The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 91

Pittsburgh Press, June 1 7, 1 982 -1 1 Playoffs Expanding In Quad-A fit Regent Swings Hot Bat For Hardhats "Why don't we just start the playoffs in September?" Trinity football Coach Terry Kushner By tom McMillan By PAT HANLON I HEN CERTAIN baseball players are "in the groove," fans expect a home run every time that sv rN A MOVE dripping with the National 1 1 1 Hockey League philosophy that the meek I shall inherit the playoffs, the WPIAL has 1 expanded its post-season football field for Quad-A Division II (Sections 3 and 4). 3 Four teams each from Sections 3 and 4 will qualify for the 1982 playoffs and will compete for 'the Quad-A Division II championship, the WPIAL Board of Control has announced. It means eight 'of the 14 teams in Quad-A division II will reach the playoffs. "I think we're losing sight of the whole purpose of the sport," said Kiski Area football Coach and Athletic Director Dick Dilts. "It's a great experience just to play the game.

It's a great sport -playoffs or no playoffs and I think we're forgetting that." Earlier, under the threat of secession from its 14 largest schools, the WPIAL granted extra playoff berths expanding from two to four in each seven-team section to Quad-A Division I. The 14 largest schools, including reigning football Ewer Mt. Lebanon, are aligned in Quad-A ivision I (Sections 1 and 2). Following that move, the WPIAL surveyed its other classifications concerning additional playoff berths. Classes AAA, AA and A agreed to retain the current playoff format of two teams from each section, but Quad-A Division II voted to add two post-season berths by an 8-4 margin.

Two schools didn't cast ballots, according to WPIAL Executive Secretary Charles Heberling. "Philosophically, I'm against it, because I think four teams making the playoffs is ridiculous," says Trinity Coach Terry Kushner. "But everybody voted for it because the big schools had it." "Individually, the people were against it," agrees Plum Coach Al Mauro, "but we wanted what they (Quad-A Division I) got." Section 3 is made up of Kiski, Plum, Highlands, Fox Chapel, Greensburg Salem, Latrobe and Laurel Highlands. Section 4 members are Trinity, Canon-McMillan, Chartiers Valley, New Castle, Ringgold, Seneca Valley and Upper St. Clair.

Only six of those teams won't qualify for the WPIAL playoffs next fall, a policy which evokes lots of gagging noises from football purists. "I'm hearing people starting to talk about the integrity of the playoffs," says Kiski's Dilts. "This is like the doggone hockey playoffs." The NHL policy of accepting 16 of 21 teams into the Stanley Cup playoffs has made it an object of ridicule in the national press. The league defends itself by pointing to additional revenues and increased playoff interest in cities with mediocre teams, such as Pittsburgh. "At first I was thinking the other way, that more playoff spots would be a great motivational factor," says Dilts, whose team reached the Quad-A semifinals last season.

"But how would you like to be the fourth-place team making the playoffs? "You'd be playing the No. 1 team from the other section, and there'd probably be no chance you were going to win. Probably no one would come to see you. Financially, I think it's a losing proposition." Heberling says the specifics of the Quad-A playoff system won't be decided until the WPIAL's football steering committee meets in August. "Since the teams will be playing their regular season games within one section, we'll obviously cross-bracket, probably with the number one team from one section playing the number four team from the other section, and so on," he says.

"But until the steering committee meets in August, it's all a matter of conjecture." It's also a matter of widespread discussion in Western Pennsvylania, a traditional football hotbed. "The WPIAL is in a difficult situation, because you can't please all the members," says Plum's Mauro. "But the WPIAL gave in to the super powers. And I think Sections 1 and 2 were looking at us as second-class citizens. We wanted the new playoff system because the other people got it.

If they got it, why shouldn't we?" Trinity's Kushner said representatives from Sections 3 and 4 will huddle with the WPIAL Board of Control at its regular meeting June 24. He said there are questions still to be answered. "I think we have to look at the decision-making process who makes these decisions, and why but we don't want to make too much of this thing until we take it to the board of control," Kushner says. "For instance, the large Quad-A schools appealed the original playoff setup. Has this ever been done before? player bats.

