St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 58

Complete list of scores on 8F Purdue Iowa 27 6 "1 Texas 19 I13 40 7 42 Syracuse 38 Temple 7 Baylor Witt" Nebraska Missouri Michigan Minnesota 3 Miami (Fla.) 43 Georgia Virflinia Tech 23 Kentucky 27 Washington 31 Notre Dame PacWc 7. Brigham Young Southern California 31 Washington State 21 Penn State 40 West Virginia 26 Chicago 24 Washington U. 23 Southwest Missouri 13 Eastern Illinois 10 Oklahoma State 27 21 54 7 Northwestern 27 Illinois 26 Ohio State Iowa State Michigan State 16 17 13 Colorado Kansas State Indiana Wisconsin 10 3 Alabama Mississippi 31 Boston College 10 Tulane Stanford Oregon State 27 21 Illinois State Southern Illinois 11 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SECTION SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1992 BERNIE MIKLASZ Key National, Area College Football Scores Kansas 27 Oklahoma 10 SPORTS COMMENTARY 4-3 Win Gives Canada Its First Series Crown 0, Canada! The Blow Jays Make History "ATLANTA The Toronto Blow Jays tried so hard to blow another one, to kill another victory parade and leave October with nothing but sorrow. You half expected them to bring Bill Buckner out of retirement and install him at first base as a de fensive replacement.

That's how ner vous the Blow Jays were. The CBS coverage started Saturday night with a Ross Perot mfomercial Game 6 ended just before daylight saving time. This game lasted so long, pitchers and catchers only have a few days before reporting to 1993 spring training. Tom Henke, the Missouri farm boy 7 7 ll I .1... 11 I- -i i.

1 f. i AP By Rick Hummel Of the Post-Dispatch Staff ATLANTA The only other World Series appearance in the career of Dave Winfield, 41, was an abject embarrassment. Winfield had only one hit in 22 at-bats in the 1981 Series while playing for the New York Yankees against the Los Angeles Dodgers and had the audacity to call for the ball after he got it. But on Saturday night, as baseball's ultimate trophy required a passport for the first time, Winfield's 11-year wait for redemption came to a happy end. With two out and two on in the 11th inning, Winfield grounded a double just inside third base, driving in the go-ahead runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 and became the first Canadian team to win the World Series.

Toronto, after 4 hours 7 minutes, won the best-of-sev-en Series four games to two. The Blue Jays were one strike away from winning in regulation time but Otis Nixon slapped an 0-2 pitch into left field, driving in Jeff Blauser with the tying run in the ninth inning. In the 11th, Charlie Leibrandt, who was the losing pitcher in relief in the pivotal sixth game of the 1991 World Series, nicked Devon White in the leg with a pitch with one out. Roberto Alomar singled and, with struggling righthander Jeff Reardon, the career saves leader ready in the bullpen, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox allowed lefthander Leibrandt to face right-handed-hitting Joe Carter. That worked fine as Carter flied out.

It was not so fine when Winfield doubled. 'Atlanta, which had pulled out the National League Championship Series with three runs in the last inning of the last game, rallied for one run in the 11th and came, within another Nixon step of re-tying the game. Blauser, who had three hits, sin- 4V Jerry Naunheim Jr.Post-Dispatch the second quarter Saturday. Atlanta's Otis Nixon showing disgust after he was caught trying Game 6: Blue Javs Braves 3: ,11 innings urM Series MVP: Pat (Toronto Game 5: Braves 7, Blue Jays 2 Game 4: Blue Jays 2, Braves 1 Game 3: Blge Jays 3, Braves 2 2: Blue Jays 5, Braves 4 jQame 1: Braves 3, Blue Jays 1 gled, and advanced to third when shortstop Alfredo Griffin mishandled a possible double-play for an error. Rafael Belliard sacrificed and pinch-hitter Brian Hunter grounded out, scoring a run: Then Mike Timlin, relieving winner Jimmy got the final out, barely nipping Nixon at first after a bunt attempt.

Asked why he left Leibrandt in, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said that Reardon would have been the pitcher in the 12th inning had there been one. "Charlie gets righthanders out," Cox said. "He was throwing the ball well. He gave up a ground ball. You can't, this year, fault him for it." Last year, Leibrandt had allowed a game-losing home run to Kirby Puck-ett in Minnesota.

