Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 80

ri Marques Johnson in major trade: It's Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman and Harvey Catchings for Terry Cummings, Rickey Pierce and Craig Hodges. Page 2H. Sports Phone, 1-976-1313 Today's telsvisicn highlights: CBS 1 p.m. Football: Dallas at Chicago NBC 1 p.m. Football: Miami at St.

Louis CBC 1:30 p.m. Football: Winnipeg at Toronto CBS 4 p.m. Football: Detroit at San Diego Sunday, Sept. 30, 1C34 PREPS 2 fa SCOREBOARD 6 OUTDOORS 13 Call with sports news: 222-6660 LJ DETROIT FREE PRESS in 104 sets Tigers mark I nxc -ll Downey 1 Two decades and still no World Series for Niekro Tigers bats explode; NY topples, 11-3 NEW YORK We am what we am. Or possibly we must remain what others expect us to be.

Thus, Sparky Anderson enacts the elf, the little angel and devil and dispenser of mangled grammar. And Yogi Berra continues to break the malaprop barrier, not because he is a fool, but I1" 1 Yf" because he is willing to play the part. What we want them to be, they are. And so, when word comes that Ernie Banks will wear the Chicago Cubs pinstripes with No. 14 on his back, and that he will sit and take ungoes with the team, and that he will be part of the club's membership during baseball's glorious post-sea son, we are not embarrassed for the old man who must play the kid again.

No, quite the contrary, We are charmed by it, tickled by it, delighted for Mr. Cub. Forever and ever, he has represented what is warm and youthful about the game, so we bless him for being willing to remain the child, It would not be the same if, say, Al Kaline took No. 6 out of mothballs and sat this week upon the Tigers' bench. It is one thing to suit up and work out with outfielders during spring training, but that is coaching, not playing make-believe.

Kaline could put baseball behind him, at least the playing of it, and no more wants to bat against Rick Sutcliffe or Goose Gossage in the World Series than he wants to race George Kell in a 100-yard dash. By BILL McGRAW Free Press Sports Writer NEW YORK The Tigers made history in the House that Ruth Built Saturday amid the four-digit updates on Dave Winfield's batting average. Winfield's battle with teammate Don Mattingly for the American League batting championship has captivated New Yorkers, who once upon a time had better things to think about come October. The history made by the Tigers was the real thing. None of this batting title stuff.

Never before in the club's 84-year existence have the Tigers won 104 games. They hit that milestone with an 11-3 trashing of the Yanks before 35,685 fans. So what if the Yankees have won 104 or more 10 times? This is the autumn of the Tiger. Never before in the seven-year history of Juan Berenguer has Berenguer won 11 games. So what if Ron Guidry entered the season with one of the best winning percentages in the history of baseball? Berenguer beat him, no sweat.

Actually, the banners and signs that were hanging from Yankee Stadium celebrating Guidry seemed outdated and sad. "Louisiana Lightning" has been injured, and he has lost some spark. Berenguer has had a better year. His record is 11-10; Guidry's fell to 10-11. That sort of sums up the Yankees' afternoon.

Winfield misplayed two balls, getting an error on one. He finished the day with a .341 average (to Mattingly's but his team lost any hope of catching the Blue Jays for second place. For the Tigers, Berenguer was not the only one to record a personal best. At the top of the Tigers' list of 1 6 hits, Lance Parrish hit a career-high 33d home run. Barbara Garbey added another RBI to a fine rookie year.

Larry Herndon continued to revive a disappointing first half by knocking in two runs. Howard Johnson reached 50 RBIs with a three-run double. Dwight Lowry hit his second home run. Berenguer who is 6-2 over the past six weeks was wild; he hit one Yankee and walked six others. But he held the Bronx Bombers to two hits over six innings.

Berenguer was in trouble in the second, when the Yankees loaded the bases but failed to score. He put three runners on in the third, too, on a single, a walk and a hit batsman. Berenguer then walked Mike Pag- See TIGERS, Page 6H Something would? ve been Sparky Anderson ought to know the myths and facts about the playoffs. He's won four playoff series. George.

