Philadelphia will pull up short again And now, back for a second straight command performance, let’s welcome the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. That’s right, for the second straight year the same teams will compete for their respective right to play in the World Series. But this year, look for some changes in the finalists for the title. I believe this is the year the Royals will end their role as bridesmaids and dethrone the Yankees in the American League. The Yankee pitching probably will not hold up, and the Royals can better the East winners in every other category with the exception of power hitting. But the National League series is the one to watch. The Dodgers and Phillies are back with basically the same teams that paired off last year. This playoff will be tough as always, but look for the Dodgers to go to the World Series for the second year in a row. Here’s why. On paper the Dodgers could be the best team in baseball. Player for player, they have it over the Phillies and should show themselves the superior tearti in a four game series. The Dodgers main strength lies in their good pitching and powerful lineup ladened with right-handed hitters. Steve Garvey (.316 avg., 210 hits and 111 RBl’s) leads the attack while Ron Cey, Reggie Smith (29 HR’s), Dusty Baker and Dave Lopes (44 stolen bases) offer more than enough support for him. Garvey and Smith may be the best one-two punch in any one lineup and should wreck hgvpc pn the Phillies’ staff;;. Pitching'ihbweyet, .is,, the the Dodgers as it has always been in the years past. It’s not Koufax and Drysdale anymore, but Burt Hooton (19-10 2.70 ERA) and Doug Raii (15-9 3.26 ERA) that lead a solid pitching staff. Along with Hooton and Rau, Tommy John and Don Sutton round out a very impressive array of starters that rivals any team in fhe league. In the bullpen, Terry Forster, Charlie Hough and rookie Bob Welch can get the big outs in tough situations. Forster is especially tough on left-hand hitters because of his sidearm curve and blazing fastball clocked at better than 95 mph. Hough is just the opposite of Forster. His knuckleball is one of the top knucklers in the league and is extremely effective on the free swingers such as the Phillies have. The Phillies are far from being out classed by the Dodgers. They too can send up an impressive lineup of hitters and are better in the field than the Dodgers. That can be extremely im portant in a short series. The Phillies can easily counter the Garvey-Smith duo with a power pair of their own Greg “The Bull” Luzinski and Mike Schmidt. Luzinski (35 HR’s 101 RBl’s) is extremely dangerous in a clutch situation as he proved in the four game division clinching series against the Pirates when he hit a towering homer to give the Phillies back the lead in the third game of that set. Schmidt, although he had an off year by his past stats, is still a dangerous hitter in any spot and can kill a team with a clutch single or double as well as long homers. But two men can’t lead a team to three straight division titles themselves, they have had a lot of help. Help in the person of Garry Maddox, Richie Hebner, Most Valuable Player award nominee Larry Bowa and Bob Boone. Maddox, Boone and Bowa are probably first or second at their positions in the National League and are all perrenial Gold Glove winners. But pitching is the Phils’ weak link. After a team gets past Dick Ruthven and Steve Carlton, the starters go mighty slim. I wouldn’t bet my money on Randy Lerch or Jim Kaat to win a game for me if I really needed it. The bullpen for the Phils is solid though and it will have to be for this series. Warren Brusstar, Ron Reed and Tug McGraw can still slam the door on the opposition when necessary, although McGraw did have an off year. So look for the Dodgers to win it in four over the Phillies in a tough series. Bonds traded ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) Slugging outfielder Bobby Bonds and relief pit cher Len Barker were traded by the Texas Rangers Tuesday to the Cleveland Indians for relief pitcher Jim Kern and utility infielder Larvell Blanks. Bonds batted .267 and led the Rangers with 31 home runs this season. He stole 43 bases, runner-up to second baseman Bump Wills’ club record 52. Jerry Micco Coaches split on Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series by Daily Collegian Sports Writer Eric Yoder on the dispute over instituting playoffs for determining a champion of Division I-A, the big-time of college football. Picture it. Penn State playing Oklahoma for the championship of college football. Seventy thousand people in a stadium,like the Astrodome and another 70 million watching at home. At the game’s end, a National Collegiate Athletic Association official brings the winning coach to the center of the field and says, “It is my honor to present you with this trophy, symbolic of your team’s official status as champion of college football.” Joe Paterno can picture it. Many other coaches can. Millions of fans can. But an official college football title exists only in their minds. It is a hope, a dream, a Saturday af ternoon fantasy. And, perhaps, it’s a vision of the future, College football attracts 32 million spectators yearly, more than the NFL, NHL and NBA com bined. It is an obsession for some, a