The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 23

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1986 SECTION M02 NBA season previewC-6 Vikings back on topC-13 Perfect day for bowlersC-1 5 i Moeller may miss playoffsC-17 More titles for Indian HillC-18 UK loses Bennett for yearC-1 8 ini EDITOR: GREG NOBLE, 359-1917 Tim Sullivan Mete rally to beat Boston in 10 "1 I 1 jj ii i-rnnmrwiiii i iiiiiiiii i imjjp i iilwwih.m, 1, i i. I 't" BY GREG HOARD The Cincinnati Enquirer NEW YORK The New York Mets came back from the brink Saturday night, evening the World Series at three games apiece with a wild, come-from-be-hind 6-5 10-inning victory. The Red Sox took a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning when Dave Henderson homered, Wade Boggs doubled and Marty Barrett singled Boggs home. But the Mets scored three runs in the bottom of the inning, all after two were out. Boston reliever Calvin Schiral-di, who had given up the tying run in the eighth, his first inning of work in relief of Roger Clemens, had two outs when Gary Carter started the rally with a single to left.

Pinch-hitter Kevin Mitchell followed with a base hit. Schiraldi then got two strikes on Ray Knight, but the third baseman brought the Mets to within one run with a single up the middle. Red Sox manager John McNa-mara then replaced Schiraldi with Bob Stanley. Stanley had a 2-and-2 count on Mookie Wilson, when he threw a wild pitch that allowed Mitchell to score from third and tie the game, 5-5. That done, Wilson bounced a ground ball down the first-base line that traveled squarely between Bill Buckner's legs and the winning run scored.

Clemens worked seven innings, allowing four hits and striking out eight. He left the game in eighth for pinch-hitter Mike Greenwell, when the Red Sox had a chance to extend a 3-2 lead. Roger McDowell, who gave up Boston's go-ahead run in the seventh, gave up a lead-off single to Henderson. A sacrifice bunt put Henderson at second and Green-well struck out. McDowell then intentionally walked Boggs and unintentionally walked Barrett.

Jesse Orosco came from the bullpen to retire Buckner on a fly ball to center. The three left on base gave the Red Sox a total of 12 in eight innings. They would Bob Stanley wild pitch allowed tying run finish with 14 for the night. That set the stage for Schiraldi, who went to Boston last winter in the trade for Mets starter Bob Ojeda. Schiraldi, who had worked only one previous inning in the series, was not up to the task.

He allowed a lead-off single to Lee Mazzilli and then made a bad throw to second on Len Dykstra's sacrifice bunt. Another sacrifice bunt this one by Wally Back-man put runners at second and third. Keith Hernandez was intentionally walked to set up the double play and that brought Carter to the plate. Carter lined out to left, scor--ing Mazzilli from third on the sacrifice and tying the game, 3-3. Rick Aguilera started the ninth for for the Mets in a game that had traveled a long way from its expectations.

(Please see SERIES, Page C-3) Threat of rain looms Game 7 of the World Series faces the threat of rain The National Weather Service on Saturday forecast a 70 chance of rain for New York today. The Associated PressPeter Southwick Mets catcher Gary Carter tags out Boston's Jim Rice at the plate in the seventh inning. Rice tried to score from second on Rich Gedman's single to left. Mookie Wilson made the throw. Bearcats just happy to win, 24-19 Bill Buckner: Painful path to the Series NEW YORK He could make the hundred-yard dash seem like the Hundred Years' War.

His home run trot should be recorded in time-lapse photography. He moves more like an institution than a man, with great deliberation and grinding of gears. Meet Bill Buckner, the barely walking wounded of this World Series Boston's man with one black shoe, one black high-top and one painful purple ankle. "I don't run," Buckner said the other day. "I wouldn't call what I do I'd call it Somewhere between jogging and running.

That's what I do. I don't wish my condition on anybody. I don't think they'd want it anyhow." The most remarkable statistic of this postseason is not Marty Barrett's batting average, but Buckner's perfect attendance. He has been hobbling around on a left ankle more swollen than Gary Carter's ego, taking cortisone shots as if they were candy and applying so much ice to his body that you'd think he was trying to freeze himself until science could find a cure for all his assorted ailments. And yet, until he let Mookie Wilson's game-winning ground ball go between his legs in the 10th inning of Game 6 Saturday night, Buckner had missed neither a game nor a grounder in the postseason.

No man to sit out Buckner is suffering from an aching Achilles tendon and a chronic ankle problem that has made him both the most comic and most compelling figure of the series. Pagliacci with an ice pack. "I've been taking anti-inflammatory drugs for 10 years now and I know they aren't good for you," he said. "I've been taking two pills a day for 10 years. I've had all kinds of cortisone shots "I think it's worth it.

To some, it's not. For Johnny Bench, it wasn't. He might have been the best catcher of our time and he quit. He wanted to be able to walk around when he was old. I'd rather do everything I can to play.

I think it's worth it. I know what I'm getting into. I know what I'm looking at." Most likely, Buckner is looking at arthritis and a lifelong limp. But the lure of playing in his first World Series has made Buckner bland, if not blind, to the pain. He has gone about his business, slowly, with great good humor.

"I feel great," he said Thursday. "I feel fine. I'm getting better every day. By Saturday, I'll probably be another Lou Brock. Before this series is over, I'm going to steal a base that is, if I ever get on base." Buckner took a .174 series average into Saturday's game and bounced around the field more like Lou Grant than Lou Brock.

"Yeah, I've gotten a lot of suggestions," he had said Thursday in front of a locker crowded with chemicals. "Here's the best idea." He turned into his dressing cubicle and pulled out a small vial. "This is water from Egypt somebody sent me," Buckner announced. "The letter said, 'Drink this and you'll be healed in three Spontaneously, he opened the bottle and took a swig. "If I die," he said, "you know the reason now." Looks to next year The assembled media inspected the bottle and its packaging and discovered it was really Holy Water from the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, Mass.

