Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 184

July 13, 1986 Asbury Park Press mm 2 Scoreboard 3 Baseball 15 Outdoors Elliott Mets jPEHMAtMg if i roll, 10-1 A salute to French athletes JAMES J. CONNOLLYAttwry Part Prats Ann Fitzgerald (above) of Middle Township pilots her boat to victory in a heat of 2.5 liter stock class during Sweepstakes Regatta yesterday. She later celebrates her victory (far right) In the pits, while Steve David, Pompano Beach, spends a quiet moment before entering the water. Joe Schull (bottom), Mount Ephraim, surveys damage to his boat after an accident on Navesink River. -I Ph Tu I i-i in- iMtai ii inlMiiiij j.

TV 1 .4 By JOE ZEDALIS Press Staft Writer NEW YORK The game started 44 minutes late, but for New York Met right-hander Rick Aguilera it was well worth the wait. Aguilera, who has been unable to hold a lead in recent outings, was the beneficiary of a torrid 15-hit attack as the Mets continued their march through Atlanta with a 10-1 victory over the Braves. New York will be looking for its 59th victory in a first-half ending afternoon contest today. Ron Darling (8-2) opposes recently acquired Doyle Alexander. But while the "Old-Timers" back for yesterday's annual alumni day raved about the Mets' first four starters, Aguilera finally contributed with the proficiency manager Davey Johnson has been hoping for.

"This is the outing I've been looking for," Johnson said. "This is the Aggie I saw last year. "I saw positive signs his last two times out This is just what the doctor ordered. He had a good live fastball, changed speeds real well and he threw the slider today and didn't aim it" The Mets had only two victories out of the No. 5 starter before the game one each by Aguilera and Bruce Berenyi.

Yesterday Aguilera worked ahead of the hitters for a change. He mixed his pitches well. "Basically I was able to throw the slow curve for strikes," said a pleased but subdued Aguilera after the game. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. "The timing really couldn't be better.

The second half is coming up and I have myself back together. I think it's just taken me a while to get back in the groove." The win was Aguilera' 12th of his career and he allowed just five hits, one run and two walks before departing in favor of Roger McDowell in the eighth. Aguilera also struck out six in the game. Aguilera also used a split finger pitch as a changeup, copying the one used by teammate Ron Darling. "I just wasn't having success with my changeup so I asked Ron Darling to show me the split finger," Aguilera said.

"I've been throwing it on the side the last three turns, but today was the first time I threw it in a game. I can't say I have it down yet but it's coming along." Throwing the split finger changeup, the fastball, slider and curve, Aguilera pitched shutout ball for 6V3 innings when a single by Andres Thomas put the struggling Braves on the scoreboard. "It was the only bad slider I threw in the game," said Aguilera, who hadn't gone more than 5Vj innings before yesterday." The Mets had 15 hits, but the long ball didn't figure into the outcome. New York didn't hit any home runs, but they had a little bit of everything else. Every Mets starter with the exception of Wally Backman and Rafael San-tana had a hit in the game.

Keith Hernandez appeared to See METS, page 1-3 Kl' I 'TZ" W.l I i Powerboat racing is hazardous By JON GELBERG Press Staff Writer RED BANK Marine Park provided a gloomy setting for the opening day of the 47th. annual National Sweepstakes Powerboat Regatta yesterday. A dense cloud cover, chilling winds and intermittent showers cast an ominous shadow over the competition. As if on cue, the day of racing began on the same ominous note. Joseph Schull, driving the boat, Hush Puppy, had just left the dock and was completing his first straightaway when his boat hit the wake of another boat, turned on its side and flipped into the air.

Rescue squads and the Coast Guard rushed to the scene, and it seemed an eternity before the good news reached shore. Fortunately, Schull had escaped unscathed, but bis boat was badly damaged. Bob Moore, the Commodore for the regatta, watched the scene and could only shake his head. "I told you before," Moore said, "this is part of the sport." It is such a part of the sport that Moore, in the preface to the race program, dedicated the 1986 Regatta "to those boat owners, drivers, crew members and race officials who have gone to their reward." For many of these, their reward came early, the result of crashes in this most dangerous of sports. "Sure it's a dangerous sport, but nobody has forced these guys into it," Moore said.

"They realize there is a danger. That's why I ultimately got out of it I have a family, responsibilities." Moore counts himself among the lucky. He has been involved in his share of collisions, but has emerged unscathed. Many others have not been so lucky. "Whoever you talk to in this sport, they've lost a close friend," Moore said.

