News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 49

Briefs, Scorecard 2C Baseball Tennis Preps 5C Hockey Pro basketball NEWS-PRESS SCORELINE Call 332-5600 or 1-800-848-0515 Touch tone only NEWS-PRESS SPORTS EDITOR: SAM COOK 3354)357, today-Friday 1-9 p.m. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1993 Aj tmim i TAUfOFTHETOWfl smb. Sfc" A toy not LLr Rangers at Tigers White Sox at Orioles A1 y-s Brewers at Twins Blue Jays at Royals VN Red Sox at Mariners Km 'iiE Yankees at Athletics ikre Indians at Angels Vy Reds 5, Pirates 0 Braves at Marlins Dodgers at Expos Padres at Phillies Giants at Mets Astros at Cubs Rockies at Cardinals Roundup 3C The Canuck trio of Anatoli Semenov, Garry Valk and Tim Hunter, who had never played as a unit before Monday's 4-2 playoff victory over Winnipeg, were the talk of Vancouver 5C ail BYRON STOUT bails ympaim perpoex israwes By EVAN GRANT Florida Today Sunday at San Francisco. For the year, the Braves are hitting just .203 as a team. The Marlins, averaging 3.08 runs per game, are hitting just .244.

Third baseman Terry Pendleton, hitting just 1 89, had an interesting explanation. "We got one guy, maybe two guys who are really hitting the ball," he said. "The rest of us, we're stinking up the place, to be honest." Braves-Marlins TV: 7:30 p.m., Sunshine Radio: 7:35 p.m., WDCQ-AM (1200) Fort Myers MIAMI The Florida Marlins were supposed to have this kind of trouble scoring runs. As an expansion team, they've got an excuse. But what is the Atlanta Braves' problem? In 14 games entering Tuesday night's series opener with Florida, Atlanta, two-time defending National League champs, was averaging just 2.64 runs a game.

And that included a 12-run outburst a losing outburst The Associated Press NICE STRETCH: Montreal's Delino DeShields slides safely Into home past Los Angeles catcher Mike Piazza on Tuesday. BLAZIMG BASEBALL'S TRAIL ootainia 5s traded- to Cuoe'fs I ly.t1 1 7iiVVA I I IV if n- The Associated Press 1 I it i i I i KANSAS CITY, Mo. Joe Montana is now a Kansas City Chief. The saga surrounding the star quarterback ended Tuesday night when the San Francisco 49ers completed a deal with Kansas City. "The Montana deal is done," said Jim Carr, assistant public relations director for the Chiefs.

'Ha i I l'tt II II 11 i i'l 1 fi' a Terms of the trade weren't immediately available, but a source close to the 49ers said Montana, safety David Whitmore and a third-round draft pick in 1994 would be sent to Kansas City in exchange for the Chiefs' first-round pick, the 18th overall in next weekend's draft. The Chiefs and 49ers had haggled over compensation for Montana, who led San Francisco to I I tr.tl LI 1 I I i i i i 1 IV' For clean air and water planet that way Tomorrow is Earth Day, which of course every fun-loving outdoors person will celebrate by breakfasting on pine nuts and running barefoot through a cow pasture. Afterward, please don't 'forget to write a check equal to next month's Jeep payment to Al Gore and the Owls. i No. Even with a jillion dollars, the Democrats couldn't pass the Reynolds Rule, although that certainly would fix the littering problem.

We speak, of course, of Ricky Reynolds, a television advocate of a lot of things, including vaporizing the heads lof people who talk in movie theaters. To eliminate littering, Reynolds proposes that (anything a person throws on the ground should, by law, urn, forcibly Internalized by litterer. OK, that idea is a little too Iranian for mainstream politics (in Iran, they cut off your hand for stealing). Still, one thing every should do for Earth Day is make a resolution to become more politically active, however distasteful the idea. In Isaac Asimov's last book, "Our Angry 'Earth," co-authored by Frederik Pohl, the 'authors note, "To ask the average self-irespecting American to take an active part in notoriously dirty business of politics is not unlike asking him to consider entering a career in street prostitution.

