European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday May 11,1987 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary Valentine legging it out As manager the Ball was Cate Hable. U came out of he lights Al a High arc and the left fielder thought he Hada Bead on it. He fell the warning rack crunch under Bis spikes but he kept going. He saw at the last min Ute thai he was going to have to climb the Chain link Fence to get to it but he did t even hesitate. He got to the Ball All right. He gut a Glove on it but in popped right out and flopped Over the Fence. Bobby Valentine thought Damn i gave up a Home run Valentine had Given up More than a Home run. He had just Given up a career. The reason he did Tcatch the Ball was because he was hanging upside Down at the time on what Wai left of a right leg. It had hit the Fence caught in the links and broken in so Many places that it looked More like a corks Crew than t pkg. The knee exploded the ton pointed the wrong Way add when Valentine wanted to know if he would Ever be Able to play again the doctors reaction was play what7" not anything you had to do standing up. Valentine at dial Lime was having the kind of Yea the experts knew he could have. He was batting .302 with 11 Rani scored and 13 batted in and had five double and two triples even though the season was Only a Lille Over three week old. Valentine had once been a member in Good stand ing of the dodgers celebrated Littfe Blue wrecking Crew & panel of cant miss Young players who terrorized minor league pitching in the ate 60s and Early 70s. There were Steve Carrey Bill Russell Ron Cey Davey Lopes Billy Buckner and Tom Paciorek and a lot of people thoth it Valentine was Thebes of them he had been a football and track Star in his native Connecticut us no less was after him with football scholarship. So were Noire Dame and prob ably the Green Bay packers. He Wai fast wrong and Heady in All sports but he opted for baseball even though he scored s3 touch Downs in Hia High school career won the slate 60 Yard dash sad could dribble a basketball through the German army. He lore up every minor league he was in. He led the Pioneer league in runt and stolen bases. In 1970 he led the Pacific coast league in everything Bat Ling at .340, Nuu with 122, hits with 211, doubles with 39, triples with 16, total bases with 324, even sacrifice flies with 10. The dodgers thought they had the next Pete Rose. No one quite knows what happened to Bobby with the dodgers. It is Clear he was not manager Waller Alston s Valentine. Bobby thought he was the team s shortstop of the future. Manager Alston thought Bill Russell was. That is How Valentine found himself playing left Field for the California Angels on May 17, 1973. Twas an unaccustomed position for him. He had not expected the Oakland Bailer Dick Green who was to hit Only three Home runs All year to gel he Ball thai far. When Valentine returned to baseball a Yea later his right leg looked like a bag of potatoes with a sock on it. His big edges Speed Ana balance were gone. The annals of baseball Are Replete with stones of Young athletes whose careers were Cut Short by tragic accidents. What makes Bobby s different is he Hast wed up As something no one thought his funny Valentine could become a successful big league manager. Bobby drifted Hap Lessly around the minor leagues for years after his Accident. He never became he multimillion Dollar Star he might have been. He be came the Saddest of baseball flotsam the perennial minor leaguer whose future it behind him. But he saw a Side of baseball the Bubble gum card types never see. Bobby saw baseball where in is played Only by those who know it and love it. Bus ride baseball two to a room baseball. Five dollars a Day meal Moncy baseball. Baseball where the lights Are Low and so is the pay. Dish night baseball. He the sign and win a fryc Suil baseball baseball Asit used to be will always be. This is How Casey Stengel Learned baseball. Would Valentine have becomes gifted manager if he had been a big Star would he have listened at the feet of the grizzled old types who run the game on a shoestring in places where the Shower leak the umpires guest and dreams die lingering deaths Valentine took a lacklustre pack of players in Arlington Texas last year and by dint of enthusiasm and Youthful fire moved them up by 25 games from last to second in the standings. Now he has the rang ers in last but Only five games out in the american league West. It is no secret that Valentine is the longtime pro Tege of lot Angeles dodger manager ton Lacordi when he called me up to Tell me he had been offered the Texas Job but some people advised him to reject it i told him to hang up the phone right then and there and accept ill when the frail is pc pick it u has been taken for granted in baseball that the Long Range plan for the dodgers is for Lasorda to