THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 1979
Page 11
the sports
stros have to beat respect into teams and Cosell
■r Carter
>e the
t people.
s question is: YVhrit famous
I i\ W e W0l| H say, "I don't get no
1 If ton said one was comedian
’• • Hey Dangerfield, yon were right
sed his su(jH e j s no t alone. In fact, com-
s hopes for|B| f} le other group of people
e treatyby&BL^U honestly say they get no
rials added Dangerfield would rank
■rs agreedthere with a saintly guy like
hold a w%n| Lan d r y.
Ian a nucletlyyL) is this lowly, unrespected lot
scuss stepriLJsk?
on in t^Mne other than the Houston As-
■Thafs right. The very same As-
on offi js that sit atop the powerful Na-
torespondjl League Western Division
<a 6%- game lead over the Cin-
ti Reds who don’t even know
third place or lower means,
and Oki'jjj'li, Astros have done everything
il coneerawakes to gain respectability and
Hi more, yet no one will recog-
a good deiHtheir feats as reality. Everyone
ks focused tiling for the big El Faldo de
economicscHtfon. But don’t hold your
ig industrialteajh.
hursday, bHople say reality is hard to ac-
ass stratetHand that couldn’t be more true
iso \vasas!«itht Astros case. No one will ae-
yo whereCHthe cold, hard fact that they are
ght. Hitely a team to contend with.
HAstros are a very deceiving
H that will sit back and wait until
i Heventh or eighth inning to do
■ |damage. They will allow an op-
^Iv^.King pitcher to pitch a two- or
'H-hitter and still beat him by
flrun. And that is how cham-
jonphip teams play.
Here is only one team in Major
-Hue baseball that has won more
than the Astros this year, that
ir _ the Baltimore Orioles who
won 47 games.
$t Astros are a very exciting
to watch. They play hard and
issively steal bases and play the
pollutioncHt American Pastime the way it’s
the seepiH 0Se ^ to played. And they are
ving to»H m ' n I rue sense of the word.
Hie Houston Astros just win
PHs. Earlier in the season they
were deaMf homestand that even General
itarv he! H r would have run from. They
I in seaidl
; were eac
>ut were it
en the coi
a.m. (If
a Fiumick
played Montreal, Philadelphia and
Cincinnati. At the time, those three
teams had the best records in the
National League. What happened?
The Astros won eight of nine,
sweeping Montreal and Philadel
phia.
If you turn to your sports page,
you might expect to see at least one
Houston batter in the top ten in the
National League. Nope, sorry.
Well then, how about the leading
home-run hitter, or one Astro lead
ing in RBI, or in runs scored, or
maybe even stolen bases? No, no,
sorry.
The only leading performer the
Astros have is J.R. Richard who
leads the National League in strike
outs and uh, wild pitches. Houston
also has two pitchers in the top ten:
red-hot knuckler Joe Niekro (11-3,
2.89 ERA) who has the most wins of
any National League pitcher and
Joaquin Andujar (8-4, 2.80 ERA)
who has been both a reliever and
starter this year.
In fact, although the Astros have
led the West most of the season,
only one of their players is even
mentioned in the All-Star voting.
Third baseman, Enos Cabell is
eighth among the vote-getters at
that position.
So how are the Astros winning
without so-called superstars? The
secret is, the Astros are leading the
league in statistics that aren’t put in
the newspaper and the ones, if they
keep leading them, that will put
them in the playoffs.
The sneaky Astros lead the league
in stolen bases as a team, sacrifices,
lowest earned run average, com
plete games pitched and shutouts.
Shortstop Craig Reynolds leads in
sacrifice bunts, relief pitcher Joe
Sambito hasn’t allowed an earned
run in 30% innings while recording
seven saves and pinch-hitting stud
Dennis Walling is nine of 17 pinch-
hitting, including six in the past
seven trips to the plate. <
What it all adds up to is that the
Astros are getting great pitching.
Astros win again,
ers top Angels
>aid crew
were
ed aboard
,nd Annamij
ivitaved
i. Other (j
^sh in 8 1 H United Press International
I HOUSTON — Dennis Walling
MPftrmed a three-run homer and
^ ^ 'nch-hitter Jesus Alou hit a two-
. idouble Tuesday night to high-
'StS ’^i a fi ve ‘ run eighth inning that
Hd the Houston Astros to a 6-5
ttory over the Cincinnati Reds.
L / (.VCesar Cedeno started the upris-
Ihvith a one-out single off starter
s internatoiil Moskau. Jose Cruz walked and
LY — Tlfpj Cabell struck out but Walling
m’s higtiesPnied a 2-1 pitch into the right-
narriagi Nter field seats to chase Moskau.
e of themlH 5 falling’s third homer of the
rrs was l)isH n -
iments i|With Doug Bair, 4-3, pitching,
e Rota reiP Ashby singled, Rafael Landes-
:s in 66 f walked and Alou, hitting for
nneinw " c hcr Bert Roberge, hit a line
jsed the f ve °ff left-field wall,
itism, feftil^ eur g e Foster blasted his 13th
y Hl4th homers of this month to
H in two runs. He hit a three-
ts showed I® ^ omer on t ^ le fi rs t pitch to him
p Joe Niekro in the first inning,
jithr fifth, he hit his 19th of the
upared iol^i gi vin g him 63 runs batted in
| season.
While the Astros were busy beat-
)he Reds, the Texas Rangers
sed
on annul
fhe 207 a*
inq Fo
Tax.
