European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday april 19, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary Holmes rolling dizzily towards a tall Larry Holmes is on a Roll. One of those dizzy downhill spirals. In no time at All he has gone from the Sublime to the ridiculous to the absurd. The Only thing missing now for the 36-year-old Holmes is the end and it could come to that for him on saturday night live. Somehow i have the feeling it will be the end even though the Odd makers Are making him the 8 to 5 favorite Over Michael Spinks for their 15-round heavy weight title fight. Spinks is undefeated in 28 fights going in and i believe his record still will be intact when he comes out. He beat Holmes on a decision last sept Ember and took the International boxing federation title from him. I Don t think the fight will go the distance this time. I look for Spinks to Stop him somewhere along the 12th round. This does t shape up As another lend lease arrangement like the one in 1978 in which Muhammad a took Back his title after loaning it to Spinks older brother Leon. Michael is 100 times More conscientious and at least 10 times smarter than Leon. Holmes in t going to win too Many prizes for his intelligence either. Ever since Leon Spinks emerged on the horizon Many had the idea he set the record for sheer stupidity and doing dumb things but Holmes certainly in t far behind. He used to talk about Ali taking too Many punches to the head. Now i m beginning to have some questions about him from some of his actions and the things he says. I remember sitting and talking to Holmes before he became the wac Champ by out pointing Ken Norton eight years ago. He made Good sense. He was respect Ful of fighters who had proven themselves like Joe Louis Rocky Marciano and Ali. He still conducted himself Well after winning the title but in the past few years his personality changed and i m not sure what the primary contributing Factor was the gradual erosion of his skills or the enormous increase in his affluence. Possibly it was some of both. Anyway he began sounding like a Carbon copy of Ali but Only a Pale copy. He talked about How he did t need boxing anymore and about All the Money he had made. Little things that never bothered him before were getting on his nerves now quite possibly telling him it was High time to quit. But he did t. He wanted to break Marciano s record of 49 consecutive victories. Approaching it he had the Lack of Grace to claim Marciano s record was t authentic. Holmes said Marciano had fought his kid brother Peter a couple of times and included those victories in his record. Somebody had misinformed Holmes about that. To compound his Gaffe he insulted Marciano s brother publicly and denigrated the late undefeated heavyweight Champ some More. Later he apologized but the damage was done. As much As he d like to forget he Ever said it Holmes probably will be remembered More for How he came Down on Marciano than he will be for beating a much past his prime Ali. As it turned out Holmes never broke Marciano s record. He did t even equal it because Spinks ended his unbeaten string at 48, and after that loss Holmes demonstrated to everyone what kind of loser he was by trying to make it sound As if he could be won easily had he trained harder. So Why did t he shows you How smart he is. Later on he discovered another reason Why he lost. It was All the fault of the press. Mind you he never thought to credit the press for any of those 48 victories of his because they had nothing to do with them but in his own mind he figured out they were to blame for his Only loss. So he stopped talking to the press at press Headquarters Here in Las vegas. As far As can be determined he s the first fighter Ever to do so. He must be gotten the idea from some ballplayers. He did agree to a to interview while he was train ing Here and in talking about his need to Knock out Spinks to win he said he could t afford to take any chances because the judges got drunk and were paid  How s that for real brilliance once again he said he was sorry. He d better watch out or he s going to Lead the league in apologies. Spinks showed up at wednesday s final pre fight news conference but Holmes did t and Don King who is promoting the fight apologized for him. He said the sex Champ wanted to keep his  maybe Holmes Felt Over matched. He says he in t afraid of Spinks but maybe he was t up to another confrontation with Dick Young whom i think is the Best and crappiest Newspaperman in the whole world. Holmes got his nose out of joint and had Young bodily thrown out of a workout tuesday after the 68 year old new York Post columnist told him off. That was another intelligent move on Holmes part. Dumb dumb dumb. Can you imagine Ali doing that never. He