European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday april 7, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 23 take me ouf of the a game / like it i like songs like girl of my i like books by Charles Dickens. I like country roads and Moonlight homemade fudge and Ocean sunsets. I like Christmas carols and easter parades Jelly Beans and Black eyed peas. I like pumpkins on halloween Turkey on thanksgiving and Church on sundays. 1 like old photographs and paper planes potato salad on picnics and umbrellas on the Beach. 1 like trolley cars and old trains Cowboy movies and College musicals. I like fourth of july fireworks Campaign speeches and Cotton Candy Ferris wheels and merry go rounds. I like kids on Christmas morning boys fishing and puppies in the Yard. I like political conventions not primaries. I like Pic Tures you can understand hanging on the Wall land scapes not pipe fittings museums not junkyards the Mona Lisa not Graffiti. I like love stories and Happy endings Norman Rock Well and grand opera. 1 like Diamond rings and High heels men who smoke cigars and Wear hats. I Don t like lawsuits lockouts liars and loopholes. So i m glad baseball is opening again monday. You see i also like Home runs and double steals strikeouts and tight infield. I like hot dogs and Sev Jim Murray tenth inning stretches Pennant races and magic num Bers double headers and double plays. I like Fenway Park and office pools Casey Stengel stories and even pitching changes. I like the Home team the crucial series take me out to the Ball game Bugle Calls and Bobble head dolls bedsheets banners and squeeze bunts. 1 like three strikes yer out 1 like four balls yer on i like sacrifice flies and the hit and run nine innings a game and the game s never Over till the final out. I like Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan. Pete Rose going head first into third. 1 like Casey Stengel and Bill Veeck the sporting news and Walter o Mal Ley. Our crowd. I like seventh inning stretches Bat night the National Anthem Organ music Tycobb s spikes babe Ruth s Bat Cooperstown 3-and-2 counts even exploding scoreboards. I like Vin Scully Harry Caray Joe Garagiola and that shakespearean announcer in Yankee stadium. I like George Steinbrenner Peter o Mallcy and Peter. Ueberroth. I like every coach who Ever hit a fungo. 1 like fun goes. I like Stan the Man and Leo the lip the big train and of Diz. I like the Iron horse any lefty the babe and old Teddy ballgame the thumped. I like players like country Slaughter and Junior Gilliam Maury wills and bad Henry. The wonderful Willie double a and Jackie r. 1 like to read the boys of summer or things by Roger Angell or even play by plays. I like the minor leagues and the sports pages and Post game interviews. I like umpires. 1 like leather lunged fans because they care. I even like Boos because booing is a form of caring. I like to look Down on a Field of Green and White a summertime land of of a place to dream. I be never been unhappy in a Ballpark. I like to look Down and see the same geometry my Grandfather saw. I Hale change. I like one o cat in the sandlot bubblegum cards in the schoolyard batting practice and Trade rumours. I even like artificial grass. I like baseball. Because it s always 1910. 1 like 1910. It was a better time. 1 May grow up some Day. I Hope not. Los Angeles times contenders hurting As season looms by the associated press with opening Day around the Corner several potential Pennant contenders face the Prospect of playing part or All of a sea son without the starters on whom they counted so heavily. The new York Yankees had hoped to get at least a few More wins than last year when they finished 97-64 and two games behind Toronto in the american league East. Enter Pitcher Britt Burns from Chi Cago in a Trade. Two games five innings and a 10.80 earned run average into Spring exit Britt Burns with complications from Well documented degenerative hip problems dating Back to childhood. Hell miss the season. Los Angeles had hoped to become the first team since the 1977-78 dodgers to repeat As National league West champions. Pedro Guerrero whose .320 average 87 runs batted in and team High 33 homers led them last year was being counted on again. Five Days before the Start of the season exit