Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 81

High-Low, No Go for Buckeye Joe Tigers' Sparma Just What Boston Hitters Like, 7-4 By CHARLIE HASS State Journal Assistant Sports Editor DETROIT Mayo Smith can relax today. Joe Sparma's pitching turn has passed again. So what if his Tigers face the possibility of suffering their longest losing streak five games since 1967? So what if Denny McLain is scheduled to face those Boston bombers and he's already lost three games this young season? Anything is better than sitting on the powder keg created when Buckeye Joe Sparma attaches himself to a baseball and starts it sleaming somewhere toward home plate. Mayo needed aspirins, Iran- Then Joe wasn't close on his four pitches to Mike Andrews for the second gift tally. "I thought of taking him out right then, but Dobson wasn't ready," Smith said.

Yastrezemski was, and how. He hit Joe's first offering a letter-high fastball which Dalton Jones said looked like a beachball on a line into the second deck above the 415-foot marker in right centerfield. It was Carl's second career grand slam and was Sparma's ticket for an early and solitary shower. "Yaz" then intiated Tiger lefty Fred Scherman to the American League by lining a 1-1 slider right over the 370-foot marker in right in the fourth inning. "Scherman did a good job in his two inning praised Smith.

"Except, of course, for that slider he threw Ystrzem-ski. Detroit, now 8-8 for the season, hit the scoreboard in the second when Norm Cash (as in CRASH) nearly sent a Culp fastball out of Tiger Stadium a feat the powerful Texas has already accomplished four times. The drive bounced off the roof of the third deck down the See TIGERS, G-2, Col. 2 3i 7" VI545ViK4 i st-m Two Homers Break Slump For 'Yaz' I'LL GET HIM Boston catcher Joe Azcue and pitcher Ray Culp both grabbed for Don Wert's infield grounder in the third inning of Saturday's game at Tiger Stadium and Azcue came up with a perfect throw for the out. Red Sox scored 7-4 victory over slumping Detroiters.

(LTD Telephoto) i 1 tate Gets Revenge With Sweep at EMU to 16-6 and spoiled the dedication festivities for the Hurons in their brand new ball park. Lansing, Michigan April 27, 1969 SECTION (Qj quilizers and Turns for his tummy here Saturday as Sparma battled himself, as usual, and in the process suffered his first loss of the season, 7-4, to the rousing Red Sox. They're hammering homers this season (30 so far) like they're afraid somebody's going to take their bats away which is what the Tigers should have done to slump-ridden Carl Yastrzemski. "Yaz," disguised as a .194 hitter (12 for 62), smashed two home runs so hard Saturday that if Tiger Stadium hadn't gotten in the way, they may have beaten Apollo 11 to the moon. The first one, in the second inning, just happened to come after Sparma had "finessed" two Boston runs in by yielding a single to Dalton Jones the old Tiger killer and issuing four straight walks after he had gotten two out.

The first walk went to Joe Azcue, the catcher Boston obtained from Cleveland in the Ken Harrelson deal. That brought Mayo to the top of the dugout steps. The second went to pitcher Ray Culp, and that brought Smith out to the mound at a pretty good clip and started Pat Dobson throwing in the bullpen. The third walk was an eight-pitch job to Joe LaHoud and the last Sparma heave looked like one of the passes he used to throw as an Ohio State quarterbackit was at least a foot over LaHoud's head, forcing in the first run. BOSTON ab bi LaHoud rf 3 10 1 Andrews 2b 3 111 Ystrmski If 4 2 2 5 Thomas If 0 0 0 0 AConiglro rf 5 0 1 0 BConigiro cf 0 0 0 0 Scott 3b 5 0 0 0 DJones lb 4 13 0 Petroclli ss 4 0 10 Azcue 3 10 0 Culo 3 10 0 DETROIT ab bi Matchick 2b Stanley ss Kaline rf Cash lb WHorton If Northrup cf Freehan Wert 3b Sparma Dobson Woods Ph 5 0 10 4 110 3 0 10 4 2 11 4 0 12 4 0 0 0 3 111 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 Schermn Campbell Ph 1 0 0 0 Radatz 0 0 0 0 MAuliffe ph 10 0 0 Kilkenny 0 0 0 0 Brown ph 0 0 0 0 Total 34 7 8 7 Total 34 4 i 4 Boston OiO 100 6007 Detroit tl 0 002 001 4 Scott.

