Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 93

Jimmy's After 25 troversial mixing it DETROIT with his the White still Jimmy years, baseball's conToday's television highlights: Jimmy Piersall is still NBC 4:00 p.m. SportsWorld: Boxing, volleyball up. But now he does it ABC 4:00 p.m. Golf: National Long Driving championship mouth at the mike for CBS 4:00 p.m. Auto Racing: Texas 200 Sox.

Page 6 ABC 4:30 p.m. Golf: The PGA tournament Did Rose have tougher time reaching 44? CINCINNATI (AP) The Joe DiMaggio-Pete Rose debate is on. Never mind that Rose's 44-game hitting streak ended 12 games shy of DiMaggio's "unbreakable" record of 56 straight. The assault on baseball's safest record raised a question that will be eternally argued: Was Rose's streak, the second best in major league history, accomplished under more difficult circumstances? Rose did it at age 37 when most ballplayers are creaky relics and in a season when National League pitching was regarded at its finest in years. DiMaggio, 26 then and out of baseball at 36, was blessed with superior speed and didn't have to face fresh relief specialists armed with a vast arsenal of "out" pitches.

"If someone wants to make comparisons, that's fine. But I'm not going to," said the Cincinnati Reds' star. "I will say this. Joe DiMaggio had to be a great hitter. Ithink he was good enough that he could do it against today's pitchers.

"But the guy who beats him is going to have to be a guy like me a guy with the advantage of being a switch hitter who streak of the century ended against rookie Larry McWilliams makes contact. When you've got guys like Houston's J.R. of Atlanta and Gene Garber, a bearded, sidearming reliever Richard and Steve Carlton around, it almost has to take a who fanned Rose to end the game. It left the 12-time All-Star in switch hitter. a tie with Wee Willie Keeler, who accomplished it in 1897.

"It's possible, but not probable. It takes a hell of a lot of said Rose, who maintains he had little of the latter "I definitely think my streak was more difficult than during his bid. Keeler's. In his day, foul balls were strikes and base on balls were hits," said Rose. IRONICALLY, BOTH STARTED their streaks after wicked However, historians note that Keeler had a legitimate hit in slumps.

each of the 44 games of his streak. Rose's batting average had plunged to an uncharacteristic .267 by mid-June. "I was tired, it was right after the During 44-game that stirred the nation, 1 Rose the stretch uproar and we had been on the road a long time. I got back faced 47 different pitchers the exact number DiMaggio home, some extra and the hits faced in 56 games. got batting practice started "The things that give me the most satisfaction is the fact The Reds had just played 13 of 18 games on the road when that I'm 37 years old, it came after a 6-for-51 slump and the Rose torched the streak with two hits off Chicago's Dave pitching is better than ever, mostly because of the great Roberts on June 14.

relievers around." Six weeks and 43 games later, the second longest hitting Please turn to Page 5E Weiskopf creeping up on Watson's PGA lead OAKMONT, Pa. -(AP)Front-runner Tom Watson slogged through a steady, drizzling rain to a front-nine par 36 and held a three-shot lead Saturday halfway through the third round of the 60th PGA National Championship. Watson, the leader all the way in this, the last of the year's Big Four events, made the turn with a 45-hole total of 172, six shots under par on the wet and soggy Oakmont Country Club course. Watson held a four-stroke lead when the day's play started, but saw it whittled to three when Tom Weiskopf dropped a 10-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole. THAT GAVE Weiskopf a one-under-par 35 an erratic effort that included two birdies, an eagle, a double bogey and a bogey on the front and a 175 total.

Jerry Pate, chunky Craig Stadler and Joe Inman were next at 176, four shots back of Watson but very much in contention. Inman matched par 36 over the front nine, Pate shot 34 and Stadler closed up with a four-under-par 32. Johnny Miller and John Mahaffey were at 177. Miller turned in 36, with a two-putt birdie four on the ninth, and Mahaffey was out in 35. Hubert Green, Lee Trevino and Ben Crenshaw dropped back.

Trevino started bogeybogey but reached the turn in 36-180. Green was 38-180. Crenshaw, tied for second after the first two rounds, slipped to a 39-179. DR. GIL MORGAN, a non- practicing optometrist, was one of the early starters and bolted into contention with a five-under-par 66, the best round of the tournament.

He didn't make a bogey and finished three rounds at 213, even "Basically, a very steady round. I didn't miss a fairway," Morgan said. "With another good, substantial round, I could have a chance." UPI Photo Lee Trevino has good reason for looking scared during the rain at Saturday's U.S. Open. It was on the same Medina Country Club course during an Open a few years ago that Trevino was struck by lightning.

Though he wasn't severely hurt, Trevino's game has never been the same. There was no lightning this time. South African Gary Player, who triggered a string of three consecutive victories with his triumph in the Masters this spring, matched par 71 and was at 219. U.S. Open champ Andy North shot 73- 220.

