Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 12

DETROIT FREE PRESSTUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1978 1 ALWtfS TALKING PSOJT Steve Kemp: 6 The walking man uw rum men yea 1 A 1 1 9 i "I'm seeing the ball much better this year, and I'm concentrating a lot more. I'm trying to set the pitcher up, by taking pitches, so that I get him in a 2-0 or a 3-1 situation and he has to throw my pitch." KEMP, WHO HAS always considered himself an RBI man and taken great pride in his ability to drove home runs, admitted all the bases on balls bothered him when he was batting fifth, behind his best friend, Jason Thompson. "I knew, in that spot in the order, I was supposed to be driving in runs," said Kemp. "And Jason used to kid me about walking all the time. "But now that I'm batting second, the walks are fine.

Now my job is to get on base so the guys coming up behind me can drive me in. And I'm really happy with my on-base percentage. "Batting second, I don't think I'm going to get as many RBIs as I did last year," said Kemp, who knocked in 88 runs as a rookie. "But I should score a lot more runs, so that'll make up for it." Kemp, of course, is well aware of the fact that bases on balls and runs scored won't carry nearly as much weight as RBIs do when the time comes to discuss next season's salary. "But," he pointed out, "if I feel I've contributed to the club by walking and scoring runs I won't be afraid to bring it up." Kemp also hopes the umpires around the league will notice his new selectivity at the plate and perhaps give him the benefit of the doubt on close pitches in the future.

"I hope I'll get more respect from the umpires," he said. Tiger leads the league with 56 bases on balls leadoff batter nor a power hitter. In fact, former Tiger executive Bill DeWitt once described Cullenbine as "the laziest human being you ever saw." That same description certainly can't be applied to Kemp. "It would be ironic if I broke the record," admitted Kemp as the Tigers took the day off Monday prior to opening a two-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. "For some one like me who is known as a free swinger to walk that often is really unusual.

"BUT THAT RECORD doesn't mean anything to me. It doesn't matter if I get it or I don't. I just want to get on base as often as I can, any way I can. "I'm not going up to the plate looking to walk," continued Kemp, who has been promoted from the No. 5 to the No.

2 spot in the batting order behind slumping Ron LeFlore. "But I do think I'm a much more mature hitter this year than I was last season. "I'm trying to be more selective in the pitches I swing at. I go up to the plate more or less looking for my pitch. I'm still swinging hard, I'm still a free swinger, but I'm not swinging at nearly as many bad pitches as I did last year.

By JIM HAWKINS Free Press Sports Writer TORONTO From the day Steve Kemp arrived in the big leagues, he has been known as a free swinger, an aggressive hitter who attacks each pitch with abandon. Because of that attitude and Kemp's ability to hit with men on base, it has even been suggested he might someday break the Tigers' all-time team record for runs batted in. Well, Kemp is currently en route to a possible record alright. But it has nothing to do with ability to swing a bat or drive in runs. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Kemp is threatening to set a record this season for keeping his bat glued to his shoulder. It's not that Kemp is necessarily trying to draw a walk every time he steps up to the plate. It just seems to keep happening that way, time after time after time. NO PLAYER IN THE American League has walked more often than Kemp, who at the moment owns the remarkable total of 56 bases on balls. That's an average of almost one walk in each of the Tigers' first 62 games.

At that rate, the Tiger leftfielder will easily erase the all-time club record for walks, which is held by Roy Cullenbine, who strolled to first base 137 times in 1947. But Cullenbine made a career out of not swinging a bat, walking 852 times while collecting only 1 ,072 base hits during his 10 years in the big leagues even though he was neither a "When they see I'm not swinging at bad pitches, hopefully they'll think twice about calling a close pitch a strike if I don't swing at it." TAGGING THE TIGERS Steve Dillard is back with the team after flying home to Detroit to be with his wife while she gave birth to their first child, a son named Jeffrey The games Tuesday and Wednesday will be carried on the Tiger TV network (Channel 4 in the Detroit area) Dave Rozema threw batting practice Sunday to prepare himself for his next start Thursday night when the New York Yankees make their first appearance of the year at Tiger Stadium. Next time, Rozema will be allowed to go the full nine innings, provided he is able. llFciis Nancy Lopez is pro golf's version of the bionic woman Free Press Wire Services ROCHESTER, N.Y. Nancy Lopez bids to extend her all-time women's professional golf record to six straight victories this week and takes long-range aim at the men's record 1 1 in a row by Byron Nelson in 1945.