Buckner must have mislaid the Egyptian elixir among all the other magic potions. Ultimately, Buckner knows, surgery is the only thing that is going to correct his condition. "After the last surgery (in 1975), I told myself I'd never have surgery again unless it was the only way I could play," Buckner said. "This year it got so bad I said, 'I've got to do "It was a tough year for me. I was hitting .200 after 2Vi months.

I had to hit .330 in the second half and ended up driving in a lot of runs (102) and had a lot of extra-base hits (59). My last two months of the season, including the last two weeks, I hit the ball better than I ever have in my life. I had a period of 12 games where I hit eight home runs. "After that stretch, I said to myself, 'Next year is going to be the best year of my career. Next year will be the year I put it all Bill Buckner, 36 and soon to have surgery, is one of the true believers.

"The rest of my body's very young," he said. "These wrinkles are from playing all those day games." BY TOM GROESCHEN The Cincinnati Enquirer WICHITA, Kan. As a work of art, the University of Cincinnati's 24-19 football victory over Wichita State here Saturday wasn't a Rembrandt. It wasn't even a Leroy Nie-man. It was more like a toddler's rendering of Winnie the Pooh.

Still, it was a win. "It wasn't our best performance," UC coach Dave Currey said, "but all people will want to know is whether you win or lose. We sure don't know how to win easy." The Bearcats, combining bouts of lethargy with a knack for converting much-needed big plays, put down the heavy underdog Shockers on a cold, gray afternoon before a sparse homecoming crowd of 8,411 in Cessna Stadium. A pregame rain helped keep the attendance down. The stadium's grass turf was a bit slippery but held fairly well, and there was no rain during the game.

UC, shooting for its first win- (Please see BEARCATS, Page C-19) Division control at stake Bengals aim to sweep Steelers BY MIKE DODD The Cincinnati Enquirer PITTSBURGH It's week eight of the NFL season, the week when Bengals teams of recent years have emerged from their coma. With records of 2-5, 1-6 and 1-6 at this stage the last three years, the Bengals have started their football season at the end of the World Series. With the eighth game, they started a three-game winning streak in both 1983 and '85, and two in a row to begin a 7-of-9 blitz in '84. This year, they're already in good shape. They ride a three-game winning streak into Three Rivers Stadium for a 1 p.m.

date with the 1-6 Pittsburgh Steelers. While the victories haven't been overly impressive, they've still been accepted in the NFL standings. And it has given them a chance to be playing for more than survival in November and December. (Please see BENGALS, Page C-19) i A j.l Associated PressGregory Drezdzon UC running back Reggie Taylor (30) puts his shoulder into Wichita State defender on a first-half run. i i Buckeyes stick out chests Ohio State thumbs nose at detractors, 33-0 Scoreboard Region Cincinnati 24, Wichita St.

19 Miami 20, Northern Illinois 6 Ohio St. 33, Minnesota 0 (4) Michigan 38, Indiana 14 Georgia 31, Kentucky 9 AP Top 20 (1) Miami, did not play. (6) Penn St. 23, (2) Alabama 3 Colorado 20, (3) Nebraska 10 (5) Oklahoma 38, Iowa State 0 (7) Auburn 35, (13) Miss. St.

6 (8) Washington 38, Oregon 3 (9) Arizona State vs. Utah (N) (10) Texas 45, Rice 10 (11) Iowa 27, Northwestern 20 (12) LSI) 30, North Carolina 3 (14) Arkansas 30, Houston 13 (15) Arizona vs. California (N) (20) N.C. State 27, (16) Clemson 3 (17) UCLA 54, Washington St. 16 Texas 27, (18) SMU 24 USC 10, (19) Stanford 0 (N) Night game At a glance WHO: Cincinnati Bengals (5-2) vs.

Pittsburgh Steelers (1-6). WHEN: 1 p.m. WHERE: Three Rivers Stadium. RADIO: WKRC-AM and the Bengals' Network (Phil Samp and Dave Lapham). TV: Channels 5 and 22 (Tom Hammond and Reggie Rucker).

ODDS: Oddsmakers favor Bengals by 41s points. Statistics, rosters, notebook, Page C-12. Today's NFL matchups, Page C-12. BY JOHN FAY The Cincinnati Enquirer COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio State team that slapped Minnesota silly, 33-0, Saturday is the real team. Or, at least, that's what some very biased observers were saying in the OSU locker room afterward.

"I never thought we had a lousy team, like some of you did," coach Earle Bruce said. "We're not a bad team. I don't think there's a team in the country that can out-personnel us when we don't make mistakes and play The Buckeyes definitely looked like a good team against Minnesota. The Gophers are not a powerhouse they lost, 63-0, to Oklahoma but they did come in with a 4-2 record, 3-0 in the Big Ten. On this soggy Saturday, however, they were no match for Ohio State.

It was so bad that, after the Bucks jumped to a 17-0 halftime lead, many in the homecoming crowd of 89,936 wisely went home to get dry. "Our lines dominated both sides of the ball," Bruce said. (Please see BUCKEYES, Page C-19) A lot of people thought it was going to be a long year for the Buckeyes after they opened with losses to Alabama and Washington, then struggled to beat Colorado. But OSU is 6-2 and tied for first in the Big Ten with Michigan at 4-0. "We did some small things, wrong in those first two games," said Middletown's Cris Carter, who caught five passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns Saturday.

"We always thought we were a good team." Said quarterback Jim Karsa-tos: "We're right where we should be. We're playing more as a unt." Tim Sullivan isnquirer sports columnist. JJ hard.".