Evansville Press from Evansville, Indiana • 16

16 4 Tuesday August 17 1976 THE EVANSVILLE PRESS Triplets' 'long' season has gone too fast for Gamble last year" Gamble enjoyed his best pro season in 1875 He batted 288 in 106 games and was a big reason the Triplets won the pennant and Junior World Series "John had an outstanding year for ua both offensively and defensively'' said general manager Don Labbruzao was a period during the middle of the season when he went on a hitting spree and practically carried the club on Ids Even so Gamble want rewarded with a promotion to the Mg club at the end of the year He Want even invited to the big league camp this spring That was probably the moat bitter pill for Gamble to swallow It was then he realized he didn't fit into the Tigers' plans Phil Mankowski coming off a great year at Montgomery In the double-A Southern League took over third base for the Triplets this season and Gamble was relegated to the bench He's hit just 234 in 73 games statistics make it look like played in a lot of games but I really Gamble said "The most games I've played in a row is three or four and I've been used as a pinch Utter in 24 or 25 games I really haven't batted that many times (175)" Gamble said it's been difficult for Mm to on the bench and watch us lose then get into a game and we still But the season hasn't chug oa If anything gone too has always been fun for he said: "I've always looked forward to coming to the pork every day even when I knew I wasn't going to get to play I enjoy Just going out there to hit or play catch or throw batting practice never thought of baseball as a job" Even If Gamble isn't with the Detroit organization next season he might still be in baseball potable one of the expansion teams (Toronto and Seattle) might draft me or that one of the other teams might lose some players" he said also thought about staying in baseball as a manager or never know what's going to he said "We'll just have to wait and By Dave Johnson IVnSMmtB0rtr Thii is often the time of year when the baseball season seems to drag on and on when playing the game becomes more of a Job than a pastime That's the way it could be for the Evansville Triplets the defending champions in the American Association There's no hope of a pennant this year '-nothing to fight for but pride and individual statistics They're 21 4 games out of first place with 13 games remaining Still none of the Triplets has been heard wishing out loud that the season were over least of all John Gamble "You never wish the season were said the 28-year-old third baseman "Not when the season could be your last" Gamble realizes this very well could be his last season as an active player at least in the Detroit Tigers organization After all he's played In nine cities and seven leagues since signing his first professional contract 10 years ago And he's appeared in more than 1000 games all but 13 of them as a minor leaguer "I think a player is always aware that this could be his last said Gamble never know what the future holds My wife and I have discussed what we'd do if it happens if I'm not playing next year We decided I could always go back to school and finish my But that what Gamble warns to do What he wants to do -is to keep playing to get another shot at the big leagues But he realizes his age is against him that time is running out Gamble concedes that of Ids 11 pro seasons this has probably been the most "especially after the year I had i a 4 Dove Stockton runs to embrace his codda Mike Rose and Ray Floud by are strike to dahn the $45000 first ester winning Ihe 5Mi PGA Championship yesterday In prize Balhetda Md Stockton edged ronnenup Don January todkton PGA champ Al Dunning Do the Bears have unfair advantage? sports rounds But Morgsn bogeyed Na 4 and eventually dropped from contention and Nicklaus shooting for his 17th major title Mt Into the water tnd double bogeyed the 436-yard par-4 sixth hole That seemingly left the field open for veteran Don January and David Graham Graham eventually bogeyed his way out of it but January showed some strength with a birdie on the short par 4 eighth hole However the double bogey Jinx caught up to him on No 10 and more bogeys on Nos 16 and 17 condemned him to a tie for second PGA officials opted for because of television committments and the fact the final round was rained out Sunday He wasn't the only player In trouble At least five players hid excellent shots at taking command but all of them blew it Charles Goody 39-yearold journeyman who won the 1971 Masters started the round three under par quickly bogeyed the first hole and took a double bogey on the third leaving the lead to Jack Nicklaus and Dr Gil Morgan who led after two Sevy said he was the first to experience the influence of die cosmos Since then he said he has convinced other offensive linemen on the Bears that the rays have penetrated their bodies too Thus fortified Sevy explained the Chicago linemen are able to draw upon cosmic power