The Kerrville Times from Kerrville, Texas • Page 15

Sunday, May 6, 1990 3B Baseball, cats make magical movie mixture Every once in a while, even in the increasingly crude cultural environment of the 1990s, you see a film that touches the deepest corner of your heart, mind, spirit, senses and soul. A film that somehow transforms you and causes a tidal wave in your stream of consciousness. An exalting, uplifting, challenging, innovative, stunning, piece of work. A film that shows that life is not just a shallow struggle for power and prestige and money, but a force with infinitely deep currents that does not preclude the possibility of turning even your own bathtub into the Atlantic Ocean. You discover that man is not just an island, but a planet with its own vast galaxy of meaning.

For me, that film was "Rhubarb the Cat," which was shown the other night on, I believe, the Family Apathy Channel. Pin me down, and I'll have to agree it didn't rank with the finest work of Bergmann, Renoir, Truffaut, Welles, Woody Allen, or even the guy that made "Batman." But for a person who loves baseball and cats, it was fairly supreme stuff, a monumen- tal and magical mixture. "Rhubarb" featured one of my favorite bland actors, Ray Milland, and a cat in possibly the finest role ever given to a cat My only argument with the casting is the relatively small role given to the dog. But the plot is the thing, as Shakespeare almost said. Rhubarb inherits $30 million from his eccentric owner, and part of his inheritance is the Brooklyn Loons.

For a while the Loons look upon being owned! by a cat with deep disfavor. For some reason all of the meowing from the fans bothers them beyond endurance. Then they find that Rhubarb is not only an oddly lovable cat but brings them good luck, and the previously moribund Loons drive all the way to win the pennant. That's when the movie really gets interesting. Manhattan gamblers kidnap Rhubarb during the World Series, but he finally escapes from their clutches by leaping through one of those old- fashion doors with a window at the top.

He scurries across the Brooklyn Bridge and climbs up the left Cliff Newell field wall just as the Loons come up to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh name. A Loon fan spots Rhubarb as his head pops over the wall, and the place goes berserk as Rhubarb bounds across the outfield up to his place behind the dugout. Do I have to go any further? The Loons rally to win the World Series, and Rhubarb and Ray 1 Milland many their sweethearts in a double ring ceremony. For lovers this is the ultimate movie. Look at your own cat and imagine it owning a baseball team.

It is thrilling beyond belief. Let me sidestep back to baseball reality. I'd like to state that the 1990 Antlers are the best Tivy baseball team I've seen in til my time as sports editor in the jewel of the Hill Country. Let's examine the reasons why. On the mound, Tivy has David Sweeten as its number one starter.

His 8-1 record is by far the best of any Antler pitcher in recent years. Tivy also has a solid number two man in Trey Forbes, who seems to get better every time he takes the mound. Where the Antlers really shine is the lumber department. Chad Townsend is such a devastating hitter that in recent games he has hit almost at will. He even seems to have command in two-strike situations.

In the middle of the lineup Tivy has a pair of huge Juniors in Donnie Laurence and fodd Schladoer. Both are capable of hitting lethal line drives, and next year they could be the Mantle and Mans of high school baseball. No kidding. They have unlimited potential. And how about Eric Harris, who wrecked New Braunfels, Bill Blaine, Eric Pchl, and Chris Dahsc, who is just a sophomore but is already hitting the ball with authority.

The man who is making it all work is Coach Tom Ward, who took over one of the dreariest 4A programs in the state last year and turned it into a playoff team. The only trouble is that this team could end up not making the playoffs. In what could turn out to be the critical game of the season, the Antlers encountered one of the most unusual umpiring performances of the year. And, as one Tivy official said while pointing to the sky, "The only higher authority than the umpire is up there." Last year's Antlers seemed to get into the playoffs by luck, pluck, true grit, and sneaking up on their opponents. This year, a much better Tivy team could miss out But that is negative thinking.

Tivy still has a better chance of making the playoffs than Canyon, and then it will be interesting to see what the Antlers can do. There could even be another meeting with Austin Anderson. Wouldn't that be fascinating? If you attended the Tivy-Alamo Heights baseball game kit Tuesday night, the were you bumped into a college football scout. That's because Tivy has a blue chip prospect in Donnie Laurence, a linebacker who can bench press a ton and run fast Claude Bassett, the man who convinced Scott Sralla to attend Brigham Young University, is again back on the scene to attempt similar success with Laurence. He roughly estimated that half the people in the large crowd were football scouts interested in Laurence.

