Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 58

12 Section 4 Chicago Tribune, Friday, October 2, 1998 SOCCER BASKETBALL Bird's best quality: I He's no legend in his own mind Sam Smith ON PRO BASKETBALL JV i FIRE 2, RAPIDS 1 Shootout is Fire's escape Thornton holds off late-charging Rapids By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer That collective sigh of relief coming from the lakefront Thursday night came courtesy of Fire coach Bob Bradley and his players. After controlling the mStch for virtually the entire 90 minutes, the Fire had to sweat through a shootout before defeating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 in front of 12,610 fans at Soldier Field. Game 2 of the best-of-three Western Conference semifinal 'series will be Monday in Denver. Jesse Marsch converted the game-winner in the sixth round of the shootout after Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton snuffed out Peter ''Vermes' chance. "There wasn't much pressure because Zach had already made the first save," Marsch said.

"If we would have lost it would have been devastating. I had a night-" mare last night that we lost and I up and said, 'That can't The Fire outshot Colorado 19-11 and put eight shots on goal com-' pared with just three for the "When you miss opportunities and keep Colorado in the game, 'you're living dangerously," Brad- INSIDE THE FIRE Thornton plays it cool without Campos as backup By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer Two hours before game time, Zach Thornton was "just chilling," not feeling any pressure before his first career playoff game. He could have said the same thing during the game. Thornton faced just three shots on goal, all coming in the final 10 minutes, of VV V-r ft Tribune photo by Wes Pope the first half Thursday night. Colorado made its first shot on goal count in the 79th minute when Waldir headed home a deflected cross from Paz.

Fire defender C.J. Brown deflected the cross with his head over Thornton, leaving the net open for an easy flick from Waldir. "Our worst stretch was after it was 1-1," Bradley said. "Once it gets to a shootout I feel sorry for the players because it's a tough way to lose a game." Sounders. Hudock played with the Rapids in 1996 before returning to Seattle for the last two seasons.

Hudock was nearly sitting on the Rapids bench Thursday after Rapids backup goalkeeper Paul Grafer broke his wrist Tuesday. The Rapids called Hudock, but he had already signed with the Fire. "Either way I was going to be in Chicago," Hudock said. Diehards: Thursday's crowd was just 12,610, but it was probably the liveliest crowd of the season. The fans made good use of the noise-makers that were given away and were into the match from the opening whistle.

"We had 12,000, but it was 12,000 Fire fans," Jesse Marsch said. "Our fans have been great all year and they're knowledgeable." Novel concept: Playoffs are nothing new to American sports fans, but for the Fire's European players, it's a new experience. In Europe the first-place team at the end of the season is declared the champion. "I'm used to the way it is in Europe," said Frank Klopas, who played three seasons in Greece. "U.S.

fans like playoffs. Sometimes a month before the end of the season (in Europe a team has it locked up and there's no more excitement." "For us, it's been a tremendous season," Fire captain Peter Nowak said. "But now there are no excuses, we know what we have to do to advance." 11 up by Colorado's Peter Vermes in "A lot of chances wasted," Wolff said. "If we lose that game I would have been sick to my stomach." The Fire took a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute on a penalty-kick goal by Lubos Kubik. Colorado's Adrian Paz made a poor pass that was intercepted by Chris Armas, giving the Fire an odd-man advantage.

Armas played the ball into the penalty area to Peter Nowak, who was taken down by the Rapids' Steve Trittschuh. Thornton is now the undisputed No. 1 goalkeeper. "I'm looking at it the same way I've been looking at all year," he said. Thornton ended the regular season with the best goals-against average (1.17) and the most shutouts (eight) in the MLS.

Thornton's backup is Dusty Hudock of the A League Seattle Mark Giangreco Aif tfr of fun playing, and there were all the accomplishments me and the Celtics achieved, sometimes you want to put closure to it and moye on. So this will be it. When I retired, I wished the Hall of Fame" ceremony was then. "So that's what I want to hap- i pen Friday," said Bird, "to say, 'Hey, that's over and done with. It's Of course, that also is one big reason Bird won those three MVP; awards, every college player of the! year award, MVPs in the Finals and All-Star Game and was one of.

the most versatile players in NBA history with career averages of 24.3 points, 10 rebounds and 6.3 i assists. r'i Bird never cared about any of that stuff. He isn't falsely modest. Bird stjjl shivers sometimes when people congratulate him on his coach of the year award with the Indiana, Pacers last season, his first year coaching anywhere, and the teams's valiant seven-game loss ta the Bulls in the Eastern Confer- 'J; ence finals. "That's crazy," said Bird, "peo- pie saying how happy they were for us.

I don't want to hear that. Jt makes me sick. We were good enough to win." Which got Bird to thinking about this golf outing he attended' recently, with six professional and football players, and everyone being introduced. "They're talking about this one-guy and saying, 'He won this and he won and he goes up to -J, the microphone and says, 'Hey, also won this and that, Bird recalls, shaking his head. "I looked at him and thought 'Who gives a Why go up and do--something like that? Who cares what you won?" Which probably would be Larry Bird's acceptance speech Friday if they'd let him.

A lot of people do care because, they live on memories and vicarl1 ous thrills. Not the winners; not people lie Larry Bird. f. They come to win, not set St records. And then they go home, to pairit the fence, which Larry Bird's Connor, 7, gets to do a lot.

