The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 10

Sports The Sallna Journal Thursday, June 24, 1982 Page Gura blanks Oakland, 1-0 OAKLAND, Calif. (UPI) Larry Gura is the kind of pitcher few people notice until the playoffs roll around, and then everyone starts asking questions about the veteran left-hander who has been the Kansas City Royals' most consistent pitcher since 1976. A quiet, unassuming sort, Gura has worked both as a starter and reliever with the Royals and while he would prefer being in the regular rotation, he doesn't mind helping out in the bullpen if needed. Counting a 1-0 victory Wednesday over the Oakland A's Wednesday night, Gura has a fine major-league record of 85-55, with the bulk of his victories coming over the last four seasons. Gura had to take special delight in beating the A's because Oakland is managed by Billy Martin.

Gura and Martin were with the New York Yankees in the mid-1970s and Martin couldn't wait to get rid of him, claiming at the time Gura wasn't much of a pitcher. "I don't try any harder against one club than I do another," Gura said. "My job is to pitch as well as I can and beat everyone I pitch against. Of course, you have to beat a club like Larry Gura Oakland every chance you get because they are one of the better teams in our division, although they aren't playing all that well right now." Gura allowed the A's only four hits all singles as he recorded his eighth victory against three losses. The only troublesome inning he had was the fourth, when after two out he hit Dwayne Murphy and walked Cliff Johnson and Jeff Burroughs.

But Davey Lopes flied to right to end the threat, the only one the A's managed. The loss was the eighth of a nine- game homestand for the A's and sent them on the road against Texas while the Royals traveled south to Anaheim for the start of a big four-game weekend series with the Angels. Martin is beside himself at the lack of hitting by his A's. He became so frustrated that for Wednesday's game he threw the names of nine players into a hat and asked Murphy, as team captain, to draw them out, one at a time. The way they came out is the way Martin wrote down his lineup.

"I did that twice before with other teams, and it worked for a while," said Martin. "So far, it hasn't here but I may stick with it a few more games. Something good has to start happening because we are a better ballclub than our record shows." The A's have slipped to 11 games under .500 and unless they get something going soon, the season may be over for them by All-Star Game break. The Royals, though, are battling the Angels for first place in the A.L. West.

They suffered a jolt of sorts Wednesday when second baseman Frank White cut himself above the left knee with his own spikes while trying to score in the eighth inning. Indications are he will miss one or two games. Brian Kingman was Oakland's hard- luck loser against Gura. The Royals scored their only run off him and two relievers in the ninth inning on two walks and a single by U.L. Washington.

Wilson If Wolhon Quirk Brell 3b Otis cl McRoe dh Aikens Ib Werlh Ib Morlin rl While 2b Pryor 2b Geronimo ph Woshingtn ss KANSAS CITY obr 4 2 1 4 3 0 2 0 3 0 0 4 0 3 0 bl 0 0 000 000 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 I Newmon 3b Armas rf Murphy cl Johnson Ib Burroghi dh topes Jb Stanley it Henderson If Healhc OAKLAND ab 4 0 0 400 3 bl 0 0 0 1 300 200 4 0 I 300 300 302 0000 1000 4 0 Totals 30 I 7 I Totals 29 0 Kansas City 000 000 001 1 Oakland 000 000 000 Heath. LOB Kansas City 8, Oakland 6. SB McRoe. Washington. Kansas City Gura (W 8-3) Oakland Kingman (L 0-3) Owchinko Beard IP ER SO HBP by Kingman (Otis, McRoe), by Guro (Murphy).

2:44. A- 15,591. Expos shut out New York, 5-0 By United Press International Steve Rogers provided a pretty fair impression of Johnny Apple- seed, scattering eight New York hits to the winds Wednesday night while leading the Montreal Expos to a 5-0 shutout over the Mets. His New York hosts doubtless were impressed, not to mention depressed, by Rogers' performance, but the right- hander seemed to shrug off the win with casual disdain. "It was easy," concluded Rogers, who raised his record to 9-3.

