The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 6

The Salina Journal Tuesday, July 11,1995 B3 BASEBALL The Associated Press A baseball fan tries to stay cool during Monday's Legends of the Game contest at The Ballpark in Arlington. Baseball puts on hot show Temperatures push well past 100 By Associated Press ARLINGTON, Texas With temperatures hitting 114 degrees on a cloudless Monday at The Ballpark, the All-Star workout looked and felt more like the All- Star cookout. Throughout the old-timers game, batting practice for today's stars and the home run hitting contest, sweating and searching for cold drinks were the only ways to deal with the Texas heat. "I'm frying," San Francisco outfielder Barry Bonds said after being on the field about 15 minutes. Pity the old guys, even if this year's crop had a few flat-bellies.

Their hour-long, three-inning game won 1-0 by the American League was played when temperatures on a press box thermometer were highest. It was 112 in the first inning and 114 when the game ended. "It was cooking," said former Oakland outfielder Joe Rudi. "You get a bunch of old guys not used to running and they're liable to have a heart attack. You've just got to take it easy and remember you're not 25 anymore." An hour later, the All-Stars took the field for batting practice, watched by a crowd of 47,697.

Many players used the time to meet and greet teammates and foes, and others got their first view of the year-old, $195 million stadium. "It's a gorgeous facility. I just thought it'd be a little hotter," joked Chicago Cubs first baseman Mark hot!" An electric fan whirred in the NL dugout, but all it basically did was make noise. It wasn't enough to cool Cincinnati shortstop Barry Larkin, who had been warned about the sweltering summers from his younger brother Stephen, who played at the University of Texas. "My brother told me it was hot, and he played on AstroTurf.

But I didn't know it was this hot," Larkin said. The hot day ended with baseball's hot home-run hitters. Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox won the home-run derby, beating Cleveland's Albert Belle 3-2 in the final round. During the three rounds, Thomas hit drives of 470, 468, 461, 456 and 450 feet. "I hope this will bring some fun back into the game," he said.

Chiefs offer special sale to county residents KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Kansas City Chiefs will give Jackson County property taxpayers the first crack at buying 1995 single- game tickets on July 12-13. No phone orders will be accepted during the special sale, required by Arrowhead Stadium lease agreements. The tickets will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

during the two days at Arrowhead and at Kansas City area Ticketmaster outlets. Buyers must present photo identification and a paid Jackson County personal property tax receipt for 1994. There will be a limit of four tickets per game with a maximum order of 16 total tickets, the club said. Season ticket sales were capped at 70,000 this year to ensure that tickets were available for group and individual sales, the team aid. The Chiefs enter the 1995 season with 34 consecutive home game sellouts.

Matson Field to be officially dedicated The official dedication of James Matson Field will be held Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The 20-minute ceremony will precede the American Legion doubleheader between Lawrence and the Salina Eagles. Matson, a graduate of Salina South High School, died of brain cancer in 1994 after playing baseball at Kansas State from 1991-93. BRIEFLY Indians surprising even themselves i By The Associated Press i CLEVELAND The Cleveland Indians expected to be competitive. i They never expected to blow away the rest of the American League.

"Obviously, we've exceeded our expectations," said manager Mike Hargrove, reflecting on 1 the Indians' 12-game lead over Kansas City in the AL Central heading into the All-Star break. "I don't know that I've ever been with a ballclub that's gone into the break with a 12- game lead, so I don't know how to act. I suppose I'll act like it's a half-game lead." There have been bigger leads at the break: The Cincinnati Reds, one, led the Los Angeles Dodgers by 12 Vi games during the break in 1975. And those Reds Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan et al went on to win two consecutive World Series. Comparisons with the past aren't entirely fair, of course, because the two leagues now are split into three divisions each instead of two, making big disparities between first place and second more likely.

