Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 67

If, if, Sunday, Oct. 1, 1978 It was a season of 'its' SPORTS PEOPLE 2 for the Tigers, starting FOOTBALL SCORES 8 I with pitcher Mark OUTDOORS 10 I Fidrych. Page 11 INSIDE OF SPORTS 11 Today's television highlights: 1:00 p.m. Football: Houston at Cleveland 2:00 p.m. Football: Detroit vs.

Green Bay 4:00 p.m. Football: Oakland at Chicago 5:00 p.m. World Series of Golf mm' A DETROIT FREE PRESS Yankees clinch tie for AL East title L-J pennant races at a glance Figueroa bags 20 lit victory, 7-0; N.Y. leads by can win it today Eckersley wins his 20lh, 5-1; but Bosox need help from Santa American Loastte divison tie-breaking game here Monday, the Red Sox hung around the clubhouse with hopes still high that Cleveland's Rick Waits (T i EAST Pel CI toi'on i3 609 I BOSTON KOME (II lororto I Oct NK YORK HOVE 11). Cve.Kf 1.

Ocl 1. will beat New York Catfish Hunter on Sunday. National Leajue "WHAT CAN YOU do?" shrugged Boston manager Don Zimmer. "Tomorrow, it will be Luis Tiant and everybody else except Ecker By JIM HAWKINS Free Preu Sports Writer NEW YORK The comeback New York Yankees clinched a tie for the American League East championship Saturday when righthander Ed. Figueroa shut out Cleveland on five hits, 7-0.

He became the first native-born Puerto Rican in major-league history to win 20 games. It was no contest as the sizzling Yankees crushed Cleveland with an 11-hit barrage. Meanwhile, In Boston the second-place Red Sox remained one game behind with a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. So now the Yankees' two-month-long, uphill struggle comes down to one game Sunday, with another trip to the American League playoffs against Kansas City just one more victory away. If the Yankees complete their clean sweep of this three-game weekend session with the Indians, it won't matter what the Red Sox do against Toronto.

New York will be in. If the Yankees should lose to Cleveland and Boston beats Toronto, there will be a one-game, winner-take-all duel in Boston on Monday afternoon. Finally, if the Yankees and Boston both lose. New York will be off to Kansas City again. CATFISH HUNTER, the veteran righthander who has made a career out of coming through in the clutch, will start for the Yankees on Sunday, opposing Cleveland left-Please turn to Page 9E BOSTON (AP) Dennis Eckersley pitched his 20th victory with a five-hitter Saturday as the Boston Red Sox sent the American League East race down to the wire with a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

With their seventh consecutive victory and 11th in the last 13 games, the Red Sox remained one game behind the New York Yankees, who defeated Cleveland, 7-0. Each team plays its final game Sunday. "DO I BELIEVE in fate? No, but I believe in Santa Claus. There Is one, isn't there?" asked Carl Yastrzemski in summing up the Red Sox' situation. However, the Red Sox remained on a treadmill despite their 1 1 th victory in the last 13 starts.

While tickets went on sale for a possible sley in the bullpen. EAST Pel. PMtaUrtehie TO 71 PrlltBurg 7 73 PHILADELPHIA A WAY (I): Pilli-bu'ff I. Ori I PITTSBURGH HOME (I). Pint 1.

Or' I -PMAMMa dmchtt POTntn. "We'll go out there to win tomorrow, but we need help from Cleveland to give us a chance to beat the Yankees ourselves in the tie-breaker. UPI Photo Boston manager Don Zim-mer was in a joking mood Saturday, but that was before the Yankees clinched tie for the AL East pennant. "This whole thing is unbelievable. If we win tomorrow, it means we will have won 99 Phillies win NLEast P.3E Please turn to Page 9E hat letdown? U-M rolls, 52-0 lL Falls Top 20 teams How tha Top 20 teams in th Associated Praea major eoilege football po ttrtd: OKLAHOMA (44) Mat Missouri, 45-23 ARKANSAS (34) oetl luisa.

Zl-u SOUTHERN CAL (4-0) oeit Michigan so-9 the unbelievably low totals of 76 yards and six first downs in 47 offensive plays. Michigan had just one gift touchdown in an afternoon of effortless, time-consuming drives but it was the game breaker. Just a minute after Michigan went out front by 14-0 three plays into the second quarter, Duke quarterback Mike Dunn fumbled inside his 10 and Dale Keitz recovered at the one to set up Harlan Huckleby's short TD run. That gave U-M a three-touchdown lead and the game. "Not everything you saw out there was good," said Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, trying to find the grey lining in a puffy white cloud.

"There was some terrible football out there on some (of U-M's) series. My honest opinion of a game like this Is: We're not that good and Duke's not that bad." Duke coach Mike McGee will buy that about his team not being that bad, but he figured the Wolverines were as good as they looked. "They played a superior game personnel is as strong as I've seen. They were in control the first series and it didn't change. Then they came back with the second team and began to go outside.

You never forget a humiliating experience like that." STATISTICS SOMETIMES lie. but they told the truth on this drizzly day, as a Michigan Stadium crowd of 104,832 the 18th straight crowd of more than 100,000 in Ann Arbor watched its team go ahead by seven points after one quarter, 24 after two and 38 after three. Duke managed just 28 yards in the first half, including the miniscule total of six on 15 plays in the second quarter. It hardly got better for the Blue Devils in the second half, when they managed just 48 yards. Please turn to Page 4E By TOM HENDERSON Free Press Soorti Writer ANN ARBOR The University of Michigan, gejtting its best offensive and defensive performances of the season, scored repeatedly on long drives Saturday afternoon in an awesome, 52-0 slaughter of previously unbeaten Duke.

So much for a letdown by the fourth-ranked Wolverines after last weekend's big win over Notre Dame. Fourth-ranked? They looked strictly like No. 1 material in as powerful a performance as you could ever see. The only question was: which was more outstanding, the offense or the defense? The Blue and Gold cruised to 478 yards in total offense, including 390 on the ground, as they banged out touchdown drives of 50, 81, 69, 68, 79 and 40 yards. Meanwhile, the defense and whoever said it was questionable? held a potent Duke offense to MICHIGAN (34) otai uuxe.

52m PENH STATE (S4) oeat i ext tnristian. w-q TEXAS (34) oeat texas teen, l-1 ALABAMA (3-1) oeat vanoefDni. m-s TEXAS AIM (34) oeat MamDhis aiate. x-o PITTSBUROH (34) di norm Carolina, 2U-is 10 FLORIDA STATE (3.1) tor to riouaton, Z7-Z1 Grandma Leach cheers silently as Rick leads U-M ANN ARBOR Rick Leach sprints to his left in search of a receiver. Nobody is free.

So he just keeps running, directing his blockers like a traffic cop, and races into the end zone. Touchdown, Michigan and 104,832 fans break into a thunderous roar. Well, make that 104,831. Grandma Leach just sits there and smiles. Grandma Leach is sort of a special person around here.

She is a deaf mute and has been so for almost her entire life. So all her cheers must be silent cheers. But just watch her one of these Saturdays. Nobody has more fun at these games than Grandma Leach. She is 74 years old but acts like a teeny topper whenever No.

7 In the Maize and Blue does anything. She is but a wisp of a woman and smiles because that's the polite thing to do, but it always gets to her and she is on her feet thrusting her fist to the sky and applauding and hugging everyone around her. It is quite a love story that takes place in section 23. Grandma Leach has seen her grandson in every game of football he has ever played, high school and college, home and away. She has known the glory of South Bend and the bitterness of Pasadena.

She brought the candy on Saturday and had a wonderful time, thank you. They came out in two cars, this Leach family, and they were scattered throughout the giant stadium. But Grandma Leach sits in section 23 because that's the one behind the Michigan bench and that's where she can get the best look at No. 7 in the Maize and Blue. His exploits paper the walls Rick used to wave to her on those Friday nights at Flint Southwestern.

No more. Heavens, no. "He wouldn't dare do It," she said. "Bo might get mad." Grandma Leach does her talking through her hands. 11 LOUISIANA STATE (3-0) oeat nice, 37-7 II NEBRASKA (3-1) oeat moiana, e-i7 13 OHIO STATE (2.1) otat Beytor, 34-zb 14 MISSOURI (2-2) ton to uKianoma.

40-29 15 MARYLAND (44) Deal Kantucxy, zr3 It COLORADO (44) dmi Nonnwattem, 55-7 -t 17 IOWA STATE (44) oeat LuaKa, 35-r 11 UCLA (2-1) va. Minnaaota, night 11 GEORGIA (2-1) toat to soom taronna. zr-IO 20 STANFORD (3-1) OP 1 CMt luiana, 17-14 Ball State dominates CMU, 27-0 -scAf-O. By BRIAN BRAGG Free Press Sporti Writer Through her hands and those of her son Dick Leach, who is Rick's father. They've all learned to talk to Grandma, so that it is the most natural thing in the world.

"The nice thing is that she can't boo," says Dick Leach, and Grandma breaks up at the comment. Both of Rick Leach's grandparents were deaf mutes. Each was stricken by a childhood disease. They met at the Michigan School for the Deaf and that's how they fell in love. MT.

PLEASANT Ball State outblocked, out-tackled and outran Central Michi gan's embarrassed Chippe- was here Saturday in a 27-0 AP Photo rout that established the Car It was the same story all game U-M's Roosevelt Smith leaves two Duke defenders in his wake during a 17-yard gain dinals as the team to beat in the Mid-American Confer Grandma Leach Grandpa Leach worked 462 years at the Fisher Bodv Dlant in ence football race. The visitors from Indiana also outfumbled CMU, but the Chlppewas' fumble recover ies three of them inside the Houk happy Tm leaving under such good conditions Central 20 served no pur pose except to hold down the Flint and they raised three children. He died four years ago and It was a trauma to everyone In the family, especially young Rick. This happened in the middle of the high school football season and he was unable to practice for three days. But on Friday night, against Bay City Central, he passed for six touchdowns and ran for another and led his team to a 65-20 victory.

She cuts out all the newspaper articles about her grandson and the den in the old house in Flint is literally covered with pictures of all the Leach children. Rick, Somehow, seems to dominate the walls. score. Ball State, now a perfect 4- 0 (all In the MAC), simply had too much talent for the Chip pe was, who slipped to 2-1 in the conference and 2-2 over all. It was the first time Cen Woody 'gets too mad9 tral had been shut out in 77 games dating back to the 1971 season and the Chippewas never even came close to a score in this one.

BALL STATE rolled up a 17-0 edge after one quarter. with flashy quarterback Dave v- 'V Tigers clip Flanagan, Birds, 54 By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Sport Writer Mike Flanagan, who pitched 8 innings of no-hit ball the last time he stepped on the mound, was just another pitcher to the Tigers on Saturday as they won their second straight game from Baltimore, 5-4. Flanagan, in just his second major league season, saw his bid for a 20-game season foiled as the Tigers snapped a 4-4 tie In the seventh inning on singles by John Wockenfuss and Rusty Staub and an infield out. And the 23-year-old righthander might have learned a little about pitching from an old pro, John Hiller. For the second consecutive game, the 35-year-old ace of the Detroit bullpen came in with the Tigers on the ropes and saved the day, this time putting down an Orioles' threat in the eighth.

1 WITH THE Tigers clinging to that precarious one-run lead, Oriole runners at first and second and nobody out, Hiller relieved winner Steve Baker and pitched Detroit out of a jam. Please turn to Paqe 9E Wilson throwing for two touchdowns, and Central i---t i fl k4 could never get untracked. The Cardinals tallied another TD in the third period and added the final insult with a By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Sports Writer Ralph Houk will walk away from baseball after Sunday afternoon's game against Baltimore without so much as a backward glance. Perhaps it's the fact that at age 59 it is too early to reminisce about the "good old days." Or perhaps it is just that he is a man who has always looked forward instead of backward. Regardless, after 40 years in baseball, Houk says he has not experienced acute nostalgia since making the decision to retire from the game.

"Maybe when I'm sitting around, I think about it a little," the Tigers' manager admitted, sitting behind the desk in his office off the Tiger locker room. "It was kinda funny in Boston, sitting in that office that I'd been In for so many years when I went to Boston. I thought, 'This'H be the last time I'm in here' but not really, it's not like that. "I guess the reason it Isn't is because I'm leaving under such good conditions. If I'd have been fired or something, then I'd have thought: 'Well, jeez But it wasn't like that, everybody was happy and it was something that I made the decision to do and I think I made the right one." HOUK HAS more to reminisce about than most times both good and bad.

There was the time Ryne Duren, inspired by an overabundance of spirits, crammed Houk's ever-present cigar in his face on a train after the Yankees won the 1961 World Series there were the years with Mickey Mantle, who among his othere feats, hit the first home run in the Astrodome, during a preseason exhibition and after 35 years with the Yankees' organization, there was the decision to join Detroit in 1973. There were countless run-ins with umpires and memorable confrontations with sports writers, including one that required an appearance in a Baltimore courtroom after he gave Baltimore sports writer Phil Hersh a couple of slaps. Through the good times and bad, Houk has maintained situ 3 i fourth-period field goal. "They completely domi As the score mounted Saturday, it seemed like a good time to get a Grandma's vie of this Michigan football team and its chances in the 1 978 season. And so here's what those nimble hands told us: Do you think you're going to beat Woody this year? "I'm keeping my fingers crossed." What do you think of Woody Hayes? "He is one of our rivals but I don't like the way he coaches.

He gets too mad." Is Ricky better at football or baseball? "Oh, I think he's good at everything, even basketball." Should he play pro football or baseball? "I would rather see him play baseball. They are too rough on those quarterbacks in pro football." Is Ricky getting any better? "Oh, yes. He is throwing the ball a lot better. I can see him maturing." Do you like Bo? "He's it for me." Do you think he is too hard on Ricky? "Sometimes." How do you feel when people criticize Ricky? "Oh. my friends are always telling me to tell Bo and Ricky what to do." Do you ever tell them? smile.

A Grandma smile. Is Ricky going to win the Heisman Trophy? "Sure." Will I see you at the Rose Bowl? Another Grandma smile. Silly boy. nated us up front," admitted a crestfallen CMU coach Herb Deromedi. "They closed off the seams for our backs they took away the option play, they pursued very well.

"We couldn't generate any offense whatsoever. Even when we automaticked to get the best play for the defense they were showing, we still weren't able to block 'em where they were weakest. I "I'll tell you, their three down linemen (all-MAC tackle Ken Kremer, middle AP Photo Please turn to Page 9E "This'H be the last time," thought Ralph Houk. Please turn to Page 8E.