St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 31

SPORTS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1990 BASEBALL i Soviets Didn't Invent Baseball, I '(A i 5 IsrCole A Serious Prospect Or Just Flash In The Pan? hj Of But One Is Chasing The Dream "I have so much to learn if my IL. DAN f3 O'NEILL lr NOTEBOOK Sy dream is to come true. It is OK to dream big dreams, isn't it? ANDRE TSELIKOVSKY "My baseball bat was judged a dangerous weapon," recalls Andre. "They wouldn't let us board." Coach Rundles says there is potential violence in that bat.

"He's very good for so little experience. He's a tremen- dous athlete who works very hard. He looks a little awkward at times but his dedication is an inspiration to the rest of us." I Tselikovsky wants to play baseball morning, noon and night. "He wakes rile at 6:30 so we can get a few swings in the batting cage," said Silver. "He wants to stay after practice and work on his pitching.

He wants to stay up late and baseball and watch baseball videos. He never gets tired." Silver gave up his dorm room to give Tseiikovsky a bed. Coach Rundles provided a meal ticket to the campus; dining room. Other players contributed jeans, sneakers and a sweatsuit. "He even has a tape of Hank Williams said Silver.

He also has a host of new friends. "Everybody likes him," said Silver. "It's a wonderful adventure. I can't believe I'm involved in such an experience. Andy is the most highly motivated person I've ever: met.

I enjoy baseball a lot but he's really hooked." Tselikovsky expects to be with the Soviet national team: at the Goodwill Games in Seattle in July. He hopes to find a way back to America next spring. "I have so much to learn if my dream is to come true. It is OK to dream big dreams, isn't it?" 1990, Scrippi Howard Newt Service Andre Tselikovsky doesn't want you to laugh when you read about his far-out dream. He lives in the Soviet Union but wants to be a major-league baseball player in America.

No, he can't make it. Of course not. He's already 21 and just beginning in the game. He has some athletic skills, a powerful arm and good hand-eye coordination, and enough size, 6-2 and 190, and average speed. He Is exceptional in one way desire.

Tselikovsky understands long odds. He doesn't believe in impossibilities. If he did, he wouldn't be visiting at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn. In real life, Andre is a student in Moscow. His parents are teachers, his dad at Moscow University, his mother at a technical institute.

The family speaks English, a spinoff from a four-year government-business assignment in Montreal. That's where Tselikovsky got his first taste of baseball. "We lived very near Olympic Stadium," he said. "I saw the 1981 All-Star Game. I was 12." Andre got another taste two years ago.

Athletes in Action sent a baseball team on a European tour, combining a religious outreach with fun 'n games. Tselikovsky got as close as he could. Because he knew more baseball than most Soviets and could do more than many, Andre was picked for the team that came to Baltimore last spring at the invitation of Johns Hopkins University. Last summer was even better. Another team of Athletes in Action stopped in Moscow.

Andre was at the airport. He met Chad Silver, an outfielder from Carson-Newman College. "We played against his team," recalled Silver. "He just followed us around. We became friends.

Andy said he'd like to visit America again. He said he needed a formal invitation. He even told me how it had to be written. He had it all worked out in his mind." Silver's college coach, Gary Rundles, liked the idea. Of course Andre could rub shoulders with the team.

That's part of what Carson-Newman College is friendly and gracious. On the second try, Andre Tselikovsky got an invitation that passed official scrutiny. He was delighted. "We have a lot of new, exciting freedoms in our country but there was still a problem of expenses," said Tselikovsky. "My parents thought I was crazy to want to come on my own but they didn't say no.

They didn't pay, either." Andre had a yard sale. He gave up the jeans he bought in Baltimore, his famous-brand sneakers, his computer, music collection, even his Sony Walkman. "I sold all my worldly possessions. I really wanted to return to America." He arrived in Washington. Chad's dad was waiting to escort him on the last leg of the trip.

They almost made the next plane to Knoxville. Alex Cole the wait is over for the Cards. week, Giles said, among other things, that players association leader Don Fehr "brainwashes his troops. I don't think there is enough independent thinking on the part of players. If you polled all the players, 80 to 90 percent would make a deal and play." If the season doesn't start as scheduled on April 2, Giles said, "I would think we'd be out a while, I would think at least half the season." A commentary on salary arbitration, and how it can fatten a wallet: Todd Benzinger and Paul O'Neill of the Cincinnati Reds have almost identical career statistics as well as the same agent, Joe Bick of Cleveland.

