dave collins piece

Collins adds spark to Jays' 8-5 win over Rangers

By KEVIN BOLAND
LONG AFTER the details of it are forgotten, Toronto Blue Jays just
might remember their 8-5 victory over Texas Rangers as the night Dave
Collins finally arrived.
It happened not a moment too soon for the fleet left fielder whom the
team had expected to become the sparkplug of its attack.
"All season, I've been struggling," Collins said last night after three
singles in four appearances at the plate raised his average 16 points to
.227. "Tonight, I felt good. Really good."
Collins, a .293 career hitter with Cincinnati Reds of the National
League, was a bust with New York Yankees last season. In a deal said to
have involved a $400,000 inducement by George Steinbrenner, he and pitcher
Mike Morgan were swapped last December for Jays' reliever Dale Murray.
The win improved the Blue Jays' record to 44-33 and extended their lead
to two games atop the Eastern Division of the American League, ahead of
Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees.
There were 25,666 fans on hand to swell attendance this season to
812,169 - an average of 21,373 for 38 home dates - up 256,790 from the
555,379 (15,010 average) at the same point last year.
Although Toronto manager Bobby Cox maintained his faith in Collins
throughout the first half of this season, the player candidly admits he
often wondered why.
"Maybe the three days off helped me," Collins said of the all-star game
break. "I just got away from myself for three days. Maybe it did some
good."
The break did not seem to have the same salutary effect on a number of
Rangers and Blue Jays. Some of them, indeed, looked a trifle rusty after
the layoff.
Winning pitcher Jim Clancy, 8-5, tossed 111 pitches - one wild, wild
fling brought two runs home - before Cox rescued him with two out in the
seventh inning.
"I was just trying to hold them," he admitted, with a grin. "I couldn't
put anything where I wanted it. I was lucky this time."
First baseman Willie Upshaw, who smacked his team-leading 16th home run
of the season, sealed the victory for the Jays when he struck a three-run
blast in the fourth inning off reliever Jon Matlack to produce an 8-3
lead.
"I didn't muscle it at all," he said, though the ball rifled over the
wall in right. "Just a nice sweet swing."
At batting practice the night before, he noticed he was coming on a
little strong with his swing. "So I decided to lay back a little."
It also seemed to settle Clancy, who had retired the side in order in
only one inning. Part of his erratic outing might be pinned on a difficult
second inning for right fielder Jorge Orta.
First, however, let it be said that similar difficulties kept Ranger
right fielder Larry Parrish awake last night.
Rance Mulliniks' towering pop fly fell for a triple when Parrish lost
it in the twilight.
Losing pitcher Danny Darwin, 7-7, then walked Upshaw and surrendered a
double to Cliff Johnson. It was the 57th run batted in by a Jays'
designated hitter, one more than the position produced all last year.
Centre fielder Lloyd Moseby cashed in the second run with a sacrifice
fly to centre.
In the top of the second, Orta got a late start on George Wright's
double to right-centre and misjudged Pete O'Brien's drive that sailed over
his head and off the wall for another two bases.
So sure was Wright that O'Brien's drive would be caught that he was
able to advance only one base.
Clancy, flustered, walked catcher Bobby Johnson, conceded a sacrifice
fly to shortstop Bucky Dent and walked Wayne Tolleson.
With Mickey Rivers at the plate, he uncorked a wild pitch that
skittered around the backstop, allowing O'Brien and Johnson to score.
Doubles by Mulliniks and Moseby, sandwiching a single by Upshaw, scored
two runs in the third. After a pair of walks loaded the bases, Collins
beat Tolleson's relay of a grounder to cash in Moseby.
Clancy, appearing in his first game since a 4-2 victory over Minnesota
Twins 10 days ago, struggled through the next four innings, but was
scratched for only two runs.
Moseby, with a spectacular leaping catch of Parrish's drive to the wall
in centre, kept the Rangers off the board in the fourth.
Designated hitter Mickey Rivers stroked a homer, his first of the
season, in the fifth and left fielder Billy Sample hit his ninth of the
season the following inning to cut the score to 8-5.
Reliever Randy Moffitt, who induced the dangerous Buddy Bell to ground
out after Clancy left the game, worked himself out of a bases-loaded jam
in the eighth.
After giving up a single to Parrish, a safety through an error and a
walk to pinch hitter Larry Biittner, he worked pinch hitter Bobby Jones to
a 3-2 count before slipping a third strike by him.
The Jays' Luis Leal, 8-6, and Ranger knuckleballer Charlie Hough, 7-6,
are the opponents when the series resumes at 1:30 p.m. today. All-star
teammates Dave Stieb of Toronto, 10-7, and Rick Honeycutt of Texas, 11-4,
will start the series finale at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

 

Why was this posted, other than to remind me whose baseball cards are sitting in boxes in the closet of my childhood bedroom?

 

SS,

If you wrote this, and want move it to the Writer's Workshop, I'm sure someone will take a crack at it. But if you didn't write it and you're posting the story for another reason, you're going to have to be more clear why it's worthy of discussion.

 

Is there a point to posting a 20+ year old story and then signing off?

 

It should be clear, D_B has a new handle.

 

AP ALERT

The New York Yankess on Monday announced the signing of Dave Collins. General Manager Clyde King said the team expects to make a run at the division title with a retooled offense built around Collins' speed and base-running.

 

re-read the ninth and 11th graphs and you'll understand

 

I still don't understanhd

 

Worst thread ever, Obscure Division.

 

Which chunks of the undifferentiated twenty-year-old text are those?

 

Stupidest. Thread. Ever.

 

Dave Collins is currently managing the Inland Empire 66ers, the single-A team in the California League which is part of the Dodgers minor league system. I don't know that this means anything, but somebody may have been wondering.