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Friday, August 14, 1987/The Battalion/Page 5
Sports
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iants turn back Astros in 11 Steinbrenner says he has regrets
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Robby
hompson doubled with one out in
le bottom of the 11th inning and
ored on a two-out throwing error
' Houston shortstop Buddy Bian-
lana, giving the San Francisco Gi-
dnts a 7-6 victory over the Astros
hursday.
Biancalana fielded a grounder off
e bat of Kevin Mitchell, who was
^warded an infield single, and threw
the ball into the dirt, past First base,
and Thompson scored the winning
run easily. The error made a winner
of Giants reliever Craig Lefferts, 3-
4, and a loser of Rocky Childress, 0-
1.
The victory was the seventh in
eight games for the Giants, who re
amed tied with the Cincinnati
eds for the National League West
ad.
Astros pinch-hitter Davey Lopes
tied the score at 6-6 in the top of the
inth with a one-out RBI single. He
as the First batter to face Lefferts,
who relieved Scott Garrelts after
arrelts struck out a batter and then
alked Jose Cruz and Glenn Davis.
Kevin Mitchell hit a three-run
homer off reliever Larry Andersen
with two out in the seventh inning to
give the Giants a 6-5 lead.
Mitchell’s 15th homer of the sea
son came after Houston infielders
made two misplays in the seventh.
Mitchell was the first batter to face
Andersen, who was attempting to
save a victory for Nolan Ryan.
Ryan, who has not won since June
12, pitched four-hit ball and struck
out 10 over 6Vs innings. He left after
walking leadoff hitter Chris Speier
and striking out pinch-hitter Flarry
Spilman in the seventh.
Juan Agosto relieved to face
pinch-hitter Chili Davis, who hit a
sharp grounder to shortstop. Speier
was forced at second, but second
baseman Bill Doran threw the ball
into the dirt trying for a double play.
Joel Youngblood, the third con
secutive pinch hitter, reached base
when shortstop Craig Reynolds
booted his grounder.
Reynolds, Billy Hatcher and
Glenn Davis hit home runs off Gi
ants’ starter Mike Krukow. Hatcher’s
ninth homer, a two-run drive in the
sixth, gave Houston a 4-3 lead.
Ryan struck out 10 or more bat
ters for the 171st time in his career
and raised his season strikeout total
to 181 in 142% innings, tying team
mate Mike Scott for the National
League strikeout lead. Baseball’s all-
time strikeout leader, with a total of
4,458, did not allow a hit after the
second inning, when the Giants
scored three times to take a 3-0 lead.
Hatcher doubled in the fourth
and scored Houston’s first run when 1
Doran singled. Reynolds’ fourth
homer of the year, all of which have
come at Candlestick Park, made the
score 3-2 in the fifth. Hatcher hit the
go-ahead homer in the sixth after
Gerald Young’s leadoff single, and
Davis opened the seventh with his
19th homer.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York
Yankees owner George Steinbren
ner, while saying he has not made up
his mind on a managerial change,
feels he may have made a mistake by
hiring Lou Piniella for the job last
year.
“I’ve done everything for this guy.
I gave him a chance to manage the
New York Yankees without going to
the minors. In retrospect, maybe
that was a mistake,” said Steinbren
ner.
The Yankees owner began pub
licly criticizing his manager last
week, starting a familiar countdown
in New York, where Steinbrenner
has made 12 managerial changes in
10 years.
The Yankees, who led the Ameri
can League East by five games on
July 5, have lost six of their last seven
games and have dropped to third
place.
“We will not allow our team to get
blown out of this race,” Steinbrenner
was quoted as saying Thursday in
the Tampa Tribune.
The deteriorating relationship be
tween the owner and Piniella was
put in the spotlight last Saturday
when Steinbrenner issued a
statement during a nationally tele
vised game in Detroit. Part of his
complaint was that Piniella was not
in his hotel room to receive a pre-ar
ranged phone call from him.
Steinbrenner said the two had
problems before then.
“That was not the first time he
missed (a telephone call) from me,”
he said.
Piniella said earlier this week the
criticism had “taken a piece of my
heart away” — but the owner made
it clear he has little sympathy for his
manager.
