News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 41

News-Press BASEBALL .3,5,6 ..5 PRO FOOTBALL 8,10 CLASSIFIED 11 SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 1985 i Kriek, Cash, Smid among upset victims R9SUlt3 2C I TV: Channels 8,20, 2 p.m. By JOHN FEINSTEIN The Washington Post I WIMBLEDON, England June 29, and 5 the days are beginning to run together at ranked No. 133 in the world. He had to win three qualifying matches to get into the draw and this was his biggest victory ever. "I like grass," said Acuna, who played on hard courts for years at Northwest Louisiana University.

"I Just went out and thought I could beat him." Cash, a semifinalist here last year, said, "Last year Wimbledon saw me at my best, this year at my worst." Perhaps the most surprising results of the day among the women were non-upsets. In a rare early round battle, Martina Navratilova needed the help of a ballboy to get by Bettina See WIMBLEDON, page 9C and 15th seeded Thomas Smid among the men and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (No. 6), Bonnie Gadusek (No. 9), Kathy Jordan (No. 10) andGabrielaSabatini (No.

15). Other seeds struggled. Second-seeded Ivan Lendl, after playing a horrendous fourth-set tie breaker, had to go five sets to beat Mike Leach, an American lefty, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7) 6-4. Jimmy Connors (No. 3) found himself trailing Ramesh Krishnan 5-2 in the third set with the match tied one set all.

But after changing to a tighter racket he won nine straight games and blew Krishnan away 7-5, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Anders Jarryd (No. 5) finished off a 5-7, 7-6 (8-6) 7-5, 6-4 victory over Scott Davis, getting even for Davis' upset in the first round here last year. And Tim Mayotte (No. 16) came close to joining the losers.

Mayotte dropped two sets to Australian Paul McNamee and had to go into a third-set tie breaker. But he survived that, and after a rain delay trailing 1-2 in the fourth came back and won the last 11 games for a 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) 6-2, 6-0 victory. "It was a different court when we came back," McNamee said. "It was slower and he started returning better. It was like two matches." The biggest upset was one that had been virtually completed Friday.

When rain came in the evening, Ricardo Acuna stood one game from beating Cash, leading 7-6 (7-3) "I went home and dreamed about serving out the match about 10 times." Acuna said. "In my dream, I served four aces to win." Not quite. But after Cash saved a match point to reach 5-4, Acuna did serve out the match, ending it with an ace. At 27, Acuna is Wimbledon. Each day it rains for a while and then they play tennis for a while.

It rains some more. They play tennis some more. Saturday, for the sixth straight day, rain interrupted play three times and as play advanced through the second round and into the third, seeds began falling. Seven seeds lost today: sixth-seeded Pat Cash, ninth-seeded Johan Kriek of Naples ukee Ebullient WBBH sports anchor's charisma is unmatched and his popularity is, too By NICK MOSCHELLA News-Press Sports Writer Two years ago, on a typically warm summer evening, more than 5,000 spectators squeezed into Terry Park not necessarily to root for the hometown Fort Myers Royals, but to be entertained by The Chicken. Several minutes before game time, a tall, pencil-thin black man made his way across the field, toward the Royals' third-base dugout, where the Chicken was waiting to goon.

Suddenly there was scattered hand-clapping that quickly swelled into a wave of applause. Soon the fans were standing. TheChicken wasstunned. Ukee Washington choked back tears. The persona says.

"I almost started to cry. Suddenly, I realized I was back home." Home, where he is adored. At restaurants, Washington cannot make it through an appetizer without signing a dozen autographs and discussing the day's sporting events with nearby diners. He allows himself three hours for shopping, the extra time put aside for greeting and signing. He is in constant demand for public appearances.

He'll hand out Little League trophies. Lead cheerleaders at a high school pep rally. Rap with the Kiwanis Club. Mud wrestle for charity. "Getting out in the public is what I like to Washington says.

