The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 53

The Indianapolis Star Saturday, October 30, 1339 ADVICE 3 BRIDGE 8 COMICS 6, 7, 10 MOVIES 4-5 TELEVISION 8-9 In on the ground floor Greenwood graduate Carlos Diaz is an anchor on a new NBA network. Page 9. InfoUne: 624-INFO (4636) Online: www.stamews.com '1 If IJi jyA lyji vLAy SSHB Thanks, Jean you made me what I am today i i I I Krs. 1 1 VJJLi Li LJ wi mlr Cn UUpuJ (s? y. Abusive parents can ruin enjoyment of the game for their young players.

Staff Photos Jason Millstein SUPPORTIVE: Rajeev Ram (foreground) knows that his father, Raghav Ram (left), and his coach, Mark Woldmoe, won't berate him for errors. i "rk A CHAMP: Rajeev Ram plays a singles match in the boys state finals, which he won. I went out to retrieve the Sunday papers from the front porch, opening them to see If the world had blown up asleep. (It Mike Redmond hadn Then I saw the news that ruined my day: Jean Shepherd had died. I said the same bad word I said when Mickey Mantle and Roy Rogers died.

That's because I had the same feeling when Mickey went to the Big Ballpark In The Sky and Roy headed for The Last Roundup: The loss of someone I wanted to be when I grew up. When I am asked what writers influenced me, Shepherd is the first I name, although in recent years it has drawn blank stares: Jean Shepherd? Who's she? Then I mention A Christmas Story the movie about Ralphie Parker and his lust for a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun and I see the golden light of recognition spreading across the room. "Jean Shepherd a MAN from Indiana wrote that movie, and the stories it came from," I say. "You should read them. You will laugh out loud and it will change your life," That's how it worked for me, anyway.

An early discovery I discovered Jean Shepherd in the eighth grade. I wasn't lucky enough to hear his legendary late-night radio show on WOR in New York; I had to learn about him the old-fashioned way, in books. Shepherd's stories about growing up in Hohman (Hammond to you and me) with his whiny kid brother Randy, his pals Schwartz and Kissel and Flick, his grumpy Old Man and his long-suffering Mom well, to use his expression, they hit me where I lived. Substitute Brighton for Hohman; P.D. for Randy; Monty Jo, Roger and Raymond for Schwartz, Kissel and Flick; the Old Man for the Old Man and Mom for Mom, and it was MY LIFE.

I came from a world where kids got their tongues stuck on frozen flagpoles and Dads yelled at their furnaces, and Shepherd was writing about it. I immediately went to use another Shepherd expression out of my skull with excitement. One day in English class, while I was reading his collection In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, instead of the grammar assignment, I stumbled onto something that made me laugh not a quiet classroom snicker or a discreet chuckle, but a fullblown BLAH-HA-HA belly laugh. Mrs. Grabill wanted to know what was so funny about gerunds.

nothin'," I answered like the language scholar I was. "What are you reading?" I held up my book. "You must enjoy it," she said. "Uh-huh," I mumbled, unaware that I was walking into a trap. Then you'll also enjoy writing a book report and reading it to the class on Friday," she said.

I should have started to hate Jean Shepherd's guts right there and then, but I couldn't. He was just too funny. Making real work of it I worked hard on that book report. Instead of my usual practice, copying what was printed on the cover flap, I actually sat down and thought about why I liked this book, and gave examples of what made me laugh. They made my classmates laugh, too, and I got an A.

It may have been the first step on the path toward becoming a humor columnist, instead of cowboy or ballplayer as I had once planned. Jean Shepherd made me laugh out loud, and he changed my life. I guess this is my way of saying thanks. Mike Redmond's column appears Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. You may contact him by calling (317) 624-636 and entering rfegory 7166.