Hank Aaron drew that sort of reaction. Mike Schmidt raises that kind of expectation. In professional softball, Jim "Foxy" Nelson of the Pittsburgh Hardhats has the same effect on the fans, not only the home fans but those on the road. "Foxy does have quite a following," said Bill Strueve, general manager of the Hardhats. "We were in Kentucky over the weekend and those people were yelling for him to hit a home run.

"Some guys are just in a class of their own as home run hitters. Foxy bats in the number four spot and that's his job, to hit home runs." The reason Nelson arouses the expectations of the fans is because he is a legend in pro softball circles. He has hit about 700 homers in his career and since turning pro in 1976 has hit 200. One would think a hitter with his power would think of nothing but the long ball. Wrong.

Nelson is an advocate of the all-around player, the athlete who can run, hit and play good defense. "You still have to have a guy that's an athlete and looks like an athlete," said the 6-2, 240-pound catcher. "In the past, when we were playing at Aliquippa, we built our team on defense, speed and a little power and we did well. The game has to come closer to being like baseball. To me, it's not professional to have a game where it's all home runs." John Regent, the Hardhats' all-pro left fielder, feels much the same way.

"It makes the game boring for the fans with the ball flying out of the park all the time," said the Wilkinsburg resident. "Aliquippa was an ideal park. Its fences were 330, and it was a lot more competitive that way. "There are a lot of guys who can hit the ball 310 feet, but that's not a true test. A larger park puts more priority on athletic skills rather than having a guy who just does one thing." Evidently, this year the Hardhats are a team without much power, aside from Nelson.

Through June 7, he was 22-for-50, a .440 average, with six home runs, 18 RBIs and five walks. Regent's statistics were similarly impressive. He was hitting .410 on 25-of-61 hitting with 11 RBIs and 15 runs scored. Meanwhile, the Hardhats have chalked up a record of 3-18. Nelson says the poor mark is the result of a big turnover from last year's team and because of the team's inexperience.

"We lost the nucleus of our team from last year," said Nelson, who has been playing pro softball since its inception six years ago. "We lost all of our infielders and two of our outfielders. We were solid in the infield for four years and that kept us in there. "We have been losing mostly because of defense this year. Also, the new players can't adjust to the low, flat pitch in this league.

The pitchers can curve the ball and there are some good knucklers. The new players want to make it and if they don't, they either snap out of it or start pressing." "We're having problems in the infield," added Regent, a fifth year pro. "There's a lot of inexperience. It's going to take some time till they get the hang of it. "We are making improvement, but it doesn't show up in the games (wins and losses).

We're in the games longer, but we're not hitting as well as we can. We're all slumping together, and when some teams can score three, four or five runs at a crack while we're struggling, it's tough. We've made a commitment to go with young people." Nelson, a resident of Apollo, says the team's inexperience has put added pressure on him. "The (other) teams knew me and weren't familiar with the other players, so they felt us out in the first couple of games," he explained. "I found that when I didn't swing, we didn't score and weren't moving the runner.

"It got to be a pressure situation, and teams knew that. I had been laying off the bad pitches. Last weekend in Kentucky, I could've walked every time. I've been seeing a lot of bad pitches." But it only takes one good pitch for the 34-year old Nelson to show why he is a legend. As Strueve said, "If he gets his pitch, he'll hit a home run." Nelson has quite a list of feats to his credit.

He is the only player to hit four home runs in a game at Aliquippa, where the fence is 330 feet with a wall eight-feet high. He hit a home run in Veterans Stadium between the 335- and 370-foot markers. And one year he was the only player to hit a home run at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. That one sailed over 371 feet and a 20-foot high fence. However, Nelson believes that home runs alone don't make professional softball.

And he is not solely reliant on his power hitting. "When Foxy is hitting he doesn't have to hit the home run to be effective," said Regent, a Spanish teacher at Schenley High School. was one of the few people that could hit the ball out of Aliquippa. He can help you both ways; if the long ball isn't going out he's still getting base hits." In fact, Nelson believes that some limitations are needed in al softball. "The league gets better every year," said Nelson, a foreman for Grinnell Fire Protection.