Both have played 354 big-leaue games, both have 38 homers and Benzinger has 189 RBIs to 176 for O'Neill. O'Neill has a few more days of service time, putting him over three years, and has signed a $1.6 million, two-year contract. Benzinger, who has slightly less than three years' time, will make $300,000. Philadelphia manager Nick Leyva said the Phils will probably cut 15 players without even looking at them because of the lockout. And so ends the saga of Alex Cole.

For the past three years, the 24-year-old outfielder has been one of the most talked-about Cardinals prospects on local radio shows and bar stools. Last week, he became a moot subject when he and Steve Peters were traded to San Diego for pitcher Omar Oliveres. Cole burst upon the scene when he batted .353 at St. Petersburg in 1986. He went from base to base like a squirrel goes from tree to tree.

He possessed an arm Winchester would be proud to make. He also possessed tremendous instincts in the field. With all those things going for Cole, the Cardinals and St. Louis fans couldn't wait for him to raise his game to the major-league level. But they waited and waited and waited.

Cole floundered at the plate in 1987 and 1988. Last year, he showed signs of life by batting .281 and stealing 50 bases in Class AAA Louisville. "The question is whether or not last year was something unreal," Cardinals director of player personnel Ted Simmons said. "It's hard to say. He jumped back into the prospect role last season.

"If he can get to first base, he can play in the big leagues." However, the Cardinals are deep in outfield prospects. Five of the most highly regarded in the' organization Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey, Charlie White, Paul Coleman and Brian Jordan might have moved ahead of Cole. The 1990 Caribbean World Series was played at Miami's Orange Bowl, the first baseball game there since 1956. The distance down the left-field line was 230 feet, and a ball hit over the fence wasn't necessarily a home run. Instead, it had to clear the first 21 rows of seats or be considered a ground-rule double.

There were 48 home runs hit in 12 games. Escogido won the Series with a 5-1 record in round-robin play. Former Cardinals second baseman Tom Herr recently was asked how Lenny Dykstra could play so well for the Phillies for the first month after being traded from the Mets, and then play so poorly thereafter. Dykstra might have worn out because he liked to "pound the pavement a little" was Herr's reply. Ray Sadecki, who is back in baseball after a 13-year absence, said becoming a minor-league pitching coach with the Cubs took him out of the job market.

"It let me quit reading the want ads and throw my resume away," he said. Sadecki had been out of work for four months when he got the job with the Cubs. Delynn Corry, a righthanded pitcher who played last year at the rookie-league level with the Cardinals, has told the team he wants to take two years off to go on a missionary trip. Corry, 19, is a Mormon. He was a 16th-round pick in the 1988 draft.

He was 2-6 with a 5.16 earned-run average while splitting time between Peoria and Johnson City last season. The Philadelphia Phillies have hired former Cardinals infielder Floyd "Sugar Bear" Rayford as a minor-league coach. Several New York Mets and Boston Red Sox players have been photographed working out. But Pittsburgh Pirates players association representative Mike LaValliere isn't saying where the 11 Pirates in Bradenton, were practicing. "The players association told me they didn't want players working out and being written about or pictured in the newspapers or being on television," Lavalliere said.

"But I kept seeing players on TV and in the newspapers and I felt bad telling guys we couldn't do it." LaValliere was told the players association would crack down on violators. Philadelphia Phillies president Bill Giles may not have one of the most enjoyable teams to watch but he can be one of the most entertaining executives. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer last SELL YOUR CAR! Call Post-Dispatch Classified 621-6666 Incumbent Charlie Hayes and Mexican League batting champion Dave Hollins will be competing for the Phillies' third-base job. "Charlie has to lose the job, so the lockout may benefit DISCOUNT OF ST. LOUIS mm," said Leyva.

"He won't have time to lose it." Barry Bonds' agent, Rod Wright, said Bonds wouldn't bat leadoff for the Pittsburgh Pirates because they used his RBI total of 58 in 580 at-bats against him in arbitration and won. Bonds batted leadoff more than any any otner position last year but his average with men in scoring position was less than that for the Pirates' pitchers, to Cardinals rookie Todd Zeile threw out just two of 19 runners last season, the lowest percentage of any catcher wun more tnan iu attempts. Zeile caught just one runner at second base, Pittsburgh catcher Dann Bilardello. Former Cardinals infielder Tom Lawless was the only NO EXTRA CHARGE Professional Custom Club Assistance Fitting Outstanding Exclusive Low Selection Price Guarantee penect "catcner," throwing out Baltimore's Billy Ripken in his only attempt. Dick Williams, manager of the West Palm Beach senior league team, said outfielder Tito Landrum could still play in the big leagues.