source of pride for many more. Yet it is the only major sport in America which doesn’t determine its champion through a playoff. More specificially, it is the only one of the score of varsity college sports which-distributes mythical championships. Still more to the point, Division I-A, the most powerful and popular of college football’s four divisions, is the only one not holding playoffs as of the 1978 season. The most cherished prize in college athletics, for which 139 of the nation’s largest schools compete each fall, is an elusive vapor created by polls, sometimes captured because of merit, sometimes by luck. It may change. Support for a Divison I-A championship is widespread at the grass-roots level; the NCAA and the network which broadcasts its games, ABC, receive hundreds of fan ideas yearly The networks are all for it, ready to bid a sheikh’s ransom for the right to televise any playoff the NCAA might devise. “It would be a television natural, a real bonanza,” said ABC’s NCAA Media Director, Donn Bernstein. “We don’t give out bowl figures, but I will tell you bowl bidding is a goddamn manidtic ratrace. NBC paid about $3 million for the Rose Bowl last year . . . it’s almost impossible to speculate what a national championship would go for.” That kind of money could be put to good use by the colleges involved, perhaps even spread around to member schools, although any sum divided 139 ways dissipates quickly. A reasonable even conservative sum for a playoff package is $lO million, the kind of figure whichmakes athletic departments drool in anticipation. And the coaches, while not clearly in favor of a playoff, are at least not unified against one. A fecent poll of the Division I-A coaches by the Manchester, N.H. Union Leader showed 70 in favor, Collegian sports the daily Yankees go one up KANSAS CITY (AP) Reggie Jackson capped a perfect night with a huge three-run homer in the eighth inning Tuesday night, carrying the New York Yankees to a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the opening game of the 1978 American League Championship Series. Jackson, who rewrote the record books with three home runs in the last game of last year’s World Series, unloaded against Kansas City relief ace A 1 Hrabosky, sealing a Yankee Victory that was constructed around the air-tight pitching of a pair of young right-handers Jim Beattie and Ken Clay. Beattie and Clay, both second-line hurlers, delivered a two-hitter to help New York to a 1-0 lead in the best-of five pennant playoff. But the Royals were still in the game until the eighth inning when Mickey Rivers and Lou Piniella singled against reliever Steve •4?/ - Photo by Mark Mc'ntyre Karen Schnellenbach scored one of the five goals as the Lady Lions blanked Bucknell, 5-0 yesterday at Lady Lion field. Mingori. At that point, Kansas City Manager Whitey Herzog went to his bullpen for his No. 1 reliever, Hrabosky. The man they call “The Mad Hungarian” went into his psyche act, stepping about 10 feet off the mound with his back to Jackson, before pitching. On the second pitch, after a mighty swing and miss at the first one, Jackson destroyed the psyche act and the tight game with a towering home run that sailed well over the right center field fence in front of the waterfalls that decorate Royals Stadium. It was Jackson’s third hit of the game. Earlier, he had singled and doubled and also walked twice, pacing a 16-hit New York attack that wore out the Royals. Forced to start Beattie, their No. 4 pitcher, because they had to use ace V./ % iwM r " ~ui-p: , ']l 68 opposed with one abstaining. Coaches from the 13 conferences voted 51-49 against, while the major independents, led by teams such as Pitt, Notre Dame and Penn State, came out 21-17 for. However, coaches do not necessarily speak for their schools’ administration although they do for the three above-mentioned universities and rarely cast votes at NCAA meetings, where any plan would have to be accepted. And the opposition is more powerful than it would seem. The major conference teams and the bowls with which they are affiliated generally are opposed for fear of damaging the bowls. "College football is not pro fessional and / think we ought not to emulate it. They're 28 businessmen out to make a profit. We're in education." Orange Bow! President Robert White. As for the players themselves, it’s difficult to say whether opinion is strong one way or the other, because no one ever has polled them. Most anti playoff people use as their first and most persuasive argument that a playoff would harm the players’ academic performance by extending the season. “We seem to be asking more and more of a student-athlete,” Big 8 Commissioner Charles Neinas said. “The players get too tired. The seniors sometimes aren’t all that anxious even to go to bowl games in the first place. The season starts in August and doesn’t end until January not counting spring practice and extending it would cut into class time.” That reasoning, according to Arkansas coach Lou Holtz, is “asinine, completely ridiculous. There’s not a school in the country that has classes the entire first week of January. You’re talking about two teams who will miss maybe the first day or so after Christmas vacation. Just compare how many classes non-revenue teams miss compared to football. Our