The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 13

3tyr Anninlmt tar Sports fcS) Friday, June 8, 1984 1 Other guys9 make it nine straight More baseball oh Page 2D Atlanta -San Diego Los Angeles 34 23 .596 31 23 hlA 1 31 27.534 3 28 29 .491 6 23 32 .418 10 17' 36 .321 15 Cincinnati Houston J-t San Francisco were 7-11 against Los "We played aggressively tonight, and I'm pleased with that," Torre added. Los Angeles manager Tom Lasorda, understandably, was not so pleased. "There was nothing pleasing about that game," said Lasorda, who closed the clubhouse for a brief time following the game. "I just wanted to talk to the. ROOKIE OREL HERSHISER, 2-2, starting in place of injured Jerry Reuss, took the loss and afterward noted, "it seemed everything I threw up there they hit." The Braves had a 4-0 lead after two innings.

And when they scored twice in the top of the first it marked the sixth time in seven games that the Dodgers have trailed before coming to bat. Chris Chambliss hit his sixth homer in the fifth to put the game out of reach. The Dodgers made a number of player moves on Thursday. Veteran pinch-hitter Jose Morales, 39, was placed on irrevocable waivers for the purpose of him his unconditional release. Morales, who has 123 career pinch hits, was only 3 for 19.

By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Mention the Atlanta Braves and you start with Dale Murphy and Bob Horner, the team's two. top sluggers of recent years. But Joe Torre, the Braves' manager, says it's "the other guys" who are responsible as much as anything for Atlanta's nine-game winning streak. "Everybody wants to know about Murphy or Horner," Torre said after the Braves routed Los Angeles 8-1 Thursday night, "and the other guys have been overshadowed guys like Gerald Perry and Rafael Ramirez and Glenn Hubbard. "These guys it seems have been forgotten about But they've done a great Job.

But our pitching is why we are winning." The winning streak is their longest on the road since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966. The all-time franchise record is 11, set by the 1956 Milwaukee Braves. The victory Increased the Braves' lead in the National League West to 1 games over San Diego and 34 over the Dodgers. TONIGHTS SECOND game of the four-game series begins at 9:35 on WTBS-Channel 17. Len Barker, 4-5, will start for Atlanta, Bob Welch, 4-6, for Los Angeles.

The series continues Saturday with a nationally televised game at 2:20 p.m. (NBC) and a .3:05 televised game (WTBS) Sunday. Pasqual Peres went the distance for his sixth victory in seven decisions, scattering seven hits. Perez missed his first shutout of the season only when Dave Anderson singled home a run in the fifth. "It seems we started winning when I got here," said Perez, who didn't Join the Braves until mid-May after serving time on a drug-related conviction in the Dominican Republic.

"It's almost like I'm their good-luck charm." Torre held a clubhouse meeting before the game, a normal procedure when facing a club for the first time. "I wanted to remind them that they hadn't won a lot of games here," said Torre, recalling that even when Atlanta won the National League West in 1982 the Braves Friday's Games Atlanta at Los Angeles Pittsburgh at Philactelphla 2 New York at Montreal Chicago at St. Louis Cincinnati at San Dtego Houston at San Francisco Jordan was born to ram 'tit t' XT if By DONNIE WEBB Star Sports Writer The engine inside Frank Butler's school-room green, 88 four-door Chevy Impala was destined for a career in automobile racing. Butler always bragged it would be. He told dirt-track driver Doyle Jordan a thousand times to take that baby and build a race car with it.

"He knew I raced so he always asked bow I was doing," said Jordan. "If I said I didn't win, he would say, 'If you'd come get that motor, I'm sure you'd It scared him every time he ran somewhere in the car." Butler, 92, gave Jordan the Impala shortly before he died last summer. It stayed on the service station lot Jordan and his father operated in Golden Springs for a while. Several customers tried to buy it. But Jordan would never sell.

He had a race to run. It was cool and dusty that April night when Jordan rolled Butler's Imapla onto Talladega Short Track, A threat of rain was in the forecast It was not the first, nor the last time Jordan would enter an Enduro race. But it would be one of the most unusual racing experiences of his short and successful career. An Enduro race is 250 to 300 laps of fun. Cars are completely stock (right off the street).

No 'racing equipment allowed. The doors are welded shut and the side and rear windows are removed. Competitors must leave their suspension engines and street tires intact And no sports cars. This Enduro race is open to the first 100 cars entered. Sixty decide to take their chances, enough automobiles to stretch from one end of the high banked -mile clay oval track and back.

JORDAN IS one of the favorites as he will be Saturday night In the Limited Sportsman Championship at TST and is positioned near the front. When the race starts, the Anniston driver stays close to the lead as the maddening mass of cars makes its way around the track. Then suddenly, without warning, 50 laps into the race, the steering wheel of Jordan's car breaks off. Panic bolts through Jordan's body. What to do? Slamming on the breaks would be a good start But not Jordan.

