4 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 6 a 0 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 6 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. 0