Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 17, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 September 1984 — Page 3

Central Florida's citrus groves were hard hit by a killing freeze last year, the third season in a row. At Maurice Boyd's orange grove near Winter Garden, a mechanical

'lt's got me scared to death'

c. 1984 N.Y. Times WINTER HAVEN, Fla. Bill Hancock is 6 feet tall and weighs 242 pounds. He played semipro football and jumped out of airplanes in the Army. No man has ever frightened him. But citrus canker, a virulent disease that threatens to ravage Florida’s $2.5 billion citrus industry, is another matter. “It’s got me scared to death,” Hancock said Thursday. “It could destroy my means of making a livelihood.” Hancock, who is 48 years old, and is growing oranges, tangelos and grapefruit on 70 acres near this town of 21,000 in the heart of Florida’s Citrus Belt, is not alone. A high percentage of the people here and throughout central Florida have something to do with the citrus industry and even those in other fields would feel the ripple effect of a disaster in the groves. They are all worried. “Right now,” Hancock continued, “it’s the unknown. All they can say is that it’s a new variety of citrus canker. They don’t know where it comes from, how bad it’s going to be, whether it will just affect the trees. We figure it’s going to affect the fruit. We don’t know how much. We don’t know how widespread it is.” Bob Paul, one of the biggest growers in the state, with 8,500 acres of mixed fruit, said: “It’s like cancer. We don’t know where it’ll go, what it is.” Real estate brokers specializing in citrus groves say their

• auii 3, rcrry centra i t> Penn 14, Elkhart Memorial 0 Peru 34, Taylor 0 Plainfield 41, Mooresville 34 50T Rensselaer 26, Lake Station 7 Richmond 26, Anderson Highland 21 Rockville 23, Fountain Central 22 Rushville 35, Franklin 21 SB Adams 34, New Prairie 12 SB St. Joseph’s 28, SB Washington 6 Seymour 26, Madison 0 Shelby ville 17, Center Grove 7 Sheridan 60, Tri-Central 12 South Central 32, Culver 0 South Putnam 47, Cloverdale 7 South Spencer 52, Pike Central 0 Southmont 42, Cass 18 Speedway 19, Zionsville 14 Sullivan 34, North Knox 6 Tecumseh 34, Wood Memorial 7 Tell City 10, Evansville Bosse 9 Terre Haute North 8, Bloomington South 0 Tippecanoe Valley 27, Northridge 8 Tri 34, North Decatur 18 Tri-West 55, North Putnam 0 Twin Lakes 14, West Lafayette 7 Union County 19, Cambridge City 0 Valparaiso 26, Chesterton 19 Vincennes 13, Gibson Southern 12 OT Warren Central 56, Lawrence Central 18 Wes-Del 69, Union City 6 Westfield 28, Frank ton 6 West Washington 14, Springs Valley 12 Western 42, Northwestern 0 Whiting 19, South Newton 16 Yorktown 35, Centerville 9 Friday’s Sports Transactions By The Associated Press BASEBALL American League AL—Suspended Dave Kingman of the Oakland A’s for three days, effective September 24. BASKETBALL National Basketbail Association GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS—Agreed to cotract terms with Chuck Aleksinas, center. Signed Lewis Jackson, guard. LOS ANGELES LAKERS—Signed Chuck Nevitt, center. FOOTBALL National Football League CINCINNATI BENGALS—Activated Stanley Wilson, running back. Placed Clay Pickering, wide receiver, on the injured reserve list. ST. LOUIS CARDlNALS—Activated Clyde Duncan, wide receiver. Waived Martin Bayless, defensive back. National Football League At A Glance By The Associated Press American Conference East W L T Pet. PF PA Miami 3 0 0 1.000 84 41 New England 2 1 0 .667 66 68 NY. Jets 2 1 0 .667 83 60 Indianapolis 1 2 0 .333 82 78 Buffalo 0 3 0 .000 41 79 Central Pittsburgh 2 1 0 .667 74 68 Cincinnati 0 3 0 .000 62 90 Cleveland 0 3 0 .000 31 77 Houston 0 3 0 .000 49 90 West LA. Raiders 3 0 0 1.000 74 41 Denver 2 1 0 .667 44 58 Kansas City 2 1 0 .667 84 71 San Diego 2 1 0 .667 90 58 Seattle 2 1 0 .667 87 55 National Conference East Dallas 2 1 0 .667 50 58 N.Y. Giants 2 1 0 .667 70 64 St. Louis 2 1 0 .667 94 64 Philadelphia 1 2 0 .333 63 68 Washington 1 2 0 .333 78 86 Central Chicago 3 0 0 1.000 70 21 Detroit 1 2 « .333 71 75 Green Bay 1 2 0 .333 38 60 Minnesota 1 2 0 .333 57 81 Tampa Bay 1 2 0 .333 48 68 San Francisco 3 0 0 1.000 97 78 Atlanta 1 2 0 .333 80 82 LA Rams 1 2 0 .333 47 61 New Orleans 1 2 0 .333 65 79 Sunday's Games Houston at Atlanta Los Angeles Rams at Cincinnati Minnesota at Detroit New York Jets at Buffalo Pittsburgh at Cleveland St. Louis at New Orleans San Francisco at Philadelphia Washington at New England Chicago at Seattle Indianapolis at Miami Green Bay at Dallas Kansas City at Denver Tampa Bay at New York Giants Monday’s Game ... San Diego at Los Angeles Raiders