"It happens, but when you're sitting on the water, waiting for the gun to go off, danger is the farthest thing from your mind. At that point, the adrenaline takes over." Art Apy retired from racing last year, but insists it was finances and circumstances beyond his control and not the safety factor which convinced him to quit The danger factor, or at least most of it, Apy said, can be taken care of through proper care and attention. "You work as hard as you can to make sure everything is perfect," Apy said. "Then you pray that everything is. "You start making a turn at 100 miles per hour and your boat isn't turning, then you're in Once upon a time, there was an old fortress in the city of Paris.

It was of no military importance; still, it had to go. Its continuing existence symbolized all that was wrong with old France. When it finally did go, under people's siege, July 14, 1789, there was rejoicing throughout the land. The first day of the new France had arrived. And there has been rejoicing every 14th of July since.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day. They'll re-rejoice. They'll storm the streets in every arrondissement. They'll raise champagne salutes to the original stormers. This, again, will be France's Great Day.

And time to salute some Great Gallic Ones. From an athletic standpoint, they've added beaucoupXo the general joie de vivre. And so we say vive le: Jacques Anquetil: This is also the time French passions are inflamed by the Tour de France. No sport inflames Frenchmen more than the cycling sport and it's the' incroyable Anquetil who five times pedaled off with the maillot jaune as king of the touring bikers. Frcnchy Bordagoray: Where would the White Sox (1934), Dodgers (1935-36), Cards (1937-38), Reds (1939), Yankees (1941), Dodgers again (1942-45) be without him? A Bordagaray picture card is an all-time treasure.

The real Frenchy, a career .283 hitter, wasn't really. But, sacre bleu, he had his days. And he is remembered. Jean Cruguet- The French love affair with le thoroughbred is longstanding and well established. Perhaps no thoroughbred in the recent history of the sport has delighted its devotees as fervently as the now-legendary Seattle Slew.

Those devotees reside on both sides of the Atlantic, and Slew-rider Jean Cruguet is thus appreciated as one of jockeydom's global celebrities. Baron Pierre DeCoubertin: Where would we Olympiphiles be without him? We might still rank Milo of Croton the finest heavyweight wrestler of the modern Olympic era, that's where. He breathed new life into an ancient concept. He knew that "athleticism can occasion the most noble passions or the most vile; it can develop impartiality and the feeling of honor as can love of winning; it can be chivalrous or corrupt, vile, bestial; one can use it to consolidate peace or war." One can say the founding fatherBaron's view of the Olympic future was incredibly visionary. Larry French: No, he did not market a certain brand of mustard, a great supply of which later proved inadequate to cover Reggie Jackson.

His contributions to baseball came elsewhere. Larry French (197-171 all-time) was a brilliant righthanded pitcher of his day (1929-42), with first the Pirates, then Cubs, then Dodgers. The '42 Dodgers were a sensational 104-50, but they still couldn't catch the 106-48 Cards. Rene Lacoste: They said this great "Musketeer" with Borotra, Brugnon and Cochet was a self-made champion. He studied the great masters of the day, keeping a notebook on the strengths and weaknesses of his contemporaries.

He won his great matches from the backcourt, with a style so relentless they called him "The Crocodile." Certainmenf, this was to become the world-famed symbol of Lacoste sportswear. Earl "Curly" Lambeau: He carved the Green Bay Packers to his own mold in the pioneer days of professional football. He was founder, player, coach and vice-president (1919-49) of the most remarkable smaller-town success story in the annals of American sport. He led his team to six world championships and turned legend himself. Alain Mimoun: He had chased the legendary Emil Zatopek in three Olympic finals, thrice settling for the silver medal.

But the Algerian-born distance runner never lost faith that his day, too, would come. And it did, Dec. 1, 1956. Zatopek ran sixth and Mimoun first in the Melbourne Olympic marathon. Emil the Great embraced Mimoun when he had finished.

And, said Mimoun, "for me, that was better than the medal." Pierre Quinon: Students of the French Academy of Pole Vaulting Dynamics had gained reputations as superb competitors at home, atrocious performers on the road. Quinon was not even the favored Frenchman at the Los Angeles Olympics. But on Aug. 8, 1984, on the far-far-road of L.A., it was he who competed surperbly to win the gold medal. Allons enfants Elliott Denman is an Asbury Park Press staff writer.

His column appears Sunday, Tuesday and parts greatly outweigh the dangers. "There are times when you just have to turn your head away," Mrs. Marshall said. "There are crashes, but the sport and the people in it are so great you just learn to put up with that part of it" David Shaw, who is in semi-retirement from racing, does not see the sport as especially dangerous. "You've got to drive with your foot and your head," Shaw said.