"When it started out there were a lot of problems the fields were too big or too short. "Now the league has taken in stronger teams and is using fairly live balls. In some places, home runs are too excessive, and it takes the singles and doubles out of the game. People want to see the sin- gles and doubles and the homers. "Sooner or later, the owners are going to get together and standard-.

ize the parks. Some of the teams have smaller parks, and we can't -win if the game is going to come down to home runs. "If they standardize the parks, all the teams will have to build their teams the same way and nobody will have an advantage, except the home field advantage." It's hard to believe that any team would have an advantage against" Foxy Nelson. The Hardhats play the Lima1 (Ohio) Steeles, featuring "Mighty" joe Young, at Sokol Field in Lower Burrell this weekend in a United Professional Softball League game. Young has been labeled "king of the home run hitters," but this is only his second year in the pros.

Saturday's game starts at 7:30 p.m., while Sunday's will begin at 7 p.m. For ticket information, call 371-6150 or 371-6151. Press Photo by John Sale Todd Preston of McKeesport plays tight defense against Penn-Trafford's Dave Gestrich in an Ozanam Summer League game. The Tigers won, 63-62, in overtime. U.S.

Open Door Closes For Tw District Players (Continued from Page E-9) he said. "I thought that was the hardest course I've ever played, because of the length (7,380 yards). It's as difficult a course as I've seen." In the week following last Monday's qualifier, Botkin shots rounds of 69 at Allegheny and 64 at Youghiogheny. "The point is," he said, "I really don't have any complaints. I was hitting the ball good.

I just couldn't beat those guys." Druga missed the Open cutoff by nine strokes after finishing second to John Mazza, a touring Ero from Beaver Falls, in the area qualifier, iruga shot 72 at Green Oaks and 70 at Churchill to finish two back of Mazza (140). "I was happy with that," said Druga, who turned 23 Tuesday. "The only guy who beat me was John Mazza, and he plays the tour. So that means I beat the rest of the good guys around here." Which is nothing new for Jack Druga. In 1979, his first year at Sharon, Druga shot 74-73147 and missed qualifying for the U.S.

Open by one stroke. One stroke. The near-miss gave Druga confidence for the following years, though his failure last Monday was his fourth in four years. "In a way it made it easier," he said, "because I knew I could qualify after that. It gave me confidence.

If you miss by five or six strokes, you say, well, that's too far away. But one stroke But Druga blew up this year, shooting 80 in the first round, and not too many players have ever come back to qualify after opening the day with 80. "When you get off to a bad start, you start to press, and that's no way to play," he said. "Very few guys shoot a very bad round and a very good round in the same day." Druga, who is two classes shy of graduating from Davis Si Elkins College in West Virginia, recently finished seventh in the NAIA Division II Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. Druga qualified for the national tournament after he and his team won the West Virginia state tournament in May.

Druga shot 76-75-75226 at Pipestem State Park and won low medalist in a playoff. In the NAIA tournament, Druga had a 72-hole score of 295, nine back of the winner. Interestingly, Druga transferred to Davis Elkins last fall after spending three years in Florida. He attended Miami Dade North Junior College for two years and Florida International University for one before moving north. At Dade and FIU, Druga was named All-Florida.

"I wanted to work on my degree, and it was getting too tough to do both," Druga said of his move to Davis Elkins. "College golf in Florida and college golf up north is totally different." So is golf at Duquesne and golf at Pebble Beach. "To me, the number of teams in the playoffs is just a symptom of the overall problem. How are these decisions being made? So let's give the board of control a chance to answer some questions. We'll know a lot more after June 24." PUBLIC NOTICE! Make a sale with Neighbor to Neighbor Want ads Three lines just $107 263-1201 Want ads Three lines just $2.07 263-1201 15'x48" against KITCHEN REFACING PROCEDURES MONROEVILLE MALL HOME CENTER is proud to announce the opening of one of the largest kitchen departments in the east.

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