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Show Tuesday January 8. 1980. THE HERALD Provo, Utah—Page 7 Jim Murray's Column: No Steals Necessary By JIM MURRAY (ce) 1980, Les Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — The term Hall of Famer usually identifies a performer or performance above and beyond the common run. It implies a feat that left a peculiar legacy on the game, a benchmark that transcends hits, runsanderrors, a signal to posterity, if you will, that “Kilroy was here.’ Or ~ Or Hornsy. Babe Ruth was the ultimate Hall of Famer, anartist who revolutionized his game, who introduced Rembrandt lighting, so to speak. A related story appears on page 9. Before the Babe, his sport played what came to be known as ‘John McGrawbaseball,”’ i.e., a game played for one run. the bunt. hit-and-run,tight defense. baseball R pitching and control. Bean! : me Babe Ruth changed all that Ruth didn’t hit the ball between people, or in front of them. or under them. He hit it over them. Also overfences, roofs, and anything else in the way. He introduced big-inning baseball. He introduced the term “taking the baseball downtown." Window-breaking He broughtin power baseball. standaround baseball. The game cameto be played between two standing armiesof behemoths who scored the small skills and just swung from the heels, then trotted around the bases with stomach Jiggling The National League stuck to the old Verities for a while, clung to tactical baseball, and fielded traditional teams that had great double-play combinations, low-ball pitchers andsingles hitters in the outfield. They won pennants. but, when they got in the world series, the Yankeesbeat them 18-4, 13-6, 16-0 — or worse. They were trying to fight tanks with bow and arrows. One of the casualties of Babe Ruth baseball was the stolen base. Before Ruth. the leaguesused to steal as many as 1.800 bases a year (1,809 in 1912) after Ruth (and during) the total slumped annually almost to the Vanishing point. In 1950. the entire American Leaguestole only 278 bases and the highest total by any one team was only 42 Which brings me to Maurice Morning Wills and why he should have gone into the Hall of Fame standing up. as usual. on his first try Maury Wills revolutionized the grand old game quite as much as Babe Ruth. He put the gameback, you might say. onits feet. To show you how smart Baseball was. Maury Wills languished in the minor leagues for nearly nine years He was in a dungeon longer than the Count of Monte Cristo. And just as un In 1959. MauryWills was called up by comparable to Ruth's cess, because they copy what works framework. Because conditions were conducive to a return tothe old stan led the leagueto the pennant and world dards — farther fences. sprinters’ sur championship faces — the game went back not to ‘Vacancy’ year. the National League had 1.456 stolen bases Maury can takea curtain sign on it He mustache-cup baseball but a balance Maury cameupandintoit. the sengte had only 388 It's quadrupled that because where there was a Wills, there was a way In 1941. to give you an idea, Danny Murtaugh led the National League in stolen bases with a grand total of 18 ‘That wasn't a good weekendfor Wills in his prime. In the American League in 1950, Dominic DiMaggio led in stolen bases with 15 The baseball writers are proud that between speed and power. A lot of people like it better. Particularly people their Hall of Fame is harder to get into who had to olaythe old Yankees Palace But they are the only body of people ever able to repeatedly throw than Burke's Peerage or Buckingham Maury stole 94 basesin 1965. Any way you look atit, he belongsat leastin the Hall of Fame. I mean, theydidn't ask Ruth to steal bases, too. Why ask Maury to hit homers, too? To be sure. Lou Brock kas since stolen 118 bases and broken Maury’s minors over eight years. The writers single-season record. But. just as every are apparently going to keep him there four-minute miler owes a debt to Roger Bannister, the first of them, so base Stealers owe Maury a low bow. Last Maury Wills out. I think someone should call a balk on them. If Maury Wills doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame, anybody who makes it should blush. The game kept Mauryin the forever. As far as I’m concerned, Mauryshould go on the next pitch. And makeit without a throw FBI Agents Busy Preparing On athe OMOLO MeNowbe Syed. IN 25 WORLO SERIES AT BATS TED WILLIAMS HIT :100 AND HAD NO EXTRA BASE HITS. WHAT YEAR _ For Olympic ‘Participation’ DID THE SOX LOSE THAT SERIES TO THE CARDS ? A. 42 B. ‘46 C.*50 Obl -JONSUE WASHINGTON (UPI) — FBIagents cross country, stopping periodically to are skiing hard in preparation for the fire rifles at targets along the route. 