Banner Graphic, Volume 17, Number 241, Greencastle, Putnam County, 13 June 1987 — Page 5

DARRYL STRAWBERRY Hard feelings persist

Strawberry not 12 years old, says Mets' manager

c. 1987 N.Y. Times News Service PITTSBURGH - An uneasy truce settled over the Mets Friday, but the bitter feelings continued between Manager Dave Johnson and Darryl Strawberry, who said: “I don’t know why Davey is always trying to bury me.” “I’ve put out,” Strawberry said. “I’ve done a good job this year, from the start. I don’t like it, the way he buries me all the time. He relates to some players, his favorites. But he comes down on me and two or three others.” Strawberry said that he had changed his mind about refusing to play in an exhibition game Thursday night after he had received a telephone call from his mother in Los Angeles. “She reached me in the locker room in Tidewater,” he said. “She was worried. She told me not to let any hard feelings get me down or get me in trouble. ‘De your job, and block out the rest of it,’ she told me. ‘I love you. I want you to do your best. ’ “So, I took her advice and played. But I don’t like the way Davey treats me.” Strawberry was fined $250 and benched for two days in Chicago this week after he had overslept and reported late for work. He was scheduled to be back in the lineup Friday night as the Mets opened a weekend series against the Pirates, but he was still seething over a series of confrontations with the manager of the Mets. During the World Series last October, he criticized Johnson for removing him from the lineup late in the sixth game, although it was a tactical move involving a batting-order switch and a relief pitcher. In spring training, he missed two workouts and was fined $1,500. This week in Chicago, he was slightly late arriving at Wrigley Field on Monday and 22 minutes late on Tuesday. So, Johnson fined him and benched him for the games Tuesday and Wednesday against the Cubs. However, he did put Strawberry in the lineup Thursday when the Mets flew to Norfolk, Va., for

Richard out to prove she can win

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Deb Richard, the 1984 U.S. Amateur champion, sees stardom in her future on the LPGA Tour once she proves she can win. “I think the one thing that really gets the pressure off is the first win,” Richard said after an even-par 72 on Friday that left her one stroke off the lead midway through the $350,000 Mayflower Classic. “You get a player like Jane Geddes, she finally gets the first win and she’s been great ever since,” Richard said. “Cindy Rarick, until this year, hadn’t really done much. She won at Hawaii and she’s been playing great ever since. It’s just the pressure of getting the first win out of the way.” Richard hopes to take a big step in that direction in today’s third round, which she begins one shot back of coleaders Patty Rizzo and Colleen Walker. “I think I’ve got all the shots to do it and I think I’ve got a good short game,” said Richard, 24, a former University of Florida star who finished second twice and had four other Top 10 finishes as a rookie last year. This year she has won $17,312 to rank 65th on the money list. “Those things (success) take time, and patience is not one of my virtues

* r . ’WW M * *-

DAVE JOHNSON The silent treatment

their annual exhibition game against their Tidewater farm team. Strawberry had threatened not to play, but relented a couple of hours before the game and even took part in a pregame home-run contest (in which he hit none in 10swings). “My heart wasn’t in it,” he said Friday during a long and at times impassioned interview. “I couldn’t sleep all the night before, anyway, I was so upset. “He knows it was hard for me to find a lot of enthusiasm for baseball this year because my wife and I were separated and my family was breaking up. I still put out. But whenever I did anything, he’d try to bury me. “He relates to some players, his favorites. But, for some reason he comes down on me and two or three others, Ron Darling and Jesse Orosco. “I paid my fine in Chicago. I didn’t even mind it when he sat me down that day. But why would he embarrass me and bench me the next day?” Johnson has not spoken to Strawberry since the Chicago incident, except when he sent Strawberry to bat as a pinchhitter with two down in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game with the plea: “Win us a game.” Strawberry, who is leading the team with 16 home runs, took a third strike from Lee Smith, and the Mets lost, 6-5. “If Darryl were my 12-year-old son and did something wrong,” Johnson said, reacting to Strawberry’s criticism, “I’d talk to him and explain what he did. But he’s not 12 years old. I’ve got 23 other players here to think about. It would be unfair to them if I let him decide what time he gets to work, or to decide his penalty if he was late. I’ve got guys here who want to play. “Look, he played against Tidewater, that’s the end of the incident for me. I would’ve preferred that he come to rrie and explain his problems, even when he oversleeps. I would prefer a better quality in ending the incident. But it’s not required. He doesn’t have to love me to hit the ball hard.”

