Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 35

tfcs ilartlaa falls, Dcrg brcszcs: As the heat hit 1 18 degrees at U.S. Open courtside, Martina Navratilova fell to a fellow Czech and Bjorn Borg made winning look easy. The story is on page 5D. Tuesday, Sept. 2, ISSO HORSE RACING TELEVISION For the complete sports rundown.

Page 4. ENTERTAINMENT DETROIT FREE PRESS COMICS 9-11 IK amy 4 LJ Peace, at last Cowens and Farmer shake on it at home plate By BRIAN BRAGG Free Press Sports Writer The Tigers and White Sox made the peace treaty as official as they could Monday night: Al Cowens and Ed Farmer met at home plate and shook hands, apparently putting to rest the bad feeling that has existed since their June 20 brawl In Comiskey Park. The two players were delegated by their managers to take the lineup cards to the umpires before the start of Monday's game. The field was prepared for play after two brief rain-showers, the umpires gathered at the plate and Farmer walked out to meet them. A few seconds later Cowens emerged from the Tiger dugout and joined the group.

Cowens offered Farmer his hand and the Chicago pitcher accepted it and listened as Cowens spoke to him for a few moments. Then the two men posed for photographers, returned to their dugouts and the game began. "It was apologies, and let's forget about the whole situation," said Cowens afterward, admitting he was relieved by the new non-aggression pact. "Both of us have been through a lot. I got it off my mind tonight, and maybe everything is over with now." i FARMER HAD taken the Chicago lineup cards to home plate before both games of a doubleheader in Cleveland Sunday.

The Chisox won both, and manager Tony LaRussa decided to stick with a winning formula and send his ace relief pitcher out again Monday. A newsman told manager Sparky Anderson about the plan, and relayed a message that Farmer had promised not to press a pending assault complaint against Cowens if the Tiger outfielder would meet him and offer a gentlemanly apology. Km Free Press Photo by ALAN AMU DA 1 Others wait and wonder Bird's spirits are soaring Sparky Anderson remains cautiously optimistic. "If he throws the rest of the year like he's throwing now, I won't worry about the wins," declares the manager. Jim Campbell is also keeping bis fingers crossed.

"There have been a helluva lot of pitchers in worse shape than Mark is, who have come back and become big winners," the general manager points out. See PEACE, Page 3D Al Cowens and Ed Farmer meet before Monday night's game as umpire Bill Kunkel watches. Chisox pound shaky Morris, 1.1-3 Gcornc Or ctt's quost of .400 lefthander Britt Burns during the youngster's brief career. But they were decidedly overmatched Monday. BURNS HAD a 9-0 lead before he gave up a two-run homer to Steve Kemp, a whopping shot into the right-centerfield upper deck.

And the Tigers got an unearned run in the sixth, courtesy of errors by Burns and third baseman Kevin Bell. Those markers didn't even come close to preventing him from gaining his 12th win against a like number of losses, however. Burns retired to the clubhouse after seven innings as Dewey Robinson mopped up. Morris walked the first Chicago batter he faced, Chet Lemon, who scored later on Lamar Johnson's single. Three Sox singles, the last by Wayne Nord-hagen, but the visitors ahead by 2-0 in the third.

A leadoff walk led to Morris' early exit in the fourth. One-out singles by Todd Cruz and Lemon Things start out bad, get worse as Tigers drop 3d game in row and a one-hit win over Minnesota. HIS PERFORMANCE has been a complete mystery to manager Sparky Anderson and pitching coach Roger Craig, who have had enough problems in recent days merely finding enough able-bodied men to handle the pitching chores. The loss was the Tigers' third in a row. In those three games, Anderson has used eight different pitchers, seven of whom have been scored upon.

The opposition has hammered 10 home runs in those three contests. The Tigers went into the game with a 7-1 margin over the Chisox this season and a 3-0 mark against By BRIAN BRAGG Free Press Sports Writer The Tigers' pitching staff, already in disarray, took another pounding Monday night, an 11-3 embarrassment at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. Jack Morris, the lanky righthander who allowed only two runs in 10 innings against the Sox in Chicago last week, was kayoed in just 3 innings this time around. He allowed six hits and the first four enemy runs, and things went from bad to worse for the Tigers after that. Jim Morrison and Glenn Borgmann slammed home runs off Morris' successor, Bruce Robbins, during a five-run fifth inning which sealed the outcome.

Morris (13-12) has been a model of inconsistency in his last 11 starts dating back to the All-Star break. In those 1 1 starts, the 25-year-old astballer has failed to last through the fourth inning five times, yet his two victories during that span have been complete games a six-hit shutout of Seattle Holiday night: Popped to short in first. Singled to right in third. Flied to center in fifth. Flied to right in eighth.