Bassett said he hoped Laurence could ignore the flashy glamour of Miami and UCLA and see the rugged virtues of Utah, just like Sralla did. Of course, SWC recruiters will be telling Laurence (here's no place like home. nwj uuaaiiiatwi allU UlCU Will UC UlltrcsUHg IU SCv uvniiv. Rookie stays on fairways to lead soggy Nelson golf National briefs Burmeister accepts job at DePaul SAN ANTONIO (AP) Ken Burmcistcr, former head basketball coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has accepted an assistant coaching job with DePaul University in Chicago, the San Antonio Express- News reported. Burmeister interviewed with Blue Demon coach Joey Meyer on Wednesday in Chicago and accepted the job before returning here Thursday, sources close to the DePaul athletic department told the newspaper.

Tim Stephens, DePaul sports information director, said an announcement about the assistant coaching position would be made Friday, but he declined to further. Burmcistcr nearly accepted a position with the University of New Orleans last week. He resigned under pressure from his UTSA position March 12, only four days after the end of a 22-7 season in which he matched his own school record for victories. Rains postpones Arkansas clash FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) The first game of a three-game series between Arkansas and Texas was postponed Friday due to poor playing conditions and a daylong mist, said Arkansas head coach Norm Debriyn said.

The Southwest Conference series will begin Saturday at George Cole Field with a 1 p.m. doubleheader. A single pme is set for 1 p.m. Sunday. "This series could decide the Southwest Conference champion and I just didn't want the league title decided on a play made or not made because of poor playing said DeBriyn.

The move will put Arkansas junior Mark Swope, 7-0 for the year, on the mound for the Razorbacks in Saturday's first game. Arkansas is expected to start sophomore Doug Bennett, 7-1, in the second game and senior Gary Harris, 4-0, in the third. Three victories over Texas would assure the Razorbacks of their second straight SWC tide and their first outright title. Cowboys extend camp agreement four years AUSTIN (AP) Concerned that sponsors might have been put off by a one-year agreement to hold training camp in Austin, the Dallas Cowboys have extended their agreement with St. Edward's University to five years, it was reported Friday.

A report on Tuesday that both sides had agreed to a one-year contract caused several prospective sponsors to call with concerns the Cowboys could leave after one camp, said the Chamber of Commerce volunteer in charge of the sponsorship drive. "It was so negative. It hurt us selling corporate sponsorships because we were trying to get three- year said Jerry Pritchard, chairman of the city's corporate sales campaign. Kenyan sets SWC 1,500 meter record HOUSTON (AP) Jackson State sophomore Esther Kiplagat of Kenya timed 4 minutes, 24.46 seconds in the 1,500 meters to shatter a five-year-old meet record Friday night during the Southwest- em Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the Texas Southern Djuiey Athletic Complex. Timci File Phow by Spohn TERRY CUMMINGS DRIVES TO THE HOOP pieces meshing well Spurs find winning, playoffs common goal SAN ANTONIO (AP) If this were a jigsaw puzzle and not a pro basketball team, the finished product would have no comers, no edges and nothing recognizable in between.

Consider the unusual pieces. The leader, Terry Cummings, is an ordained Pentecostal minister. The star, David Robinson, is a math whiz, musician and Navy lieutenant j.g. The sixth man, Frank Brickowski, is a gun collector. The best outside shooter, Sean Elliott, wears a knee brace because of a soccer injury.

Yet somehow these and other pieces have been assembled into a Western Conference semifinalist team in less than six months. On Friday the Spurs left for Portland to begin a best-of-7 conference semifinal series with the Trail Blazers, starting Saturday. "It is a little surprising, really," Elliott said of the Spurs varying personalities and success. "With so many different guys you don't know what their personality is going to be We happen to have a lot of guys who like to win. We have guys who like being in the playoffs instead of slaying at home and being 3-month couch potatoes." So much for the old coaching adage: "I want character, not characters." Spurs coach Larry Brown seems to prefer a lot of both.

