C.C. Reader
N.L. WEST
By Darrell Reider
Normally this division has been a
battle between Los Angeles and Cincin
nati. Last year, though, the Houston
Astros, with awesome pitching and
timely hitting, captured their first-ever
division title. Joe Niekro notched 20
wins and youbg Dave Smith registered a
1.92 E.R.A. as the Astros tasted the
sweetness of being number one in the
West. I believe they will be tough again
this year, especially if J.R. Richard can
recover from his unfortunate stroke, and
if newly acquired pitchers Don Sutton
and Bob Knepper can achieve double
digit victories. The only real weakness I
see for this team is behind the plate;
thus, with the crop of fine pitchers that
Houston has, a trade for a catcher is
possible by mid-season.
THE Los Angeles Dodgers, who have
no new faces this season, will pose a
threat once again in the West, thanks
largely to balanced hitting and solid
defense. Steve Garvey (the only Nation
al League hitter to reach the 200-hit
plateau in 1980), Reggie Smith, Ron Cey,
Dusty Baker, and rookie sensation Rudy
Law head the list of power and offense
for the Dodgers.
The team to watch in the West is the
Atlanta Braves. Owner Ted Turner isn't
afraid to spend money for some players
-many of whom might not even be worth
it--such as free agents Claudell Wash
ington and Gaylord Perry. As a team,
the Braves slammed 144 homers in 1980,
with Bob Horner, Dale Murphy, and
Chris Chambliss accounting for 86 of
them. Atlanta has improved its pitching
with the additions of Bob Walk, John
"The Count" Montefusco, and Perry to
the pitching staff. Beware of the Braves
in 'Bl.
The rest of the division, as I see the
order' of finish: the Cincinnati Reds, the
San Diego Padres, minus Dave Winfield,
and the Sad Francisco Giants.
N.L. EAST
By Darrell Reider
If anyone trusts the Las Vegas odds
on the upcoming season, this year's
charts show the Montreal Expos as 8-5
favorites to win the division, with the
Phillies right behind them at 9-5. There
have been some rumblings in the Expos'
camp this spring, with the signing of
Gary Carter, one of the forest all-around
catchers in all of baseball, and Larry
Parrish to multi-year deals for mega
bucks. Andre Dawson and Ellis Valen
tine are unhappy and could end up on
new clubs by the June 15 trading
deadline. The big blow to Montreal this
off-season was the loss of outfielder Ron
LeFlore to the free agent draft. He
provided a spark to the offense that
generated team speed, as was evidenced
by his league-leading 97 stolen bases.
The Expos will miss him. ,
As for the Philadelphia Nunes, I
really can't see how they can be stopped,
barring injuries to key players. The
Phils have solid pitching, with 1980 Cy
Young Award winner Steve Carlton,
Dick Ruthven, Larry Christenson, and
Nino Espinosa. Both Ruthven and Es
pinosa are recovering quite well from
injuries. The hitting is lead by powerful
Mike Schmidt and singles hitters Bake
Mcßride and Pete Rose. Charlie Hustle
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will surely top Stan Musial's record of
most career hits in the National League
sometime this season. The acquisition of
Gary Matthews could give the Phillies a
boost. But remember, the long-gone
Greg Luzinski really helped the club
against the stubborn Astros in the
playoffs last year. Right now, Philadel
phia has about eight outfielders, which
leaves speed demon Lonnie Smith on the
bench. With utility players of this
caliber, the Phillies will definitely be
hard to beat in 1981.
The next spot in the standings should
be a battle to the wire between the
Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. St.
Louis General Manager Whitey Herzog
did some major dealing at the winter
meetings in Dallas, where he added
Bruce Sutter, Larry Sorenson, Sixto
Lezcano, Gene Tenace, and Bob Shirley
to the Redbirds' roster. But those
departed include Ted Simmons, Ken
Reitz, Leon Durham, Terry Kennedy,
and the one-day Cardinal Rollie Fingers.
Herzog, though he helped his pitching
staff tremendously, nevertheless could
have adversely affected his hitting at
tack. He is a clever man, though, and
knows the game of baseball as well as
anyone. Remember, he called a press
conference as General Manager to name
himself new manager of the team.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were fairly
quiet during the winter, with the excep
tion of the trade that sent Bert Blyleven
and Manny Sanguillen to Cleveland for
pitchers Victor Cruz, Bob Owchinko, and
Rafael Vasquez, and catcher Gary Alex
ander. Many members of the press have
counted the Pirates out already, even
before they open their campaign against
Montreal next week. Star rightfielder
Dave Parker has said that this will be
the Pirates' year, and ageless Willie
Stargell still heads the Pirate Family. I
am sure the Bucs will threaten the
leaders in 1981.
The New York Meta, listed as 20-1 1
longshots to capture the division title,
have many new faces to start the 1981
season. Free agents Mike Cubbage,
Dave Roberts, and Rusty Staub, and
acquisitions Bob Bailor, Randy Jones,
and Dave „ King Kong” Kingman will all
be wearing the orange-and-blue of the
Mets this year. The New Yorkers are
certainly no pushovers. For proof, just
ask Pittsburgh, who dropped 11 games
to them in 1980. The Mets must concen
trate on playing as a team, not as
individuals looking for personal glory
and prestige.
The Chicago Cubs will sorely miss
ace reliever Bruce Sutter, the master of
the split-finger fast ball, coming out of
the bullpen. Offensively, they are led by
the National League's leading hitter of
1980, Bill Buckner, but one man can't
carry an entire team. The Cubbies really
need some help if they expect to bring a
division title to the Windy City in 1981.
We are sure many. readers will
disagree with these predictions. If you
do have some picks of your own, just,
drop them off in the C.C. Reader office
and we'll be sure to include them in our
next issue.