One hit in four at-bats. Batting average is .401. Ted Williams, who batted .406 for Boston in 1941, is the last player to hit .400. But they're worried. And with good reason.

Indeed, in all of Tiger Stadium, Mark Fidrych and Mark Fidrych alone seems utterly unconcerned about his recent failures and his future. The Bird is as animated and uninhibited as ever these days, playing shortstop during batting practice, daring his teammates to hit the ball by him, or prancing around the clubhouse, pausing only to steal a drag off Gates Brown's cigaret. In the dugout, he whoops and hollers as if he had never heard of tendinitis. "You look at what's happened but you gotta keep your chin up," the still-winless-this-season wonder chirped Monday. "When times are tough you can't crawl in a hole." And times are tough.

In truth, Fidrych does not even deserve to be in the Starting rotation at present. If his name were Underwood or Robbins or Rozema he would undoubtedly have been demoted to mop-up duty in the bullpen. But he is The Bird and so he continues to sprint to the mound every fifth day. No more Bird in the bushes It is sad to watch him struggle now, straining to regain the form that made him famous four summers ago. It is sad to see this young man who was once so very special, hammered and humbled and chased from the field.

Unfortunately, the Tigers, and Fidrych, have no choice. See TIGERS, Page 5D Proving his metal Final Lion cuts unkind to Monte, too By CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sports Writer Monte Clark made his final squad cuts to reduce the Liens' roster to 45 players Monday and, in the process, had to accept two personal defeats. First, he had to put punter Larry Swider on waivers, which means any other NFL team can pick him up for the nominal fee of $100. Secondly and far more costly Clark put defensive lineman Cleveland Elam on waivers, an open admission that he wasted the Lions' second round draft choice last spring. In addition to Swider and Elam, the Lions waived free agent tackle Mike Whited and safety Dave Parkin.

They also put wide receiver iririiMiwiw mi iiiiiiai iiisjjgjHOT ttfwffl 53 lift 0 Jm4iW I if? They must find out: Can The Bird still win in the big leagues, or can't he? And they must find out now. Although Sparky and Campbell both deny that Fidrych is in a must-win situation, there is no disputing the fact The Bird must show enough this month and again next spring to convince the Tigers to keep him. Fidrych has exhausted all of Detroit's boxing sculptor gives art a fighting chance By KATY WILLIAMS Free Press Sports Writer Don Thibodeaux was explaining the arrangement of Joe Louis pictures on his studio wall to his 13-year-old son Andre. "Here's Joe in his gangster pinstripe suit," Thibodeaux said, pointing to one. Then, pointing to another: "And here's Joe Louis as a referee.

"Here's Joe Louis throwing a right hand to the body, and this one, this one here is a hell of a picture. Look at that jaw. That son of a gun could take some punches. And look at that nose. Joe Louis could eat ice cream through that nose." Andre Thibodeaux, himself a boxer and a three-time Silver Gloves champion of Detroit, looked from the pictures, to his father, to the Joe Louis bust of steel that Don Thibodeaux was a month away from finishing.

"Someday," Don Thibodeaux said, "I hope that my scup-ture will be displayed in Joe Louis Arena. Ever since the arena was named after the world's greatest boxer, that's been my dream." Mark Fidrych Luther Blue, a fourth-year veteran, on injured waivers. At this stage of the season, none of the moves could have been considered surprises. But it had to be slightly embarrassing to part with Elam. When quarterbacks Gary Daniel-son and backup man Joe Reed were injured last year, Clark refused to be trapped into a costly trade to come up with a veteran signal caller.

He weathered a 2-14 season with rookie quarterback Jeff Komlo. But when the Lions were caught fklM Cleveland Elam his options so the Tigers cannot send him back to the minor leagues next season. Any pitching The Bird does next summer will have to be done right here in Detroit. The Tigers want Fidrych to pitch in Caracas, Venezuela, in a winter league, after the major league season ends, to further test his wing. The Bird has agreed to think about it, but right now he doesn't know if he will go.

"I want to wait and see what happens here first," he explained. JJe's got a lot of work to do Meanwhile, all anyone can do is wait and watch and hope. "He definitely shows great signs at times," said Sparky. "What he needs now are innings. Starting next year, he's going to have to be able to keep the ball down and keep it down consistently.

That's the only way he's going to win." But The Bird, who tries again Tuesday evening against the White Sox, insisted he feels no particular pressure. "My first year I lost five in a row," exclaimed Fidrych when I asked if he was getting discouraged. "And back then I was HOT! "They said the bubble had burst. They put a picture in the paper of a big balloon and it had a pin stuck in it. So this is nothing now." I confessed to Fidrych that I could not recall him shorthanded in their defensive line by John Woodcock's back surgery, Clark willingly surrendered his 1980 second round draft choice for Elam, who had played for him in San Francisco in 1976.

Elam was injured in his first game, missed eight of the team's 16 games and his meager contribution was nine tackles and one sack. See LIONS, Page 3D Free Press Photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE NFL teams make their final cuts. Page 3D. Joe Louis. The Brown Bomber.

Born Joe Louis Barrow, May 13, Lafayette, Ala. American Negro. Weight, 200 lbs. Height 6-foot-1 12 71 total bouts. 54 knockouts.

Won heavyweight championship of the world in 1937, knocking out Jim Braddock in eight rounds. Defended title 25 times. Announced retirement as undefeated champion in 1949. Elected to Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954. The man intrigue's Don Thibodeaux.

"This is history, right here," Thibodeaux, pointing to his gleaming, larger-than-life-size bust of a youthful Joe Louis. "This statue is saying something." Thibodeaux, a 38-year-old sculptor from Roseville, grew up in Detroit and boxed as a teenager at the Brewster gym, the same place where Louis boxed. "Yeah, Brewster Center on Hastings St. One of the roughest streets in Detroit," Thibodeaux remembered. "Joe Louis was one hell of a boxer.

He's always been my idol. Some people liked Sugar Ray Robinson, who also started here, but I'm for Joe Louis. "And you know, when I got this idea to do a bust of Louis, I went to see him in Las Vegas. He can't talk now, because he had a stroke. But I told him my ideas, and he and his wife Martha were pleased.

"Martha gave me all these pictures," Thibodeaux said, motioning to his wall. "She said that Joe was for all people. Joe was for the world." Longhorns 'Jam' Arkansas, 23-17 AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Junior tailback A.J. (Jam) Jones rushed for 165 yards and scored two touchdowns Monday night to carry the gambling lOth-ranked Texas Longhorns to a 23-17 victory over the No. 6 rated Arkansas Razorbacks in the earliest Southwest Conference football game in history.

Don Thibodeaux at work on his sculpture of Joe Louis. For more photographs, turn to the back page. out when I started the sculrure. Now I just come by to use the studio." There is a sleeping loft in his studio, and a tool-covered workbench. There is a dartboard in one corner, and a place under the stairs to hang the speed bag that Thibodeaux never got around to setting up.

One wall, of course, is given over to pictures of Louis. With a welding torch that leaves his metal glowing orange long after the flame is gone, Thibodeaux has melted together thousands of tiny rods of steel, shaping Louis' head over an arrangement of pipes. The neck and shoulders are from cast-off car bumpers from downstairs. "Can't work on it too long at a time," Thibodeaux said, wiping sweat from his face and tossing his safety glasses on the workbench. "Gets too hot.

Gotta take breaks." He comes to his studio at night, when it is coolest. "I pace the floor a lot," Thibodeaux said. "Then I settle down when I light my torch and put my hands and tools to the scupture then I've got the solitude that helps me get deep into my work. I usually wrap it up at five, six or seven in the morning. See SCULPTOR, Page 50 Jones, a 6-foot, 204-pound speedster from Youngstown, Ohio, carved up the Porkers, particularly in the first half.

After halfback Gary Anderson shocked the Longhorns with a 39-yard touchdown gallop on a fake reverse early in the second quarter, Texas went to work against the out-manned Arkansas defensive line. losing five in a row during his fabulous freshman year but promised I would look it up. "Maybe I only lost four," he admitted. "Maybe I was going on five." In fact, a check of the record book showed Fidrych never lost more than three in a row during his sensational summer of 76. During the past two years, however, he has dropped five straight.

"But I made it this far, buddy," declared The Bird. "It'll take a lot more than this to knock me over." I hope so. The Horns drove to the Razorback 34-yard line where barefoot John Goodson kicked a 52-yard field goal, the longest of his career. Five afternoons a week, and more when a fight nears, Thibodeaux trains boxers at Detroit's Kronk gym, which is "as hot as the tropics," he says. Other days, Thibodeaux works in a sweatbox of his own, an unairconditioned artist's studio above the garage of Thibodeaux Collision in Mt.

Clemens. "I've had the bump shop for 1 2 years," he said. "I rented it Arkansas made it close at the end when Texas' Levi Mays was flagged for interference when Arkansas had fourth and 24 at the Texas 35. The 33-yard penalty put the Razorbacks in position for Darryl Bowles two-yard scoring run. i Hi 0m ilfcunjMfcjfriMi flV.Uli rtii.

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