Asked her thoughts about breaking Nelson's mark, the 21-year-old rookie sensation smiled and said, "I'd love to. Let's see, what would I be up to after the next two weeks? Seven?" If she wins at Hershey, Pa. this week and Noblesville, Ind. next week, she would extend her record to seven consecutive victories before she skips the Wheeling, W. Va.

tournament. Lopez said the pressure during her fifth in a row at Locust Hill Country Club Sunday was the greatest she has endured during her torrid streak. "No, the pressure at Hershey won't be what it was here," she said after her two-stroke victory over Jane Blalock and Debbie Massey in the 54-hole tournament. ONE OF THE REASONS behind Lopez' record-shattering performance has been her putting. She did not have any three-putt greens in winning the LPGA Championship two weeks ago.

She had only three three-putters en route to her total of 214 at Locust Hill. Her smooth, slow putting stoke has produced 16 rounds of par or better golf in her last 17 rounds. UPI Photo Nancy Lopez waves to her fans after winning her record-breaking fifth straight LPGA tournament Singer Carly Simon just can't carry a golf tune LANSING This is a protest. A formal protest against Radio America. There I am driving from Brooklyn, scene of Sunday's 400-mile stock car race, to Lansing, site of the fifth annual Celebrity Golf tournament for the benefit of the American Cancer Society, and do you think I can pick up even one hole of the U.S.

Open in Denver on my car radio? I may as well have tried to pick up the Cincinnati Reds from the Moscow Square Garden. It's a two-hour trip over here after one of those races and for two solid hours I shifted my radio dial back and forth, up and down, one station after another. to get some idea what was happening at the greatest of all golf tournaments. I got Carly Simon, Simon and Garfunkel and a disc jockey out of Memphis, named Dutch Garfinkel. Most distressing of all, I got some guy at the end of the dial saying: "That's Wellington out in the flat, Jones goes back into the pocket, he looks to his right Football So help me The basketball season just ended and here, on the 18th of June, on highway M-137 up from Jackson, I've got the Hamilton Tiger-Cats playing the Saskatchewan Rough Riders.

Does anybody knows what happened to summer? I get to my motel in East Lansing at 10 minutes to seven and raced into the room, hoping to catch the tailend of the ABC telecast out of Denver. I go right to the TV set, even before turning on the lights, and grope around for the "on" switch. believe anybody on the men's tour is putting as well or as consistently as she is now." "We're all going to have to play better to even have a chance," Massey said. Added Blalock: "I failed by not knocking her off." If Lopez can win the first prize of $7,500 in the Hershey tournament beginning Friday, she will have accumulated more than $160,000 in her rookie season, unequaled for either a men's or women's first-year player. But she won't make predictions on how many more she can string together.

"All I know is that I'm playing my butt off," Lopez said. Lopez, a former women's collegiate champion at Tulsa University, will be hunting her eighth victory in 1978. No other LPGA rival has won more than once this year. Someone asked who taught her such unerring accurracy on the greens. "Myself," she said.

"Nobody ever gave me putting lessons. "I used to cut the ball. I could get it in the hole but I had a terrible stroke. I knew it wasn't going to last. My stroke has gotten a lot better." In the eyes of Blalock and Massey, that may be the understatemnt of the year.

Blalock said, "Twenty-footers are gimmes for her. She's the best putter I've seen in my life." MASSEY USED TO BEAT Lopez regularly when they were both amateur standouts. But now Lopez' putting has pushed her past her longtime nemesis. "I've never played with anyone who sank so many putts," said Massey, the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1977. "I don't Mm clearances specials save all over the place on famous brand fashions The Express trade unhappy striker David Steve David's brief career as a member of 'the Detroit Express came to an end Monday when the troubled striker was traded to the California Surf for an undisclosed amount of cash and a second-round choice in the 1979 North American Soccer League draft.

David, the fifth-leading scorer in NASL history, was the league's leading scorer last season, with 26 goals in 24 games, and its most valuable player in 1975. But in 11 games with the Express he scored just twice and spent much of his time complaining of his difficulty in adjusting to the Midwest. "He didn't settle in well in the Midwest," said Express executive director Roger Faulkner. "He didn't settle in with the team either, and he requested to be traded." knit summer shirts by Romelli in Romelli knit golf shirts in assorted shades, were $10, now 99 stripes with contrasting 1 1 tnif rnWnr were $13, now o99 David missed the Express' last two games, in Chicago and Denver, after the team's management gave him permission to return to the West Coast while they were attempting to make a deal for him. You think they have an "on" switch on this TV set? Somebody had pulled it off and no one had bothered to put a new one on.

