the sports
THE BATTALION Page 11
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1978
Mark
Patterson
The race is on
The 1978 major league pennent races have turned into one hell of a
I good topic for conversation among sportsmen. And where ever you
have a group of fans your destined to hear all kinds of choices.
So with some 12 games remaining on this year’s regular season
schedule I think it’s time cry out my choices and risk my sporting
! reputation. Here are my predictions on who the four teams will be
vying for the title of world champion.
National League West
I’ll start with the easiest choice of the three divisions and go from
| here. What started out as the best race in either league has turned
! into a runaway. The Los Angeles Dodgers, riding the power hitting of
, Reggie Smith and Steve Garvey and the flawless pitching of the
I entire staff, have run away and hid from the rest of the divsion. Or at
least the other two teams worth mentioning.
The Dodgers are fortunate to be playing in the easiest division in
| baseball. Until this season it was a yearly race between the Cincinatti
Reds and L. A. to see who would represent the West for the National
| League pennant. And with the collapse of the Red’s pitching staff, the
ace of their staff this season is Bill Bonham with a 11-5 record,
j coupled with injuries to Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench early in the
year reduced the Reds to also-rans in 1978.
But thank Commisioner Kuhn for the San Francisco Giants. With
the accusition of Vida Blue (16-9) the Giants became contenders. At
least for most of the season. But as with most young teams, the Giants
folded late and are a distant games back going into last night’s
' play. But you can bet your bubble gum cards they’ll be back contend
ing in 1979.
National League East
Who would have thought the Pittsburgh Pirates would be battling
j for the East crown? From the first weeks of the season the Pirates
were so far back in the pack the people of that city couldn’t wait for
J the return of Terry Bradshaw and his crew.
But that was before Dave Parker got rolling. And carrying the
hottest bat in the National League, he leads the league with a .327
average with 29 home runs (third best) and a league-leading 111
RBIs.
Going into yesterday’s action against the Chicago Cubs the Pirates
stood but one game behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies.
I And Pittsburgh plays seven of its last 11 game in the friendly confines
of Three Rivers Stadium. And for the steelmen, there may be no
place like home in 1978.
But the Phillies can control their own destiny in their last 12 games
j but have one big factor working against them; they play nine of their
final 12 games on the road. And an even harder task awaits them in
the season’s final series. They have to visit the Pirates in a four game
set which could easily decide the divisonal winner.
And from this point of view it looks like it will be the Pittsburgh
Pirates facing the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League pen
nant.
American League West
The experts originally predicted this division would be a three-way
fight between the defending champion Kansas City Royals, the
California Angles and the Texas Rangers. But someone forgot to tell
the Rangers and Angles as the two sat back and watched Kansas City
win the crown for the third straight year.
Texas folded early as their free agents, with the exception of Al
Oliver’s .317 batting average, never performed to expectations. And
it appears owner Brad Corbett will buy a few more this off-season in
hopes of finally buying a pennant to Texas.
Hie California Angles are mathematically still in contention, SVz
games back, but are dangerously close to elimination. New manager
Jim Fregosi couldn’t pull his troops together when given the reigns in
mid-season, yet he generated some excitement if not a pennant for
owner Gene Autry.
As for Charlie O. and his A s, it had to have been the luck of the
Irish early in the season. But luck won’t win a pennant.
American League East
Its hard to describe what’s happened in the East this season.
Shakespeare couldn’t put it into words. But the actions have gener
ated the most press, controversy and excitement within recent mem
ory as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers
and Baltimore Orioles, at one time or another, all contended for the
East pennant.
But as the season progressed the elite came forward as the Red Sox
and Yankees ran away from the rest of the division and went head-
to-head for the lead.
If you follow baseball you know that the Red Sox came away with
their heads spinning as the Yankees took seven of eight game from
the former division-leading Red Sox.
The Yankees are trying to make history by winning the East this
season. Never, in the history of the American League, has a club won
the championship when they changed managers in mid-season. And
upon Billy Martin’s dismissal and Bob Lemmons assumpion of duties
the Yankees have made their charge for the championship.
But history will have to wait another year as the Red Sox will take
the East and face Kansas City for the pennant. Even though they
dropped seven games to New York, Boston was only two games back
going into Wednesday night’s action.
The remainder of this season’s schedule favors neither as Boston
aces Detroit and Toronto in their last 11 games, six at home and five
on the road. The Yankees also have six games against Toronto, three
at home, and they face Cleveland for six games in a 3 home, 3 away
split.
But I have to put my vote in for the Sox. If they didn t fade after the
cw York Massacre they won’t fade now. I see it as Boston-Kansas
'ty for the American League Crown.
