The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 38

2 Akron Ee3-cn Jcjrnil WedwJay, July 4. iVot hi Family Mold Hob olI This Firestone Different Ed Farmer W-ff Happy Willi "Tiger TLC they found out I wasn't any different," he says. "I was doing the same thing as them, getting as diny. I think some of them were amazed at that." But, as some wiseman or maybe wisewoman once said, you can't pick your parents. "I just don't know any other way than being a Firestone," Doug says.

"Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I wasn't born with that name. But I'll never know. I just have to realize, I guess, that there are a lot of people who aren't as isn't something you learn at school." Wanting for practical experience, Doug started on the program at Firestone, and is finishing up at Akron University night school. The rubber business has captivated Doug for ytars, starting when he turned from piano lessons (which he detested) to go-karts. "I've always been Interested cars," he says.

"And I've always liked racing. And that's basically tires. So I always get back to that. I've wanted to do something in business and seeing that our family is in the rubber busi- r.rss. it's only natuial I'm interested in it." AS Doug says, he's interested in racing, which brings us to his Porsche.

He hopes to get his Sports Car Club of America license this Summer, then drive at someplace like Nelson's Ledges. "I'm not planning on becoming an Indy driver," he says, "but I'd like to drive a car around there just once to find out what drivers are talking about, and just to say I did it. If be nice." When he first worked at Indy, Doug found people aloof, shying away. "Then y- YOU'RE ALL familiar with TLC, surely Tender Loving Care. Ed Farmer is thriving on St.

You all remember Ed. He was OURS and now he's THEIRS. He was 0-2 and 4.67. Now he's 2-0 and 0.77. We got Tom Timmerman from the Detroit Tigers.

He was 1-1 and 3.69. Now he's 1-1 and 6.43. He's 33; Farmer's the deal yourself. But the secret may be ri Doug Firestone Ernie D. Helped By Olympic Snub love.

"Pitchers are a strange breed," said Billy Martin who is now his manager with Detorit. "They're altogether a different breed of cat. "The most important thing with them is confidence. If they don't have confidence, they're not gonna be a success. A pitcher has to feel that you want him." Farmer bore out that theory.

It seemed very im- rvnrtnnf In. him U'hpn he TP- l' i lated Martin's words to to get you." Of course, you have to implement this confidence a little bit. "The first thing you find out is what the problem was with the other club," Martin said. "Then you tell him the way you want him to pitch. L.

i Lot AnjtWi Timet Strvict LOS ANGELES "People used to think I was crazy," said Ernie DiGregorio. "They even said I wasn't going to look like a man when I grew up but like a basketball. I knew the people that ran this local bar and when I went to see them I'd be bouncing a ball. They didn't mind. Even when I went to my girl friend's house to pick her up, I'd have a basketball with me.

I was almost never without one." He paused. "Maybe I was crazy," he said. "But it paid off, didn't it?" Ernie D. was the third player selected in the National Basketball Association draft by the Buffalo Braves. That money.

Lots of it. It's the American dream come true. The scriDt TAKE this little Italian kid from North Providence, R. not exactly the nation's basketball hotbed. When he's 11 ED FABMER ter of the sleight of hand.

A Merlin. A Houdini. Put him on national television in the NCAA semifinals for the most dazzling 10 minutes of basketball in memory. And then have the pros ignore the fact he's a 6-foot midget and offer him a small fortune. Ernie DiGregorio isn't surprised by that storyline improbable as it may seem.

"I'm very confident," he said. "I have no worry about my size in the pros, I've always felt I could do whatever I want to whoever I want. I know I'll have to work hard on my defense. But offensively I just don't think there are many people who can do the things I can do." BUT he's the first to admit it didn't just happen that way. What he says is straight out of the work ethic guidebook: "If you're going to be any good, you have to work harder than the other person." And if that's playing bas ketball six or seven hours a day, with never more than one day in a row off In 10 or 12 years, so be it.

Ask him if he just practiced shooting in all those hours, often working alone, and Ernie D. arches his dark eyebrows. "Anything but," he said. "I might do 20 fingertip pushups, then some sprints. Then maybe I'd hook from different angles, practice spins, fakes, jump one way 10 times and another 10 times." Even with that variety, however, didn't it get boring? "No," he said, "and if it ever does, Til quit.

I do take my radio along sometimes now, to break up the routine. But I stilll love basketball." A couple of hours before Providence was to play Memphis State in the NCAA semifinals last month, Ernie D. was on the court in his street clothes, alone, practicing. "I just wanted to get the feeling of the floor and the hoop," he said. "There's so much pressure in the NCAA.

You hate to get that far and then not be able to play because you're nervous. Work- ing the way I did relieved the tension." ERNIE scored 36 points but Providence lost 98-85. Some think Buffalo gambled in taking Ernie D. as high as it did. Nate Archibald and Gail Goodrich, however, have proved little men can play big in the NBA.

"I've talked with the Buffalo coach and general manager," Ernie said, "and they think I can help them. I think so, too. I'm just glad the waiting is over. Ernie D. was snubbed in last year's Olympic Trials.

He still thinks he should have been at Munich. "I was disappointed by not being asked to the Olympic camp," he said. "I couldn't buy the fact there were 50 players in the country better than I was. Maybe not going to the Olympics helped me, though. I worked hard, maybe to prove people wrong, and I got better." Ernie DiGregorio years old, give him a basketball and send him out to the school yard.

Have him watch the top college and pro players in the area but, more than that, have him practice. Six or seven hours a day. Every day. Have him go to the local college, Providence. Turn him into a star, maybe the brightest in the college game apart from UCLA's Bill Walton.

