The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 29

GOLF YACHTING THE SUNDAY SIJN BALTIMORE. MD. PORTS FOOTBALL RACING OCTOBER 5. 1969 BASEBALL SECTION A Slump Prompted Bunt By Blair By JIM ELLIOT WIETS TRIP BRAVES IN OPENER, 9-5 ORIOLES NIP TWINS, 4-3, ON BLAIR'S SURPRISE BUNT IN 12TH INNING Three Bird Homers Keep Winners In Game Until Dramatic 30-Foot Tap With Two Out Drives Belanger Home In Play-Off Opener baseman Harmon Killebrew also admiringly, if unhappily, employed the word "perfect." And Martin, Perranoski, Roseboro and Killebrew weren't surprised in the least by the bunt. In fact, they were looking for it as a distinct possibility.

"It was a good play nothing at all wrong with it even if it didn't work a great bunt," 1 Martin said, "and if you don't think we anticipated it, look at our scouting reports. We are aware Blair's capable of doing it." "When I went to the plate," the almost breathless Blair began, "I said to myself that (Continued, Page A 14, Col. 3) When a baseball player is in a slump, he's far from happy. But when that slump leads to the winning run of the biggest game of the year, the unhappiness turns to something else. Yesterday's was the biggest game of the year thus far for the Orioles.

And' Paul Blair says his twelth-inning, two-out bunt single on his own scoring Mark Belanger for. a 4-to-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins was prompted by his troubled bat. "The bunt was perfect," Minnesota manager Billy Martin praised Blair. Twins pitcher Ron Perranoski, catcher John Roseboro and third 3) 7, 1 Five-Run Splurge In Eighth Clinches Victory For N.Y. By KEN NIGRO Sun Staff Correspondent Atlanta, Oct.

4 Luman Harris displayed remarkable patience today. The Braves' manager allowed his ace pitcher, Phil Niekro. to By LOU HATTER The Orioles, barely Minnesota's match with the long ball, outsmarted the Twins with the short ball, 4 to 3, here yesterday in the opener of the American League's first post-season championship series. Paul Blair's unplayable surprise twelfth-inning base-hit squeeze bunt decided a suspenseful struggle, pressure-packed with thrills, after solo homers by Frank Robinson, Mark Belanger suffer above and beyond the call zl JUT -r and Boog Powell scarcely had obtained a 3-all tie. Sunpawrs photo Clarence B.

Gsrrftt MAN OF THE HOURr Paul Blair is conratulaU'd by Andy Klflicbarren (left) and Frank Robinson as be comes off field following surprise bunt that scored winning run for Minis. 'WEAK' WEST PUTSUPFIGHT Martin Waxes Sarcastic After Opening Loss Blair's skillful 30-foot tap, inches inside the third-base foul stripe, brought Belanger streaking home in a suicide sprint, touching off a frenzied roar from 39,324 Memorial Stadium spectators. Two were out at the time, and Belanger had reached third on a scratch hit off third baseman Harmon Killebrew's glove, a sacrifice bunt by Andy Etche-barren and Don Buford's advancing roller to Leo Cardenas at short. Impossible Play 1 By JIM ELLIOT "Considering we're in such a weak division, I think my club did a great job out there," Billy Martin got a little sarcastic as he met the press after his Min nesota Twins bowed to the Ori oles in yesterday's opener of Twins' catcher John Roseboro the American League Championship series. desperately tried to scoop up the You couldn blame the Minne sota manager a whole lot for his baseball for an already impossible play on Blair, scooting down the first-base line with such haste that he scarcely dis comment.

Ail year long stones were written everywhere about turbed the dust. how superior the league's East The scene immediately there ern Division was to the Western. of duty. Finally, though, the 23-game winner and his mates fell apart as the Mets rallied for five runs in the eighth to register a 9-to-5 victory in the opening game of the National League championship series. Only one of the five runs was earned as the New Yorkers overcame a 5-4 deficit with the panicky Braves committing two errors and another mental lapse.

But Niekro, whose famed knuc-kleball often resembled a watermelon, should have been in the showers long before that. Little Trouble The Mets spanked him for nine hits, including four in the crucial eighth, and seemed to have little trouble following the flight of the dancing ball. The big blow in the eighth was pinch-hitter J. C. Martin's bases-loaded single that scored three runs when center fielder Tony Gonzalez allowed the ball to get past him.