Carter country
Conference busy
Receiver is home
With all nine SWC teams in ac
tion Saturday, it will still be only the
second busiest week in SWC foot
ball history. Last year the nine SWC
teams played ten games in one
week. Houston had a Monday night
game last year and came back the
next Saturday and played a non
conference game, as did the eight
other schools.
By SEAN PETTY
Battalion Staff
After spending two years at Tyler
County Junior College, Gerald Car
ter is home to stay.
Carter, who plays split end for
Texas A6cM along with Doug
Teague, played high school football
for Bryan with halfback Curtis Dic
key.
Carter had offers from Houston,
Baylor and SMU after his two years
at Tyler, but came to Texas A&M for
one main reason.
I came to A&M because I
wanted to come home,” Carter said.
I wanted to play in front of my own
people again and always wanted to
play for the Aggies. Plus, the addi
tion of the I-formation really made
the offer attractive.”
Carter has received praise from
the Aggie coaches on his ability to
catch passes in a crowd. Coaches are
also pleased with Carter’s presence
because they were able to move
former split end Darrell Smith to
defensive back to add speed to that
department.
Carter likes the I-formation be
cause of the added passing dimen
sion. “I love to catch the ball and it’s
what I know best,” he said. Carter
Gerald Carter
played split end at Bryan and Tyler
so he definitely knows where he is
going when he takes off from the
line of scrimmage.
Although there are major differ
ences in playing a team like Hen
derson County Junior College as
opposed to the University of Texas
or the University of Arkansas, Car
ter said the job is still the same.
Cowboys favored
over Cardinals
United Press International
DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys
will go into their game against St.
Louis next Sunday as a very heavy
favorite. But favorites dp not always
win and Coach Tom Landry had a
good example to present Tuesday.
“I was driving home yesterday,”
he said, “and I heard someone talk
ing about the Baltimore-New Eng
land game. I believe he said the
score would be about 110-0.
“We may be the favorite against
St. Louis, but the Cardinals will
start winning like everybody else
does eventually.”
Nevertheless, Landry said the
Cardinals might be a better foe to
face this week than, say, New Eng
land or Minnesota.
“I think it’s to your advantage to
play a 0-3 team after coming off a
game with a contender,” he said.
Dallas is looking for improvement
across the board after its 27-14 loss
to Los Angeles.
Dallas’ defense gave up the big
play, quarterback Roger Staubach
threw four interceptions and the
Cowboys did not play with the in
tensity showed by the Rams.
“I don’t think we have too many
players playing at the pitch we had
going into the playoft's last year,”
Landry said. “But we are not a bad
team. We played hard against Los
Angeles. It was a good, tough game.
We are moving pretty good and we
are not dead yet.
“I have no reason to feel any diffe
rently about our defense now than I
did before the season started. We
play a different type of defense than
anybody else. We can look awfully
bad one week, but we can look aw
fully good another week.”
Landry said bruises suffered by
wide receivers Drew Pearson and
Tony Hill probably would not keep
them out of Sunday’s game with the
Cardinals but did say he was making
a change in his secondary.
. Cornerback Benny Barnes,
bothered by a foot injury that makes
it difficult for him to cut sharply,
will be replaced by Mark
Washington.
“Benny played well, but his foot
is not responding,” Landry said. “It
doesn’t bother him when he runs
straight ahead so he will still be on
the specialty teams. No one is better
on the specialty teams in the league
than he is. ”
“I’m here to catch passes and that’s
what I’ll do.
“There is a lot of difference in the
training, practice and facilities here
at A&M (as opposed to Tyler),” he
said. “We only had three coaches
there and every day the team would
spend half of practice on offense and
half on defense. Even if you didn’t
play defense you practiced it.
“That’s why I like it here. All I do
is practice catching passes, it’s really
great.
“Plus, at Tyler, we had about
one-and-a-half trainers,” he said
laughing. “There really is no com
parison in facilities.”
Carter broke his ankle while at
Tyler but is completely recovered.
“That was the only thing I was wor
ried about, my ankle,” he said. “I
knew if my ankle held up I had a
good chance of making the team
here. All I wanted was the chance to
show my stuff and prove myself to
the coaches here. ”
Carter dropped his first pass as an
Aggie but was flawless from then on
catching three passes for 44 yards
against the Kansas Jayhawks.
“I was a little nervous at first but
after I caught my first pass it took a
lot of the pressure off,” he said.
“One of the big differences that
added to the pressure was the
crowd. There are a lot more people
at the big college games than when I
was at Tyler. ”
Carter said the Aggies plan to
pass a lot against Boston College this
week and that pleases him.
“We think we can throw against
them from looking at the game
films,” he said. “We plan to do a lot
of hooks and outs which are hard to
defense.
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