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The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 23

Location:
West Palm Beach, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
23
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

COLLEGES FSU, UM could meet again State rivals need just one win (or loss) apiece to meet in College World Series. PAGE 7C Indians 2, White Sox 1 Giants 4, Expos 3 (1 1) Tigers 8, Blue Jays 6 Phillies 5, Dodgers 0 13 Royals 7, Rangers 6 Reds 4, Pirates 2 Efl Brewers 5, Twins 3 Mets 8, Padres 0 BRed Sox 1, A'sO Cardinals 8, Rockies 5 Yankees at Mariners, late PAGE 5C Orioles at Angels, late PAGE 3C LJ FOOTBALL BASEBALL Hoping to be drafted Newman graduate Chris Kokinda (right) hopes call comes Thursday. PAGE 8C Singleton hobbling Dolphins LB on crutches, but confident he'll be back in time for training camp in July. PAGE 6C THE PALM BEACH POST WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1995 SECTION CLASSIFIED PAGES 9-18 SPORTS Home court no -advantage A- great (ingrate) old (cantankerous) game, baseball is Jeff Conine is underpaid and overworked but too impressed with the opportunity to play major league baseball to let either circumstance get in his way. That's why the end of his streak of 307 consecutive games played left a welt deep down in the subconscious of every Florida Marlins fan.

There's a connection here, psychological and emotional, that goes beyond logic. Think about it Of all the things that don't work about the Marlins, no one could ever say Conine was one. Visitors victors again; Rockets roll The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO The weirdness continues in the West. The Western Conference finals are a home-court horror show, where the cheers of a packed arena spell certain doom for the home team. Tuesday's Game 5 of this topsy-turvy, Alice In Wonderland series, where being at home is bad and playing on the road is good, followed the path of the previous four.

The winners, in a 111-90 runaway, were the Houston Rockets. He was the embodiment of expansion energy, playing every game the Marlins ever played since 1993's inaugural game, reporting daily, contributing daily, making the extra effort because that's what young teams do if they're serious about competing. When Conine failed to play in Monday's 9-7 win over Houston, it was as if the last ounce of that Dave George Houston won its fifth in a row on the road to lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, and the home team has yet to win a game. The same Rockets who were blown out in the Summit by San Antonio on Sunday downed the Spurs in the Alamodome to move the defending champions within one victory of a return trip to the NBA Finals. 'This is the -strangest playoff series I've ever been involved RUDY T0MJAN0VICH, Houston coach try 7: to) vl -1 Ah Hhm ii -Tl IT This is the strangest playoff series I've ever been involved in," Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.

"How can you figure it out? I don't know." Hakeem Olajuwon had 42 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, his third 40-plus scoring performance in four games. "I think his performance in some regards broke our spirit," San Antonio coach Bob Hill said. "It seemed like he made every shot he took." But it wasn't just Olajuwon. Sam Cassell and Robert Horry had major contributions. "After two disappointing losses, we had to regroup ourselves," Olajuwon said.

"We were very lucky the series was tied 2-2. We came back here and played with confidence and played team basketball." Horry had 14 points and 13 rebounds. He even wrestled the ball away from Dennis Rodman under the San Antonio basket during a 7-0 run at the end of the third quarter that spelled the beginning of the end for the Spurs, losers of four in a row at home. Rodman was in the doghouse again. He was held out of the Spurs' starting lineup by Hill for showing up 35 minutes late for practice on Monday.

He entered the game with 4:49 left in the first quarter. Rodman finished with 12 rebounds and five points, but was scoreless with just four rebounds in the second half. Please see R0CKETS7C mysterious expansion energy was spent. Hereafter the heartbeat of the Marlins is muscleman Gary Sheffield, who'll have to drag the team onward one homer at a time, i '-v; Not always is it a player who represents the heart and soul of a team. Tommy Lasorda, for instance, sets the tone for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bud Selig does the same for the Milwaukee Brewers, as the AL Central standings suggest. In Cincinnati, two powerful and distinct forces, Marge Schott and Deion Sanders, vie for control of the Reds' destiny. A shaggy, slobbering dog hangs in the balance and so do the jobs of the Riverfront Stadium employees who sweep up behind it. Essence of the game Ken Griffey some believe, is the very soul of major league baseball itself. Energetic, uncompromising and impossibly talented, he dropped the whole game down a notch Friday because he couldn't let a long drive pass unchallenged.

Griffey crashed into the wall at the Seattle Kingdome making a spectacular catch and is out three months with a broken wrist. it Griffey's a great ambassador for the game all right, the ideal ballplayer by most any measure, but hejdoesn't really speak for the soul of major league baseball in the post-strike '90s. iThat job belongs to Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians, who rarely speaks at all. Fans say that baseball has lost touch with the common man, considering those in the stands last in every major decision. Well, Murray has been extremely selective in granting interviews throughout his career, talking only to those who write what he likes.

Let anyone else reach out to touch him around the batting cage and they'll draw back a bloody nub. Likewise, you could step in with a proposal for a national ad campaign and draw back a bloody briefcase. Fans say, too, that they're sick of hearing about labor unrest and court rulings and the plight of the sm'all-market franchise. Give us baseball, nothing but good old-fashioned baseball, is the cry of the purist, and let each game stand on its own merit. Murray has been bringing that to us since first he sparked the Baltimore Orioles as 1977's American League Rookie of the Year.

in Murray's first 18 major-league seasons did he fail to drive in at least 75 runs, a major league reqord that defies the blips of strikes and lockouts. In the split-season of 1981, he drove in 78 runs in 99 games. And last year, when a player's strike stopped the music on Aug. 12, Murray shut it down with 76 RBI. Please see GE0RGE4C THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Spurs' David Robinson gets pressure from Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon (rear) and Kenny Smith (left) in the first quarter of Game 5 of the Western Conference Final in San Antonio.