move into the front office and for Valentine to Lake Over the team. That front office hit and run play will be Ai ticklish As a suicide squeeze. Valentine has a con tract in Texas through 1989. But would two clubs be fighting for Bis services if he had t gone after Dick Green s drive that Day Loag ago in Anaheim if he had said a hell that s outta Here and nonchalant a a Pursuit but in Valentine had done that he would t be where he is anyway. He d be a Crater in a restaurant somewhere probably new Haven. Bobby Means to collect from the game for that shattered leg yet. Leads giants Over pirates 9-4 Speier has second slam in 5 Days Topi of carts Speier. Third career grand slam by the associated pass san Francisco Chris Speier hit Bis second grand slam in a week and the third of his career and Rookie Mark a Singer had three doubles and a Homer to Power the san Francisco giants to a 9-4 Victory Over the Pittsburgh pirates on saturday. Speier had a grand slam against the St. Louis cardinals on tuesday and is the second National leaguer to have two this month. Eric Davis of the Cincinnati reds hit grand slams on May i and May 3. The record for grand slam homers in one month is two it is shared by several players. It was the fifth win in six games for the giants who took Over first place inthe National league West with their 21st win of the year the most in the major no Roundup leagues. The pirates were ahead 4-2 entering the sixth when Wisinger playing third base because of an injury to Chri Brown led off with his second double and scored on Chili Davis single. Bob walk 1-1, then replaced starter Bob Pat Terson. With one out. Candy Maldonado was hit by a pitch. Walk was then charged with a balk and was ejected in the ensuing argument and Logan Easley came on and walked Bob Brenly intentionally loading Ibe bases. Speier a 15-year Veteran whose first grand slam came in 1972, then hit one Over the screen in left. Wasinger who started three games for the padres last year made his first Start far the giants and homered in the first inning giants starter Mike Krukow allowed two runs in each of the first two inning Sas the pirates took a 4-1 Lead. Barry Bonds double . Reynolds run scor ing single and Jim Morrison s sacrifice Fly accounted for the first inning runs. Johnny Kay had a two run single in the s third double and a one out single by Jeffrey Leonard made it 8-4 in the sixth and Leonard had a Solo Homer in the eighth As the giants won for the17th time in their last 20 Home games. Winner Alec is make 1-0, re placed Krukow in the fifth and pitched see no on Page 26 mariners hand Milwaukee 5th straight loss by the associated press Milwaukee Jim Presley and Dave Valte drove in Siree runs each sat urday to Back the seven hit pitching of Mike Morgan at the Seattle mariners handed the Milwaukee Brewers their fifth straight loss 8-1, the mariners scored three times in the second off loser Juan Nieves 2-1, then added one run in the third two in the fifth and two in the seventh. Presley s fielders Choice grounder drove in the third inning run and he Iju Bluit in two inns in the ii Iii its mor Gan 3-3, beat the Brewer for the Sec and Lime in a week. Nieves who pitched a no hitter april 15, walked Presley and Alvon Davis to Al Roundup the second. He then gave up an i single to Valle. Bob Kearney sacrificed and Davis scored on Rey qui nones grounder. Harold Reynolds sin Gle scored Valle. Phil Bradley walked and John Chris Tensen singled off Nieves in the third and Presley s grounder off Chuck Crim seated the mariners fourth run. Pres Ley s two run double in the fifth made in Valle doubled in two runs off John Henry Johnson in the seventh. The Brewers 20-8 after a 13-0 Start scored in the fifth and sixth. , surhoff doubled in the first run and Greg Brack s grounder drove in Glenn Braggs who had tripled. In other games saturday twins 2, Yankees 0 new York Al Newman drove in two runs backing the combined three hit pitching of los Straker Juan Bej Roguer and Jeff Reardon As Minnesota handed new York its first Home loss after 10 victories. Newman drove in the Zame s first run with a suicide squeeze bunt in the third inning and tripled Home a run off Dennis Rasmussen 2-2, in the fifth. Straker 2-0, a Veteran of 10 minor league seasons making Only his third major league Start allowed singlet to Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson in Svi innings. Berenguer pitched i a witless innings before Willie Randolph opened the ninth with a double. Reardon then got he Las three outs for his eighth save despite 4 wait and a hit Batter. Minnesota s first run came after Stev Lombardozzi doubled to open the third. Moved to third on Tom Nielo s infield Cut and scored when Newman bunted up the first base line on he first Pilch. Mark Davidson opened the fifth with a double went to second on Lombardozzi s sacrifice and scored on Newman s to
