Thursday, July 23, 1987/The Battalion/Page 5
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ose may activate himself
: or lefty pinch-hitting duties
pg
3Si
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cincin-
ati Reds Manager Pete Rose is tak-
battin^ practice again, and. says
e will activate himself as a player if
e thinks he can help the Reds by
laying.
But the 46-year-old Rose, who
olds baseball’s career record for
its with 4,256, says he wouldn’t re-
ume as a player simply to add to his
ecord.
“Let’s be honest,” Rose said. “Our
[left-handed pinch-hitters haven’t ex
actly been setting the world on fire
and it’s not for a lack of opportu
nity.”
General Manager Bill Bergesch
Isays the decision is up to Rose, who
Isays he could be ready in as little as
Itwo weeks. But no date has been set
|for his return.
"I don’t know if Pete can do it,”
Bergesch said. “But I do know that if
thinks he can’t, he wouldn’t try. I
do know' that Pete won’t embarrass
himself or make a fool of himself in
any way.”
Before Wednesday’s games, the
Reds led the National League’s West
Division by four games over the San
Francisco Giants.
“This team is going to be in the
playoffs — I know that — and I have
one of the best playoff records in
baseball,” Rose said.
Rose has a .381 batting average in
seven National League
Championship Series. He must be
activated by Aug. 31 to be eligible
for the playoffs.
“I would never think about acti
vating myself in September,” Rose
said. “It doesn’t matter to me if I get
one or two or three more hits. It
doesn’t matter to me if my last at-bat
is a hit.”
Rose started taking batting prac
tice this week during the Reds’ series
in Philadelphia. Before Monday, he
hadn’t swung a bat since spring
training.
He hasn’t played since he struck
out last Aug. 17 in a pinch-hitting
appearance against San Diego re
liever Rich Gossage. Rose, who in
1985 broke Ty Cobb’s old record of
4,191 hits, had 52 hits in 1986 while
hitting .219.
Reds’ pinch-hitters are 26-for-140
this season, for a .186 average. The
left-handers — Paul O’Neill, Terry
Francona and Kurt Stillwell — are
hitting .181.
Bergesch said Rose’s presence in
the lineup could help the team play
more consistently. The Reds were
64-46 in games Rose played in 1985.
“Certainly time runs out on those
things, but who knows what effect
this might have on our team? I’m of
the opinion that it could give our
team one hell of a shot in the arm,”
Bergesch said.
Kingman: inking with majors
\not ‘life or death’ situation
irons FREi
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Dave
Kingman, trying to prepare for a
major league comeback with a brief
stint in the Pacific Coast League, says
he doesn’t care if he fails to land an
other shot at the big time.
The moody slugger, who has 442
major league home runs, winds up
his cameo minor league appearance
this weekend with the San Francisco
Giants’ Class AAA affiliate, the
Phoenix Firebirds.
“It’s not life or death if no one
signs me,” the 38-year-old Kingman
said Tuesday night after going hit
less in four at-bats against Portland.
“There are a number of things I’ve
been able to do in the summertime
for the first time since high school,
like fishing and traveling.”
Kingman says he’s enjoying his
chance to “swing the bat for a couple
of weeks and play baseball.”
“The Giants were nice enough to
let me work out and get into shape,”
he said of his contract with Phoenix,
which allows him to sign with a team
other than the Giants. He says if no
one calls, his last game will be this
weekend against Tacoma.
Going into Wednesday’s game
with the Portland Beavers, he’s hit
ting .242 with two home runs, eight
runs batted in and seven strikeouts
in 10 games.
The 6-foot-6, 210-pound King-
man says he still would like to
achieve a couple of goals — playing
on a pennant winner and a chance
hit 500 home runs.
“The way I’ve been going the last
three years, I don’t see why I can’t
attain that number,” he said.
Tuesday night, he grounded out
twice, loping with apparent disinter
est to first base. Next came a long tly
ball to the deepest part of the ball
park that brought a gasp from the
crowd of 1,852. Finally, there were
three looping swings that resulted in
an eighth-inning strikeout.
With each at-bat, Kingman strode
disdainfully to the plate, oblivious to
derisive calls from the crowd. And
with each out, he returned placidly
to the dugout.
“I’ve got real peace now,” King-
man said. “I still have the same de
sire. I put in the same effort I always
have. It’s all part of the game. Every
body changes. I’ve mellowed out a
lot. We all mellow out.”
In addition to the 442 home runs,
Kingman has 1,210 RBI and a .236
lifetime batting average in a 16-year
major-league career with seven dif
ferent teams.
Scott tosses
4-hitter os
Astros win 7-0
MONTREAL (AP) — Mike
Scott pitched a four-hitter, struck
out 10 and drove in a run as the
Houston Astros defeated the
Montreal Expos, 7-0, Wednesday
night.