1980 Winter Olympics — just in case Bureau officials say a terrorist atterrorists strike the Lake Placid, N.Y. tack at this year's gamesis unlikely, spectacular next month. partially because Lake Placid is The Arab strike that left 11 Israeli located in a remote area of upstate athletes deadat the 1972 Munich games New York. is cited as ample cause for prepara- But the FBI is preparing for the tions. worst in light of recent international An official at FBI headquarters tensions. acknowledged that several SWAT Last month. more than 70 agents on erecta|Weapons and ets teams the bureau's SWAT teams converged ave be n preparing lergoing on the Olympic grounds in Lake Placid, rigorous ski raining A caura N.Y., for 24 days of training in handl“tf we have to chase somebody, ing simulated hostage crises or other we're probably going to chase them on possibleterrorist strikes. skis,” he said. ‘We wantour people to “Wetested our response — and we be prepared.”” made mistakes," said Irv Recer Theofficial said the FBI's special Special agent in charge of the FBI's training an Olympic event — Albany, N.Y., office and the manin the biathlon — where competitors ski charge of the advance planning. “It was to teach us things we need to bolster."” An FBI special projects crew has constructed a scale-model mock-up of the massive Olympic grounds, including the mountains whereskiing and bobsled competitionswill be held. The model, which includes the Olympic Village where athletes will be housed as well as arenas for hockey and ice skating. will help the bureau respond quickly in case ofcrisis. Anofficial said the FBIis also stepping up intelligence gathering to keep track of potentially violent. militant Palestinians, Puerto Ricans, Croatians, Iranians, Afghans and antiCastro Cubans. BYU Spikers To Return To Action BYU’s men’s volleyball team will return to action with an intrasquad match Wednesday and a battle with Pepperdine Friday. Both matches will be played in the Smith Fieldhouse and will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for Friday’s matchare $2 for general admission and $1 for BYU students. They are available at the Marriott Defamation Of Character Charged OGDEN,Utah (UPI) — The president of the Ogden A’s andit’s parent company, the Great Northern Baseball Corp., has filed a $1.5 million defamation lawsuit against two Ogden businessmen. Dennis Job filed the suit in Second District Court against Stan Perry, former general manager of the A's, and Russ Sneddon, president of an Ogden public relations firm. The suit charges that the two defendants “adopted a course of conduct which was maliciously calculated to deliberately and intentionally ruin” the Great Northern Baseball Corp. and Job. The suit alleges that the pair interferred with contractual agreements, interfered with the company’s ability to renew advertising contracts, and two counts of defamation of Job's character. " Perry and Sneddonalso tried to persuade former A's owner Robert Piccinini to foreclose on the sale of the Pacific Coast League ball club to Job, the suit says. TIRE SALE! aes? ISB SEMPERIT HIGHWAY a PY a a a SESS leyball team and an allAmerican at BYUin 1962. Players include Mashallah Farokmanesh, a 6-3 outside hitter from Palavi, Iran; Scott Nelson, a 6-4 outside hitter from Chicago; Steve Spere,a 6-0 outsidehitter from Salt Lake City; Matt McShane,a 6-1 setter from Santa Monica, Calif.; and Dave Brown, a 5-8 setter from Culver City, Calif. MIX-N-MATCH Highway/Snow ~~) SIS seen for yourself. Next time in that big buck’s bailiwick you will already know heis there. You always looka little harder. During this same Wasatch Frontforay, I saw a herd of some 40 deer, including five bucks, within half a mile of the road. Snow depth was barely a few inches, with none on the south slope. That’s wherethe deer were. To avoid unduly spooking them,I remained some 300 yards away, a distance the deerheld. Growing hunger,anddifficulty in finding food higher, were reasonsfor holding. Another, the rut. However, the largest buckin that bunch, a giant four-pointer, showed me why they so often elude nimrods. he let the other deer draw attention, while he sneaked up the other way under some oak brush. Watch the movements of an oversized buck and you can see why they so often escape. Nothing is donehurriedly. Movements are slow and furtive, head low, every step a work ofart.If below him,I would not have seen im at all. Next day I checked out country north of Duchesne. I do much hunting here, but 1 wanted to see whatI mightbe missing.Atfirst, nothing. No deer showed from the road, and a buddy thought I was crazy trekking to the rim. Even more so when wearrived and had seenonly 13 does. Ditto almostan hour later. But, on the face northward, we surprised some30 deer,including five huge bucks. Two bringing up the rear were considerably better than the buck I settled for here last October. Maybe I'll search longer and harder next year! Those bucks let us get within 40 yards, mostly because of December, plus rut. We remained in placeafter that to avoid runningoff their autumn fat. They were in good shape (with swollen necksindicative of the rut) and appeared to be wintering well. Unless snow depth and cold become much more severe, these deer also have something over the Wasatch Front herd. The latter, because of homes highlining the winter range,will have no place to go except into farmer's fields and trontyard fitzers. They will be in trouble. The herd will have to be thinned. and hunters will have fewer deer to seek out next fall. The Duchesne area herd has ample room to spillout, and in fact, we saw five deer browsing on the valley floor vefore quietly departing. here are, however, somefine bucks on the Wasatch Front. But, total herd numbers will never be as high asin the past, because of Wasatch Front development. For a few years at least, we may have somehuntingleft for the big ones. This has been provenin the big buck contests. One which won't show in the contests, because it was taken in the November muzzleshoot (too bad the contests don’t remain open through the muzzleloaders quest) was in lower Parleys Canyon via Dee Smith