The Mets had taken the lead earlier in the frame with two runs thanks to a missed play by rookie catcher Bob Didier and an error by first baseman Orlando Cepeda. Didier's "rock" came with one run in and runners on first and second. He had Cleon Jones picked off but instead of forcing a rundown, immediately threw to second. Makes Third Easily Jones quickly took off for third and made it easily. In the next instant he scored what proved to be the winning marker when Cepeda fielded Ed Kranepool's grounder and threw wild to home in another abortive attempt to get the Met left fielder.

But if Niekro was not himself, neither was Tom Seaver, the only 25-game winner in the major leagues. Seaver received credit for the victory but he struggled through seven innings in which he allowed two homers, four doubles and a pair of sin-g'es. One of the homers was by old after was reminiscent of a World Series triumph, which, of "We had the Orioles playing catchup ball out there for course, is the ultimate goal of the Eastern and Western Divi awhile, didn't we against the weak West," Martin added in sion titlists in this best-of-five- reference to the Oriole run in the ninth for a 3-3 tie before the 4-3 BEGINNING OF THE END Mark Belanger (left) races home with winning run as Twin catcher Joh Roseboro fails to come up with Paul Blair's bunt. victory in the 12th. Had It Won THE Maryland Ground Game "We had it won, lost it, tied it, had a chance to win it and they 3 BIRD HRS HIT OFF FAST BALLS Stuns Wake Forest A9 To 14 wound up winning it, Billy con tinued.

Morning After By Bob Maisel, Sports Editor "I'd say the thing that hurt us games tournament. While the visitors trudged disconsolately to their clubhouse, having put up a magnificent fight despite only four hits, Oriole teammates mobbed Blair. Poetic Justice For him, the decisive hit-tenth by the Orioles was a stroke of poetic justice. Going into the contest, Baltimore's matchless centerfielder had connected safely only 13 times for 85 at-bats during an agonizing 20-game slump. What is more, he had gone hitless yesterday, the most was Mark Belanger's By JIM HAWKINS Sunpapen Staff Correspondent home run the conditions under Perry Explains In Twins' Somber Locker Room which he hit it," Martin said Winston-Salem, N.C., Oct.

4 It was in the fifth that with two out, slammed a Avoiding the air asjf it were wheels are worth a few words and then some by stumbling and staggering through would-be Deacon tacklers for 158 yards and two TDs in 19 carries. 365-foot homer to left off Minne By SEYMOUR S. SMITH Assistant Sports Editor of The Sun The litany was long, and un sota starter Jim Perry to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. contaminated by a nuclear holocaust, the University of Maryland, which hadn't won a game in almost a year, stuck to the ground and stunned disappointed Wake Forest, 19 to 14, before And his sophomore fullback happy, and the adjectives applied to pitcher Jim Perry's face and mood, too. The same walked once, in five previous plate appearances against Jim Perry and reliefer Ron Per Tom Miller turned workhorse, rushing 29 times for 115 yards, a crowd of 15,300 who had come went for Tony Oliva, who drilled a double and two-run homer, as ranoski.

mostly tough-to-get stuff up the middle. to Grove Stadidm tonight ex he also attempted to explain For Perranoski, Blair's stra- Needless to say, the one pass tegem was a crushing blow. stands as a modern school rec- away the disappointment in Minnesota's somber locker room The veteran left-hander had pecting to see their decisipely-favored Demon Deacons move into a tie for the Atlantic Coast Conference lead with an easy win. (Continued, Page A 2, Col. 4) responded nobly to a ninth- after yesterday's 4-to-3 loss to the Orioles in the Stadium.

mning crisis, born of two Twin reliable Hank Aaron in the seventh that gave the Braves their All three homers were off Instead they watched in dis errors, alter Foweils lead-oft clutch homer off Perry had tied short-lived 5-4 lead and had LONGHORNS ROUT MIDDIES BY 56-17 fast balls," Perry pointed out in running down the pitches Frank the score for Baltimore. 122 fans at Atlanta Stadium thinking about a three-game sweep by their heroes in the Until Powell connected over Pheew! It was a big one and the Orioles got it, but when wilder, more interesting ball games are played, the Orioles and Twins will play them. They've done it all year, so why should anybody expect it to be different in the playoffs? In what was more or less a long ball baseball contest for nine innings, with the Orioles getting three from Frank Robinson, Mark Belanger and Boog Powell, and the Twins a two-run job from Tony Oliva. The Orioles finally won it in the twelfth on a two-out bunt single by Paul Blair which scored Belanger from third. Before the series started, Billy Martin expressed the opinion that the 8-4 Oriole edge during the regular season wasn't overly significant, because the games were so close the Twins felt they could have won all but two or three of them.