Shaq crying foul about Smits, NBA officials the bench in Games 3 and 4. He has played only 30 minutes the past two games because of foul problems and gone from averaging 35.5 points and 10.5 rebounds to 17 points and eight rebounds. All of which has made O'Neal and the Magic a bit hacked off and helped the Pacers turn the momentum in their favor. "Rik Smits is one of the biggest floppers in the league," O'Neal said of Please see MAGIC7C The New York Times ORLANDO The Indiana Pacers have discovered there is an even better way to neutralize Shaquille O'Neal than merely pounding his body and sending him to the free-throw line with the intriguing chance that he may chip paint off the rim. The Hack-a-Shaq defense is now passe.

It has been replaced by the Lack-a-Shaq offense, whereby O'Neal spends his time on the Magic bench, strapped with fouls and percolating ness," O'Neal said. "I'll retire before I decrease my aggressiveness. It's not fair what's going on. I work hard." So have the Pacers, who tied the series at 2-2 on Monday by emerging with an improbable 94-93 victory on Smits' shot around Tree Rollins at the buzzer. O'Neal had already fouled out trying to back himself into the low post like a beer truck moments earlier against Smits.

After dominating the first two games of the series, O'Neal went to TODAY'S GAME: Pacers at Magic, WPTV-5, WTVJ-4, 9 p.m. with frustration as his team hoists three-pointers without him. He released some steam Tuesday after the team's shoot-around at Orlando Arena, calling Pacers center Rik Smits a flop artist, voicing his concern for consistency in officiating and promising even more aggressive behavior for Game 5 tonight. "I won't decrease my aggressive Boca's Spadea unfazed despite first-round loss French Open TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS MEN: Boris Becker (3) won and Goran Ivanisevic (4) was upset. Boca Raton's Vincent Spadea lost his first-round match 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(8-10), 6-3 to Marcelo Rios of Chile.

FRENCH OFEM 't'ii WOMEN: No. 3 Mary Pierce and No. 4 Conchita Martinez advanced, but two seeded players lost No. 10 Amnesia still a mystery for Expos player Tony Marabella lost his memory for five weeks last season. By CHUCK OTTERSON Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH --Tony Marabella's baseball career came to a sudden, baffling stop last season.

Marabella's problem had nothing to do with 95-mph fast-balls, breaking pitches or an inability to hit behind the runner. It was amnesia. He didn't know who or what he was for about five weeks. "The doctors said I lost about 97 percent of my memory," said Marabella, 22, an in-fielder with the West Palm Beach Expos. "I couldn't remember my name or my family.

The only thing I could remember was myself with blond hair tournament tomorrow but maybe I have to learn to take breaks." To help him navigate through the pro ranks, Spadea has hired former tour pro Jonathan Canter to travel with him. Although his father, Vincent will continue to coach and accompany him, Canter will be his practice partner and adviser. Spadea plans to go home and regroup for Wimbledon. He intends to take Davis Cup coach Tom Gullikson up on his invitation to train on grass in Palm Coast north of Daytona Beach. Although his trip to Paris was cut short, Spadea seems undaunted about his future prospects.

"You can't worry about every result," he said. "You just never know what is going to happen on this tour so I don't make goals for myself. I just worry about what I can control, working on my game." In other first-round action Tuesday, it's becoming routine for Goran Ivanisevic: another Grand Please see FRENCH6C Palm Beach Post Staff and Wire Reports PARIS It was not the French Open debut Vince Spadea had hoped for as he narrowly succumbed to Chile's Marcelo Rios 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 in Tuesday's first round, but the 21-year-old from Boca Raton was not overly disappointed. In a match interrupted twice by the rain, Spadea committed a string of unforced errors at crucial times. "All parts of my game have improved," he said, "but I've had trouble when it's gotten down to pressure times." In his second year on tour, Spadea has climbed as high as No.

51 in the world but is still adjusting to the fast-paced lifestyle. Although he says he enjoys the travel, he admitted Tuesday that he may not have been as fresh for Tuesday's match after five weeks on the road. "I have been away for longer periods of time but I tend to do better when I've been training for a while because I am fresher," he said. "Today, I was certainly eager to play and I'm ready to get back out there and play another Natasha Zvereva and No. 13 Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS MEN: Andre Agassi (1) Todd Woodbridge; Pete Sampras (2) vs. Gilbert Schaller. WOMEN: Steffi Graf (2) vs. Petra Begerow; Conchita Martinez (4) vs. Miriam Oremans.

TV TODAY: 10 a.m., USA (replayed at 1 a.m. Thursday). BILL INGRAMStaff Photographer West Palm Beach Expos infielder Tony Marabella, who suffered a five-week spell of amnesia last season, warms up before an Expos game against Brevard earlier this month. when I was 5 years old." to Madison, when he lost Marabella, who has been his memory, playing professional baseball "They don't, really know since he was 16, was at the what caused it, but I hadn't slept Expos Burlington affiliate in the for about three weeks I only Class A Midwest League in 1994. 1 lis club was on a road trip Pleaie see AMNESI A4C.

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