baseball team must play 60 games. They’re gone all spring. Same with golf, basketball, tennis. It’s unbelieveable.” At Penn State, for example, football players miss a minimal amount of class time because of playing only four or five away games and flying to them at the last minute and returning immediately. The University has a rule limiting teams to 50 hours of class missed per term because of traveling. The football team doesn’t come near breaking it, but the baseball team, in contrast, regularly exceeded the limit because of the number of games it must play until this season, when the athletic department divided the schedule into fall and spring halves. Not everyone among the opposition speaks in terms of lofty academic principles. According to By then, New York had ganged up on Leonard, knocking him out with a barrage of hits that built a 4-0 lead. Threes are lucky for fle/dwomen By LESLIE 8088 Daily Collegian Sports Writer The women’s field hockey team should be firm believers in the idea that good things come in threes. In their third game of the season, the Lady Lions recorded their third win, their third shutout and Charlene Morett scored three goals. The outcome of all these threes was an easy 5-0 victory over Bucknell. 'V' ' 1 i “They (Bucknell) played some nice hockey,” coach Jill Rattray said. “You can already tell that their new coach is doing a good job, but they’re not really on our level. I was concerned that we would be looking past them to Delaware (Thursday) but we didn’t.” The Lady Lions absolutely dominated the game from start to finish. They were constantly on the attack and put a lot of Booters, Rams: A defensive match If past records mean anything, while beating, Providence, 3-0 tonight’s soccer match at Jeffrey. Field "/’posting:, l-l- ;ties with Brown between Penn State and Rhode >wv-'—-' " 7shouldbeadefensivegem ' Rhode Is i a nd won the Yankee Con- State, coming off a 2-0 loss to San ference with a 10 . 4 -i record Francisco Monday night will face a before . bowir J in the New England stingy Ram defense that has allowed ncaA final only four goals this season in posting a surprisingly modest 1-1-2 record. The Rams lost to Indiana by the same score the Lions did earlier this year, 2-0, college football playoff Ron Guidry in the divisional playoff a day earlier, the Yankees were wary about this opener especially because they .were going up against Kansas City’s top hurler, 21-game winner Dennis Leonard. But the 24-year-old rookie, who began this season in the minor leagues, pitched brilliantly until the sixth inning, allowing just two hits. When his control got him in trouble, Clay seldom used this season but a key man Tuesday night because bullpen ace Rich Gossage had pitched three innings on Monday came on to preserve the vital victory. Beattie, 6-9 during the regular season, did not allow a hit until the fifth inning, when A 1 Cowens opened with a checked-swing single to center on a two-strike pitch. Joe Marcin, Associate Editor of The Sporting News in favor of playoffs personally and through magazine policy some coaches have selfish in terest in mind. “You’ve got a guy like Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, he sure as hell doesn’t want to change,” Marcin said. “All he has to do is win the Big 8, beat Texas which he does every year knock off somebody in the Orange Bowl and he has a claim to No. 1 without ever having to play a Notre Dame, a Penn State, an Ohio State. He said that.” (Repeated attempts to contact Switzer for con firmation or denial proved fruitless.) Still others are happy with the rating system the way it is, believing a playoff would cheapen college football’s academic priorities and make it more like professional football. John McKay, former coach at the University of Southern California and now coach of the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is one. “Why does college football need playoffs? Because the pros have them? Colleges have something better,” he told Sports Illustrated. “The eight or ten teams who win their conferences, their bowl games, have a great season. Ten winners instead of one. Everyone’s happy. The fans are happy. The recruiters are happy. The coach gets a raise.” “College football is not professional and I think we ought not to emulate it,” Orange Bowl President Robert White agreed. “They’re 28 businessmen out to make a profit. We’re in education. Besides, I think it would be anti-climatic. Debating, that’s part of the fascination, part of the shine. Now, after the polls name a champion, your fans can say, ‘We don’t care what they say, we’re No. 1."” Holtz, whose Razorbacks finished third to Notre Dame last season with the same 11-1 record as runner-up Alabama, Penn State and Texas, doesn’t buy that logic. “I’ve heard that story before,” he said, “and let me tell you, thinking you’re No. 1 doesn’t help one doggone iota. And you’re talking to a person who’s experienced it first-hand. Two days later, you’re No. 3 and you’re No. 3 forever.” Holtz and many others are dissatisfied with the performance of the four major polls rating the Division I-A teams the Associated Press (writers and broadcasters), the United Press International / (selected coaches), the Football Writers Association and the National Foundation and Hall of Fame. Although all four