Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 36

The Inside of Sports SUNDAY, MAY 23, 1965 4C a ours Kay on Fight Sife's A Little N.Y. 4. -ty Klsi 9 1 BY GEORGE PUSCAS PrM Prtts Sperit Writer POLAND SPRING, Me. They haven't changed, not really. Cassius Clay, a bit bigger wider at the mouth and shoulders than when he inherited the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Lis-ton, is planning the same dancing, skipping type of battle he employed in Miami.

His work leading up to Tuesday's rematch with Liston has shown that. Striking then fleeing is Cassius' style, and he has the good sense not to fool with a successful formula. Liston has not changed either, and there's the rub. Fight people were expecting Liston to try some new tactic, something that would enable him to catch up with young Cassius, in this rematch. BUT THERE has been no hint of change, no breath of new strategy, in anything that Liston has shown publicly.

He pursues his sparmates in the same plodding, ever-forward shuffle, seeking to trap them in corners or along the ropes. The sparmates are not experts at the Clay style of skipping from slde-to-side to a 1 the Liston charge. But inexpert though they are, they have been able for the most part to escape Liston. This failing of the ex-champ has had a significant effect on the "thinking men' in sports. Liston was 5-1 to beat Clay in their original title-switching bout because everyone was sure that somehow he would be able to nail Cassius despite Cassius' speed afoot.

But he was not able to do so. Cassius winded him in the first two rounds and Sonny quit on his stool when the bell rang for the seventh. NOW THE ODDS are merely 8-5 in LJston's favor, and even this reflects i 3 A no noticeable difference in hia punching from the first round to the last. Now Liston has been without the title, without a fight for 15 months, and the hunger for it and the rewards that go with it are as strong as when he was waiting impatiently for a shot at Floyd Patterson. Liston knows that if he loses here, it could be the end of him as an important fighter.

Others are waiting for Clay Patterson, George Chuvalo, Ernie Terrell and there is not likely to be a third Clay-Liston fight here at his training camp, "it'll be a short fight. "But if he's gonna run I'm ready to track him and wait for my chance." LISTON LEAVES the impression that there can be no repeat of the sordid almost shameful manner in which he yielded the title to' Clay in Miami. He bad injured his right shoulder in the first round and later explained that he could not go on after the sixth. But movies on the fight showed 3- By losing, Liston would consign himself to an idle life, for none of these others would dare fight him before getting a chance at Clay. CLAY'S SITUATION is a bit different.

Liston already has said that if he regains the title, he would not give Clay another fight. But a dethroned Clay still would be busy. There's Patterson, Chuvalo and Terrell, and they would risk fighting Clay sooner than Liston. The stakes are high for them all. GEORGE JACK 'The Kids Have Got To Eat You Know Did Wings Get Stung on Trade? BY GEORGE Pl'SCAS fn Prt Sports Wrttar POLAND SPRING.

Me. Back in '02, Teddy Roosevelt made this moose country his playground, and some years later Cal Coolidge would swing by to taste the mineral water at Poland Spring. Not much has happened here since, nothing that would catch the world's attention. The poor people of this old mill town turn out shoes, textiles, fish for salmon, stalk the moose and generally pass their lives quietly. Or they did.

Now upon the scene come Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay and hundreds of fight followers from afar, and suddenly Poland Spring Is transformed into a world capital. THE NATIVES love it. They gawk at the fighters and writers, and everyone from out of town is a celebrity. Jo Louis, Jimmy Braddock, Jersey Joe Waicott are sieged daily. "We're not so far away from things that we don't know who people are, said one matron waiting at Louis' elbow for an autograph.

At the gas station, the attendant ex-r plained Poland Spring and revealed a strange fact about the coming fight. "Sure, the fight is all anybody talks about any more," he said. "It's the biggest thing that ever happened in this part of the country. "THAT'S FTNXY, too, because I don't know a single person in Poland Spring who's going to the fight" What's that? "This is a poor town, misrer. You know what the average guy here makes? 'Take a gues.

