The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 45

SPI)1'LrTS Elos Angeles Mmes Thursday October 13 1983 CCttPart III Jim Murray It's a World Series Mars Ft ftrthy altiraore (a) ruin exactly More like a Civil War monument They forgot to put a roof on A plane once crashed in the upper deck here Some said he thought it was an old tobacco shed The series was supposed to be as one-sided as a stickup Its not that the Phil lies are a bad team They would be a cinch to win the 1975 World Series In fact they did As the Cincinnati Reds They have three guys who are going to the Hall of Fame And about 20 who are going to the American Assn They are an idea whose time has gone They were the best team in the National League this year That's like being the fattest guy in China or the best dancer in Bulgaria Baltimore is a town with a massive World Series go it didn't figure to be much 1 mean strictly road company stuff One team's boring the other's decrepit The Philadelphia Phi 'lies are a retirement community in cleats The team picture looks like the Supreme Court Ma and Pa Kettle at The Old Ball Game Baltimore the team is a lot like the city Monotonous It's like watching nine guys run a lathe Or mow a lawn They do things by the numbers Watching them play is like watching a guy assemble a bicycle on Christmas Eve You put Grommet into Cotter Pin A remove the connector from the flange see Diagram And Presto! A pennant A World Series All parts in place Not even a screw left over The weather is like the team Gray municipal inferiority complex With much to feel inferior about Like a lot of similarly placed American Worth Brooklyn is the "other" city It is across a river or a bay or just a highway from a glamorous world capital Baltimore calls its airport "Baltimore-Washington International" but it never occurred to anyone in Washington to refer to its airport as the "Washington-Baltimore International Airport" They don't know Baltimore's there And no one ever mixed it up with Venice or the Isle of Capri Baltimore's baseball team is a cut above most things in Baltimore and although it's not the Eiffel Tower or sunset over the South Pacific Baltimore thinks it should hang in the Louvre Colorless Drab The climate would have to improve to be classified as merely lousy It would be a great place to stage "Hamlet" but not baseball games It doesn't really rain it just kind of leaks You get a picture of Baltimore as a guy just standing on a corner with no place to go and rain dripping off his hat Baltimore's a great place if you're a crab It's the northernmost Southern city or the southernmost Northern city in the country but its accent doesn't sound like magnolias and honey suckle it sounds like bad adenoids The town is called "Ball -mer" and the team the "Bards" The contest is the "Warld" Series Two million people with catarrh The ballpark looks like the Christians and the lions are coming on next It's not a It's not entirely a work of art or even a team for the ages It's not even the 1927 Yankees but it goes about its business with the kind of nonchalant efficiency of a master plumber or the Vienna Boys choir The "Bards" as the tonsil types pronounce "Birds" are a matter of considerable civic pride I mean even Washington doesn't have anything like it They're not a lot of fun They're not a Gas House Gang They don't get their uniforms particularly dirty They're not Murderers Row They don't beat you to death They just play their cards well And they do it on short money They got three left fielders two center Please see MURRAY Page 13 Man With Quiet im itches Evens Series for Orioles By MARK HEISLER Times Staff Writer off the long Orange line hopped still another of those young masters with dry ice for a nervous system This one's name is Mike Boddicker he's a rookie and he kicked around the minors for six years before he even got to be that Where do they get these guys from? Norway Iowa population 600 He's going back this winter to work in a grain elevator for $450 an hour because the boss gave him a job when he was a hard-core unemployable back in '78 Besides he likes the work This is a cross between a hallucination and the American Dream He was still fairly unknown until last week when he brought the Orioles back from an 0-1 start in the playoffs Wednesday night he did it again but this time in the World Series He pitched a three-hitter gave up an unearned run walked nobody and beat the Phillies 4-1 His days as an unknown died with the Phillies Boddicker's playoff victory was a 14-strikeout shutout of the White Sox The man barely throws 85 mph and this time he struck out six Late in the evening when he was up to his cerebellum in attention he was asked if he was just hi5t or he was this good "I don't know" he said "I just go out and do my best" So it wasn't poetry who cared? This was the equivalent of Fernando Valenzuela saying bueno in '81 A sensation can always get someone to talk for him "1 remember my first World Series" said Orioles pitching coach Ray Miller "It was Please see SERIES Page 14 tit- ikik ioitvA7' 4 ''''s 111'''' 11''I'l '4 4' '4''''1' i 4 1's '1'4 1 il I :) 4 t- J- i'''')'' i i il gt vfeskA 4' 4 4 f4s i It14 cif )'''' ft Y-fr -io'Axttt -i 'r 's' 'I' )r' l' ''-'''''''4- l''' 't''' l'''' )7i t-t't A 4 gt 's''--- -4' i i 4 lev 00 1v4 1 1 4''''''''' $4' tA': sr '414''''' 4477 kt ''4 4 6 Ale a 4 Ilifor 4400 44 0 i Ittt fl A 7I-tiV 4 4 tft -4 4: 002 01 4r 1 1 Aolk AG 3' 4ot AO 4 ft-AA 4 14 tsJ'' s- AI Al4 2 52'' 444 4 -0 4 'm -os --r- s': "5--'' S4v 4 t-'--4e-A-k 40 -z He's the Toast of Baltimore Orioles Fans