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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-03-02, Page 8Page 8 Times-Advocate, March 2, 1978 m I....■.... ................................................ Jay chirps As the result of the visit to the recent Sportsmen’s dinner by Howie Strakman of the Toronto Blue Jays we are now on the official mailing list of the baseball team. The first release arrived Monday and included in­ formation which may be of interest to any area ball fans who are fortunate enough to be travelling to Florida in the next couple of weeks. The first official workout for the Blue Jays was held yesterday, Wednesday at the club’s minor league complex which is located at 1700 Solon Avenue in Dunedin. Beginning March 9, the scene will switch to Grant field which is situated at 311 Douglas Avenue. The first exhibition game is set for March 10 at Dunedin against the Philadelpia Phillies. All games at Dunedin will start at 1:30 Eastern Standard time. Bat­ ting practices start two hours before game time. In regular season play, the Blue Jays will be meeting the Detroit Tigers in their first start in Detroit on April 6 and will be prying the lid off the season at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on Friday, April 14 with the Tigers again supplying the opposi­ tion. The Blue Jays recently signed their eighth Cana­ dian prospect. He is John Gill, a 17 year-old right handed pitcher from Niagara Falls. Gill is described by Jays scout Bobby Prentice as being a power pitcher with excellent curveball poten­ tial. He impressed scouts at the 1977 Leaside midget tournament. The Jays will be involved in four exhibition games with their Canadian rivals in the National league the Montreal Expos. They will meet March 25 and 26 at Daytona and April 1 and 2 at Dunedin, the home of the Blue Jays. A new bar About the time the big league baseball season starts this year, a new chocolate bar will be hitting the United States market. The Curtis Candy Co. which is a unit of Standard Brands will be introducing the Reggie bar hoping Reggie Jackson’s feat of three homers in one game in the 1977 World Series will be helpful in its promotion. This will be only the second time in history that a candy bar has been named after a ball player. Con­ trary to popular belief the Baby Ruth bar was not produced for the great home run hitter Babe Ruth. The Baby Ruth bar also manufactured by Curtis was named after president Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth who was born in the White House. The-only baseball connected chocolate bar was the Ty Cobb put out by the Benjamin Candy Co. of Detroit many years ago. It has long since gone out of ex­ istence. Ball talking not new In the summer of 1976 the entire baseball scene was thrilled with the appearance of a different young pitcher with the Detroit Tigers. Mark “The Bird’’ Fidrych soon became famous with an unusual antic of talking to the baseball. Back in the mid 1930’s, Lefty Gomez not only averaged 20 wins for the New York Yankees but also got more laughs per game than any other performer. Gomez now living in northern California says he often talked to the ball. If a batter would hit one of Lefty’s pitches hard he would holler, “go foul, go foul.” Another famous Gomez incident occurred one dark, late afternoon in Cleveland during a time before floodlights were installed. The Yankees asked umpire Bill Summers to call the game before one of their players was hit by a pitch from Indian speedballer Bob Feller. Summers refused. In time Lefty came up for his turn at bat. He approached the plate holding one arm behind him. As he stepped into the batter’s box, he held out what he had been hiding. It was a lantern. Umpire Summers got the message and called time. Cheering switches The coach of the Washington Capitals chose unusual names for his two youngest sons. They are called Denver and Dallas. In the latest Super Bowl football game Denver McVie cheered for Dallas and his brother Dallas was a Denver supporter. NHL measures up Of the more than 380 players on National Hockey league clubs as of February 1, the average player is a quarter inch short of six feet in height, weighs 187.7 pounds and is 26.3 years of age. The tallest NHL’er is Montreal rookie Gilles Lu- pien at six foot, six inches and Bobby Lalonde of Atlan­ ta is the smallest at five foot five. Both Lalonde and Mike Palmateer of the Leafs are the lightest players at 155 pounds. SWIMMING STAFF NEEDED Applications are now being accepted for summer swimming instruction and pool staff, for the Exeter and District swimming pool. Minimum re­ quirements are Bronze Medallion and 15 years of