It's 60 bucks a week." On that basis, not many can scratch up tlOO bucks for a ringside seat. PUSCAS a month or so ago. Burns Stanley and Ted Ewald. who held the contracts on Banks and Jones, brought Cody home to Detroit and put him in Ford Hospital. For the last two months, actually for two years, Cody has served as a sparring partner for Clay, absorbing the champion's jabs and jolts and readying him for the Liston fights.

"I don't know what they thought," said Cody. "They said I didn't look right. They said my eyes were glassy. They said, well. I don't know what they thought, but they wanted me to give up fighting.

"They even showed me some films of my fights to convince me that I should quit. "But I knew I was okay. Man. I was just tired. That's all there was to it." DOESN'T IT worry you.

what happened to Banks? "Oh, that's awful, ain't it?" Cody moaned. "I liked him. We were very close, my family and Sonny. "But, naw, I don't worry about what happened to Sonny happening to me. I could fall off this bed and If I land wrong I might get killed, or I might get hit by a car and that would be th end of me.

You take chances just walking around and that's what It is In fighting. You take a chance." He sat up straight then, urgently, as another thought crossed his mind. "Say, I'd heard Sonny had been In a car wreck before that fight that killed him," Cody said. "Didn't the doctors say his brain had been damaged like in a car wreck?" WELL, THEY HAD, but the statement may have been misinterpreted. The brain damage was severe, not likely to come from the force of a fist, more like what a doctor might find from a car crash.

Besides, Ewald said last week that the Banks accident was minor, nobody hurt, little damage to the car. "Well, I don't know," answered Cody. "When you fight you know you can be hurt. You try not to get hurt Maybe you will, maybe you won't "Burns and Ewald, they wanted me to quit and they said they would get me a job but I never saw the job." THE STORY GOING around Is that Cody, who was a problem once, warned Burns that if he made him quit fighting. Jackson Prison might be Cody's next home.

"Fighting's my life," said Cody. "I like it and I can make some money at it. Fm sending home a couple hundred dollars to my family today. Now where am I gonna get that kind of money anywhere else except by boxing? I don't know anything else." Cody has no Illusions about his furore In the game. He knows he will never be champion, his work with day has convinced him of that Not that he stands in particular awe of Clay either.

"Oh, I've stung him," he laughed. "We mix it up good. But he's good and, man, is he fast. Wheeee, he's fast" When Cody insisted on continuing in the ring, Ewald and Stanley gave up. 1 Turned his contract over to Angelo Dundee, who trains Clay.

Dundee got him on the championship card. The master of his fate. AHGB CHASEP A BUTTERFLY ICS, XCT JJXCW. WW CIX SODNDS UNTIL HE CM -TURN INTO A JZZmWW )M SEE WITH A JVC5STV the notion that somewhere along their clashing paths Clay will make one mistake and Liston will hit him a good Bhot. I have to go with the odds.

I think Liston will win on a knockout within the first three rounds. "I never hit him my best punch In the first fight," said Liston, He realizes now that he may have to be patient, that Clay is a better fighter than most believed 15 months ago when he dethroned Liston. "If he comes to fight," Sonny said BERRY Gary Bergman, used both us a forward and defenseman in his rookie year, is set for a regular defense post and Abel saya he has high hopes of two rookies taking two other blue line spots which means unemployment for Al Langlois. ABEL POINTS to Montreal's success with rookie defensemen, "no-name" defensemen. "Terry Harper was a nobody, Ted Harris was in the minors and he wasn't the All-Star defneseman (yes he was, Sid, ho won the American League's Eddie Shore award as best rearguard for 1963-64).

Noel Plcard was a big guy with no name and he came up and helped," Abel said. There's still the thought, though, that Abel gave up more than he got. five for three was more than house-cleaning on the farms, it was a giveaway. The first question of the callers is why he didn't get Eddie Shack in the deal. "I tried to get Shack but Imlach said he won't trade him.

