i C-4 THE SUNDAY ADVERTISER May 28, 1961 51 KILLED IN 500-MILE RACE Auto Racine Called 'Oisase 1 I 1 The year he said those line alley quietly puffing BORSCH By OSCAR FRALEY NEW YORK (UPD-These are the toughest hours at Indianapolis, as they sweat out the last few days of waiting until the man says "Gentlemen, start your engines," and even some of the most carefree must be wondering at times why they do it. They'll tell you in any line of sports about the butterfly wings beating in their bellies as they await the call to action. But this is different than most, this 500-mile automobile race, because death waits around every curve of If They Could Only Get-Together If the pitchers and hitters ever get together, Hawaii should move into the Pacific Coast League's first division. Through their first home stand, the Islanders were hitting a ton and a half. But the pitchers were shelled for his driving career.
"Of course I miss it." A pilot, too, Wilbur in 1935 flew through weather In which even the birds were walking to get from Palm Springs to Los Angeles to celebrate his wed ding anniversary with his wife. He was chlded for his foolhardiness. "When my time comes," said Wilbur, whose 1941 crackup ended his driving career, "I don't think it makes any difference whether I'm flying in the air or home in an easy chair." It did. He was killed in a plane crash in 1954. Wilbur simply couldn't change his philosophy that "it can't happen to me." have been killed by the metal monsters which give Memorial Day its own particular significance at speedway city.
A smiling little veteran named Tony Bettenhausen jumped the total as they got ready for this one. It's a local list which Includes some of racing's greatest names: Bill Vu-kovich, Pat O'Connor the smiling Irishman, Shorty Cantlon, Ralph Hepburn, Chet Miller, Manuel Ayulo and Jerry I'nser. THERE WERE those who knew the weary, grease-stained satisfaction of finishing in the big one only to "catch it" somewhere else where the motors roared a final dirge. two tons and Hawaii embarked on its initial mainland tour one game under .500. Then the pitchers suddenly hit effective stride.
In 173 innings on the mainland they allowed only 57 earned runs for a gaudy .329 ERA. With normal hitting support, the Islanders should have won at least 12 of the 18 games played. Instead, they lost 12. Hitting was at an all time low. The team average stood at an anemic .232 the old brick road that goes nowhere.
It takes a peculiar breed with a particular psychology. A TOTAL OF 51 people Frank Lary Lives Off N.Y. Yankees Borsch n' on'y 43 runs came across less 1 than 2'2 per game. Individual hitting slumps are puzzling at best. When an -entire team hits the skids at the plate, it becomes a mys-Hery.
It was a painful mystery for the Islanders, and quite frustrating for the pitchers. Hawaii's hitters were at their worst against Tacoma. They managed only 26 hits and 6 runs in four games. Their team mark was a microscopic .208. things was the same whenj Vukovich, the mad Russian with the foot of lead, banty-pigeoned around the day before the race showing a letter from his daughter in which she told him to "put your foot through it because I need a dress." A sad thing.
Vuky went all the way through. IT IS, WITH most of them, a disease they can't conquer until the crackup that proves it can happen, too. The cure can be a killer. "You can't beat the excitement," dapper Wilbur Shaw was wont to say after winning ing it three times and then cracking into the wall to end rim tr It i. fa -Xjt ,1 jvi WORLD BEATER, TOO Pitching Is The Reason Pitching is one reason why Tacoma enjoys first division status.
No fewer than four Giants were under .200 in the ERA column Verle Tiefenthaler, Gaylord Perry, Dom Zannl and Lynn Lovenguth. And four others Ron Herbel, Georges Maranda, Dani- i Ti T- i it -ii io ruvas ana xvay uaviauu were aiiow- Ing from .229 to .394 earned runs per 4 Perry, incidentally, represents ton finn hacphall investment hv c. r.nnn;.A. Tut'. Hrkihi at cui oau i iauiiau uuu.
mail wiidl i the young North Carolina right- hander pocketed in signing a bonus pact. It appears as if SF's big investment ill pay off. When the Islanders finally scored against him, it THE F7 it 1 Vj I TO St UP Tf-AT i J2tr, TB TIGER VOVVi- ptcajg, i 7 TV execution I It A All I. 'I 7 Jj Jk cigar. The big man looked indestructible.