"I like to show people that even though I'm on TV, I'm a public figure, I'm still plain folks, just like them." While at WBBH, Clement was amazed by Washington's magnetism. "More times than not, anywhere I went people would ask questions about Ukee," he says. "They'd want to know what he was like to work with. Is he really as nice a guy as he seems? Did I know him? "You might have people tell you things they didn't like about the other anchors, but you never heard anything bad about Ukee. I mean, the guy is larger than life." Pressed to reach back for a discouraging word uttered about Washington, Clement struggles, then obliges.

"For a while, when Ukee would give baseball scores, he'd use 'zip' for zero," Clement says. "So you'd meet people on the street and they'd say, 'Gee, I like Ukee, but I wish he wouldn't say "And that's about the most negative thing you'd hear about the man." The man is genuine. To be around Ukee Washington is to be both admiring and envious. Admiring because he is so very nice, straightforward, fun to be with. Envious because of Washington's looks, talents and incredible popularity.

Providence has been kind to Ukee Washington. He is creative in his profession, an accomplished singer, a graceful athlete, an interesting speaker. Washington works to capitalize on his gifts, at the same time being careful not to step on toes or tweak noses. Says Clement, "He's not like most TV people in that he doesn't have an ego. A lot of anchor people tend to have larger-than-life images of themselves.

Not Ukee. And I think that's probably his big draw." See UKEE, page 4C 9 II One cannot escape the irony that the most recognizable face In Southwest Florida is that of a black man. Ukee Washington's name might not carry more weight than that of Jack Wheeler, Frank Mann, Frank Wa-nicka, or Porter Goss. But parade that troop through the Edison Mall, and chances are good it would be Washington to whom the crowd would flock. Obviously, his persona is intensified by the fact that he enters 32,000 homes each evening around the dinner hour, as the sports director of WBBH-TV, Channel 20.

But the Washington star quality flows even off the set. Witness the children who tug at his sweaty shirt during a celebrity basketball game for the Miami Dolphins, clamoring for his autograph to go with the freshly scribbled signatures of Dolphins stars Mark Duper, Tony Nathan and Joe Rose. Witness that on this celebrity basketball team, Washington is by far the brightest light The team, more often than not, is called "Ukee's Team." "It is pretty phenomenal, isn't it?" says Ed Clement, a former chief photographer at WBBH. Clement is now a professional photographer in Fort Myers. The standing ovation at Terry Park said it all.

It took place just after Washington had returned to WBBH, following a brief and unhappy stint at a station in Atlanta. Ukee, remembering the moment, stares into space and slowly shakes his head. Even now he is visibly moved by its recollection. "I thought they were applauding the Chicken," he News-PressGarth Francis UKEE WASHINGTON ADDRESSES A FORT MYERS-AREA LITTLE LEAGUE BANQUET "Plain folks" attitude keeps him In constant demand, but he answers the call Haas hurls his 'one-hit stuff as Brewers down Yanks 6-0 Miller kicks Stallions to victory By The Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Birmingham Stallions showed once again they are two points better than the Houston Gamblers and this time the win moved them into the semi-finals of the USFL playoffs.

Four weeks ago, Birmingham edged the Gamblers 29-27 at Houston and on Saturday, the final tally was 22-20 as former Clewiston star Danny Miller booted a record-tying five field goals, the last one with two minutes left in the game. As the Eastern Conference champion, Birmingham, now 14-5, will be at home again next weekend with the opponent to be determined by first round games today and Monday night. That opponent will either be Denver, New Jersey, Baltimore or Tampa Bay, with the pairings to be decided by league officials. Only 18,500 fans one of the lowest Legion Field turnouts this year, watched the Stallions make the semi-finals for the second straight season. Last season, Birmingham lost in that round to Philadelphia, now Baltimore, the 1984 USFL chamption.