San Antonio's entourage includes two rookie starters, two second-year starters and 10 faces that weren't part of the team last of whom arrived after Feb. 21. Brown just shakes his head and appreciates this learn for whit it is: a history-making oddity. "I don't think you'll see it in IRVING, Texas (AP) Rookie Steve Lamontagne shot a 4-under- par 66 under difficult conditions and took a one-stroke lead Friday in the day-late start of the Byron Nelson Classic. Battling strong winds and chilly weather, Lamontagne managed to avoid the deep, wet bermuda rough that tormented his fellow pros.

'The rough is really deep and thick. You don't want to be in there," he said. Lamontagne missed only one fairway 15th on the once-flooded and still-wet TPC at Las Colinas and made his lone bogey there. "It was a very tough golf course," he said. "This definitely was as good a round as the 65 (in the Hawaiian Open, his low score on the PGA Tour).

That was seven under par and this is four, but it's definitely as good a round." The course remained saturated from eight inches of rain earlier in the week that forced Thursday's play to be abandoned and reduced the tournament to a three-day, 54-hole format "With the tournament only three rounds, it's very important to get off to a good start," PGA champion Payne Stewart said after a b7 that put him in a lie for second with Larry Nelson, a playoff loser in this event last year. Stewart hit only four fairways and sometimes found himself in mud and silt. "I'm not at all pleased with the way I hit it, but I'm very pleased with the way I scored," he said. "On the 14th, at the top of my backswing, I could feel my right foot slipping in that goo." But the comment was not a complaint "The greens superintendent and his crew should be praised," Stewart said. "Yesterday, parts of this Rolf course were under five feet They did a helluva job to get it to a playable condition.

But the wet conditions, the wind, the chill and the rough combined to push scores unusually high. "It was a tough golf course out there. Par was a very good score on every hole," Stewart said. Bill Brinon shot a 68 that tied him with Tom Sieckmann and Mark Lye. Britton's round included a pitch-in eagle and a double bogey, when he left the ball in the wet sand of a bunker.

British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia was tied at 69 with Andrew Magee, Phil Blackmar, Jim Benepe, D.A. Weibring. Greg Norman had a 73. Lamontagne, who played the mini-tours for a couple of years before gaining his Tour playing rights, had his best finish at the Hawaiian Open when he tied for 12fh. "Except for that, I've been kind of struggling," he said.

The turnaround here came on the strength of his putter. He made a 40-footertosaveparonthe 13th, and he birdied the first from 20 feet. "The best I've putted in a long time," he said. Tom Daniels Elementary year, but I think you can see franchises changing a lot of players and see (improvement) happening," Brown said. The Spurs have served as a haven for the homeless and hope for the hopeless this season.

Ask center Caldwell Jones, who was called "Pops" by his Trail Blazer teammates last season when he was only 38. Ask Brickowski, guards David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Rod Strickland and center Uwe Blab all shipped by their former teams with little more than a second thought. Ask point guard Johnny Moore and forward Mike Mitchell, supposed has-beens who made good again. "There's a lot of teams you can say have talent," Brown said. "But all of a sudden guys that people didn't want that are on our team are really talented.

I can name you a whole bunch." How it all came together so quickly is a question Brown can't seem to answer. But the players aren't so surprised. "We made a lot of changes this year," Robinson said. "Then we started coming together. Then we made some more changes.

I think now we're feeling confident." Contributing to the success, Robinson said, is that the Spurs are a laid back bunch. "We don't lei anybody come here and be loo tense," he said. Elliott said the don't need to have a lot in common, other than that they like each other. Says Thank You to the following who contributed to the Arbor Day Committee Fund for I beautifying our Campus. The Medicine Stop Bitkower Associates Fidelity Abstract Title Co.

Gibson's Discount Center The Hummingbird Kerrville Funeral Home Citizen's National Bank Foxworth-Galbraith The Plant Haus 2 H.E.B. Grocery Hill Country Car Wash Quick Lube K-Mart Gymnastics, Etc. National Car Rental McCoy's Apple's Boutique Esquire Barber Shop Aaberg Associates Realtors, Inc. Wal-Mart First Gibraltar Guadalupe Survey Co. Dimension Cable Kerrville Drug Inc.

Girl Scout Brownie Troop 496 Ricks Furniture Co. Pro-Lawn Maintenance Service Chamber of Commerce Texas Hills Insurance Agency Kenneth J. Zysko, Attorney At Law.