Tuesday, July 7, 1987/The Battalion/Page 5 Sports Yankees’ accountant says team not racist V to 1 -butter | identic >lay tey still future.: ; a ne» practi- ial cus-; )OUt to met, a I y and I I leaten f lafe" is | d. Ja> 1 re-meo i Wall' sopho-i r from I ay Ka P s major met. | lay and | tre Sill on-stu- nd Sat 513 for on-stu-, 'OX Of ' Dinner ore (It- Is d is a w mie. afftliai •yinett ve tire :ral ay ol ^ rakes ii uiid^ 1 :nds, es sinii it ion J dexico yue in* "Chai NEW YORK (AP) — The New lYork Yankees’ chief accountant says [he wasn’t offended when team [owner George Steinbrenner called [him a “young black boy” on national Itelevision. Warren Atkinson, 30, said he [hasn’t experienced any racism from [Yankees management since he be- [gan working for the team in 1984. “I wouldn’t say I have been [treated differently,” Atkinson told [the New York Post. “I have no gripes [over race. I don’t think the Yankees [are really race oriented.” On “Face the Nation” Sunday, Steinbrenner defended his minority hiring policies by saying that “the head accountant that I have in my fi nance department happens to be a young black boy.” Steinbrenner later defended his use of the word “boy,” considered offensive by many blacks. “I have been using the term ‘boys and girls’ since my parents taught me what it meant on restroom doors in my grammar school,” he said. “I’ve always referred to my team as the ‘varsity’ and to my players and the younger members of the front office as my ‘boys and girls’ — and I ain’t about to change for nobody.” Atkinson said Steinbrenner fre quently adopted a fatherly tone and often called younger men “son.” He also said the Yankees “seem to be making some effort to include mi norities, including myself, in man agement decisions.” Appearing with Steinbrenner on “Face the Nation,” former San Fran cisco and Cleveland manager Frank Robinson said there are former black players “just dying” to get front-office jobs in baseball. “If you can give me the names of three young men ... give them to me now and I’ll be in touch with them Monday morning,” Steinbrenner re plied. Robinson mentioned the names of former major league play ers Ray Burris and Don Buford. Burris, 36, was hired by the Mil waukee Brewers last April as a spe cial assistant to General Manager Harry Dalton. He is also attemping a comeback as a pitcher with the Class A Stockton (Calif.) Ports. Buford, 50, is an assistant baseball coach at the University of Southern California. Cash not the typical Wimbledon champ WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Pat Cash, a product of the lib erated 1980s, aoesn’t want to be compared with the Australians who built a tennis dynasty in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s. “I don’t think Harry Hopman would wear a diamond in his ear,” Cash, who does, said Mon day in a reference to the late Aus tralian coach, a tough taskmaster who developed most of his coun try’s players 20 and 30 years ago. “Tennis has become a bit more professional world. It’s a com pletely different lifestyle now. It’s a full-time job,” Cash said. On Sunday, Cash became the first Australian man to win Wimbledon since John New- combe captured the title in 1971. Newcombe was the last in a long string of champions from Down Under although Ken Rosewall was the last to make the Wimble don finals, losing- to American Jimmy Connors in 1974. Although Cash said he had no heroes when he began playing tennis, the names of Newcombe, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Neale Fraser, Lew Hoad, Norman Brooks and Ashley Cooper, among others, gave him a thrill at Sunday night’s champions din ner. Still, he said, things are differ ent these days. “I’m in a different era than those guys,” Cash said Monday, a day after his 7-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Czechoslovakia’s Ivan Lendl. “The way I play and the way I live is different/’ Of his victory at Wimbledon- ,Cash said: “It really hasn’t sunk in prop erly yet. It started to sink in last night when I was sitting at the ta ble with the trophy right in front of me. I was very, very proud of my name being on there with those great champions.” Cash said he had received hun dreds of letters and telegrams from Australia, including one from Prime Minister Bob Hawke. “He said, ‘You did yourself and your country proud,”’ Cash said. “He’s a big sports fan and I’ve seen him at Davis Cup many times.” Blue Jays top Rangers with six-hitter TORONTO (AP) — George Bell and Ernie Whitt hit consec utive homers in the fifth inning and Jimmy Key pitched a six-hit ter for seven innings as the To ronto Blue Jays snapped an eight- game losing streak Monday night, defeating the Texas Rangers 6-4. Key, 9-5, retired 12 straight Rangers following Pete Incavig- lia’s solo homer, his 17th, gave Texas a 1-0 lead in the second in ning. Bob Brower broke the string with a check-swing single in the sixth. Toronto scored four times off Charlie Hough, 9-4, in the second inning. Fred McGriff, Garth lorg and Tony Fernandez had RBI singles and Kelly Gruber had a sacrifice fly in the inning for To ronto, which was helped by two passed