Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 21

j. IltO lii.tllS SECTlOii Steve Yzerman is the lone Red Wing picked for All-Star Game. Page 3C. Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1991 Scores: Sports world, Page 2 NFL roundup, Page 5 Scoreboard, Page 5 1-976-1313, Sports: 222-6660 Hettott 4frcc $rc 0 0 eg M(D; is.

i I 5-' e- I V' 4 T.I -j i. i i I i 4 I yte 1. Detroit Free Press Detroit Free Press Joe McDonald, 61, is a general manager for the third time in his career, this time on an interim basis. Long hours, many demands bring on GMs resignation JAMES A. FINIEYAP Pete Rose was released Monday from the Marion (111.) Federal Prison after serving five months.

Rose leaves jail; halfway house next Free Press Wire Reports CINCINNATI Pete Rose returned to his hometown Monday and'checked in to a halfway house to complete his sentence for cheating on his taxes. Rose arrived at the Talbert House, where he will spend the next three months. Rose arrived 6'z hours after he was released from the federal prison camp in Marion, 111, where he had spent the last five months. Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, answered a question about how it felt to be back. "I feel great," he said, without taking more questions.

Rose, former Cincinnati Reds player and manager, must perform 1,000 hours of community service by assisting physical education teachers at five inner-city public schools. He then will be on probation for nine months. Rose, 49, was sentenced July 19 after pleading guilty to two counts of failure to report income from autographs, memorabilia and gambling. Rose was banned for life from baseball on Aug. 24, 1989, after he admitted betting through bookmakers.

Rose denied he bet on baseball, but then-commissioner Bart Giamatti said he believed Rose had bet on baseball. Rose is eligible to apply for reinstatement but has not said if he would. A special committee of the Hall of Fame is to meet Thursday to decide whether Rose's banishment will make him ineligible for election. His first year of eligibility will be next year. Michigan might pass onKickoff -1 mom Bill Lajoie's legacy as Tigers general manager must include: The first of '84 On March 24, 1984, Lajoie traded Glenn Wilson and John Wockenfuss to Philadelphia for an obscure relief pitcher, Willie Hernandez.

The Phillies traded Alejandro Sanchez to San Francisco for Dave Bergman; Bergman was then sent to Tigers. Hernandez saved 32 games In 33 chances, won the MVP award and led the Tigers to a wire-to-wire AL East championship and the World Series title. Signs cf the times In December 1983, barely two months on the Job, Lajoie signed the Tigers' first big-name free agent, San Francisco slugger DarreH Evans, who won the AL home run title in 1985. But catcher Lance Parrish (in 1987) and outfielder Kirk Gibson (1988) left through free agency. After the Tigers' last-place finish of 1989, Lajoie pursued a slew of free agents and eventually signed Tony Phillips and Lloyd Moseby.

Lajoie also signed a Toronto castoff playing in Japan, Cecil Fielder, who hit 51 homers. Alexander the Great Atlanta was holding a pitching Are sale in 1987 when Lajoie went to work. On Aug. 12, he acquired Doyle Alexander for minor league pitcher John Smoltz. Alexander went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA and the Tigers won the AL East on the season's final day.

He's a Tricky Dickie To further bolster the strech-run pitching In '87, Lajoie traded a player to be named to the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 21 for reliever Dickie Notes. The player turned out to be Noles. Notes' two saves in two weeks proved crucial, and cost the Tigers zilch. Detroit's traveling man And then there's the saga of Darnell Cotes.

On Dec, 12, 1985, Lajoie traded pitcher Rich Monteleone to Seattle for Coles, who, at 24, played like the third baseman for the next decade. But Coles hit .181 In 1987 and was traded to Pittsburgh with a player to be named (pitcher Morris Madden) for Jim Morrisoa Last June 18, Lajoie again acquired Coles from Seattle, for Tracy Jones. Coles hit .204 In 52 games; his status for '91 Is Iffy. Mors on Pages 1A and 2C. BYGENEGUIDI Free Press Sports Writer i Saying he "just had enough" of the long hours and incessant demands of the job, Bill Lajoie resigned Monday as Tigers general manager.

"I'm going to be selfish and say I don't want to work that hard anymore," Lajoie said. "It got to be that all I knew was going to the ballpark." The resignation takes effect immediately; Tigers minor-league director Joe McDonald will replace Lajoie. Sources said McDonald might remain the general manager through this season. Lajoie, 56, said he has been thinking about leaving the Tigers for the last couple of years. "When I was 35 years old, I said I wanted to work hard for 20 more years," Lajoie said.

