European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday september 14, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 19 commentary Strawberry still a Plum of a hitter i like to watch. Oar Rvl Strawberry bal for the same reasons i like to watch Ocean sunsets Rock Mountain waterfalls a Vatican ceiling a sum Mer Shower. Gene Kelly on a staircase. Civic loud play ing a Butler. It s aesthetically pleasing somehow contenting. Fitting. A thing As it should be. He dominates the landscape. Like the Eiffel Tower Over Paris. You watch Strawberry As he Steps into the Box. He is Graceful fluid. It is impossible for Darryl Straw Berry to do anything clumsily. He never lunges at the Hall he no Var scams to be hitting off the wrong foot. He stands upright with perfect balance. He looks like a one Iron with a hat on. There s not an ounce of fat on him. When he turns sideways he disappears. He s As perfectly suited for a baseball uniform As a Leop Ard is for  does t Crouch Duck or Pivot. He is 6-foot-6. An imposing figure and he gives the Pitcher the full strike one. He holds the Bat up behind his left ear. Lightly waggled. When the pitch comes in he lifts his front foot and the Bat comes around in a full 360 degree arc. Only a few hitters can maintain Bat Speed with a swing circumference like that. He hits the most towering Home runs since Ralph Kiner. He hit the roof in olympic stadium in Mon Treal. If he had to eyewitnesses said the Ball might still be going up. He hit the Back Wall in the Astrodome in a Homer contest at the All Star game in 1987. He almost never hits a Home run that curls around the foul pole or just goes Over an outstretched Glove. Strawberry s homers orbit. He was chosen National league Rookie pm the year in i983 and last year was runner up to Kirk Gibson for league map. Gibson beat him out by 36 Points. 272-236. An informal poll of baseball men at the Winter meeting As to which non Pitcher most of them would pick to Start up a franchise showed most of them opting for Darryl  is. Without question the most dangerous .229 hitter in the game today maybe Ever. So. What is a picture hitter one of the most flaw less hitting machines doing batting Down with the Banjo hitlers the Guys who choke up on the Bat an make desperate swipes to slap the Ball somewhere no Pitcher alive wants to believe the .229. It is no measure of the menace Darryl Strawberry poses with a bal in his hands. He is like a terrorist. He May not strike often but when he does the devastation is awesome. Darryl led the National league in Home runs Las season with 39. And in runs batted in with ii. It was the second straight year he had hit 39 Home runs and driven in More than 100 runs. His Home runs Laid end to end would Cross Rhode Island. Some Guys would t even make it Over. Flushing Bay. He has not Only driven in 100 runs or More two years in a Row. He has scored 100 or More. That dangerous .229-Hittcr Darryl Strawberry meant that Darryl Strawberry was two sevenths of the new York m cts offence in i988. With responsibility for 202 of their 703  1927. In probably the greatest year any Hatter Cut had. Babe Ruth hit 60 Home runs batted ,356.scored 158 runs and drove in 164 Oul of the team s 175.at 6-6. Strawberry has a strike one the sic of  \ few inches More and he would he All strike one. So. You Pel a measure of the kind of pitches he s looking at when you note that he walked �7 limes in 1987 and 85 last  has had to make a career Oul of trying to hit Hall 3 or Hall 4. For a pitch to be a Ball to a i by 6-6. It has to be the Nam thing to a wild pitch Strawberry does t gel Many lollipops Al the place. It s the baseball  he says. It s a Don to get Cal by Darryl Strawberry attitude. Don t let  All people Beal you. Put him on if you have to but Don t give him nothing Rood to hit baseball is a Little like Golf. The picture swinger does not always win the tournament. But it s the Way i bet. The Guys with the loops the leaps the chops Al the Ball scramble to Victory All the Lime in both sports but purists agree that the classic swing is one that will not desert Ami in a  Strawberry to Date has 213 Home runs i his Puls him on a ladder with some of the All time great Home run hitlers. Henry Aaron for instance had 219 at the same age. 27. I m Koc using on 500 Home runs As a  admits. Hut it s All dependent on staving healthy. Right now. My key is to win a Pennant and to bring my average  is a Oliou abroad that Strawberry an my cite basketball player at Crenshaw High would rather lie d opted for the basketball scholarships offered him. Strawberry shakes his  always loved  he says. It was in first love and it s still. I love to play  ennoble a sport they Are like fighters who go b v gentleman Jim. They would never be called Rock. On a basketball court their nickname would he Slick,.in football.  