Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 40

The Indiana Gazette Friday, July 29, 1994 Page Absolutely Perfect Rogers throws gem at Angels By CHARLES RICHARDS Associated Press Writer ARLINGTON, Texas Kenny Rogers, master of all of his pitches on a historic night, was a master of understatement as well. In describing a marvelous ninth-inning catch by center fielder Rusty Greer that preserved baseball's 12th perfect game, Rogers said he "went after it like there was a no-hitter on the line." During a sparkling 4-0 victory over California on Thursday night, the only one of Rogers' 98 pitches that threatened to fall untouched to the outfield grass came off the bat of Rex Hudler. "I told the fans in the first few rows that I was going to break it up," the California second baseman said. "Everybody was yelling at me, saying, 'Don't you do I told them I was going to dork- him. "He threw me two curves for strikes, and then on the next pitch I saw a fastball grip and the ball came out over the plate.

I hit it off the end of my bat. I said to myself, 'I dorked But the ball just kept floating like it was floating on air and I said to myself, 'Oh, no, the kid is going to catch The kid "was going to give it my best effort whether I caught it or not," Greer said. "No matter what, I was going to dive." For naught, Rogers believed. "When it left his bat, I thought it was a hit for sure," he admitted. "I got a pretty good jump," Greer said, "just dove and it fell in my glove." Rogers still wasn't sure.

"I never thought he was going to get it," Rogers said. "I thought that ball was going to drop, no matter what. Then I thought the ball was going to pop out. "I knew," Rogers added, "there was going to be a defensive play before it was over, but not something that spectacular. When he made the catch, I thought someone wanted me to do this." Do it he did by inducing the next two batters into routine outs and setting off a wild celebration around the mound.

For the record, Rogers (11-6) struck out eight, four on called third strikes, as Texas turned the tables on California. On the last day of the 1984 season, California's Mike Witt threw the last American League perfect game in beating the Rangers. The last previous perfect game was thrown by Montreal's Dennis Martinez against Los Angeles three years ago. Rogers is the first American League lefty to throw a perfect game and the third overall, joining Los Angeles' Sandy Koufax (1965) and Cincinnati's Tom Browning (1988). This was the third no-hitter of the season.

Kent Mercker pitched one for Atlanta on April 8 at Los Angeles and Scott Erickson did it for Minnesota against Milwaukee on April 27. Rogers pitched the fifth no- hitter in Texas history and the first since Nolan Ryan did it on May 1,1991, against Toronto. The Angels were held hitless for the sixth time, the last time by Joe Cowley of Chicago on Sept. 19. 1986.

"He was better than perfect," said Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who was catching his first no-hitter. "He was throwing strikes with his breaking ball, his changeup and the fastball." Angels manager Marcel Lache- mann agreed. "He changed speeds, he spotted his fastballs. You have to tip your hat to him. When he had to make a pitch, he would use the changeup.

Then you'd start looking for the changeup, and he'd pop the fastball," Lachemann said. Rogers went to three balls on Kenny Rogers celebrates his perfect game with Ivan Rodriguez and Will Clark. (AP photo) seven batters, including four straight beginning with two out in the sixth. In the seventh, Rogers went to 3-2 counts on all three batters. "That just made us concentrate more," Rodriguez said.

Jose Canseco had a solo homer for the Rangers in a two-run first inning, and then Rodriguez and Canseco hit consecutive homers in the third, all off Andrew Lorraine (0-2), giving Rogers all the cushion he needed. Rogers was a lonely man in the late innings. "Just like the no-hitters I've seen, the guys were staying away from me. As it went along, they kind of started separating themselves from me. But they were with me in the field," he said.

So was the sellout crowd of 46,581 at The Ballpark in Arlington. "It was great, having the fans cheer every pitch. They were on their feet. Walking off after the eighth, I had to look up and see it," Rogers said. "I'm sorry for our team," Hudler said, "but tonight, Kenny was the man, and there were no angels in-the outfield." Aug.

12 strike would hurt fans most By The Associated Press While fans are split on which side to blame for a possible baseball strike, they all seem to agree on who would be hurt the most. "The fans lose," John Kilzhen- stein said during a doubleheader Thursday between Cleveland and Baltimore-at Camden Yards. "There's nothing you can do. You just have to wait it out," said Kilzhenstein, a 24-year-old travel and sales agent from Forest Hills, Md. "It disappoints me more than it surprises me." The players plan to go on strike Aug.

12 unless a new labor agreement is worked out with the owners. At this point, neither side seems ready to budge. Aaron Urbanek, like most fans, wants to see a speedy settlement. A 26-year-old manager of a music store in Cleveland, he was in Baltimore to watch his surprising Indians. "With Cleveland doing as well as they are, Cleveland doesn't want to see this happen.