but I definitely think I can,” she said. Rizzo, who last won in 1985, and Walker, seeking her first triumph since joining the women’s golf tour in 1982, were at 7-under-par 137 for 36 holes. Rizzo had a 68 on Friday, Walker a 70. Cathy Gerring had a 71 on Friday to tie Richard at 138. Rizzo, three shots off the lead after the opening round, produced a 68 on Friday despite having to wait out a thunderstorm that halted play for 95 minutes. “I feel real good, better than I have in the last few weeks,” said Rizzo, who is 34th on the money list with $38,476. “My confidence is definitely building up. I’ve had a lot of good rounds in the last few weeks and I’m starting to believe that I can doit.” Gerring, in her third year on the Tour and seeking her first professional victory, overcame three consecutive bogies when she missed par putts of 6,10 and 4 feet. The 26-year-old sister of PGA regular Bill Kratzert rallied with three birdies against a single bogey over the last 10 holes to get to 6-under for the tournament. “I didn’t putt as well today and I didn’t hit as close,” she said. “I didn’t attack the golf course like I

Celtics, Ainge not dead yet

c. 1987 N.Y. Times News Service BOSTON During the warmup before Thursday night’s game, several Boston Celtic players were distracted by the huge, glittering National Basketball Association championship trophy that was on a table in Boston Garden. The trophy was ready for presentation to the Los Angeles Lakers if they won the game, because their three-games-to-one advantage had put them on the brink of winning the NBA finals. Danny Ainge of the Celtics pointed to the prize and said, “What’s that trophy doing up there? There is no need for it to be there tonight. I guarantee there will be no clinching.” Then, pointing to the the Celtics’ leprechaun logo at midcourt, Ainge said: “The Lakers will do no celebrating here tonight. He won’t let it happen.” In the game, Ainge helped his prediction come true by scoring five 3-point baskets in six attempts and a total of 21 points. The Celtics won the game easily, 123-108, slicing the Lakers’ series advantage to 3-2 and sending the playoff finals back to California for Game 6 Sunday afternoon.

Spinks, Cooney set for Monday showdown

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) “We’ve done it one time. We intend to do it twice,” veteran trainer Eddie Futch says. Futch worked with Larry Holmes when Holmes stopped Gerry Cooney in the 13th round of a heavyweight title fight on June 11,1982. Monday night, he will be in Michael Spinks’ corner for a scheduled 15-round heavyweight bout at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. “We’ll explore the weaknesses we saw before the Holmes’ fight,” Futch said Friday. Cooney has fought only three times for a total of seven rounds since losing to Holmes. The fight shapes up as a classic boxer-puncher confrontation. Spinks, however, is anything but a classic boxer. At times, he appears to be floundering about the ring. “Nobody else I’ve ever seen fights like Michael fights,” Futch said, “but Michael knows what he’s doing

Seattle tabs Bosworth

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indianapolis Colts say they’re not disappointed they lost the chance to pick Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth in the NFL’s supplemental draft, and Bosworth says he’s relieved the Colts lost. The Colts were at the top of the list of the 22 NFL teams Bosworth said he would refuse to play for. Another of those teams, Seattle, took Bosworth Friday after its logo was picked from a drum containing the logos of all 28 NFL teams. The draft was weighted so that the teams with the worst records had the most chances of getting the top pick. “It would have been great to get him,” said Colts general manager Jim Irsay. “I think he’s an exciting player. It would have created more excitement, but ‘disappointed’ is not the word to describe our feelings,

did yesterday.” The final round on the 6,156-yard Country Club of Indianapolis course is scheduled Sunday with the winner earning $52,500. Heading into the third round, there were 19 players within three strokes of the leaders. There was a five-way tie at 139 that included Lenore Muraoka, No. 135 on this year’s money list with $2,566. She survived the cut for only the third time in 12 starts this year after rounds of 67 and 72. Tied with Muraoka were Spain’s Marta Dotti-Figuera, Shelly Hamlin, Muffin Spencer-Devlin and Penny Hammel. Jan Stephenson, who lost the tournament to Sandra Palmer on the first hole of a playoff last year, was among 10 players at 140. It took a score of 147, the lowest in tournament history, to survive the cut. The 86 women moving into the third round, including 20 who were at 147, marked the largest group to survive the cut in an LPGA event his year, topping the 84 who advanced last week at Wilmington, Del. Palmer, seeking to become the first repeat champion in the 11-year history of the tournament, had a 73 Friday and was eight strokes off the pace at 145.

