European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday. September 12, 1980 the stars and stripes Page 23 managers pay Send in fhe clowns if the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bai Ley circus want people to play the role of Clown i need Only look to major league baseball to find 26 candidates who at least look the part. That Iclet group Are the managers of the grand old game no matter what their baseball acumen might be managers insist on wearing the most Ridic Ulas costumes possible baseball uniforms. Even today s most successful manager. Ear Weaver of the Baltimore orioles wears the baggy baseball pants and shirt. He looks like a stuffed sausage Alt the More so when he comes waddling Over to an Umpire to argue Over some Point in the rules. Can you imagine such a site in any other professional sport after All Billy Cunningham of the Philadelphia 76ers does t Wear a tank top and basketball shorts. Tom Landry of the Dallas cowboys does t fuss trying to fit earphones Over a football helmet on the sidelines. Scotty Bowman does t Wear ice skates or a shirt bearing the Emblem of the Buffalo sabres. No Only managers among professional sport Field Bosses adopt a clownish appearance even if they Don t go so far As use painted faces or Orange hair. The Only reason Given for such Garish attire i tradition. Baseball is seeped in tradition. Old timers can remember obscure facts and nuances recalling players and games of yesteryear usually saying that those who played before arc Superior to those on the Field today. But tradition implies continuity not com Parison. Reggie Jackson wears the same pin stripes As did . So too does Weaver dress inthe same Mode As Casey Stengel. There was once a manager with a Little common sense when it came to managerial attire Connie Mack. Who s who in professional baseball describes Mack As an unforgettable that he was. He not Only had the sense to Wear something other than a baseball uniform when he managed he held on to his Job As Field skipper of one team longer than any other manager in the majors 50 years. You did t have in know of Mack s five world championships and nine Al pennants to pick him out Back then. All you had to do was look at him. Wearing civilian clothes Mack orchestrated the Earl Waitr. Scotty Bowman does t Wear ice skates then Philadelphia a s from the dugout in much the same Way As Weaver docs the orioles of players in and out rebuilding Ball a fobs As players departed. Mack stayed with the trends of the game no matter what the current. So has Weaver. The Pudgy Man who guides Theo s on the Field took Over in 1968. Up to this year the orioles under Weaver have won one world so Ries been in three others and won the american league East division six times. Like Mack Weaver has survived the comings an goings of a number of Star players. Gone Are Bobby Grich Reggie Jackson Wayne Garland and Ross Grimsley. It those that have come along to replace them like Rich Dauer Eddie Murray Mike Flana Gan and Scott Mcgregor Don t get the rave notices of superstars Weaver still gets the most of the lot to keep the orioles among baseball s elite. Weaver s 12-year slim at the Oriole Helm is All themore amazing compared to that of the other 25 Guys in the Clown outfits. None of them Are close to Weaver in terms of staying Power. The astros Bil Virdon is next in tenure five years. Going into the 1980 season the red sox Don Zimmer has Bee around four years. Chuck Tanner of the pirates and the expos Dick Williams have stayed three years in their present jobs the rest less than that. But Weaver has a Long Way to go before Matching Mack s Lime in service. Ana Weaver does t have one advantage Mack had. Weaver does t own his own team like Mack did and it in t Likely Weaver Ever will. At his present salary i would take Weaver More than so years to Garner the cosh needed to buy a major league owner Edward Bennett Williams gave Weaver a new two year contract Extension Las month. Hopefully the Premier baseball Field Emper or will take some of the contract s Money and buy himself some suitable new clothes for the Job he does so Well. Then he can Send his uniforms where the belong to Cooperstown where like Mack Earl Weaver May one Day be enshrined. To san Ryl Smyl the birth of a notion Al looks Back on is baptism we Felt like pioneers on a new Larry Canon sex Boston Patriot halfback. By Peter May Boston up it was a Balmy september evening with temperatures in the High 70s, the sort of night that remind everyone summer has t completely slipped were two months away but the campaigns were in High f. Kennedy tried to convince Vot ers in Modesto calif., there was no reason Why his roman catholicism should bar him from the nation s highest elected of fice. Richard Nixon s running mate Henry Cabot Lodge said the United states should adopt stonewalling tactics to win the cold Donna slammed Miami with winds of More than 110 new York Yankees behind Rookie Pitcher Bill Stafford moved to within one half game of the american league Lead ing Baltimore orioles. The soviet Union was leading the medal race in the Rome the real sports news 20 years ago was being made on a refurbished Field just off Busy Commonwealth Avenue in bos ton. The american football legue opened its first season on sept. 9, i960, with the Boston patriots playing the Den ver football Vunion of the birth of a nation had begun. The Broncos won the game 13-10. The score really did t mat had a feeling we started something patriots owner Billy Sullivan reminisced recently. But not Sullivan nor any of the participants could possibly have envisioned the Success Story launched that night. Pro football had been absent in boston11 years and the new York giants held the allegiance of most new England bought the eighth and final Al franchise in 1959 even though the Tea had no place to play. The Friday night game began in front of21,597 fans who fully expected the new Hometown heroes to prevail. Only four weeks earlier the patriots had 43-6 in an exhibition game in front of 4,706 at a High school stadium in provi Dence . Denver coach Frank Filchock had Only two assistants and much of the Bronco offence consisted of drawing diagrams on Sandy parts the sideline or on a flexible piece of did t really have much coaching on plays and things said Frank Tripucka the Denver quarterback. I d make up stuff in the huddle and draw plays in the dirt before i d Call add to the general tone the Broncos took the Field in chocolate and Orange uni forms with vertically striped thing i do remember were those socks. They were something said Larry Arron a Patriot halfback. The patriots had won four of five exhibition games and the Broncos had lost allow their five. Boston was a 16-Poinl favor Ite and in a moment of raw swagger the patriots elected to kick off after winning the Coin fell like pioneers on a new venture we just wanted to give it our Best shot said Garron who was introduced to the clothesline by Denver linebacker Wahoo Mcdaniel. Now i look at it All and see i came along too Early. It was wild and in Cappelletti who had been working As a bartender in Minneapolis and staying in shape in a Saloon touch football league when the Al was formed rapped the first Boston drive with a Field goal to give the patriots a 3-0 Lead. On the first play of the second Quarter Al Carmichael took a swing pass fro Tripucka and raced 59 Yards for a Denver touchdown. Gene Mingo then returned aunt 76 Yards for a touchdown in the third Quarter but was so exhausted he missed the extra Point. The patriots closed to 13-10 later in the period on a 10-Yard scoring toss from Butch Songin to Jim Colclough who ear Lier had been knocked woozy on a Pun return. Boston had one Sterling Opportunity to win the game but Songin was intercepted in the Denver end zone. The Bron cos ran out the clock to win the game. Each participant May have his own memories of that night but nearly every one remembers it for one reason Start ing a new life in a new league. Patriot coach Lou Saban had three assistants including present Denver head coach red Miller and current Bronco defensive coordinator Joel Collier. Both were from Western Back on two decades Cappel let i feels a Small sense of accomplishment in his role of starting the new s some satisfaction among All of us who went through the Rigours and Adver sity of the teams and some of the things that happened that Only the pioneers have to put up with he said. Now All you seems Nice stadiums that have All the Ameni ties. Ever time i walk through Schaefer stadium s locker room i have a Little Flashback of cold dirty Concrete floors cold water showers and sheets banging to show Giao a Anesetti. Flashback of cold showers red Miller. Job was a big Gamble