pruner was at work this summer in an attempt to save trees damaged by frost. (N.Y. Times photo)

business has come to a standstill. Several growers said that out of fear of spreading the disease inadvertently, they had reduced activity in their groves to the absolute minimum required to maintain their trees. “As far as we know, it spreads like a cold,” said Mickey Trueheart, a realtor whose main business has been selling citrus groves. “The wind can do it. Birds can do it, moving from one tree to another. It can spread on vehicle tires, shoes, clothing.” Many growers, according to state officials, have locked the gates to their groves and posted guards to keep out strangers. Many of them are also spraying their workers with disinfectant as they come and go and spraying all vehicles, as well. “We’re not letting any strangers in our groves at all, not even fruit buyers,” said John Burr, a partner in a 400-acre operation. “We’ve posted no-trespassing signs and we’re just sitting tight. We’re just watering the trees and doing a little mowing of weeds.” Paul said he had hired helicopters to spray a copper solution over his thousands of acres of trees, hoping that would provide some protection. He said he thought one of his groves, in which he had planted 1,600 replacement trees from one of the “hot nurseries,” was highly suspect and that he had destroyed all the new trees. “We went in with butane and burned them,” he said.

burgh (Rhoden 13-9), (n) Cincinnati (Browning 1-0) at Houston (Scott 5-11), (n) Atlanta (Perez 12-7) at San Diego (Whitson 13-8), (n) Sunday's Games Montreal at New York Philadelphia at Pittsburgh Chicago at St. Louis Atlanta at San Diego Los Angeles at San Francisco Cincinnati at Houston, (n) TODAY’S MAJOR LEAGUE LEADERS By The Associated Press NATIONAL LEAGUE BATTING (370 at bats): Gwynn, San Diego, .353; Lacy, Pittsburgh, .318; Hernandez, New York, .316; Ray, Pittsburgh, .314; Sandberg, Chicago. .314. RUNS: Sandberg, Chicago, 108; Samuel, Philadelphia, 103; Wiggins, San Diego, 103; Raines, Montreal, 101; Matthews, Chicago, 97. RBI: GCarter, Montreal, 103; Schmidt, Philadelphia, 103; Durham, Chicago, 95; Cey, Chicago, 94; Cruz, Houston, 93; Murphy, Atlanta, 93. HITS: Gwynn, San Diego, 207; Sandberg, Chicago, 191; Raines, Montreal. 182; Samuel, Philadelphia, 181; Cruz, Houston, 177. DOUBLES: Raines, Montreal, 37; Ray, Pittsburgh, 35; Samuel, Philadelphia, 34; Sandberg, Chicago, 32; Murphy, Atlanta, 31. TRIPLES: Sandberg, Chicago, 19; Samuel, Philadelphia, 18; Cruz, Houston, 13: CReynolds, Houston, 11; Doran, Houston, 11; Wynne, Pittsburgh, 11. HOME RUNS: Murphy, Atlanta, 34; Schmidt, Philadelphia, 34; Cey, Chicago, 25; GCarter, Montreal, 25; Foster, New York, 23; Strawberry, New York, 23. STOLEN BASES: Raines, Montreal, 71; Samuel, Philadelphia, 69; Wiggins, San Diego, 66; Redus, Cincinnati, 47; VHayes, Philadelphia, 47. PITCHING (14 decisions): Sutcliffe, Chicago, 15-1, .938, 2.80; Rawley, Philadelphia, 