age. Applications may be made at the South Huron Recreation Centre, Mondays through Thursdays between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. Deadline March 17th. L . . . ..... ________J Mitchell or Seaforth next Final could start Sunday Hawks oust Irish with late efforts The Exeter Hawks had trouble with their power play, Tuesday, giving up two short-handed goals, but they got it working in the final minutes of the second and again in the third to score two goals with an extra attacker to overcome a deficit and post a 6-4 win over the Lucan Irish. The win, before over 750 fans at the rec centre, gave the defending OHA Junior “D” champs their group semi-final with the Irish by a 4- 1 margin. Exeter will now meet the winner of the Seaforth- Mitchell series. Mitchell leads that set by a 3-1 margin, losing Tusday night 5- 4 to Seaforth. If they win at home on Friday, it is ex­ pected the series between the two Hawk clubs may start in Exeter on Sunday night. Tuesday night’s game at the rec centre was a hard- fought struggle from start to finish as the Lucan crew had their backs to the wall and threw everything they had at the Hawks. The teams ended the second period in a 4-4 deadlock and the winner came with less than five mintes remaining in the final period when John VanGerwen took a pass from captain Steve Jennison to find an open corner behind Scott McNair. Fred Mom­ mersteeg also drew an assist. Paul Medd, who scored two tallies for the Irish, watched the winning power play goal from the penalty box. At the 19:09 mark, Exeter broke out of their own end on a lead pass from Jennison to VanGerwen and the latter flipped the puck to Ken Pinder who slid it past the Lucan netminder for the insurance marker. Fred Mommersteeg started Exeter off on the right foot in the first period when he finished a passing play with Phil Knight and Jennison at the 1:47 mark, but Lucan came right back with a tally by Medd. Pinder picked up his first of two at the 11:47 mark on a play with Randy Fisher and again the Irish knotted the count in quick order on a score by Jeff Hartman. With 15 seconds left on the clock in the first, Jamie Caldwell stepped on the ice to break up a Lucan attack and skated in alone to give Exeter a 3-2 lead heading into the second. It was in the middle frame that Exeter’s power play ran into trouble. Cecil Nickles stole the puck from Knight at the 5:46 mark to score his team’s,first short-handed goal and Medd pulled a similar trick at the 11:39 mark to give Lucan a 4-3 lead. The Hawks finally got their power play working and Matt Muller evened the count when he tipped a point shot by Knight into the cage. Jennison drew an assist as well on the marker that sent the teams into the final stanza at four each. Exeter enjoyed an edge in play in the contest, forcing ST. MARYS RINK WINS — A rink skipped by Bonnie Gowman, right, St. Marys won the an­ nual Bank of Montreal ladies' curling bonspiel in Exeter, Wednesday. Presenting the.trophy is locfel manager Al Johnston, while looking on are the bonspiel conveners, Helen Mickle and Melva Ecker. ., Staff photo Ken Pinder best prophet Exeter Hawks coach Ron Bogart revealed this week the statistics for his team for the regular season and comparison predictions made by himself and members of the Hawks before the season started. Ken Pinder came the closest to making himself and his coach excellent prophets. They each predicted 70 points and Pinder came through with 71 on 33 goals and 38 assists. In penalty minutes they were also close. Pinder served 33 minutes and he had predicted 40 to 36 by his coach. The team’s scoring leader Brian Taylor surpassed both predictions by a good margin. He suggested he would score 25 goals and gain the same number of assists while Bogart predicted 35 goals and 30 assists. Taylor actually scored 39 goals and picked up 35 assists for a team high of 74 points. The team’s third highest scorer Fred Mommersteeg scored a total of 63 points, three more than he es­ timated and 18 more than his coach’s estimation. Next in line was Hensall native Jamie Caldwell who notched 60 points to double his own prediction of 30. Bogart had suggested 55 points. Another one to outdo predictions was Matt Muller who ended up with 58 points. His prediction was 50 and his coach guessed at .42 points. He came within one minute of his penalty estimation of 70 minutes. The only other Hawk to score more points than his prediction was Brion Penhale who ended with 27' points, two more than his es­ timate. Dejenceman Phil Knight who predicted a point total of 53 ended up with 27 points. Captain Steve Jennison fell short of his prediction of 40 points by 17 points. He was also