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Show ... a . V A MOTORIZED hang glider greets the skies in Vernal Monday evening. ABBOTT HELPS LIFT GULLS PAST INDIANS In Seattle this season, they have been celebrating the arrival of the Ancient Mariner, Gaylord Perry. Salt Lakers Friday night witnessed the arrival of the Original Mariner, Glenn Abbott. Abbott, who has been a Mariner since the day they started playing, made his first Pacific Coast League appearance in seven years Friday, as he attempts to recover from an elbow injury. The first step on the rehabilitation road was a positive one, as he pitched pitch-ed five decent innings in helping the Gulls achieve a 10-5 victory over the Spokane Indians Abbott joined the Gulls from the parent Mariners Friday on a 20-day rehabilitation roster move. The 6-foot-6 righthander, who was given Ed Nunez's No. 30 because that was the only uniform big enough to fit him, is slated to get four starts down on the Salt Lake farm to test his right elbow, and Start No. 1, which was his first competitive baseball game since last season, was to his liking. Abbott threw 78 pitches and surrendered seven hits and four runs. But he walked only one, and as he was icing the elbow in the Gulls' clubhouse, he commented, "I was very pleased at the way I threw. I felt good about my control." Abbott, who was taken by the Mariners from Oakland in the 1976 expansion ex-pansion draft and has worn nothing but a Seattle Seat-tle uniform since then until un-til Friday night, never had a serious arm trouble in his nine-year major-league major-league career until this spring, when a pain in his pitching elbow wouldn't go away. Finally, it was discovered that he had bone chips in the elbow, and he underwent surgery March 27. "I could start playing catch three weeks after, but my arm has been weak until about 10 days ago," said Abbott. Abbott has been with the Mariners all season, throwing on the side. He said he has been pitching simulated games every five games, keeping to about an 80-pitch limit, and then he felt well enough to try and pitch five innings in a real game. That's what he did Friday night. It seems a shame that Abbott, who has a 52-75 record in the majors, should have gone through all the bad Mariners years and then find himself unable to participate par-ticipate in their most exciting ex-citing one. But he was joining a first-place team Friday night, and the Gulls gave the 31-year-old a victory. Abbott was trailing 4-1 after pitching his last inning, but the Gulls rallied for five runs in the bottom of the fifth, and that made him the winner. "I hope I can help the ballclub," said Abbott. "I'm not just down here for the fun of it. They're in first place and I want to help them. Sure, I want to get my work, but I want to win too." The Gulls won for him in their big fifth-inning, which made a loser of towering 6-7 lefthander Dennis Rasmussen. The Indians' 23-year-old probably pro-bably deserved a better fate in the fifth, but instead in-stead he wound up his seventh loss against six victories. The Gulls have now tied the Indians for the best record ( 17-8) in the PCL's second half. |