“Lou Piniella has no reason to be
hurt — I do,” Steinbrenner told the
Tribune. “I’ve made every player
move, every shift he’s asked for since
Day One of this season, and this is
what happens. If anyone should feel
hurt, it should be me — not Lou.
Steinbrenner said that no man
agerial change is imminent, al
though he added: “In most compa
nies you can’t do what he’s done to
the boss and get away with it. But I
don’t know what I’m going to do.
I’m still wrestling with it.”
Piniella’s first year as manager
ended the Yankees at 90-72 and in
second place in the AL East, five
games behind Boston. He signed a
two-year contract extension last Oc
tober for $250,000 a year.
Steinbrennner says the first time
he could not contact Piniella when
he wanted him was on July 23, when
Steinbrenner said he made a prear
ranged telephone call to him while
the Yankees were in Chicago. But
the conversation never came off.
“Lou was at Arlington Park (a
Chicago horse track),” Steinbrenner
said. “We had the day off and, sure,
that’s his privilege to go to the races
if he wants to. But we were in a
slump and we had some things we
needed to talk about. I was con
cerned about fixing my ball club and
he was at the horse races.”
Last week, they had dis
agreements over personnel moves,
though the owner said he would go
along with the manager’s decisions.
Yankee players expressed support
for Piniella, but the owner noted:
“Poor little Lou; all the players are
sticking up for him. But if they’re so
supportive, why are they losing the
way they are? They’re not just get
ting beat, they’re getting blown out.”
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Pozderac ‘holds’ on with Cowboys
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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.
(AP) — Phil Pozderac was the
NFL’s most famous lineman in
1986 for all the wrong reasons.
“Holding No. 75” became an
official’s call that made Dallas
Cowboys’ fans cringe.
Pozderac, who played the crit
ical left tackle position in the
Cowboys’ offensive line, says,
“The holding calls I got in the
New York Giants’ game put us in
a slide for the rest of the year.
That was the turning point of the
season.”
With Dallas trailing the Giants
17-14 in the ninth game of the
season, Tony Dorsett took a
screen pass to the New York six-
yard line. It was called back by a
holding penalty on Pozderac.
On the next play, the officials
called, “holding, No. 75.”
The drive was over and, for all
purposes, the season was gone.
The Cowboys finished the second
half of the season 1-7 and were 7-
9 overall.
“I felt worse than anyone,”
Pozderac said. “And nobody let
me forget. I was the joke of
morning disc jockeys the rest of
the year. It was really a tough
time for me.”
Pozderac, who had to live with
the shame in the off-season, has
renewed hope and confidence
under new offensive line coach
Jim Erkenbeck.
“I can’t wait to redeem myself,”
said Pozderac, who has been
switched to right tackle and will
start Saturday night’s preseason
game against the San Diego
Chargers.
“Erkenbeck has been pretty
tough on us but I like it,” Pozde
rac said. “We have a new style
now — we attack the defense in
stead of it being the other way
around. We just don’t sit back
and wait on the defense.
“I’m in favor of it. I like it
tough.”
Asked if he thought it would
help if he changes numbers so the
officials couldn’t find him, Pozde
rac laughed.
“Well, I’d sure like to be harder
to find out there,” he said. “That
number certainly has some noto
riety. I want to keep the number,
though, and have a season where
an official never calls it. ”
Pozderac said he thought he
might be “marked” by the offi
cials.
“Officials talk to each other
and I’m sure my number got
around,” he said. “I did have
some technique problems last
year. I was doing some wrong
things in the way I blocked. It’s
going to be different this year.”
Erkenbeck said he believes
Pozderac will bounce back strong
and have a good year.
“I admire him for not giving
up when everybody and his
brother were taking shots at
him,” Erkenbeck said.
Pozderac was a fifth-round
draft pick out of Notre Dame in
1982.
Landry says Dorsett
to start in preseason
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.
(AP) — Dallas Coach Tom
Landry, in a change of mind, said
Thursday that he would start
Tony Dorsett at running back in
Saturday night’s NFL preseason
game against the San Diego
Chargers.