short eight minutes in penalties from his guess. In winning the league Please turn to Page 9 SELLING AT LAST YEAR'S PRICES. McNair into 40 saves, while Steve Beer recorded 26. The teams were even in penalties at six. Beer is hot While most members of the Hawks enjoy their beer cold, there is an exception when they’re on the ice. And they had that “hot Beer” Sunday night as goalie Steve Beer was one of the big differences in their 3-1 win over the Irish. Another big factor came in the third period, when the Hawks successfully fought off a two-man advantage by the Irish and then scored their insurance tally when they enjoyed a two-man ad­ vantage later in the period. Exeter jump into a 1-0 lead in the second when John Van Gerwen finished off a play with Fred Mommersteeg and Phil Knight, but Lucan rebound­ ed for a power play tally by Jerry Jongeneeken at the 8:06 mark to even things up. Captain Steve Jennison then fired the winning tally two minutes later on a play with Knight and Don McKellar. Knight and Jamie Caldwell picked up penalties within 20 seconds of each other in the third period, but Beer and his cohorts manag­ ed to hold Lucan off the sheet. Then, with Cecil Nickles and Gary Herr in the box at the 15:14 mark, Fred Mommersteeg took a pass from Matt Muller and drill­ ed a hard shot into the top corner for the insurance marker. Jennison also drew an assist. Scott McNair handled 31 shots in the Lucan net, while Beer had 27. The penalties were even at 11 a side. Erupt in third The Hawks put on one of their patented third period flourishes in the third game of the series to move ahead by one game. They led by a 2-1 margin heading into the final stanza and blasted four shots past McNair to post a 6-1 victory. Jamie Caldwell got the locals off on the right foot at the 26 second mark of the first period when he circled behind the net to beat McNair to the open corner. Steve Jennison upped the lead on a power play goal later in the period and the game stayed that way until the 16:19 mark of the second when Gord Moon scored on an unassisted effort for the Irish. Don McKellar started the Hawks rally in the third and Ken Pinder squeezed one in between a pair by Brian Taylor. Taylor also picked up a pair of assists, as did John Van Gerwen. Drawing one assist each were McKellar, Pinder, Caldwell, Mommersteeg and Jen­ nison. Exeter out-shot Lucan by a 35-22 margin in the con­ test., including a 15-4 difference in the third Deriod. Penalties help Irish In the second game of the series played in Lucan, Wednesday the home crew scored on two power plays enroute to a 4-3 win. Exeter jumped into a 3-0 lead in the first on goals by Randy Parsons, Jamie Caldwell and Don McKellar. Paul Medd got one back near the end of the first and Cecil Nickles opened with a tally in the second to pull the Irish to within one. The tying goal came at the 10:13 mark of the third with Don McKellar and Brad Taylor in the penalty box, the latter serving a bench minor picked up by coach Ron Bogart. Triggerman on the tally was Jerry Jongeneelen. At the 18:36 mark, Nickles scored his second goal of the night to give Lucan the win. Both goaltenders faced a barrage of shots in the wide- open contest. McNair had 54 shot his way, with 25 of them coming in the final period. Beer stopped 39. z /snc- /4UDIOFOX Lear Jet PIONEER CAR STEREO SYSTEMS We have a system to fit your needs and your pocketbook. This Week's Special * Audiovox 8-Track Player * 20 Ounce Coaxial Speakers Exeter GET OUR PRICE BEFORE YOU BUY Jerry MacLean & Son AUTOMOTIVE LTD. 235.0800 OUR STORE IS BIG ENOUGH TO SERVE YOUR NEEDS... BUT SMALL ENOUGH TO BE FRIENOLY WELCOME The Employees of McGregor Plymouth Chrysler (Petrolia) BUY NOW & BEAT THE INCREASE ONLY 4 LEFT Kawasaki The hottest thing on snow. untry Rner STORES MT. CARMEL 237-3456 co“"TRY rI\IEr STORES To Extended Health Care and Dental Plan 7 These employees now have the added bene­ fits of extra health protection for themselves and their families: the Blue Cross Extended Health Care Plan plus Dental Plan 7. EHC provides protection against health ser­ vices not covered by the basic government health plan, coverage for such items as pre­ scription drugs, private nursing and private room accommodation in hospital. Dental Plan 7 provides basic preventive dental treatment to group subscribers including such services as examinations, fillings and x-rays. Phil deBarros “As your Ontario Blue Cross representative I am pleased to add my personal welcome, and look forward to serving you along with the many others in this region already enjoying the protection of a variety of Blue Cross Plans.” 227 Queens Avenue, London, Ontario N6A1J8 (519)439-4431