7:00 PI
SDAY
SPECIAL
led Steal
Gravy
:atoes and
ine other
able
ad and Bi'
ir Tea
J
eased by the California Angels who
lead the American League Western
Division.
A two-out, eighth-inning home
run by Bill Sample snapped a tie
Tuesday night and gave the Texas
Rangers a 2-1 victory over the
Angels.
The victory moved the Rangers
within one game of the Angels.
The Angels tied the game 1-1 in
the third inning on Jim Anderson’s
first homer of the season, but Sam
ple broke the deadlock with his sec
ond homer of the year, a line drive
over the left-field fence.
Matlack, 5-4, fanned six men in
the first three innings and finished
with nine strikeouts, equalling his
most ever as a Ranger. The stylish
southpaw allowed only seven hits
but was replaced by relief ace Jim
Kern when Bobby Grich lashed a
two-out double in the ninth. Kern
retired Joe Rudi on a groundout in
recording his 12th save.
Texas took a 1-0 lead off hard-luck
loser Don Aase, 6-6, in the second
inning on Pat Putnam’s double, a
single by Sample and a sacrifice fly
by John Grubb.
SPECIAL
EVENII
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Sauce
Dressing
■ad - Bui*
r Tea
ravy
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ASLEEP AT
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Advance tickets are available at all three
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Only 15-minutes from Bryan-College Station.
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FM 60 & FM 3058).
viewpoint
By SEAN PETTY
Battalion Sports Editor
speed on the basepaths and solid de
fense. Now let’s see, aren’t those all
the ingredients of a championship
team? Isn’t that how the New York
Mets won the world championship
in 1969?
Yes, writers have compared the
1979 Astros with the 69 Amazin’
Mets and yes they have compared
them with the no-name Miami Dol
phin football teams that won the
1973 and ’74 Super Bowls.
It’s true you probably don’t go
around talking about Puhl,
Reynolds, Ashby, Howe, Leonard,
Cruz, Cabell, Walling, Niemann,
Williams, etc. But it’s time those
names — put together known as the
Astros — get the respect they have
fought for since opening day. Since
that opening day, they have led the
West for 56 days. There is an eight-
game gap between the Astros and
the third place San Francisco Giants
and even more unbelievable, last
year’s division champion Los
Angeles Dodgers can barely see
Houston’s tail lights a distant 12
games back.
Some say the Western Division
isn’t that strong this year and that
the teams are rebuilding. Bunk.
How can the Reds be rebuilding
with names like Concepcion,
Morgan, Seaver, Geronimo, Foster,
Bench, Griffey and Driessen? How
can the Dodgers be rebuilding with
players like Garvey, Gey, Baker,
Lopes, Russell, Hooton, and Smith?
Those are some rebuilding teams.
But the ultimate blow to the As
tros’ respectability came on national
television Monday night during
their televised game with the Reds.
And as could be expected, the lack
of respect came from none other
than the maligning mouth of ABC’s
Monday Night Baseball, Howard
Cosell. Cosell had a tough time
even pronouncing Astros. “Those
Astos,” Cosell said at one point then
laughed at his error.
To give you an idea of what the
Astros must overcome, here is how
the night with Howard, Keith
Jackson and Don Drysdale went:
—The game started with Cincin
nati catcher Johnny Bench talking
about what the Reds must do to win
the division. Nothing about the first
place Astros.
—Then Howard started giving his
spiel on the Astrodome instead of
the men who call it their home field.
He talked about how Roger Maris
and Rusty Staub stood at home plate
at the first Major League game
there, trying to hit the Dome ceiling
with a baseball hit with a fungo bat.
Oh great. Who cares?
—The game was filled with mini
interviews with the Reds and one
with Houston manager, Bill Virdon.
And the evening got worse. There
was no mention of the Astros’ 5%-
game lead. Cosell even said, “If
Cincinnati wins this series, we must
have our doubts about these Hous
ton Astros.”
Well, Howard, the Reds did not
win the series. That’s right, the As
tros took two of three and won both
games the way they’ve done it all
year — late in the game and after
Reds pitchers had stifled them all
night. Now what do you say How
ard? Maybe we should have our
doubts about the Reds or further in
crease our doubts about Cosell.
Of course Howard had excuses for
the Reds being almost six games out
going into the series with Houston.
He noted the injuries that plagued
many of the Reds players all year
but that most were still bravely play
ing despite injury.
Mr. Cosell did not say a word
about Houston’s injuries. He didn’t
mention that pitcher Ken Forsch
who pitched a no-hitter the second
game of the season had been out.
He didn’t mention that Cabell,
Howe, Puhl and pitcher Tom Dixon
had been hurt. He didn’t say how
the young players had to come on
and do the job in pressure situations
night after night.
What did Howard talk about all
night? The New York Yankees, Billy
Martin and Reggie Jackson. That’s
right, you would have thought the
Yankees were playing instead of
Houston and Cincinnati. Besides,
the Yankees lost their game to To
ronto, the last place team in the
American League East.
Maybe the Astros won’t win the
pennant and maybe they won’t win
anymore games this season. But
even if that’s so, they still deserve
the respect and admiration of every
team in baseball for their present
and past accomplishments this sea
son.
Which reminds me, at one point
in the televised game, the camera
focused on a sign that read, "Hous
ton Loves You Howard.”
Keith Jackson asked Cosell, “Do
you think it’s true?’’
T doubt it,” Cosell said.
“You’re right,’ I said. And I
doubt that anyone will catch the As
tros this season.
drive
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CALL TODAY 822-2225
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offer end July 31, 1979
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