Landry had said earlier in the
week that Robert Lavette would
likely start.
Dorsett will start “just to get
him a feel” of game action,
Landry said.
“Dorsett will play a series or
two,” Landry said. “We’ve got to
work him in there sooner or
later.” Landry said Lavette will
play most of the game.
Timmy Newsome will start at
fullback in place of the injured
Herschel Walker.
Landry also announced that
defensive tackle Don Smerek has
such a bad hamstring pull “he
may be out several weeks before
he’s ready to do anything. He
really tore a hamstring up, high.”
He said Danny White will start
at quarterback and play at least a
quarter.
White, who missed the last
seven games of 1986 with a frac
tured wrist, has been watched clo
sely in training camp.
Little-used Walk makes presence known
in shutout of pennant-chasing Cardinals
U.S. loses Ethridge to knee injury
I PITTSBURGH (AP) — The St.
Louis Cardinals were playing for the
pennant. The way Bob Walk saw it,
he was pitching for something even
more important: his job.
Walk, a self-described journey-
lan right-hander who has pitched
J|ttle for the Pittsburgh Pirates’
youthful staff, did something
Wednesday night that no other Na
tional League pitcher has done in
113 games this season.
I He shut out the Cardinals, whose
69-44 record entering Thursday
night’s game at Philadelphia was the
best in the major leagues. The Car-
dinals became the last big-league
team to be blanked this season as
Pittsburgh beat them 11-0.
Thanks to their most productive
inning of the season, an eight-run
fourth, the Pirates won in a Walk.
“I didn’t know they hadn’t been
shut out,” said Walk, 30, whose shut
out was only the fourth of his eight-
year career. “Of course, it helps
when you don’t have to pitch to Jack
Clark. Any shutout against them is
tainted when he’s not playing.”
Clark, who has 30 homers and 94
runs batted in, sat out his second
game in a row with arm and shoul
der problems that date back to his
July 29 collision with Mookie Wilson
of the New York Mets.
Walk’s start was only his second
since he moved into the Pirates’ rota
tion last week. He pitched a four-hit
ter, allowing only two hits over the
first eight innings, and was helped
by four Pirates’ double plays over
the final five innings.
“Walk pitched us tough,” said
Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog.
Walk knows that any start for the
Pirates could be the last, since seve
ral contending teams have expressed
interest in All-Star pitcher Rick
Reuschel and Walk, who pitched in
the 1980 World Series for the Phila
delphia Phillies.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kamie
Ethridge of Texas, the starting point
guard for the U.S. women’s basket
ball team at the Pan American
Games, will miss the rest of the com
petition because of a knee injury that
is more severe than first thought, a
U.S. Olympic Committee spokeswo
man said Thursday.
Ethridge, one of the four mem
bers of U.S. Coach Jody Conradt’s
undefeated 1986 national
championship team on the U.S. ros
ter, suffered the injury early
Wednesday night in the United
States’ 110-41 victory over Peru as it
opened defense of the gold medal.
The injury to Ethridge’s right
knee was originally diagnosed as a
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mild ligament sprain, but USOC
spokesperson Chris Plonsky said
Ethridge was examined Thursday by
three doctors and “the injury is more
serious than first indicated.
“There is some ligament damage
they are not sure of the extent,”
Plonsky said. “Surgery is a possibility
and she definitely will not play in the
Pan Am Games.”
Plonsky said Ethridge would re
main in Indianapolis Thursday
night and then decide whether to re
main with the team or return home
to Lubbock.
Conradt had said earlier Thurs
day that there was swelling over
night and “in my opninion, I don’t
think she’ll play here.”
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Ethridge, who was the starting
point guard on the World Cham
pionships and Goodwill Games gold-
medal winning teams last year, suf
fered the injury when she landed
hard after making a pass.
The loss of Ethridge affects the
team on both ends of the court,
according to Conradt.
“She was more knowledgable
about what I wanted to do offen
sively,” said Conradt, whose team
next plays Saturday against Brazil.
“But the offense isn’t my biggest
concern, the press suffers so much.
“I now have the dilemma of mak
ing wholesale changes or more sub-
de changes.”
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