Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 80, Greencastle, Putnam County, 8 December 1983 — Page 7

Talk is about Baker, action centers around pitching

By HAL BOCK AP Sports Writer NASHVILLE, Term. (AP) Pitching remains the top shopping priority at the winter baseball meetings, and James A. Baker’s status as a candidate for the commissioner’s job remains a leading topic of conversation. ' The White House chief of staff had emerged as the No. 1 choice to succeed Bowie Kuhn, while no one was saying so for the record. Some cold water was tossed on the conjecture, however, by a published report. The Washington Post said in today’s editions that Baker is almost certain to turn down the job if it is offered. An unidentified source close to Baker was quoted as saying it was “99 percent sure” Baker would not take the job, even though he was interested in it when he was approached by major league team owners several weeks ago. On the trading front, teams apparently were more than a little willing to pay whatever price needed to get pitching. The Minnesota Twins surrendered their only 1983 All-Star representative Wednesday, swapping outfielder Gary Ward to Texas for three players including a pair of highly-regarded arms Mike Smithson and John Butcher. Montreal and the Chicago Cubs both came up with important new hurlers in a three-way deal constructed by San Diego General Manager Jack McKeon. The Padres’ payoff was three young players including a pitcher. The Expos bolstered their bullpen with the addition of Gary Lucas from San Diego and delivered starter Scott Sanderson to Chicago. In exchange, the Cubs sent two young sluggers, first baseman Carmelo Martinez and third baseman Fritz Connally, and reliever Craig Lefferts to the Padres. In Wednesday’s other deal, slugger Gorman Thomas, who had exercised his right to demand a trade, was dealt by Cleveland along with infielder Jack Perconte to Seattle for second baseman Tony Bemazard. Meanwhile, Cincinnati signed two-time National League batting champion Dave Parker, who leaves Pittsburgh as a free agent after 10 seasons. Executive Council meetings started the major league portion

Cage stats Cooper leads scoring Scoring leaders GP TP Avg. Mike Cooper, Greencastle 5 137 27.4 Ryan Wehrman, North Putnam 5 87 17.4 Mike McHugh, South Putnam 6 98 16.3 David Smith, Greencastle 5 72 14.4 Bob Speedy, Cloverdale 5 50 10.0 Sonny Stoltz, Cloverdale 5 50 10.0 Cubs lead so far Off. Def. Team statistics Record Avg. Avg. Greencastle 4-1 66.2 58.8 Cloverdale 3-2 55.4 56.0 South Putnam 2-4 54.1 58.8 North Putnam 0-5 57.4 68.4 Weekend games FRIDAY NIGHT BASKETBALL South Putnam at Cascade* Tri-West at North Putnam* Greencastle at South Vermillion Eminence at Cloverdale Danville at Owen Valley* Monrovia at Eastern Greene County Edgewood is idle SATURDAY NIGHT GAMES DePauw University at Valparaiso University, 7:30 p.m. Danville at Cloverdale* Van Buren at South Putnam Greencastle at Plainfield North Putnam at Crawfordsville Speedway at Cascade Brazil at Edgewood Owen Valley at Brown County •Wett Central Conference game* Greencastle takes two from South Putnam Greencastle swept two boys basketball games from visiting South Putnam Wednesday night at McAnally Center. The Tiger Cub freshmen improved their record to 3-2 with a 46-34 victory, while the Greencastle C-team defeated South Putnam C-team 52-36. Doug Hedrick led Greencastle’s freshmen with 17 points, followed by Todd Sutherlin with 11, Brian Jeffries with eight, Chris Hansen with six and Scott Dunn had four. Fayne Custis, Chris Sullivan, Chris Arnold and Wes Evans each scored sue points to lead South Putnam. Terry Freeman netted four. Craig Hess led the balanced C-team attack for Greencastle with 15 points. Ted Frye and Chris Nelson each scored 11, Shawn Gobert had nine and Kevin Scroggins four. Lonnie Cheatham led South Putnam with 12 points, Stacy Chadd had 10, Rick Harmon and Brent Battin netted four, David Woolums and Ed Sheldon finished with two each. Off to slow start Getting a split at Southmont Monday night, the Greencastle freshmen basketball teams are now 2-2 and 0-4 for the young season. The A-team won its second game 43-40, while the B-team fell for the fourth time 48-32. Scott Dunn led the Greencastle A-team with 18 points, Doug Hedrick had 11, Todd Sutherlin six, Brian Jeffries four and Chris Hanson four. Rob York led the B-team with nine points, Bill Neuman had eight, Travis Mundy sue, Shawn Tharp five and Curt Lawrence four. Greencastle earlier lost two games at North Montgomery and Danville and gained a split with South Vermillion. North Montgomery defeated the Greencastle A-team 42-28 and the B-team 43-38. Danville routed the Cub A-team 65-35 and took the B-game 39-27. Greencastle defeated the South Vermillion A-team 35-33 in overtime, but dropped the B-team game 36 38.