Brett's Royals (top left) have won one series, in 1980 over the Yankees, a team that was six games better during the regular season. Mike Schmidt's Phillies (lower left) are 2-4 in the playoffs. But his team won in 1980 and captured the World Series. How to pick the playoff winner What is wonderful about Kaline's history was the way he experienced the Fall Classic at least once. He broke into baseball in 1953 and waited 15 years for the chance.

With his statistics, it is not as though Kaline's career would have been anything less than extraordinary if the Series had never seen his shadow. Yet he is the first to tell you that without that one occasion, "No question, there would have been something missing in my life. I wouldn't have felt nearly so fulfilled." When the present-day Tigers pulled into Yan EZcxa czzzo tho claycf The baseball season ends today. Long live the baseball season. The Tigers, for the first time In a dozen years, keep playing into the post-seasoa We at the Free Press are greatly expanding our coverage for the occasion.

Inside the sports section today, you'll find that we've brought a fondly remembered Free Press Institution, the irascible baseball writer "Iffy the Dopester," out of retirement. He's on 5H, where we've expanded Tiger Corner to a full page for the duration of the Tigers' season. There, too, you'll find the results, and some funny samples, from our Tigers Limerick Contest. Then, starting with a Tuesday preview, you'll find a special section on the Tigers and the playoffs each day. We're determined to bring you the fullest coverage possible of the rest of this remarkable Tigers season.

"You don't know about playoffs. It's all luck. Anything could happen. Two starting pitchers and a reliever, and it 's al! over. It proves nothing.

Nothing means anything." Sparky Anderson. By GLEN MACNOW Free Prew Staff Writer Let's say this about Sparky: He's a great manager. But if the 15-year history of baseball's division playoffs proves anything, it's that the playoffs mean everything. The best team usually wins. It also proves that many of baseball's popular maxims are myths.

Any team can take a short series? No way. The home-field advantage is crucial? Uh-uh. Defense means everything in the playoffs? Nope. It's all luck? Sorry, Sparky. In fact, the record since 1969 shows just the opposite to be true.

If trends hold up this year, the Tigers should have no problem beating the Royals. Sparky, you could look it up. See PLAYOFFS, Page 12H kee Stadium for the season's final series, the first thing they had to watch was a scoreboard documentary of New York baseball, a filmed scrap-book of Yankee greatness from Babe Ruth's promise to belt one for a boy in a hospital bed to Reggie Jackson's curtain call after his third home run of a single game. Even many of the current Yankees had been in a World Series in 1981 and could bore their grandchildren about it some day. The same night they arrived at the park, the Tigers loitered in their dugout while Phil Niekro, the ancient (i.e., mid-40ish) user of the knuckle-ball, accepted a "good guy" award from a Jersey civic group.

The award was all the old-timer would go home witn this season again, in tact, MSU loses he went home to Georgia that night, his pitching work done for the season. That the Yankees had three games left to play meant little to Niekro at the moment. another in He had been in the big leagues for two full second half decades, had started more than 600 games, had struck out more than 3,000 men, had pitched to Banks and Hank Aaron and batters of another entire generation. But he never pitched to Berra or Kaline or any such American League hero because he had never worked in the league until this By JACK SAYLOR Free Press Sports Writer season, and because he never threw a ball in a World Series, not once. EAST LANSING Michigan State lost another football game in the second half Saturday but at least this time the opposition won on its own.

Mike Rendino, who had missed from 40 What a sad thing it would be Darrell Evans, once the gentleman's teammate, yards out three minutes earlier, booted a 30- yard field goal with eight minutes to play in Wolverines' defense comes through, 14-6 By TOMMY GEORGE Free Press Sports Writer BLOOMINGTON, Ind. What unfolded here Saturday put enough scare in Michigan to last the trip back to Ann Arbor and the season. The Wolverines toyed with hapless Indiana after quickly jumping ahead, then held on with finger-tip grasp for a 14-6 victory at Memorial Stadium. If there is such a thing, call it a moral victory for Indiana. The Hoosiers (0-4) had been drummed by Kentucky and Northwestern in their last two games, allowing 48 and 40 points.

