Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 158

section; TUESDAY MAY 28, 1996 4th od. ave suels it out SPORTS Rivera not lost in middle Little glamour, but Yankees appreciate relief role 07ft. Shows Red Sox he belongs with HR, 4 RBI By PAUL DOYLE Courant Staff Writer struck out 123 in 1 14 innings with 36 walks. His ERA was 2.75. The next season, his career was threatened when he had surgery on his right elbow.

Five years and one serious injury later, Rivera has become a noticeable part of the Yankees staff. With a 3-0 record, two saves and a 1 .04 ERA in 18 appearances before the game Monday against the Angels that was not finished by pres-stime, Rivera has been the staffs most effective relief pitcher and is surely the top middle-inning reliever in the majors. Middle relief is baseball's thankless job. By JACK O'CONNELL Courant Staff Writer ANAHEIM, Calif. To people around the major leagues, prospects often come with no faces.

Major league managers and coaches have enough to worry about at the supreme level of the game than to pay much attention to what is going on in the bushes. Mariano Rivera is one of those players whose name preceded the face. As far back as 1991, a couple of Yankees coaches were pouring over the minor league statistics regularly to chart the progress of a righthander from Panama who was then 21. Buck Showalter was third base coach and Mark Connor the pitching coach on manager Stump Merrill's staff. The Yankees were going nowhere that season, so checking out the doings down on the farm was a welcome respite from the agony of watching borderline major leaguers go through the motions.

"We went through a lot of pitching lines every day, and Rivera's always stuck out," Showalter said. Rivera was then at Class A Greensboro. His 4-9 record was subpar, but all the other numbers indicated a pitcher with great promise. Rivera Eventually, the ball was retrieved. His home run ball, which cleared the left field fence with one on in the seventh inning, was also saved.

Malave, usually reserved and nonchalant, was glowing when he was handed the ball. "It was a great day," Malave said. "They were making good pitches in the zone. I was hitting it. I've got to feel happy." The Red Sox would be happy if Malave has arrived for good.

He has been one of the best hitting prospects in the organization for five years, but his stock dropped in the past year. After hitting .299 with 24 home runs and 92 RBI for Double A New Britain in 1994, he slumped to .270 for Pawtucket last season. He was in poor condition and bothered by a sore elbow, but still finished with 23 home runs. This season, he reported at 205 pounds about 25 fewer than last season and had the swagger of a player who expected to make the major league team. "He was very confident, which I liked," manager Kevin Kennedy said.

"I liked that cockiness. He can definitely hit. And he's played win-Please see Another, Page C3 "The best compliment I can give Mariano is to say that the hardest thing for me every day is to pick up the bullpen and not say his name." Yankees manager Joe Torre on Mariano Rivera, above iiii OAKLAND, Calif. To the 21,688 at Oakland Coliseum on Monday, his name was Jose pWXJjP'HjJ Mava-ke during one at-bat tTJT and Jose Mah-vah-lay on the i next. lack of respect from the public-address announcer didn't seem to bother Red Sox rookie outfielder Jose Malave (pronounced Ma-lah-ve).

He is focused on more important things than name recognition. iim "They called me every name," Malave said after a 10-3 victory over the Athletics. "It doesn't I wasn't thinking about it. I was just ilrying to hit. I mean, I know I can hit." Aiv Oakland fans won't argue not after Mon-iday.

Malave, promoted from Triple A Pawtucket on Thursday, went 3-for-5 with four RBI and his career home run. ob Sunday, Malave got his first major league hit iafter starting his career 0-for-5. His first hit was an infield single in the ninth inning of a 12-2 loss td the Angels. Malave asked for the ball, but i Umpire Rich Garcia flipped it into the stands. While starters vie for victories and closers strive for saves, middle relievers are left with no glam-; our statistic to gauge their performance.

7 "The best compliment I can give Mariano is to say that the hardest thing for me every day is to! pick up the bullpen phone and not say his name Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "I can't pitch? him every day, but I would if I could. I realize it's a cliche to say, 'Where would we be without but that's the truth. He has pitched, what, 35' innings 34 before Monday, and yet you coukf make a pretty strong argument for his being our; team's most valuable player to this point." Please see Rivera, Page C2 fiordan lifts Bulls tllli t.7A: to sweep scores 45 points gls Magiceliminated Associated Press Bji'- ORLANDO, Fla. No one was going to deny Michael Jordan and he carried he Chicago Bulls into the NBA Finals with him.

Jordan scored 45 lm-t uJ Bulls completed a Sweep of the Orlando Magic 106-101 in "i the Eastern Conference finals. The NBA Finals will begin Friday in Chicago if Seattle wraps up its Western Conference series against Utah tonight. Jordan, who led the Bulls to titles in 1991, '92 and '93 before retiring, re turned last season but made numerous mistakes in a second-round loss to Orlando. Those memories motivated him this season, when he won his eighth scoring ,.1 .1 title and fourth MVP award and led Chi Marc Yves Regis The Hartford Courant Dorsey Schroeder, center, sticks close to Ron Fellows before passing him with seven laps to go. Schroeder won by averaging a track-record 106.08 mph.

cago to an NBA-record 72-10 season. "It was extra incentive," Jordan said. "We saw the challenge after last year." Jordan answered the challenge. "He played the way we needed him to Rock No slowing Schroeder at Lime play to walk out of here with a win," said Scottie Pippen, who scored ll points on 4-for-ll shooting. Jordan shot 16-for-23, kept the Bulls (1 1-1 in the playoffs) in the game in the Trans-Am victory sets track records first half.