10-4, .714, 3.47; Soto, Cincinnati, 16-7, .6%, 3.42; APena, Los Angeles, 12-6, .667, 2.48; Carlton, Philadelphia, 13-7, .650,3.58. STRIKEOUTS: Gooden, New York, 267; Valenzuela, Los Angeles, 228; Ryan, Houston, 197; Soto, Cincinnati, 170; Carlton, Philadelphia, 163. SAVES: Sutter, StLouis, 43; LeSmith, Chicago, 32; Orosco, New York, 30; Holland, Philadelphia, 29; Gossage, San Diego, 25. TODA k”S MAJOR LEAGUE LEADERS By The Associated Press AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING (370 at bats): Mattingly, New York, .346; Winfield, New York, .344; EMurray, Baltimore, .322; Boggs, Boston, .318; Hrbek, Minnesota, .317. RUNS: DwEvans, Boston, 119; RHenderson, Oakland, 102; Boggs, Boston, 101; Butler, Cleveland, 101; Winfield, New York, 101. RBI: Rice, Boston, 118; Kingman, Oakland, 117; Armas, Boston, 115; ADavis, Seattle, 112; EMurray, Baltimore, 108. HITS: Mattingly. New York, 195; Boggs, Boston, 187; Winfield, New York, 183; Franco, Cleveland, 181; Ripken, Baltimore, 181. DOUBLES: Mattingly, New York, 41; LAParrish, Texas, 38; DwEvans, Boston, 36; GBell, Toronto, 36; BBell, Texas, 35. TRIPLES: Collins, Toronto, 15; Moseby, Toronto, 14; Baines, Chicago, 9; KGibson, Detroit, 9; Upshaw, Toronto, 9; Wilson, Kansas City, 9. HOME RUNS: Armas, Boston, 40; Kingman, Oakland, 35; Brunansky, Minnesota, 32; DwEvans, Boston, 31; Kittle, Chicago, 31; Murphy, Oakland, 31; Thornton, Cleveland, 31. STOLEN BASES: RHenderson, Oakland, 59; Collins, Toronto, 58; Butler, Cleveland, 49; Garcia, Toronto, 46; Pettis, California, 46. PITCHING (14 decisions): Alexander, Toronto, 15-5, .750, 3.17; Blyleven, Cleveland, 17-6, .739, 2.86; Stieb, Toronto, 15-7, .682, 2.56; Petry, Detroit, 17-8, .680, 3 42 Wilcox, Detroit, 17-8, .680,4.05. STRIKEOUTS: Langston, Seattle, 195; Stieb, Toronto, 189; Witt, California, 184; Hough, Texas, 161; Blyleven, Cleveland, 152. SAVES; Quisenberry, Kansas City, 42; Caudill, Oakland, 33; Hernandez, Detroit, 31; Righetti, New York, 28; RDavis, Minnesota, 27. MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) Results of Friday’s qualifying at the Martinsville Speedway for the final 20 spots in Sunday’s running of the Goody's 500 NASCAR Grand National race (the first 10 positions were set in Thursday's qualifying); 11. Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 88.747 12. Joe Ruttman, Chevrolet, 88.585 13. Tim Richmond, Pontiac, 88.267 14. Tommy Ellis, Ford, 88.226 15. Morgan Shephard, Pontiac, 88.206 • 16. Dick Brooks, Ford, 88.197 17. Bill Elliott, Ford, 88.185 18. Buddy Baker, Ford, 88.079 19. Dave Marcis, Pontiac, 87.895 20. Trevor Boys, Chevrolet, 87.890 21. Richard Petty, Pontiac, 87.687 22. Jimmy Hensley, Ford, 87.654 23. Lennie Pond, Oldsmolbile, 87.618 24. J.D. McDuffie, Pontiac, 87.533 25. Phil Parsons, Chevrolet, 87.517 26. Doug Parsons, Buick, 87.327 27. Sam Ard, Chevrolet, 87.315 28. Buddy Arrington, Dodge, 87.259 29. Jimmy Means, Pontiac, 86.874 30. Ronnie Thomas, Chevrolet, 86.139