By Mark Ambrogi STAFF WRITER magine you're coming off the tennis court after a disappointing loss and you're greeted not by a parent's hug but by a flying water jug. Maria Gonzales has witnessed that and worse in the pressurized world of national and regional junior tennis tournaments. The Terre Haute resident's son, Ruben, is a top nationally ranked player in the boys 14-and-under division. Greg Hahn, whose son Troy is a North Central High School senior standout, sighed when he recalled the bad parenting he has seen. "I've heard parents say things like, "You're so stupid.

You're ruining your Hahn said. "I've even heard, "You don't win this match, we're not going to Or You're not going to get a pro Central Indiana tennis instructors say they have heard such destructive comments for years. "Some parents want it so much for the kids that they go overboard," said Healthplex Sports Club pro Miguel Dungo, a former ATP Tour pro. "The coaching should be left on the court. When you get home, your job is not to be a coach, but a parent." Dungo, who grew up in New York City, was coached by his father.

He remembers friends being hit with tennis rackets wielded by their MODERN MARRIAGE 'We can do more as an organization to help make it a positive relationship for players, parents and coaches' Doug MacCurdy, director of player development for the United States Tennis Association. Sterns' public dads. "You think they'd be embarrassed," he said of the parents. "But the next day, they'd be back at the tournament site." Through its programs and training centers, the United States Tennis Association is trying to teach both competitiveness and camaraderie, said Doug MacCurdy, director of player development for the USTA. "We're tying to teach the kids and hopefully it rubs off on their parents to go and compete hard.

But these are other kids, so learn to like each other," he said. MacCurdy said one of the organization's missions should be the education of tennis parents. "We can do more as an organization to help make it a positive relationship for players, parents and See TENNIS Page 3 solve their differences. "In a marriage, you have an idea of your future together," he said. "She and I were devastated to find out that we had dif- ge jL marker of the than ever.

It Cooper single piece of VIDEO GAMES breakup raises issues Pac-Man popular -even 20 years later of family and friends. He, known for spending his off-hours closeted with his 100-inch-screen TV, was looking to spend his nonwork time alone. They probably had been growing unhappy for 10 years, he said, but were too afraid of hurting each other to bring it up. When they finally spoke honestly, they spent two years in counseling, but were unable to re By Barbara Brotman CHICAGO TRIBUNE ou have heard the story, maybe even lived it. Two people love each other, but grow apart over the years.

They still love each other, only now they have "What'syour cup size? Maybe I could console you." Howard Stern to tearful caller after talking of split. Alison By J. Freedom Du Lac SACRAMENTO BEE apparently has done nothing to diminish Pac-Man's prodigious appetite. With his 20th birthday approaching a Y2K that will peg Pac as one of the grand old men video-game world the dot-dining, ghost-dodging, pie-faced yellow fellow proved he's hungrier happened three months ago, when a 34-year-old City, man named Billy Mitchell used a puck-shaped Pac-Man to eat every dot, every fruit, every power pellet and every blue ghost on every one of the 256 levels programmed into the original arcade version of the game. His final score? A perfect 3,333,360 points a first-time feat.

Amazing, given that Pac-Man has been played in arcades more than 10 billion times, making it the No. 1 arcade game in history. Of course, Pac-Man is more than just the perpetually chomping champ of the coin-operated arcade. fundamental maybe irreconcilable differences. They are doing their best to protect the children.

On Monday, it was radio disc iockev Howard Stern's mel- Howard ancholy story to tell. For four remarkable hours, he told it on the air. No breast implant contests. No lamentations about being hung like a needle. it LiiiJ ferent ideas." Listeners called in.

Some cried; some made tasteless Jokes, which Stem was honor-bound to endure, considering that tastelessness is his Listen to the show Hear The Howard Stem Show at 6 am weekdays on WNAP-FM (93.1). Only Stern saying he and his wife of 21 years, Alison, had with great mutual pain acknowledged they were looking for different things out of life. They were separating. 'lison, he said, was looking for a rir tapestry show coin of the realm. That tastelessness has earned him years' worth of contempt from those who don't notice Stern is also smart See BREAKLSJ Page 2 See PAC-MAN Paijb 2 1.