run in the
fourth when Buddy Bell came home off
a sacrifice fly hit by Larry Parrish.
Bell reached first on a walk and moved
to third when Jim Sundberg doubled
down the third base line.
Texas pulled out to a 3-1 lead in the
eighth when Doug Flynn doubled and
came home on a Mickey Rivers single.

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4

Tanana
... stymies Tigers
Wilcox disabled

AP Photo
DOUG DECINCES of the California Angels grimaces as the New York
Yankees' Dave Winfield shoulders him at third base during last night's
game at Yankee Stadium. Winfield was safe at third on Lou Pinella's fourth-
inning double.

DETROIT (AP) -The Detroit Tigers
placed right-hander Milt Wilcox on the
21-day-disabled list, effective last Mon-
day, because of a sore shoulder, said
team spokesman Bob Miller yesterday.
To fill Wilcox' place on the roster, the
Tigers have purchased the contract of
right-handed pitcher Dave Gumpert
from their Evansville, Ind., farm club,
Miller said.
Gumpert only has worked eight in-
nings in relief in Evansville, after being
called up from the Tigers' AA farm club
in Birmingham, Ala., where he was 8-5
with a 2.07 earned run average.

4
4

i n:Needham sees other doors
-- open if Bengals shut theirs

By RON POLLACK
Third in an eight-part series
Ben Needham is stockpiling options.
Not stock options or even gold options,
but football options.
The starting linebacker from last
season's Michigan grid squad was
selected in the seventh round of this
year's draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
As a seventh rounder, he is anything
but a sure-fire bet to make the squad. It
is the possibility of getting cut that has
Needham is considering other options.
OPTION No. 2 - "If I get cut, I'll look
around and see what's going on in the
NFL," said Needham. "If I make it to
the last cut with Cincinnati and then get
let go, I'm pretty sure I could get a
tryout with someone else in the NFL."
Option No. 3 - "If I get cut by the
Bengals, I'd also see what's going on in
the new league," he said referring to
the United States Football League.,
"It's getting so much publicity, and
people are saying it has a chance. So
I'd look into it."
Option No. 1, of course, is to make the
Cincinnati squad and Needham thinks
that he has a faily good shot.

"I'VE GONE TO both the mini=
camps for the rookies and veterans,"
he said. "I'm optimistic. Last year,
about half of the seventh round draft
choices made it in the NFL."
The Bengals reached the Super Bowl
last season, where they lost to the San
Francisco 49ers, and Needham believes
it may be to his advantage to be trying
out with a team of this caliber rather
than a less talented squad.
"A lot of teams that didn't do well are
bringing in so many free agents that the
competition is tougher," said
Needham. "At Cincinnati, I'm the only
linebacker they drafted and they only
brought in one free agent linebacker."
SHOULD HE make the team, it is
unlikely that Needham would attain the
starting status that he had last year at
Michigan - a fact he is well aware of.
"You go from being low man on the
totem pole in high school to being a
senior and then you go to college and
you are low man on the totem pole all
over again," said Needham. "Last
year I was a senior in college, and now
I'm starting as low man on the totem
pole again as a rookie. I have to learn

all of the Bengals' defenses, since
they're so different than ours were at
Michgian."'
While the plays may be unfamiliar,
the surroundings are not for the Ohio
native. "If I make the team, my paren-
ts will only be one hour and 45 minutes
away," said Needham. "And I know
people in Cincinnati. Those are good
things about being drafted by Cincin-
nati."
AT ONE POINT in his career, there
were doubts that he would be drafted at
all. A starter in 1979, Needham was
suspended from the team in 1980 and
missed the entire season. But last year,
he came back and not only won back a
starting spot, but earned Defensive Most
Valuable Player honors in Michigan's
33-14 victory over UCLA in the
Bluebonnet Bowl.
"I'm pretty sure that starting
negated my being suspended in the eyes
of the pro teams," said Needham.
"They just looked at last year. No one
even questioned me about the suspen-
sion, to tell you the truth."
With those troubled days behind him,
Needham is now looking forward to

playing with the Cincinnati Bengals, or
maybe some other NFL team, or
maybe in the United States Football
League, or maybe...
The attempt of Ed Muransky to
make the jump from college to pro
football will be featured Tuesday.

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4

Needham
. . . Bengal hopeful