Pedro Guerrero with a torn up knee resulting from a poorly executed slide into third base. Hell miss at least three months. Also on the ailing list Are Pitcher Charlie Lea of Montreal out for a second full season with a rotator cuff problem Pitcher Danny Cox of St. Louis sidelined a month or so with a chipped right ankle Houston outfielder Jose Cruz out for a couple of weeks with a dam aged right knee new York mets outfielder cookie Wilson out for at least a few weeks with an Eye injury. But with each Spring comes renewal. Houston shortstop Dickie Thon his career once seemingly ended by a Bea Ball is hitting with gusto. Philadelphia Pitcher Steve Carl ton troubled All of 1985 by a sore shoulder has pitched Well this Spring. Atlanta Relief Pitcher Bruce Sutler his first season with the braves a dismal one has recovered from shoulder surgery and is throwing Blanks again. The trades and signings that Are made and those that Aren t can boost a team into Contention or out of it. Imagine St. Louis last year without Cesar Cedeno. He batted .291 for the sea son but .434 with six Home runs and 19 Bis in 28 games during the cards pen baseball won t have red hot Start after All Cincinnati a a quirk in scheduling has one City official trying to make time stand still in order to keep the Cincinnati reds first in the opening Day baseball sweepstakes. Vice mayor and councilman j. Kenneth Blackwell made Tongue in Cheek recommendations Friday after he Learned that the Detroit s opener with Boston at Tiger stadium begins at 1 30 . Est monday. That s a full 35 minutes before the first pitch of the reds Philadelphia Phillies Gume at riverfront stadium in Cincinnati. Blackwell s recommendations included a City Council Resolution taking baseball com missioner Peter Ueberroth to task for allowing the tigers game to Start first. The Only thing he can do to make up for this is to schedule the next three world series in Cincinnati regardless of who is playing Blackwell said of Ueberroth. He also thinks that everyone attending the reds opener could turn their watches Back one hour at 2 ., to confuse historians about whether the Detroit or Cincinnati game started the earliest. A photo cookie Wilson Hopes to see a brighter Day for the new York mets. After Eye injury forced him out a few weeks nil from Page 21 Nant drive. They won the no East three games ahead of the mets. Imagine the mets with Darryl Strawberry All of last year. The outfielder had 29 Home runs and 79 Bis and missed seven weeks of the season. Imagine the Chicago cubs with a pitch ing staff last year. Rick Sutcliffe Scott Sanderson Dennis Eckersley Steve Trout the entire starting rotation was Side lined at one Point or another. The 1984 no East champs finished fourth in 1985. The Yankee pitching staff is among the More unsettled in the majors. They have not Only lost Burns for the season but also have waived 47-year-old Phil Niekro now with Cleveland. And that has made Phil s kid brother Joe 41, unhappy. Along with Joe a late season pickup last year the yanks starters at the moment include Ron Guidry Dennis Rasmussen and Rookie Bob Tewksbury. The club has t figured out who will be no. 5. It could be Bob Shirley John Montefusco maybe Tommy John. And then there Are those rumours about Tom Seaver. I still maintain that we have enough pitching Lou Piniella the yanks new manager , 29, underwent surgery Friday to repair a ruptured Patella Tendon below his left knee. The dodgers Are considering a Trade but for now they la platoon Franklin Stubbs and Reggie Williams in left Field. Each has done Well in the minor leagues but neither has been impressive in the big. List a major reason Why the whalers qualified for the Stanley cup playoffs this sea son stopped 20 shots As Hartford downed Toronto in route to the whalers first Post season action in six years. Canucks 5, Kings 3 Inglewood Calif. Left Wing Petri Skripko scored his 37th goal of the season in the second period for what proved to be the winning goal As Vancouver Defeated los Angeles. Islanders 7, devils 1 new York Richard Kromm scored two goals and Pat Lafontaine recorded a goal and two assists As new York islanders continued their Home ice domination of new Jersey. The islanders improved their record against the devils at the Nassau coliseum to 28-1-3
