Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 71

1F if Ranger a slalue for 45 minutes 1 1K1FG1 si i rrn It To igers nip ARLINGTON, Tex. (UPI) Texas Rangers' pitcher Roger Moret, described by teammates as unusually morose during pre-game warmups, Wednesday slipped into a catatonic state in the locker room and stood "like a statue" for 45 minutes. Early reports said the lefthander had been taken to the hospital, but a team spokesman said Moret was given a sedative while doctors examined him in the locker room. "It was scary," said manager Billy Hunter. "He just stood there like a statue.

We don't know what is wrong. I just hope we can find out." MORET, WHO a week ago had threatened to leave the Rangers because of a dispute with two other players, entered the locker room after taking part in the club's pre-game workout before a scheduled contest with the Detroit Tigers. Witnesses said Moret took off his uniform, told Hunter he was leaving the club and then walked to his locker. There, wearing only in his underwear and holding a shower slipper in one hand, he stood frozen for 45 minutes. Moret, after his early threat to leave the club just before the opening of the regular season, had pitched four innings of relief and earned a save in the Rangers' 5-2 victory over New York on Monday night.

After that appearance, Moret said he wanted to stay with the Rangers. Moret, 28, posted a 3-3 record with Texas last year after spending the early part of the season on the disabled list. He has been in the majors for eight seasons and came to Texas from Atlanta in a multi-player trade more than a year ago. definitely doesn't appear out of the question. Certainly, aside fr.om a shaky first inning, it was hard to fault Fidrych's effort Wednesday as he struck out five Rangers and walked three, throwing a fastball that was frequently clocked at 90 m.p.h.

From the second through the eighth in nings, only one Ranger ad-Tigcrs 3, Rangers 2 vanced as far as second Detroit Texas base. And when Texas LeFiore ct 3 Hargrv ib threatened in the ninth on Dillard 4 0 0 0 Jorgnsn lb 0 0 0 0 hv Tohv Harrah Slaubdr, 4 0 0 0 Cmpnrsss 3 100 angles jTomsnib 4000 Aoiiveru 4112 and Claudell Washington Kemp If 3 12 0 ZisK jh 3 0 0 0 Spikes rf 40 10 Harrah 3b 40 10 after tWO Were OUt, Fl- Roger Moret By JIM HAWKINS Free Press Sports Writer ARLINGTON, Tex. For two years now, people have wondered how many games Mark Fidrych could win if he ever pitched a full season. The way The Bird is throwing this year, they may finally find out. Fidrych won his second game in less than a week Wednesday night as he conquered the Texas Rangers, 3-2, with a six-hitter that proved his Opening Day performance was certainly no fluke.

Ron LeFlore and Aurelio Rodriguez helped out with three hits apiece and Lance Parrish muscled his first home run of the season over the fence as the Tigers succeeded for the third game in a row to stay just one win behind the still unbeaten Milwaukee Brewers. Wednesday's win put The Bird two months ahead of last summer's pace, when he was sidelined by knee surgery and didn't win his second game of the season until June 11. And he's more than a month ahead of his 1976 schedule when, of course, he didn't make his first start until the middle of May. AT THAT RATE, there's no telling how many games Fidrych may win before the summer is over. But, 20 victories Parrishc I Lwsgmn viu ARdrgj3b 4 13 1 Beniquzcf 4 0 2 0 Wagner ss 4 0 10 Wills 2b 3 0 0 0 Sundbrgc 3 0 0 0 Total 34 3 11 3 Total 31 2 2 Detroit 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0-3 Texas 200000 00 0-2 DP Detroit 2.

LOB Detroit 7, Texas 5. 2B Rodriguez. HR Oliver (1), Parrish (1). SB Beniquez. IP RER BB SO Fidrych W.2-0 9 6 2 2 3 5 MatlackL.l-l 7 1-3 11 3 3 1 5 Barker 1 2-3 0 0 0 0 2 2:04 drych got Juan Beniquez to ground out, ending the game.

The surprisingly larga crowd of 26,049, many of whom came to Arlington Stadium specifically to observe The Bird, saw the Tigers pound 11 hits off Texas starter Jon Matlack to complete their sweep of this brief two-game series against the pre-season favorites in the American League West. Fidrych looked like anyone but The Bird of old in the bottom of the first inning when he walked Campy Campa-neris, then served up a two-run homer to Al Oliver, who wears No. 0 on his back. FIDRYCH CONTINUED to struggle in the first, walking Richie Zisk before he retired Harrah and Washington to end the inning. The Bird suddenly settled down after that, and began mowing down Ranger after Ranger with little or no trouble at all.