“If he had to make the decision today,” said his wife, Nancy, by telephone from their home in Georgia, “it would be tough, but he’d probably quit. But I think five months at home this winter will be therapy for him.” Niekro, the Yankees’ top-winning pitcher this season and at 45 the game’s oldest player, has been a revelation in his first season with the Yankees after 20 with the Braves. In a gamble, New York signed him to a one-year contract with an option year as a free agent, and he has turned into the Yankees’ most reliable starter, winning 16 and losing 8. He was sensational in the first half of the season, compiling an 11-4 record and a 1.84 earned-run average. The question of whether he may retire emerged when The Atlanta Journal printed an article Thursday that suggested Niekro might quit. “I love pitching,” the article quoted Niekro as saying, “but some other things have gotten in the way.” That Niekro, who has 284 major league victories, was giving serious thought to retirement was confirmed by his wife from the family’s home in Lilburn, Ga. “He’s been depressed lately,” said Mrs. Niekro. “He’s lonely and I’m sure he’s been thinking about retiring. He called me up in the middle of the night the other night and he’s never done that. Every year it’s the same thing, but this year it’s different. He’s up there and I think this year he’s more serious.” Attempts to reach Niekro with telephone calls to his rented home in Clifton, N.J., brought no answer. Just last week, while the Yankees were playing in Toronto, Niekro had expressed doubts about living so much of the year away from his wife and three sons. “The decision is nearby,” he had said of retirement. “My kids are at the age now where I can hunt with them and fish and we haven’t had a good chance to do it.” He emphasized, however, that he still enjoyed the game and had been taken by performances of the young players on the Yankees who have boosted the team in the second half, while he has slumped. Since his outststanding first half of the season, Niekro has gone 5-4 with a 5.06 e.r.a. In the first half, he struck out 91 batters and permitted 3 home runs. Since then he has struck out 45 and given up 12 home runs. In addition, for only the second time in his career, an injury has forced him to miss playing time. When the Yankees and the California Angels were involved in a bench-clearing incident Sept. 2, Niekro found himself in the middle of the fracas and suffered a pulled muscle in his upper left chest area. He missed his next turn in the rotation and then aggravated the injury in his start last Monday night against the Orioles, in which he was touched for six runs and was removed after just four innings. The Yankees, who declined to comment on the reports of Niekro’s weighing retirement, said the knuckleballer would