U.S. Open Andy turns pink Do you know what it's like to be in a dark motel room in East Lansing early on a Sunday evening without an "on" switch on the TV set and Andy North trudging up the 18th fairway for a date with destiny at the Cherry Hill Country Club in Denver? After five frantic minutes of pushing and pulling and banging the side of the TV set, the picture came on. It was all pink, but there he was, angular Andy, facing that shot in front of the bunker with the whole country, including one East Lansing motel room, looking in. We all know what happened one in the dirt, one on the green and one in the cup. Welcome to the PAL Tournament, Andy.

It's nice to have you around. This is the season for charity golf tournaments, and this celebrity event in Lansing offers its own uniqueness. Tim Staudt is the tournament chairman for this event. He is also the sports director for WJIM-TV in Lansing and three years ago his boss, Harold Gross, put up a color TV set for anyone who made a hole-in-one on the 174-yard No. 7 hole at the Lansing Country Club.

Do I need to tell you who shot a hole-in-one and went home with the color TV set? Actually, the only one who saved the day Monday was Chris Stralkowski. Our caddie. We've got our clubs loaded onto two carts and are ready to tee off on the 10th hole when young Chris appears out of nowhere and announced he is our caddie. r'. I look at my partners, Lynn Henning, Ray Soresman and Fred Scieszka, and then I look at the two carts and kind of clear my throat.

"I am a very good caddie, sir," says Chris Stralkowski. He also announces that he is 12 years old. The word is enterprise. Or maybe it's spirit. "O.K., get on." "It's all a matter of bucks Young Chris jumps on the back and away way we go.

"You've got a $75 stake." The kid looks up. "What do you mean?" "I mean we're starting you out with 75 bucks. Where's your tie?" "I don't wear a tie," he said. "That's five bucks. Now you're down to seventy." The kid blinks, "Yes sir.

I understand. No tie, five bucks." This is how it goes the rest of the day: No socks, minus $2. Found ball, plus $2. Wrong directions, minus $2. Forget to tend flag, minus $2.

Forget to take shower before leaving home, minus $5. Brush teeth, plus $1. Fail to read column Saturday, Sunday or Monday, minus $5. Take sip of Lynn Henning's beer, minus $10. Bragging about his girl friend, no penalty.

Failing to know who Andy North is, minus $1. Failing to know who J.P. McCarthy is, minus 50 cents. Leaving cart in reverse, minus $3. i- With his fortune dribbling away, Chris said at the 18th hole, "I'm Polish and if I tell you a good Polish joke, can I get the 75 bucks back?" "It depends on the joke." "O.K.," says Chris, "Did you hear about the Pole who shot an arrow in the air and missed?" You won't even hear that one on Radio Poland.

1 1 i Steve David knit summer shirts by MacGregor and Hathaway, in easycare blends, were $15 9" "HE WAS becoming more effective, playing alongside Trevor Francis and we would have liked to keep him," said Faulkner. "But since he was unhappy, we decided to accommodate him." Express coach Ken Furphy echoed Faulkner's sentiments. "We didn't want to let Steven go but there's obviously no point in keeping an unhappy player. He wanted to play where he would start for sure, and he wasn't guaranteed a starting berth on the Express." The Express acquired David from the Los Angeles Aztecs three games into the current season, giving up a No. 1 draft choice and cash for him.

"It didn't work out as well as we would have hoped," Faulkner admitted Monday, "or as well as Steve David would have liked it to. "But then you can't win them all." The Express, who lead second place Houston by 12 points in the Central Division of NASL's American Conference, have 13 games remaining, including a July 22 game against David's new club, in Anaheim. Ryan joins disabled list ANAHEIM, Calif. -(UPI) Nolan Ryan, the California Angels' hard-throwing right-! hander, has been placed on the! 21 -day disabled list retroac-1 tive to June 13, the club announced Monday. Ryan pulled the hamstring in his right leg while jogging in the outfield prior to a June 1 2 contest in Boston, the team reported.

Ryan's last appearance was June 10 when he pitched nine innings against the New York Yankees in California without a decision. He is 3-6 and has an ERA of 4.04. rm sale ends July 22 IHETLTdS-IHIIES IHETCJjHEIEIES. MOST HUGHES HATCHER STORES OPEN EVENINGS. mnrrr rnniimnniii.