Next issue: Capitol baseball, NHL and
NBA reports, and intramural updates.
Special thanks go to Kevin lannucci
for his help with this report.
Thursday, April 2, 1981
By Kevin Spiegel
While all of us were at home enjoying
ourselves on "break," the Capitol Cam
pus baseball team was traveling down to
Maryland, to play four games in three
days. Folks, this is 1981, not 1980, and
guess whose team won three out of four?
Yes--ours did!
Coach Melchiorre and company sur
prised everyone by starting their 1981
season on the right foot. In game one
versus Coppin State, Capitol received a
command pitching performance from
Tim Christine. The hard-throwing right
hander fanned 12, walked four, and
yielded three runs. En route to the
team's impressive first win, John Buzzy
and Gerald Stahl led the hitting attack,
both collecting two hits and scoring two
runs.
Games two and three were played as
a doubleheader, which PSU split. 'in the
first game, PSU lost 8-4 to St. Mary's
College, but the big story in that game
was the superb relief performance by
Kevin Keffer. He came on in relief of
Mike Smith, and shut down St. Mary's
attack, hurling five innings of no-hit ball.
(An impressive performance by the tall
righthander!)
Game number two of the double
header proved to be yet another out-
RECREATION FACILITIES
SPRING TERM HOURS
Monday through Friday--8:00 a.m. to
10:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday--2:00 p.m. to 9:00
p.m.
( CLASSIFIEDS
Rox—l don't know what this campus will
be without you. What's the deal with
HLB? I would still like your leg, remem
ber!--HLB-II
Mr. & Mrs. Carlton A. Klinger—Congra
tulations and happiness always!
Baby Boots-You be very careful if you
get the Mini Couper--you are irreplace
able to me. Love, Lad Boots
Bob, Ruth, Ray, Kim-Thanks for being
around on Friday the 13th. It's nice to
have friends like you!--Joe
A-1 State College—l'm the other Kevin.
Missed you at the Ranger-Flyer game.
Sorry to hear about your N.Y. friend.
We miss him, too! It's the Mets??in
'Bl--W328
SMS—Here's lookin' at you--Starßider
Joanie—Hope you remember April 11
forever; I will. Too bad no REO, but DC
was fun (sorts)--Me
W2os—Welcome to the booming metro
polis of Capitol Campus. Nice to be
reunited a: am. It's home for now.--W328
Ruth-Thanks for helping me through a J.R.-You are a Honey!--Peggy Sue
bad time again. Friday the 13th sure
Becky-Your performance was excellent,
isn't my lucky day, but I'm lucky to have
countess. I'm proud to be your friend.
found ou for a friend--J.W.
Looking forward to your Ist year at Cal?
Rosanne-`Only the strong survive.'
--The One & Only Vampire
Think about it.--The Vampire
WSDC—WE DID IT! Thanks for working
J&M—Boy am I looking forward to in the phonathon--Your Prez
partying! Sorry about last time--really. Princess—ls incest best, or am I? You
Who knows, maybe you'll learn some- know what I mean. Still want to be
thing better about me this time?--Puppy Queen B?--Your 'SB'
A SUCCESSFUL ROAD TRIP
standing pitching performance. Tom
Stoudt, a lefthander, surrendered three
runs and three hits (two in the last
inning), as the Lions were en route to
their second win in as many days. Stoudt
helped his own cause by pounding out
two hits himself. The Lions needed a
four-run outburst in the second inning to
help capture the victory for Stoudt.
You might be saying, "Wow--two
lucky wins!" But wait, we are not
finished yet.
Game four was not only pitching, but
also a barrage of hits; 12 of them in fact.
Tom Stoudt collected four hits, and John
Clark added a 2-for-2 game. Kevin Keffer
started, but ran into trouble late in the
game. Coach Melchiorre put in Frank
Notturno, who pitched well enough to
earn PSU its third win. Tim Christine
saved the day and game for Notturno by
shutting down a strong Coppin State
hitting attack.
In the four games played in Mary
land, the Lions' hitting was led by Tom
Stoudt (8-15, . 533), Gerald Stahl (4-9,
.444), and Tim Christine (4-13, . 307).
Coach Melchiorre said that all the
non-starters, especially, helped the
team's efforts. This year's team has won
more games in three days than last
year's team won in the entire campaign.
So look out opponents, the Lions
have been released from their cages.
Are you interested in participating in
an intercollegiate tennis program, co-ed,
during the Spring Term? If so, there will
be a meeting on Friday, April 3, at 3:30
p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Building
Gymnasium. If you are interested in this
program, but are unable to attend the
meeting, please call 948-6266 for further
information.
M.M.S.—Hello Again, How's life been?
Well Spring Term is gonna be easy--only
two classes. I enjoyed the break with
you--doing all those things and wishing it
was warmer weatherl There's only 9
more weeks of school left til summer fun
in 'Bl. . . when it gets here I hope we can
share it together! It'll work if you want it
to. C-U-Soon.--Cruisin
Ro-The beautiful picnic weather showed
that two Prez's are better than one.
Couldn't have done it without you.
-Joe Baby
--Joan & Joe
Snugglebuimy—You're the best thing
that has ever happened to me. 5-21-83
seems like an eternity away, hope the
time goes by quickly. Can't wait to have
those little B's buzzing around!
Caroline—Do you love as good as you
look?
MOUNTAIN WOMAN--Sorry about
Aliquippa. It'll be good to be looking
from the other side of the bars in June.
Have a good term--HLB
Son—Sure miss you bumming Tylenol.
REO was great! Hope to see you soon.
Your Mom
Almond Joy--I missed you over break
It's nice to be back with you.--Mounds
TENNIS,ANYONE?
--Your Princess
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