Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 20

SECTION Football, Page 3 Keith Gave, Page 4 Scoreboard, Page 6 Scores: 1-900-370-0990, Sports: 222-6660 (Calls to the score line are 75t per minute) i i 1 Injuries delay roster cuts, giving other players a chance to make team. See Page 5C. Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1993 Detroit 4frce Vtcso PISTONS 11 MITCH BLIONS LEAD THE PACK The Lions will head into Week 9 of the NFL season In first place in the NFC Central. NFL likely to add St.

Louis, Charlotte Two expansion teams will pay $140 million STANDINGS WLTGB Detroit 5 2 0 Chicago 3 2 0 1 Minnesota 3 2 0 1 Green Bay 3 3 0 1VS Tampa Bay 1 5 0 31t Unsolved mysteries? Try the WUd Thing NEWS ITEM: Pitcher Mitch Williams, distraught over the World Series and death threats from Phillies fans, did not join the team when it returned from Toronto. Some say we never will see him inaPhillies uniform again. His whereabouts are unknown. The year: 2018. Date: Oct.

26. Ship's log, somewhere in the South Pacific. Lions' top receiver Cloyce Box dies Played on title teams in '52-53 BY JACK SAYLOR Free Press Sports Writer To some, he was a streak in blue-and-silver, pulling in passes seemingly overthrown. To others, he was a tall, wealthy businessmen, a giant in. the true Texas oil country definition of the word.

To others, he was a benefactor to those less fortunate. Cloyce Box, one of the Lions' best all-time receivers, died Sunday night in his sleep at his home in Dallas. He was 70. "He was a hell of a receiver," said Joe Schmidt, a Lions Hall of Fame linebacker. "He was 6-foot-4, and his speed was comparable to any of today's receivers.

He had a graceful stride and at 220 pounds he was a big-sized man." Box, a two-time Pro Bowl pick, starred for teams that played in three straight NFL championship games, winning in 1952-53. He was among the band of Lions who never drifted apart, though it has been 40 years since they dominated pro football. Before his death, Box had just returned from a book party See BOX, Page 2C grouped with Charlotte through geographic considerations. Much of the speculation on which cities will get the franchises has therefore centered on the old wedding adage of "something old, something new." Representatives will make final pitches today. NFL committees for finance and expansion are then expected to make a two-team recommendation.

Twenty-one of 28 league owners would have to approve the recommendation for it to pass. "I expect it will be a very long day," said Lions chief operating officer Chuck Schmidt, who will attend the meetings. "As far as we're concerned, it's a neck-and-neck race. We are going in totally open-minded. We have no old See Expansion, Page 2C BY Greg StodA Free Press Sports Writer They are five little piggies looking for a way into the NFL expansion market.

Two will get invitations, probably today, and three others will cry "wee, wee, wee" all the way home from the meetings in Chicago. The favorites are St. Louis, which once had an NFL team but lost it when the Cardinals moved to Phoenix, and Charlotte, which made a big splash when the NBA Hornets recently came to town and is now hoping to add to its image of a burgeoning New South city. Other contenders are Baltimore usually grouped with St. Louis because it, too, once had a team only to lose it to Indianapolis and Memphis.

and Jacksonville, Fla. usually Free Press Plus The final gun of the Vikings-Bears game sounded after this edition was printed. But you can hear a Free Press account of the game by calling Free Press Plus. Call 441-1034 on a touch-tone phone, then press 1 to hear details through 4 p.m. It's a local call for most In the metro Detroit area.

More football Lions return specialist Mel Gray to be sidelined 1-3 weeks. Page X. bad storm hit last night. The ship crashed against the rocks. I washed up on this uncharted desert island.

Seeking shelter, I ventured into the jungle. Huge palm trees, strange vegetation, if- i VI I the screeching sounds of parrots, macaws and other wildlife. Then I heard this odd voice. "Bottom of the ninth, two on, Williams pitching to Joe Carter, here's the pitch steeeerike! "Here's the pitch steeeeeerike! "Here's the pitch steeeeeerike! In the clearing, I saw a middle-aged man, with a scraggly beard and wild flowing hair. He was throwing coconuts at a target on a tree.

The first one missed badly. The second hit the ground. The third hit a monkey, knocking him unconscious. "Mitch Williams?" I blurted. The man spun.

"Who are you?" Incredible. After all these years, I had stumbled upon the biggest AWOL in major league history. "You a scout?" he asked. "No," I said. "You sure?" He reeled back and hurled another coconut at the target.

This one missed the tree, but hit a snake, knocking it unconscious. "I'm working on a curveball," he said. Still spitting mad As everyone knows, Williams, known back in the 20th century as "Wild Thing," disappeared after the 1993 World Series, in which he gave up the final home run in the bottom of the ninth. He couldn't go back to Philadelphia. So he went underground.

The following spring, when the team reported, Williams was missing. A search began. Someone discovered his car, parked at the beach, but all that was inside was a pouch of Red Man tobacco with a note. "For Lenny," the note said. "Think of me when you spit.

The Coast Guard got involved. The FBI suspected foul play. Meanwhile, sympathetic callers to Philly radio shows said, "Why is dey wasting time searcMn' for da bum? I hope a shark ate him." In the years that followed, Mitch Williams became a forgotten man. "What happened to you?" I asked. "Well," he said, offering me a cup of papaya juice, "after the Series, I shaved my head and joined the Merchant Marines.

