European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 26 the stars and stripes april reluctant subject a photo Jimmy Connors puts his hand Over the Lens and shoves a Chicago Sun times photographer sunday after announcing he would forfeit the final of the Volvo ten Connors was unable to play because of a torn extending playoffs cheapens series by Hal Bock a sports writer in the baseball was conceived quite simply and a summertime diversion played nine persons to a in the on real we had two and Over the peaks and valleys of a six month they produced two firs place and when the two winners played in the seven game world it was the Climax of the producing marvelous drama and then came Money and greed and now we have a glitzy spinoff of the neatly packaged and barely resembling the original most games Are played at night on artificial and if some television net work comes up with More Why Well just play More if doing that Means cheapening the world series in the Well that the Price of that is the real result of the decision last week to expand the league championship series from the Besto five games to the it was a Sim ple sellout to which pays Premium prices for primetime what the merchandisers of the sport chose to ignore is that they Are changing the basics of the tinkering with its the Besto seven games historically has been reserved for the world series for More than half a you dont just discard that for a few extra Mil lion baseballs Price for making the world series an afterthought was million big unless it buys a then it becomes a the two guaranteeing automatic playoffs and extra postseason to dates each were artificially created by expansion in the first it used to be that baseballs Only playoffs came when two teams were tied at the end of the sea now the los makes routine what once was the expanded playoffs Means that the commentary world series will begin 19 if it goes seven will end any postponements it has been known to rain or even Snow in late october could produce the first november Jim a thinking mans Relief Pitcher who toiled in the major leagues three decades once authored a journal detailing a summer in the bullpen and called it the Long Little did he plows blithely ahead with no concern for the Impact of its Deci it has been that Way for some so we should be accustomed to it by there was the conclusion reached a few years ago by some of the deep thinkers that the game lacked enough so they invented the designated never mind that they had destroyed a major part of the strategical Beauty of the sport the decision of or even to Pinch hit for the then they decided the game was too slow and that it was Dull and red the late once re plied to that criticism by saying baseball is Dull Only to Dull Smiths admonition management Felt obliged to Supply life sized cavorting out control fanatics and All manner of cartoon creatures and other gimmickry in the interest of mar they turned the Ballpark into a Side a strange Way to sell it is to baseballs credit that it Over comes the endless Fine tuning and retains its fascination for the majority of the pub this despite the owners apparent de termination to turn this Steak of a sport into a fast food you get the distinct impression that if these people were in the classical music marketing they think nothing of packaging an album la bleed ludwigs greatest Gretzky fakes 5th straight scoring title by the associated press Wayne Gretzky won his fifth consecutive National hockey league scoring and Mario Lemieux became Only the third Rookie to score 100 Points in the sea son which ended the Star Center of the Edmon ton had 73 goals and an nil re Cord 135 assists for 208 it was the third time in his six year nil career that he has gone Over 200 Points nobody else has done in if Gretzky had not scored a goal All he would have tied for the Points Crown on his assists he beat Lin mate Jari who had Kurtis 71 goals were a record for right the top draft Choice last didst help the Pittsburgh penguins move up in the standings but he did record 43 goals and 57 assists to join Peter Stastny and Dale Hawer Chuk As the Only firs year players to make the Century the leading scorer among defens Emen was Edmonton Paul Coffey with 37 goals and 121 other 100point scorers were Winnipeg Hawer Chuk with 53 and Paul Maclean los Angeles Marcel Dionne with and Bernie Nicholls Mike Bossy Brent Sutler and John Tonelli of the new York islanders John Ogrodnick of Detroit Quebec Stastny Chi Cagos Denis Savard Bernie Federko of Louis and Mike Gartner of Washington joining Hawer Chuk and Gartner in the 50 goal club were Michel Goulet of Quebec Tim Kerr of Philadelphia 54 and Bob Carpenter of Washington Bossy set a record with his eighth 50goal Campaign Hes scored at least 51 in All of his nil Kerr led with 21 Power play goals and Gretzky was tops with 13 shorthanded Kerri had 13 Gam winning goals and Gretzky was the plus minus Leader what a plus99 Philadelphia Pelle Lindbergh had the most victories among goaltenders with buffaloes Tom Barrasso goals against average was the leagues he also was tops in shutouts with Chicago Rookie Warren Skorodenski had the Best save stopping percent of All shots he the flyers had the most Points in the while Toronto was at the Bot Tom with Edmonton 401 goals led the and buffaloes Barrasso and Bob Sauve allowed the fewest clippers Smith voted Aba player of week new York a Derek Smith of the los Angeles who averaged 37 Points in two wins last was named monday As the National basketball associations player of the Sambito refuses handed release Houston a Joe one of the top Relief pitchers in Houston astros was Given his unconditional release monday after he declined to accept a move to the National league clubs class aaa affiliate at had been attempting a comeback from a series of Elbow but was told last Friday that he had failed to make the astros pitching astros general manager Al Rosen said monday that Sambito Hud elected to take his release rather than the demotion to the minor we Are saddened by the fact the course of events took us to this Rosen Joe has worked hard in his attempted comeback but we Are certain that after review ing the total situation carefully this past he made a decision which he Felt was in the Best interest of everyone we certainly wish him Well in any future Sambito was among the top Relief pitchers in the National league in 1982 when he started experiencing Elbow problems that led to he missed the entire 1983 he returned to the astros roster last season but was not used in a game Sambito finished his astros career with a 3332 earned run average and 72 Sambito Era is a club record for pitchers with More than 400 he was second on the team in Al time saves behind Fred cladding Sambito 353 appear ances ranked third on the clubs Al time Sambito was 10 with a Era and two saves in nine games this