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DAVE PARKER Signed by Reds

of the convention today and a number of owners were discussing Baker, whose name has surfaced as a successor for Kuhn. “No comment on this one or any other name involved,” said Milwaukee owner Bud Selig, chairman of the search committee. “We’ll have some comment after my remarks to the owners tomorrow.” Baker, in Washington, offered no help when asked by reporters, “Are you going to play ball?” His only response was an underhand sweep of his pitching arm. President Reagan’s chief spokesman, Larry Speakes, was just as elusive. The Rangers came to these meetings determined to add some offense and they had the pitching necessary to get Ward, who celebrated his 30th birthday Tuesday. Ward batted .278 with 19 home runs and 88 runs batted last season and has a career .285 batting average. The price for him, however, was high. Smithson was 10-14 with a 3.91 earned run

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The Greencastle High School freshman basketball team improved its record to 3-2 Wednesday night with a victory over South Putnam. Members of the Cub freshman squad are: front row, from left, Mike Smith, Rob York, Curtis Lawrence and Todd Hendershot. Second row, from left,

DePauw wrestling team loses to Wabash

It is very difficult for any team to compete without nine of their regular team members - just ask DePauw University wrestling coach Lee Schoenfeld. Due to injuries and the fact that football players who participate in wrestling do not begin competing until January, the Tigers entered Wednesday night’s meet with rival Wabash College with only six wrestlers. DePauw fell by the score of 22-3. Forfeits were not included in the final score. AMONG THE NINE wrestlers who have not seen action this season are standouts Bob Kelly, Dave Chalmers and last season’s MVP, Andrew King. “I am looking forward to

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SCOTT SANDERSON Starter Cubs needed

Brian Jeffries, Bill Neuman, Drew Brattain, Richard Weaver, Chris Hanson and Shawn Tharp. Back row, from left, manager Terry White, Travis Mundy, Doug Hedrick, Todd Sutherlin, Scott Dunn and coach Glenn Hile. (Banner-Graphic photo).

next semester when we are at full strength,” Schoenfeld said. A bright spot for the Tigers on Wednesday night was the performance of Scott Plesha. The sophomore, who sat out his freshman season at DePauw after finishing second in the state at Merrillville High School, looked to be at old form. “I thought Scott looked very good,” Schoenfeld said. “His timing was a little off due to missing a year, but over all I was really pleased.” PLESHA SCORED DePauw’s only points as he defeated Mark Holcomb in the 167-pound weight class. Plesha held a 61 lead after two periods on his way to a 5-4 decision.

average as a rookie last season and is considered a top prospect. Smithson moves into the Twins’ starting rotation and Butcher, 66 with a 3.51 ERA and six saves last season, joins Ron Davis in the Minnesota bullpen. “We need people to get us (through the early and middle innings) to Davis,” said Billy Gardner, manager of the Twins. The Twins also obtained minor league catcher Sam Sorce in the deal and completed a busy day by re-signing infielder John Castino to a four-year contract. San Diego’s McKeon was determined to put together the deal that sent Lucas to Montreal and Sanderson to Chicago. The Expos and Cubs were happy to oblige. “We couldn’t have done this without Jack,” said Dallas Green, general manager of the Cubs, who had been stalemated in talks with Montreal’s John McHale until McKeon came along. “I’m not sure John and I could have worked it out. We were not compa table.” McKeon solved that, routing Sanderson (67 with a 4.65 ERA last year) to Chicago to give Green the starter the Cubs wanted, and Lucas (5-8, 2.87, 17 saves) to Montreal for the left-hander they were after. For his efforts, McKeon came away with three young prospects. Martinez hit .251 with 31 homers and 94 runs batted in at lowa and finished the season at Chicago, batting .258 with sue homers and 16 RBIs in 29 games. Connally hit .288 with 22 homers and 85 RBIs at lowa and Lefferts was 3-4 with a 3.13 ERA as a rookie with the Cubs. Cleveland was under the gun to trade Thomas, the ex-home run champ who batted .209 with 22 homers and 69 RBIs. He had demanded the deal after being traded by Milwaukee in the midst of a long-term contract. If he had not been obliged, he would have become a free agent March 15. In exchange for Thomas and Perconte, the Indians obtained Bemazard, who batted .265 with Seattle and the Chicago White Sox last season. Seattle Manager Del Crandall was delighted to win the Thomas sweepstakes. “I’d like to score a thousand runs next year if I could,” said Crandall, whose team’s 558 runs was the

DePAUW WAS NOT so successful in the 156 pound weight class as Matt Fallow fell to Brian Garden in a 12-4 decision and Mark Bennett was defeated 7-2 by Brian Schinkle. The Tigers do not compete again until Jan. 8 when they travel to the Ohio Northern In-