DP Detroit 1. LOB Boston 7. Detroit 2B W.Horton, Kaline. 3B D.Jones. HR Yastrzemski 1 (4), Cash (3), Freehan (4).

SB A.Conigliaro. IP ER BB SO 4 4 3 7 Culn Sparma (L.2-1) 12-3 Dobson 11-3 Scherman 2 Radatz 2 Kilkenny 2 HBP by Kilkenny (LaHoud). Sparma. 2:28. A 14.395.

use the new Spartan attack, went against the No. 1 defense. There were no changes in ei ther starting lineups. "We were obviously im-prove Daugherty commented, speaking about the offense. "The entire team now has a better concept of what we are trying to do on the attack.

It will take more time, but I was pleased with the improvement shown." Besides at the three running back positions, there's a good battle for the starting tight end spot. Senior Bruce Kulesza still is rated as No. 1, but he's getting a good tussle from two sophomores-to-be Gary Van-Elst from Middleville and Jim Nicholson from Hawaii. Nicholson and VanElst are in the 250-pound class, about 40 pounds heavier than Kulesza. Weight is a great advantage at the position.

"We'll probably make a decision on the position sometime this week," Daugherty said. "Both of the freshmen are fine prospects. One will stay with the offense, and the other will be shifted to defense. We'll work him in as an end, or pos-isbly, as a middle guard." Saturday's drill climaxed the second of five weeks of spring training. Daugherty plans another closed workout in the stadium next Saturday and then will take the squad to Flint's Atwood Stadium, which has synthetic turf, for the May 10 scrimmage.

ASS COLUMN BODY ENGLISH Lee Trcvino bends over backwards trying to help his birdie putt into the cup on the first green of the third round at Dallas in the Byron Nelson Golf Classic Saturday. Trevirio's putt didn't fall but he tied Bob Charles for the lead with a 54-hole total of 20fi heading into today's final action. See story Page G-3. (ITI Telephoto) Rugged Competition In State Backfield A crowd of 2,000 saw the twin bill in which State jumped to an early 5-0 lead in the first game and held on to give senior Mickey Knight his fourth victory in five games. Dan Bielski tossed a sparkling three-hitter in the nightcap, putting his record at 4-2.

Michigan State wore its heavy-hitting uniforms, pounding out 13 hits in the first game which included Rick Miller's Hvo-run homer, a triple by Joe Gavel and two singles by Lansing's George Pctroff. petroff came bnck with a single and triple in the nightcap. Eastern, which beat the Spartans last Wednesday, 3-2, rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to close State's lead to fi-4. Dave Williams relieved Knight and preserved the decision. Richie Jordan chipped in with three base hits and drove in as many runs.

Catcher Harry Kendrick powered State's second victory', slamming out his first homer of the year and also adding a double. Phil Rashcad and Petroff also had a pair of hits in the Spartans' nine-hit attack. Bielski, the senior from Wyandotte, had six strikeouts. Zana Easton of Grand Ledge relieved in the seventh. Rashcad, sophomore from Flint St.

Agnes, collected three rbi. First Game Michigan State ..002 170 1017 13 .1 Eastern Michigan 000 001 0315 13 4 Mickey Knight. Dave Williams (6) and Harry Kendrick. Krumm. Giffin (4).

Allen (81, Olms (9) and Krupinski. MSU Hits: Joe Gavel (triple), Richir Jordan 3, Rick Miller 3(home run), Phil Rarhead Harry Kendrick, George Pctroff 2, Mickey Knight, Dave Williams. Eastern Collins, Warkenstein, Peck (double), Trott, Casteel, Knowles 5 (double), McLaughlin 3. Second Game Michigan State 101 470 08 7 Eastern Michigan 100 000 01 1 3 Dan Bielski, Zana Easton (7) and Harry Kendrick, John Keene (7); Burkert, Allen (4) and Smigelski. MSU Hits: Rick Miller, Phil Rashcad 2, Larry Rettenmund (double), Harry Kendrick 1 (home run, double), George Petroff 2 (triple).

Rich Vary. Eastern Workenstein, Knowles, Trott. DETROIT Too bad Boston's Carl Yastrzemski was in a deep batting slump Saturday too bad for Detroit's Joe Sparma. When "Yaz" faced Sparma in the second inning, the bases were filled with Red Sox and Joe had already walked in two runs, running his walk total to 20 for 1713 innings. "If I had been in a good groove, I would have made him throw me a strike after the way he had been missing the plate," a happy Yastrzemski said after the game.

