The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 73

Cortisone shot takes Horner out of lineup again i jy. and it'i gotten worse," Hornet said. "I figured I'd geti a shot and get it over with. It's one of9 those things that if you don't do something about right now, it's going, to keep botherjng you. I realized I had better do something about it right now." He' received the injection Jrom Dr.

Carl Fackler after playing all of Wednesday's game against -Chicago. Horner broke the bone in his right wrist Aug. 15, 1983 and the final 43 games of, the season. Horner spent 16 games this season on the disabled list because of a separated left should Horner's recent vigorous play brought on the discomfort. It i flared heavily during Wednesday's game against Chicago, when he twice made sprawling catches at third base.

"It can act up if you really aggravate it," Horner said. "I could have played (this game) and let it get worse-and worse and then had to take two weeks off. I wanted to get a shot right now and get right back in there, )' "If I let it goi it wouldn't have gotten, any better," Horner said. "I'll just miss one day and get right back in there." By Gerry Fraley 1 Staff Writer CINCINNATI Just when it seemed safe to say he would remain in the Atlanta Braves lineup, Bob Horner succumbed' to another injury Thursday. The after-effects of a cortisone shot kept Horner from participating in the Braves' game against Cincinnati at Riverfront Stadium and Could cause him to miss additional games.

The lingering residue from last year's broken bone his right wrist made this necessary. I "It started hurting the last couple of days, der. This absence marked the 166th game Horner has missed because of injury in his' seven seasons with the Braves. v.jj. Horner, hitting .382 (18-for-47) with 41 RBI since his return from the shoulder insisted he will be able to play in Friday's double-header against the Reds.

When he received a similar injection during spring training, however, Horner could not play for five days. "We're hoping he can play," manager Joe Torre said. "You can't be sure. We just don't! know about it." -4 Bub Horner 1 THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION i SECTION Friday, June 1, 1984 0 "Brave. Dave kindred iki A Starter goes the distance: in 7-1 win To obey or not to obey? Jinalk about your basic growmg-up dilemma.

You're 14 years old. You're a bat boy for the Portland I JL Beavers of the Pacific Coast League, one step tJown from the bigs. The umpire orders you to go pick up that chair. But the Beavers' players tell you to leave (he-chair; out there in right field where the fire-breathing manager threw it. i V- A 1 -1 0, diary, what to do? Should a guy obey the higher authority, however mistaken, or stick with his buddies in Wars have been conducted over riddles half as complex.

Such civil liberties conflicts drove Thoreau into the woods. There he had no. one to play catch with and so wrote a book about a pond where beavers (not the Portland kind) stuck together, paying no. taxes and building no jails. Sam Morris is the 14-year-old batboy for the Beavers.

What he Morris 4 1 W.A. BRIDGES JR.StaH I've got it you take it Monika Settle of Kenworth Park's Royals is safe at second as at Marietta's Al Bishop Complex. In men's highlight games neither Sandy Hawkins (left) nor Dena Cell of Milford's Ross Friday, Jerry's Catering plays at 7 p.m. and Howard's at 10 insurance can control me inrow. ine noyais won 6-4 in a p.m.

girls' division game of the Coke Classic Softball Tournament Benedict Remains Silent, Page i-D Braves Notebook, Page 5-D By Gerry Fraley '1 Staff Writer CINCINNATI A year ago, they exiled him without hope to the minor leagues. Six months ago, he begged for a trade. Three months ago, he felt like a stranger in their training camp. By the end of their 7-1 win against Cincinnati on the Atlanta Braves embraced Rick Mah- ler. With the minuscule turnout of 2,472 at Riverfront Stadium serving as witnesses, there was a reconciliation.

"There were problems here," Mahler said, "but now I definitely feel comfortable." A four-hit complete game, Mahler's first since June 23, 1982, that ended the Reds' five-game winning streak repaired the breach. In this state of bliss, Rick Mahler, who has won three of his four starts since being promoted out of necessity, wants to stay with the Braves, and they think of him as only a valued, fifth starter. "The acrimonious arguments about Mahler's penchant for off-speed pitches and falling behind in the, count have been buried. The sweet-; ness and light is overpowering. "With all the problems we've had' amongst us concerning the way he's pitched, maybe he didn't feel we had' confidence in him," Braves manager Joe Torre said.

"I think it's a little different situation now." Torre and his staff display in-; creasing confidence in Mahler who has allowed only one run in hi last 13 innings and has a 2.42 earned-run average as a starter. That makes as much difference as the knuckleball Mahler threw about 10 times. For the first time, he is wanted. "I don't really know how much confidence Joe ever had in him," said catcher Bruce Benedict, who drove in his second run since April 20 to put Mahler ahead 1-0 in the second inning. "Rick needed to go out there and get some games under his belt.

He's done that. We always knew he could pitch, but it's not easy when your existence in the game is based on one pitch or one-hitter." Mahler faced such crossroad situations several times. The final score ballooned with a five-run ninth, which included homers by Glenn Hubbard and Dale Murphy, who leads the National League with 13. For the first eight innings, this game carried a taut story line. Five times in those eight innings the Braves either led by one run or were tied as the Reds put a runner, in scoring position.