"He's right there beside me," Bird said. "One day he said, 'Dad, you're or something crazy like that. I said, 'No, we're, normal people who work hard to make a They can put that on Bird's plaque in the Hall of Fame, and then Larry Bird will smile. It really is the recipe for true greatness. Which is why so few sports ever get there.

win with two goals 55 seconds apart in the third. Ottawa took a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game against Jeff Hackett on a power-play goal by McEachern and even-strength goals from Yashin and Sarault. Gilmour scored his first goal in a Hawks uniform on a power play 6:55 into the third. Weinrich cut the Ottawa lead, to 3-2 when he floated a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that deflected in off goaltender Damian Rhodes. 1 But McEachern added an insurance goal off a rebound and Traverse closed out the scoring 55 seconds later.

New Hawk: The Blackhawks signed defenseman Dimitrl Tolkunov, who had attended the team's tryout camp. Tolkunov, 6 feet 2 inches and 185 pounds, is a native of Kiev, Ukraine. Tolkunov, 19, will report to Quebec of the Major Junior Hockey League. Last season, he had 10 goals and 25 assists in 66 games with Quebec. v-v.

7 The Fire's Diego Gutierrez is tripped ley said. And the Fire missed opportunities by the basket full. The forward tandem of Ante Razov and Josh Wolff were the main culprits in wasting them. In the 76th minute, Razov broke in on Colorado keeper Marcus Hahnemann and had two chances, only to come up empty. One minute later Wolff got Hahnemann out of position but his shot was sent inches over the crossbar.

the Fire's 2-1 shootout victory against Colorado in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Thornton saw a little more action in the shootout. After allowing goals on two of the first three attempts, Thornton made saves on Colorado's last three attempts. With Jorge Campos in Mexico for the remainder of the season, TOTAL SCORE 51 49 Rolling cheese State Daytime Phone GREEN BAY "The Vikings rally against Larry Bird is like just about everyone else who lives in southern Indiana. He paints his fence and mows his lawn, and he roots for the St Louis Cardinals.

Of course. Bird also is one of the greatest professional athletes in the history of our country and Friday he officially accepts his legendary status he's already known as Larry Legend around Boston for his exploits with the Boston Celtics when he is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. But back to the important stuff, like baseball, and what really made Larry Bird unique. This was the summer of baseball, and Bird had time to watch plenty of it and his beloved Cardinals. And in many ways he didn't like what he saw.

"I loved what Mark McGwire was doing," said Bird, "but why the heck weren't they in the playoffs? "It broke my heart," said Bird, "him hitting all those home runs, the fans packing the stadium, all that going on. I want them in the playoffs. That's why Sammy Sosa was my hero. They were fighting for the playoffs. It's the same with everything else.

You can accomplish all that stuff. But it means nothing unless you're winning." Everyone knows Larry Bird was a winner. He enjoyed three NBA championships with the Celtics in five trips to the Finals after carrying little Indiana State to the NCAA title game against Magic Johnson's Michigan State team. The continuing faceoffs of Bird and Johnson in the NBA, starting in 1979, when Bird was rookie of the year, are widely regarded as the beginning of the era of prosperity and growth for the NBA. When Johnson retired from basketball in 1991 after contracting the virus that can lead to AIDS, it appeared the two would enter the Hall of Fame together.

"It would have been nice for me and Magic to go in together," said Bird with a laugh, "but you never know, he might want to play again next year. He could go in the Hall in October and want to play in November." Johnson delayed his eligibility for enshrinement again when he returned to play briefly in 1996. And Bird could have skipped it all as well. Not that he doesn't appreciate the consideration. It's probably the biggest ceremony ever for the Basketball Hall of Fame.

For the first time, bleachers are being set up for fans to watch instead of having the ceremony at a dinner, and the ceremony will be telecast for the first time. Bird will have former teammate and close friend Bill Walton and former coach Bill Fitch as his presenters. And in some ways he does look forward to the ceremony, mainly because, to Bird, it means he doesn't have to consider himself a basketball player anymore. "The thing it means is closure to my career, finally," Bird said. "I had to wait five, six years.

But now I can put that all aside and move on. Even though I had a lot INSIDE THE HAWKS rally in the third on goals by Doug Gilmour his first as a Hawk and Eric Weinrich. Yashin had one goal and three assists, McEachern had two goals and one assist and Dackell three assists for Ottawa (5-2). Patrick Traverse and Yves Sarault also scored for the Senators. The Senators scored three goals in a 4-minute-28-second span in the first period and clinched the 100.000 fl t).

MILE Eukishrt It i 'IW food through 10 1 Hot nU out rtth off tpWr AtftW v-ujij, pksscom raters Sfjfr wtm Hfj mtm mum mam HugI tmmr Guess the Total Score of the upcoming Monday Night Football game and be eligible to WIN a trip to the Rose OCTOBER 5-MIIUIESOTA US. GREEK! BAY Gilmour scores, but Hawks lose Melissa Isaacson Associated Press The line of Alexei Yashin, Shawn McEachern and Andreas Dackell combined for 10 points as the Ottawa Senators beat the Blackhawks 5-2 in NHL preseason action Thursday night in Kanata, Ont. The Blackhawks (2-4), who had just four shots in each of the first two periods to trail 3-0, mounted a ABC7 Sports Anchor may be able to pull off a second-half the Bears but not the Pack. Tribune Staff Writer "Brett Favre has the edge over the aging but always entertaining Randall Cunningham." FIND IT HERE. mm gathers no moss" CHICAGO Look for this entry form again next Friday and watch Monday Night Football! Mail Entry Form To: PIGSKIN POINTS SWEEPSTAKES P.O.

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