Tremendous Pitching He was right. Six of the regular-season games between the two clubs had been decided by one run. Yesterday's was another, and Martin can add one more to his list of those his team might have won but didn't. This one had a little bit of everything. There was the long ball, the short ball, some good fielding and some bad, daring strategy and questionable strategy; and, in spite of the home runs, some tremendous pitching by starters Mike Cuellar and Jim Perry, and reliefers Pete Richert, Eddie Watt, Dick Hall, and Ron Perranoski.

When Blair dropped that two-out bunt down the third base line on a 1-1 pitch, just far enough as John Roseboro described it later, "to put me in trouble," and Belanger scooted in behind the catcher to score while Blair crossed first base without drawing a throw, Memorial Stadium resembled the (Continued, Page A 14, Col. 6) belief as the Terps set about on their mission to set football back 50 years garnering their first victory under new coach Roy Lester en route. Robinson, Mark Belanger and Boog Powell drilled out of the 33d street playing lot in the American League's championship series. "I guess I got up a "We had Belanger 2-0, two out, with the pitcher coming up next," Martin said. "If we walk Belanger, it doesn't hurt us with two out and the pitcher up." "What happens to a pitcher who does that?" someone asked.

"We usually shoot them," Martin quipped. "I mean," the reporter said, "Why does a pitcher do such a thing?" "I don't know," Billy said. "You'll have to ask the pitcher." Homer A Surprise Belanger's well-stroked homer had to be rated a surprise. In 530 regular season at-bats, the Oriole shortstop had homered twice, both coming in the first two weeks of the season. Martin and Earl Weaver, manager of the Orioles, had answers ready for those who wondered what it meant to their clubs to have the Orioles take the opener here in Baltimore.

"We wanted two here, naturally, but I figured I would settle (Continued, Page A 14, Col. 5) the 380-foot sign in right, Minnesota's Tony Oliva appeared to have sealed the Eastern-Division champs' doom on two lusty swings of his bat, not withstanding Mike Cuellar's eight-inning Texas Gains 523 Yards On Ground, 72 Passing best-of-five series. Slow Curve Hangs Hammerin' Hank's shot sailed into the left field seats with one out as Seaver hung a slow curve. Terps Run Except for one nine-yard toss little too high on them. Oh, I to Al Thomas in the final period and not counting the two changed speeds, no set patterns, but they were fast balls." three-hit pitching.

By JAMKS H. JACKSON Sun Staff Correspondent For the statistical minded, the ball sailed 388 feet and would Error Helps Twins On the first of Oliva's damag Down The Foul Line Robinson whacked the first, have gone 442 feet if it had land two-point conversion tries that weren't even close and don't turn up in the statistics anyway, Maryland was 0-for-0 in the air against the Demon Deacons. ing blows, a fifth-inning double Austin, Texas, Oct. 4 The stampeding Texas Longhorns trampled Navy's over-matched football team with an awesome ed at ground level. So says Dr.

George Cain, a Georgia Tech mathematics expert, who was into the right-field corner, Frank Robinson boot gave him an ex right down the foul line for a short-lived l-to-0 lead in the fourth. "Frank's strong," the Minnesota right-hander continued. "The pitch was right on ground attack, 56 to 17, here to But it has been said anybody hired by the Braves especially for this series. tra base. From third, he tagged up and scored the visitors un night before a near-sellout crowd of 63,500 including former can run on Wake Forest and Maryland certainly did.

Earlier, Gonzalez also hit a earned first tally following Bob the fists. I took something off President Johnson. Denny O'Hara, the quarter Allison line-drive sacrifice fly Coach Darrell Royal's Long- to Buford in left four bagger that tied the game at 4-4 in the fifth. The first signs that maybe (Continued, Pae A 14, Col. 8) back whose arm isn supposed to be good for anything save of it and he hit it straight as an arrow.

If he really tags it good the ball has to curve. It's really a game of inches." horns, ranked fourth in the nation currently, picked up 523 That matched a Baltimore run passing the salt, proved his in the fourth, where Frank Rob- (Continued, Page A 14, Col. 1) Belanger got the next, his first yards on the ground and 72 more through the air despite the fact that the first string played since April 23 or 473 at bats ago, to push the Birds on top again, One-Time Breather Atlanta Poses Big Threat To Colts only a little more than a quarter, Texas Mark Tied Oriole Box Score 2-1, in the fifth. "I felt I had good stuff," Perry went on, "but The Texas infantry, led by I guess this was one that got up MINNESOTA sophomore speedster Jimmy Bertclson, who raced 43 yards on Texas's first play from scrim Tovr. et 4 CrfW.