"I thought coming into today we did a more-than-respectable job on Michael," Orlando coach Brian Hill said. "But when he had to and today I thought he had to because we shut down everybody else he went out and got it done." But despite injuries that sidelined Canadian Ron Fellows, who got caught behind a lapped car. Fellows, who led 42 laps, finished 18th after sustaining a mechanical problem seconds after being passed. He has finished only two of six races this season. "The car was good, what can I say?" Fellows said.

"Somehow we've got to shake this, and I don't know how. All I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, try to be as fast as I can." Fellows held the previous track record for fastest winning speed, averaging 101.74 mph in 1992. That record now belongs to Schroeder, who averaged 106.08 mph Monday. Of the 23 drivers, 17 averaged better than 100 mph. Even Boris Said, who finished 21st, set a track record for fastest lap (107.09), breaking the record he set a year ago (106.36) Said was the only one able to stay with Please see Did, Page C6 By DAVID HEUSCHKEL Courant Staff Writer SALISBURY Lap by lap, cars fell off the pace.

The SCCA Trans-Am race Monday at Lime Rock Park was that fast. There were no caution flags to stop track records from falling. "That's the first time ever that I've run a full hundred miles without any reservations," Ford driver Dorsey Schroeder said. "We ran as hard as we could the entire day." Schroeder, one of five drivers to finish on the lead lap, became the first driver to win three Trans-Am races at Lime Rock with his victory in the Dodge Dealers Grand Prix before an estimated 38,000. Schroeder also won in 1989 and '95.

Mark Donohue ('68 and 71) and Tony Adamowicz ('68, '69) are the two-time winners. It was the second victory of the season for Schroeder, who won $22,600. Greg Pickett Winners of the feature races at the Dodge Dealers Grand Prix at Lime Rock: SCCA Trans-Am: Dorsey Schroeder World Sports Can Gianpiero Morretti and Max Papis IMSA GTS-2: Henry Taleb Inside: A long day for Scott Sharp. Notebook, results, PageC6. starters Nick Anderson and Horace Grant and reserve Brian Shaw, the Magic came out aggressive in Game 4.

finished second and Tom Kendall third. The 66-lap race took 58 minutes, 9.462 seconds, a record on the 1.54-mile road course. "The car was still running awfully good at the end," said Schroeder, who started on the pole. "It looked like everybody was running pretty much the same, a hard pace. I couldn't have gone any quicker than I was going." In the other featured event, Max Papis of Italy passed James Weaver on the final lap as the MOMO Ferrari 333 SP team got its third consecutive victory at Lime Rock in the IMSA Exxon World Sports Car race.

The Trans-Am race was also decided late. With seven laps remaining, Schroeder passed "I thought we answered any questions anybody had about the heart and will of our team," Hill said. Still, guard Anfernee Hardaway called flte sweep "really 'We are a better team than what we displayed," he said. Led by Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal, who finished with 28 points each, the Magic led 73-65 with 3W min 'Coach' serious about his racing utes left in the third quarter. But the Bulls then went on a 15-3 run to take the lead for good.

pt I w- Jeff Jacobs Le3V Angels trade Smith California sends reliever Lee Smith to Cincinnati for lefthander Chuck McElroy. Page C2 Princeton wins title Princeton defeats Virginia 13-12 in overtime In the NCAA Division I Jacrosse final. Page C2 Red Wings defeat Avalanche With five -A 9 Mil a. Dlavers golfer who shot in the low 70s before he turned his passions to the track. Nelson is no silly celebrity looking for a cheap rush.

He has established himself as a serious racer, looking to follow in the footsteps of Paul Newman. He's also a serious sports fan. Some racing fans might have only seen Buddy Lazier's purple Reynard-Ford catch the checkered flag Sunday at the Indianapolis 500. Nelson saw Willis Reed limp onto the court to lead the Knicks to the NBA championship in 1970. Nelson saw a hobbled Kirk Gibson launch a heroic World Series home run and limp around the bases bleeding Dodger blue in 1988.

Lazier broke his back in so many places in a Phoenix crash two months ago that he said the X-rays looked like a hard-boiled egg that had been dropped on the concrete. "What Buddy Lazier did winning that race in the pain that man was in was one of the most courageous and creative drives I've ever seen in my life," said Nelson, owner and driver of the Screaming Eagles race team. "You talk about legends of sport. The accident that kid suffered and his rehabilitation is not Please see Jacobs, Page C6 scoring, Detroit remains alive in the I) SALISBURY The endurance, Craig T. Nelson says, is the hardest part.

Too many ignorant folks underestimate the terrific physical demands of auto racing. Too many uninformed people don't realize what a drain it is. To the untrained eye, drivers don't look as if they're working hard. Heck, even Luther could have told Coach the only thing they look is stone-cold crazy. "But it's a full-on, howdy-do in terms of physical conditioning," Nelson, 52, said Monday before finishing seventh of 2 1 in the 1-hour, 45-minute Dodge Dealers Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

"At the end of this race last year, I was totally exhausted. I don't think I could stand up." Nelson, of course, is best known as Hayden Fox, coach of the mythical Orlando Breakers football team on ABC's long-running series "Coach." What a lot of folks don't know is he was a nifty Western Conference finals with a 5-2 home victory over Colorado. Page C6 -'On the air Local report Jarry Tredker Owen Canfield Racing, jai alai Scoreboard Marc Yves Regis The Hartford Courant Craig T. Nelson, known for his role as Hayden Fox on is making a nam on the IMSA Exxon World Sports Car Championship tour. He was seventh Monday at Unw Rock..