They scored only once, tying the game in the fifth -when Tom Foley scored Dave Conception with a sacrifice fly. Concep-cion reached base only because left fielder Gerald Perry could not ban die his slicing fly ball. Given a 2-1 lead on Brad Komminsk's run-scoring single in the sixth, Mahler made his best With Gary Redus at second and one out in the same inning, he fooled Dan Driessen with a breaking ball and Dave Parker with a fastball. With Eddie Milner at second and two out in the eighth, Mahler re tired Redus on another of his assort- ment of s)ow breaking balls, Those pitches caused Mahler to 1 fall from favor a year ago, when he was optioned to Richmond, of the International League and ignored, even when the rosters i swelled in September. There has been, in his words, mutual under-' standing." I See BRAVES, Page S-D Wow! The Bird still a character wants yes is to be a big-league catcher.

He fitches, too, but he likes catching better. He loves it now when he gets to put on that white uniform and throw a ball; around with these Beavers, who sometimes give fiiti tips on how to play ball: Sam told the umpire he wouldn't go pick up the chair. tl The umpire, Pam Postema, said, "Okay; then you're gone." Ejected. Kicked out of a Triple-A game at Not even Billy Martin was fingerprinted so early." In a Portland-Vancouver game Monday, a dispute over a called third strike moved umpires to kick but a Beavers hitter. was a bad Sam, said.

"It bounced on the The umpires also kicked out manager Lee Elia, who then threw a metal chair into right field. At 14, you're used to grown-ups telling you what to dd When the umpire told the batboy to get the chair, Sam Morris started toward right field. He next heard the Beavers shouting to sit down and let the ump get the chair herself. "1 told her I couldn't do it," Sam.said by telephone Thursday from Raymond Brown Elementary School in Hillsboro, where he said he was in shop class and thanks for getting' him out because they weren't doing anything anyhow. "The umpire doesn't pay me, the Beavers do and I gotta stick with them," Sam said, When the ejecteddejected batboy walked into the locker room, Elia was already there.

"He asked me what I was doing" Sam said. "I told him I'd been kicked out, too. He said, 'Wow, a He said he'd been around forever and he'd never seen a batboy kicked out. 'It's he said. 'You'll make Donald Morris, a computer programmer, drove to die park late to pick up his son.

Sam was sitting in the grandstands. The father: "I wondered, 'What in the world? Sam sometimes has a temper. Oh, no, maybe he mouthed off to the Then he told me what happened." The Beavers pay Sam Morris $7.50 a ($3 extra for double-headers). He went to the club's office in March and as any 14-year-old kid would like to say, "Can I be the Beavers' batboy?" They hired Sam to sell programs. The first game, a batboy didn't show up and Sam became alternate batboy, a high station in life.

In late April, he became captain of the batboys. The people of Aloha came to the rescue "Sam was so said his father, "he couldn't gee straight." The president of the Pacific Coast League says he won't fine the batboy the customary $25 for ejection. He also said the umpire admitted she made a mistake. All this has made Sam Morris a celebrity at school "Slightly," he said cheerily and he has heard his name spoken on local television. i The best part is that now the Beavers, his buddies, know his name.

"They had told me not to worry about the fine," Sam said. "They said they'd get up a collection and pay it for me if they had to." Is this heaven or not? This summer, looking to play ball, Sam Morris had to get up his own team. His community, Reedville, didn't have a team in Oregon's "Cub" division for boys 15. "Sam asked them, 'If I get a team, can we his'father said. "So he recruited 11 or 12 guys who didn't make their school teams.

And he asked me, 'Dad, if I get 4 team, will you It's not easy for Sam Morris to run. He was born with a bad foot that hurts more the more he runs. But with a bunch of buddies and his dad as coach, Sam had bis own team for Reedville except that Reedville then discovered it didn't have the proper equipment for Sam Morris went to work again. He talked to the folks in Aloha, a town next door. And so Aloha, which already had one Cub-class tearrtj now has another with Sam Morris as its celebrity pitcher-catcher.

And In late August, when the Aloha Cubs are done playing, Sam Morris will have surgery on that foot to get rid of the i' Mart Fidrych's happy as acting' big leaguer By John McGrath Sltff Wrlttr i si) -i' -k He's an actor now. Bit stuff. Character parts. You casting a movie? Call. Mark Fidrych at his farm in MassachusettsCollect.

His specialty is portraying the righthanded pitcher who knows how to shake off a sign, wind up and then throw the ball so that moviegoers will think it's a baseball player on the screen and not some imposter who just did six weeks in a summer stock production of ''Funny Girl." OK, so it ain't Shakespearean tragedy. But Anthony Perkins, an accomplished actor who as Jimmy Plersall in "Fear Strikes Out" threw the ball as if the thing were a medium-sized daisy, couldn't do what Fidrych can do. There's room, Mark Fidrych senses correctly, for everybody In Hollywood, "i like doing this kind of Fidrych was say-, ing Wednesday morning in the Braves dugout, awaiting his scene in "The Slugger's Wife," the Neil Simon movie currently being filmed at, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. "I'll take any part they want to give me. I don't even have to speak any lines.

"Making a career out of this stuffs a lot like making one out of baseball: you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Who knows? Crazier things have happened." 4 Crazier things did 'happen in' the baseball life of Mark Fidrych. They happened suddenly, first with purpose, as if a personal plan for him had been undcrwrit- ten by a deity, then; a year, later, with pain and confu- sion and, ultimately, resignation. i In the end it came' almost a year ago, In July, 1903, whnn the ailing righthander scrapped his comeback attempt after the Red Sox's Pawtucket farm club released liitn Fidrych's singular entry in baseball lore was th5 summer of '76, the summer America ccle- i i See FIDRYCH, Page S-D 1 V. 14 wSmff Fornicr major leaguer Mark Fidrych now a Lil-purt at-tr.