Jack Nicklaus, who won the British Open and Philadelphia in his two previous starts, failed to make the cut for the final two rounds. He had rounds of 79-74 and was five strokes over the cutoff score of 148. It was only the fourth time in his professional career and the first time in a decade that he'd missed the cut in a major tournament. WATSON, the 1977 Player of the Year and a three-time winner this season, started shakily, taking bogeys on the first and third holes. That Free Press Photo by BOB SCOTT Dave Gallagher left for medical school with "a bitter taste in my mouth." Sunday, August 6, 1978 SPORTS PEOPLE BASEBALL AVERAGES INSIDE OF SPORTS HORSE RACING OUTDOORS DETROIT Pete Rose 11 years older George Puscas Almost-Lions coach Knox still longs for Detroit Having abandoned a lovely bayside home on the California coast and a team that could win all but its final game, Chuck Knox surveys his new surroundings and wonders where football heaven went.

It was tough enough leaving the Los Angeles Rams, with whom he had won five straight divisional championships. He had a month-old five-year contract but one of the nastier owners in the game when he decided last December one was not worth stomaching the other. So he became head coach of the Buffalo Bills, where he suspected life would be more peaceful. The real shock came when he arrived at his new offices in January. didn't relaize what bad shape the club was in," said the man who almost became coach of the Lions.

We were sharing a noon beer as he waited to send his team against the Lions and Monte Clark, the man who almost became coach of the Bills. What Chuck Knox inherited in Buffalo was a team that had won merely five games in two years and in its 18-year history had compiled the second-worst record in pro football. It was not what he really wanted. He wanted the Lions job, but says owner Bill Ford never contacted him last season. think the situation from the year before soured him.

He was so mad at Carroll Rosenbloom (the Rams' owner) )he decided not to get involved again. "Anyway, I had just signed that five-year contract to stay with the Rams and the Lions began talking to Monte Clark." So did Buffalo. Clark chose the Lions over the Bills, and when Knox quit the Rams, there was Ralph Wilson, the Detroit insurance biggie who owns the Bills, waiting to hire him. He only wanted 14 players As a refresher, recall that after the 1976 season, Ford traveled to Los Angeles seeking to pry Knox away from the Rams, and was lucky to escape with his franchise intact. "Rosenbloom wanted 14 players from the Lions something ridiculous like that in exchange for me, and Ford washed his hands of the whole thing," says Knox.

Even now, though, you sense the coach's regret and his longing for Detroit. "The appealing thing is the Lions could be the best franchise in football, if they get organization straightened around. It's a great area; I've got a lot friends here." He admits it "hurt" to leave ready-made Rams, and no doubt cringed a bit when he got a look at Buffalo. To begin with, he found O. Simpson, football's best runner recent years, had a torn knee and desire to play elsewhere; the lacked linebackers, receivers kickers, and its scouting system was abysmal.

"We had to restructure everything from the office help on says Knox, who was an assistant Schmidt before taking charge of long process and you get impatient He insists there are no real concedes it might be three to five Bills are truly competitive. "We're paying for the ills of build a team through the draft. choices from the last eight years "One of 'em (Phil Doakes, a used at all last year. Nobody essentially a rookie. I'm going Lions." Chuck Knox up," Chuck Knox Lions coach under Joe the Rams in 1973.

"It's a for results." miracles in football and years before the sad-sack the past," he says. "You But only two first round were left with this team. defensive tackle) wasn't knows why. So he's still to start him against the The only 'dull' is losing He prefers not to talk of his troubles with Rosenbloom, the Rams' owner who frequently criticized him for producing "dull" football even while the team won. "The only dull football is losing football," reports Knox.

Nor does he intend to rekindle the controversary over Rosenblooms hiring of Joe Namath to quarterback the Rams last year. Namath eventually flopped right out of football, but his presence among the Rams widened the breach between coach and owner. It was merely one more episode which led Knox at season's end to chuck it all in Los Angeles and search for waters calmer than the Pacific. Though calmer, Lake Erie and Buffalo are no paradise. The weather dial deals Chuck Knox a cruel blow; it bothers him plenty and he worries that it might destroy everything he attemps with his ball club.

"The snow and cold of Buffalo winters have nothing to do with it," he says. "The thing that really hurts us is the constant wind. We're right near the lake, and we can't get in a single decent practice. "The wind comes off the lake at 35 miles an hour and sweeps across the field. Our passers and receivers can't work in it, our pass defenders can't do a thing except stand there and brace themselves against that wind.

