12
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 11, 1968
Rodgers says Hawks fired-up set for Huskers by DICK DEAN
by DICK DEAN Kansan Sports Writer
KU football coach Pepper Rodgers, speaking at a McColum Hall chalktalk last night, joked that his team is so fired-up for tomorrow's Nebraska game that he might have to lock them in cages to keep them from killing one of the coaches.
Rodgers, wearing a bright red sweater taunting the Nebraska fans, received a rousing welcome and was interrupted several times by applause from the students.
"It's a great thrill to coach a good football team and to have equally good fans supporting it. I was talking to a Sports Illustrated man today and there are going to be some good things written about KU in that magazine.
"But we're going to win football games whether they write about us or not," Rodgers said
in his informal speech that often had the audience laughing so hard it was impossible for him to continue.
When asked if the team was up for the game Rodgers said, "You bet they are. And another thing — Nebraska thinks that they will be the only ones fired up, but they are dead wrong."
Asked if he planned to do any of his famous sommersaults this weekend, he replied, "NO, I am going to do sommersaults as long as I can roll, but for KU fans only."
What did he think of the national rankings in connection with the team? Rodgers said that the rating system is a good thing for college football because it stimulates teams. He feels that KU'S No. 4 ranking has a good effect on the team.
He called the student body "my group" and the greatest thing about college football. "We're gonna have fun with the students this year." he said. He praised the fans as one of the major factors in attracting good football prospects to KU.
"You know," he said, "last year at this time when we had yet to win a game, a rating came out, and it had us in the bottom 20. I think we have come one helluva long way in 10 games."
Before the end of the talk, Rodgers was given a surprise birthday cake by the residents of the hall for his 37th birthday.
THE MISSION INN
Bar - Grill, Windy and Marian
Phone VI 2-9448
1904 Massachusetts
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
The Party Place!
Mont Bleu Ski
Lodge
Route 2, Lawrence
VI 3-2363
Bengals, Lolich end 23-year wait
ST. LOUIS (UPI)—Mickey Lolich outpitched World Series master Bob Gibson, and the Detroit Tigers broke through for three runs in the seventh inning yesterday to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 and win their first world baseball championship in 23 years.
That's all Lolich, working with just two days rest, needed to enable the Tigers to become the third team in Series history to win a seven-game series after trailing 3-1. He is the eighth pitcher to win three games in one series.
Bill Freehan followed with a double to left field, scoring Northrup and giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead over Gibson, who had pitched one-hit ball through six innings.
The Tigers were a come-from-behind team all season as they won 40 games after being tied or behind in the seventh inning. And Detroit erupted for seven hits in the final three innings to snap Gibson's 7-game winning streak in Series competition.
Lolich, the rugged individualist who drives a motorcycle to the Tigers' home games, matched shutout pitching with Gibson—winner of seven World Series games including two in this classic—until the seventh when the Tigers got one of the big breaks of the Series.
The break came with two out and Norm Cash and Willie Horton on base as a result of singles. Jim Northrup walloped a long drive to center field which appeared catchable. But Curt Flood, one of the best centerfielders in the majors, stumbled as he turned to run for the ball and it sailed over his head for a two-run triple.
Singles by Horton, Northrup and Don Wert produced another Detroit run in the eighth.
A traditional late-season stand-out who likes to pitch in cool weather, Lolich was brilliant as he held the Cards to just five hits.
It was a mild afternoon in the mid-60s, and the crowd of 54,692 at Busch Memorial Stadium pleaded in vain for the Cardinals to solve Lolich's deliveries.
Champagne flows for Detroit; Flood takes Cardinals' blame
By United Press International
Everyone wanted to know if they could drive Mickey Lolich's new car.
It was the wildest scene in the Detroit Tigers' dressing room in 23 years with champagne corks popping like automatic pistols, and Lolich was the wettest and happiest of all.
The Tigers, who won their first World Series since 1945, doused everyone with champagne, but it was Lolich, a three-game winner in the Series, who got the royal treatment.
"I'll let everyone on this club drive that car," said the Tiger southpaw, who was awarded a new sports car by Sport magazine as the Most Valuable Player in the Series.
"Hey, Mickey, give me a kiss," shouted Dick Tracewski, a utility infielder who scored the Tigers' final run as a pinch-runner in the ninth.