s too smart. Yup i like Michael Spinks to keep his title saturday night. But i la Tell you this if they gave me a Little better Odds i d take Dick Young. United press International one pitch makes the difference giants defeat padres 4-1 up photo Jeff Leonard. Double snaps 1-1 tie from press dispatches san Francisco pne pitch rather than one run made the difference for the san Diego padres in their 11th game of the season. If it was t for that one pitch to Jeff Leonard we might still be out there in a 1 1 game and we know a lot about those padres manager Steve Boros said after thursday s 4-1 loss to the san Francisco giants. The padres whose first 10 games were decided by one run held a 1-0 Lead in the third inning when Leonard hit a pitch from Andy Hawkins for a two out three run double. I was looking for something i could drive and i was pretty confident he d throw it in the strike zone said Leonard who swung at the first pitch. He raised his rib total to nine in nine games with the double. I gave him the Green Light. Hawkins had thrown eight straight balls and we knew the Guy would be trying to throw a strike giants manager Roger Craig said. No Roundup we thought he d be looking for a fast Ball and that s Why i threw the breaking pitch a Slider Hawkins said. Mike Krukow pitched a five hitter for the Victory As the giants ended the padres season opening Streak of one run games. San Diego and the los Angeles dodgers who were Idle thursday both had streaks of 10 one run games after playing each other wednesday night. The National league record for consecutive one run games is 11. The giants in winning at Home for the first time this year also snapped a four game san Diego winning Streak. San fran Cisco had lost three straight games. Krukow 2-0, retired 13 consecutive Bat ters after Graig Nettles singled Home Steve Garvey who had doubled with one out in the second. The right hander struck out five batters and walked one in the first Complete game thrown by a san Francisco Pitcher this season. Hawkins 0-2, retired the giants first two batters in the third. Then Dan Gladden singled Hawkins threw eight straight balls to walk will Clark and Chris Brown and the first pitch to Leonard was lined to left Center Field to Clear the bases. The giants also struck with two out in the fifth scoring on Clark s double to right and Brown s rib single. In the Only other no game St. Louis at new York was postponed cubs 7, expos 6 Montreal Shawon Dunston started the 13th inning with Chicago s third Home run off Montreal Relief Ace Jeff Reardon 1-1. Montreal Rookie Andres Galarraga had homered in the eighth to tie the game at 6, Dunston s Homer the third of the Day for the cubs came off reliever Jeff Reardon 1 1, and made a Winner of reliever Lee Smith 1-2. The cubs also got homers from Ryne Sandberg and Leon Durham. Andre Daw son and Hubie Brooks also homered for the expos. Al from Page 21 their runs off reliever Ernie Camacho in the ninth inning. Rangers 7, Brewers 5 Milwaukee Texas took the Lead when Pete o Brien scored on Ray sea rage s wild pitch with two out in the ninth inning of a game that featured 21 walks six wild pitches and four errors. Don Slaught had three hits including a Homer and drove in three runs. Steve Bue Chele also homered for the rangers. Tigers 10, White sox 6chicago a two run single by Mike Laga and Alan Trammell s run scoring double keyed de troit s five run eighth inning. Jack Morris 2-1, allowed seven hits in seven innings and struck out 10. The loss was the seventh for Chicago in a nine game season opening Home stand. Twins 4, Angels 1 Anaheim Calif. Left hander Frank Viola survived a Streak of wildness in the sixth inning to pitch a five hitter and Greg Gagne had three hits and drove in two runs for Minnesota. Viola 2-1, had a two hit shutout until he walked George Hendrick with the bases loaded in the sixth. That run batted in was the 1,000th of Hendrick s career. In going the route for the first time Viola struck out eight and walked three. The twins reached Kirk Mccaskill la for seven hits and three runs in the first three innings. Minnesota got 12 hits in All. Orioles 5-4, Blue jays 3-7 Toronto Cal Ripken s first Home run of the season a two run shot in the first inning and a Strong performance by starter Mike Flanagan and three relievers led Baltimore in the opener. The orioles wasted a Homer and three Bis by Eddie Murray in the Nightcap. Toronto won the second game on Cliff Johnson s rib hit in the eighth. Red sox 6, royals 2 Boston the Lith grand slam of Don Baylor s career with two out in the eighth inning broke a 2-2 tie. Baylor acquired from the new York Yankees in Spring training reached Kansas City reliever Steve Farr for his third Homer of the season. Roger Clemens pitched a five hitter for the red sox