He was six feet, one and weighed 211 pounds and he shrugged off a crackup at Fresno in which he suffered a broken arm where a two by six went through his left forearm, internal injuries and required 56 stitches. "Last year I was second," he grunted. "The front spring broke and the shocks fell off after 131 laps. The car felt like an old coal truck. "No," he chuckled, "I don't have any superstitions." They wouldn't, he'd have defended stoutly, prevented his end in one of those cars some time later.
Big Ten Boosts Prices By ED SAINSBURY IOWA CITY (UPI) Foot ball fans will pay as much as 25 per cent more to watch Big Ten games this fall, a United Press international survey disclosed. Nine of the ten conference members have increased tick' et prices over 1960, four of them boosting the cost $1.00, and the other five' going up 50 cents per ticket. The only school which did not raise the price was Mm nesota, retaining the $4.00 fig' ure charged in the past. OHIO STATE, which long has had the highest ticket prices in the league, retained that position, increasing the cost of its 4,000 box seats from $5.00 to $5.50. The Buck eyes also increased the cost of the 66,000 grandstand seats from $4.00 to $4.50.
The four schools which raised the price $1.00 were Iowa, Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue, all going from $4.00 to $5.00. Michigan increased its price from $4.50 to $5.00. Wisconsin, Illinois and Mich' igan State also increased the prices 50 cents, boosting the ticket cost from $4.00 to $4.50. Bargain prices for season tickets will be in effect at Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue with the Hoosiers offering the best deal, under a "family plan." Under this arrangement, Indiana fans will be able to buy two season tickets, presumably for a man and wife, for $18 per ticket for the four games and will receive in addition tickets for two children, thus obtaining four tickets for a total of $36.00. NORTHWESTERN, which has five home games, will sell season tickets at $22.00, a $3 discount from the cost of buying tickets to each game, and Purdue offers season tickets at $18, a $2 discount from the cost of tickets for the four home games.
At every other school season tickets will be priced at the same rate as tickets for individual games. These ticket prices, however, do not indicate what the total dollar gate of an institution will be for a game, since each institution sells thousands of student and faculty season tickets at reduced prices. At Ohio State, for instance, about 30,000 tickets of the stadium capacity of 82,000, go to students and faculty at a price of $12.00 for students and $14.00 for faculty for the sea son. This year Buckeye officials anticipate that as many as 32,500 tickets might go to the faculty-student PRACTICE WITH PAPA Phil Rlzzuto proves he's the same as other fathers by taking his son, Phil, to the bag for bunting practice. The former New York Yankee shortstop and his five-year-old offspring get into the spring swing at their Hillside, N.
home. i Guys like smiling Jimmy iReece, Bob Sweikert who won the giant jackpot, bushy-browed Jack McGrath and burly Jimmy Bryan. Seldom do they pack it in voluntarily unless they survive a bad trip into or over the wall. Fellows like Ralph De Palma, Juan Mauel Fan- gio and De Palma's nephew, Pete De Paolo, made it into retirement but it took a near miss for little Pete to get the message. The reason is, simply, that each of them has an iron-hard conviction that "it can't happen to me." DURING THE week preceding the 1955 race, Bryan sat in his garage along gaso NEW YORK (NEA) Frank Strong Lary can't tell you why he is so effective against the Yankees, but the Tigers' plucky right-hander hopes it keeps up.
A lot of people have thrived with the New York club, but Lary is the first ballplayer to live off the Bombers. He has a 25-8 seven-year record against the Bronx brigade, including the pres ent one and five of them pennant winners. In recent outing, he compounded the injury by swat ting a home run to win his own game in the ninth. The Yankees once more shook their heads in disbelief. LARY INSISTS he pitches no differently against the Yankees than when opposed to any other array.
Then why hasn't the sandy-haired, freckled Alabama farmer and part-time sports radio commentator compiled a higher winning record against the other clubs? "Maybe Frank bears down a bit more unconsciously against the Yankees," said Al Kaline. "He has been successful against the Yanks and perhaps is unaware that he Is more confident against them." Lary 30 now, 5-11, 185 didn't acquire the nickname Bulldog for nothing, however, for he's a sticker from Stickersville. The Yankees left 14 on the bases against him the other night. Thrice they loaded the sacks, once with only one out, without scoring. "A PITCHER FACES situations with the Yankees," explained the personable and articulate Lary, whom Scout Bill Pierre plucked out of the University of Alabama.
