Atlantic City Press - April 13, 1980

Phils Rip Expos, ‘Heal’ Ruthven

Philadelphia 6, Montreal 2

By Ed Hilt, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies’ Manager Dallas Green will never be confused with Oral Roberts. But he's given pitcher Dick Ruthven the faith to feel healed. 

Ruthven’s 6-2 win Saturday before 36,962 fans over the Montreal Expos wasn't the stuff of which Cy Young Awards are made. He pitched seven innings, allowing six hits, one earned run, five walks and getting no strikeouts. He was helped by some spectacular defense and 14 hits (eight of them extra-base). 

But for a guy coming off off-season elbow surgery after being on the disabled list twice last year, the victory was just fine, thank you. 

“In spring training, we kept trying to get Dick Ruthven to eliminate from his mind that he had a bad arm,” said Green after the Phils whipped the Expos Saturday after handling them easily in the home opener Friday night. “I’d say he’s right on schedule now. Boonie (Phils’ catcher Bob Boone) told me his location was getting better as the game went on. I'm very pleased. I was hoping to get six innings out of him and I got 84 pitches in seven innings.” 

Ruthven won his first six games last year as the Phillies, in the first two months of the season, looked like they were going to make a joke of the National League Eastern Division race. 

But it turned into a season of injuries to pitchers, with maybe the biggest blow being Ruthven's bonechipped plagued arm. He won only one more game for a 7-5 record, and the Phils, coming off three straight Eastern Division titles, fell to fourth place. 

He had a rough spring training (7.88 ERA), but this outing may have convinced him he can come back. 

Although Ruthven allowed six hits and five walks against the Expos, he wasn't really in serious trouble. In the first, Ron Lelore hit a slicing, opposite field line drive for a triple, and he scored on a ground out by Andre Dawson for a 1-0 Expo lead. 

After that, Montreal never got more than one hit per inning, and efforts like a Mike Schmidt stab of a Larry Parrish white-hot, two-hopper, and three double plays stifled the Expos. 

If it’s a positive, confident approach Ruthven is seeking, then his team mates seem able to back him up. Garry Maddox, still unsigned by the Phillies, was three-for-four with a single, double and homer and two RBI. The slim, new-look Greg Luzinski roped a double and came close to hitting his second homer of the season, a long fly out to the warning track in deep left-center. Boone hit a double and a single, Larry Bowa tied for sixth with Cy Williams (1,553) on the all-time Phillies hit list with a triple and Manny Trillo was three-for-four with a triple. 

The triples by Bowa and Trillo were back-to-back in the fourth which gave the Phils their fourth run. 

It was 6-1 in the seventh when Green decided Ruthven had had enough and went to veteran reliever Ron Reed. But the big right-hander walked Rodney Scott (who came close to a major league record of six walks with five) and Andre Dawson. They advanced on a ground out. Parrish hit a sacrifice fly and scored Scott Reed walked Gary Carter and put men on first and third. 

Green called Tug McGraw from the bullpen, and the left-hander got Warren Cromartie to ground out to end the eighth-inning threat.

Phils Try Another Way on Opening Day

By Michael Shepherd, Press Sports Editor

It couldn't have been opening day, could it? 

The Philadelphia Phillies won, Steve Carlton went the distance and looked great in recording his first victory, Larry Bowa made an error and Kiteman’s sortie to home plate was perfect.

If you are familiar with the recent history of the Phillies, you know that almost never do any of the above occur on opening day at Veteran’s Stadium. 

But on Friday night against the Montreal Expos, the Phillies won their first home opener since 1974. 

And it takes Bowa sometimes half a season before he boots one at shortstop. 

And Kiteman? After two crashes on takeoff, the hang glider pro finally flew at the Vet. This time it was from a shorter runway in center-field. He circled off into rightfield and then made a perfect landing at home plate. 

Just in case fans thought they had been transported by time warp to another dimension, an old tradition emerged to bring one’s senses back to reality. 

Right after Kiteman's flight, the seasonal resident of the Vet roost made its first appearance — the boo-bird. Yes it surely is the first sign of spring in South Philly when the boo-bird comes out.

Who did they boo? Why the man they recently elected to the Mayor’s office, Bill Green, who was handed a baseball by Kiteman for the ceremonial first pitch. 

The pre-game festivities were the usual spectacular: fireworks, the big band, a choir singing the national anthems of Canada and the United States, the unfurling of the huge American flag and the shenanigans of the Philly Phanatic. 

And the Phillies themselves? One thing is for sure, they are in outstanding physical condition. 

Greg Luzinski, 25 pounds lighter and unashamedly wearing glasses, is the most notable success of Manager Dallas Green's shape up campaign. Luzinski, whose diet no doubt consists of less kielbasa, proved that his dramatic loss of weight did not result in an equal loss of power. With Garry Maddox and Mike Schmidt aboard through walks, Luzinski lined a 2-2 pitch from Montreal starter Steve Rogers to left. 

Luzinski was charged up rounding the bases and raised his fist over his head in the season’s first show of emotion by the Phillies, renowned for their ‘cool’ on the playing field. Maybe the Phils’ corps of fired-up players has increased from three to four with Luzinski joining Pete Rose, Bowa and pitcher Kevin Saucier.

The crowd of 48,460 gave Luzinski, much maligned for a poor season last year, a standing ovation, which he acknowledged with a wave after the prolonged applause summoned him from the dugout. 

A little later, Luzinski demonstrated that the loss of weight may have not improved his fielding. He fell down chasing a liner to left by Ellis Valentine, probably turning a double into a triple. But in fairness, the ball was past The Bull into the corner, and he slipped, perhaps because of his very lightness, while trying to chase the carom. 

The Phils, apart from Green's back-to-basics theories, have not really made any great changes from last year when they faded to fourth from three years as National League East Division champions. 

It's obvious the Phils’ management believes the team has the players and what’s needed is to get the best out of them, hence the emphasis on fundamentals, and to avoid injury, hence the emphasis on conditioning. 

Injuries last season, mainly to the pitchers, devastated the Phils.

On opening day, at least, the Green era appeared to make a good beginning as the 1980 Phillies looked like an improved model despite the fact they did not change their personnel except to bring up a handful of young prospects.