The former Cardinal hit above .300 and had a league-leading 11 triples for West Palm Beach and Williams said, "He could be a fourth or fifth outfielder for a lot of teams. "He's always Been a lucky charm for teams he's played for." Landrum appeared in the 1983 World Series for Baltimore and starred in the 1985 World Series for the Cardinals. Rick Hummel contributed Information to this story.) OUR GUARANTEE We will beat your price on any set of clubs BRENTWOOD I FAIRVIEW IL 2590 S. Brentwood 513 Lincoln Hwy. OPEN SUNDAY 961 -0220 OPEN SUNDAY (618) 624-5241 SOUTH COUNTY ST.

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There's a lot of community spirit because a lot of people plan their trips around spring training." The hurt may be as much spiritual as financial, especially for the elderly people, who work as ushers and at other posts in the spring-training ballparks. "One of the really bad things is that we're hurting some wonderful old gentlemen," said DeFreitas. "This means they have no jobs. And they've really looked forward to it." said. "But as each day passes, you wonder.

"We still plan to go to the minor league camp. People enjoy that." Hoerner said he was quizzed by hotel representatives at the Hilton and the Bilmar as to whether he was sure his group would use the rooms. "They said that if you aren't going to use them, we can fill them anyhow." That might be true for the larger cities in Florida. However, smaller cities are hurt more. Port Charlotte, for example, wouldn't get as much tourist trade without the Texas Rangers.

Kelly Jo Kilberg, projects manager for the chamber of commerce at Port Charlotte, which is about 90 miles south of St. Petersburg, said she had been told by the Florida Department IVII-MO (X LHUIU LEATHER SYNTHETIC GOLF GLOVES SPALDING TOP FLITE XL $1399 15 BALL BONUS PAK LIMIT 2 PLEASE fa S99 LIMIT 2 PLEASE Aiifiia a 1 nip" rt MEN'S MORETZ SOCKS 5 PAIR IVICND LA I CO SWEATERS $jlrflOO YOUR OLD SHOES ARE WORTH TOWARD ANY NEW PAIR Vi4 ssoo OUR ALREADY I FOR OFF LOW DISCOUNTED PRICE MENS GOLF SHIRTS St. Pete From page one streaming in. But they're terribly, terribly disappointed. "They all feel like this is their vacation.

A working person might have only two weeks and he suddenly doesn't decide to go to Acapulco." DeFreitas said that no economic study of what baseball means to St. Petersburg had been done since 1977, when the city had both the Cardinals and the New York Mets. "But I feel comfortable in saying that the Cardinals are worth millions of dollars in economic benefits to our community." DeFreitas, a former New York newspaper person, said he also realize! the publicity quotient In having the Cardinals here. TA dateline from St. Petersburg what it's worth in publicity, we couldn't buy it," he said.

Penney Mathews, the chamber's director of tourism, said that the St. Petersburg Hilton, which is across from Al Lang Stadium, is missing out on the fees for the rooms the players and coaches might use for six weeks, but that the hotels in the St. Petersburg area reported 92 to 94 percent occupancy through April 15. "Most of the visitors have already scheduled their vacations," Mathews said. "They've looked for reduced airplane rates, and those are usually nonrefundable fares.

They've also had to make hotel deposits. People don't cancel their trips. Why miss out on the fun and sun?" Those who travel with Joe Hoerner and Cardinal Travel in St. Louis haven't canceled their trips, either. Hoerner has a group of about 120 coming to St.

Petersburg next Friday and a much larger group going to Orlando, as part of a Proctor and Gamble Co. promotion. On March 17, Hoerner's normal group of 200 Cardinals fans will convene on Al Lang Stadium for a week's worth of games. "When I put this together," Hoerner said, "I didn't want to tell them about the possibility of no baseball then. But I owed it to them to let them know what was happening." Hoerner said he had only about 30 cancellations for his trip of 200.

"I didn't think that was too bad," he said, and thjBfe berths were quickly filled with people from the waiting list. "I'm sure a majority of people feel that it will be settled by the 17th and They'll be playing games' Hoerner ALL MENS SLACKS $500 off OUR ALREADY LOW DISCOUNTED PRICES DIVOTS, NIKE, CAMC A RCI flIENS LADIES STARTER SETS y5 IRONS 2 WDSy EACH IT'S HOT! St. Louis University BILLIKEN BASKETBALL LIVE! March 4 6:00 p.m. CHANNEL st Ldihuis 8 COLORS TO CHOOSE FROM A WILSON SPALDING EXECUTIVE 8 IRONS 3 WDS 99 99 I COMPLETE CLUB REPAIR 1 1 kl VL mi luvv uioouuni rmisco vs. Evansville PRESENTED BY fitv mm.