Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 29

3C Star TribuneFridayOctober 41991 Kennel owner charged with illegal imports Green says pay TV is way to go love to send their signal in," said Jensen, referring to the track's respective general managers. "There are 74 harness meets across the country with 139 evening dates from October to April. I believe a standard-bred simulcast schedule would be supported here." Ladbroke owns The Meadows in Pittsburgh a harness track but Pennsylvania law prohibits the facility to send its races out on simulcasting signals. The Racing Commission motioned that acting Canterbury general manager Terry McWilliams negotiate with Jensen for a plan to add harness simulcasts this winter. McWilliams, meanwhile, contended that Canter ULU I niNU WAUtHS sti ana.

a BOOTS RAINWEAR EVERYDAY LOW PRICES Get the best selection w.aaiaaaiav- been good. It's just a matter of fulfilling protocol." On Wednesday, Barr pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was released on a $2,000 signature bond. If convicted, Barr could face six months in jail or $500 to 1,000 on each charge. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled forNov.

18. Proposals made -Two proposals were made at a Minnesota Racing Commission meeting Thursday. The first was made by attorney Joe Friedberg, who has been outspoken against Ladbroke's future plans at Canterbury. He wants the Racing Commission to require Lad-broke to fulfill unspecified conditions before re-licensing the Shako-pee track; Canterbury's license will expire Dec. 31.

Col. Greg Jensen, president of the Minnesota Harness Association, proposed that Canterbury allow harness racing simulcasting once the live meet ends. Jensen's proposal was well-received by Racing Commission members. Last winter, Canterbury si-mulcasted racing from several California tracks, including Santa Anita. Jensen also contacted officials from several tracks, including Balmoral in Maywood, and Los Alamitos in California.

"(They) said they would By Eric T. Pate StaffWriter Dr. Rodger I. Barr, a Coon Rapids veterinarian and owner of Mill City Kennel at St Croix Meadows, has been charged with six misdemeanor counts of illegally importing greyhounds. Barr has been accused of importing 35 greyhounds from Kansas City and Wheeling, W.Va., without required health certificates.

He also is accused of illegally signing health certificates without proper accreditation in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Ban contends that he is being unjustly accused, blaming the case on a misunderstanding. "When I transported the dogs in May, contacted a person on the Wisconsin Racing Commission," Barr said. "I was told that I was doing things the right way and now I get this. I was really surprised when this happened." Dr.

Dennis Carr said officials from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture's Animal Health Division discovered the documents in July after making a routine check of records at the track. "All veterinarians have to do is take an accreditation test, an instructional test that takes a day," said Carr, who also said this year's test was conducted in June. "If he would've been accredited in Minnesota, it would've Baseball Florida Martina Named Angel Vazquez director of Latin American operation and special consultant to the general manager. Montreal Expos Named Fred Ferreira director of Latin American opwationa and Doug Carpen-ter Florida scout. Basketball Boston CeWc Signed forward Sieve Schemer.

Cleveland Cavaliers Signed forward Keith Hughes, centers Greg Butler and Dai Tumqufat and guard Anthony Houston. guards MM Stephens and Analey. New Jersey Doug Lee to a Football New England safety Tim squad. Reynolds on the Hockey North Stars with center Nest contract Buffalo Sabres bury management always talked with the harness organization. "We had an ongoing slate with the presidents of their organizations," McWilliams said.

"Since the last legislation, we've talked with them. We support people's rights for their own opinions." Jensen and McWilliams haven't determined a meeting date. Etc. The field for the $50,000 St. Croix Derby', has been trimmed to 24 greyhounds, with three" stakes races scheduled for this weekend.

Tonight's 1 1th race features seven dogs 2 year-, old or younger. Wednesday's meeting was the first for new Racing Commission president Richard Pembcrlon. Pcmberton. a Fergus Falls attorney, was chosen by Gov. Arne Carlson for the position.