I tried to get Jim Pappin but they won't trade him either." The trade right now leaves a lot to be desired by Abel deserves the benefit of a season before final Judgment. His trades so far have been excellent and remember how everyone thought Imlach robbed New York blind in the Bathgate trade? auer: A Hank Bauer was getting a shoe shine before going out on the course. "Telephone, Mr. Bauer," said the locker-room attendant. "Mr.

Flnley calling." Bauer Jumped down from the shoe-shine stand. He'd learned one thing: When Mr. Flnley called, it was always urgent. It was never to pass the time of day. Everything was a crisis.

"How soon can yon get downtown?" Flnley's voice snapped over the phone. "I dunno maybe a half hour, 40 min," said Bauer. "Well, come right away," said Finley. "And be dressed." "Shirt and tie?" said Bauer. "Shirt and tie," said Finley.

THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES later Bauer knocked on the door of the suite of the Hotel Muehlebach in downtown Kansas City. Flnley was sitting there. So was Frank Lane and Flnley's man Friday, Pat. "How would yon like to manage one of our minor league clubs?" said Lane, even before Bauer could ait down. "I wouldn't," said Bauer.

"When I'm through up here, I'm through." "Well, how would you like to manage the A's?" asked Finley. Td give it a shot," said Bauer. "Okay, you've got the Job," said JOE FALLS ON BASEBALL. Th thought held by mny on the eight-player swap is that the Red Wing were taken, that Punch Imlacb is the modern-day Jesse James, the man who masterminded the Brinks Job, Murph the Surf of Lake Ontario. First, the Red Wings lost in numbers! they gave up five bodies, got only three In return.

Second, the key man far Detroit in the deal, Andy Bathgate, has pair of gimpy kneee. Third, Billy Harris, being counted on by Abel for 15 goals or more, seemingly has been offered In trads mors. been turned down. an ugly daughter. Fourth, the Wings have needed hitting defensemen and they gave up one of the few hittere around in Marcel Pronovost.

Fifth, the Wings need hitting forwards and they gave up Larry Jeffrey, who showed promise that way, foe Harrii, who never has been aecoeed of laying a bruise on anyone. Sixth, the departure of Pronovost leaves a mile-wide gap at the blua line while giving Toronto what amounts to the best defense since the atomic bomb in Carl Brewer, Bob Baun, Tim Horton, Kent Douglas and Pronovost. Oldtimer Allan Stanley can retire now. Seventh, who have the Wings got to fill the Pronovost gap? When they were hurting at the blue line during the sea-: son they had to call up old warhorses Uke Warren Godfrey and Pete Goegan. THIS IS ABEL'S position I Lowell MacDonald and Aut Erlckson, the fourth and fifth men la the deal going to Toronto from Detroit's Pitts-'.

burgh farm, didn't figure In any Red Wing plana. Both had been given major league shots and failed. MacDonald had been offered fax a number of trades and was rejected. AbI like to clean house from top to bottom aa he's been doing it since be b-eame general manager to make room for players coming op from the Junior teams. Eddie Joyal, third man in the deal, wasn't what Abel wanted for a third line center after many trials.

Joyal had the moves but rarely put them together with any consistency and, ha doesn't figure to make the Maple Leafs with Dave Keon, Bob Pulford, Pete Stemkow-ski and Red Kelly ahead of him at center. SO NOW IT COMES to Pronovoat-Jef-. frey and Bathgate-Harris. "Tou've got to give a name to get a name" Abel said. He also said that Pronovost is going to be 85 and won't be playing too much longer, that it's xn to look toward the future.

If yon remember, he did that quite snceessfully last year, catting Terry Saw-chnk adrift and making Roger Crosier the No. 1 goalkeeper. Crozier went on to make the first All-Star team and was named rookie of the year. Now Abel is looking for lightning to strike again. not once but twice or perhaps three times.