"You have to work out of those situations to beat the Yankees, and I have been fortunate to come out of them pretty good." Lary is too smart to reveal any of his tricks, but he told a baseball writer that Moose Skowron, for example, is easy to get out when it Is important in a late inning. "Skowron is so anxious," Frank explained, "that he'll go after a bad pitch." "Frank is pretty fast," explained Dick Brown, the catcher. "He has four pitches fast ball, curve, slider and knuckler and control. He rarely uses the knuckler, making it even more effective." "FRANK WON A place on my all-time team against the Yankees the other night," cut in Kaline, the slugging outfielder off to a fine start with the rest of the Tigers. "How would you like to have a horse with a heart as big as his? Then you'd have Carry Back, Kelso and Don Poggio rolled into one." Kaline is a knowledgeable racing man, having formerly been co-owner of a stable.
"Why hasn't Lary a better all-over record?" asked Kaline. "The answer is that we have been bad against second division clubs. Last season, for example, Frank was not only handicapped by poor support in the field, but we failed to score for him in five starts and scored only one run in eight others." "Frank Lary is just a good pitcher, period," concluded Dick Brown. Baseball Rims Wild With New Ideas string of 25 scoreless innings. Home runs are noisy affairs in Tacoma's almost new Cheney Stadium.
Whenever a Giant player wallops one over the wall, a submarine (living horn is sounded, and practically all of Tacoma can hear it. Cheney Stadium is the newest baseball plant in the PCL. Although it has the smallest capacity 8,009 the concrete-and-steel structure housed the PCL's top attendance last season. A total of 270,024 fans filed through the turnstiles to watch the Giants in their first season of PCL ball since the old days. And several thousand fans also watched for nothing from the high hill behind right field.
On good days and nights, well over 100 people will assemble on the hill-called Tightwad Terrace and Poverty Heights by Tacoma News-Tribune baseball writer Ed Honeywell and hot dog vendors from the stadium will ply their goodies there. Portland Has Young Team Manager Vera Benson guides one of the youngest if not the youngest teams ever assembled for Triple-A ball when the Portland Beavers take to the field. In fact, many of 'em are just college age Jerry Buchek, Phil Gagliano and Clint Stark to name three at random. And the Bevos flaunt a combination humor. Scrawled on the club house blackboard after one game was this bit of wry wit: "If at first you don't succeed, your replacement will try again tomorrow!" Colorful, tempestuous Carlos Bernier, Hawaii's newest addition in the outfield, has set aside at least $17.71 per season for chewing tobacco.
He packs a big wad in his cheek before each game about a half packets worth. He chews 77 packets per season at 23 cents per packet. a "fife's ff, SNIDER The Los Aneeles Dodeers. faced with an obvious trans portation problem, boueht themselves a huge airplana to transport not only their own ball club but any others that want to hitch a ride for a fee. Houston, due in the National League next year, is constructing a domed stadium to be fully air-conditioned.
Washington's new stadium, due next year, will have rcK out grandstands so the park can be converted quickly to the proper size and shapa for either football or baseball. Seats in different sections will be painted different colors with tickets printed on pasteboards colored to match the sections. CHARLES FINLEY, new owner of the Athletics, revamped his ball park to maka it easier to get in and out; offered to take players' wives with the club on ona road trip to Chicago; Installed a basket-type gimmick that pops up out of the ground whenever the umpire needs a fresh supply of baseballs. Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis have picnic areas for early arrivals at the ball park.
Yankee Stadium has its "owner's box" heated-in-cold weather, air-conditioned in hot but that doesn't help the customers much. It's reserved for guests of Dai Topping-Del Webb. Actually, club executives everywhere have thrown out the old big league theory that earned the horse and buggy label. In the pre-Veeck days, baseball's brass hung out a sign saying, "Game Today," opened the gates and expected the crowd to come in without further urging. That's fine when you have a winner.