Scientists chasing the unknown in Florida citrus canker outbreak

c. 1984 N.Y. Times NEW YORK The citrus canker disease that threatens Florida’s $2.5 billion orange, grapefruit and tangerine industry is being spread by a previously unknown bacteria strain that scientists say may be one of the most aggressive and virulent microorganisms ever to imperil citrus crops. Tests have revealed that the microscopic flagellated bacterium found in Florida causes large lesions to form on the plants within a few days of initial infection, in comparison with other forms of citrus canker disease that require a week or more for pinhead-size cankers to form. The speedy action of the organism means that it can infect large areas at a rapid rate. The Florida bacterium, whose scientific name is Xanthomonas campestris pathovar citri, is one of a family of some thousand bacteria species that cause cankers and other forms of damage to dozens of different plant varieties. It is similar to the so-called A strains of plant bacteria that have run rampant in the citrus groves of Japan, China, Southeast Asia and South America for many years and have been almost impossible to eradicate. A decade ago Argentina was struck by a similar type of citrus canker disease that is still pandemic in that nation. To date, scientists have not been able to determine the origins of the disease or what causes outbreaks in regions of the world. The disease, so far found only in seedling orange, tangerine

Orange trees are ''buckhorned," stripped of most branches, by mechanical pruners used to remove the effects of last season's frost in Central Florida. Although three suc-

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PHIL NIEKRO Future uncertain

miss at least his next pitching turn. “I spoke to Phil,” said his agent, Bruce Church, from his office in Atlanta, “and he told me that when he’s ready to make an announcement he will do it through the proper channels, through the organization and not through a reporter.” Niekro, according to his agent, did not deny the quotes that were attributed to him in the article. But, said Church, “a senior player like that deserves to have a conversation like this five or six times in the last five, six years.” Most of Niekro’s comments in the reported interview underscored the mixed emotions that he has expressed in recent days. “It’s something that just jumped into my head,” he was quoted. “To be honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do next year. I can’t tell you definitely right now. I might be and I might not be.” Mrs. Niekro said that many factors had possibly influenced her husband’s thinking of late, mostly the ones associated with Niekro living and working away from the rest of the family. That is commonplace with most baseball families, but has not been a problem with Niekro because he played almost his entire career close to his family. Only once before, said Mrs. Niekro, had her husband lost playing time due to injury and she said that he “was not handling it well.” un Wednesday night Niekro said that he was having difficulty breathing because of the pulled muscle in the chest area. “I also have the feeling,” she said, “that he had trouble opening up and getting close to anyone on the Yankees. That’s changed now, but he’s still lonely. He’s better on road trips because he doesn’t have to sit alone in the house in New Jersey. “It’s worse now because he’s losing and we haven't seen him in a month. At first we thought he’d hop down here on his days off, and we tried that three times, but that just doesn’t work. He comes here exhausted and has to leave right away. “Still it’s possible,” she added. “When February comes, he might be ready to pack up again and go back to spring training.”

September 22,1984, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

and grapefruit plants in five nurseries, has produced the corky lesions called cankers on the twigs and leaves of the plants that are still not of fruit-bearing age. No cases of citrus canker have been discovered in either plants or fruits in fruit-producing groves. Laboratory tests by U.S. Department of Agriculture and Florida state scientists are now under way to determine if the bacteria will cause cankers on the fruits, according to Dr. Stephen Poe, plant pathologist in the agriculture agency’s Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Service. “Some bacteria will affect only the plants and not their fruit,” Poe explained in an interview, citing the case of Mexico, where the lime trees are affected by a citrus canker that does not damage or scar the fruit. In Florida, in an effort to keep the disease from spreading, all intrastate and interstate shipments of citrus plants and fruits have been banned. Most citrus canker bacteria do their damage in a series of steps, Poe said. The invading organism enters the leaf, stem or fruit through pores or a wound in the outer covering. It produces enzymes that cause the surrounding cells to collapse and lose their fluids. The bacteria then feed on the cell material and grow and multiply rapidly, girdling twigs and forming brown or yellow spots on leaves and dark corklike scabs on the fruits.

cessive years of freezing temperatures have caused millions of dollars in lost fruit, growers are facing a much deadlier enemy, citrus canker. (N.Y. Times photo)