A baby-faced magician. A mas By RICHARD ZITRIN tKM Journal staff Writer BATH TVVP. Down the private drive, over the bumps those signs warn you about, and just past the vegetable garden, you'll find Nellie Firestone the official gteeter. Doing what a ten-week-old beagle does best, Nellie goes through a welcoming ceremony consisting of licking followed by feeble attempts at nipping. The salutation complete, you're in.

The inhabitants, namely Nellie's family, have just moved in, still have furniture to buy. But Betsy's piano is there, Doug's paintings are there, in fact, even his favorite chair is there, right in front of the TV. "Most people have a big chair that's their favorite," Betsy says. "But not Doug. His favorite is a bean bag chair." NOW that it's been established that Doug's different, let's establish he's a Firestone.

That makes it easier to understand why the young man's different. In fact, Doug Firestone by now is more than accustomed to having the family name thrown at him. When he was going to high school in California he learned exactly what "tease" means. When he spent two years at Heidelberg he picked up the name Tires. And then we have the Indy 500, where Doug has spent some time the past two years.

Last month he helped check tire wear, and the 23-year-old with two Firestones on his jacket picked up another name. The Goodyear people dubbed him Flintstone. "They tease me a lot," he says. "But since they talk to me and kid me, I know I'm one of them." ACTUALLY, the soft-spoken young man insists, being "one of them" is all he's interested in. "If people know I'm a Firestone, OK," he says.

"If not, that's OK too. It doesn't bother me one way or the other. What can you do? I care what people think about me. It's only natural. But I don't over-react.

I just can't be worried if they like or dislike me. There's nothing I can do. I can't change being a Firestone. And people will have their opinions no matter what you really do. I just try to be myself." And being himself, Doug Firestone is joining the family business.

He's worked as a salesman and tire mounter in Firestone stores, worked in development, worked at Indy, and now is working in production. It's all part of a plan developed by the personnel department and his uncle actually his great-uncle Raymond, chairman of Firestone Tire and Rubber. In fact, Doug, wife Betsy, 1-year-old Heidi, and Nellie are living in a home owned by Raymond on Lauray Farm. And every workday Doug, whose father is Russell gets in his Porsche and drives down to Firestone, to learn whatever he's supposed to learn. "I want to be useful," he says.

"I want to provide something for the company, hopefully to move it onward and upward, no matter what I'm in. I guess you naturally think about becoming chairman of the board, and I guess people think I'll just naturally get it. But just because my name is Firestone they won't put me somewhere if I don't deserve it." DOUG started at Heidelberg and only lasted two years. "It wasn't what I had in mind," he says. "School is important, but I wanted to go to work.

I'm more interested in that than going to school fulltime. The rubber business "He likes to throw the fastball more and the breaking ball not so much. "I told him to forget about throwing to spots. He was Jrying to be too fine with everything when he came to us. I told him to just throw hard because he's got a good live fcrm." Farmer amplified the difference a little more.

"The Indians wanted me to go sidearm 100 he said. "They I'd lost my fastball over the top. "I prefer coming over the top. I didn't get here throwing jsidearm although it can be an effective two-strike pitch. "The Indians got upset with me because I didn't change iiy motion," Farmer continued.

"I can honestly say I tried, but I was aggressive about it. Farmer got credit for the 4-3 win in the opener against The Indians, working 1 and two-thirds innings, giving up two hits and striking out two. But he said it was no sweeter because it was over the Indians. To a degree, he even defended what they tried to do Jwith him. "I can understand it," he said, "because I wasn't -throwing good.

I didn't pitch good for Ken Aspromonte. I "I always came out to the park thinking I could do the "job. I thought I could be effective over there as well as anywhere else. But I didn't start throwing well until a couple of Veeks ago." IT DOESN'T SEEM SO LONG AGO that the Kent State baseball stories included Thurman Munson's hits, runs bathed in AND how many runners he picked off. Seemed impossible that a catcher could pick off that many runners.

But even the Cleveland writers had their mouths hanging open after the last series in Municipal Stadium. He Jthrew out one runner so fast, they weren't sure what they saw. Many even thought he threw sidearm out of a crouch which is against all the rules. The point is, he threaded the eye of the needle at second SAVE $8A4 am ITC" set of 4 shocks and Yankee shortstop Gene Michael had to wait for the runner to slide in. A few innings later, Munson nearly picked John Ellis off second even though he had to pull the pitch out of the dirt.

And he says unabashedly, "I know there isn't anyone in the league who can out-catch me." There is one, however, who is out-polling him in the All-Star voting, Boston's Carlton Fisk. In fact, Detroit's Bill Freehan also has been listed ahead of him. The fans seem excited by Mun- ssr 23" i fe 3 vr Provide measured I fj 1 slabililv and road ton- I tad plus III Aa Xloe i yi HI Shock Jyfcj Heavy-Outy Shock Absortwr tain 1 1 fe Vj dufl to faulty matariala or workman aa- ship or wears-out whila tha original Kffindv Ilirfpr purchaser owns lha ear. it will ba 9 replaced upon return Ire ol charge, laI aj 4M. MU 3J SnOPKS 'he purchase price will be re- tf funded.

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The infield is and you really have to get out in front quick to hit a home run (because the field is huge except on the lines). hit a lot of long flies that are caught. The stadium real--lyeats at your average." I Munson is hitting a highly respectable .282 nonetheless 'and powcr-v. Ise is having his best year ever 11 homers add 39 RBIs. That's more homers than he has ever hit in on season before and the RBIs are only 14 behind his 1970 'Jiigh of 53.

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