It's awful." What is a smart coach going to do about that? "If you think of something, anything," he says, "let me Joe DiMaggio easier pitching? Ex-Lion star Dutch Clark dies at age 71 Earl (Dutch) Clark By HAL SCHRAM Free Press Sports Writer Earl (Dutch) Clark, a man who helped bring Detroit its first taste of professional football greatness in the mid-1930s, died at his home Friday night in Canon City, Colo. At 71, Clark fell victim to cancer. Clark came to Detroit when the old Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans moved here in 1934. The following season, playing before crowds of around 16,000 at University of Detroit Stadium, the newly created Detroit Lions won the National Football League title. Clark was the key offensive star in those days along with such greats as Ernie Caddel, George Christensen, Ace Gutowsky, Glenn Presnell and Ox Emerson.

George "Potsy" Clark was the coach. Clark rushed for 194 yards against Cincinnati in 1934, the third-best effort ever by a Lion runner. He stands fifth on Detroit's all-time scoring list with 254 career points. When Potsy Clark left in 1937, Dutch Clark became playercoach and general manager for two years with his teams winning 14 of 22 games in those two seasons. A DARING BROKEN-FIELD runner, Clark was like 64 a rabbit in the brush," said Potsy Clark.

Red Grange called him "the hardest man in football to tackle." "I was made of Indian rubber, I guess," Clark once told The Associated Press. "I could run all day." After an absence of 10 years Clark returned to football as coach of the University of Detroit for three seasons, 1951, 1952 and 1953. He had the great Ted Marchibroda on his side one night in Briggs Stadium but the Titans lost to Notre Dame, 40-6, in the school's fading hours in bigtime collegiate football. For two years Clark served as athletic director at U-D. "I had three great teachers in my years at the said Bob Calihan, the recently retired athletic director of the Titans.

"Gus Dorais, Lloyd Brazil and Dutch Clark did more to bring national recognition to our university than anybody else. They were great teachers and gentlemen." the of the he close J. of a team and dropped him to four under par for the tournament. But he pulled his game together with birdies on the next two holes. Weiskopf and Miller both made threats.

Weiskopf holed out a 162-yard shot with a seven-iron for an eagle two on the fifth and pulled to within two shots of the lead. But he double-bogeyed the eighth before his birdie on No. 9. IN 1959 CLARK was elected to the Michigan Hall of Fame and in 1963 became a charter member of the professional football's Hall of Fame at Canton, Ohio. Two years ago he was taken into the University of Detroit Hall of Fame.

Clark was a tight-lipped individual who rarely talked about his college career. He came out of Colorado College as a great football player and a basketball All-American. He captained the West team in the 1928 Shrine game after a gaining 1,349 yards in only 135 carriers that season. Two and a half years ago Clark and his wife, Ruth Jane, went back to live at Canon City. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

from St. Michael's parish church. In addition to his wife, Clark is survived by two sons, Earl Clark Jr. of Madison Heights; Timothy Clark of Canon City, a college senior; two step sons, Charles Lowther of Royal Oak and Thomas Lowther of Lyons, Ohio; two sisters and nine grand children. The family has asked that flowers be omitted.

Donations can be sent to either the American Cancer Society or the scholarship fund at Colorado College. Gallagher is mixing med school, Lions By CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sports Writer Until 6:30 last Tuesday evening, Dave Gallagher figured he was finished with football, even though it wasn't an altogether satisfactory feeling. Within a few years, he would be Dr. Gallagher, specializing in athletic injuries or family practice, and the closest he'd ever come to another football game would be his Saturday afternoon seat in Michigan Stadium. Then the phone rang at his home in Ann Arbor and Monte Clark informed him the Lions had finally wrangled his contract away from the New York Giants.

"I couldn't believe it," said Gallagher. "I said, 'Wait a minute you Although Gallagher had known since last spring the Lions wanted him, he had given up on the Giants agreeing to a trade. He was totally unprepared for Clark's phone call. "I had just realized that I was going to school full time," he said. LESS THAN 24 hours later, however, the 26-year-old medical student and former University of Michigan All-American was in the Lions camp, ending his one-year retirement from professional football and trying to make the necessary mental adjustments between a scholarly lifestyle and a physical lifestyle.

As Gallagher knows so well, there's a lot more to playing football that strapping on the armor, going onto the field and busting people. The body has to be prepared, the mind has to be ready, the attitude has to be properly aggressive. Because the Giants had stalled so long on the trade, Gallagher did not have time to prepare either his body or his mind for a comeback as a defensive tackle for the Lions. "I'm under weight and I'm not in the shape I should be," he said. "But these are things I've never had trouble adjusting to in the past." The bigger adjustment is the mental aspect of returning to the violence of the line of scrimmage after spending the past year studying medicine.

"This is a 180-degree turn in lifestyles," said Gallagher. "I've got to convince myself I can go out and mix it up with the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals. You can lose a lot in a year, but once I convince myself, I think I'll be all right." GALLAGHER IS HOPING to make a successful comeback with the Lions. With one year of medical studies behind him, he can continue his work at U-M on a part-time basis Please turn to Page 5E.