St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 31

ii i 1 i i i i hi1 i ill I i i "i i i I i i i ii gi i j-yi i i 3 may 1984 8F Sports ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH May 27,1984 tigers IB A BUS Mf Fan iving Met Computerized Aid June Is Crucial For Orioles DETROIT (UPI) Recent history suggests the Detroit Tigers might be too good for their own good. Seven times since divisional play was adopted by the major leagues in 1969, teams have compiled a great start or a winning streak of 13 games or longer during the season. Only one the 1970 Cincinnati Reds reached the World Series. That is just one of the problems that must be dealt with by the Tigers, who have made the best start of any team in major league history.

Entering the weekend, they had a nine-game winning streak, a 35-5 record that had them 8 games ahead in the American League East, and were unbeaten in 17 games on the road. Look long enough at the records, however, and you'll find another side. Three of the five hottest-starting clubs that kept it up for 50 games won the World Series and the other two won league championships. The 1970 Reds, managed by the same Sparky Anderson who guides the Tigers, got off to a 70-30 beginning although they lost in five games to the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Those Reds cooled down after 100 games because of a pitching staff riddled by injuries.

They finished with a 102-60 record. The Boston Red Sox's 41-9 record in their first 50 games of 1946 is the next target for the Tigers. The Red Sox, who also had a 15-game winning streak that year, ended 104-50 but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, whose 25-4 beginning the Tigers bettered by a game, won their first World Series that fall from the New York Yankees in seven games.

Brooklyn fans must have been wondering if their favorite team was going to fold like junk mail after it advanced through the schedule at 49-16 and 57-19 before finishing 98-55. Many people declare the 1927 Yankees the greatest team of all time, ORLANDO, Fla. (UPI) Each morning, Louis Oddo grabs his newspaper and scans the sports section tn find what the New York Mets did the previous night. Each Mets victory warms Oddo; each loss is taken as a personal affront. Oddo must be pardoned for his deep feelings for the Mets, but he is much more than simply a fan.

The computer age has seen to that. A systems coordinator in the computer science department at the University of Central Florida here, Oddo designed a software package last winter for the Mets' new manager, Dave Johnson. Using the package Oddo developed, Johnson feeds information on Mets hitters against opposing pitchers into his personal computer. The computer spits out data that Johnson uses in determining trends that could be helpful in making lineup changes in certain situations. Given the Mets' fast getaway in the National League Eastern Division, this "Star Wars" type of baseball seems to be working and Oddo is ecstatic.

"I'm really excited," said Oddo, 39, a New York native and a longtime Mets fan. "This is a labor of love for me." Johnson, who lives in Orlando in the offseason, approached the university for help shortly after being named Mets manager last fall. School officials directed him to Oddo, who was more than happy to help the former second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. "As a kid, I rooted for the Orioles because I didn't like the (New York) Yankees," said Oddo, who still considers the Baltimore teams of Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell and Johnson among the best of all time. "Being ai Oriole fan, I almost died when I met him.

It was like a movie fan meeting Robert Redford." Johnson told Oddo he needed a software program that he could use-to find hitters' histories against certain pitchers. Working at night in his garage Oddo developed what he called a "filing system" for Johnson in time, for the season opener in April. Although there is no way to tetr, how important Oddo's work has-been to the Mets, the club haiC flirted with first place in the Nf East during the early weeks of the" season. .1 "There's nothing really or magic about Oddo said. "All we did was take the past seven years of statistics and load them into the computer?" Before each series, Dave keys pitchers lie might be The computer will give him his players on-base percentage, slugging percentage or whatever statistic he -wants against those pitchers." Oddo did the work for the Mets' at no charge the sign of a real fan.

He also is developing a program showing how the Mets I pitchers have done against the league's hitters. He hopes to have that completed soon. Eventually, Oddo would like to develop a computer program that would provide managers with an I optimum lineup for each game. In New York, a spokesman for the Mets said he doubted that Johnson ever would go that far. distance at the All-Star break.

"That's where we want to be in the hunt," Altobelli said. "We're a September baliclub, anyway." Only the Tigers aren't cooperating. With Mike Boddicker and Scott McGregor pitching up to their 1983 form, and Cat Ripken and Eddie Murray lighting the offensive fireworks, the Orioles have shed the effects of their atrocious 2-10 start and should be gaining ground on the Tigers, but the Tigers have just kept winning. The Orioles will play 25 of their 28 June games against Eastern Division opponents, taking on the Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Yankees seven times each. They also are scheduled to play five games against the Boston Red Sox, along with the six against the Tigers.

