Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 19

ports Star Tribune Tuesday August 21994 1C. Vikings tripped up by long trek Green would prefer to work on team's problems stateside "If the league asks you to go to Japan, you do it. When we come 3 back, we get back to the business of training camp." Dennis Green Even though he would like nothing belter than to corral everyone at Mankato State and hash out, lapse by lapse, the many things that went wrong in the team's 17-9 exhibition loss at Dallas on Saturday night, he will have to wait. Why? Because there are places to go, people to meet, photos to snap, hands to shake, books to read, sushi to eat, so on and so forth on the trip to Japan that begins this afternoon. By Sieve Astiiuuruer Staff Writer The best time to fix an engine is ly after it sputters.

The best time to correct a golf slice is fresh off the 18th green. And the best time to coach a football team back to health is, well, as soon as possible after a defeat. However, Dennis Green won't have that opportunity this week with the Vikings. While there, the team will squeeze in another preseason game against Kansas City on Sunday, after which the Vikings will fly immediately back to the Twin Cities. By the end, they will have spent four nights in Tokyo and about 28 hours on an airplane.

Not the best classroom in which to correct many mistakes. Vikings continued on page 3C Sjaff Photo by Brian Peterson rmm 1 Twins I Kks's sean DDDD T1 Ripken anything but washed up "A help Csi get well Rhodes outdueld old pal Mahomes ByJimSouhan Staff Writer i In baseball, it takes all kinds. Cal Ripken, played in his straight game Monday but the Ori-1- -oles most instrumental in beating the Twins were a pitcher who had been with the team for one game and an outfielder who made one play. DThe Clinton administration offers to assist in the stalled It was May 29, 1990, and Cal Ripken date with history was more than five years away. Reverence was not a requirement in a media mention of Ripken, other than in Baltimore, where Ripken was treated as a city treasure.

This was particularly true with the Orioles- sportswnter decided to add Ripken to the American League lineup for the All Washed-Up Team. The tribute paid to Ripken went like this: "The way Ripken was swinging the bat when the Twins were in Baltimore last week, he would do the Orioles a favor by forgetting A Patrick Rousso the ironman bit and spending a week at the shore." If this advice made its way to Ripken, he decided to ignore it. Since that day in late May 1990, Ripken has added 704 games to his ironman streak. He won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1991. He took a .315 average with 70 RBI into Monday's game in the Metrodome.

appointed official scorekeepers, who considered this brief announcement "E-6" the most distasteful task on the planet. The Twins happened to visit Memorial Stadium in late May 1990, and Ripken was flailing away with such futility you would have sworn it was Bo Jackson. It was so bad that heretics in Baltimore's old ballpark were heard to aim a few boos in Cal direction. 4 1 1 ml jf strike talks. Page 5C Although it seems these days that the American League's idea of parity is, to let everyone play the Twins, this did not fit into their overflowing cat-egory of unsightly losses.

1 ISI 5 The Orioles earned a 1-0 victory be- fore 27,712 at the Metrodome as Ar- thur Rhodes, recalled from the mi-nors Sunday, outdueled fellow for- 1 4 So, it was without hesitation that a Reusse continued on page 5C 2,000 and counting Cal Ripken Jr. is closing in on Lou Gehrig's 55-year-old record for consecutive games. Here is a iook at tne i ail-time longest streaks vi X. (' 2,130 LOU Gehrig Cal Ripken N.i 1,307 2,000 as of Monday night wwwti VV Vs. mer Texas high school star Pat Ma- homes, and Mike Devereaux, ninth-inning defensive substitute, made a spectacular diving catch of a -Matt Walbeck liner in the right-cen- ter gap, with Scott Leius circling the bases, to end the game.

"It was a helluva game," Twins man- 1 ager Tom Kelly said. "We dropped the ball once and paid for it" 1 The lone misplay in a game of field- ing gems gave Mahomes, who won 0 in his last start, a loss in one of the most impressive outings of his prom-ising career. In the second, Harold. Baines led off with a single and Leo Gomez hit a double-play grounder to short. Jeff Reboulet, a middle infield- er forced to spell Kent Hrbek at first because the Twins don't think anyone else on this team can field the, position, dropped the ball.