But if we want to prevent the worst of the disasters, we have no to political action." The truth is, a lot of Floridians found ithat getting political wasn't really that bad. During the recent session of the state legislature, when the media reported the iMarine Fisheries Commission was about to be gutted by commercial fishing-backed bills that would have seriously the agency's ability to protect fisheries resources, MFC enemies were backed off by a storm of phone calls. Public makes its point i Thousands of conservationists were pleased to simply state their side of the issue and be checked off by a mild-mannered telephone receptionist. And if you called the pol's local office, it didn't cost a dime. i If you want to make a real political impact, you can spend 29 cents and add to the sheaf of letters a politician can wave at his colleagues when exhorting them to save the trout, or whatever.

1 One Earth Day caution: Note on your letter that no response short of political action is necessary, lest more trees die as the pol's staff responds to your words, letter for letter. ii Indeed, some of the best ways to help the jearth are by not doing. That is not to say that to help save Florida Bay from the algae glooms and water starvation which threaten to wipe out that fragile ecosystem, one should "give up sugar in his coffee in order to put pressure on the sugar-cane growers said to be mucking up the water problems upstate. I Get your politicians to work on that. What ve can do is to watch our own runoff, which according to Mote Marine Laboratory is the single largest threat to the Gulf of Mexico.

The lab notes that "more than half of the shellfish beds of the Gulf have been closed due to threats to human health through the presence of toxic substances like heavy metals, fertilizers and pesticides which enter the water primarily through storm-water runoff." So, like, if we watered and fertilized the yard less, so it didn't stay so lush and green that we needed gallons of poison just to keep the bugs at bay, we also would have to spend less time mowing the grass, which would give us more time to catch all of those fish we've saved through cleaned-up storm-water runoff. What a great place, this earth! Some other ideas: Honda Marine suggests you switch to one of its four-stroke outboard engines, available up to 45 horsepower, which will not pollute air and water with oily exhaust emissions, like normal two-cycle outboards. On the warranty reply card, you might ask what Honda execs mission is to peacefully coexist with nature and preserve our are doing in regard to international whaling, and killing dolphins in tuna nets. Boat U.S. suggests cleaning boats only with environmentally safe products, bringing trash back to port, never discharging oil on the jvater, and avoiding excessive speed that causes boat-wake erosion, i Reader S.R.

Maxeiner of Sanibel suggests actually creating your own seafood nursery by hanging a handy bio-fouling, post-larval fish attractor underyour dock. Choose whether you want to raise game fish, crabs, lobsters or scallops. Get fat and happy. Call the not-f or-' "profit Marine Habitat Foundation on Captiva Island at 472-8534. Not enough? Send for hundreds of ideas (none of the above) In "What Have You Done forYour Wildlife Lately?" a free booklet from the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, 620 S.

Meridian tallahassee FL 32399; (904) 488-4676. Have a nice earth. Byron Stout Is a News-Press staff writer. 'Hi I I'M --yj MARC BEAUDINNews-Press TALKIN' BASEBALL: Lee Smith, the Fort Myers Miracle assistant general manager, believes a woman's place can Indeed be In a dugout. ye dreamer Deag PROFILE Miracle exec Smith believes she can conquer the world four Super Bowl title, since Montana MONTANA made a second visit to Kansas City last Saturday and came to a tentative 3-year agreement The announcement ended a bizarre week during which the 49ers said Montana would be the club's "designated" starting quarterback over NFL MVP Steve Young, only to have Montana say he'd rather be traded to Kansas City rather than remain in San Francisco.

Peterson, in a statement issued before his news conference, said he reached an agreement with 49ers president Carmen Policy, and the trade will "include a second player and two draft choices." The statement did not elaborate. "Obviously we are pleased to finish the last aspect of acquiring Joe Montana to what we hope will be three exciting years for the Kansas City Chiefs," Peterson said. Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer, quoted in the release, said: "Our offensive coaches are going to be busy, but we think he will obviously give this organization an opportunity to improve." The 49ers said they will hold their own news conference today in Santa Clara, with Montana and 49ers' owner Edward DeBartolo, Jr. to attend. "Both teams are pleased that the matter has reached a conclusion on terms that they feel are fair and reasonable," Policy said.

