Bill Virdon

He's, uh, warned, uh, Dennis right now, he'll see something on it.

Meanwhile, this is taking place, uh, Billy Martin and Vic Williams conferring with the umpires down at the home plate area.

The coaches, of course, for the Tigers, Joe Schultz will be coaching at third base, Vic Rizzi at first base.

And for the Oakland Athletics, it'll be Norren coaching, uh, at third base, while Bill- uh, Jerry Adair will be the coach at first base.

Thank goodness, though, I think he got the glove down just, it may have come off the heel of the glove.

Had he not, he might've been hurt.

Well, the best indicator we have is that Bill Vey and Billy Martin didn't stay out there too long.

Uh, it seems that he is not seriously hurt.

And, uh, Cincy, of course, is gonna be the Cubs' next opponent, starting here tomorrow with a single game, then a doubleheader on Wednesday.

For Bill Burton and the Astros today, leading off will be the rookie Terry Puhl, P-U-H-L. Puhl in left field.

Enos Cabell will be hitting second.

Cabell at third.

Bases are loaded again.

The third walk of the inning.

That'll bring the skipper, Bill Burton, out there for a little counseling.

George Mitterwald, hitting in the eight spot, is going to be the next batter after Burton gets through with his lecture out there.

Today's winner moves into the World Series against either Oakland or Detroit, depending on the outcome of today or tomorrow's ballgame.

Sparky Anderson, the Reds manager, went with the same lineup today he used for each of the four previous games, while the Pirates manager, Bill Virdon, who has done some shuffling, made only one change.

Third baseman Richie Hebner and second baseman Dave Cash, who batted sixth and seventh on Tuesday, have switched batting positions for today's game.

Now, that game will be getting underway in approximately 10 or 15 minutes, and we'll keep you up to date inning by inning what's occurring there.

So Rollie Fingers, who came out of the bullpen almost 70 times for the A's this year and pulled off some miracles, including one out in Oakland where the Tigers had runners at first and third and nobody out, and he stopped them from scoring.

If he can pull this one out with Freehan, it'll be something.

Billy Martin is the type of manager that might put on a suicide squeeze play right here with his big catcher.

There's a lot to think about here.

2-1.

Bill Virdon standing in front of the bench at the bottom of the dugout step.

Time called now.

Lee Wire calls time, and apparently there's something in center field that Lee doesn't like.

There's a fly ball foul, out of play along the left field line.

Oh and one to Royce.

Bill Virdon admitted after last night's game, he said, "I'm sure some of my players will have a hard time sleeping tonight, but tomorrow they'll be ready." Well, we're scoreless in the fifth.

Breaking ball, Royce tried to bunt it.

They turned him into a pitcher.

The former Pirates manager, Bill Virdon, did that in Williamsport, late 1966 or '67.

Well, the situation, McAnally goes three and a third.

He's given up three hits, four runs so far.

Ground ball foul outside of third.

Well, Bill Virdon taught just so much to this young man when he was at Montreal with him, and he never really settled him down as far as his temper, but as far as his baseball knowledge.

And now, as you said, he's matured.

He's settled down that way.

Johnny Lewis, Al Luplow, Ed Kranepool, and Johnny Stephenson, all left-hand batters.

Bill Virdon has four left-handers and four right-handers, five counting Jack Fisher.

Here's the 2-0 delivery.

Foul ball back into the screen.

Call this number toll-free or see your local Army representative.

The umpires and, uh, the representative, in the case of Houston, it is the manager, Bill Virdon, meeting at home plate, going over in particular detail the ground rules for the Astrodome.

Bruce Froemming will be back at the plate calling the balls and strikes today.

Ed Vargo at first, Doug Harvey at second, Jerry Crawford at third, Bob Engel down the left field line, and Terry Pate down the right field line.

Been talking to him yesterday, and he said, "Boy, that really hurt." He said [laughing] I was laughing.

I said, "You didn't want to rub it, did you?" He said, "Nope" and he said, "I couldn't help it.

I had to." [laughing] That's Bobby Wine, who brought the, uh, lineup card out [crowd cheering] for Philadelphia manager Dallas Green, and now the Houston Astros have taken the field.

And every time an Astro moves today, I suspect you're gonna get a reaction from the crowd.