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SPORTS
Tuesday, July 17, 1984

Page 16

The Michigan Daily

igers shut down Chicago

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Abbott pitches
Detroit to
7-1 victory
By PAUL HELGREN
Special to the Daily
DETROIT - Glenn Abbott returned from the
Evansville scrapheap to junk the Chicago White Sox,
7-1, at Tiger Stadium last night.
The victory gives the Tigers a 4-1 record since the
All-Star break and a 71 game lead over second-place
Toronto, which played at California late last night.
ABBOTT ALLOWED just five hits in his first
appearance since being recalled from Evansville last
week. Abbott (3-2) was demoted to the Tigers' triple-
A farm club last month, but returned for a mid-
season encore when shortstop Alan Trammell went
on the disabled list.
Only a two-out, ninth inning homer by Ron Kittle
prevented the shutout.
Abbott and the Tigers rode the broad shoulders of
Kirk Gibson to register the win, Gibson spanked a
mammoth first inning solo home run off the screen in
the upper-deck bleachers in right center, giving the
Tigers a 1-0 lead. The homer was Gibby's 13th and
gave him his 11th game-winning RBI the second-
highest total in the American League.
GIBSON LATER connected with a two-run triple to
give the Tigers a comfortable 5-0 lead.
Abbott retired the first 16 Chicago batters before
Greg Luzinski singled with one out in the fifth. Second
Z eman Lou Whitaker dropped a routine fly ball off
the bat of Kittle one out later, but Abbott retired the
next batter to get out of the jam.
The Tigers chased Chicago starter LaMarr Hoyt (8-
10) in the fifth with a four-run barrage. Whitaker
knocked in the first run of the frame with a single,
scoring Chet Lemon.
RUPERT JONES made it 3-0 with an RBI single to
right center. Gibson then sent Hoyt packing with his
three-bagger.

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Associated Press'
Rupert Jones, Darrell Evans and Lance Parrish, shown here in action earlier this season, were all integral
parts of the Tigers 7-1 romp over the White Sox last night at Tiger Stadium.

Reliever Britt Burns came in and stopped the rally.
Burns was later ejected after hitting Lance Parrish
on the hip with a fastball in the eighth inning. Both
benches cleared, bringing a Tiger Stadium crowd of
over 41,000 to its feet in anticipation of a battle.
NO PUNCHES were thrown, but Parrish and White
Sox manager Tony LaRussa exchanged pleasantries

in front of first base.
Darrell Evans welcomed reliever Dan Spillner with
an RBI single, making the score 6-0.
Abbott gave up Kittle's towering round tripper into
the upper deck in left field, but got the final out to
become only the fourth Tiger pitcher to go the
distance this season.

Larkin makes
final Olympic
baseball cut
From wire reports
LOS ANGELES - The final five
cuts were made yesterday by the
U.S. Olympic baseball team, leaving
Michigan shortstop Barry Larkin
with a definite spot on the squad.
During the team's tour across the
country the last few weeks, Larkin
has often been starting at second
base for the U.S.
The position . players on the team
are: Mark McGwire, USC; Oddibe
McDowell, Arizona State; Will
Clark, Mississippi State; Flavio
Alfaro, San Diego State; Gary
Green, Oklahoma State; Cory
Snyder, Brigham Young; Shane
Mack, UCLA; Bob Caffrey,
Fullerton State; John Marzano,
Temple; Bill McGuire, Nebraska;
B.J. Surhoff, North Carolina, and
Chris Gwynn.

DROP FOOTBAL OR DIE, SAYS MAC:
EMU receives ultimatum

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The Mid-American Athletic
Conference Council of Presidents voted yesterday to give
Eastern Michigan University until Aug. 1 to discontinue its
inter-collegiate football program or be expelled from the
conference.
Presidents or their representatives from the 10 MAC
colleges decided to give Eastern Michigan the ultimatum in
an effort to preserve the MAC's Division 1-A standing in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association, which is based on
game attendance.
EASTERN Michigan's athletic director, Paul Shoults, said
after the vote that it would be up to the school's board of
regents to decide football's fate.
"I personally have gone on the record as saying I do not
want to drop the football program because it is too important
to the university and community as a whole," Shoults said.
Despite its lack of football success, Eastern Michigan has
regularly won conference championships in men's track and
swimming, and each year finishes among the top five in the
race for the all-sports trophy.
THE REGENTS will be called to a special meeting
sometime this month to decide on the football program, said
Kathleen Tinney, Eastern Michigan's information director.
She said Eastern Michigan will honor football players'
scholarships and financial aid arrangements and pay

football coaches through June 1985 even if the program is
dropped.
Eastern Michigan drew an average of slightly more than
6,000 fans to each of last year's football games.
For colleges to be classified Division I-A, they must draw
an average 17,000 football fans per home game, or have a
stadium seating 30,000 and draw an average 17,000 fans per
game at least one of every four years, or draw an average of
20,000 fans to both home and away games.
THE MAC is Division I-A this fall because six members -
Toledo, Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Miami, Bowling
Green and Western Michigan - met minimum attendance
standards last season. But Western Michigan told the
presidents' council in May that it probably would not meet
the requirements this fall.
Kent State, Ohio University, Ball State and Eastern
Michigan have not met the I-A criteria. Adding one more
school to that list would jeopardize the standing of the
conference because there would no longer be a majority of
qualifying schools.
While Monday's vote only affects Eastern Michigan this
season, officials of other colleges are aware they may be next
to receive similar ultimatums.
"There's always that danger," said John Konstantinos,
associate athletic director at Kent State.

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