balls charged to Texas catcher Mike Stanley. The Blue Jays pulled ahead 6-1 in the third when Bell and Whitt connected for homers. It was the 28th for Bell and the sixth for Whitt. Texas chased Key with three runs in the eighth after he took a three-hitter into the inning. Incaviglia doubled, Stanley walked and Don Slaught doubled in the first run. When Steve Bue- chele singled home Stanley to make it 6-3, Tom Henke replaced Key and got the last six batters for his 14th save, although Gino Pe- tralli made it 6-4 with a sacrifice fly. Hough, 39, failed in his at tempt to become the Rangers’ all- time leader in victories with 94. He is tied at 93 with Ferguson Jenkins. Thon says future with Houston uncertain HOUSTON (AP) — Houston As tros shortstop Dickie Thon, plagued by vision problems since a 1984 beaning, said Monday he is not re ady to retire but he doubts he will ever play for the Astros again. Thon, who left the team Friday and returned to Houston because of his eye problems, said he plans to continue therapy and hopes for some improvement. “I feel sad because I wish I could have done more for the team,” Thon said at a news conference at the As trodome. “I feel a lot for this team. I feel I’ll always be one of them.” Although he said he doesn’t know what is going to happen to his base ball career, he added, “I don’t want to say I’m going to retire.” Thon said continuing to play baseball with the vision problems posed a threat to him and he was afraid he would get hurt again. In April 1984, Thon was hit by a pitch in the left eye. He has since suffered vision problems and has left the team several times, including during spring training earlier this year. Thon, whose contract expires at the end of the season, has been placed on the disqualified list and the Astros have recalled Bert Pena from Tucson to take his place. The 29-year-old Thon said he - talked to General Manager Dick Wagner on Monday about his deci sion to leave the team, but team spokesman Chuck Pool said he did not have a statement from Wagner about the meeting. When asked if he thought he would return to the Astros, Thon re plied, “I don’t think so. The way (Wagner) has been dealing with my situation, I won’t be around here anymore.” Thon said he plans to stay in Houston for awhile where he will talk to his family about his future. “It’s difficult to walk away from a game I’d do anything to play,” Thon said. “I’d do anything to play again.” Thon said he knows he has the ability and could play major league baseball again if his vision improved. The vision problems have made playing baseball scary because he could not see the ball like he once did, Thon said. “I don’t know how I did it,” he said. In 32 games, Thon was hitting .212 with one homer and three RBI. Gibson says increase in homers related to rule changes in 1969 NEW YORK (AP) — The theories for the increase in home runs this season have ranged from the lively ball to changes in the cosmos. Bob Gibson has a much simpler explana tion. Gibson says too much has been done in the past 20 years to help the hitter. Gibson, a Hall of Earner who won 251 games in a 17-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals, was a com petitor to whom every batter was an enemy. An intense figure on the mound, he mowed down batters as a marksman might clay pigeons. His career reached its zenith in 1968 with a season that may never be matched. It included a 1.12 earned run av erage, the best since the introduction of the lively ball in 1920. Of his 22 victories that season, 13 were shut outs. He struck out 268 batters and completed 28 of 34 starts. But there were great pitchers just about everywhere that season. . . . Juan Marichal, Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Maloney, Don Drysdale, Tom i Seaver, Denny McLain, Dave Mc Nally, Lius Tiant, Mel Stottlemyre, Catfish Hunter, and Mickey Lolich to name a few. In 1968, five of the National League’s 10 teams hit less than .240 and the Chicago Cubs led the league with 130 home runs. The league to tal was 891 in 1968, an average of 1.02 homers per game. The overall major league batting average was just .237. This year, in 480 NL games through Sunday more than 900 homers had been hit and the aver age was up to 1.95 per game. Cincin nati, San Francisco, the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets have al ready hit at least 100 homers. The changes began the next sea son. “In 1969 they took five inches off the mound. It went from 15 inches to 10 inches and everybody blames it on me,” Gibson said. There was also a change in the strike zone. Instead of a strike being from the batter’s knees to the top of the shoulders, it was changed to top of the knees to the armpits. That led to higher averages, .248 overall in 1969 and .253 in 1970. In 1968, four of the 10 teams in the NL hit 100 or more homers. The next season with the changes and ex pansion to 12 teams, nine clubs reached 100 or more homers, led by Cincinnati’s 171. Contact Lenses Only Quality Name Brands (Bausch & Lomb, Ciba, Barnes-Hinds-Hydrocurve) *$79 00 ’ STD ‘ DA|LYWEARSOFTLENSES $99. 00 -STD. EXTENDED WEAR SOFT LENSES *