Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 110

Page 110 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Friday, Feb. 20, 1987 SPORTS PEOPLE Phils Saw the Winning Edge By LES BOWEN and BERNARD FERNANDEZ Daily News Sports Writers Minor league baseball is not a cushy life, and many players endure it only grudgingly. Not shortstop Greg Edge. The Phillies sent him to Clearwater, Spartanburg and Reading last year, and he was glad to see every one of those towns. They compared favorably with the federal correctional facility in El Reno, where Edge spent much of 1985 and a little of '86.

Edge's story began in January 1985, during his junior year at the University of Oklahoma. Edge went to the Oklahoma City airport one morning with 2 ounces of cocaine, courtesy of some friends, he later said, who had talked him into serving as their intermediary so he could earn tuition money. His scholarship had been cut back after he missed the 1984 season because of a broken foot. His parents didn't have the cash he needed. Edge had passed drug tests at Oklahoma, and according to his testimony and that of coaches and friends, he was not a drug user.

But this once, he yielded to the temptation of easy money. It turned out to be not so easy. The man he had been sent to meet at the airport flashed a badge. Edge was under arrest. A year later, Edge was serving a 30- month sentence at El Reno.

"All I ever thought about was how I let down, especially my famsaid. "It ain't no place to awful." everybody ily," Edge be. It was But then-Phillies scout Doug Gassaway, who now works for the Texas Rangers, remembered Edge's sharp infield play with the Sooners. Gassaway suggested the Phillies take a chance. "The president of the University of Oklahoma and the coaches there all stood behind him," Gassaway said.

"I traced (his background) down as well as I could, and everything I heard was that he was a good kid who made a bad mistake. "He's a little guy (5-9, who made only one error at Oklahoma in three years. That's pretty good for a middle infielder. "I had to go into prison to sign him, but I had enough faith in the kid personally and in the people I talked to to know he was a kid who really wasn't bad." The sentence was reduced, and Edge was released last spring. He immediately reported to Clearwater, where he got off to a slow start, with 18 errors and a .185 batting average in 43 games.

"I hadn't seen a baseball in nine months," Edge said. "I just had to settle down and get back in it." Settle down, he did. He was promoted to Spartanburg, where he hit .256 in 53 games. Then he came up to Double A Reading, where he hit .250 FREE SCARI "IT'S 4 WRAP!" GARDEN PARK AT THE GARDEN TONIGHT FIRST RACE 7:30 PM TOMORROW FIRST RACE 1:00 PM TRY YOUR SYSTEM AT GARDEN STATE PARK, CHERRY HILL, I Friday night only while supplies last. Julius Erving: new friends in the final month of the season.

Edge reports to the Phillies' minor league complex March 15. Again, he will be glad to be there. Busy Day When Everett Cassell heard about the "killer day" with fitness consultant Pat Croce being auctioned off at the Flyers' Wives Fight for Lives Carnival Jan. 29, he figured the challenge would be fun. Cassell, 50, of West Chester, who works for an oil company that develops jet fuels, says he bicycles 4,000 miles a year, so his idea of fun might be a trifle unusual.

Sure enough, Cassell's $800 bid was tops, so yesterday, he got up bright and early for a a.m. workout with Croce, Mike Schmidt and rehabilitating Flyers Ilkka Sinisalo, Mark Howe, Lindsay Carson, Ron Sutter' and Daryl Stanley. "Just the idea of it being a 'killer day' appealed to me," Cassell said. "It had that ominous sound to it, like it was a challenge. So I figured I might as well give it a go.

"It was a tough go Harry Caray: suffered stroke doesn't take 'No' for an answer, you know. If you're slacking off, he jumps all over you. He yelled at me. I didn't go through as intense a workout as some of those other guys, but I tried to hold up my end. "It was a real high I have a much greater appreciation for what it takes to be a professional athlete." Cassell spent the rest of the day with Croce and the Flyers, including an appearance on Croce's WIP radio show and taking in the Flyers-Penguins game last night.

Appointment with the Doc Rev. Theodore Stavro, a Philadelphia native, wrote the Sixers to say he would be bringing his daughter, Beth, down from their Concord, N.H., home to watch the Sixers play the Sacramento Kings tonight. And the Sixers were touched by his devotion; as Stavro explained, being a Sixers fan in the middle of Celtics territory isn't easy. He and Beth have suffered for the Sixers. There was that spring day in 1983 when they showed up at Fenway TRIPLE PLAY CUSTOM SHOP 827 S.

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And Stavro says he has to be feeling especially brave to take to the streets for a jog wearing his favorite Sixers T- shirt. It always elicits comment. Like we said, the Sixers were touched. So for being steadfast, Theodore and Beth, who is a junior high basketball player, will get to meet Julius Erving before tonight's game. And Beth will get a pair of basketball shoes like the Doctor's.

"I think the 76ers are more exciting than the Celtics," Beth said. "I like the other Boston teams; I just don't like the Celtics." Feeling Better Sportscaster Harry Caray, the voice of the Chicago Cubs, was resting comfortably yesterday at Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, after suffering a mild stroke. "He looks good, he is in fair condition and the prognosis is good," said Bill Wills, a spokesman for Tribune which owns the Cubs, The Chicago Tribune, WGN radio and WGNTV. Caray, 67, never lost consciousness, Wills said. It was not known how long Caray will be hospitalized.

Caray, who maintains a winter home near Palm Springs, suffered the stroke Tuesday while playing cards at his country club. He Can't Kick Denver Broncos kicker Rich Karlis, who was 2-for-4 in his team's losing Super Bowl effort, has so many fans that he has enlisted some volunteer help to answer his mail. Karlis missed a 23-yard field goal, setting a Super Bowl record for shortest field goal missed, and a 34-yard attempt in the first half of the game. He made a 48-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 28-yard field goal in the last quarter. Mary Billingslea, a volunteer with Points for People, a Denver organization that Karlis supports, is helping answer the 350 or so letters from around the globe Karlis has received since the Super Bowl.

"The only time his mail approached this was after the '84 playoffs," she said. "But the mail this year, it's different. There are SO many people who just write and say they're pulling for him, thinking about him, and not to let what happened in the Super Bowl get him down." Compiled from staff and wire reports..