"But the way I've been struggling, I decided that if he threw it in there, I would take a pop at it." Joe's first pitch was really "in there" and suddenly it was "out of there" as Yastrzemski smashed the grand slammer on a line to the upper deck in right center above the 415-foot s-ign. "You could have hung Monday's wash on that hit," Tiger coach Wally Moses observed. And you could have put Tuesday's linens on the line drive "Yaz" clouted off rookie lefty Fred Scherman in the fourth. "It felt good to contribute a a i Yastrzemski said. "Did my average (was .194) go above I wasn't hitting my weight (182) there for a while." Carl now sports a .212 mark with four homers and 10 runs-batted-in which i 't really great shakes for the triple-crown winner of 1967, but as he points out: "I never really start hitting steady until May 15th or so." Boston manager Dick Wil- liams agreed that it was nice to have "Yaz" contributing a ain.

but he couldn't be too worried about his power supply-Sitting on the bench Saturday were Billy Conigliaro (Tony's brother) and rookie catcher Gerry Moses. These two Bosox "kiddies" have been something else. Billy is batting .400 (10 for 25) and with four homers has a slugging average of .920, while Moses, hitting .444 with two homers, is slugging at a sledgehammer .755 clip. And then there's shortstop Rico Petrocelli who collected a single Saturday in four trips to extend his hitting streak to eight games. He started the season with a seven-game string and has had two-hit games 10 times this year.

Boston broke an American League record Saturday with the two Yastrzemski homers for most homers in 10 consecutive games. Connecting in each contest, the Red Sox pounded out 26 two more than the Minnesota Twins had in 10 games in 1963. Tommy Matchick, who filled in for ailing Dick McAuliffe at second Saturday (and got a hit), will be at third base today for slumping Don Wert. Wert went 0-for-4 Saturday, sending his average down to .094. "Don hasn't been hittins and maybe a rest will do him some Mayo Smith said.

Dalton Jones, who had two singles and a triple to raise his average to .333, would probably he baseball's first .500 hit-tor if he played at Detroit all the time. "I love Tiger Stadium," Jones drawled. "Wish I could take it with me when we leave." Dalton inherited the first base job when Boston traded Ken Harrelson to Cleveland HASS Earl Anderson and Kermit Smith formed the second unit. Both units were effective. Allen and Anderson each scored a touchdown.

Allen's came on a two-yard burst and Anderson rolled 46 yards for the day's longest run. Love scored the last two of the long scrimmage, both short darts. Triplett also went over twice once on a sneak and the second time on a 21-yarder. He had several gains of more than 10 yards. The No 1 offense worked against the No.

2 defense and the No. 2 offense, which did not BILL TRIPLETT Throws 2 TD Strikes ft' By BOB HOERNER State Journal Sports Editor Coaches and it doesn't mailer what the sport is like to have strong competition for the individual positions. There's some good competition in Michigan State's football camp this spring. "Our running backs are coming along real fine," Spartan boss Duffy Daugherty commented after a two-hour drill in the stadium Saturday afternoon. "The attitude is real good, and right now, it's difficult to say who might start next fall.

That's how we like it at this time of the year. All of them are running well now." The offense showed much more strength than a week ago and scored nine touchdowns. The defense scored twice on intercepted passes. "We a 't done much work with our passing game this spring because we're spending more time on the new running phase," Daugherty explained. "Those interceptions were not caused by bad passes, but came when the receivers broke their patterns." Bill Triplett, the only experi-enced quarterback on the squad, directed the first unit all afternoon.

He connected on two long-bombs to Gordon Bowdell for touchdowns covering 79 and 41 yards. Triplett worked with two sets of running backs. Veterans Tommy Love, Gary Parmen-tier and Don Highsmith were the starters and Eric Allen, YPSILANTI Michigan State hopped back on the winning trail in baseball here Saturday afternoon against the team i halted the Spartans' eight-game win steak only three days before. Coach Danny Litwhilcr's Spartans bumped Ea Michigan's Hurons twice, winning the nine-inning opener, 7-5. and taking the seven-inning nightcap, 8-1.

The Spartans, who will host Western Michigan on Tuesday at John H. Kobs Field before jniriK to Indiana and Ohio State on thr weekend in Big Ten games, hiked their record Ruins were set and the two-day total of eight was far below expectations on the first test of the new synthetic track. Pro Basketball Playoffs at A Glance By The Associated Press NBA FINALS Friday's Result Los Angeles 118, Boston 112. Los Angeles leads' best-of-7 series 2-0. TODAY'S GAME Los Angeles at Boston, afternoon.