Houston, which finished third in See MILLER, page 8C needed to pull one Mattingly said he "definitely wanted to hit the ball hard. I knew it was a hit as soon as I hit it. It was a good pitch to hit." It was the best game of Haas' nine-year major league career and the third one-hitter in the 17-year history of the franchise. The others were thrown by Skip Lockwood against the Yankees in 1972 and Jim Col born against Texas the following year. Haas' best previous effort was a two-hitter against Seattle in 1980.

Until the seventh, the 29-year-old right-hander had allowed only one baserunner a leadoff walk to Willie Randolph in the third inning. That was his only walk and he struck out four in ending New York's four-game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Brewers chased 46-year-old Phil Niekro, 7-7, in the fourth inning and handed him his fourth consecutive setback. The veteran knuckleballer has an ERA of 1 0.60 in those four losses. Milwaukee scored its first two runs in the second jnning.

With one out, Ted Simmons doubled, Earnie Riles tripled and Ben Oglivie hit a sacrifice fly. The Brewers doubled their lead in the fourth after loading the bases wiyh no one out on singles by Cecil Cooper and Robin Yount and a walk to Simmons. Riles' slow grounder to second produced one run and Niekro was relieved by Dennis Rasmussen after walking Oglivie to reload the bases. Paul Householder's sacrifice fly made it 4-0. Cecil Cooper tripled home Milwaukee's final two runs off Rasmussen in the seventh following two-out singles by Paul Molitor and Jim Gantner.

After Randolph drew Haas' only walk on a 3-1 pitch to start the bottom of the third. Mike Pagliarulo hit a potential double play ball to first baseman Cooper. His throw to second pulled shortstop Riles off the bag but the relay to first nipped Pagliarulo. By HERSCHEL NISSENSON AP Sports Writer NEW YORK Milwaukee's Moose Haas said he didn't think he had "no-hit stuff" warming up in the bullpen before Saturday night's game. "And," he added with a wry smile, "I didn't." But Haas did have one-hit stuff, limiting New York to Don Mattingly's ringing double with one out in the seventh inning en route to a 6-0 victory over the Yankees.

"I didn't think I had too much (before the game)," said Haas, who is 7-3 with a 2.38 earned run average after pitching his first shutout and fifth complete game of the season. "But that's the way it goes. Sometimes you have great stuff (in the bullpen) and you can't get anyone out and sometimes you don't have anything and pitch a great game." Once he got to the mound, Haas found his stuff got better, although "my fastball wasn't quite what it usually is, so we had to change speeds to everybody." But it was a 1-1 fastball his 61st delivery of an 84-pitch game that cost him a no-hitter. "I shook Charlie (catcher Moore) off," Haas said. "He wanted to pitch him inside, but I wanted to pitch him away, the same way I got him out (on a grounder to second) in the fourth inning.

It was supposed to be a sinking fastball, but it didn't sink." At least not until it hit the ground in deep right-center field. "My first thought wasn't that I lost the no-hitter but that it was a double," Haas said. "It was really kind of a relief when he got the hit A no-hitter is always in the back of your head. You know they don't have any hits, but there aren't many of them (no-hitters). "Then I wanted the shutout.

But basically I just wanted to win. The way we're going on this road trip, we mm i i i ii AP BREWERS MOOSE HAAS FIRES IT IN game was his first shutout of season, fifth complete game Andujar wins 13th Burns leads at Memphis Veteran pro George Burns, faying "It really was work out there today," and "My putter kinda ley me down on the back," nevertheless shot a 2-under-par 70 to Joaquin Andujar became the first 13-game winner in the major leagues with a six-hit shutout as the St. Louis Cardinals blanked the New York Mets 6-0. The win Wiggins starts back 6 The Baltimore Orioles have sent newly-acquired second baseman Alan Wiggins to their Triple-A Rochester (N.Y.) club, where hey is to play himself back into shape following his trade from San Diego. Inside the Cards Into first place in the National put take a two-shot lead in the Memphis Classic.

League East, a half-game ahead of Montreal. is.