But the Indians claim they aren't paying much attention to the numbers. "You have to think that it's zero-zero," shortstop Omar Vizquel said. "It doesn't matter 5 how many games in first place we are. There's a lot of baseball left. Everybody is looking forward to the second half." The Indians' 46-21 record is their best ever after 67 games, a game ahead of the pace the 1954 Cleveland team set on the way to an AL record 111 wins.

They are leading the league in both hitting and pitching, and they sent six players to the All-Star game. If anything, it has seemed almost too easy, especially for a team that hasn't won a pennant since that storied 1954 season. Hargrove, though, remembers the dark days he replaced John McNamara midway through the 1991 season as Cleveland was losing a franchise-record 105 games far too well to get carried away with a few months of success. "I don't know anybody in this organization that has taken anything for granted," Hargrove said. "We haven't even played half a season yet." LABOR UPDATE: At Arlington, Texas, baseball owners are finally ready to resume labor talks with the players.

Negotiating committee chairman John Harrington said Monday the owners know what proposal they intend to make, and said acting commissioner Bud Selig will speak with union head Donald Fehr later this week to schedule the next session, the first since March 30. PAGE B1 Showalter hands start to Seattle's Johnson 1 But Maddux, who had said he would step aside for Nomo if asked, injured his groin last week. So the three-time Cy Young winner, who has not missed a regular-season since his junior year in high Ischool, instead joined Ken Griffey Matt Williams, Mark McGwire jand Ozzie Smith as injured stars on ithe sidelines. AL manager Buck Showalter, meanwhile, put aside a feud his New York Yankees had this season after Johnson hit Jim Leyritz with a pitch. That left the All-Star game with its most exciting meeting of starting pitchers since 1986, when 21-year-old Dwight Gooden faced 23- year-old Roger Clemens at the Astrodome.

Showalter said Johnson, already with 152 strikeouts, would pitch either two or three innings. Alou said Nomo probably would pitch two innings, but "if he strikes out the side in the first two innings, maybe he'll pitch the third." No doubt, many would love to see it. The last time baseball genuinely seemed so excited was at last year's All-Star game, when Gwynn beat Ripken's relay and slid home with the winning run in the 10th inning. That victory in Pittsburgh stopped the AL's six-game winning streak and gave the NL a 38-26-1 edge. But as soon as that game ended, all the talk turned to when the strike would start, and it began a month later.

TOUR DE FRANCE Indurain carries lead into mountains By Associated Press LIEGE, Belgium Monday was a rest day for Miguel Indurain. For rivals in the Tour de France, it was a day to wonder whether the Spaniard could be caught in the mountains. The last four years he couldn't. Tony Rominger and Evgueni Berzin were supposed to be his big challengers this year, but both trail Indurain by more than two minutes going into today's first Alpine stage. "I wanted to do better than Rominger and Berzin.

It's done," £aid Indurain, brimming with confidence after winning Sunday's time trial and earning the yellow jersey tor the overall lead. Indurain is chasing a record fifth Straight Tour win, and Monday's flight from Liege to Geneva brought him to his next challenge the snowcapped peaks with the steep hairpin roads where time lost is usually counted in minutes, not seconds. The first test comes today, when the 170 riders face three of the biggest mountains in between Le Grand-Bornand and the peak finish at La Plagne. Wednesday will perhaps be the toughest test of all, with two mountains scaling 2,000 meters before finishing at PAlpe-d'Huez, a renowned mountain pass. That day, the pack must scale three mountains "beyond category" as they are called by the Tour, which rates climbs for steepness and toughness from 4 to 1 before designating a superlative rating to five Tour mountains.

A master tactician, Indurain never has faded in the mountains and often has increased his lead over specialist climbers. It is an unpleasant prospect for his challengers. The Associated Press Miguel Indurain rides during Sunday's eighth stage of the Tour de France. Donations are still being taken for the plaque and iron-cast mounted baseball which will be on display at the field located at the north end of the East Crawford Recreational Area. Donations can be mailed to: Matson Field Fund, P.O.