Monday's Game No game scheduled ABA Friday's Results Eastern Division Finals Oakland 128. New Orleans 114. Oakland win best-of-7 series -0. TODAY'S GAME Indiana at Miami, if necessary. Monday's Game No games scheduled.

Albion Captures MIAA Twin Bill ALBION Dave 1 1 's two-run in the first game and Jim Horner's one-hit pitching in the nightcap sparked the Albion Britons to a pair of MIAA victories over Kalamazoo, 4-3 and 1-0. Ii was the first comnctitinn in league play for defending hague champion Albio.n Drake Bacheler, former Miami of Ohio star running for the Florida Tvack Club, trimmed nearly a minute off the meet six-mile mark with a 27:22.2 clocking to follow up his Friday triumph in the three-mile. Ryun, asserting "I was tired," dropped out of his anchor 88' lap for Kansas' sprint medley team after running fourth at the lime. Friday, the. world record holder at the mile and 880 turned in a poor 4:11.0 anchor mile for second-place Kansas in the four-mile relay.

Ryun's fadeout came in one of the closing day's zany developments watched by a soaked crowd of 16,000 Jrack buffs. RECORD TIME Villanova's Frank Murphy out legs Larry Kelly of Tennessee to the tape during Sprint Medley Relay Saturday at Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Villanova set a record for the event with a time of 3:17, breaking the old mark of 3:17.8 by Tennessee two years ago. Story G-3. (UPI Telephoto) Only Two Records Broken Big 10 Standings w.

L. Pet. Minnesota i.ooo MICHIGAN STATE 2 llinois 3 Purdue 3 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 2 Indiana 0 Iowa 0 Michigan 0 Northwc4''rn 0 SATURDAY'S RESULTS 1.C00 .750 .750 .500 .500 .000 xco .000 MICHIGAN STATE 7-8. Eastern Michigan 5-1 (non-league) Minnesota 6-8, Ohio State Purdue 12-3, Northwestern 7 7 Wisconsin 3-3, Illinois 1-8 Indiana at Iowa, ppd. rain GAMES THIS WEEKEND Friday Michigan State at Indiana (2) Michigan at Ohio State (2) Illinois at Purdue Iowa at Wisconsin (2) Minnesota at Northwestern (2) Saturday Michigan State at Ohio State (2) Michigan at Indiana (2) Illinois at Purdue Iowa at Northwestern (2) Minnesota at Wisconsin (2) Triple Champ NEW YORK (UPI) Henry Armstrong was the only boxer to hold three world championships at the same time.

In 1938, he held the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight crowns simultane- Finale The university sprint medley race ostensibly was won by Notre Dame in a creditable 3:16.0, but the Irish were disqualified because the leadoff runner, Bill Hurd. moved into the wrong lane at the outset. The victory was given to Rice, its second baton title of the meet, with a clocking of 3:18.0 after the Owls' anchor half miler had been whipped by Notre Dame's Joe Quigley with a fine 1:46.9. Villanova Leads Way at Penn, G-3 Rain DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Marred by a soaking rain disqualifications and a fadeout by Jim Ryun, the 60th Drake Relays wind-up Saturday brought only two new meet marks in the 23-event program. An expected heavy record-breaking assault on Drake University's new red Tartan track faded into fresh meet marks only in a special 100-yard dash with a 9.4 victory by world record co-holder Charlie Greene and distance star Jack Bachel-er's six-mile triumph for the two-day meet's only double.

In Friday's sunny opening' session, six Drake records Today's Gamt St. Louis at Montreal, afternoon, first game in best-of-7 series. Monday's Game No game scheduled. American League Fridev's Result Quebec S. Providence 1, Quebec wins best-of-5 semifinal series 3-2.

Today's Game Quebec at Hcrshey, first gams in best-of-7 final series. Sunday's Game Ne game scheduled Monday's Game No game scheduled PITCHER WINS OUT Houston pitcher Wade Blasingame (top) and San Francisco's Willie McCovey lay in a tangle of bodies al home plate in seventh inning of Saturday's game at Candlestick Park. McCovey tried to score from second on Blasingame's wild pitch but Astro catcher John Edwards retrieved the ball in time, threw to Blasingame who made the tag. Giants won game, 2-1. (LPI Telephoto.) tf ty a i a.