sports

The first five games have produced some surprises. After Boston was beaten in Los Angeles in the first two games, the Celtics were a prime candidate to become the fifth team in NBA history to be swept in the championship round. It seemed that there was no way the tired, hurting Celtics could stop the Lakers’ running attack. When the Celtics slowed the Lakers in Game 3 and won with Greg Kite, the seldom used 6-foot-ll-inch center, as the unlikely hero doubters questioned whether the victory was a fluke. The non-believers were back in Game 4 after the Celtics, apparently headed for victory, blew a 16-point third-period lead as the Lakers won on Magic Johnson’s basket with 2

every second. “We have Cooney’s size, weight and power to deal with,” Futch said. “He has to box him. Certain places in the ring you’re vulnerable with him. Don’t go to the ropes with him. If he can find you, he can hurt you. ” Holmes kept his fight with Cooney in the center of the ring for the most part, constantly changing Cooney’s punching angles until the tired, frustrated Cooney couldn’t continue. The 6-foot-214 Spinks gave away a half-inch in height and five inches in reach to Holmes in their two International Boxing Federation title bouts. Spinks weighed 200 pounds and spotted Holmes 2114 pounds when he became the first light heavyweight champion to win a heavyweight itle with a unanimous 15-round decision on Sept. 21,1985. He weighed 205, 18 pounds less than Holmes, when he won the rematch on a split decision on April 19,1986.

because of our odds in the draft.” Meanwhile, Bosworth said he would not play for Seattle next season, but said he was in a better mood than if the Colts had drafted him. “Things could be a little dimmer,” Bosworth said at a news conference in New York following the draft. “They (Seattle) could have passed and Indianapolis could have got the pick and I would be standing up here in a real depressed state right now.” The Colts, with 27 chances in the drum after finishing 3-13 last season, received the right to pick second but declined to draft any of the other eligible players. “There is really no significance to being second or 28th (in the supplemental draft),” Irsay said. “You had to hit on the first one in this draft, and we didn’t.”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Second-round scores Friday in the $350,000 LPGA Mayflower Classic played on the par-72,6,156-yard Country Club of Indianapolis Patti Rizzo 69-68—137 Colleen Walker 67-70—137 Cathy Gerring 67-71—138 Deb Richard 66-72—138 Shelley Hamlin 70-69—139 Penny Hammel 72-67—139 Muffin Spencer-Devlin 71-68—139 Lenore Muraoka 67-72—139 Marta Figueras-Dotti 69-70—139 Cindy Hill 72-68—140 Penny Pulz 68-72—140 Patty Jordan 72-68—140 Laurie Rinker 72-68—140 Jan Stephenson 68-72—140 Tammie Green 73-67—140 Sally Quinlan 72-68—140 Debbie Massey 74-66—140 Lisa Young 68-72—140 Patty Sheehan 72-68—140 Jane Geddes 71-70—141 Deedee Roberts 72-69—141 Adele Lukken 72-70—142 Amy Alcott 72-70—142 Juli Inkster 73-69—142 Rosie Jones 69-73—142 Kim Bauer 69-73—142 Kathy Postlewait 73-69—142 M J. Smith 71-71—142 Cindy Rarick 69-73—142 Betsy King 69-73—142 Marlene Floyd 69-73—142 Bonnie Lauer 73-69—142 Donna Caponi 71-71—142 Susan Sanders 70-72—142 Marlene Hagge 73-70—143 Denise Strebig 73-70—143 Barb Bunkowsky 74-69—143 Cathy Marino 73-70—143 Susie McAllister 71-72—143 Connie Chillemi 71-72—143 Sandra Spuzich 72-71—143 Nancy Ledbetter 71-72—143 Missie McGeorge 72-72—144 Hollis Stacy 73-71—144 Robin Walton 72-72—144 Amy Benz 72-72—144 Beth Solomon 71-73—144 Cathy Johnston 71-73—144 Missie Berteotti 72-73—145

seconds remaining. That defeat was supposed to have taken all the wind out of the Celtics for Game 5. But with all five starters scoring at least 21 points Thursday night, Boston played what Johnson described as “a total team game.” Red Auerbach, the Celtics’ president, blamed the officiating for the loss in Game 4. “We should be 3-2 now, not 2-3,” he said as he left the dressing room Thursday night, “We didn’t play any differently tonight than the other night. The refs just protected us better tonight.” That wasn’t the whole story. The Celtics shot 49 percent and the Lakers shot 38 percent. In addition, Boston played better defense and was more aggressive. But more important, the Celtics, who wilted un-

