The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 19

Martins in jeopardy, just talk to Ms boss from Wire Services NEW YORK It seems as though weve gone through all this before, but the facts seem certain this time and may mean Billy Martin soon may be the ex-manager of the New York Yankees A team Is supposed to win if it doesnt, the axe falls on the manager, President A1 Rosen of the Yankees said Thursday after returning from Boston where he watched the team fall eight games behind the Red Sox. uWe are in danger of falling so far behind we cannot catch up. It is very discouraging. The team seems to lack motivation. It needs to be shaken up.

Rosens pointed comments came amid recurring speculation that'Martin is in danger of dismissal. Rosen, the former Cleveland mfielder, who replaced Gabe Paul as straw boss of the Yankees, declined to say such action was immment but he stressed that the New York club, loaded with multi-million-dollar free-agent talent, could not be content with a secondary performance. "The Red Sox are knocking the cover off the ball, he said. The Baltimore Orioles are on a hot streak (winning 1C of their last 18 games). Milwaukee is pressing.

All of these teams have had winning streaks. But not the Yankees. We seem to be playing dead-center. That is not enough. In Boston, Martin, addressing himself to the latest crisis his stormy career, attributed rumors of his dismissal to newspaper Referring to the Yankees inordinate epidemic of injuries, particularly to the high-salaried pitching staff Catfish Hunter, Andy Messersmith, Don Gullett and Ed Figueroa Martin said, I get along great with A1 Rosen.

I get along great with George Steinbrenner (club owner). Rosen, however, isnt convmced. Injuries are part of the game, Rosen said. Billy knows this. He is now in the position of having to turn the team around and quickly.

He may do it. We hope so. But if he doesnt, well, the buck stops with the manager. "This is not a personal thing. Its cold-hearted business.

Its a situation we must watch closely and then make a hard decision. We feel the fans deserve a winning team, whatever measures we need to take. And if Martin is fired, don't be too surprised if his successor is Rosen. A source close to the Yankees says Rosen has the respect of all the players and is the type of leader Steinbrenner would like guiding the club. Although he has had no managerial experience, Rosen has shown a rapport with the Yankees players as evidenced by the way he stepped in the other day and convinced Figueroa not to pass up his turn in the rotation.

Figueroa, at odds with Martin all season, complained of a sore shoulder after his last start and said he would not be ready to take his regular turn tonight. Rosen, however, approached him Wednesday and convinced him he was needed. I told him he was the premier pitcher of baseball, not only of the American League," Rosen said I told him I admire him as a man. I said I didnt want to see him disappoint the team and me and himself. As a result of Rosens little talk, Figueroa will pitch against Detroit tomght.

Steinbrenner has said the decision to fire Martin rests with Rosen, but obviously Rosen isn't going to fire Martin for the sake of naming himself as manager. It isnt even certain Rosen would want the job. Steinbrenner, however, could convmce him its for the best interest of the Yankees. One reason Martin is still with the team is that the Yankees have been unable to fmd a suitable replacement. If I feel he (Martin) should go, hell go by me, says Rosen.

If he goes, itll be because I said so. Billys taking this like a pro. Managers never think theyre going to get a job and hold it the rest of their lives. Theyre hired to be fired. When a manager gets fired, sometimes it shakes things up.

Sometimes there are antagonisms that crop up under a manager, likes and dislikes. You clear the air. Martin, who once stated that managing the Yankees was the only job he ever wanted, claims he isnt worried about being fired. I have never run scared in my life, Martin said. Im not runnjpg scared now.

We have a pennant to win. Joe Pepi slows down his act for slowpitch THE CAPITAL TIMES inches from home plate and must deliver the ball in a soft arching trajectory. The lob cannot soar more than 10 feet above the ground. Needless to say, batting against a melon like that is not like hitting a major league fastball. But some major leaguers can't hit that 10-foot lob, Pepitone said.

I had no trouble because I played a lot of stickball as a kid in Brooklyn. I run up on the ball and hit it. You have to furnish your own power. Former major leaguers such as Gene Hiser of the Cubs have more trouble adjusting to this than Storm stalwarts like Holt, a suburban Broadview truck driver, or Ron Ole-siak, a Schiller Park policeman who learned softball the sports heartland, Chicagos 16-inch leagues. (Riser, incidentally, just rejoined the Storm after being cut by a Baltimore Oriole farm club.) Pepitone is 37, Hes still married to Stephanie, the former Playboy Bunny he met while he was a Cub.

They have two children. He had three children by previous What about workouts? The Statesmen dont bother much with workouts, he said, because they are so big and strong they can knock the ball into Pennsylvania without any practice. We just go out and hit the (censored) out of the ball, Pepitone said. The average size of the guys on our team is S-3 and 230. There are a lot of farmers with big arms on this club and in this league.

I got hurt more in the first 12 games than I did in 16 years of baseball. Fielding is dangerous. If Pepitone is play ing close to the bag, he is little more than 65 feet from those sluggers when they hit that hard soft-ball" in his direction. It comes at you 130 miles an hour, Pepi says, and its tougher to catch than a baseball. Pepitone is the leading hitter on his team, but six Statesmen are hitting over .500.