"I've had more friends killed on highways than in the water. "There's going to be danger in just about any sport," Shaw added "I have one friend who shattered her kneecap while bowling." Steve David, Pompano Beach, is one of the most successful drivers on the Eastern racing circuit He completely dominated yesterday's first day of racing, winning in three different categories. See POWERBOAT, page 1-6 trouble. Lady luck helps, she helps a lot." Every driver is aware of the dangers but chooses to go out there. For the family members watching from the sidelines, it is not always so easy.

"It's really rough on all the wives," Apy said. "Many aren't cut out to watch their husbands going around the corner at 100 miles per hour. It's easy for me I just say 'bye honey, see you in a few Harry Marshall, who no longer drives but owns one of the 2.5 Litre boats competing here, has mixed feelings about the sport. Still, he said he would never consider getting out of it. "You always worry when the boat is out on the course," Marshall said.

"When the boat is back on the trailer in one piece and the driver is safe on land, also in one piece, then you can sigh and say it's great," Marshall said. According to Marshall's wife Connie, the good rf By BILL KANDLEMAN Press Staff Writer 0 Wi hen Michael Patrick Largey gets up and looks out his window he sees the Medi i t' 5 "''1 r. f'i "8 peek. So, like a fool, I bought that I was gonna make it and I went to rookie camp with all the others, and we beat the hell out of each other, then we all got shipped up to Maine, which was the Bullets' CBA team. I froze for six weeks, six weeks of double sessions, every day.

"After six weeks, they traded me to Wyoming, where I froze even worse. Then they were gonna trade me again, to Reno. I guess that's the thing to do, in the CBA. I said 'No, just send me home. Next came the Eastern League.

Israeli basketball intelligence had that covered too. "They came back, watched me play, and doubled the original offer," says Largey. "I mean, immediately." He thought about it for roughly a sliver of a second. Mediterranean? Bangor, Maine? "I got on the plane, went straight to Israel, and that was it" In a manner of speaking. There was still the Hebrew language to conquer.

Not to mention little old ladies with sharp elbows and people stepping on your feet and long lunches followed by mid-day siestas and McDavid's instead of McDonald's no golden arches either. Michael Patrick Largey? Your basic blond, 6-foot-8 Irish Catholic type? Tel Aviv? McDavid's? Kosher? "My first year, I get off the plane and all these fans are there, right?" he recalls. "And they're saying just beat this one team (Macca-bee-Tel Aviv), OK? These guys have been the champions of Israel for 17 years in a row, right? But what do I know? And our team, the other Tel Aviv team, had lost to them something like 17 times in a row. See LARGEY, page 1-4 .1 terranean. When he goes out to greet the world everybody knows his name, except maybe the little old lady on the bus who will forever begrudge him his elbow room.

On real good days grown men come up to him, tears in their eyes, and kiss him on both cheeks. On real bad days someone will step on his foot and offer no apology whatsoever. One day he had breakfast in Tel Aviv, lunch in Rome, dinner in Paris. Another day, in Sarajevo, he had to punch out a gentleman who was trying to hit a friend of his over the head with a chair. But it all evens out No, come to think of it, it more than evens out That's the way Largey sees it anyway.

Many moons ago, back in 1983, Mike Largey had a choice: "The Mediterranean versus Bangor, Maine," as he puts it Now he laughs when he tells the story. Now he is a star player for Hapoel-Tel Aviv, a professional basketball team in Israel. Now Michael Patrick Largey is a household name in Tel Aviv, has been for three years. Now he can afford to laugh at what was, because of what is. Back in 1983, Michael Patrick Largey was a household name in Port Monmouth, Middle-town Township, and that was about it He had emerged from Red Bank Catholic High School not knowing whether he wanted to kick footballs or shoot basketballs.

He had gone to Upsala, where they allowed him to do both, and come out a third-round draft choice of the a Largey enjoying status in Israel as star player Washington Bullets. Soon to be a Maine Lumberjack, then a Wyoming Wildcatter, then a former CBA guy who didn't feel much like being traded to the Reno Whatevers. The Hapoel club had come on strong the year before. Its scouts had watched Largey play in the Jersey Shore Summer Basketball League, where he still summers. They had offered a contract "They said 'You'd be ideal, you'd love it, blah, blah, they really tried to sell me on it," Largey recalls.

"And I didn't want to hear about it "I thought I had a legitimate shot at making the NBA. I figured, drafted on the third round, you're gonna get more than a quick LIT JAMES J. CON NOLL YAbury Pwk Press Mike Largey, a 6-8 forward, plays for Ultimate Computer Supply in the JSBL.