He Said he probably would have left the Tigers a year ago if his late wife, Gloria, hadn't died in late 1989. "We had talked about it then I was going to go in, pick up my last check and that was going to be it," Lajoie said. "Now that I've finally done it, I'm happy. I think it will be good for me to get away. The hours are too long and the demands are tremendous.

It's just time for me to go in a different direction." Lajoie's salary was believed to be between $150,000 and $180,000 among the not the lowest, of major league general managers. But sources said his salary wasn't responsible for the decision, nor were well-known obstacles such as manager Sparky Anderson, who had veto power over trades, and chairman of the board Jim Campbell, who kept a close eye on finances. The biggest factor was the strain of the job. Lajoie said he would like to stay in baseball "in a less demanding position." He said he didn't think he could remain with the Tigers in a reduced capacity. "I know the organization so well that I would want to do everything," Lajoie said.

Lajoie said he would take some time off and then "contact a couple of other ballclubs. I'd like to do some major league scouting, some spring training and minor league scouting." There have been rumors in recent weeks that Lajoie was threatening to quit because he was feuding with new president Bo Schembechler. But Lajoie denied there was any friction between the two men. "In any office situation, you're going to get people expressing their feelings to each other," Lajoie said when asked about the rumors two weeks ago. See BILL LAJOIE, Page 2C Tigers general manager Bill Lajoie resigned Monday, saving he had enough of the long hours and demands of the job: "I don't want to work that hard anymore." McDonald steps into the breach It is history now: Bo Schembechler's first year as president of the Detroit Tigers.

This is the anniversary. On Jan. 8, 1990, he became the 12th president of the storied old ballclub. BY STEVE KORNACKI Free Press Sports Writer NASHVILLE The Kickoff Classic reportedly sees Michigan and Georgia Tech as its dream matchup. But athletic director Jack Weidenbach doubts the Wolverines will play in the game.

"I would be surprised if we accepted the Kickoff bid," Weidenbach said Monday. "There has been a lot of interest in Michigan because of how well we played in the Gator Bowl. It's good to have that, but I'm not so sure CHARLIE VINCENT So what did you expect, a quiet year? Like the man himself, the first year of the Schembechler Era was filled with controversy, bluster and the unexpected, capped Monday by the resignation of general manager Bill Lajoie. "And this," said Joe McDonald, immediately grasping the irony of the situation, "is supposed to be the off-season." McDonald, 61, is the Tigers' new general manager. Or acting general manager.

Or interim general manager. Even he is not quite sure which. the unsigned Tigers' contracts, the man who faces the job of making the Tigers a whole team, before spring training begins in about six weeks. "I don't know any details or how much Bo is going to handle and how much he will delegate to me," McDonald said, "because he has been so tied up with the other thing that we haven't really sat down and discussed it." The "other thing," of course, is the firing of broadcaster Ernie Harwell, which kept the Tigers in the headlines until Monday's announcement that Lajoie, 56, had resigned to pursue a more relaxed lifestyle. "I've known it a little while.

Probably a week, maybe a little more. I sensed it was going to happen," McDonald said of Lajoie's departure. All this is not new to McDonald. He was general manager of the New York Mets in 1975-79 and of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982-84.

But baseball fortunes being what they are, he was on the road scouting for the Philadelphia Phillies when the Tigers hired him in 1986. He was 57 years old and starting over again. And now he is a general manager for the third time, though the prospect is less exciting than it might have been once upon a time. "I really don't have any strong desire to be a general manager," he said. "It's not nearly as much fun as it was 30 years ago like during the Jim Campbell era in the See CHARLIE VINCENT, Page 2C it's in our best interests this U-M, which beat Ole Miss, 35-3, in the Gator, opens next season Sept.

7 at Boston College. The Kickoff Classic has an undetermined playing date in late August at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, J. "How long can we ask our student-athletes to commit to the season?" Weidenbach said. "We ought to tell these people yes or no, but I will talk to (football coach) Gary Moeller this weekend before making that call." Accepting a Kickoff bid would push the start of the Wolverines' practices up to late July, instead of the normal mid-August date. Tennessee and Colorado already have agreed play in the preseason Pigskin Classic in Anaheim, Calif.

"I'm not too hung up on titles," he said after Schembechler told him he would be doing what Lajoie used to do. "I'll just do whatever is best for the organization. I know that sounds like a cliche and sounds trite, but I mean it." He is, basically, the man holding the fountain pen and -X.