The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 10

The Orlando Sentinel Fred Couples, David Frost tied at top in Western Open, B-3 h3 Sunday, August 3, 1986- JbyneivKersee' again sets record i rw ill? Larry Guest THE SPORTS COLUMN Ashford had hoped for a world record in the women's 400-meter relay but settled for 42.49, a Festival and stadium record. The old stadium record was set by Florida State University in 1983. Joining Ashford were Californians Alice Brown, Pam Marshall and Diane Williams. Finishing second was the South's squad, which was composed of Orlando's Michelle Finn, Tallahassee's Chandra Cheeseborough and former Orlando tinel Golden South Classic participant Gwen Torrence. Carl Lewis anchored the South's 400- her 969 points in the event, Joyner-Kersee ran a slow, 64-second first lap and looked as though she wouldn't be able to break the record.

At the 500-meter mark she began sprinting, passed front-runner Lana Zimmerman and won the race to give her victories in all seven events. Joyner-Kersee's performance included a world-heptathlon best in the long jump (23 feet and a personal record in the javelin (164-5). Joyner-Kersee's record overshadowed the relay anchor performance by Olympic star Evelyn Ashford. nr mm mn wrmrmte By Bill Buchalter OF THE SENTINEL STAFF HOUSTON Jackie Joyner-Kersee bettered the world heptathlon record for the second time in three weeks Saturday, compiling 7,161 points at the U.S. Olym-pic Festival.

Joyner-Kersee needed to run 2:10.55 in the 800 meters last of seven events in the two-day competition to better her existing mark of 7,148 points, established at the Goodwill Games in Moscow. Joyner-Kersee's time was 2:09.69, giving Gaining Fame by numbers By Russ White OF THE SENTINEL STAFF The sleepy rural stillness of the village of N.Y., surely will be broken, this afternoon when across frorn the post office on Main Street a' huge crowd will gather outside Baseball's Hall of Fame at 2:30 as three more of the game's "greats" gain the Hall. Welcome Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr and Ernie Lombardi. The three players obviously had the right stuff and the right numbers during their careers. A man isn't welcome at the Hall unless he meets certain criteria.

Even then he has to be elected by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (as McCovey was this year) or by a special committee on veterans (as Doerr and Lombardi were). It takes more than just records to get a man into the Hall of Fame. Statistical splendor Babe Ruth's 714 home runs, Ty Cobb's 4,191 hits, Cy Young's 511 pitching victories, Walter Johnson's 3,499 strikeouts are important but only part of the process. Voters are directed to remember this from the Rules of the Hall of Fame: "Candidates shall be chosen on the basis of playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and their contribution to the team on which they played and to baseball in general." Excellence must be coupled with longevity. The more years a man has in baseball, the more impressive the records he can compile.

There are ground rules that prohibit the committees from electing a man automatically for hitting .400 or winning 30 games in a single season. One-shot stars are not welcome at the Hall. Roger Maris' 61 home runs beat Babe Please see FAME, B-6 II? If -41 1 V.r fry Best bets cmcng active players Projections are based on baseball players who have completed at I league seasons, with positioning based on a scale of 1 to 10. Player for Induction Into the Baseball Hall of Fame 5 years after retirement. meter relay team to an apparent record-breaking performance, but the team later was disqualified Lewis ran down Michael Morris and apparently brought the gold medal to the oo tii ri suuui learn in oo.ofi, iuuei isun oiuui- um record.

Lewis' teammates were Arkansas University's Wallace Spearman, Texas Floyd Heard and Houston's Kirk Baptiste. The subsequent disqualification gave the East the victory in 38.64. ir! Another stadium record was set by Joetta Clark of the East in the 800 meters. Clark's time was 2:00.65. tv Royals open floodgates on Red Sox KC scores 11 runs; 5 in 7th-inning surge ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON The Kansas City Royais turned the Fenway Park basepaths into their private parade grounds Saturday with an 1 1-run seventh inning, leading to a 13-2 romp over Boston.

Wave after wave of blue uniforms circled the bases as the Royals rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Red Sox. The first 12 batters in the seventh reached base one shy of the American League record and 11 of them scored. "That's about as bizarre as they come" said George Brett, who drove in three runs with a double and a single in the 1 "It would be very difficult for me to recollect a time in all my years in baseball where a team got so many hits in a row." Boston Manager John McNamara said. There were 10 hits and two walks off starter To Seaver, Bob Stanley and Tim Lollar before Sammy Stewart came in' to get the first out of the inning. "It's a shame to hang the 'L' loss 'on Seaver we're the ones who deserve it," Lollar said.