2b a little. I took something off of it. It wasn't slow though. We'll have to mark it down as a bad By CAMERON C. 8NYDKR Sun Staff Correspondent Kiiimrew, a Oliva.

rf Allison. If 3 mage for a touchdown and pick pitch. Just one of those days." first two games of the regular imuFnarr. 2d up 99 yards rushing on onlv Rfpf. lb 4 schedule.

Rescues Birds CnrrimM. 5 Mitlxrwalrf. 4 8 carries, cut the game, but badly outmanned Middie defense Koipboro. 1 Powell, of course, unloaded his Prr. 3 And now they must face a club which in many ways resembles the building Colts of the PerranoakU I 1 to ribbons from start to finish.

bomb opening the bottom half of Total the ninth to rescue the Orioles i The 56 points tied a Texas ORIOLES ab and send the game overtime. "This was a high fast ball on a 4 i Buford. If Blair, record for the most in a single contest and the Longhorns were going for more as battling middies of Coach Rick Forzano If A. 'J n'J injon. rl I i Itmon, lb 3 rf Rnbinnon.

Roblnnon. three-and-two pitch," the 20- POWPlli 8. Hrndrick. i game winner admitted. "I still felt okay but I guess Billy (skip Motion, pn 1 a Walt, 5 stopped them at the Navy one Salmon, oh 1 per Billy Martin) figured it was line with only seven seconds i M.

Looez. 0 Hall, 0 Jnhnnon. 2b 5 left on the clock. time to change after Brooks Brlanieri at I (Robinson) singled. He hit it off The 56 points were the most Cuellar.

Atlanta, Oct. 3 If the Colts don't snap back against the Falcons tomorrow, their chances of successfully defending their Na-tional Football League title will be "Gone with the Wind." A near capacity crowd of will witness the game at Grant Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 1.30 P.M. and will be televised into the Baltimore area over the facilities of WMAR-TV (Channel 2). WCBM will carry the voice description.

Colts Concerned Originally the game was slated for the Atlanta Stadium, but was switched to the home park of Georgia Tech because the baseball Braves have a National League play-off game scheduled with the New York Mets at tha location at 4 P.M. Never In modern history, dating from the return of pro football to Baltimore in 1953, until last week had the Colts lost the the end of his bat. Mar. na 1 0 ever scored against a Navy foot "Some days you do or you ball team, eclipsing the 54 Rlchrrt. 0 0 Hrllfntntind.

Ml Etchebarrcn. 1 don't. Maybe the breaks will go scored by Michigan in 1925. McNallen Docs Well Middie quarterback Mike Ma The Falcons won their first opening game in their short history of just four seasons against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago and with a victory tomorrow can equal their win total of last season. And the breeze wafting down Peachtree street Is that the Falcons are capable of beating the Colts for the first time.

The Colts are concerned. In the other three years the Falcons were just a breather for the powerful Colts. Although the At-lantans scared the then too-confident Baltimoreans several times, the results were always the same, Colt victories. There can be no assurance of (Continued, Page A 8, Col. 1) our way tomorrow (Sundays Total 4 10 4 two mit when wlnnlm run cotM.

Mmnmota 010 Jno ono-l ORIOLES 0(H) 110 Out (K't 4 Error- F. Rohlnwin. t1hlrnnr. Carcw. Double Plaf-Baltlmorf 1.

Lrft On Game Two.) My toe injured by a batted ball and needing Nallen, although he spent a good Mlmifiota S. Baltimore Double Oliva. draining to ease Perry's discom part of. the evening picking him Morn Run Koouuon HeianBir i. Oliva 1, Powell 1.

Stolen BuM-Tovar. self up from the astroturf of sacrifice Etcneoarren. eacruict in-ai- fort "didn bother me. We put a band-aid on it. No, we had our 4' chances, but we simply didn't Memorial Stadium, completed 17 of 47 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown, a 62-yard beauty J.

Perr Penanotkl 1 t-1 3'4 get a fly ball In the right places We'll have to come back." Clirllar to tuiiDack Karl Schwelm. Nlrhert Watt Lone it 1 i Mike's passes also set up the "They know what to pitch to Biint)nfr Dhoo-Pul Hutchlm A LITTLE RUNDOWN Brooks Robinson I Minnesota's Harmon Killchrfw. Oriole was get mouthful of dirt at he is tagged out by caught on a double steal attempt in ninth. Han i i WIM Pltrn M. Loom.

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