for the energy and unity necessary to overpower enemy players Now it is not altogether unusual for a offensive lineman to talk like that Usually though they start such jabbering until they're about 0-and-6 and have been kicked in the head a few times by passing fullbacks Sevy swears however that he isn't a quart low upstairs when he says the Bears are being propelled by the juices of the universe Which poses a major problem for pro football since it hardly seems fair for one team to have cosmic power and all the others to be deprived The question is commissioner Fete Rozelle going to do about it? I mean if he can intervene in the OJ Simpson affair it seems proper that he should see to it that cosmic power is equally distributed It is a perplexing problem and I wish Rozelle luck in solving it What can be done indeed for the Texas pros who play in the roofed Astrodome and thus presumably are shielded hem heavenly energies? No wonder Rozelle makes money in boxcar sums got a tough job We have scarcely passed the Ides of August and already something amazing has happened in professional 1978 adventure What has happened is that the Chicago Bears have won three straight exhibition games and have not lost any Granted pre-season games do not count and some teams do not seem to play them very seriously But for the Bears to win three games in a row under any circumstances is a noteworthy departure from what's normal in the NFL There are several possible explanations for this phenomenon For example the same guy who has been trying to buy Illinois delegates for Ronald Reagan might have bought off the opposition to pro football team Or perhaps the teams the Bears have played so for have been the Kilgore Junior College Rangerettes Chicago Garment Workers Local 287 and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Or maybe the Bears have been cheating Evidence surfaced over the weekend to support the latter possibility Disguised as a football player somewhere within the offensive line is a guru named Jeff Sevy After the Bears amazed the Baltimore Colts 25-14 in a pre-season game Saturday night Sevy told flabbergasted newsmen that were responsible for the metamorphosis of what used to be the funniest team in football pipy minutes to a unffeoFTWHimemananoi BETHESDA Md In the beginning it was billed as the final round of the 58th PGA Championship By mid-afternoon it looked like the tournament nobody warned or perhaps the free-form double bogey-making contest Finally a while before nightfall yesterday Dave Stockton had emerged from one of the wildeet scrambles in golf history with Ms second PGA champlondiip and first tour victory since 1974 a positive person When I get in the tad I seldom fold" he smiled "But I just don't get In the lead enough" He looked shaky at times during the stretch but eventually proved that claim securing the 545000 first prize with a 13-foot putt for a par on the final hole and a final score of 281 one over par on Congressional Country 7064-yard layout besting Ray Floyd and Don January by one shot Jerry Pate who won both the US and Canadian Opens Jack Nicklaus David Graham and John Schlee all finished at three overpar 383 Stockton a 34-year-old Californian looked to be In trouble on the Nth hole but then again he thought he had a margin with which to work hit a three-wood off the tee because the last fairway I hit with my driver was the 10th I had been alternating hooks and slices I pushed it to the right then I got the shocking news-tlut Floyd and January were in the clubhouse at two he said Instead of folding which seemed to be the order of the day Stockton hit a two-iron about five feet short of the green played a cautious wedge below the hole and rammed home the winning putt had completely butchered 13 and 14 and I had no desire to go back he said referring to the sudden death playoff Lauda returns home World champion Mki Lauds returned home from a West German hospital yesterday saying he hopes to resume Formula One auto racirqt as soon as possible despite Ms serious accident in the German Grand Prix two weeks ago Lauda was listed In critical condition with severe bums for several days after the crash The nation's top pro golfers converge on the Welhenfiekt Country Club this week for shot at the 542009 top prize in the 23th Greater Hartford Open Defending champion Dan Dies and Jack Nicklaus are among the contendere ft A Soviet track team has broken the world record set by East Germany earlier this month in the 4 by 900 relay Tub said today The Soviet news agency said its national team was clocked in 7 minutes 52 seconds at the All-Union Relay Race Day program held near Moscow South Carolina collegian Beth Dse-M today led a field of 64 competitors into match play in the 78th USGA Amateur golf championsMp at Sacramento Calif Mist Duniri 18 opened defense of her title yesterday ai the only one to break par in the field of 150 Cullum's pentathlon hopes are off target I I i of Great Britain scored his second hoie-in-one