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The Item from Sumter, South Carolina • 16

Publication:
The Itemi
Location:
Sumter, South Carolina
Issue Date:
Page:
16
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

1 Page 4B Th Item -7- Sumter SC Sunday May 15 1988 Yost remains Kh bwV 's' i I V1 VjT Staff photo by Robbie Evans Sumter manager Ned Yost right watches the form of catcher Greg Harper The Braves are off to a 10-25 start in first season as a manager positive By ROBBIE EVANS '1 ITEM Sports Editor 1 Ned Yost pondered the question a moment and thep answered positively been all right the first-year Sumter Braves manager when asked how he liked the job Thursday afternoon "To know and learn every- thing at once has been tough a lot more than I anticipated but All right might not be a fair description of first 35 games as a manager Of those 35 Sumter has won just 10 Later that day the Braves would suffer their sixth successive loss And it may well have been Yost's most frustrating The Braves led the Greensboro Hornets 5-2 with two outs in the ninth inning Yost had his most dependable reliever Skipper Wright on the hill but the Braves could not put the game away Greensboro rallied to tie the score and went on to claim a 6-5 win in the 11th The losing Yost said hasn't made his job any easier "I'm trying to stay as positive as I can with he said keep their chins off the ground and keep them working hard From the beginning of the year there has been improvement The last two weeks we hit the ball and when we have we haven't been able to get anything But hitting despite the 219 team batting average been only problem The pitching especially the bullpen has been erratic and defense particularly in the outfield has been anything but a Sumter strength relievers are Yost said When a close game you really know who to go to They all have one good outing and five or six bad ones had one guy been consistent and that's Skipper Wright but he been our stopper and you want to blow him out every night" One of his problems Yost admits is a lack of talent Atlanta is currently fielding eight minor-league clubs the most of any major-league organization Three of those teams are on the A level with Sumter ranking as the first step above Rookie League of these kids should be in extended spring Defeat shake Stewart By TIM LIOTTA AP Sports Writer BALTIMORE Dave Stewart had beaten an undefeated Frank Tanana and the Detroit Tigers in his last start Before that he had prevailed over an undefeated" Greg Swindell "and the Cleveland Indians But Jay Tibbs from the minor leagues less than two weeks and the Baltimore Orioles owner of the worst record in baseball this season proved to be too much for the Oakland right-hander Stewart lost for the first time this season Friday night after winning his first eight starts as the Orioles defeated the Athletics 4-1 Stewart who has a 37-19 record since joining the two years $go was far from shaken by his first loss of 1988 i just a game You go outhave fun do the best you can you give it your best effort said Stewart who has lost his last three decisions to Baltimore "If you do that yoiPve got nothing to worry about got nothing to be ashamed of" Stewart went into the game having allowed sik earned runs in 40 innings over his previous five starts He had pitched 52 2-3 innings without allowing a home run After being staked to a 1-0 lead in the first inning he surrendered surrendered home runs to Eddie Murray and Fred Lynn and the Orioles never surrendered the lead though I gave up a couple of runs I don't feel that at any point of the ballgame I was out of control" Stewart said think I had pretty command of the ball game the whole time" In spite of that the Orioles winners of four of their first 33 games wound up beating winningest pitcher and the team with the game's best record "We had everything going against us tonight oneof the hottest ballclubs in the AL Dave Stewart the winningest pitcher" said Tibbs who was making his third start since being called up from Rochester on May 2 just block those things out I know from experience that anybody can beat anybody on a given day and time" The unlikely victory came after the Orioles dropped three games in a row to the Texas Rangers in Arlington Texas "We came in late last night from Texas and most of us got to bed at 5 or 6 o'clock this morning" Lynn said come to the park dog tired "I think sometimes that works to your advantage because you don't have that nervous energy You think about all the things that are bothering you You just think about the ball game And we played as well as we have all year Lynn also had a double and made a running catch before crashing into the center-field fence to rob Walter Weiss of an extra-base hit The Athletics took a 1-0 lead before Tibbs registered an out Carney Lansford led off the game with an intield single went to third on a double by Dave Henderson and scored on a single by Jose Canseco Once Tibbs got that first out the Athletics did not score again Tibbs scattered nine hits over 7 1-3 innings to improve his record to 2-0 "He could've been blown out in the first but he got out with what I would call a minimum amount of runs and it picked everybody up" Orioles manager Frank Robinson said that he was The Orioles offense also picked up some from recent showings The Orioles hit two home runs in a game for only the second time this season Stewart passed over a year ago in the Cy Young voting despite posting a 20-13 record for the As vowed he'd