POLAND SPRING. Me. They warned him, told him to give it up. this no longer should be the life for him. They said he was courting disaster, flirting with serious injury, maybe even death.

But a man can feel trapped by circumstances, and so it is with Cody Jones and he plods on, despite the warnings, despite the urgings. CODY IS A TOUGH young Detroit heavyweight of limited talent. He was a stablemate of Sonny Banks, who was buried in Detroit last week, another victim of the prize ring. For the moment, he's really living. He's in the party of Cassius Clay and he has a spot on the championship card here Tuesday, fighting in a preliminary to the Clay-Sonny Liston flap.

He's an engaging guy, always laughing, always a smile on his flattened face, and now he sprawled out over his bed In a local motel and he almost laughed at his plight. "Well, what's a man to do?" he said. "I've got to keep on fighting because I've got to have money. "The last time I saw you I had three kids. Man, was it that long ago? Have I been gone that long? But now I've got my wife and five kids and they like to eat.

That's all. That's every man's problem ain't it? The kids got to eat." THEY DO INDEED. But a while back Some of his rules, seemingly simple, are quite intriguing. For instance: Card playing The Orioles are always allowed to play on the airplanes but never in the clubhouse. On the bus they can play when they win but not when they lose.

Curfew It's generally midnight but Bauer never pulls on bedcheck. He trusts his players, doesn't care too much what they do but they'd better be ready to play ball when they show op at the park. Dress He used to let his players travel In sports Shirts and sweaters, but no more. Now he Insists on a shirt and tie at all times. His reason: "We're all salesmen.

We're selling a product baseball. If you're a salesman and calling on a customer, you wouldn't go in with a sports shirt" TO BAUER, the toughest part of managing Is knowing when to pull a pitcher. So he relies heavily on Harry Brecheen, who has been the pitching coach with the O's for the last 11 years. Bauer, In fact, relies heavily on all his aides. He doesn't call them coaches.

"They're assistant managers," he says. He tells them: "If you see something wrong, correct it Don't wait for me to do it If the players gives you trouble, then 1 11 step in." as Managers Go Rare Bird This is how Bauer began his managerial career. The date was June 19, 1961. It began the same way Bauer has alwaya lived: simply and directly as honest as the can of beer that's always on his desk after a ball game. Henry Bauer, 42, of Prairie Village, Kansas: One of the most uncomplicated men of our time.

There's nothing mlxed-up about Old Potato Face. It's almost disappointing to interview him. You ask a question. You get an answer. Now fencing, no parrying.

No double talk. Nothing but honesty. Honesty In a gravel voice. "How come Sae valine didn't go in fo run until Siebern had two strikes on him?" "I forgot to do It" "Forgot?" "Yeah, Woodling had to remind me." THE MAN WOULD never get past the first day in the Gene Mauch School of Major League Managing. He would be expelled on the spot.

The man who runs the Baltimore Orioles believes that managing Is, in some senses, an overrated profession. 1 think the worst thing is to over-manage," said Bauer. "If you've got ball club like Tve got, let 'em go oat and play ball. Forget the trick stuff." Last year In Chicago, Bauer had named Milt Pappas to start a game against the White Sox. Pappas' arm was bothering him and Bauer frankly didn't know if Pappas could make It.

SO BAUER WENT OVER to see Al Lopez before the game. He told him what the situation was: he'd have Pappas warm up but didn't know how his arm would react. So He'd have another pitcher getting ready in the bullpen. "I didn't want Lopes to think I was trying to put one over on him," said Bauer. "Some managers will have a righthander and a lefthander warming up, but I don't believe it doing these things." So, when his club Is behind, you'll never see Baner doing the "silly things" hitting and running, stealing or sacrificing.

"That's overmanaglng," he said. "If you're even or ahead, then you play this way. When you're behind, you Just try to catch up." Curiously enough, Bauer's simplicity sets him apart from most of his colleagues and makes him something of a revolutionist.