Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 14

I B2 SPORTS Decatur, Illinois Friday, April 6. 1990 BASEBALL rickson Cards' woy odlei IboyrocDog Ibac AP Laser Photo SPRAY DAY: Comiskey Park employee John Batiste washes field-level Z3DU lhiinniB paces Cards back home as coach By TIM CAIN Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD Roger Erickson is back home sooner than he expected. The Springfield Lanphier graduate is acting as pitching coach this year for the Springfield Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals' Class A affiliate in the Midwest League. "I finally just decided to settle down and get into one place," Erickson said Wednesday night at the 13th annual Springfield Cardinals Welcome Dinner.

"The last two or three years, I've been bouncing around quite a bit." Erickson, 33, isn't that far removed from the playing field. He's still close to his playing weight of 190, and he looks as though he'd be more at home in the field than on the bench. And not without reason. Last year he pitched for Louisville, St. Louis' Class AAA franchise.

There, he was 1-2 in 27 games with a 3.59 ERA. "I'd had an accident last year where I almost cut off my little finger," Erickson said. "I had 10 stitches in it. It didn't hurt me that much, but it just never seemed to come around." Erickson pitched with the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees in the majors, but never approached the numbers of his rookie season. In 1978 with the Twins, Erickson was 14-13 with a 3.96 ERA.

He finished his major league career with a record of 35-53. The coaching role is new, and not neccesarily easy. "Yeah, it's hard, especially when you've still got it," he said. "I had an offer from Ted (Simmons, St. Louis' director of player development) to come back and try to make the team this year.

"But I thought I'd try this to see how it goes." One of Erickson's roles, at least if the Welcome Dinner was any indication, is to serve as the victim of Manager Keith Champion's barbs. Champion focused on the length of Erickson's hair Wednesday, saying, "He pitched with the Twins and Yankees, and played with (rock group) Def Leppard." Despite the jibes, Erickson seems settled and happy with his decision. "The Cardinals were reorganizing their farm system, and Ted told me he wanted someone with strong credentials as a pitching coach here. "It is different. We'll wait and see how the regular season goes.

Spring training is never really any real indicator anyway." seats along the left field line. hit a three-run homer and Ron Kittle followed with another shot off Toronto starter Todd Stottlemyre in the fifth for Chicago. Lance Johnson had an RBI single off Jim Acker in the sixth, driving Ron Karkovice home with the winning run. Karkovice reached base on an error by shortstop Tony Fernandez and stole second. Toronto had 13 hits, nine of them off starter Eric King.

Wilson, Bell and Olerud had three hits apiece. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Elbow surgery survivors are being quarantined in spring training by the St. Louis Cardinals, or so it seems.

There they are in the clubhouse locker stalls, the names lined up like ducks in a shooting gallery. Tudor, Cox, Mathews, Horton. That's not counting Todd Worrell, who had surgery in December. "Magrane is next in line by the looks of it," left-hander John Tudor said with a wry smile, eying the nearby locker of the healthy 18-game winner. "Hopefully he'll be able to duck it." Duck what? Why Tommy John surgery, of course.

In olden days; elbow problems meant the end for a pitcher. Then in 1975, John went under the knife of Los Angeles Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe, who repaired ligament damage and transposed the ulnar nerve. Presto, good as new. John lasted 13 more seasons, winning 20 games three times, pitching to the ripe age of 45.

Still, the number of injuries to Cardinals pitchers, while a boon to Jobe's business, is puzzling. "I don't know how I did mine and I don't imagine most of the others do either," said Tudor, who was limited to 14 1-3 innings last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. "It was my time to go and it took its time." Danny Cox and Greg Mathews each missed last season. Mathews has been a surprise in camp and probably will make the team as a starter. But Cox, who needed a cortisone shot last week, is on the 21-day disabled list.

Horton is not such a serious case as the others. He had arthroscopic surgery in the offseason to remove bone chips. The rest went under the knife, A7vS' Sale WEM IFflTOlL ifl TnwOM 0akTaVdAe. xs 1 VILLAGE rUUA Grand And Nor I A I A3 I WSk 3146N.Walf 341 W. Isl Oakland 22nd LV.

8773447 423623 428'0632 428-7131 and Worrell will have to have surgery again in early April to remove scar tissue that is damaging nerves in his hand; Manager Whitey Herzog has no idea why his pitching staff has had such a rash of injuries. Certainly, team physician Dr. Stan London has no answers to explain the epidemic. In fact, he's surprised there aren't more blown elbows in baseball. Just watch a pitcher in slow-motion.

"The elbow opens every time they throw," London said. 'It 4 stretches it on the inside and compresses it on the outside and grinds it in the middle. When -you do that thousands and thousands of times every year, you're asking for trouble." Tudor is the best bet to come back as good as new. He won 21 games for the Cardinals' National League championship team in 1985 and was back in that long-lost form in his first two spring outings. He retired six batters a seventh reached on an error in an intrasquad game.

Then, in a more important test, he worked three perfect innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, dispatching them on only 24 pitches. But Tudor has had too many problems in the past few seasons bum shoulder, elbow and knee to be carried away by spring training success. "I need a lot of fine-tuning, as does everyone here," Tudor said. "Mine's just a little more public than anybody else's." Cox's return is a little more iffy. His meal ticket is, the slider, and the way his injury developed was atypical.

"He had a spur that the ligament had grown around and the spur just wore out the ligament, basically," said Tudor. Prices Good Thru 4790 Dekuyper Flavored Schnapps 2 NEW FLAVORS Key Largo Hot Damn 4" OFF MARKED ys III tmmmm 1 11 wfocvT 1 1 1 Miller I ite A I I FT! lit I I I li Millpr Ilraft I I Atlanta fgIgssgs slucjjcjeir Ewams HTm24 can case BRSTl Bacardi I fm is8 h-s 4 pk. l-m Late outburst pushes Indians by Cubs, 8-7 LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) Todd Zeile's two-run homer anchored a five-run first inning Thursday and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 8-4 for their third win of the spring.