get back to his winning ways "The Cy Young last year meant a lot to me last year but this year I concentrate on that" Stewart said got to concentrate on winning ball games If I do that then everything supposed to come to me will" (Tom Redington has a lot of work to do to be a good third baseman Our outfield defense has gotten better also starting pitching especially the last two weeks has been excellent" Yost said of the starters have done a good And despite a start that has the Braves 132 games back in the South Atlantic League Southern Division standings Yost still remains optimistic especially since the SAL plays a split season with each team starting with a fresh slate in the second half "I look for us to be a lot better in the second he said on what moves they (Atlanta) make (after the June draft really not that far away about four or five players away from being a godd team Last year at Greenville) at the half we were 20 games under 500 We ended up one or two games out of first place We got a couple of players You believe what a turnaround you can have just with the addition of one or two players give these players like Redington (Keith) Mitchell and Davis half a year of experience and a fresh start and you know what might he said reason they aren't is because we have another A club but good for them In a sense rushing them but they are getting a experience they get otherwise Right now trying to develop them and get them to learn how baseball is played without screaming at them The only thing I get upset about is laziness and players not hustling If they hustle they are going to play You get experience without Because of his youth Yost expected a slow start But he admits that he expected his team to perform better than it has to date knew have a lot of he said I didn't expect it to be as bad as been I thought our offense would be better I thought instor (Relaford) would hit better and Popeye (Cole' would be hitting better We really have anyone who has been consistent on offense except for Mark Davis been pretty consistent Cole and Relaford are our speed The problem is we get them on base knew our defense would be shaky but shored up since (shortstop Junior) Carrion is here (Greg) Cloninger is getting comfortable at second Braves statistics Through games of May 12 Hitting Mitchell using youth as an excuse Keith Mitchell Braves outfielder By DENNIS BRUNSON ITEM Sports Writer Keith Mitchell is not your ordinary 18-year-old He has done quite a bit in his few years on this earth This is a man who has turned down a four-year scholarship to play football at a major university has made a cross-country journey in an automobile by himself and is now playing the sport he truly loves and making some money at it While it has been an interesting trip for Mitchell it has not been an easy one But he is taking everything in stride as he works toward building his baseball career in Sumter think done a pretty good job so far this Mitchell said "In my game overall I think done all right Tm improving but still not having the kind of year I would like to have" The numbers support evaluation The 5-10 180-pound outfielder is batting 236 with no home runs 12 runs batted in and three stolen bases through Thursday He is one of two Braves to have played in every game and leads the team with 123 Some youngsters would use youth and inexperience as an excuse for a slow start Not Mitchell come out here and play just like everybody said Mitchell who turned down a football scholarship to the University of Arizona in order to play professional baseball you get out on the field everybody is the same age I just go out there and try to play to the best of my potential Age matter at all on the field Age does matter in what one can learn about the game of baseball Mitchell will be the first to admit he has learned more about the game in the last year after he was drafted in the fourth round by Atlanta and sent to its Rookie League team in Bradenton Fla than the rest of his years combined found out when I got to Bradenton that I know too much about the game of said Mitchell who batted 240 at Bradenton last season high school coaches teach me nothing At Bradenton they taught me how to hit how to throw how to play defense and what to do in a certain situation in a game I found out I would have to work real Another thing Mitchell had the chance to learn about this past year was spring training The 1987 spring training was his first but he did receive some advanced tutoring on what to expect His tutor? Cousin Kevin Mitchell who plays third base for the San Francisco Giants and I are pretty said Mitchell who along with Kevin grew up in San Diego "He really helped me a lot during the off-season talking about spring training He told me about the type of attitude I should have and told me things so I would know what was happening He also told me what people liked to see and and what they were expecting during spring What Mitchell remembers most about his spring training was the trip to Florida prior to the start of practice It was his first solo venture across the United States the cross-country trip was an he said took 1-10 all the way through Texas to New Orleans and then to Florida Texas is a big state It took me over a day to get through there and it was nothing but mountains and Mitchell will have to go over a few mountains and face some curves on his climb up the baseball ladder But it will be Keith Mitchell no one else facing the challenge just going to try to be Keith Mitchell (on the field he said never can be anybody Pittsburgh pitchers prosper under Miller Balk mark soon will be broken By BEN WALKER AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK Soon all of baseball will stop because some pitcher doesn't The moment everyone is waiting for is about to happen The single-season balk record will be broken Who will commit No 357? Probably an American Leaguer They had balked 238 times through Friday while National Leaguers had been called for 113 That totals to just five short of last year's record All just 40 days compared with only 87 balks at this time in 1987 This season though balks and the tighter balk rules are the talk of baseball "We still remind our pitchers every day even during the game that they have to come to a full stop" Philadelphia pitching coach Claude Osteen said "They get in the heat of battle and they think they shove it into their gut and then go and they think a stop" Osteen said And that's not what the league wants They made it clear that not going to allow it So you fight city hall" The Phillies were the last team to balk this season and have committed only four tied with Atlanta for lowest in the majors Then Oakland The Athletics are leading the big leagues in a lot of categories including 37 balks Oakland's Dave Stewart already has 11 matching the mark for an entire season set by Steve Carlton in 1979 Teammate Bob Welch and Detroit's Jack Morris have seven each and Roger Clemens is at six Pascual Perez and Dennis Martinez of Montreal are among several pitchers leading the NL with four balks each Seattle and Minnesota are tied for second most in the AL with 22 and Kansas City is best with only four Montreal is worst in the NL at 16 If there is anything good to say about balks which seemed to disfigure games throughout April that there are fewer of them There had been an average of one per game in the first month but the rate has dropped has a tremendous capacity for work never seen him when he wasn't thinking about pitching or baseball Last year on the last day of a 162-game season he was ready to go to the Florida Instructional League the next day and work with our young Miller has endured only one major setback in his major-league teaching career an ill-timed tenure as the Minnesota manager from June 1985 through September 1986 It was Miller who put in place many of the programs and many of the players who led the Twins to their 1987 World Series championship but it was successor Tom Kelly who received most of the credit for their remarkable title Perhaps that is why Miller is so eager to reestablish himself as a master teacher "When I came to Pittsburgh there was no thought of managing here and I let (Pirates Manager) Jimmy (Leyland) know' that right Miller said the best manager ever been around the best By ALAN ROBINSON AP Sports Writer PITTSBURGH Syd Thrift's trades for pitchers Mike Dunne Doug Drabek and Brian Fisher fueled the Pittsburgh return to respectability but his best acquisition may have been a 42-year-old right-hander who has never pitched in a major-league game When Thrift signed Ray Miller in the fall of 1986 he didn't cost the Pirates another player or even a draft choice But they did acquire perhaps baseball's most successful pitching coach the man who turjied out five 20-game winners and two Cy Young Award winners in nearly eight seasons with the Baltimore Orioles Miller had only a 60-65 record in 10 minor-league seasons but he might be baseball's professor of pitching you want to be the best and we do got to get the best people and Ray Miller is the best pitching coach in baseball" said Thrift the general manager has a thorough knowledge of pitching and is an excellent teacher with great credibility out on the mound with me besides a fastball and a slider" Miller keeps detailed charts and graphs of his pitchers' progress and Thrift said is so thorough he can tell you on the last day of the season exactly how many pitches want each pitcher to throw on the first day of spring But Thrift said there is more to the Miller method than just superb preparation and changing speeds "To be a quality pitching coach you have to think like a hitter and he he said understands pitchers but he also understands hitters and just as important he manage again? I like to predict or forecast But the pitching coach is a manager anyway because has to manage 10 pitchers and that's almost half your in the future like to manage again but I like it here in Miller said think got a goldmine just know that Ray Miller is going to be managing in the major leagues again Leyland said 1 prepared just want to go out and put my name back up there again I think getting fired hurt my credibility in baseball at all no security in baseball and there never has Leyland takes security in the knowledge he have a better coach for a youthful staff that was so inexperienced when Miller took over last season that he became part coach part nursemaid are a lot of pitchers here that have a lot of ability but just have the said Drabek who pitched eight no-hit innings against the San Diego Padres on May 8 yelj or scream and he has super patience Even when I was 1-8 last year he was never negative me no matter how badly I'd pitched: He always found something positive to work on "You become real confident in him and you begin believing in what he says and that gives you confidence on the mound All of a sudden last year because of him I started taking more i.

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