"I made good pitches." The victory moved Montreal into first place in the National League East, but Rogers still wasn't impressed. "First place in June is not like first place in September," said Rogers. "There's a lot of baseball left." The Mets saw very little of Rogers' baseballs as they struck out seven times and didn't draw any walks from the stingy pitcher. New York starter Craig Swan, though, made at least two pitches he now regrets. Both resulted in home runs off the bat of Montreal's Warren Cromartie.

The Expos' right fielder opened the scoring in the second with a solo shot and, after Tim Raines' RBI single in the third, he clouted another homer in the sixth. Andre Dawson's two-run double in the seventh chased Swan and accounted for the final Montreal runs. "I'll bounce back, though," said Swan. "Aside from Cromartie's shot, my fastball was good. And Rogers well, he's got that nasty sinker.

It works." In other National League games, Cincinnati edged San Diego, 5-4; Chicago trimmed Pittsburgh, 6-5, in 10 in- nings; Atlanta routed Los Angeles, 7-2; San Francisco got by Houston, 9-8, and Philadelphia overwhelmed St. Louis, 71. In the American League, Toronto defeated Seattle, 5-3, in 11 innings; Baltimore downed Cleveland, 3-1; Boston clobbered Detroit, 10-4; New York edged Milwaukee, 3-2; Minnesota topped Chicago, 6-3, and California beat Texas, 5-3. At Cincinnati, Paul Householder, batting just .178, cracked a two-run homer in the eighth to pace the Reds. San Diego left-hander Chris Welsh had a no-hitter over the first six innings, but the Reds scored three runs in the seventh for a 3-2 lead only to have the Padres tie the game in the top of the eighth.

At Pittsburgh, Junior Kennedy doubled with one out in the 10th inning to drive in Larry Bowa with the winning run off Randy Niemann, 0-1. Bill Campbell, 1-3, pitched 2Va innings for the victory. The Pirates cied it 5-5 in the ninth on an infield grounder by Dave Parker. Mike Easier belted a two-run homer for Pittsburgh. At Atlanta, Rick Mahler tossed a seven-hitter and hit his first major- league home run, a two-run blast in the sixth inning, to spark Atlanta.

Mahler, 7-5, went the distance and walked one while striking out five. The Braves jumped on Fernando Valenzuela, 9-6, for three runs in the first and knocked him out during a four-run outburst in the sixth. At Houston, Max Venable's pinch- hit single in the eighth inning scored Johnnie LeMaster from third base with the winning run for the Giants. Darrell Evans and Jack Clark each had two RBI and scored two runs scored for San Francisco and Fred Breining, 4-1, DOUBLE PLAY St. Louis shortstop Ozzie Smith lands on top of Philadelphia's Bo Diaz after making a relay throw to first base on a double-play at- pitched innings of shutout ball for the win.

Greg Minton notched his 12th save. At St. Louis, Mike Krukow pitched a seven-hitter and drove in the go- ahead run with a single to break the UPI Photo tempt. The Cardinals turned the double play but were defeated by the Phillies Wednesday night, 7-1. Phillies' three-game losing streak.

Krukow raised his record to 6-5 as he shut out the Cardinals over the final eight innings in pitching his fifth com- (See EXPOS, Page 12) Harold Span! in town Saturday Some sports shorts from the sidelines while wondering if George Steinbrenner will fire his second manager this season and bring back Bob Lemon for the umpteenth time. Don't forget that Kansas City Chiefs' star linebacker Gary Spani will be in Salina Saturday at the Superkids competition in the Bicentennial Center. Spani will hold at 10 a.m. press conference and will be at the BiCenter most of the day. -tr -tr The 50th annual Kansas Coaching School will be held at Topeka on Aug.

