A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASEBALL—WORLD SERIES went to the New York Yankees as the '60 Series goat, right-hander Ralph Terry, became the '62 hero. Terry won the deciding game 1-0 to give the Yanks their 20th championship, despite the fact that the losing San Francisco Giants held them to a .199 Series batting average, 20 runs and three home runs in seven games. After four days off on account of planes, rains and no drains in the Giants' Candlestick Park, San Francisco knotted the Series 3-3, thanks to a three-hitter by Lefty Billy Pierce, but the next day Terry was unbeatable. For once, Yankee excellence was confined almost entirely to pitching and fielding. The "Bombers" got their only run of the last game by hitting into a double play, and in nine American League cities "wait till next year" became almost a battle cry of impatience instead of a lament.
BASKETBALL—NBA: LOS ANGELES LAKERS, who believe that this is their year (see page 36), got off to an early, easy win over Detroit (122-106), then lost two in unchampionship fashion, 116-105 to New York and 108-102 to Syracuse, leaving them shocked and in third place in the Western Division. St. Louis, with a lone win, was where the Lakers hoped to be, while last year's doormat, Chicago, showed a courtful of new faces as it beat Cincinnati and lost to New York. San Francisco didn't play, but Detroit dropped two and thus fell into the cellar. The powerful Boston Celtics started smoothly with an opening victory over New York 149-116, before a big, boisterous home crowd and shared the Eastern Division lead with Syracuse. The Knicks picked up another win to snuggle into third place and Cincinnati, with an inauspicious 0-1 beginning, was last.
FOOTBALL—NFL: WASHINGTON buoyantly bobbed at the top of the Eastern Conference for the fifth impressive week with a 27—21 victory over Philadelphia that sent the Eagles down even deeper to the bottom. It was done with the now-familiar pass-dash work of Quarterback Norm Snead, who passed for 279 yards, and Halfback Bobby Mitchell, who dashed for two touchdowns in a spectacular afternoon's play. An aroused New York defense stopped—and nearly smothered, in fact—the powerful Detroit Lions and ubiquitous Milt Plum. Don Chandler kicked a nine-yard field goal in the third quarter to put the Giants ahead to stay, 17-14, before a delighted sellout home crowd. The win put the Giants solidly in second as the high-riding Dallas Cowboys beat Pittsburgh, 42-27. That was the work of vigorous Eddie LeBaron, who threw five scoring passes. The unbeaten Packers lagged behind San Francisco as the 49ers slipped ahead 6-0. But Green Bay's explosive fullback, Jim Taylor, led a winning assaultwith 160 yards gained (which boosts his league-leading rushing total to 742) and the Packers stayed undefeated and unworried. 31-13. The Browns completely subdued the Cardinals in St. Louis with Jim Ninowski's surprisingly successful aerial attack (339 yards) as Cleveland scrambled back into contention in the East with a 34-7 win. The lethargic Colts unhappily evened their record (3-3) as they look a 35-15 drubbing from Chicago. Three touchdown passes by Minnesota's horribly harassed Quarterback Fran Tarkenton (see page 25) brought the Vikings their first win of the year as they dumped the Los Angeles Rams into last place, beating them 38-14.
AFL: DENVER smacked Houston 20-10 in a crucial game between the division leaders that brought a record 34,496 Bronco fans out to cheer. Quarterback Frank Tripucka led a 90-yard touchdown drive, Halfback Gene Mingo kicked two field goals, and Halfback Donnie Stone ran 20 yards for another tally as Denver maintained its lead in the Western Division. Houston's loss, however, brought about a tie with Boston in the Eastern Division as the Patriots put on a 21-point scoring splurge in the second half to finally overcome a stubborn San Diego team, 24-20. In Dallas, the Texans outscored New York 20-17, but it was anybody's guess as to who won the fights. The second half had two melees that saw Halfback Abner Haynes, scorer of two running touchdowns, evicted from the game for slugging Titan Linebacker Jerry Fields. Fullback Cookie Gilchrist slogged through the mud to lead Buffalo to a 14-6 victory in the rain over the Oakland Raiders in Buffalo.
GOLF—AL GEIBERGER, the tall, blond former USC star, won the $25,000 Ontario (Calif.) Open for his first tournament victory in his three years on the PGA tour, playing steadily for a 276 as five close followers bunched behind him at 277.