Puckett also was a righthanded hitter. Winfield, one of the most talkative players in baseball, said afterward, "I'm almost speechless. I can't even think of the words to describe it. "I think I'm the oldest man in the room. I was the longest to get a World Series ring.

And I'm the happiest man here. Mr "I didn't do a whole lot, but I did it See SERIES, Page 4 Handy Passes For 424 Yards In 34-24 Loss i By Vahe Gregorian Of the Post-Dispatch Staff COLUMBIA, Mo. The Nebraska football automatons whirred and whisked to a 14-0 first-quarter lead over Missouri on Saturday, apparently on the way to another methodical dismantling of the Tigers. "One thing about playing Nebraska is that's one team we have not come close to before," said Missouri coach Bob Stull, whose three previous tries had resulted in an average 61-11 calamity. "By halftime, we might as well have just grabbed a hot dog and gone home.

It's been ugly." But instead of submitting to its recent trend against Nebraska, Mizzou was condemned once more to the tantalizing trail it has clung to all season. The Tigers, resilient but star-crossed, mustered a riveting rally to fall 34-24 to Nebraska before 53,337 at Faurot Field. The eighth-ranked Cornhuskers improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big Eight Conference. Mizzou, which lost its 1 1th successive game to a Division I opponent, fell to 1-6 and 0-3 and again was left only with numbness to show for a rousing effort, "We've got a stomach ache. That's See MIZZOU, Page 9 To 1 -8 After Another Moral Victory f.

V. a I UrsJw DWA'' fi'- i t- 4 I I If 1 '(, I couldn't hold Toronto 2-1 ninth-inning lead. Candy Maldonado, apparently Toronto's left fielder, had a chance to cut down the tying run at home plate. Jeff Blauser, the tying run, came chugging around third when Otis Nixon lashed a two-strike, two-out single in Maldonado's direction. The Candy Man promptly picked up the ball and heaved it in the general vicinity of Jimmy Carter's peanut farm in Plains, Ga.

The Braves tied it up. No, Canada. Then in the 11th, Dave Winfield stepped up for the Blue Jays, who needed a strong man to show them the way. He had two runners on, with two out and all of Canada staring at him. Winfield has 41 birthdays and an unfair reputation.

The last time he played in the World Series, 1981, Winfield had one hit in 22 at-bats and his New York Yankees lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. Yankees owner George Steinbren-ner, contrasting Winfield to New York's Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, mocked Winfield. The Boss called him "Mr. May." Winfield has lived with that vicious smear for 11 years.

He's never really broken free, not even after hitting .290 with 26 homers and 108 RBIs for the Jays this season after Whitey Herzog and the California Angels dumped him. What would Mr. May do in October? That was the nasty question still nagging Winfield in the 1 1th as Atlanta lefty Charlie Liebrandt delivered a 3-2 pitch. Before this at-bat, Winfield had stranded three runners in scoring position. Well, Mr.

May pulled the pitch down the left-field line, and when the ball landed Winfield was Mr. October. Two runners scored and the Jays had a 4-2 lead. They survived for a 4-3 victory, taking the World Series Trophy home to Canada. With one magical hit, Winfield and an entire team were emancipated.

Winfield was tarnished by '81. And no team's knees have buckled worse in the month of October than Toronto's. This is why the Jays signed him. They knew Winfield had a ghost to exorcize. They thought he could take care of their demons, too.

No wonder that teammate Joe Carter calls Winfield "The Prime Minister." Now, Winfield has the world championship ring he's hunted for two decades. "I'm speechless," Winfield said, searching for the words. "Everybody wants to get the big hit, and be the big hero. You play 20 years, you work hard, you have ice bags on your knees, you take aspirin for your pain. That's why you do it for this chance.

Maybe I proved that the old man does have some stuff left." This is confusing, eh? Do the Blue Jays have a ceremony with President Bush at the White House? Or will they visit Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney? Did the Jays spray champagne or Canada Dry? This is Can-' ada's reward for sending us Wayne Gretzky. The Blue Jays overcame a lot in this Series: Southern rudeness, an inverted Canadian flag, blind umpiring and American provincialism. But the Jays pushed on, stumbling but rising again at the end. Canada must be proud of the 19 Americans, three Dominicans, a Puerto Rican and the Jamaican who won the World Series for our neighbors to the North. The Jays have indeed traveled far since those early, comical days of Doug Ault, Otto Velez and a cast of zany expansion characters at old and frosty Exhibition Stadium.