Scott, 11-6, increased his major
league-leading strikeout total to
165. The Astros right-hander
walked three batters en route to
his third shutout and fifth com
plete game.
On May 8 at Montreal, Scott
beat the Expos with a two-hitter.
Billy Hatcher, just off the dis
abled list, led off the game against
Bob Sebra, 6-10, with a single and
stole second. Hatcher took third
on a wild pitch and scored on
Gerald Young’s groundout.
With one out in the fourth,
Alan Ashby walked and moved to
second one out later on a wild
pitch. Rookie Ken Caminiti made
it 2-0 with a single, scoring Ashby.
Ashby’s ninth homer, to open
the sixth, gave Houston a 3-0
lead, and after two outs in the in
ning, Craig Reynolds doubled
and scored on Scott’s single to
left.
The Astros made it 5-0 in the
eighth when Jose Cruz hit a one-
out triple off reliever Tim Burke
and scored when first baseman
Andres Galarraga bobbled a
grounder by Caminiti.
Bill Doran hit a two-run homer
in the ninth for the Astros’ final
runs.
The Astros closed within 3‘/a
games of first-place Cincinnati as
the Reds lost 5-3 against the Phil
lies in Philadelphia.
Houston also took sole posses
sion of second place from the San
Francisco Giants, who were shut
out by Rick Reuschel and the
Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Astros’ travel to Shea Sta
dium Friday to take on the de
fending World Champion New
York Mets.
Thomas to write hook
on Cowboys 3 history
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP)
— For the first time since his ill-fated
attempt to return to the Dallas Cow
boys in 1976, the once-silent Duane
Thomas is back with the team — this
time as a member of the press.
Coach Tom Landry and owner
Tex Schramm have forgiven the
mercurial running back for the grief
he gave them in the early 1970s,
when he called Schramm “sick, de
mented and totally dishonest,” and
said Landry was “a plastic man, not a
man at all.”
Thomas — a key member of the
1970 team that lost Super Bowl V to
Baltimore and the one that came
back the next year to defeat Miami,
24-3, in Super Bowl VI —joked with
Schramm and ate lunch with Landry
at the Cowboys training camp this
week as he worked on a book about
the franchise.
“This will not be a fictional for
mat,” Thomas said. “It will not be a
book that is slinging mud around or
pointing fingers. It will be one that is
uplifting and one that is informative.
But it will be the truth.”
Thomas said he would be at every
Dallas game this season to gather in
formation for his book, which will
cover the path he and the Cowboys
have taken since they were together
in the early ’70s. He is collaborating
with Paul Zimmerman of Sports Il
lustrated and said he has received a
six-figure advance from the pub
lisher.
“I’ll tell you,” Landry said, “I may
have a place in that book. You never
know. It could be a plastic chapter.”
Thomas, the Cowboys No. 1 pick
out of West Texas State in 1970, was
a sensational rookie his first year
with the team and rushed 1,596
yards in his first two seasons.
In 1971, he skipped the preseason
in a contract dispute and didn’t re
port until just before the season
opener. For an entire season, he re
fused to talk to the press and only on
the rarest occasions to teammates.
Only after Dallas had won its first
Super Bowl did Thomas finally talk,
and his conversation with CBS’
Thomas Brookshire is now part of
broadcast history.
Brookshire stammered through a
long-winded question that finally
ended up something like: “Duane,
you don’t look that last the way you
run, but then you’re able to outrun
the defensive players. Are you really
that fast?”
Thomas’ reply: “Evidently.”
End of interview.
Thomas’ time in the fast lane had
just about run out. After Superbowl
VI he would never again carry the
ball for the Cowboys, and his time
with San Diego and Washington was
not memorable.
He made his disparaging com
ments about Landry and Schramm
at a Dallas news conference in 1972
after a contract hassle led to his be
ing traded first to New England,
then, after that fell through, to San
Diego.
He bounced around for a while,
winding up in Washington, where
he scored a touchdown against the
Cowboys. He tried to make a
comeback with the Cowboys in 1976,
failed and retired.
“I’ll be honest. I think those things
will always lay in the back of my
mind,” Thomas said. “But knowing
that those things are over and that
you have to keep moving forward,
those things are buried. They no
longer exist.”
Schramm and Landry say they’ve
forgiven Thomas.
“We get along very well,” Landry
said.
“I’ve had a very nice relationship
with him since then,” Schramm said.
“To me, it was nice seeing him and
very comfortable and everything,
talking to him.
“The Duane Thomas story is a sad
one. It’s nothing you get mad about.
I might have had a lew temper tiffs
at the time, but it was never really a
bitter type of situation. There was
just something wrong,” Schramm
said.
“To me, he was a sick person. I
don’t know if he realizes that, even
to this day, but he was a sick person
for a couple of years there. But now
he seems to be very balanced. He’s
trying to work and make a go of
things.”
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