of Ihe jcar yesterday In the final round of the PGA Championship sinking a 1-iron tee shot at the 211-yard 18th hole Oos-terhuis finished in a tie for 38th place and won S10M The Philadelphia Phillies yesterday announced the signing of their No I draft choice this year 18-year-old Jeff Kraus a shortstop from Cincinnati i foiled to penetrate the target or (3) two bullets could have traveled through precisely the same hole which would constitute a freak Indeed In any case the incident cost Cullum 220 points in the and it made the difference between being first or seventh after three days of competition In fact had Cullum even placed that fifth shot in the fering (a eye counts 10) he would have been No 1 going into today's swimming competition The crosscountry obstacle ran tomorrow will conclude the national championhips Observers said it was unlikely that Cullum could make up the deficit with just two days of action left Four competitors from the nationals will be selected to represent the United States in the World Junior Pentathlon Championships in Poland neat month PGA bodbis Evansville shotgunner perfect in shoatoff Taiwanese seek kids' baseball title SMCWtaTTltftW SAN ANTONIO An Evansville hopes for a national junior pentathlon championship apparently were shot down by a stray bullet here yesterday Tom Cullum 18 one of the favorites in the five-day event was the victim of a mystifying incident yesterday in the shooting phase of the competition (The modern pentathlon is contested over five days and includes five sports: riding shooting fencing swimming and running) Cullum in third place after the fencing (which he won) and the riding dropped to seventh in the 25-man field yesterday because no trace could be found of a shot he fired at a pistol target at 25 meters Observers said Cullum a 1978 Harrison High graduate appeared to be on target in a five-shot volley fired from a 22-caliber target pistoL A check of the target revealed four holes dead-center: bull's eyes But there was no sign of the fifth shot Officials said three explanations were possible: (1) Cullum had missed the target completely (which he has never done before) (2) a faulty bullet could have Dew SWdiNa sews Don January OSM env Flaw nemo DnMGrofcomff Jock NIcMm Iff Jonn ScMm Iff Jwry Fb4 3T75S SonCronoSnwllMS Charts Csodv NSW Oil Morion MM JorrvMcOonMH esses Gory Ptover MM TomKItoi MM victory over the Dominican Republican The opener was decided in favor of a second United States' team Grand Rapids Mich when Doug Gadbois smacked aa tade-the-park homer Michigan the north-era US winner beat Canada 24 la the 14-inning game 77J-4M9-1 7HT71-7J-3U 7M71-71-9tt 7Q-71-7f-7-3U 71-4-74-W 7t-9-747-4 M7M7-77-B4 AMI7S-7S-3M tt-72-72-7)-2M tt-74-77-2M nm-n-n-m 77-73-TS-aM MM-7S7S-M7 X7 7 71 7)-7 7)-72-7t-S7 M7 7f-773-7)- 3N 71-4 7J 7t-M JM TA-TO-TO-M-M 7474 7S-M 7472-74-N 77l 9 firing continued today The women's Class A title went to Nyla Johnson of Chattaroy Wash with 197 out of a possible 200 She and her husband Bill won the husband-wife title with a 396 total Canada's Susan Nattraas of Hamilton OnL was one of 29 shooters to record perfect scores yesterday when she took the women's Class AA title by breaking 200 targets for the first time In her competitive career Ohio won the team championship with 993 out of NOIL edging Kentucky by one target IncHN Tanas VANDALIA Evansville trapshooter Edward Voliva Jr captured the Class A championship yesterday In the 77th annual Grand American Trapshooting Tournament Voliva who lives on Old State Road was one of five gunners who recorded perfect 200 scores tat the Class A firing yeMer-day Those five then entered a shootoff which Voliva won by breaking all 25 clay In other competition 11 gunners tied for the Double A championship in which Mark Horn SM0 Snsodo SMI ArmMMrmrlMO MilwMofitvM TmWatsofiIMH AMfc Hill SM00 DOMIIISMM Gan Lfttler 09M JwryHMriMM DMA Gmtral tidcots unHsovasiatsmansai GARY Ind Defending champion Ping Tung of Taiwan moved into the limelight today at the Senior Little League World Series after the week-long double-elimination tournament got off to a bang yesterday with a no-hitter and a 14-inning duel i Canada met the Dominican Republican in a loser's bracket game before a first-round doubleheader tonight featuring the Taiwanese against Ata Hawaii and Wiesbaden Germany against Richmond Va The Taiwan entry sought the laland-nalion's fifth straight title and the city's fourth in the five tourneys including the last two in a row Lenny Kdpema rifled the no-hit gem last night to lead New Castle Del to a 5-0 Juft usa on said Thursday Friday Season tickets to Central High School football games will be on safest the school Thursday and Friday to last year's ticket holders and parents of players Adult aeason ticket to the Bears' five home games cost 5L25 Tickets go on isle to other imereited patrons on Mondzy New blood puts new life in run-down Cubs Ksdnsfday family Day ninth inning to score two runs and snap Oakland's winning