The city of Toronto was awarded a franchise March 26, 1976. It snowed when the Jays played their first real game on April 7, 1977, a 9-5 win over the the Chicago White Sox. Look at them now. The Jays had some unlikely heroes emerge the in this World Series. Ed Sprague, Pat Borders, Maldonado (with his bat).

And even manager Cito Gaston, who takes a pounding in Toronto. Early Sunday, the biggest man of all put them over the top, wiping out all of those ghosts. The Blow Jays are gone: RIP. to steal second in the seventh. airborne to score a touchdown in Falls JEFF JEFF GORDON COMMENTARY Hungry Tigers Walk Away With Empty Stomachs COLUMBIA, Mo.

The struggle continues. The Missouri Tigers are still starv ing for a major victory. They terrified Texas but lost 26-13. They pushed Colorado to the brink in a 6-0 defeat and they had the No. 8 Nebraska Cornhuskers scrambling Saturday afternoon.

But the Tigers lost again, 34-24, in a game that proved both exhilarating and exasperating to their fans. Quarterback Jeff Handy bombed the Cornhuskers for 424 yards the most passing yardage ever allowed by Nebraska but the Tigers still lost. "When you can smell dinner and you can't get to it," center Matt Burgess said, "it makes it worse." Tigers stomaches are still grum bling. Mizzou may be competitive this season, but it is still 1-6. It is good enough play with national powers, but it still hasn't beaten a Top 10 team See GORDON, Page 9 5 -1 1 i 4 Missouri's Mark Jackson going Wins 27-26 had watched the aerial circus of Northwestern quarterback Len Williams, who undressed the lllini defense with a fourth-quarter blitz that was almost mystical.

Williams completed 11 of 13 for 128 yards and three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes. He capped it with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Lee Gissen-daner with just 13 seconds left, followed by the decisive extra point by St. Louisan Brian Leahy. "You feel like you're the best quarterback in the nation," Williams said. "That's the way I felt, like nothing could go wrong.

I was just in a zone. It's like being somewhere else." A senior from Rockford, 111., Will-See ILLINI, Page 4 lllini Lead Isn't Airtight; Quick Red Wings Goals Leave Blues In A Fog 6-1 Northwestern By John Sonderegger Of the Post-Dispatch Staff CHAMPAIGN, 111. Traditional homecoming merriment gave way to an eerie silence Saturday as 52,332 fans walked out of Memorial Stadium in a hush. The unthinkable had happened. The University of Illinois football team spit out a 26-6 lead in the fourth quarter and lost 27-2 6 to Northwestern.

"Now it's time to send in the clowns," said the public-address an nouncer as the lllini band prepared to take the field for a postgame performance that included some students dressed as clowns. BASEBALL ESPN Drops Ball ESPN has declined to exercise its $250 million option to televise major-league baseball in 1994 and 1995 2 FOOTBALL Big Bad Bear Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka continues to simmer this season, the latest incident a name-calling episode with media members 12 ALSO Michael Chang reaches final i in Hong Kong tennis 2 Hazelwood East tops Sumner 43-1 4 in high school football 11 By Dave Luecking Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The Blues made a move to improve the atmosphere at The Arena on Saturday. They bought a foghorn. Appropriately, the Blues played as if they were lost in the fog. Consequently, they got to use their new toy only once, on the Blues' only goal in a listless 6-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

The loss dropped the struggling Blues to 2-6-1 in the young National Hockey League season. Worse, they're 1-5 in Norris Division games and remain tied with the Chicago Black-hawks for last in the division with five points. Third-place Detroit improved to 5-3 for 10 points, two behind the first-place Minnesota North Stars. The Blues and Blackhawks are four points behind the fourth-place expansion Tampa Bay Lightning. The Blues haven't won at home since the season opener, losing four and tying one in that span, and the "atmosphere" is still bad at The Arena.

It's not the organist or the foghorn. It's the team. "We were awful," said Blues winger Brendan Shanahan, who aggravated a groin injury in the game. The Blues remain slow and disorganized under new coach Bob Plager. They seem lost In their They See BLUES, Page 13 f' vit Not many fans chose to stay.

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