Allentown Morning Call - July 11, 1980
All is not right but Phillies beat Cubs, 5-3
By Jack McCallum, Call Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA – The scene in the Phillies' locker room after the 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs last night resembled a gang of shoppers waiting for the doors to open on a storewide clearance sale.
But they only opened a crack.
As reporters searched for someone – ANYONE – to interview, the Phillies darted around the clubhouse and in and out of doorways to avoid confrontations with the press. The age-old stay-in-the-shower trick was used, too, and it is quite possible that team trainer Don Seger had to treat several of the players for wrinkled skin.
Obviously, all is not right with the Phillies and the press. And it's coming at a time when more and more appears to be right for the Phillies on the field.
The recent newspaper stories implicating several Phillies in a state drug investigation has turned the club, for the most part, against the press. They feel the stories have been overplayed, particularly since reports that Mike Schmidt and Larry Bowa were involved have proven to be apparently inaccurate.
Schmidt was asked if the players understood it was basically a news story which, in many cases, did not involve sports writers.
"I understand it." said Schmidt. "I don't know whether they (the other players) do. But I do." Then he walked away.
Bowa has apparently shut off relations with the press and most of the players discouraged interviews last night. They included Dick Ruthven and Bob Boone, who played a large part in the win which kept the Phillies a game behind Montreal in the Eastern Division. Boone later talked but only reluctantly.
Boone went 3-for-4 and knocked in two runs during a three-run fourth inning. And Ruthven survived a shaky start to record his eighth win against five losses.
The Phillies got three of their runs in the fourth, gift-wrapped as only the Cubs can gift-wrap. Boone's two-run single was the only hit and and a play on that ball could ve been made by third baseman Lenny Randle. It came after two walks and a Randle error had loaded the bases. The other run came on Pete Rose's long sacrifice fly to center.
Ruthven settled down after giving four hits and two runs in the first inning. He allowed 11 hits but it's not being facetious to say it was a tidy 11-hitter. Besides the four hits in the first, he gave up three hits in the fourth but escaped without giving up a run.
He didn't strike out or walk a man and allowed not more than one hit per inning until manager Dallas Green lifted him for pinch-hitter Greg Gross in the bottom of the eighth. Gross then delivered a single that drove in Boone with the Phils' final run.
Despite Ruthven's performance, the Phillies were lucky or, rather, lucky they were playing the Cubs-because they did show some sloppy play in the early going. In the second, for example. Garry Maddox held at third when he could've walked in on Manny Trillo's misplayed grounder that landed up in centerfield. And in the top of the third, both Maddox and Trillo jogged after a ball in short center that went off Bowa 's glove for a basehit, allowing Bill Buckner to stretch a single into a double. But. considering the circumstances. Green was quite pleased with the win and felt a clubhouse meeting had something to do with the Phils' solid performance.
"I don't think it (the drug stories) are on their minds," said Green. "They've been through adversity before.
"We had a darn good open session today before the game. And it wasn't just Dallas Green. Everybody contributed."