The Birds will conclude June with a four-game series against the White Sox in Chicago. Then maybe, as Altobelli says, the hunt can begin. The Oakland A's set the American League mark by winning their first 1 1 games in the strike-shortened 1981 season. Then, after winning the divisional playoff, they were flattened by the Yankees in three straight in the AL Championship Series. The Philadelphia Phillies had a 13-game winning streak during the 1977 season, but that didn't prove to be lucky against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL playoffs.

The 1978 Orioles also had a 13-game winning streak, and all that got them was fourth place. The 1973 Orioles had a 14-game winning streak, but that was the year Oakland emerged as a power. The Kansas City Royals broke Video AUTO AIR CONDITIONERS 1 WRESTLING FOR IMPORTS BALTIMORE (UPI) To be in the American League East hunt in July, the Baltimore Orioles in June must bag some Tigers something no other team has been able to do. The Orioles look toward to six games against Detroit in the first 10 days of June as a chance to chisel into the huge lead the Tigers have built by beating up on the weaker Western Division teams. And if the Orioles who won 21 of 30 games between April 20 and May 23 can continue their momentum through June, the 1983 world champions may find themselves in what Manager Joe Altobelli calls "the hunt" by the All-Star break.

"It looks like we'll have to do it ourselves," said Orioles second baseman Rich Dauer, speaking of the Tigers' 13i2-game lead over the Orioles entering the weekend. Under the Altobelli plan devised last month, the Orioles would knock five games off the Tigers' lead this month and five more in June. That would put them within striking but few know the 1928 version of the same squad jumped out in front early with a 50-16 beginning and coasted to a 101-53 finish and a six-game victory over the Cardinals in the World Series. The next season, Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics bulldozed out front with a 72-26 mark and crushed the Chicago Cubs in five games in the World Series after a 1 04-46 season. Since the playoffs began, though, being good has been better than being the best, at least as far as streaks and hot starts are concerned.

The 1982 Atlanta Braves won their first 13 games to set the major league mark but never got past the Cardinals in the National League playoffs. J- PM Kiel Auditorium KERRY EKIWII World Hoavy W.lght ACTION "CRUSHER" BLACKWELL SHEIK ADNAN AL-KAISIE 'PLUS' ADDITIONAL POWER PACKED MATCHES INCLUDING ANOTHER TAG TEAM MATCH -f TICKET PRICES $8, $7, $6, $5 ON SALE AT KIEL AUDITORIUM All FAMOUS BAM STORES, REGAl SPORTS, TEAM, TOGS I TICKETS OR DIAITIX 644 1700 CALL THE 14 HOUR HOTLINE 361-6170 FOI OTITIS P18575R13 PM- I Friday, June 1, 1984 "Natur.Boy" -v MAZDA GLC est 84) MAZDA 626 (81 -84) MAZDA P.U. (8284) $557 $569 $569 Klfc VON i vr aid Ate Pin Ball Machines one Day Memorial Day May 28 Sale 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. I Never before were you able to buy arcadegames at these prices.

These cost over 2500 new. WotMHmw' W.lght Champion FOR THE WORLD AW. HEAVY WEIGHT TITLE 1902.1981 A TAG TEAM THE BLACK JACKS LANZA MULLIGAN VS WAHOO KAMALA McDANIEL VS want 4 DATSUN OFFER IXPIRIS through for a 102-victory season in 1977, thanks in part to a 16-game winning streak, and that was the year Larry Gura and Dennis Leonard couldn't get them out in the ninth as the Yankees scored three times to take a 5-3 victory in the AL's fifth playoff game. Generally speaking, a long regular-season winning streak signified a first-place finish. A few of baseball's hottest teams missed, but most crossed the wire in front.

The streakiest team of all time was the 1916 New York Giants, who in May won 17 road games In a row and in Septeber won 26 consecutive home' contests with one tie mixed in. All it got Manager John J. McGraw's team was a fourth-place finish. In 1931, the Philadelphia A's won 13 straight games, all at home, as part of a 22-game home winning streak, to go with an earlier 17-game victory streak. Mack's team was 107-45 overall and finished first.

The 1935 Chicago Cubs closed with 21 succesive victories to win the NL pennant by four games, with a 100-54 record. The 1951 Giants caught the Dodgers, then won a best-of-three playoff, in their miracle year, thanks in no small part to a 16-game winning streak when Manager Leo Duroucher's team needed it The Yankees and Cleveland Indians staged some memorable pennant races in the early 1950s. The 1954 Yankees won 13 straight at one point, but still wound up second, eight games behind the Indians, who won 111 games. The year before, an 18-game victory streak netted New York the flag. If this year's Tigers really want to make their mark in history, though, all they have to do is surpass the mark of the 1906 Cubs.

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