HARNESS RACING—OZO ($12.30). an elegant-stepping 4-year-old mare from France, challenged leader and favorite Tie Silk a surprising three times during the $45,000 Transoceanic Trot at Yonkers and finally broke through to victory by a neck. In winning the first race conducted exclusively for foreign-owned trotters, Ozo and Driver-Trainer Gerhard Kruger, the eight-time German driving champion, beat Canada's best in Tie Silk. Sweden's Julienne and Ravioli of Belgium followed.
The Hambletonian society, meeting in New York, passed up bids from Yonkers Raceway and Chicago's Washington Park and decided to keep the classic right where it is, in Du Quoin, Ill. The Society extended until 1968 a contract that was to expire next year.
HOCKEY—DETROIT remained undefeated and clung to sole possession of the NHL lead as the Wings swept past Boston 5-3 and overcame Chicago 3-1 in a rough, penalty-riddled game. Montreal beat Toronto 4-2, but later stumbled into a 3-3 tie with New York while Ranger Coach Muzz Patrick worried publicly that his last-place Blues were giving more time to TV commercials than they were to their stick work. Toronto crept up to tie Montreal for second place. The Leafs first licked Chicago 3-1, then Boston 6-4. But then everyone hit the hapless Bruins, whose eventful opening win stands mockingly alone.
HORSE RACING—KELSO ($2.50) made the $108.-900 Jockey Club Gold Cup a no-contest event as he left five other starters far behind, winning the big race for an unparalleled third time. Under the urging of Jockey Ismael Valenzuela, Mrs. Richard du Pont's famous gelding fairly flew through Belmont's testing two-mile course in the track-record time of 3:19 4/5, a brief two-fifths of a second off his American record for the distance. Otherwise, the contest was for second place, which went to Guadalcanal, 10 long lengths back.
Beau Purple ($11.60) found the track the heaviest competitor in Chicago. A drizzly rain turned the shorter (mile and a quarter), but richer ($131,250) Hawthorne Gold Cup into a slippery mess. But Bill Boland brought the Hobeau Farm entry to the outside early, found firmer footing there and won by two lengths over Bass Clef.
HORSE SHOW—the AMERICAN TEAM easily won the international jumping title at the Harris-burg, Pa. show with seven first places and the unusually high total of 106 points in 10 classes. Ireland was a lagging second with 42 points, two better than third-place Canada. Mexico was last, not winning a single event. Outstanding performer on the U.S. team was 28-year-old, bespectacled Frank Chapot of Wallpack, N.J., who clinched the individual title.
MOTOR SPORTS—ROGER PENSKE, jaunty driver of his own Penske-modified Zerex Special, was the happy winner at Laguna Seca (see page 12).
TRACK & FIELD—JAPAN displayed a growing prowess at long-distance running by beating a strong field of 125 in an international marathon in Auckland, New Zealand. Tiny (5 feet) Takayuki Nakao ran the 26-mile event in two seconds under the 2:18:54 New Zealand record formerly held by Olympian Barry Magee.
MILEPOSTS—HIRED: BOBBY BRAGAN, 44, as fourth Milwaukee Brave manager in slightly more than three years in the hope he will shake up the team with his obstreperous personality. Also hired, as coaches with the Baltimore Orioles, .310-lifetime-hitter LUKE APPLING, 54; and wistful HANK BAUER, 40, who recently quit the manager's job at Kansas City before being fired. Sighed Bauer, even after taking Oriole post: "Once a Yankee, always a Yankee, and some day I hope to go back to them."
REHIRED: WALTER (Smokey) ALSTON, 50, for the ninth straight year as manager of the Dodgers, despite the Dodgers' collapse and reports that some players had lost faith in him.
REASSURED: LEO (The Lip) DUROCHER, 56, former Dodger manager, now Dodger coach, who hoped for Alston's job, and second-guessed him after final Dodger playoff defeat, by a forgiving Alston. For once, no immediate word from Leo.
DIED: JOHN B. LAW, 57, captain and All-America guard on the 1929 national champion Notre Dame football team, who, although slight, developed into a crunchingly able lineman and whose later career as a coach included a volunteer tour of duty with the Sing Sing football team; in Tarrytown, N.Y.
DIED: GEORGE C. REIS, 73, happy extrovert, occasional actor and versemaker who drove his powerboat, El Largarto, to three straight Gold Cup victories in 1933-35, and who continued to drive the same boat at the same speed until last summer; in Glens Falls, N.Y.