of Sandy. Smith hiked to the high ridge approach as mentioned earlier. And with enoughaltitude to look around without scaring awayall deer, found a big one hidingout. The later date on Smith’s hunt gave this skilled ‘mountain man’ an extra advantage. But, he proved again thereare, for a time at least, some nice bucks close to home. bases stolen leak at shortstop. and first base had a Prior to Maury Wills you could have leagues, he stole 50 bases, andled ihe played the game in wet cement. The runner-up, Vada Pinson, by18. ballparks were bigger. the pitches In 1962 Maury Wills stole 104 bases faster and the carpet surfaces He broke Ty Cobb's old record, set lightning-fast, but nobody was paying back in the gaslight era. by a dozen any attention. Until Maury bases. He beat the second-place man To give you an idea whata lost art that year. Willie Davis. by 72 stolen Stealing bases had become, the ses. National League dipped below 300 For that feat alone. the first man Steals a year and,in 1938, Stan Hack led ever to steal over 100 basesin a season, the league with — get this — 15 stolen Maury Wills belongs in the Hall of bases! The next year, he did much bet- Fame. Butit was more than a personal ter, however: he stole 17. Led the achievement. It was pace-setting. It league again. opened eyes. In fact it opened the By Hartt Wixom Several days ago I began Scouting for the 1980 deer season. I also wanted to see how well they were wintering at this point. They are wintering well. There are also some very Tespectable bucks we hunters missed this past season. Now thatI’ve seen the proof, I will not only know where to hunt — a few miles higher than where I saw them this past week — buta little harder, knowing they're there. First, I hiked up a steep ridge on the Wasatch Front between Salt Lake City and Draper. I saw about whatI observed last winter above Springville. Deer. Andlots of bucks, Right abovethe valleys welive in! But, I believe there is a special technique to scouting deer as well as hunting them. Let me explain. In both endeavors,try to gain altitude quickly. Don’t hike uy the canyon bottom. You'll spool away all the deer in the neighborhood withoutlikely seeing anything more than tracks. By hiking up steep ridgelines, you won’t see deer atfirst. They don’t like such places. But, you'll be in position to see them later from a higher vantage point. You'll also be in the direction deer least likely expect danger. Most hunters approach in the direction of least resistance. The only criterion is that the steep ridge you had up mustconnect to others farther back in. Otherwise, you'll be isolated for your troubles, unable to get back in where the bigger bucks bed. If you're not sure, study the terrain from pointin the valley several miles away before beginning your climb. What I saw above Salt Lake Valley was, as you might expect first, a doe and fawn. Then a four-point solo buck. Shortly afterward, two monster bucks skylined on the ridge 200 yards up. That seemed a rather major mistake for such monarchs to make, but checking it later the reason was obvious: they couldn't go anywhere eise because of steep ledges. Good place, however, for a buck to hide. And a very good place for a hunter to surprise them, for they had to bounce past me 15 yards away to clear out of there. It gave metimeto get a close look at one of those buck's deformed antlers. The right side dropped in a single point way out to one side. Must have helped him to something like a 35-inch spread. Theleft antler was high and typical. Because of the freakish right half, that buck would go nowhere in the BooneCrockett ratings. But, it would be a mighty fine trophy nonetheless to hang abovethefireplace. And I'm sure I'll recognize that one again. Of course, the bucks 2"e about to lose their antlers. By midJanuary most of them will be gone. But, asis nature's peculiar and wonderous way, the antlers will grow back about the same (and probably a little larger) by next August. Next August,if I was to accept the challenge of that buck, I would naturaily not find him then where I did a few days ago. He would be up that mountain rhaps another mile or two. ‘et, know of his approximate location, and the fact that he is there. I believe one of the greatest values of scouting ahead — this is a time of year when you can find the trophy bucks more easily than any other is that you have Wills stole, like. one out of every seven the Dodgers because they had a slow base stealers began to comeoutofthe permanent In 1960. his first full year in the major 3 .o Now’s Time to Scout For Next Year’s Buck When Maury stole 104 bases in 1962 the whole leagueonly stole 788. Maury call on that one. too. The year before justly The savior of the Dodger hitting. like. one out of seven of all franchise. not to say several others in homeruns hit in the league when he set the league. was short-hopping ground his record of 60 balls in Tacoma Because sports are a slave to suc SPO Outdoors game Si iS SEMPERIT MUD & SNOW 5% 3° + 1.81 FET. +1.81 BET. 165x13 165x13 SALE ENDS JANUARY12 COMPUTERIZED ALIGNMENT OREM AND PROVO HIGHWAY OR SNOW RETREADS 1 6** A78x13 560x15 600x14 NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY FINANCING UP TO 12 MONTHS TO PAY ON APPROVED CRIDIT. 78 E78x14 F78x14 G78x14 78x15 H78x14 H78x15 78x15 F.E.T. & Retreadable Excharge ired HOURS:8-8 Daily NO DOWN PAYMENT 24" PROVO 1595 N. 200 West 374-1177 OREM 703 N.State 224-1177 oO |