streak at nine games Joshua ata homered in the first inning while Gene Tenace slammed his 13th homer for the A's in the sixth Red Sax 12 White Sax Boston bombed three Chicago pitchers for 16 hits scoring six runs in the third and five more in the eighth to give Luis Ttant his 13th victory against 10 losses Cecil Cooper led the Boston aaault with three hits while Dwight Evans knocked in three runs er who has won 20 or more games the pa five seasons now had 198 career victories The Yanks retained their 9 game tad in the American League East Orlsta 8 Twins 4-Ken Singleton's three-run homer and Mark Belanger's two-run double enabled Baltimore to keep pace with New York Rosa Grimsley 8-5 worked 6 23 innings to gain the victory which waa Baltimore's fourth In its last five games syab 6 ladtans Amos Otis and Tom Poquette belted two-run first Inning homers to back the three hit pitching of Marty Pattin and send Kansas City off to its third straight victory Pattin picked up Ms first conipiefe game but lost his shutout on George Hendrick's 20th home ran in the second hming Brewers 4 As Milwaukee's Von Joshua rifled a baset-ioaded single in the Rods sign pitcher AH Day Every Wednesday 3 pcs fried chicken mashed pot- atoes and gravy cole slaw and 2 hot butter tastn biscuits UhMsS Mvm IntarnaNMOl Manager Jim Marshall believes the Chicago Cuba are slowly building a solid team-thanks to such young players as 24-year old reliever Bruce Sutter A 6-fbot-2 lDOpound fork bailer Sutter didn't join the Cuba until May 9 but since then has developed Into one of the National moat effective relief pitchers He -picked up Ms third victory when the Cubs defeated the Houston Astra 5-3 last night has six laves and a 217 earned ran average "We're a changed said Mar- shall referring to the fhct the Cuba have won 16 of their last 24 games the -Astra we're in the second year of a re-building program The improvement of some of our young players like Sutter and Rob Sperring has made the difference" "I'd like to end the season with 10 victo-- ries and a few more saves" said Sutter -whosigned out of high school with the Cubs £fn 1972 "I like being a relief pitcher and vfiaue been working at becoming a good one -since I entered organized ball" T- Sutter ran into trouble in the eighth banning when Cliff Johnson tripled with two Tout and the score tied at 3-3 and asked Marshall what to throw the next hitter Roger Metzger "I told Sutter with his stuff it didn't make any difference in this laid Marshall "I told Mm 'go after that Units ft sis I CINCINNATI The Cincinnati Reds have stated Brace Berenyi their number one draft pick in the aecondaiy phase of the draft Berenyi is a 21-yea roid right-handed pitcher from Sherwood Ohio At Northeast Missouri State University this year single with two out in the ninth The gamewinning Mt followed singles by Pete La-Cock and Manny Trillo and a walk to Steve Swisher Larry Dferker allowed only one hit through five inningi but wound up with his 11th loss against 12 victories Enos Cabell Cesar Cedeno and Bob Watson had two hits each for Houston while Trillo and Swisher had two each for the Cubs In other action in the major leagues yesterday: Braves 4 Reds 3 Carl Morton went 7 23 innings with Adrian Devine bailing Mm out of an eighth-inning jam to win his third game for the Braves while Fred Norman suffered Ida third lost against 11 wins for Ihe Reds Vic Cornell's seventh-inning homer was the decisive Mow for the Brave George Foster had two of the five hits Padres 11 Cards Willie uavis two-run double and Enzo Hernandez' two-run triple were the Mg blows of an eight-run ninth inning outburst which enabled the Padres to heat the Cardinals Lou Brock had five singles for St Louis but struck out with the bases loaded for the final out of the game when the Cardinals rallied hi the bottom of the ninth Dave FTOislefaen got credit for Ms eighth win Yanks I Rangers Jim Hunter pitched a seven-hitter in beating Houston to run Ms season record to 14-12 Hunter went the distance for the 17th time in 28 staits and was deprived of a shutout when a sacrifice fly by Roy Howell drovq in the Rangers' only ran in the ninth Hunt- 3-PtnGttdsfa Gnns? Triplet averages taswrarL Keg $189 BATTING AS At Iff Jl 1 a ft HI IN JN SI Wf Ml IH 41 334 IBZia 77 177 34 4t Ml 7S ArfWnS-! Canalll 1-1 DwMi Dirt- lit 1 Sijg Mi G4vwiSAiMHCwmKk4 Miwrmil-li Uav- 5 MIS JM Ik IH KkllT-M' Tw4ir 4-7 meo 34 NS SJ II IS AMIrm jj MankoMkl It Adame I to er AH Otvaa Mk AAaeCermack Dli AAeverreee 191 IS OwTTSZ UtSZSdSnirt IW fcAwlW A -J Dwll-O DKSrMtaiwin Wk MacCanMCt 4U STuSi iTE nmSSm a szSSSt -LnaUNttaMMlimli' SwArrmWmwilTwNr7 lanlii- own Mttur4j Amm 43 Mpwlliwlil 91 Dw ili iKAUli Him Irani 33 Can 1 QnwMi 17 LwN NNIrra Bran 17 Lama aGemoNkAdewr kMw WNnnlliDnl 9 jf 4 JmovsfiBcpe FREDOfOttN west Hladeibdta east 411 St Joseph Ave 2913 Lincoln Ave 422-3904 476-6701 jfJ Smw Sutter struck out Metzger on three straight forkballi and received credit for the victory when Sperring Mt a two-nai I.