Get to Lift Few More for Lowenstein 0 By ROSS NEWHAN Times Staff Writer hot seller at the Memorial Stadium concession stands is a T-shirt with the wording: "Tonight Let It Be Lowenstein" Wednesday night it was John Lee Lowenstein the left-handed half of Baltimore's formidable left-field platoon had a double single and home run during his team's 4-1 victory over Philadelphia in Game 2 of the World Series The home run to dead center off Charles Hudson tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth and ignited a three-run inning that propelled the Orioles to the Series tying victory Baltimore next faces left-hander Steve Carlton in Game 3 Friday night it'll be Gary Roenicke the right-handed half of a platoon that batted 291 Please see LOWENSTEIN Page 16 Associated Press home plate home run John Lowenstein breaks from after hitting a game-tying Associated Press Dan Ford of Orioles is hit in head by a Willie Hernandez pitch in the fifth inning Ford was able to stay in the game For the First Time Abdul-Jabbar Has a Real Center Behind Him Dupree Suspended for Going AWOL Hopes to Return From Times Wire Services Nater Is Happy to Have a Job He Never Thought He Wanted 111F-1r I 0 :7 IN col 0 0 4- taw 4 2 (17" :::16 :::4 411' 74t'''Ys! :::::::1 :4: i' s' i -s A 1 NORMAN Dupree outstanding sophomore tailback at the University of Oklahoma was dropped from the team Wednesday by Coach Barry Switzer for being absent the past three days However Dupree contacted coaches late Wednesday and said he will return to the Sooner football team an assistant coach said Oklahoma assistant coach Scott Hill said he talked with Dupree by phone Wednesday night and the player said he would return to Oklahoma but did not say when "He assured me he was coming back but he didn't give me any time" Hill said "He really didn't say much He said he couldn't talk long" Hill said he told Dupree to first call his mother who has been worried since Dupree disappeared last week end "I was more concerned about him getting back with his mother" Hill said "I told him the first thing he needs to do is take care of his mother" Hill said Dupree was concerned about reports he had been kicked off the team "He wasn't really upset" Hill said "He was more concerned whether he was kicked off or not The football team is going to make the decision whether he's going to come back or not" Dupree left the team with permission after Oklahoma's 28-16 loss to Texas in Dallas last weekend but was due back for practice Monday He was unheard from until the Wednesday night phone call Please see DUPREE Page 10 By THOMAS BONK Times Staff Writer Swen Nater has played in someone else's shadow often enough that mushrooms could grow beneath his sneakers It is a situation most athletes take careful steps to avoid and Nater at one time was certainly no different Now at the not-so-tender age of 33 the newest Laker realizes there are worse places to be positioned than immediately behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Nater has experienced most of them After eleven professional seasons seven teams two knee operations folded franchises and a defunct league Nater's mail can finally catch up to him In the past it was always pretty difficult to forward his mail when his last known address was the backseat of the family car You can reach Swen Nater at the Forum He will be the big guy with the zippers on his knees and the smile on his face waiting on the bench to carry Kareem's left-over minutes and grateful for the chance "I have been on a lot of losing teams in my career" Nater said "I'd rather be a backup on a winner than a starter on a loser" Nater's career has been a series of short stops on a long haul a series of right turns usually followed by quick lefts Now the circle seems complete Ten years after the No 1 draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks signed instead with the American Basketball Assn rather than back up one Kareem Abdul -Jabbar Nater is right back where he didn't want to start The times are different now and so is Nater At UCLA he backed up Bill Walton well enough to become probably the only No 1 draft pick never to have started a game in college Nater had played second string long enough so he joined the Virginia Squires and began a long if somewhat unnoticed career as a front-line center He moved from Virginia to San Antonio to to New York to Virginia then to Milwaukee Buffalo and San Diego With the Squires he played with the immortal Goose Ligon rarely confused with the semi -im Please see NATER Page 20 Associated Press In his best years when he was on good knees Swen Nater was one of strongest rebounders in NBA a Catching Up to Pruitt Greg Pruitt isn't running as much as he used to but he probably hasn't lost a step Please see Page 2 PI White House Briefing Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda turns out to be more successful at the White House than he was in the National League playoffs Please see Page 5 13 Double Threat for Trojans Fred Cornwell's blocking and pass-catching skills at tight end are paying off for USC Please see Page 3 elk f'itik 7 a Catching Up to Pruitt 101 White House Briefing it )xl ICI Double Threat for Trojans Greg Pruitt isn't running as much Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda turns out It Fred Cornwell's blocking and as he used to but he probably to be more successful at the White House 1 pass-catching skills at tight hasn't lost a step than he was in the National League playoffs end are paying off for USC Please see Page 2 Please see Page 5 Please see Page 3.