Twins continued on page 5C Steve Garvey 1,103 beweii Ripken started the streak at third base on May 30, 1982. After 27 games he switched to shortstop and has stayed for 1 ,973 games, a record for one position. He has started the past 1 1 All-Star games, the longest current streak. b. He has had three close calls a sprained ankle in 1985, a twisted ankle in 1992 and a twisted knee last season.

The closest current player (at only 267 games) is Florida's Jeff Conine. Eddie i 1829 Yost' 822 IHSHS2rA 798 SCORE Through Monday Source: BasebaH Encydopedta Staff Photo by Joey McLeister Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. tipped his helmet to the Metrodome crowd on Monday after receiving a standing ovation before his first-inning at-bat The appearance marked Ripken's consecutive game. Star Tribune Graphic I ORIOLES 1 7 TWINS 0 7 1 Saints' Castaldo older, wiser and better Slugger hoping for another chance Sexton out of Wolves' deal Bill Sexton, who sought the Timberwolves for eight months and came to the brink of buying the NBA franchise last week, said Monday night he "definitely" has decided to stop pursuing the deal. But an NBA source said that another buyer is in the wings.

Story, page 1A Key moments Pat Mahomes allowed no earned runs In eight Innings, but lost as the Twins fell 1 0 games under .500 for the first time. Knobby hurt Chuck Knob- lauch hit his majors-leading 43rd double, but left because i of a lower-back strain. Tonight Carlos Pulido (3-6, ERA) faces Baltimore's 1 Mike Mussina (14-5, 3.25). .7:05 p.m. at the Dome.

helped reshape his outlook and restore his zest for the game. "I got jerked around, and I didn't handle it well," said Castaldo, who began this season with a 14-game hitting streak. "I got bitter. My performance suffered, and I didn't know if I wanted to play anymore. I started thinking, was it worth all this stuff I was going through? I questioned how much I wanted to play, and I'd never done that before.

Castaldo continued on page 6C By Rachel Blount Staff Writer Vince Castaldo always assumed that baseball adhered to a simple and democratic code. If you worked hard, you earned respect. If you behaved yourself and played well, you got ahead. Then the Saints third baseman entered the major league farm system, and the real world caught up with him. Castaldo discovered that a player's salary or draft position often ized he still loved baseball.

But in order to continue playing, he had to rid himself of his distaste for the minor leagues. This summer, he is leading the Northern League with 47 RBI and 28 extra-base hits, and he is among league leaders in batting average home runs (12) and slugging percentage More importantly, he's in an environment that has mattered more than statistics. He saw managers play politics and mind games, while lies and broken promises piled up like wads of tobacco on the dugout floor. One day last summer, while he was playing for Class AAA Ottawa, Castaldo decided he had had enough and he walked out. After some reflection, Castaldo real NL page 4C AL page 4C Baltimore 1 Atlanta 4 Twins 0 New York 2 6 Chicago 8 2 Florida 5 Cleveland Detroit Miller regains golden touch Shannon Miller, the most decorated U.S.

gymnast in history, rebounded from a disappointing second-place finish in the all-around competition to earn two gold medals and two silvers in the Individual apparatus finals Monday at the Goodwill Games. GOODWILL GAMES, PAGE 3C Associated Press Rosenthal to retire Notre Dams athletic director Dick Rosenthal 4 will step down next year and be replaced by vm Michael A. Wadsworth, who Is currently Canada's ambassador to Ireland. yu BRIEFLY, PAGE 2C Cowboys lose Lassie The Dallas Cowboys suffered a blow In their 1 preseason opener against the Vikings as backup running back Derrick Lassie Injured a knee and could be out for the season. N.4" PAGE 3C jJ- Kansas City 4 Cincinnati 4 Oakland 2 San Francisco 3 i i New York 8 Colorado 8 Milwaukee 3 Houston 3 i i Toronto 6-3 Montreal 3 Boston 2-4 St.

Louis (10 Inn.) 2 San Diego 5 Los Angeles 4.