Rm." sJmA I w JM W

WILLIE McGEE: His bat's hot again

Smile returns as McGee bat revives

By The Associated Press Willie McGee says baseball can be a funny game. And, after driving in 25 runs in his last 20 games, the St. Louis center fielder has reason to smile. McGee drove in three runs with a triple and double as starter Bob Forsch and three relievers combined on a six-hitter to beat Chicago 4-1 Friday night. The Cardinals’ victory increased their lead over the second-place Cubs to four games in the National League East. In 1985, McGee was named the MVP when he hit .353 and drove in 82 runs as the Cardinals won the pennant. But the speedy McGee was slowed by injuries last season and slipped to .256 and 48 RBI. But McGee doesn’t use injuries as an excuse for the Cardinals’ hitting problems last season. “I don’t think injuries were the big reason,” McGee said. “Baseball is a funny game, and sometimes your offense just isn’t there. That’s what happened last year.” Last season, the Cardinals finished last in batting in the league as the New York Mets romped in the NL East. But a healthy Jack Clark and improved contributions from Vince Coleman, Tom Herr, Terry Pendelton and McGee have St. Louis running and scoring. Elsewhere in the NL, New York pounded Pittsburgh 10-2, Philadelphia ripped Montreal 13-6, Atlanta beat Cincinnati 4-3, Houston defeated Los Angeles 5-1 and San Diego blanked San Francisco 5-0. Expos 13, Phillies 6 Hubie Brooks went 5-for-5 and drove in six runs as Montreal ended Shane Rawley’s personal six-game winning streak. Tim Wallach, Mitch Webster and Tim Raines had three hits apiece in Montreal’s 19-hit attack. Bryn Smith, 4-2, went 6 2-3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three before giving way to Andy McGaffigan and Bob Sebra.

June 13,1987 THE BANNER GRAPHIC

der the Laker press Tuesday night, withstood two second-half comeback attempts in Game 5. The Lakers’ two playing styles might best be illustrated by what has happened to Byron Scott and James Worthy, the scoring stars of the first two games. The 6-foot-3-inch Scott, who scored 44 points and shot 69 percent from the field, has misplaced his outside shot. In the three games here, he shot 29 percent. Worthy, at 6-9, made 26 of 38 shots and scored 55 points in Games 1 and 2. He appears to be confused in the halfcourt game. Unable to run, he has managed 56 points and is 23-for--55 in the last three games. The only Laker starter who thrived on the trip east was Johnson. He scored 26, 29 and 29 points in the games here, but somehow, trying to keep his team afloat Thursday night, he looked more like the one-man show that Michael Jordan is for the Chicago Bulls. What ha opens next depends on two things: Whether the Lakers can rediscover their running game at home, and whether the Celtics, with a road record of 20-21 during the season and 2-7 in the playoffs, can win on the opponent’s court.

Astros 5, Dodgers 1 Houston’s Nolan Ryan struck out 11 in 7 2-3 innings to give him a major league-leading 107 strikeouts in 80 2-3 innings. Glenn Davis drove three runs for Houston with an RBI single in the sixth and a two-run double in the eighth. Ryan, 4-5, walked none while extending the Astros’ string of scoreless innings pitched at Dodger Stadium to 26 before Los Angeles scored with two out in the eighth. It was the 167th time in his career Ryan has struck out at least 10 batters in a game, improving on his major league record. Mets 10, Pirates 2 New York contiued its mastery of Pittsburgh as Tim Teufel hit a grand slam and left-hander Sid Fernandez pitched six-hit ball over eight innings. Fernandez, 8-2, allowed only Mike Diaz’s second-inning solo homer and Johnny Ray’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly in lowering his league-leading earned run average to 2.17. Braves 4, Reds 3 Rick Mahler allowed four hits in seven innings to snap a personal seven-game losing streak and Andres Thomas broke a fifth-inning tie with a two-run single as Atlanta beat Cincinnati. Mahler, 3-7, had not won in his last 12 starts going into Friday’s game after beginning the season 2-0. The Braves took a 4-2 lead by scoring twice on three consecutive hits in the fifth inning off starter Jerry Reuss, 0-5. The Reds have lost all seven games that Reuss has started since he was signed May 12 as a free agent. Padres 5, Giants 0 Ed Whitson pitched a four-hitter and did not allow a runner past first base in beating San Francisco. It was Whitson’s first complete game since 1985, when he played for the New York Yankees. Whitson, 7-6 for the last-place Padres, struck out six.