2-4 at the Downtown Ra- inada Inn. Some of the featured speakers at the always-popular convention will be Washington University football coach Don James, Bethany College football coach Ted Kessinger, former Kansas strength coach Keith Kephart, Bradley basketball coach Dick Versace and K-State women's basketball coach Lynn Hickey. The keynote luncheon speaker on Aug. 3 will be Bernie Saggau, the current chairman of the National High School Basketball Rules Committee and a former supervisor of Big Eight Conference basketball officials. 6 -tr -tr They said it: Gary Ward, Oklahoma State's baseball coach on his team's problems with the weather during the 1982 season: "We opened the Big Eight season in 80- degree weather in Nebraska.

That's 80 degrees collectively 27, 26 and 27 degrees." Ron Davis, the relief pitcher who was traded by the New York Yankees to the Minnesota Twins: "I know winning isn't everything, but with Calvin Griffith (owner of the Twins), winning isn't anything." ft -fr -tr Amid the athletic department turmoil at Louisiana State University comes the story that the LSU basketball team spent more than $35,000 for a trip to Vegas last November. Included in the expenses was a $3,835 bill for entertainment and dinner for 31 persons at the Wayne Newton show. KSU athletics showed a deficit close to $1 million during the 1981-82 school year. if -tr The Runner, a magazine that caters to joggers and road racers, received some eye-opening answers in a recent survey of 3,000 of its jogging readers. One question asked, "If you had to choose between running and sex, which would you give up?" A Dallas Time-Herald sportswriter reported that 38.1 percent of the women runners said they would give up sex and 23.3 of the men said they would do the same.

-tr The Blue Chip Magazine rates Georgia as having the best football recruiting year last season. Notre Dame was a close second. Oklahoma (tied for 4th) and Nebraska (tied for 10th) are in the top 10 according to a power rating analysis, while Kansas (16th) and Oklahoma State (22nd) also fared well in the recruiting wars. Hounding out the Big Eight teams were Missouri (33rd), Colorado (36th) and Kansas State and Iowa State tied for 43rd. dr -fr -fr The Big Eight ended another banner year with Ok- lahoma State participating in the college baseball world series.

The conference also had top 10 finishes in seven of 11 conference sports, 11 individual champs and five football teams in bowl games. -tf -tr Nebraska strength coach Boyd Epley is considered the best in his field. His strength program at NU is said to be on the same level as several pro teams. Epley has started a new program at NU called the Athletic Index. The program is comprised of four tests designed to measure an athlete's physical skills in an agility run, a vertical jump, a seated shot put and a 40-yard dash.

According to Epley, an Athletic Index competitor will be able to evaluate his or her strengths and weaknesses soon after the athlete completes the four tests. After analyzing index data from all the Big Eight schools, Epley concluded that Missouri defensive tackle Jeff Gaylord was the best athlete in the conference. More quotes worth re-quoting from the NBA: Joe Axelson, asked what his salary would be after leaving his job as as NBA vice-president to return to his old role as general manager of the Kansas City Kings. "It's a typical NBA contract, paying me about four times what I'm worth." Ollie Johnson, former Philadelphia 76ers forward, commenting on the unintelligible interview given by some highly paid athletes: "With as much money as most of the players make these days, you would think they could spend a little on English lessons." Kansas City catcher John Wathan Wathan hopes to steal his way into history KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) John Wathan's strongest challenge as a base runner has come from baseball's tradition.

Wathan is a catcher for the Kansas City Royals and catchers aren't supposed to be great base runners. At least not very fast base runners. It's all part of the image that baseball has projected of its catchers for the past century. Yogi Berra, "Pudge" Fisk, Gus Triandos, "Smokey" Burgess, Andy Etchebarren: even their names have sounded slow. Putting a catcher on the base- paths has been the equivalent of entering a tank in the Indianapolis 500.