Bryn Smith (1-1) allowed four runs on seven hits in four innings for the win. The Cardinals batted around, scoring five runs off Kevin Ritz (0-1) in the first inning. Terry Pendleton drove in one run with a bases-loaded grounder, Denny Walling doubled two more home and Zeiler hit his second homer with Walling on board. Lloyd Moseby hit his first homer with Cecil Fielder on board in the second for Detroit (5-6-2). Moseby and Larry Sheets had RBI-singles in the Detroit third as the Tigers closed the gap to 5-4.

St. Louis (3-7-1) got an unearned run off Ritz in the fourth and two more unearned runs off Dan Petry in the seventh. Indians 8 Cubs 7 TUCSON, Ariz. Joel Skinner's double scored Carlos Baerga Baseball notebook POSTEMA: Umpire files suit. she's been denied a chance in the majors is because she is a woman.

Postema, who has umpired major league exhibition games, said in a statement, "I am devastated that I was not selected to umpire in the major leagues and I firmly believe that the only real reason that I was not chosen is because I am a woman. "I am filing this charge because I believe it is time for the major leagues to permit women to be umpires." Postema said she was given her first written evaluation after last season, with the overall rating above average. Postema said her rating apparently was negatively affected by the number of players (14) she had ejected from games last season. DOUBLE DEION Deion Sanders' hopes for a two-sport HIS 'lijfUK Exhibition baseball with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth for Cleveland. Trailing 7-6 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Indians tied it when Candy Maldonado, who had three of Cleveland's 15 hits, led off with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chris James.

Baerga singled home Maldonado to make it 7-7. Baerga then scored when Skinner slammed a double off the left field wall off loser Jose Nunez. Steve Olin, who pitched the ninth inning for Cleveland, got the win. Chicago used a five-run third inning to take a 6-2 lead. The big blow of the inning was a bases-loaded triple by Marvell Wynne.

The other run in the inning came on an RBI single by Mark Grace. Dwight Smith led off the seventh inning with a home run to give the Cubs a 7-5 lead. But Baerga's RBI single in the bottom' of the seventh made it 7-6. The win boosted Cleveland's record to 8-4 while the Cubs fell to 5-8. White Sox 5 Blue Jays 4 DUNEDIN, Fla.

Dan Pasqua career took a step forward when Manager Bucky Dent announced the rookie outfielder has earned a spot on the New York Yankees. "He's going with us," Dent announced after a 2-1 victory over the New York Mets. Sanders, 22, doubles as an Atlanta Falcons cornerback in the fall and left the Yankees last August after coming to terms with the NFL club. He's hitting .364 this spring, but impressed his baseball employers mostly with raw speed. Sanders came to camp as a non-roster player, signing a one-year contract in March for $200,000.

He has the option to leave the Yankees for the Falcons at the end of July. QUIZ HAPPY Dan Quisenberry, once baseball's relief king, now is happy just to be a pawn with the San Francisco Giants. Quisenberry, 37, released in July 1988 after 10 seasons with the Kansas City Royals, also was dropped in November by the St. Louis Cardinals after refusing a demotion to the minor leagues. San Francisco signed him as a free agent Jan.

26. "I'm not looking for any new leases on life," the.quick-witted Quisenberry said. "I like the old rental agreement. I'm getting a chance to pitch every other day so far in spring training." For now, Craig plans to use Quisenberry as a middle reliever. The Giants are required to pay only the $100,000 minimum of Quisenberry's $1.1 million salary in 1990, with the Royals picking up the rest.

The submarine-style righthander is fifth on the all-time saves list with 244, including six in seven opportunities last year with the Cardinals. With St. Louis in 1988, Quisenberry was 2-0 with no saves and a 6.16 ERA. He was 3-1 with a 2.64 ERA last year before becoming a free agent. Natural Light nsn 24 Can Case I I I II ft z3" f3 tft "111 I I I i I cnemn Blanc Savignon Blanc I (59 Zfejim seam l-Jj? "S89 I -Mag.

Bourbon i I Corona 750 ML a Canadian ffl Beer -PbSI FgfR Ms Mist 6pk.NR 5)113) SSS 750 ML '59 'II 89 Veteran slugger Darrell Evans says he fears his major league career has come to an end now that he has been released by the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta manager Russ Nixon met with Evans Wednesday to tell him the club had decided to retain utility infielder Alexis Infante, who was acquired Nov. 20 from the Toronto Blue Jays, instead of the 21-year veteran. Evans, 42, said he called several teams after the 10-minute meeting to see if there were any prospects for the 1990 season. But he said there does not appear to be any interest.

"You get to the point where you have to face reality," Evans said. "It's happened to a lot of my friends and it's not easy. I guess when it slaps you in the fact you don't know how to feel. I don't know what to expect because I've never been in this situation before. "Obviously, this could be the end of my career." Evans, a first baseman, was the major leagues' active home run leader with 414.

In a part-time role with the Braves last year, he hit .207 with 11 homers and 39 runs batted in. In trimming their roster to 27 players, the Braves also released non-roster outfielder Rick Leach. POSTEMA FILES CLAIM Pam Postema, whose bid to become the first woman umpire in the major leagues ended when she was let go as a minor-league umpire last winter, filed a federal sex discrimination claim Thursday against the American and National Leagues. Postema, 36, had been an umpire in the minor leagues since 1977. She claims that as a result of being passed over for the third consecutive year for a major league assignment, she was fired as a minor-league umpire after last season.

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