If a guy cant hit at least .400 in this league, they question his manhood. Benny Holt, the main thumper of the Storm, hit .690 last season, with 89 home runs in 56 games. The pitcher stands 49 feet, 10 By RAY SONS Chicago Sun-Tim News Service CHICAGO Joe Pepitone plays Community Park in suburban Addison this weekend. Yes, its the same Joe Pepitone who has played Yankee Stadium, Wngley Field, Atlanta Stadium, the Houston Astrodome, Tokyo, Hawau, Rush Division St. and Foxy Lady Magazine Now hes playmg Commumty Park Saturday and Sunday nights because hes no longer a Yankee, a Cub, a Brave, or a Yakult Atom.

He's a New Jersey Statesman (Pepitone a Statesman) of the American Professional Slo-Pilch League, and they have come to play the Chicago Storm. Pepitone plays first base of course. Rut the ball he swings at is a 12-mch softball lofted toward the plate ui a high arc. And his paycheck is nothing close to the $80,000 a year he made at his peak in major league baseball. I love it, he says.

I really, authentically love softball. The money is pretty good. Im not making anything like the $30,000 the De- MADISON, JUNE 23, 1978 19 Joe Pepitone Im trying to settle down and get it all together, he said. It seems only yesterday that he was the most outrageous Cub of the l.eo Durocher managerial era. He hit .307 here in 1971, and his lifestyle was closer to .800.

He sometimes traveled in a rented, chauffeur-driven limousine. His flamboyant clothes illuminated his haunts on Rush Street and the basement bar he ran for a while on Division. His succession of hair pieces masked a bald pate and made him look like Prince Valiant or DAr-tagnan. Around the clubhouse, he was a boisterous clown. But there were cracks in his greasepaint, and they showed in 1972 when he retired from the Cubs for 60 days.

You have to love baseball to stick with it, he said. I lost that love. Personal problems were eating Continued on page 22) troit team paid Norm Cash, but its a living. He was speaking by phone from his latest place of refuge, a small town in upstate New York. He commutes to Trenton, N.J., by plane for the home games of the Statesmen.

Red Sox again confront the allegation of racism Jim Rice some Old-Timers Game, Im sure Jim Rice and Fred Lynn will talk about the old days and have a good laugh over these stones now. As Boston's designated hitter, Rice leads the Amencan League home runs and runs batted in and ranks the top 10 among the circuits hitters. Hed like to play left field regularly but Don Zimmer is playing veteran Carl Yastrzemski and no one can fault the httlq Red Sox manager the way the team is going. In Boston Wednesday, Rice said he hadnt read the magazine article but he did have a prepared statement about the story. I have the highest regard (or Don Zimmer, (part-owner and general manager) Haywood Sullivan and the entire Reid Sox organization, Rices statement said.

Furthermore, Ive always been treated fairly by this or-ganizzation. There may have been a time through the years when racism was an issue on this team. It certainly does not exist today." Rice said he considered all his teammates his fnends but that didnt mean he had to socialize with them every minute of the day. He also said he was deeply hurt by what he called his alleged quote which said he associated with Tiant and Hob-, son, but wouldnt call them fnends. Im pretty sure I know what Jim Rice meant there, too.

What he was trying to say, I believe, is certainly hes friendly with Tiant and Hobson but that basically hes a loner. Nothing wrong with that. Rice is absolutely right when he suggests there was a time when the (Continued on page 20) By MILTON RICHMAN United Press International NEW YORK The subject is an ugly one, racism, and Jim Rice finds himself caught in the middle. On one hand, Rice comes out and says theie's no racism on the Boston Red Sox today, which seems true enough. On the other hand, he's quoted in the current edition of Sport Magazine as saying his progress with the Red Sox was not as rapid as it might have been had he been white instead of black.

Rices statements in the magazine are the result of a spring training interview in March. They couldnt have come out at a worse lime as far as he and Red Sox officials are concerned because the club is riding along nicely on top in Us division, looks as if it should have little trouble winning and no one wants to rock the boat at this point. Particularly on such a sensitive subject as racism. Most everyone in baseball remembers how an article quoting Reggie Jackson in this same magazine stirred up trouble among the Yankees a year ago That one also was done in the spring and came out in June. It caused Jackson uncommon grief and he talked to Rice about it the outfield for some time at Fenway Park before Tuesday nights Red Sox-Yankee game.

What Red Sox officials are hoping now is that the article on Rice doesnt have the same affect upon his teammates that the one on Jack-son had among the Yankees. In the magazine piece, Rice, talking about Fred Linns winning a regular job ahead of him three years ago, says, Race has to be a factor when Fred Lynn can hit .240 in the minors and I can hit .340 and he gets a starting job before I do. There were more quotes in which Rice said he felt Lynn received more publicity than him because he was white, that he and i.ynn used to be close but have drifted apart and that he associates with Luis Tiant and Butch Hobson but he wouldnt call them friends. In my personal experience with Jim Rice, Ive found him to be honest and quite candid. I believe he has no personal resentment toward Fred Lynn, nor Lynn against him, but each simply wishes to do the very best he is capable of doing.

Occasionally, that can create a situation, or a rivalry if you like, the same way it did in years past between Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Roger Mans and Hank Aaron and Rico Carty. Everybody likes to outdo the other fellow. Thats what competition is all about. Years from now, when theyre in their 40y or '50s and get together at i AP Wirephoto Rough day for Brewers roughed up Brewer pitcher Moose Haas in the first inning and went on to a 10-3 win. (Story, page 20 Milwaukee Brewer second baseman tires to avoid the slide of Baltimores Kiko Garcia Thursday.

The Orioles.