Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 29

DETROIT FREE PRESS Apt a lo. llol Boms Mas Just Been Near Perfect The jri Moment i- Truth I vJ. i1 i 1 t' X' 1 1 I ji ,1 i V'- -J 1 Ac A 1 Steve Boros BY GEORGE PUSCAS When the Tigers came out of Florida three weeks ago their future was tied to the performance of a mostly new infield. Manager Bob Scheffing daringly installed rookies Jake Wood and Steve Boros at second and third -base, gambling that youthful enthusiasm would outweigh inexperience. The lean, smooth Wood has held up well in his spot.

Boros has been almost sensational. IT WAS BOROS, the $25,000 bonus baby from the University of Michigan, who supplied the hit which beat the New York Yankees, 4-3, Monday. In fact, he supplied three hits two singles and a double, driving home two runs. "That boy has been near-perfect," enthused Scheffing as the Tigers noisily congratulated themselves on their eighth straight victory. "I thought he started coming around in the last 15 or 16 games we played down in Florida.

"We got him to use a new glove the one he had was too soft and let the ball bounce out. "He's done real well wfamimammmmaim I 4 Jake Wood Then he whiffed cleanly on a third strike. That was his only goof. In the first inning, his double scored Billy Bruton and tied the score at 2-2. In the fourth, following Cash's long home run, Yankee pitcher Bob Turley whistled a fast ball under Boros' chin.

Boros got off the ground and slapped the next serve into center field for his second hit. "NAW, HE DIDN'T scare me," Boros said. "I guess STAR: Steve Boros, who collected three hits and knocked in the winning run. CO-STAR: Frank Lary, who beat his favorite team with a seven-hitter. BEST PLAY: Boros' one hand a a of Bob Turley's hot smash.

TURNING POINT: Jake Wood's flashy tag-and-throw double play. IF THERE is a moment of truth in baseball, it comes in the fleeting seconds between the time a fast ball leaves the pitcher's hand and when it reaches the waiting batter. So it was Monday as pitcher Frank Lary (3-0) fired to powerful Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees. Mantle, who socked 40 home runs last year, already has hit five this season. But his best against Lary Monday was a single in three official times at bat as the strong-armed righthander held the Yanks to seven hits while the Tigers won their eighth straight, 4-3.

he had to do it knock me down after the home run. It's part of the game." Boros' biggest hit came in the next inning a shot into center scoring Al Kaline with the fourth and last Tiger run. While Boros had the bat, Wood had the glove. He broke the Yankees' backs with a sparkling double play in the seventh inning. "That's one of the reasons why we've been winning," Scheffing said.

"Our infield has been making the plays for us." BOROS QUICKLY is becoming a favorite of Tiger fans. The 21-year-old in-fielder even drew applause when he struck out in the eighth. Not so with Rocky Cola- vito. Tiger fans are "riding" him more each day. Apparently they won't let Charley Maxwell be forgotten.

It wasn't a good day for The Rock. He fumbled a drive into left field in the first inning and allowed a run to score, then in the third foolishly tried to a single Turn to Page 30, Column 2 since ting." fielding and hit- ALREADY you can spot the signs of success in Boros. He was more willing to talk of what he hadn't done than what he had accomplished against the Yanks. "I really messed up the sacrifice," he moaned. "And then I had to strike out." He had bunted foul twice, trying to advance Norm Cash in the eighth inning.

Free Press Photos ty TONY SPINA TUG WILSON RELUCTANTLY STEPS ASIDE ig Ten Presidents Agree: Bill Reed New Commissioner i presenting otn 3-IN-1 GOOD MIXERS in a new lightweight dacron silk blend unanimously approve the selection Monday. Graduating from Michigan in 1936 and working there briefly in athletic publicity, he in 1939 joined the Big Ten staff and organized the first conference service bureau. He was on active duty as a Navy officer from 1942 to 1945, returned to the Big Ten office, also helped organize the NCAA's first central office and was administrative assistant to United States Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan from 1947 to 1951 before going back to the Big Ten for the last time. He Is the Big Ten's third commissioner. Maj.