Box 361, Salina, Kan. 67402-0361. NU scales back usage of Cornhuskers logo LINCOLN, Neb. The reluctance of out-of-state recruits and fans to adore the Cornhuskers' nickname is taking its toll: "Huskers" is the new selling point for Nebraska athletic officials. The Cornhuskers nickname began in 1902.

By the early 1980s, former football recruiting coordinator Steve Pederson said recruits didn't seem to like the name. Huskers, however, was just fine, so officials began cutting the corn from printed materials and logos. "It seems that in the big cities, Huskers is just as accepted as 'Noles for Seminoles at Florida State and 'Canes for Hurricanes at Miami," said Pederson, now the director of football operations. Even a national football championship might not salvage Corn- huskers and Herbie Husker, the farm boy mascot adopted during the late 1970s. "We've found that Cornhuskers and Herbie (the mascot) just don't sell outside of Nebraska," athletic director Bill Byrne said.

"We're looking at a secondary mascot that might be more popular because the 24-and-under age group the group that buys these products just doesn't go for Herbie." Byrne said sales of licensed goods with Nebraska logos are significantly better with "Husker" than with "Cornhusker." The school now is going for more logos with the block and "Huskers" incorporated within the letter. Station competes for Nebraska radio rights OMAHA, Neb. Two radio networks would broadcast University of Nebraska football games under one proposal by an Omaha station trying to win broadcast rights that another has held for more than 10 years. Omaha station KKAR owner John Mitchell said Monday his station's proposals include an offer for exclusive rights that would have KKAR offering $50,000 more than KFAB of Omaha pays. KFAB has exclusive rights to broadcast football and other university sporting events, but its three-year contract is up for extension for another three years.

Allowing two networks would give fans a choice of announcers and a variety of color and related programs, Mitchell said. A third option would combine radio and television contracts under one contract, but Mitchell said university officials told him that proposal would not be immediately possible because of continuing television contracts. From Staff and Wire Reports Money convinces Cowboys' Haley to return By Associated Press IRVING, Texas All-Pro defensive end Charles Haley has gone from retirement talk to a commitment to play for the Dallas Cowboys until 1999. A $12 million package turned the trick. "I want to play every year with everything I've got," Haley said Monday.

"I want to retire a Cowboy." That's what most people suspected after the Cowboys' loss to San Francisco in the NFC championship game, when Haley announced he was retiring. In March, Haley said he didn't mean it. San Francisco club president Carmen Policy, who had dealt with Haley in the past, said of the premature retirement: "When Charles Haley says he is retiring, it just means he wants to renegotiate." Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the deal, reached Sunday, includes a $3 million signing bonus and counts $2 million against this year's salary cap. Haley was to earn $1.95 million this season in the final year of his previous contract. "This doesn't necessarily mark the end of his career.

But certainly it makes the statement that, at least from my perspective, Charles Haley is going to be a Dallas Cowboy for the rest of his career," Jones said. "When we didn't have him, we couldn't spell Super Bowl. This is a major signing for our future." DAVIS' TAXES: At San Francisco, Raiders owner Al Davis, disputing a federal tax claim, testified Monday the team was obliged to build luxury boxes in Los Angeles and negotiate a stadium deal in Invindale in exchange for $16.7 million in loans. The Internal Revenue Service claims more than $18 million in under-reported income by the Raiders, mostly the proceeds of loans from the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission in 1982 and the city of Irwindale in 1987. The IRS contends the team had no legal obligation to repay the loans and should have reported them as income immediately.

Our Colu isis he Can't Say That From the left: Molly Ivins uses her unique style of audacity, outrage, wisdom and humor to skewer the sacred cows of the status quo, in her native Texas and around America. As a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ivins roams the land in search of truth, justice and a good story. After working as a reporter for various newspapers, including The New York Times, Ivins returned to Texas to write about politics and other bizarre happenings. Her columns have been collected in two best-selling books, "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?" and "Nothin' But Good Times Ahead." She also writes for Esquire and The Nation. Her column was recently voted the Best in the Business by the readers of American Journalism Review.

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