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SPORTS
Tuesday, July 24, 1984 The Michigan Daily
Page 16
Tigers stymie
Cleveland, 4-1
CLEVELAND (AP) - Kirk Gibson
and Lance Parrish hit consecutive first-
inning home runs and Jack Morris
gained his 13th victory as the Detroit
Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 4-1
last night for their fifth straight victory.
Morris, 13-6, limited the Indians to
five singles in six innings, walking five
and striking out five in picking up his
first victory since he notched his 100th
career triumph on June 24.
Aurelio Lopez and Doug Bair pitched
the final three innings for the Tigers.
Bair pitched out of a one-out, bases-
loaded jam in the eighth, but gave up
Andre Thornton's 22nd homer in the
ninth before recording his fourth save.
MORRIS' victory total matched him
with teammiate Dan Petry for the
American League lead.
Detroit, 10-2, since the All-Star break
and 38 games over .500, jumped on Bert
Blyleven, 9-4, for three runs in the first
inning.
Lou Whitaker singled and Gibson
slugged his 15th homer to make it 2-0,
and Parrish then hooked his 20th blast
around the foul pole in left.
The Tigers added a run in the fifth on
a walk to Dave Bergman, Doug Baker's
sacrifice bunt, Whitaker's groundout
and an RBI single by Rupert Jones.
Morris struggled through his six in-
nings but stranded 10 Indian runners,
retiring the side in order only in the fir-
st inning. Altogether, the Indians
stranded 13 runners, two short of the
major league record for most runners
left on base by a team without scoring.
Raising Hel
By PAUL HELGREN
The politics of baseball. . .
. .. Larkin finds out the hard way
BUD MIDDAUGH stepped slowly onto the Tiger Stadium sod and edged
toward a small group of reporters surrounding one Olympic baseball
player. He came to congratulate Barry Larkin, a star shortstop on his own
Michigan club, after the Olympic baseball team's 3-2 win over Japan. He also
came to give him some good-natured ribbing.
"I see you're still pulling the ball," said the Wolverine skipper, grinning
broadly.
"YEAH," replied Larkin softly. He smiled. Middaugh was only teasing
and Larkin shared in his joke. Though he had hit the ball with aluminum
authority in Detroit last Saturday, all Larkin's shots went to center field or
right. His hits often go in the opposite direction: It's no big deal, something
Larkin can see some humor in.
But there's another subject on the Wolverine junior's mind these days that
might not be a laughing matter. You see, Larkin is not going to start on the
Olymic team. And he claims the reason is an ugly word in the world of spor-
ts, especially around Olympic time - politics.
Politics. It just wouldn't be the Olympics without that word, would it?
Sometimes it's international politics, like those nasty, awful boycotts.
Other times it's personal politics, like not being named to the starting lineup
of a demonstration sport. Such is the case with Larkin, who said politics is
preventing him from claiming his rightful starting spot on the Olympic
baseball team.
THOUGH HIS numbers have been impressive (58 at bats, .350 batting
average, three homers, 11 RBIs) during the U.S. team's month-long bar-
nstorm against international , opponents, Larkin remains a utility infielder.
Normally a shortstop, Larkin was moved to second base so Gary Green
could take that position. But with only a few days left before the start of the
Games, it looks like Olympic coach Rod Dedeaux has settled on light-hitting
Flavio Alfaro (.243) as his second-sacker.
That decision baffles Larkin.
"He (Dedeaux) claims I'm not as experienced as
the other guys," Larkin told the Detroit News
Saturday. "Not as experienced? That's wild. That
makes me wonder what I'm doing here."
APPARENTLY Larkin feels that older players -
players that have been drafted by major league
clubs - get the unfair advantage. Alfaro was a four-
th-round pick of Atlanta. Larkin, who was a first-
round selection out of high school, will not be
eligible for the draft again until next June.
What it boils down to is this. After the Olympics,
players like Alfaro will go straight to the minor Larkin
leagues. Teams like the Braves would like to see
their Olympians coming in with as much experience under their belts as possible.
Thus, as a favor to the big leagues, Dedeaux is more inclined to pass over a
player like Larkin in favor of a player like Alfaro.
Backscratching leaves Larkin in the cold
Favor? you ask. What favor does Dedeaux owe to major league baseball?
A mighty big one indeed.
WITHOUT THE generousity of the bigs, Dedeaux would not be in a
position to win the gold (yes, demonstration sports do get medals of some
sort). All but four players on the Olympic team were drafted by the majors
last June. If they wanted to, the teams could have demanded that the draf-
tees pass on the Olympics and report straight to the minors. But
patriotism got the better of them. Dedeaux will show his gratitude, subcon-
sciously if not consciously. He hasn't coached at Southern California for all
these years without learning something about how the game is played.
It all adds up to one dirty rotten shame for Larkin. As their positions in
baseball's draft might suggest, Larkin is by far the superior player to
Alfaro. Dedeaux claims that Alfaro is the better fielder. Dedeaux even
criticized the way Larkin fields the ball (Larkin has had just two errors at
his new position in 22 games).
The injustice of this has left Larkin a bit frustrated, though certainly not
bitter. He remains as personable and charming as ever, hesitant to say
anything that might be interpretted as criticism of his Olympic coach, and
eager to show him what a mistake he is making.
. AND, FORTUNATELY, Larkin retains his sense of humor. His dif-
ficulties with Dedeaux have given Middaugh some new ammunition to tease
Larkin with.
"Gee Barry, I was thinking of putting you in left field next year," said
Middaugh, suggesting a rather unlikely scenario.
Larkin just smiled a disarming smile and said, "okay." Apparently he can
laugh about it after all.
a
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a
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Damaso Garcia of Toronto slides into third with a stolen base in the first
inning of the Blue Jays 9-8 loss to Kansas City.
Kansas City outslugs
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Blue Jays,
KANSAS CITY (AP) - Steve Balboni
homered and drove in four runs and
Greg Pryor singled in two runs in a five-
run eighth inning to lead the Kansas
City. Royals to a 9-8 victory over the
Toronto Blue Jays last night in the first
game of a doubleheader.
Pat Sheridan walked to start the
eighth-inning rally and George Brett
and Hal McRae followed with singles,
with Sheridan scoring on McRae's hit.
ROY LEE Jackson, 6-2, relieved
Dennis Lamp, and both runners moved
up on Dane Iorg's grounder before
Balboni doubled to left-center to score
both runners.
Don Slaught singled to send Balboni
9=8
to third and pinch hitter Darryl Motley
walked to load the bases. Pryor
followed with his two-run single.
The rally made a winner of Joe
Beckwith, 3-2, who came on in the top of
the eighth for starter Bud Black. Dan
Quisenberry pitched the ninth for his
26th save, allowing an RBI double by
Willie Upshaw to cut the score to 9-8.
Toronto took a 6-4 lead in the eighth
with a pair of runs off Beckwith. Willie
Upshaw tripled to start the inning and
scored on a sacrifice fly by Buck Mar-
tinez. Garth Iorg singled and scored
when Tony Fernandez tripled into the
right-field corner.
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