This is the first great team in a lot of years, so it's bad for the fans more than anybody," he said. "I'm undecided on who to side with, to be honest with you. I can see both sides. The league seems to do very well financially, and obviously the players are doing very well financially," he said. Baseball's labor history A history of baseball labor disputes, with type.

length, number of regular-season games canceled and issues: Year Work stoppage Length Games lost Issues 1972 1973 1976 1980 1981 1985 1990 Strike Lockout Lockout Strike Strike Strike Lockout 14 days 12 days 17 days 8 days 50 days 2 days 32 0 0 0 712 0 0 pensions arbitration free agency free agency free agency salary cap salary cap De Gasero Cheryl Lyon, 37, of Kansas City, said players and owners were being "ridiculous." "They're in it for the money and that's it for these guys," she said. "Whatever happened to the good ol' days when they played for fun and because they loved the sport? The teams increase the parking fees and ticket prices, and the families who have kids who would really love to go to a ballgame can't even afford to go anymore." Veronica Kulla, an 80-year-old fan from St. Louis, sounded a familiar sentiment. "They make so much money now, but there's always a dispute," she said. Matthew Gesgeland, 26, of Cincinnati, said the players were at fault, and said he didn't think they should have a right to go on strike.

"They're overpaid already. I don't know what they're so upset over," Gesgeland said. But he said that he wouldn't be irked enough by a strike to boycott games. "I'm too much of a baseball fan not to go," he said. That's how a lot of fans feel.

Bruce Stinson, 31, of Fayetteville, N.C., said he would attend Atlanta Braves games after a strike. "The players have got a good point, and the owners do, too," he said. "They make a lot of money already." Frank Sullivan, an Indians season-ticket holder, said he thought players chose Aug. 12 as their strike date because of an attempt to have fans boycott games the following day. "There's only one reason the players would pick Aug.

12," said Sullivan, an organizer of the boycott. "They sensed a groundswell of fan resentment and the mood in the country, and they were going to face the first well-organized fan protest of any size. They don't want to see that." Sullivan said representatives of various fan groups had come to know each other in recent days while planning the boycott. He said the groups will have a conference call to determine whether they can establish a new date for a boycott. Pitcher Mark Langston, the player representative of the California Angels, said he understood the fans' frustration.

"Unfortunately, it's a no-win situation for the fans. It's difficult for them to understand what's actually happening," he said. "Unfortunately, it's the fans who'll take the brunt of it." Cubs become latest to torch Bucs, 10-3 By ALAN ROBINSON AP Sports Writer PITTSBURGH The message is quickly getting around the National League. Need your batting average repaired? Looking for a couple of quick-fix home runs? Check your schedule, and circle those dates in Pittsburgh. The Chicago Cubs became the latest team to take nine innings of batting practice against Pittsburgh's oft-battered and oft-generous pitching staff, turning a five-run first inning and 17 hits into a 10-3 romp Thursday.

"We had a very nice top of the first. We did a lot of things right. We got five runs on six hits, and that's pretty good," Cubs manager Tom Trebel- horn. Pirates starter Steve Cooke was finished after just five batters and five hits and five runs. The Cubs were just getting started.

Eddie Zambrano, Sammy Sosa and Steve Buechele had three hits apiece, Buechele hom- ered and drove in three runs and rookie Larry Haney hit his first major-league home run. All of the hitting made it easy for rookie Kevin Foster (3-3), who won his first since June 25 by pitching four-hit ball over seven innings. He struck out seven, giving him 27 strikeouts in his last three starts. "We gave up too many hits (Wednesday), so we said we'll have to come out and get 16 of our own," Trebelhorn said. "We did that one better.

We had a good first and we kept going." And going and going and going Haney is such a light hitter he started the game hitting .143 that he hadn't even homered in batting practice all season until Thursday. "Getting my first hit in 1992 was my greatest moment in baseball, but this is second right here," Haney said. Cooke didn't even see the second. He was gone after Shawon Dunston's double and singles by Zambrano, Sosa, Glenallen Hill and Derrick May, and reliever Paul Wagner yielded a pair of sacrifice flies and Buechele's RBI single. The game had barely started, and Pirates manager Jim Leyland already had seen enough.

Of course, he's seen plenty of innings like this recently. Since the All-Star break, the Pirates have allowed five or more runs in an inning seven times: three five-run innings, a six-run inning, a seven-run inning and two eight-run innings. The only thing heating up faster than Leyland's temper is his pitching staffs ERA, which is 4.71 and climbing. "This is where the big boys are playing and you'd better start performing at some point if you want to stay here," Leyland said. "Walking people, bouncing balls up to home plate, I'm really get sick of some of this stuff." Two weeks ago, Leyland ran out of patience with Wagner following three straight bad starts and demoted him to the bullpen.

Cooke (4-9) may be the next to go. A 10-game winner as a rookie last season, the left-hander has won just once in eight starts. He is 0-4 with a 7.46 ERA in his last six starts. In his last two, and this isn't a typographical error, his ERA is 54.00. "This is probably the biggest test of my life," Cooke said.