Montana lost his job to Young during a two-year recovery from an elbow injury. He has played only 30 minutes of football the last two seasons. On April 7, after the 49ers had re-signed Steve Bono as Young's nominal backup, Montana was deemed expendable and the club gave him permission to shop around for another team. Last Friday, Montana agreed in principle on a 3-year contract with Kansas City, ending a two-week search. But the 49ers blocked the move, complaining the Chiefs hadn't offered enough compensation.

Then the issue was further clouded when the team offered Montana his old starting job. ByGLENN MILLER News-Press staff writer ee Smith had seen too much. Too much greed. Too much disillusionment. Too much conformity.

"I just had these grandiose ideas I was. going down to Latin America and saving the world," said Smith, who graduated with a degree in international economics. "Then a professor sat me down as I was graduating. 'Diplomats don't save the world, they justify policy. And you're the kind of person who isn't suited for that because you have this righteous spirit in So much for diplomacy.

Next came Temple University law school and a job with a firm in downtown Miami. "They were rigid people," Smith said of her co-workers and supervisors. "They never laughed. They never had fun. Everybody was very serious all the time.

There was this protocol. Decorum thing. I had to wear a blue, black or brown suit. It was that look." So much for the law. Smith quit one day.

Just like that. After six months. She had no job offers, no prospects. Goodbye, $37,500 a year. See SMITH 4C I JOB TITLE: Assistant general manager, Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League.

I JOB DESCRIPTION: Handles payroll, business operations, accounting, sales reports, player relations and also sells advertising. I EDUCATION: Degree in International economics from Haverford (Pa.) College and law degree from Temple University. I GOAL: Assistant general manager at major-league level. And worse, far too much of her youthful idealism had been dashed on the rocks of indifference. That, in a nutshell, is how the 29-year-old Smith went from fledgling would-be diplomat to attorney to assistant general manager of the Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League.

The disappointments started at Haverford (Pa.) College, where idealistic diplomatic dreams of saving tattered Central American countries ended with a dose of reality. Dolphins sign Eagles' Heller By KEVIN KAMINSKI News-Press staff writer "There weren't many teams I would consider leaving for," the 30-year-old Heller Lawyer for Bills fan: No more moons over Miami FORT LAUDERDALE A Buffalo Bills fan arrested after he dropped his drawers at a Davie bar has decided to plea bargain and cover up. Joe Hillman, 32, pleaded no contest to breaching the peace. Broward County Judge Paul Zacks withheld a conviction Friday and $135 In court costs but made Hillman promise to keep his pants on. The diehard Buffalo Bills fan made headlines after he was arrested for mooning Miami Dolphins fans following the Bills' AFC championship in January.

"There will be no more moons over Miami," said Jim Lewis, Hillman's lawyer. "He said, 'Enough is The Associated Press twant to go to the highest bidder. I either wanted to stay in Philadelphia, a team I was very happy with.oroneor two specific teams. The Miami Dolphins were "Playing for (head coach Don) Shula, playing on grass and with a winning program all figured in my decision," Heller said. "And the opportunity to play with Dan (Marino) Heller, who received a $400,000 signing bonus to go with base salaries of $925,000 in 1993, $825,000 in '94 and $725,000 in '95 and a $25,000 roster bonus, becomes the Dolphins' highest-paid offensive lineman.

Gene Burrough, agent for Dolphins' safety Louis Oliver, said he spoke with the Philadelphia Eagles front office on Tuesday. Burrough said that a trade for Oliver remains a possibility before the end of the week. MIAMI The Miami Dolphins addressed one of their draft-day needs Monday, signing offensive lineman and unrestricted free agent Ron Heller to a three-year deal worth $2.9 million. The Dolphins plan to move Heller into the right tackle spot, a position shared by Mark Dennis and Jeff Dellen-bach last season. After spending the last five years In Philadelphia, the nine-year National Football League veteran said the toughest part of his decision was trying to justify leaving the Eagles.

HELLER No. Ion that The Eagles actually offered the 6-foot-6, 280-pounder more money ($3.3 million) than the Dolphins to stay in Philadelphia. But Heller cited several reasons for wanting to play In Miami..