I pitched for a while in Japan, under the name Tame Thing. Nobody suspected it was me, until I hit a guy with a pitch." "That's not so terrible, hitting a batter." "Not a batter. The president of Mitsubishi. In a luxury box." He sighed. "Slider, got away from me.

"Anyhow, I bummed around here and there. I became disenchanted. I landed on this island and I've been here ever since. "I still can't get that World Series pitch out of my mind. The way it cleared the wall.

All those Toronto guys cheering. The horror the horror He shook his head. How strange. So many changes had taken place in baseball, and he'd missed them all. The 24-second pitch clock.

The designated bunter. The new league minimum salary for rookies, $40,000,000,000. "So," he said, "what happened to my guys?" Well, I said, Lenny Dykstra, of course, is president of Philip Morris. And David West, the middle relief pitcher, retired from baseball when his ERA hit triple figures. Kim Batiste won six straight Gold Glove awards as the game's best infielder, after he discovered, somewhat late in life, that he was actually left-handed.

Larry Andersen still pitches. He is 65 years old. Sen. John Kruk is doing well. Still off target "What about the other guys?" Williams asked.

The Blue Jays? Well, they broke up a few months after winning the championship. Paul Molitor retired. Rickey Henderson sold himself to the Florida Marlins, the only team willing to provide a limo to take him to the bathroom. John Olerud took an assertiveness training seminar, and is now a shock-jock radio host. Jack Morris was let go, and because nobody wanted him, he went to Japan, where he earned the nickname "Jackass-san." Williams shrugged.

"What about Joe Carter?" "You mean the prime minister?" "Oh, great." I sensed I had said the wrong thing. Especially when he got up and began throwing coconuts again. "Here's the pitch steeerike!" He hit a bush. "Here's the pitch steeerike! He hit a mountain lion. I thought about bringing him back.

Then I thought about the newspapers, the TV and the Phillies fans who were still calling talk shows, demanding that his name be deleted from all records. I figured he was better off here. I left him in the jungle. As I headed for the ship, I thought I heard him finally hit the tree with the coconut. Then again, it might have been the monkey.

SANTIAGO LYONAssociated Press Japan's Kenta Hasegawa, left, goes for the ball against South Korea's Sang Bum Gu in the Asia Group World Cup qualifying soccer match Monday. Japan holds off South Korea, 1 Tsuyoshi Kitazawa's powerful shot -und its way into the hands of the Korean goalkeeper Choi In-young. South Korea is seeking its third straight World Cup appearance. Since its first World Cup bid in 1954 in Switzerland ended in humiliating defeats. South Korea has continued its buildup, making it one of Asia's leaders.

Confidence increased after South Korea represented Asia in World Cup championships in 1986 and again in 1990. But since 1990, many Korean fans have turned to professional baseball, making it the nation's most popular sport. four points from four matches. Japanese goalkeeper Shigetatsu Matsu-naga foiled what could have been South Korea's first goal in the fifth minute of the game when he threw himself in front of advancing Non Jung-yoon. Six minutes later, it was the turn of the Japanese, but Masami Ihara's shot from inside the penalty box hit the bar and bounced away.

Ihara had taken a perfect pass from the left flank by Masashi Na-kayama. Japan had three corner kicks in the next 15 minutes but wasted them. Japan had another chance in the 31st minute, but Associated Press DOHA, Qatar Japanese soccer's most popular star, Kazuyoshi Miura, scored the game's only goal Monday against South Korea, keeping Japan's hopes alive of qualifying for the World Cup finals in 1994. The defeat was South Korea's first in this six-nation Asian qualification tournament. An estimated 1,000 Japanese fans, some with faces painted to resemble the rising sun, chanted "Miura, Miura," as the 26-year-old player scored the goal in the 60th minute of play for a 1-0 victory.

The chant then turned to "Nippon, Nip- Saudi coach, five assistants fired for apparently disobeying orders. Page 2C. pon," for Japan. Japanese players hugged each other, as the South Koreans quietly walked away to the dressing room. Japan faces Iraq in its last match Thursday to decide whether Japan, winner of the eight-nation Asian Cup in 1992, will take one of the two Asian slots for the 24-nation World Cup finals.

The defeat placed South Korea in the same bracket point with Iraq, each having Robinson's private battle goes public for cause At the time, Will Robinson didn't want to make a big fuss. There were no press releases. There were no newspaper stories. There were no health segments on the jswt4 rob iy PARKER Wstass vision. He couldn't see a car go by until it was right in front of him.

It made think seriously about having the surgery he feared. "I didn't want them to operate on me," said Robinson, a legend in Detroit high school and Pistons basketball. "But as time went on, it was getting progressively worse. "As I was driving back and forth to the Palace and around the country on my scouting mission, I kept seeing that my vision wasn't very good. And I wasn't feeling particularly well, either." That's when the doctors dropped a bombshell on Robinson.

They told him that if See PARKER, Page 5C ZSLhi local 1 news. In fact, little noise was made when Robinson, the Pistons' assistant to the director of player personnel, found out he had a brain tumor. The abnormal growth of tissue created some problems for Robinson, especially with his sight. "I was going blind," he said Monday. "People didn't generally know.

"I didn't want to make a really big deal out of it. I was hoping it would go away." But it didn't. And by February, it had become serious. Robinson, in his 80s, had lost his peripheral ll' I Will Robinson.