Pemberlon replaced Ralph Stran- gis. who has an option to stay with the com- mission as a board member. Slrangis said he -will make his decision today. 1 mJj 1 Sat, October 5 9 am-2 pm Auction at 1:00 pm Shoreview Holiday Inn 694 Lexington, Shoreview, MN Sponsored by Twin City Sports Collectors Club Under 16 -75cy LICENSED niniiESOTA rams PRODUCT PUBLIC WELCOME TO VISIT OUR TWINS OUTLET STORE AT 786 KASOTA AVE NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE TAKE 1-94 TO HWY 280, EXIT ON KASOTA AVE AND GO LEFT ONE MILE. WAREHOUSE ON RIGHT.

dlggfo OB It came as no surprise to North Stars pwner Norm Green when the NHL 'agreed Thursday to have 50 games tarried on a national cable network for the robust sum of $5.5 million. "That's not exactly a ton, is itT said of an agreement reached rwtth SportsChannel America (SCA) hours before the first puck dropped in the 1991-92 season. Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and the "NCAA might have billions coming in from television contracts, and 22 NHL teams are each getting $250,000 Jrom SCA. But that doesn't mean Green is despondent. He sees the 3yHL as having a golden opportunity capitalize on how sports will be sen on TV in the future.

-LJser-pay," Green said. 'There's no way hockey can ever become a network sport We only have 14 teams in the U.S., except in California, and there's no team, except maybe for the A. Kings, who are a national team. Teams are only hot in their own jieighborhoods. And that's why I feel so strongly that satellites and user-pay are the future for the NHL." in" other terms, user-pay is pay-per- view.

The devoted TV hockey fan pays to see a game. The Stars are "starting the process this season. This week the team agreed to have 17 games (the number will grow some) oh Prime Sports NetworkMidwest, a regional cable sports channel, shown in outstate Minnesota. But the games also will be available at $9.95 a game in' the Twin Cities. Packages will be offered at reduced rates.

The 17-game schedule includes t0 home games and seven away. The Stars also plan to have any sold-out jiome games available on pay-per-view. The Stars and Twin Cities cable operators will share equally the 'revenues from pay-per-view. -The Stars still will have 25 games cYttied on KMSP-TV (Ch. 9), but Green sees pay-per-view as a way to increase the approximately $250,000 the! Stars got last year from local TV.

Green's optimism about pay-per-view was buoyed during the playoffs last year when as many as 35,000 Twin Cities cable subscribers a game paid to see the Stars. know that we kind of lucked into the success we had with pay-per-view last year," Green said. "But our intention is to have our building sold put' for home games and then pay-per-view can become an extension of the arena. We knew there wasn't a lot INNESOTaX Wagner and Everette forward Michael Nets Signed guard 1-year contract. Patriots Activated Gordon from the practice Placed linebacker Ed practice squad.

signed Jen Christian, ten wing, and Myes O'Connor, defenseman, to Utlca of the American Hockey League. New York Islander Assigned Dean Chynoweth, defenteman, to Capital District of th American Hockey League. New York Rangers Signed Roger Neilson, coach, to a new contract. St Levi Blue Assigned Jason Marshall, defenseman, to Peoria of the International Hockey League. College Massachusetts Said basketball forward William Hemdon has been granted an additional year ol eligibility by the Conference Commissioners Association.

One of Midwest's largest distributors of T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, pennants, buttons, ceramic cups, blow-up hats, foam hands, small baseball bats, key chains, wind socks, pens, pom-poms, license plate frames, playing cards, night lights, bobble head dolls and a hundred other items. LARGE AND SMALL ACCODNTS WELCOME? Agreed to terms Broten on a mut-tiyear Assigned center Darcy Loewen to Rochester of the American Hockey League. New Jersey Devils Released Alain Chewier, goaltender. As- TERRYBEAR, INC. STAR PROMOTIONS A Minnesota owned and operated corporation 786 Kasota Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414 Wholesale accounts call: (612) 331-8200 Named Al Bianchi scout Milwaukee Bueka Signed Sports radioTV Jon Roe of money in local rights fees, and pay-per-view is not a key thing for us.

But it certainly is a trend for the future and something we must explore as a revenue source." Green foresees the Stars being able to increase their TV income by fourfold or more with a successful pay-per-view operation. And he doesn't think that pay-per-view is a holdup of the viewers. "When somebody has had something for nothing, it's tough taking it away," Green said. "But what we're doing is giving you the option of seeing something that you wouldn't be able to see otherwise. There are the 25 games on free TV, but the rest of the games you could only listen to on radio.