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Sharks are beaten

Bob Nealon set a Greencastle High School record in the 500yard freestyle, but the Tiger Sharks lost their first home swimming meet of the season Wednesday night to visiting Plainfield 11672 at McAnally Pool. The Tiger Sharks take a 2-2 record into Saturday’s 9 a m. West Central Conference Invitational at Tri-West High School. Greencastle joins Cascade, Danville and Tri-West in the unofficial conference meet. “WE SWAM BETTER again,” coach Paul Bretscher said. “I hope it keeps up.” Nealon got the school record, but actually two Sharks beat Brad Marley’s 1980 time of 5:26.26. The sophomore Nealon won the event in 5:22.99 and freshman teammate Pat Condon took second place in 5:24.69. The 506 yard freestyle was one of Greencastle’s best even-

vitational. 134-Jon Runklr, W, pin first period, Paul Blrkhead, D. 158-Brian Graden, W, 12-4 decision, Matt Fallow, D. 158-Brian Sb Inkle, W, 7-2 dec la lon, Mark Bennett, O. 117-Chrl* Joll. W. S-4 decision. Mark Ugen, D. 147-Scott Plesha, D, 5-4 decision, Mark Hokom, W. ISO-Tom Bannon, W, pin first period. Bob Angeli, D.

December 8,1983, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

lowest total for any club in the majors last season. Parker, who batted .279 with 12 home runs and 69 RBIs for the Pirates in 1983, signed a tw6year deal worth $1.6 million with the Reds. The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a trade with the Oakland A’s involving veteran slugger Dusty Baker at baseball’s winter meetings late Wednesday night, but were attempting to get the veteran outfielder’s approval of the transaction. The Dodgers asked permission from Baker’s agent, Jerry Kapstein, to deal the outfielder who has a no-trade clause in his contract. Earlier reports concerning the trade had Oakland sending several minor league players to Los Angeles.

Driessen has surgery CINCINNATI (AP) First baseman Dan Driessen will be ready to work out in six weeks after undergoing knee surgery, the Cincinnati Reds have announced. Driessen had surgery Tuesday at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati for removal of the sub-patellar bursa and two bone spurs, the club said. He will be in a cast for three weeks. Baker says no WASHINGTON (AP) - White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker 111 probably would not not accept the baseball commissioner’s job if it were offered, a source close to Baker has told the Washington Post. The newspaper reported in today’s editions that Baker is almost certain to turn down the job. The Post quoted an unidentified source close to Baker as saying it was “99 percent sure” Baker would not take the job, even though he was interested in it when he was approached by major league team owners several weeks ago. Baker was sought out by reporters Wednesday for reaction to reports that he was the leading candidate for the job, soon-to-be-vacated by Bowie Kuhn.

ts. Plainfield took eight of the 11 firsts, the Sharks winning the 500 freestyle, 206 yard individual medley (IM) and the 106 yard backstroke. LIKE THE 500-freestyle, Greencastle took first and second places in the 206 yard IM. Mike Opdahl won the event in 2:16.00 with Quentin Oliver finishing second. Oliver came back to win the backstroke in 1:03.59, but it was one of the events in which Plainfield’s depth hurt Greencastle. The Quakers took second, third and fourth place in the event, outscoring the Sharks 67. Greencastle never led in this meet. Plainfield took a 10-4 lead with first, third and fourth places in the 206 yard medley relay and led 1611 after the 206 yard freestyle. The closest the

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score got was 24-22 when Opdahl and Oliver finished onetwo in the 2061 M and Paul Christiansen took fifth place. However, a one-two Plainfield finish in the diving increased the margin to 4633 and the Sharks never got closer. Plainfield 11*. Greene title 72 200-medley relay-1: SO. 1», Plainfield: GreeneaiUe; Plainfield. 200-freeaty le-l: 58.80, Medsen, P; B. Nealon, G: Cone*, P. 200-IM-2:10.00, Opdahl, G; Q. Oliver, G; Jones, P. SO-freestyle-24.5C, Siele. P; M. Oliver, G; Gould, G. Dlvlng-183.00. Elekholti, P; Porter, P; McCabe, G. 100-butterfly -SS. 2O, Medsen, P; Holdtn, P; Christiansen, G. 100-freestyle-S3.ee, Cones, P; Pltcock, G; Hicham, P. 500-freestyle-5:22.00, R. Nealon, G; Condon, G; Selb, P. 100-backstroke-l: 03.50. Q. Oliver, G; Jones, P; Cassidy. P. 100-breaststroke-l :(8.00, Dowden, P; Opdahl. G; Gould, G. 100 freestyle relay-3:41 .SO, Plainfield: Greencastle; Plainfield.

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