Backers of losers need urging. tho nar. 'I snapped a Perry Coaches Charley Ane and Happy Hanohano are holding daily practice at 5 p.m. and welcome new candidates. the small crowds that have added up to one of the poorest total attendance figures in the major leagues.
The combination of cold weather, a losing team and a lack of standout attractions in visiting clubs so far Is more responsible for the puny attendance than the loss of the colorful Williams, they say. "A winning team is the big thing that will bring in the crowds," said Red Sox vice president Dick O'Con-Until Saturday, the Red Sox the last few days." nell. "I think we proved that had drawn only slightly more than 50,000 fans in ten games and total attendance was running fifty-four per cent behind last year. But more than 30,000 turned out for a single game Saturday with Detroit and a doubleheader with Chicago Sunday, the Red Sox Kailua Eleven Invites Players Players interested in play-1 Kailua Park. ing for the Kailua eleven in the Athletic Association of Hawaii Football League next fall are invited to report at Attendance Down At Red Sox Games By STEVE NEW YORK (UPI)-Base-ball, once accused of employing horse and buggy business tactics, is runnin wild with revolutionary ideas this year.
Sport shirt Bill Veeck broke the ice in the minor leagues during World War II and applied the horse and buggy label to operators who called him a bush leaguer. Today, most of Veeck's old stuff is common-place with a few additions: Both major leagues have adopted a revolutionary 10 team, 162-game schedule. THE CHICAGO Cubs are operating with a revolving board of coaches and no manager at all while the Kansas City Athletics have experimented with putting their manager in the press box instead of on the bench. The Cincinnati Reds have installed a windscope atop Crosley Field to record wind velocity and direction changes to aid their fielders in trapping fly balls on a windblown day or night. Veeck installed an exploding scoreboard in Chicago's I Park, where he operates the White Sox.
Cleveland has added a new one along similar lines. Yankee Stadium has one that carries "news flashes" In lighted letters, advising the customers of such choice bits as "Yogi Berra now has hit safely in two straight games." Titans Sign Two Tackles NEW YORK (UPI) The New York Titans of the American Football League signed tackles Dick Leadbetter of the University of Maine and Francis Morelli of Colgate, both of whom played ofiense and defense in college. By BOB SALMON BOSTON (UPI) Is the retirement of Ted Williams-one of the greatest gate attractions in baseball history responsible for a drastic slump thus far in Boston Red Sox attendance? At first glance it might seem so. The Red Sox have drawn only 83,591 fans in twelve home dates this season. That represents a 42 per cent drop from 1960 attendance in the first dozen games, during which Williams was playing his last season.
And it averages out to less than 7,000 fans per game. BUT RED SOX officials don't buy this theory whole. At least, they say it's too early to estimate how much effect Williams absence will have on Red Sox attendance this year. What'i more, the Boston brass is not too worried about cidedly better one than the 1960 aggregation. Though Williams is gone, two rookies left fielder Carl Yastrzemski and second baseman Chuck Schilling- have improved the Boston defense.
Jackie Jensen is back after his retirement of a year ago and Boston's pitching is bet ter with the addition of big Gene Conley and rookie reliefer Tracy Stallard. The most exciting thing at Fenway Park this year is the change in overall strategy that Manager Mike Hig-gins now is able to employ. With a younger, faster team, Boston fans once again can expect to see stolen bases, bunts, hit-and-run plays, and tight defensive fielding. In past seasons if the Red Sox didn't win a game on heavy hitting they usually didn't win it at all. playing excellent baseball and winning three of their last four games.
"LAST YEAR you had a lot of fans coming out to see Williams in his last season," said Red Sox publicist Bill Crowley. "They wanted to see what might be his last hit or his last home run. He was quite an attraction and those curious fans had a healthy effect on our 1960 attendance. "This season, we've been playing in cold weather and starting out against the newer and the lower teams In the league," he said. "Last year we opened against the New York Yankees and they are always a great attraction at Fenway Park." The Red Sox are going to have their attendance troubles this season, it seems sure.
But the team is a de group. Big Ten officials discussed the problems of rising costs at their December meeting and agreed upon individual studies to determine whether football ticket prices should be increased. "Everything is going up," athletic director Clarence Munn of Michigan State said, "and football has to pay the cost of nearly everything. So it's the only place we can get more money to pay our costs.".