He wants to continue the race. If the steering wheel won't go back on (and this one wouldn't), the first instinct is to get rid of it "I threw it out the window," said Jordan. The race continues. SNrPMtokyKMlIMM Even without a steering wheel, Doyle Jordan is a threat to win on area dirt tracks come around. If you've ever done a you know what I'm talking about.

"That was the main way I was able to keep it going. I just more or less held the steering column straight. Every time I hit a rut, it really jerked the wheel." For more than 70 laps in the 300-lap free-for-all, Jordan was able to lead the race without a steering wheel. The (Please see Jordan on Page ZB) leader and I wasn't going to pull off." So Jordan continues. But how? How is he leading the pack when the only thing he has to steer the car with, he can barely hold onto? "You can do a lot of steering with the gas and laid Jordan.

"If you are going into the turn, the car is headed to the left already. You hit the breaks and it makes the rear end Jordan grabs hold of the two nubs attached to the steering column where the wheel once was and regains control of the car. The lead is still within sight. In fact, it's there for the taking. "I WAS RUNNING second when the wheel came off," said Jordan.

"The first thing I thought when It happened" was I wasn't going to be able to win the race. I started to pull in and get some vice grips. But I was able to pass the Culberson Parker turning pro It Oh ball agatp and I need to take advantage of it while I can. To say whether it's right or wrong, it's not in my hands. I can't say.

I'll find out on down the road. "I KNOW IT can't be a wrong decision. School will always be there. The chance to play professional baseball won't. This is what I've wanted to do' all my life." Parker, who Jacksonville State coach Rudy Abbott calls the best pitcher in the Gulf South Conference, led his team with a 9-3 record this season (despite missing three weeks with a pulled muscle) and an earned run average under 2.

"He may have made All-America if he had pitched all season," said the JSU coach. Parker probably would have broken every school record next year if he had chosen to return. Parker has a iM lifetime record and 149 strikeouts. The school record for most wins' is 21, shared by Mike Galloway and Mike Lamb. Ted Barnicle owns the mark for most strikeouts with 258.

But those numbers are meaningless for a pitcher if no one in professional baseball wants you. "Two years ago, I wasn't drafted when I did so well," said Parker. "I never thought I'd get a chance to play professional ball again. I'm getting that chance now and I know I need to take adveantage of it. "I want to get an education.

If I go back to school and play ball for Jacksonville, I will have all that taken care of, paid for. I lack 20-something hours and my plans after that were to transfer to North Carolina State here at By DONNIE WEBB Star Sports Writer It was the toughest decision Chris Parker ever had to maker And somehow, it was the easiest, too. At age 22, and with time running out on the start of a career in professional baseball, the Jacksonville State pitcher has decided to forego his senior season to sign with the Houston Astros, who drafted him in the 13th round in Wednesday's free agent amateur draft Parker needs slightly more than 20 hours to graduate, but with an unwritten, but generally adhered to rule that teams don't draft players older than 23, he decided it was in his best interest to take his shot at professional baseball fl Gamecock centerfielder Charles Culberson, a first-team All-America who was picked in the 16th round by San Francisco, has signed with the Giants and was to be assigned to their minor league team in Everett, Wash. The senior' from Rome, had a .409 career batting average and 66 stolen pases. Parker will leave Sunday for Auburn, N.Y., where he'U play for the Astros' Class team in the New York-Penn League.

Practice starts June 12 with the season opener on the 19th. "I thought a lot about It last night," said Parker from his home in Benson, N.C. on Thursday. "I feel regardless of the decision I made, I won't regret it I know I can always go to school and graduate at my own expense or whatever. I also know I may never get a chance to play home and get my master's.

I guess now I'll give baseball a shot, do the best I can and go as far as I can." Parker said after the NCAA Central Regionals, he took a couple of weeks away from baseball, but has been keeping active playing Softball. He said his. arm is In great shape and feels like he'll do well at Auburn. "ALL BASEBALL players want that chance," said "Some folks get that chance to get on to big leagues in two or three years. I hope I'm one.

I think if I pitch like I did at Jax State this year, perhaps I can move up another claass this season. I don't know, but I hope." Culberson said he was surprised the Giants picked ffTm, although he's happyTo get picked. "I never even talked to a Giant scout during the year," said Culberson, who leaves Saturday for Washington. "It was a surprise to hear from them. I was thinking more about the Phillies, Royals or Astros.

To get a call from them was a surprise', but I am happy to get picked. "This is the chance I've always dreamed of getting since I was a little boy. I've got it and now I've got to take advantage of it." Alan Cockrell, the Tennessee quarterback who the Giants selected in the first round, will also be assigned to Washington. "I've got some tough competition," said Culberson, think I'm going to do pretty good. I think the competition will be on the level I've been playing.

As long as I play the way I always play, I'll do pretty good." v-..