Washington High School in Manhattan, called his 26 players into a room 90 minutes before they were scheduled to play Lehman High in the Bronx. As the players surged into the room, the coach barked and joked with them in colloquial Spanish, a second language for a man married to the former Beatrice Sanchez, a teacher who is of Puerto Rican ancestry. He held up a piece of chalk, but instead of drawing X’s and O’s on the blackboard he drew a rough outline of the peninsula of Korea. He told the players about a military action that occurred before they were born, while he was in high school. “The Americans were winning a battle with the North Koreans when all of a sudden two million Chinese came over the border,” he said, drawing arrows on the makeshift map. “The Americans retreated all the way down to a place called Pusan, right at the bottom, and the Chinese followed. But a man named MacArthur landed at Inchon, up here, and cut off many of the Chinese and that’s why you have a North Korea and a South Korea. “Now tell me: Were the Americans cowards to retreat, or were they doing the only possible thing until help arrived?” Walsh recalls his players’ saying, “Oh, no, Mr. Walsh, they did the right thing.” And he says: “I told them they were about to stage a retreat that would help win a larger battle. But I also told them all hell was going to break loose.” It broke loose when Walsh ordered his team to pick up the football just before the opening kickoff and walk off the field with a 1-0 forfeit loss, with opponents, officials and fans in place. He made the move after a two-year battle of letters, meetings and telephone calls in which he sought to avoid having to play against three Bronx teams Lehman, Kennedy and Clinton that he thinks are physically too superior to his team. Walsh has had the support of two previous George Washington principals and the coaches of several other schools, but the gesture against the city could cost him his coaching job and keep his team from playing football at all. What kind of coach tells his players there are certain teams too big, too strong, for them? Does this act run against the code of sports, that any team with enough heart and enough wisdom can upset a bigger opponent? Does Walsh, 49, have a martyr complex that leads him to jeopardize the $4,200 coaching stipend needed to help educate his three children? Or does he have a clear picture of danger for the young sons of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic who make up his

divisions through a formula based on enrollment, past success, coaching longevity and the judgment of PSAL officials, who think they have been equitable. Walsh contends that George Washington has been put into the Manhattan-Bronx A Division for political reasons, to form a “turkey league” for powerful north Bronx schools. “The schools in the north Bronx have large staffs, cameras, spotters in the bleachers, alumni associations. Also, with open enrollment, big kids from our district wind up playing football up there because of the white-collar reputation." George Washington was placed in the A Division after 1981, when Walsh’s team won seven of eight games. But in 1982 the squad suffered six injuries against Lehman and six against Kennedy while losing all eight games. Last year Sexto Benitez suffered a broken neck when hit by a larger Kennedy player on a kickoff in the final minute of the first half, “when our kids get so tired they get hurt,” Walsh says. The young man’s family has filed a S2O million suit against the PSAL and the Board of Education and Walsh contends that the city will not move George Washington to the B Division because doing so would jeopardize its legal status in the suit. City officials say they cannot make an exception to the divisional setup for one school. In August, Walsh took 34 players to a one-week camp in the Poconos. “Camp was great; we worked hard,” says Sepulveda, a 165-pound lineman. “I love football. My parents are afraid of injuries, but we want to play. Then we come back to school and we’ve only got 26 players and people hear we forfeit a game and they say we’re soft, we’re afraid. We’ve got some big guys in the halls, bigger than us. I tell them: ‘Why don’t you come out for the team?’ Can’t handle it?” There was no criticism when Walsh refused to play Clinton last year after the injury to Sexto Benitez, but some people disapproved of last Saturday’s action. The players, however, support their coach. In other sports, they say, a bad defeat can be demoralizing, but in football it can be dangerous. Walsh, who can pound a locker and demand penalty pushups with the best of them, tries to walk the line between bravery and folly. “Hey, we’ve got some tough little kids. Let me play a team of 25 big kids, and we’ll beat them. It’s not just the size of the squads, it’s also the size of the kids. We’ll win some games. I’m not in this to lose.”

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