awkward the pressing the Over aggressive sometimes gel the Job done. But the Darryl Straw Berrys do it the Way it should be done the Way every Man would like to be  do ii with the Aloo disdain and non Halam perfection of the artist. As a new York met fan said to the writer one Dav in a Vestibule outside the visitors dugout i love to watch Strawberry play. He looks like a three run Homer just standing tie re. I d rather watch him go of for Lour than watch some of those Guys hit for the  Way Strawberry plays it it s the difference Between prose and poetry a Square dance or  not even a .229 average can detract irom the fact Vou Are watching an artist born to Pla the performance the Way in should be played. Ferry bags 30 Shaw hits Winner in cup opener. I f /. Lit i Rii Zirri Tattini a it to ii in Inisi raft in lilt. Pc Rev Chivi d Hoiby Randy Harvey the los Anui Les times Livorno. Italy dressed in sweat pants and an ii mass Aggro to shirt As he Sal in the lobby of his team s hotel tues Day Danny ferry wondered if basketball on Italy s tyrrhenian coast would be much different than in is on the Atlantic coast. I be heard the crowds Here Are worse than they arc Al Duke he said. But nol As Clever he was told. I Don t know he said. I Don l understand the language  in last season s italian league championship game the fans in this port City about 10 Miles South of Pisa were so riot Ous when Neimont Livorno loss to Philips Milan on a controversial Call that the team has not been allowed to play us first three games this season Al Home. Home is the inappropriately named sports Palace a tired old gymnasium thai seals 4.000 on Concrete bleachers and looks like a world War ii air plane hangar. It is shared by the City s other team pall Canestro Livorno. That is the learn thai ii mass Aggro struggled to Beai 91 90. Tucs Dav night in the opening game of inc italian cup a round Robin tournament involving All 32 league learns that runs concurrently with the regular sea son. Palla Canestro which Means basketball in italian is the other team in Ever sense of the word. Owned by a Cooper alive of Small businessmen it finished so poorly in the standings last season that it has been relegated to the second Divi Sion. Pall Canestro is to Neimont As the clippers arc to the lakers in los an Geles. On the other end of the scale if nol yet the standings. Ii Messaggiero of Romeis perhaps the world s richest basketball team. Its new owner is Raul Gardini the director of Gruppo Ferruzzi. An agricultural concern which did $18 billion in business last year and was accused of attempting to Corner the . Markei in soybeans. Now Gardini is investing in . Basketball players. With Only two foreigners allowed per Leam he Well after two of the Best available. Ferry and Brian Shaw. Ferruzzi wants to be the Best Al what Ever they do basketball or soybeans ferry said ferry a 6-fool-ll Forward who was the clippers first round draft Choice this year from Duke signed a one year con miracl estimated at si.8 million. Shaw a 6-6 guard who started lust season for the celtics As a Rookie from the  California Santa Barbara signed a one year contract estimated at is million. After eight exhibition games. Gardini finally had a Chance tuesday night to discover whether his latest acquisitions would pay dividends in a game that counted. According to a local journalist silting Al Cour Side. The capacity crowd was treating the game As a metaphor for the class struggle. But to their credit the fans did nol necessarily want to participate other than vocally. Besides they were sep Arald from the court by a Plov Glass restraining Wall. There also was substantial Security. The crowd was Given Hope when Palla Canestro went up by 10 Points Early in the second half. But then ferry and Shaw did what icy Are paid to do. Scoring 22 of ii message Giro s last 30 Points. Shaw s three Point shot from 25 feet with 25 seconds remaining was the difference. After missing last week s exhibition wit a injured ankle. Ferry playe Bot Forward positions and Center. He had 30 Points nine rebounds and three  had 23 Points and eight rebounds. Ferry said that he was not surprised Palaca pcs pro raised inc level of ils game against ii Messaggiero. I saw the same thing and Brian saw the same thing last  he said. There s an Aura about Duke and an Aura about the Ccllins. These teams will have our pictures on the Wall All  ii message Giro s coach. Valeric. Bian Chini. Said Hal he believes that his Tea eventually will contend for the championship when All of the players get to know each other. Only two players re turned from last season s Leam. Which finished in the lower half of the stand Ings. Bianchini also is new to the team. It s like we say Rome was not made in one  he said. No Calendar the sports Calendar feature which nor Mally appears on this Page on thursday morning is unavailable this week due to computer malfunctions at the stars and stripes Darmstadt West Germany Headquarters