picked Notre Dame champion last year, they rarely agree completely on their Top 10 selections. And last season’s choices were not outside criticism. “We happened to win it, but I don’t blame any of the other coaches with the same record for claiming they’re No. 1,” Notre Dame Athletic Director Edward Krause said. “Obviously, everybody’s not happy at the end of the season. There’s no question in my mind a playoff is the only fair way to find a national champion.” Chuck Correal, Penn State’s offensive center agreed, adding, “You’d have a champion who’d have earned it rather than being named. The way the polls are now, it’s a popularity contest is what it Reggie Jackson is greeted in the eighth inning of the 3 pressure on Bucknell’s fine goalie, Bobbie Castens. Morett, whose three goals tied the Penn State record for individual goals at Lady Lion field, started off the scoring before two minutes had even elapsed on the clock. From then on, it was Penn State all the way. Karen Schnellenbach chipped in a shot at the 22 minute mark and then it was Morett again, this time driving a rebound off the goalie’s pad into the net. Finn collected the last goal of the half with only 1:37 remaining to give the Lady Lions a 4-0 edge. The Lady Lions’ shutout was only threatened once in the first half. “We were lucky to get this shutout,” Rattray said. “At one point, Jeannie was down in front of the goal but Sally Scheller actually stopped the shot from Senior goalie Joe Kanzler leads the tough Rhode Island defense with 50 saves and has allowed only four goals. Kanzler [0 —Wednesday, Oct. 4,1978 -j§ «jfl ISllf m UPI Wlrepholo at home plate after he hit a three-run home run Yankees’ 7-1 win over the Royals. going into the net.” Overall, the coach was pleased witri the defense. “They have some fast forwards; particularly Karin Wegener, who can start fast breaks but we were able to stop her,” she said. “The defensive players have more confidence in each other now and they’re really playing well together.” The team’s scoring pace slowed up in the second half but Morett did collect her third goal of the game 13 minutes into the half. “We really worked as a team in this game,” Rattray said. “We kept the ball moving with good passes and we used the entire field.” In the JV match, Debbie Castur and Sue Parsons scored two goals each as the Lions romped 4-0. , 4' had an incredible year last season,’ allowing only 14 goals in 15 games.'A'/ -f’J*: The Rams’ leading scorer“ sophomore * Len Mercurio, has accounted for three of the team’s five goals this season. The Lions moved up in this week’s national rankings to the No. 9 spot with their 5-3 record, but that ranking did not include the loss to San Francisco. comes down to. There’s a chance of a team not getting the recognition it deserves.” That’s what Penn State, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas fans said last January. Penn State fans have gotten considerable practice at saying it, having failed to capture the title with undefeated teams . three times in the last decade, including the in famous 1969 season when President Richard Nixon took it upon himself to unilaterally declare Texas No. 1. Winning all the marbles is viatlly important to a V university’s reputation, prestige and bank account, although Penn State is fairly well set in all those categories, having substituted a record 39 straight non-losing seasons for the championship which - always has eluded it. The ironic thing about all this is that the title and that polls awarding it started out so humbly. "Thinking you're No. 1 doesn't help you one doggone iota. Two days later you're No. 3 and you're No. 3 forever." —Arkansas coach ;& Lou Holtz. The national championship'was a 1926 idea of Knute Rockne, when the Notre Dame coaching legend heard about a University of Illinois professor who ranked college teams with a home-made mathematical formula, according to Dan Jenkins’ . - .book, Saturday’s America. A clothing manufac turer was declaring winners of the Big Nine (now 10) with it as the teams didn’t all play each other. '■ Rockne called them to lunch one day and convinced them to make the award national in scope, even . getting them to back-date it two years so The > Fighting Irish could have the distinction of first champion. ; ’ The polls, too, began simply, according to Murray ', Rose, Special Projects Editor for the Associated , Press. “We started a long time ago (about 1936) to ; create interest during the season. It used to be dead - after baseball stopped until the bowl games. Now Jit it’s different of course; there’s so many sports going ’ -• on all the time.” Rose sees no reason why the polls should oppose a * playoff plan. “It doesn’t matter to us,” he said. “We’d probably still have our regular-season poll, ( but stop there. We have no vested interest in any of • this stuff. It makes news, that’s about it. If they 'o' decide to name a champion with a playoff, how i could we quibble?” _ If they decide to have a playoff. Big if. But it’s not ' a certainty v “they won’t.” They could. There’s a long process to go through before they do. - i Tomorrow: Some specific plans, how they might be implemented, and an evaluation on their chances of becoming policy. wMI =Er —by Jon Saraceno
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers