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Show Page HERALD, 10-- THE Provo, Utah. Sunday, March 27, 1977 NFL Losing? Miller Can Tell Blue Jays Pleniy! j DUNE DIN, Fla. (UPI) -Sometime this summer when the Toronto Blue Jays' spring training exuberance is tempered by the realities of expansion baseball, Bob Miller can tell them a thing or two about losing. Miller, the Blue Jays' pitching coach, knows what it's like to play for an expansion team. He was with the worst the 1962 New York Mets which set a ma- jor league record for futilitiy by losing 120 games. As a matter of fact, Miller qualifies as a most unique trivia question. He was the original Met, the first player chosen by 12 the New York club in the expansion draft. "You really can't compare the Blue Jays with the Mets.'' said Miller, while watching his staff of pitchers - most of them raw rookies with no major league limber up in their first - training camp. "Actually, I guess you couldn't compare any team with the '62 Mets. Being with them was an experience I'll never forget as long as I live. However, I wouldn't want to live it again." The biggest difference between the '62 Mets and the '77 Blue Jays, in Miller's opinion, is experience. While the Blue Jays' will quite likely start four or five rookies in their initial lineup, the '62 Mets opened with all veterans players like Gil Hodges, Richie Ashburn, Charlie Neal - and Gus Bell. "They were players who had been through it all," recalled Miller. "When we started spring training, they just went out and began playing. It was no big deal. Here, we're teaching kids basic execution, the fundamentals. For most of them it's their first legitimate chance to make a major league baseball team. That's why the enthusiasm is so high. They want to win and they really believe they can." But when the inevitable losses begin to mount up for the young Blue Jays, Bob Miller can be excused if his mind begins wandering back to 1962. "You have to remember, I was only a kid on the '62 Mets and, to tell you the truth, I was in a daze half the time. I couldn't believe all the ways we discovered to lose." Of course, most of Miller's '62 jJM? (SBNB To Decide I SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - (UPI) -- just the Mets' futility. "After we began to keep losing so many games." he recalled, "we started wondering each day how it would happen. think we all took the attitude that no one wanted to be the guy to mess it today I know by the end of the year I began to doubt my own ability and maybe even a little of my sanity But then I was traded to the Dodgers and a winning at- 1 mosphere. "That's what's so important here with the Blue Jays. We want to maintain a winning atmosphere above all." Despite all their losing, the '62 Mets weren't without their humor to which Miller can attest. "Losing isn't funny," said Miller, "but in many cases with us it was. I remember one time against the Giants, Harvey Kuenn hit a high bouncer to the infield almost like a chip shot. But when it hit the ground it just kept spinning 'round and 'round. While it was spinning, two runs came home for them and ! got beat. No one could figure o; . how it happened." They were bending over backwards to pull the ball down that rightfield line. "Finally, Casey, in his own doubletalk way, announced in the clubhouse to all of us: 'If you wanna go sailing, join the Navy.' We got the message." Besides his Mets experience, Miller also is of another unique baseball record. Along with Dick Littleficld, he pitched for more major league clubs (10) than any other player. He finished up his career in 1974 with, of all teams, the Mets. before joining Roy Hartsfield, the Blue Jays' manager, as a coach at Hawaii in 197. was mental attitude which he taught me and it's something I've never forgotten. "The most important thing Nellie said was to let everything take care of itself. In other words, if you're not hitting good, don't let it affect the rest of your game. Just go out and do all the other things that are part of your game the same way and sooner or later the hitting will take care of itself." Fox won the The equally American League's Most Valuable Player award in 1959 when, through a combination of timely hitting (.306), boundless desire and hustle, he spearheaded the White Sox to their first second base great who died of cancer 15 months ago. "I guess that's because I know I wouldn't be the ball player I am today had it not been for his help." Morgan's relationship with Fox goes back to 1964 when both were with the Fox as a veteran in Houston Astros the twilight of his career and Morgan as a raw rookie with great expectations. Although acutely aware that Morgan's rapid development would hasten his own retirement, Fox befriended Joe and worked on honing the youngster's skills. "It wasn't so much mechanics that he helped me with," recalled Morgan. "He always told me I had twice as much natural ability as he ever had and that it's impossible to teach that But it Sox UPI Sports Writer TAMPA. Fla (UPI) Hardly a day goes by in this, his 15th spring training, that Joe Morgan isn't reminded of his unique opportunity to make baseball history by winning three straight Most Valuable Player awards. And while winning baseball's most coveted award an unprecedented third straight time most surely ranks high on Morgan's list of goals for 1977, the National Football League club owners meet in plush, desert surroundings this week to iron out a few points of interest and hardly anyone here expects a bombshell unless you consider the setting of the date for the next college draft as momentous. The owners also will discuss, and more than likely adopt for economic reasons, a season, and approve the $20 million sale of the San Francisco 49ers to Youngstown, Ohio, builder Edward J. DeBartolo. They also will pick the sites for the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl following the 1978 season and will discuss expanding the playoffs to include 12 teams. Chances are the draft will be set for in New York and will be the May first order of business on Monday. Acceptance of DeBartolo and his son Ed, Jr. as principal owners (80 per cent of the 49ers will be a mere formality, as will selection of the site of the Super Bowl for January 1979, which more than likely will be Miami since the 1978 Super Bowl game will be played in New Orleans. There might be more than perfunctory discussion on expanding the regular season to 16 games, starting with the 1978 season, even though the players already have approved such a move, and the new player contract, as redefined in the light of court decisions last year, will take up some time. As for an expanded playoff format, the thinking is there is too much dead time now between the playing of the conference title games and the Super Bowl two weeks. The period could be filled by adding games to the playoffs preceding the conference championship games. Some have suggested this could be done by adding a team from each of the six divisions and probably dropping the wild card selections. That would add six teams and drop two, thus leaving 12 teams in all-t- wo from each division-- to start the playoffs. Joe Namath's sale to the Los Angeles Rams could take place here, since the New York Jets have until April to unload Joe and his $450,000 contract or lose him through waivers as a free agent. The Rams, according automatically answered to that. I guess it was just as well because I didn't win my first game until the next to last day of the season." Miller, who wound up that season, was caught up quickly in diminutive Cincinnati Reds second baseman has never forgotten his baseball "roots." That's why he so often finds himself thinking and talking about an MVP of another era the late Nellie Fox. "I think about him all the time," said Morgan of the former Chicago White - pint-size- d in 40 years. "He was always my idol," said Morgan. "That's why I guess it was so important to me that when I finally did meet him. he was so good to me. Back then, the veterans didn't talk to the pennant rookies and I think if Nellie had been that way it would have changed my entire outlook on the game." Although their careers took different routes as the '60s moved into the '70s, Morgan kept in touch with Fox. "When I got to Cincinnati," Morgan said, "Nellie told me that even though he had been an American Leaguer all his life, in his heart he couldn't root against me in a World Series. Now that may not sound like much unless you're a ballplayer and you know how much rivalry there really is between leagues." It was a couple of years later when Nellie Fox talked to Morgan again about another personal goal. "He was dying at the time," Morgan related, "and when I called him in his hospital room in Maryland, he told me 'I really hope you win the MVP award. I'm pullin' for you because I know you deserve it.' Can you imagine that? All he could think about was me. I've never forgotten that, either, and quite often I wish maybe I had done more or said more when I talked to him. But he always sounded so good over the phone that he never let on to me how sick he really was." That's why, in Joe Morgan's mind, there's another award that is even more important than a third straight National League MVP. Joe Morgan would like to see Nellie Fox in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. long-awaite- d 1 CINCINNATI'S JOE MORGAN, who has a shot at earning a third straight Most Valuable Player award, says he owes much of his success to an MVP from a to Namath's attorney, are serious about working out a deal. "I'm confident they (the Rams) will do what is necessary to acquire Joe," bygone era, Nellie Fox. Fox says Namath's attorney, Jimmy Walsh, who on Thursday gave Jets worked with Morgan in 1964 when both were with the Houston Astros, helping him hone his skills although they were battling for the same job. (UPI Telephoto) "There's already been a lot of guys put in the Hall of Fame ahead of Nellie who weren't nearly as good as he was," said Morgan. General Manager Al Ward permission to go ahead and talk trade with Los Angeles. Namath has a clause in his contract and has right of refusal for anv trade. no-tra- 33lM (SStIB By BILL MADDEN Draft Date Met recollections centered around the manager, the inimitable Casey Stengel, whomore than anyone eise symbolized that most unforgettable season. "All year long, Casey called me 'Nelson,'" remembered Miller with a smile. "He never knew my name, but it didn't matter because after awhile Nellie Fox Was Morgan's Idol Owners GGHB s 3 SUPER SSlll3 (dillls VALUES! QUANTITIES J" LIMITED! f2 J j j L j pppiS 7 li Automatic Door Opener.. 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