John L. Griffith served from 1922 until his death late in 1944. Wilson succeeded him six months later. Reed will begin a five-year term July 1 at an annual salary of about $20,000. Wilson was voted an extra year's pay by the presidents.

Conference politics, however, have many facets. There are athletic directors with ambitions or their own candidates. There are schools that blame the commissioner's office and those in it for some of their problems. AND, UNLIKELY as it may sound, there is even the factor of Reed's schooling. He is a native of Oxford in Oakland County, and his bachelor and law degrees come from the University of Michigan.

There are those who feel that U-M has enough representation around the Big Ten with four athletic directors Ivy Williamson at Wisconsin, Forrest Evashevski at Iowa, Bill Orwig at Indiana, and Fritz Crisler, of course, back in Ann Arbor. But Reed was recommended for the commissioner's job by a special faculty com- TODAY BY BOB PILLE The Big Ten settled its latest guessing game in the proper manner Monday. A Chicago meeting of school presidents from around the league named Bill Reed the next conference commissioner. He succeeds Tug who retires this summer after 16 years on the job. Wilson Is healthy and departs reluctantly, but he was 65 four weeks ago.

And a couple months before I that birthday, the Big Ten decided to extend to the commissioner's office the retirement age of 65 that prevails at most schools. Once that was settled, Reed, 45, was the only logical candidate. HE HAS BEEN Wilson's assistant since 1951, and for a dozen years before that he was in and out of Big Ten affairs. AS OF Bill Reed mittee that reported at the March meetings six weeks ago. THE SECRET was zealously guarded until the presidents could meet and You'll like this new fabric.

It has the look and lustre of silk shantung in a lightweight blend of silk Dacron polyester-Bemberg. And with all the versatile virtues of our popular 3-in-l Good Mixer model the suit with the extra pair of contrasting slacks. The 3 -button coal, with its new cloverleaf lapel and slanted hacking pockets, doubles as a sport coat. In olive, light olive, beige, brown, black or navy with the contrasting solid shade Dacron-blend slacks. By Lyall Smith Houk on WHA Spot': A 11-' 1 59! 153 Harry SuFFrin burst into print that the lot in life of Houk could be un-beautiful.

"He really is on the spot," Cookie has been quoted. "If he wins, they'll say it's still the team that Stengel left him. If he loses, they'll say that Stengel would have won with it. Yessir Houk really has a rough deal THAT'S THE WAY it has gone. There have been so many choruses of the same dirge that I expected to see poor old Ralphie draped in black when he brought his Yankees this way.

He wasn't. He said, among other things, that he thinks the Yanks will win the pennant that they are a very good ball-club and that he is much happier managing them than he would be if he were managing elsewhere. In other words, he needs no sympathy and seeks none, even though most of it has been unsolicited. If Houk has the toughest managerial job in baseball, you can't prove it. Not by managers like Bill Rigney of Turn to Page 31, Column 1 A FAVORITE AVOCATION among members of the sports writing fraternity since last October has been to feel sorry for a fellow named Ralph Houk.

This sympathetic gesture, replete with adjectives, insists that the new Yankee manager has walked into the roughest, toughest, most-perilous job in the rough, tough, perilous world of big league baseball. He is portrayed as a man on the hot seat. He is pictured as existing in 1961 under an unwritten, but positive, edict of "Win it all or begone with you." He is pointed out as a brave soul whose managerial strategems will be subject to scrutiny every time they fail. All such doleful musings are traceable to the fact that Houk has stepped into a job left vacant by the departure of Casey Stengel. And that anybody who follows Stengel is leading with his chin.

Sports writers aren't the only ones who have forecast a tremulous summer for the solid ex-catcher who now handles the perennial American League champs. Even Cookie Lavagetto, proud manager of Twins, has WOODWARD 'and WONDERLAND OPEN TUESDAY TO 9 SHELBY 4 STATE GRAND RIVER I GREENFIELD WONDERLAND CENTER NORTHLAND CENTER WOODWARD AT MONTCALM MACK MOROSS EASTLAND CENTER WESTBORN CENTER LINCOLN PARK.