"I've had two pretty bad games in a row here. Who knows, I might still be pitching if there's a strike. I might be in the minors by then If I keep pitching like this, can you blame them?" There's plenty of blame to go around a pitching staff that has yielded 10 or more runs in 16 of the Pirates' 101 games. Cubs hitters take note: Barring a season-ending strike, the Pirates close the season in Wrigley Field on Sept. 30-Oct.

2. "They hit everything I threw up there," Cooke said. "Basically what it comes down to is I'm not getting anybody out." 'Last resort 7 on baseball horizon By RONALD BLUM AP Sports Writer NEW YORK Baseball players will go on strike two weeks from today unless owners drop their demand for a salary cap and agree to a new labor contract. "At this point, I feel there's definitely going to be a strike," San Francisco Giants pitcher Rich Monteleone said Thursday after he joined 30 other members of the union's executive board in a unanimous vote to set the Aug. 12 date for a walkout.

A work stoppage would be baseball's eighth in 22 years and would threaten the final 52 days of the regular season, the new expanded playoffs and the World Series. It also would threaten the owners' postseason television money, which they estimate at $140 million. "A strike is a last resort," union head Donald Fehr said after the board met in a 90-minute telephone conference call. "No one wants to play ball more than the players do. But the owners continue to insist on a salary cap.

The owners have made it clear that they are prepared to unilaterally implement a salary cap without the consent after the season ends. This leaves the players no other choice." Baseball, corning off record revenue of $1.8 billion last season and with an average player salary of $1.2 million this year, is stuck in a three-way confrontation among large-market clubs, small-market teams and the players. Small-market owners say they need large-market clubs to share more revenue, and all owners voted unanimously to tie increased revenue sharing to a salary cap, which management is threatening to impose after the season. Players say a cap would destroy free agency by inhibiting player movement. "This is not a fight of the players' making," Fehr said.

"They really don't have much choice in the matter and it is terribly unfortunate." When asked how'long a confrontation could last, Fehr said "as long as it takes." Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers, head of the ruling -executive council and of the small-market owners insisting on change, said he was troubled by the day's events. Selig, speaking from his home in Milwaukee, said baseball's economic problems had to be addressed. Owners claim 19 of the 28 clubs will lose money this year but refuse to make financial data public. "The amount of despair everywhere is frightening," Selig said. "The economic distress in some places is so deep that I don't know how we don't face it.

The consequences if we don't face these problems are worse than what we do best in this industry: sweeping it under the rug. Tomorrow is here. Nobody is sorrier about that than I am. I wished these problems had been faced earlier up the road." A strike would interrupt the pursuit of Roger Maris' home "run record by Ken Griffey Jr. and Matt Williams and Tony Gwynn's attempt to hit .400.

"If we walk out," Gwynn said, "I'll know in my mind that we're going out for the right reasons, no question. I have no problem with that. If we sacrifice a run at .400 or a run at 61 homers, then so be it. There are things more important than records being broken." Richard Ravitch, the labor negotiator hired by owners to get a salary cap, said he regretted the union "has such a disregard for the fans." "Work stoppages don't produce any results than would otherwise be produced," Ravitch said during a news conference that followed the union's announcement. Fehr said no games would be played after Aug.

11 without an agreement to replace the four-year contract that expired Dec. 31. Ravitch said players refused to recognize that baseball was in trouble and needed a new economic system, one similar to the salary caps adopted in the NFL and NBA. "We're trying to move the clock forward," Ravitch said. "Let's not dwell on the past.

The history has been lousy. Let's get away from it." Bargaining teams now have two weeks to resolve a fight that Ravitch said he feared was more about ideology than money. The sides said they will continue negotiations.next week and probably will set a meeting schedule today. "If people want to resolve this, there's plenty of time to resolve this," Ravitch said- How the players and the owners stand on the issues WHAT THE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION WANTS Details of the collective bargaining proposal made by players union: Free agency: Eliminate the restriction on repeat free agency within a five-year span if a player's club offers salary arbitration at the end of his contract. Salary Arbitration: Reduce the threshold to two years of major league service, its level from 1974-'86.

It currently is three years plus the top 17 percent of the players with between two and three years of major league service. Minimum Salary: Increase from $109,000 to Pensions: Increase the levels for players who played before 1970. WHAT THE OWNERS WANT Details of the collective bargaining proposal made by the owners: Revenue: A 50-50 revenue split with players with a $1 billion total guaranteed over seven years if revenues dont decrease. Salary Cap: After a four-year phase-in period in the agreement; clubs couldn't have payrolls more than 110 percent of the average or less than 84 percent of the average. Salary arbitration eliminated.

Free agency: Free agency threshold would drop from six years of major league service to four, but players' old clubs would be able to match the highest offer until they have six years" service. Minimum salary: Escalating scale of minimum salaries for players with less than four years' major league service, but they could sign for more than the minimum. Revenue-sharing: Acceptance by players would trigger the agreement clubs made with each other in January to increase revenue that is shared among teams. The Cubs' Todd Honey rounds the bases after going deep on Pirates reliever Mark Dewey. (AP photo).