And Michigan, which last year punished the Hoosiers with 510 yards of offense and 43 points, figured to get its offense on track against the Big Ten's most charitable defense. IU opponents had averaged 39 points a game. But something happened to the Wolverines (3-1) after they gained a 7-0 edge in the first quarter. Maybe overconfi-dence. Certainly uninspired play.

Michigan moved the ball effectively, but could not score points to show for it. The Indiana defense rallied and gained confidence, and folks, Michigan looked in serious trouble with 8:56 to play. An inadvertent whistle by an official gave U-M a second chance on third-and-goal from the IU 4 with 2:10 left in the third quarter after Indiana had held on the previous play. Quarterback Jim Harbaughpassed to fullback Eddie Garrett for the touchdown, making it 14-0. Quarterback Steve Bradley brought IU back with a sneak from the one with 9:05 to play.

See MICHIGAN, Page 9H the final period to give Purdue a 13-10 victory before 64,819 disappointed and well-chilled fans at Spartan Stadium. Rendino's game-winning effort was set had no more than a moment to call across the infield and say hello to Niekro before the old pitcher had packed his bags and gone. "I consider him such a good friend," Evans says, relaxing at his locker in the Detroit clubhouse, "that I only wish him well, wherever he goes and whatever he up by the passing of quarterback Jim Everett and the catching of flanker Steve Griffin. The victory was Purdue's third in four games and leaves the Boilermakers 2-0 in the Big Ten, surprisingly vaulting the team into does." It is only then that Evans is asked how much he had empathized with the Ernie Bankses and Phil Niekros of the world, the men who missed out on baseball's ultimate thrill. f- I vw to "I guess I hadn't thought about it," he says.

"Oh, that's not entirely true. When you play as conference title contention. The Spartans, who a week ago fumbled away a good start and were routed by Illinois in the second half, haven't beaten Purdue in seven tries. They dropped to 1-3 with a trip to Michigan coming up next week. long as I have and still haven't been to a World Series, it's true, you begin to wonder.

Will I ever be in one? Will I be one of those guys who looks back on personal satisfactions and only wonders what it might have been like to be in a world THE SPARTANS didn't wait until the What a sad thing that would be. second half to do a floppo this time. It took "I can't compare what I feel to what Phil or an only 3 xi minutes for MSU to lose a fumble and just two minutes more for Purdue to turn it into a touchdown. Ernie Banks would because I can't even think of myself in their company. Those are Hall of Famers Michigan running back Gerald White (22) is tackled by See MICHIGAN STATE, Page 10H Indiana's Chris Sigler (left) after getting first down.

you're talking about. To be mentioned even in the same sentence as players like that is almost a little frightening. But I know what you mean. Maybe by staying with the Tigers, I can play in two or three Series in a row. But maybe this will be the only chance of my life to get to one.

Who can say?" nZPOnT: noundasld noma "I know some of the people who saw me play in Only three men in the room Milt Wilcox school are still saying: 'How did he ever make I was LIONS PREVIEW: Fouts When it comes to big-league passers, Dan Fouts the 4 quarterback the Lions will face when they meet San Diego in a 4 p.m. game today is in a class by himself. The Lions will counter with a combination of Billy Sims and Gary Danielson. Page 1CH. awful and that putting it mildly, says Dan Rounfield, one of several players the Pistons are pinning their hopes on for success this seasoa Pe; 11H.

(1970), Doug Bair (1982) and Willie Hernandez (1983) have been in a World Series. Sparky Anderson, who has managed in four of them, is in his office, telling silly stories. Yogi Berra, who played in 14 of them and managed in two, is on television, deliberately mispronouncing a word while endorsing a local radio station. "So, listen to 77 am," he says. "Yogi, that's 77 says an Tl CIST OF REST: Syrecuss, Georgia Tech pull off upsets Syracuse avenged a 63-7 loss to top-ranked Nebraska a year ago, beating the Huskers, 17-9, in the Carrier Dome and breaking Nebraska's 23-garne regular season winning streak.

In Atlanta, reserve fullback Chuck tas-ley scored on a one-yard run with 33 seconds left as the Yellow Jackets Clemson, 28-21. 8-SH. announcer. "I know how to spell it," Yogi, says. sld Csn Rounds Billy, Sims And the games go on.

i fc.fc,.