"From little league all the way up, the fat, dumpy kid always wound up as the catcher," Wathan said. "Like in the movie 'The Bad News Bears': the fat kid caught and ate a candy bar between pitches. If a kid can't run or field a position, they put him behind the plate. They make him the backstop." Big league catchers have traditionally favored power over finesse. They've been home run hitters and run-producers.

Except for an occasional Elston Howard or a Ted Simmons, they have rarely hit for a high average. And they've never been base stealers. The most bases a catcher has stolen in a single season were the 30 by Ray Schalk of the Chicago White Sox way back in 1916. Record chasing But Wathan appears a certainty to end Schalk's 66-year stay in the record book this season. He has 23 stolen bases through Thursday, leaving him eight thefts shy of the record with 97 games remaining.

"With all the catchers who've played professional baseball, you'd think there'd be somebody with more stolen bases than that and certainly somebody since 1916," Wathan said. "But if you think about it, the emphasis on speed in baseball has only been in the last 20 years. Lou Brock, Luis Aparicio, Maury Everyone thought it incredible when Wills was going for 100 in one season. "Now look at (Oakland outfielder) Rickey Henderson: he's on schedule to get 120 or 130. Maybe in the future there'll be some fast catchers.

With the emphasis on speed and so much artifical turf these days, I'm sure if I do break the record it won't last very long." Wathan is 32, certainly an age where the legs of most catchers turn to concrete. But Wathan did not make the major leagues until he was 27 and only then as a utility player, dividing his time between first base, the outfield comers and catcher. Wathan didn't become Kansas City's regular catcher until 1981 when Darrell Porter bolted the Royals via free agency for the St. Louis Cardinals. As a part-time catcher in 1980, holding down the position while Porter was in an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility during the first half of the season, Wathan stole 17 bases for the American League champion Royals.

But it wasn't until manager Jim Frey was fired and replaced by Dick Howser in August 1981 that Wathan was able to reach his peak as a base runner. "For years people would say, 'John Wathan is pretty fast for a Wathan said. "Why not just, 'John Wathan is pretty "I always felt if I could play every (See WATHAN, Page 11) Wimbledon skies clear WIMBLEDON, England (UPI) Everything at last came right for the million-dollar Wimbledon Tennis championships Thursday. Rain held off, though skies were the usual dull gray. Sixteen of the 18 grass courts went into action on time.

The largest crowd of the tournament so far 25,580 half an hour after play began comfortably filled the grounds. They came to see a full day of top players most of the womens seeds and a scattering of the highest-ranked men. Second-seeded Jimmy Connors commandeered center court, top-seeded Martina Navratilova took over Court 2. In contrast to the dull, lackluster first three days, some tennis excitement seemed in prospect. The only real tension in three days of sporadic play was Virginia Wade's ISIS tiebreak win over fellow Briton Joanne Durie.

In the men's singles, only seven matches nave gone to five sets. Crowd-tingling tennis has been as rare as real crowds. "Dull" is also the word, a polite one, for the weather. There have been no torrential rains, but leaden gray skies and spitting showers put the playing schedule in a frustrating hole. Brian Teacher, the American seed, was scheduled to play Israel's; Shlomo Glickstein before rain came; Monday.

And again Tuesday. Top-seeded Martina Navratilova and 14 more of the world's top women play-' ers haven't been seen at all few them even as spectators. All 16 worn-" en's seeds drew first-round byes defending champion Evert played and; won a second-round match as a bow to. tradition and the weather left many' first-round matches still to be played. 1 The typical English weather and aj continuing London subway strike made: crowd figures a disaster area for the; $1,068,000 tournament.

In the first days, attendance was 32,000 lower last year a hefty sum lost consld- ering the minimum admission price UJ $5.40. "Give us Thursday and half Friday and we'll be back on a tournament official insisted. But the schedule was so that matches involving Navratilova; and Tracy Austin were relegated to; Court 2, sixth-seeded Wendy TurnbullJ of Australia was slated for Court 6 fifth-seeded Hana Mandlikova of; Czechoslovakia to Court 13. 2.