Lolich laughingly pecked him on the cheek, then stepped on his stool in his locker and addressed everyone.
"I was weak from the third inning on, but not really tired," he said. "It was the first time this year I pitched with two days rest and I expected to get tired about the sixth inning.
"But it never happened. In the first couple of innings I was trying to put the ball in certain spots and was struggling. Then I said, 'The hell with it, I'll just put it in there and see what happens.' But they couldn't do anything with it."
Curt Flood is the littlest St. Louis Cardinal, and right now he has a tremendous burden on his shoulders.
Flood is just 5-foot-9 and weighs only 160 pounds. He has always carried those dimensions with pride during a brilliant baseball career. On one of the worst days of his life, he showed that he really is a "big" man.
Bob Gibson and Mickey Lolich were still locked in a scoreless pitching duel when Flood failed to see a fly ball hit by Jim Northrup, and then stumbled as the ball went over his head. Northrup was credited with a triple and two runs scored on the play for a 2-0 Detroit lead.
"It's all my fault," Flood said after the Tigers had clinched the 4-1 victory for the 1968 world championship.
He sat dejectedly in the spacious Cardinal dressing room. His teammates, who had been stripped of their world championship minutes before, drooped on stools in front of their lockers. Some sipped champagne which had been stored there for a possible victory celebration.
"I just messed it up," Flood said. "I didn't see the ball hit by Northrup. If the ball had been higher and over the edge of the grandstand, I might have seen it.
"I couldn't find it until it was over my head, and then I spun my wheels and I slipped. If I had not slipped, I think I might have had it."
But the only player to do so was Mike Shannon, whose solo homer with two out in the ninth came after the Tigers already had won the game.
Lolich also stopped the Cards' running game. In the sixth, he gave up singles to speedsters Lou Brock, who tied a Series record with 13 hits, and Curt Flood. But then he proceeded to pick both of them off base.
It was a heartbreaking loss for Gibson, whose 7-2 record in World Series play is still one of the best—leaving him tied with Yankee aces Red Ruffing and Allie Reynolds. Whitey Ford was 10-8 and Lefty Gomez was 6-0. Gibson still pitched a record eighth straight complete game in defeat.
St. Louis shortstop Dal Maxvill set a record for frustration, going 0-for-2 before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. Maxvill was 0-for-22 in the Series. The record was 0-for-21 by three players and last matched by Gil Hodges in 1962.
ST. LOUIS (UPI)—Broadcaster Joe Gariagoli and Yogi Berra were friends in St. Louis before they became professional baseball players. Both played soccer in parochial school.
Likes soccer
Garagiola says soccer "was an ideal game." Of professional soccer in the United States now, Garagiola says "I liked it when I was a kid, and I like it today."
BOXSCORE
DETROIT (4)—McAuliffe, 2b, 4-0; Stanley, ss, 4-0; Kalline, rf, 4-0; Cash, 1b, 4-1-1; Horton, fI, 4-1-2; Tracewski, pr, 0-0; Oyler, ss, 0-0; Fitzpatrick, 2-1; Pfreiman, c, 4-0; Wert, bd, 3-0-1; Lolich, p, 4-0; Totals, 3S-4-8.
The Cardinals had been 17-to-10 favorites to win both the game and the Series.
ST. LOUIS (1)—Brock, lf. 3-0; Javier, b. 2-4; Olood, cf. 4-2; Cepeda, b. 1b, 3-0; Shannon, 3b, 4-1; McCarrer, c. 3-1; Maris, rf. 3-0; Schofield, ss. 0-0; Gibson, p. 3-0 Totals: 30,1-5
E—Northrup, DP—Detroit 1. LOB—Detroit 5, St. Louis 5. 2B—Freehan. 3B—Northrup. HR—Shannon. SB—Flood.
Score by innings:
Boyle 000 000 301—4 8 1
St. Louis 000 000 1—5 1 5
There's no one quite like her . . . she's beautiful . .
exciting . . . and best of all, she's yours. Give her
something wonderful from Tivol . . . a diamond that is
just her . . . from Tivol, of course.
TIVOL of course
220 Nichols Road Kansas City, Missouri WE 1-5333