The Tigers cut the Rangers' lead in half in the top of the second, although it took singles by Steve Kemp and Charlie Please turn to Page 7F WI" "it II 1 TF7 trigs' fans will rock the OV Barn tonight Falls i ''iA '-M Pv By TOM HENDERSON Free Press Sports Writer No doubt the octopus already has been bought and frozen. The few tickets that were available to the public have long since been parceled out to the raving hockey maniacs who pitched camp at Olympia to get them. The ice has been worked on, the aisles swept, the extra beer stacked on skids awaiting the playoff-thirsty hordes who will descend, screaming and pumped up beyond belief, on the old barn to try to cheer the Red Wings to their first home win in a playoff series in 12 years. Oh, is it going to be a rowdy, loud crowd Thursday night. THE ROARS WILL seem tumultuous when the Wings step out for their warm-ups.

But the fever pitch won't begin until just before game time. The Flames will take the ice before the Wings, and the sound will start to build, louder and louder as the fans begin to rise in ovation. A couple of minutes later, the Wings, 5-3 winners in an outstanding, tense playoff opener in Atlanta Tuesday, will emerge to what will likely be the most impressive outburst of emotion and sound that most of the players have ever heard. It's Stanley Cup time in Detroit. Motown madness.

The loudest crowd in hockey, with some help from the Wings, takes on the Atlanta Flames. And if you can't be there in person, watch it on TV, Channel 20, at 7:30 p.m.. "There's no point in even going on the air until game time," said Jiggs McDonald, the i Few things compare with Wings' 4-goal blitz Did you believe it 4-0? I can't think of many things that were as exciting as those first 15 minutes on the tube out of Atlanta the other night. It was a moment you wait for but never really expect. Four goals.

AH beauties. On enemy ice. In the first game of the playoffs. I thought to myself: "Only we can appreciate this." I mean you, me all of us who have had any feeling for this hockey team over the years. In that moment, Red Fisher crossed my mind.

He's a buddy of mine, the hockey writer for the Montreal Star. Ask anyone and they'll tell you there is no finer craftsman around. I thought of Red when those goals were clanging Inside the net and I knew there was no way he could feel the things I was feeling. He is accustomed to excellence. He is accustomed to brilliance.

He is accustomed to the puck bouncing around inside the net. I've always envied Red. If I could have any other job, it would be his. What a joy it would be to cover the Montreal Canadiens. But the other night, I had something Red could never have.

I had a warm appreciation for 15 minutes of hockey. I had no idea how the rest of the game was going to come out. It looked pretty good, but you couldn't tell. They still had a lot of time to play. I told myself this was only one game and it could still end badly, if not on this night, then, surely, on some night in the future.

But for some reason, I didn't want to feel logical. I didn't want to become analytical. I just wanted to enjoy the moment. I probably sound like Joe Fan, but these were my feelings. TCP fkfkW fi? Flames' radio-TV announcer, Wednesday just before Atlanta's workout at Olympia.

"There's no way anyone's going to hear anything in here, so what's the point of trying?" Or as Bobby Kromm said in the dressing room Tuesday night after his team had hung on, thanks to an empty-net goal by Andre St. Laurent with one second to go, to beat the Flames: "If you think this crowd was good, wait till we get back to Detroit and our crowd." The Flames' crowd, an Omni sellout of Please turn to Page 4F 1 s1i If1 'i Free Press Photo by JOHN COLLIER Reed Larson was a popular Red Wing at practice Wednesday. Wings9 poise showed op preps a mm r-7f u-ivi sign wi most wait vw pv1' -a By MICK McCABE Free Press Sports Writer Four of the top high school basketball players in the state made their choices official Wednesday by signing national letters of intent. Cedric Olden of Highland Park and Warren Fitzgerald's Joe Kopicki, who had made their decisions public before Wednesday, signed as expected with Michigan and the University of Detroit, respectively. The decision of Flint Northwestern star Trent Tucker to ft, I 1 -x fit, i4 te? sign with the University of Minnesota was a mild surprise.

The youngster was supposed to visit Villanova this weekend. Keith Smith, Detroit Mackenzie's 6-foot All-State guard, announced his decision to attend U-M, although he had some fun with the announcement at a small press conference. "I will continue my education and my basketball career at Michigan State," Smith said. After his father said "Michigan State?" Smith said, "I mean the University of Please turn to Page 2F It was hard to grasp that they were slamming them in at such a rapid rate, and looking so skilled. They were poised, they were confident, they were professional.

I'd almost forgotten how it was. At the start, I was fearful for them. I knew they were talking tough going to Atlanta, but talk is cheap. It all happens when you go out there on the ice. I could envision every player feeling his own private pressure and this can destroy the strongest of men.

The Red Wings got all the breaks. They got three power-play goals and then hit on a shorthanded goal when the puck bounced their way. Again, I didn't care. They could have bounced them in off the walls. I relished every one of those goals.

Each seemed more shining than the last, until my whole room seemed to glow when Dennis Hextall broke in on Dan Bouchard and beat him while the Wings were a man short. It seems like I'm always talking about the old days as far as the Red Wings are concerned. Lindsay, Howe and Abel. Abel, Howe and Lindsay. You'll have to forgive me.

They were special players and those days were special days. It was a nice feeling to know you were writing about the best hockey team in the world. That's why these last 10 years have been so hard to take. The old geezers remember how it was. We remember those mighty nights when they would go at the Canadiens, and especially Dickie Moore, and when they put it to the Maple Leafs of Mortson and Thomson.

I hated those two guys. The Wings almost lost it all the other night. You've got to give the Flames credit. They never quit. They came surging back for the rest of the evening and nearly pulled it out.

But nothing will ever take away those first 15 minutes. it's easy to gel carried away All four goals were big league: McCourt on a vicious blast from the side; Errol Thompson breaking in as he must have done on many nights with the Maple Leafs; Big Ned on a massive slap-shot (how many of you thought of Bobby Hull on that one?) and, finally, Hex, the old pro, skating in all alone and beating Bouchard with a deke once the Atlanta goalie made his move. It is easy to get carried away at such a moment. For Instance, there is no way do I think the Wings can lose Thursday night. But I thought the same thing when the LA Kings were in two weeks ago.

I stood next to Tom Henderson, our hockey writer, and told him just that. I was even surprised to hear myself saying it. The cynic-turned-saint. Somehow, hockey does this to you. When your team Is well, sweeping up and down the ice, you sometimes forget you are supposed to be a neutral.

The game has always affected me this way. Hockey is the only game I'll attend as a spectator. Already I'm dreaming of watching them in the Montreal Forum, even though the outcome may be grim. It'll be enough to walk into the old place on St. Catherines and walk up those steps and take a seat in the catwalk under the roof which serves as the press box.

Red will be there and maybe I'm a little too harsh on my man. I remember what he told me when he covered the Team Canada series against the Russians back in 1972. That was the first one, when the emotions were so high, and Team Canada pulled it out on Paul Henderson's goal in the final moments of the final game. Red Fisher is no sentimentalist. He is a hard newsman.

But that day, in Moscow, he walked into the Canadian dressing room and went up to Paul Henderson and said: "I'd like to shake youx hand." Maybe he would understand 15 minutes of hockey. Keith Smith Our silky cool I sport shirt has a Vs- I California collar Aw Bears trade Chambers for Bucs' 1st '79 pick CHICAGO (UPI) The Chicago Bears Wednesday traded all-pro defensive tackle Wally Chambers to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Tampa's No. 1 draft choice in 1979 and a player to be named later. "Tampa Bay is the team for which Jack Childers, Wally's agent, said he wanted to play," Bears' general manager Jim Finks said. "Tampa Bay also was the only team to express Interest to us in making a trade for Wally." Chambers, a five-year veteran from Eastern Kentucky who was the Bears' first-round draft choice in 1973, had acquired free agent status following the 1977 season.

CHAMBERS missed most of the 1977 season due to a knee injury. During his years with the Bears, Chambers won honors ranging from all-rookie to all-pro. Tampa has the first pick in the 1978 draft, to be held May 2-3, since they finished in the NFL cellar last season at 2-12. However, a healthy Chambers added to Tampa's already aggressive defense could help to improve the club's record this coming season. UG1ES HATCHER MOST HUGHES HATCHER STORES OPEN EVENINGS.

MOST HUGHES HATCHER STORES OPEN SUNDAYS..