Now for a nominal fee you can see games that you wouldn't have been able to see." The Stars had their cable games on Midwest Sports Channel last season and reached approximately 400,000 outstate viewers. Switching to PSN means the Stars will be seen by about 90,000 outstate viewers (Rochester, Winona, Alexandria, St Cloud, Hib-bing and Moorhead). "We're disappointed that the Stars left," said Kevin Cattoor, MSC general manager. "But it was impossible for us to meet their demands (rights fee). We made some proposals, but they were rejected.

This is the first time that all of the Stars cable games have only been on pay-per-view in the Twin Cities. But they were very aggressive in what they thought their broadcast rights were worth." The 50-game package the NHL signed yesterday with SCA will still be seen on MSC, however. Bits and pieces The Gophers-Illinois game Saturday will be on ESPN (11:30 a.m.). with Steve Physioc and Gary Danielson as announcers. Sunday's Vikings-Lions game (noon, Ch.

4) will be announced by Jim Nantz and Hank Stram. The start some updates'and the finish of the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday will be on WCCO-TV (Ch. 4). The broadcast starts at 7:30 a.m with a 60-minute special at the conclusion (about 10 or 1 1 a.m.) ESPN will carry Saturday's NL West games between Houston and Atlanta (6:30 p.m.) and Los Angeles and San Francisco (9:30 p.m.). leader -of the offensive line, said "there's more of a sense of urgency.

Nobody wants to go through what we went through last year." There seems to be a difference between the sense of urgency that permeates the locker room this season and the one that existed last season, when the Vikings started 1-6. Last season, the Vikings were six months removed from winning the NFC Central. They thought of themselves as a good team receiving bad breaks. This year, the question is can this team snap out of it not when will it? "It's been frustrating," said middle linebacker Ray Berry. "We feel like this team is a time bomb, and we're just waiting to explode." The Lions already have started making noise.

They are tied for the division lead with the Bears and have a young, talented Burns looks at the Lions and sees an ideal situation, as well as a suddenly daunting foe. "Every game is crucial," Burns said. "This one is crucial as hell. And these guys are playing damn well. They're playing excellent defense, the best defense I've seen them play.

This is the best Detroit team I've seen in the last 10 years. Right now they're playing with enthusiasm and confidence and people are behind them. The whole thing is upbeat" Which is the way the Vikings coaches want their players to be: Lowdermilk said meetings haven't been much different but that "the tempo in practice is definitely up." In a locker room that can be remarkably carefree after important losses, Lowdermilk suffers. This start even if it has not done irrevocable damage to the Vikings' playoff hopes, has stung him. "This year is more frustrating," he said.

"Well, it was frustrating last year, too. Every time you lose, a little piece of you dies inside. If you lose enough, you're dead." 79 per minute the scores you want scores from an college and Continued from page 1C Jfgr if r) defensive tackle Dan Hamp-lonoften criticized the Vikings for possessing more talent than heart. And Lions nose tackle Jerry Ball said Vikings are underachieving. "I'm really surprised they haven't won a Championship with the talent they Save," Ball said.

"They're one of the teams in the league. There's no way of getting away from it We may have the better team. They have more talent than we do." Burns responded to that on a conference call with the Detroit media by saying: "I've heard that all along. got nine Pro Bowl players, they have eight What the hell's the difference?" A'tfually, the Vikings have 10 players who have been to at least one Pro Howl, but that includes injured defensive tackle Keith Millard, who is out for the season. The Lions have seven Pro Bowl players.

Rft" however talented the Vikings have' proven themselves with individual awards, they have fallen short of their public's expectations. Burns pta'ces part of that blame on the media) are always the guys who. are talking about a lack of togetherness, and morale and spirit" he said. "But it seems to me that there are a lot of media people that of the unity and the togetherness and the morale and the leadership that do everything they possibly can to be disruptive and fragmentize the team. TJiere is a paradox here: The same people who call the talk shows are thy ones who pay the players' and coaches' salaries.

They buy tickets and' souvenirs and keep the TV ratings' high, which results in lucrative network deals for the league, which in turn feeds the teams' coffers. And thernedia, however disruptive, create and increase interest in the team. But the media aren't the only ones taking the brunt of Burns' bad mood. The players have felt the heightened intensity as well. Lowdermilk, the Fsstsst Updstsd TOW You can reserve a piece of Michael Jordon, Magic Johnson and other NBA superstars tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.

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