Page 8
THE BATTALION
Tuesday, marcm e. 1979
Cedeno hungry for action
Getting back to the base-ics
Texas A&M’s center fielder Mike Hurdle dives
back to first base to foil a pick-off attempt by
Houston first baseman Bobby Hollas. Hurdle
and the Aggies got off to a good start in South
west Conference play by sweeping the
Cougars in the three-game series in Houston
last weekend. Coach Tom Chandler’s crew de
feated the Coogs 17-2, 8-0 and 8-5. The Aggies
will travel to Coral Gables, Fla. over spring
break to play in the Hurricane Invitational
Tournament.
Battalion photo by David Boggan
this
season
Ellis hopes
he can just ‘be Dock’
United Press International
COCOA BEACH, Fla. — Man
ager Bill Virdon, who at 47 probably
can still do it better than most of
them because he learned how be
fore coming up, was putting some of
his Houston players through a slid
ing drill and one by one, all of them
hit the dirt.
All except Cesar Cedeno. He
looked as if he had something on his
mind, and he did.
Twice, he ran straight for the bag,
and twice he went past it without
sliding into it. On his third attempt,
he finally hit the ground and went
sailing into the bag with his left foot
first — the one he tore up so badly
eight months ago.
This was last Friday and it was the
first time Cedeno had tried sliding
into base since he ripped a ligament
in his left knee so badly sliding into
second base against the Cubs last
June 16 that he had to undergo
surgery the very next day.
“I thought about it a lot, ” Cedeno
said, talking about the trauma of
sliding for the first time after making
his way back. “It stays in your mind.
I knew how serious the injury was
when I hurt my leg. The first thing I
wondered was whether I would ever
play again. It’s a natural thing. You
can’t help thinking about it.”
Cedeno’s knee has a long lateral
scar where he was cut. It swelled up
on him a bit after he tried sliding the
other day but he claims he’s all
right.
The 29-year-old Dominican-born
center fielder started out last season
as if he was going to do all those
things people have been saying he
could for the past nine years. He
batted .347 in the Astros’ first 12
games. Having stole 61 bases the
season before, he looked like he
might steal 75 this time. When he
got hurt, he already had 23.
Cedeno spent 10 days in the hos
pital after he was operated on and
no sooner did he get out when he
landed right back in again.
“I was on crutches and my knee
was in a cast, and when I was walk
ing to my seat, this little boy, about
eight or nine years old, came run
ning right into me. He broke my
crutches and my cast. Laying there
on the ground, I said to myself the
little bugger didn’t even bother to
stop.”
Another cast was placed around
Cedeno’s left leg and he was outfit
ted with a new set of crutches.
“That was the first of seven times
the cast snapped,” he says. “I’d kick
in my sleep and all of a sudden it
would come apart again. ”
Before the season ended, Cedeno
wanted to try out his knee in a
ballgame. He had regained some of
the strength in it by using weights
but he was anxious to find out if it
could stand up under actual game
conditions.
Cedeno’s knee passed the test
when he beat out an infield hit on
Cesar
Cedeno
Sept. 29. Two days later, he con
nected for his seventh homer of the
year in the season finale.
Before spring training got under
way, Bill Virdon announced
everyone would have to win a job
with the Astros, and there would be
no exceptions, including Cedeno.
The Astros’ five-time All-Star re
sented it and said so but that has all
been straightened out now.
“Do you think you can make the
club?” Virdon asked Cedeno the
first day he reported thissp
“Yes, I think I can
club,” Cedeno replied.
“That’s the way I want
think,” said Virdon.
Both laughed. They h
whole thing was a joke.
Twice since he has come
the Astros in 1970, Cedeno
.320 for them. He has
bases and won four Gold Glo
still he keeps hearing
that with all his natural ti
should do better. He resenl
“Why do I have to full
people say I should?” he j
voice rising. “Just becausel
it doesn’t mean it’s so. 11
they say I’m supposed toIj
That’s fine. I’d like to hit J
it’s easier to say than to do'
ever problem I ever get inti
to lack of concentration. ]
that. I also know I am nevers
with what I do. I get three
want four. I’m just a hungry
I’ve always been hungry.’
Cesar Cedeno keeps tallo
that and he can play on Bill!
team anytime.
United Press International
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. —
Dock Ellis isn’t a drinker or a
fighter, he’s a lover, and that’s what
got him into all that trouble with his
old boss, Billy Hunter.
What Dock Ellis loves most is his
freedom, his inalienable right to do
what he likes and go where he likes,
and when Billy Hunter, who felt he
had a few rights himself as manager
of the Texas Rangers last year, told
him he didn’t want his players
drinking in the bar of any hotel
where the club was staying, that’s
when the Rangers’ big right-hander
rebelled.
Hunter, fired at the end of the
season and replaced by Pat Cor-
rales, wasn’t doing anything so radi
cal. Most managers tell their players
if they must drink, they should do it
in some other bar outside the hotel,
the theory being they won’t be so
easily recognized as ballplayers that
way and people will have less to gos
sip about.
Dock Ellis isn’t what you would
call a big drinker. But, when he
does drink during the season, it will
be in a hotel bar because he claims
he’ll get into less trouble there.
“You put your life at stake when
you go outside the hotel bar to drink
when you’re an athlete,” argues El
lis, who’s never going to be arrested
for understatement.
When Hunter told Ellis he
couldn’t drink in the hotel bar, Ellis
came right back and told him maybe
he could impose that rule on the
other Ranger players, but not on
him and he didn’t care how much
Hunter fined him.
“I told him I wasn’t going to go
outside to get drunk,” says Ellis,
whose troubles with Hunter mush
roomed as the season progressed.
The relationship between Ellis
and Hunter reached such a point
Hunter told Ellis he needn’t bother
making the final road trip.
While Ellis was gone. Hunter was
^let go by the Rangers, after which
Ellis “sort of disappeared” for a
month so he wouldn’t have to an
swer any questions from the press.
Ellis bad a rather undistinguished
9-7 record and 4.20 earned run av
erage for the Rangers last year. He
was 7-3 through June and 2-4 the
rest of the way, pitching only four
times after July 18 because of a groin
injury. That represented a sharp
comedown for someone who had a
19-9 log with the Pirates in 1971 and
a 17-8 record with the Yanks in
1976.
This year, the Rangers figure to
be “looser” under Corrales, accord
ing to Ellis. How he comes to that
conclusion is a bit difficult to under
stand because Corrales looks as if
he’s going to be tougher than
Hunter was.
As for Ellis personally, he thinks
he can do better this year than he
did last year when he feels he let the
team down. How well he does this
time out will depend on how much
he’s allowed to be himself, Ellis
says.
‘If I can be Dock, then I’ll be suc
cessful and the team will be suc
cessful.”
So far, Corrales hasn’t put any
rein on Ellis. He has permitted him
to be Dock. And just what is Dock?
“Dock is when he comes to the
ballpark, he prepares himself for a
day’s work in his own way,” explains
Ellis. “In spring training, say, I may
cut loose with a few screams here
and there directed at certain indi
viduals. That gets my adrenalin
flowing.
“I’m not allowed in the trainer’s
room this year, so I can’t go in there
and shoot the bull for an hour or two
anymore. That means I come to the
ballpark a little later. Before we go
out on the field, I might jab a few
other guys. After that, we do a few
laps and that’s when the hard work
begins for me. After the workout,
I’m ready to go home. That’s the
Dock; that’s the real Dock.”
FOR7UKC
COOKiCS
cnmcsc rzstmjrjkkt
From Tues.-Fri.
noon buffet
(All you can eat)
11:30-2:00
5:30-9:30
Sat.-Sun.-Mon.
5:30-9:30
Sunday evening buffet
1313 S. College
Bryan 822-7661
Huge assortment of hardback
& paperback books now on sale
at
TEXAS A&M
BOOKSTORE
(IN THE MSC)
^KlJVDIES NIGHT
Women: free
^ Men: $2
Featuring
"BEST IN LIVE
COUNTRY WESTERN
ENTERTAINMENT"
SHORT SLEEVE
COTTON KNITS
reg. to 15'
while they last