"It was a darn good game for six innings, and then all heck broke loose," Boston outfielder Dwight Evans "It was a pitcher's day turned hitter's day for us," said winning pitcher Mark Gubicza (5-5). "It was a thrill to be Involved in a pitcher's duel with Seaver." "I don't remember ever seeing everybody hit the ball like that or seeing that many runs in an inning," said Royals first baseman Steve Balboni, who had a three-' run homer in the seventh. Blanked on four hits for six innings by Seaver, who struck out eight, the Royals jumped on him and the three relievers and tied team records for runs and hits (11) in an inning. The Royals handed Seaver (4-10) his fourth loss in a row. After 12 consecutive batters reached base, Stewart struck out Lonnie Smith for the first out in the seventh.

The league record for the most consecutive batters to reach base is 13, set by the old Kansas City A's against the Chicago White Sox In 1956. Brett, Mike Kingery and Angel Salazar had two hits each in the seventh. The Royals finished with 17 hits. Box page BS Finally a fans' poll Do college football polls get, your dander up? Will Oklaho-J ma defend it's No. 1 ranking' or will a darkhorse ride off with this year's top prize?) Here's your chance to cast a vote for your 1986 favorites, Because arguing over rank-J Ings is as much a part of col-j lege football as coaches, cheerleaders and halftime, The Orlando Sentinel is going to let you pick the' preseason top 20.

The poll will, appear in the football preview; Sept. 5. page Bail 1 1 TOP 20 1 A Christmas deserves another shot at bigs In early May, almost a decade of perseverance and frustration finally seemed worthwhile to Steve Christmas. Christmas, a former Orlando Colonial High School quarterback and third baseman, appeared finally to have found his niche in The Big Show (read: major-league baseball) with the Chicago Cubs. He had spent only a week in the bushes this time, a five-day stint with the Cubs' Class AAA team in Des Moines, Iowa, before being called up to Wrigley Field and told he was Chicago's No.

2 catcher, utility infielder and pinch hitter. Christmas wasted little time in rewarding General Manager Dallas Green's faith. In his third day with the big club, Steve was inserted as a pinch hitter and ripped a game-winning, two-run double off Montreal's Jeff Reardon. He changed high-fives with famous teammates, and Harry Caray had him on the post-game TV show, giving him a 4-inch TV set as a memento of the occasion. He filled in as the Cubs' first-base starter a few days later at San Diego and played well.

Then the team moved on to LA, and there was Steve happily drinking in the heady atmosphere of Dodger Stadium, the one he'd seen on television so many times. Christmas had no doubts that he belonged. He had paid his dues. The interruption of euphoria came during infield practice. Its sound was a muffled and sickening "pop" as he made the throw to second base for maybe the time in his professional career.

A ligament tore loose from his elbow, but Christmas shook it off, refusing to accept what was happening there on his ninth day as a permanent big-leaguer. He made another throw, this time with a sharp pain in the elbow and a tingle of numbness in his little finger. The next morning, he was in Dr. Frank Jobe's care, blinking hollow-eyed at the famed orthopedist's recommendation of surgery, his baseball career in the balance. Somehow, it seemed a cruel joke after all the years of waiting for the big phone call, all the long bus rides and economy motel rooms.

1 Christmas woke up Saturday morning in another of those impersonal, thin-walled rooms, this time in the Indianapolis Days Inn Northwest. The Iowa Cubs had split a meaningless double-header with the Indianapolis Indians, and Steve had all day to kill before another meaningless game Saturday night. The only thing of relevance was that he had played in one of the games, ripping a single and double in four at-bats, continuing to prove what he has proven year after year for a decade: Steve Christmas can hit a professionally thrown hardball with admirable proficiency. Christmas, anxious to avoid surgery and two-year rehab at age 28, sought a second opinion on the elbow and went along with a Chicago medic who suggested simply immobilizing the arm in a cast for several weeks. Steve spent nearly two months on the disabled list, then was sent back to Des Moines to await another phone call.

This is one of baseball's oldest and saddest stories. There have been hundreds of players who somehow get stuck on the minor-league treadmill for no apparent reason. In the right chain at the right time, Christmas might have made the jump a half-dozen years ago and would now be making hundreds of thousands of dollars with framed photos on the wall of his ride down Orange Avenue on Steve Christmas Appreciation Day. Many bitterly give up the dream after a few seasons, but Christmas, stoked by his brief major-league stints with the Reds, White Sox and Cubs, keeps the faith. Oh, there have been times he came close to grabbing the want-ads like in the spring of '83.

He had hit a solid .306 the previous season for Class AAA Indianapolis and was batting nearly .400 in the spring for the parent Cincinnati Reds when they sent him down again. By all accounts an easygoing, personable sort, Christmas exploded that day, barging into the offices of Manager Russ Nixon and GM Dick Wagner. "I sort of went crazy," Steve recalls with a laugh. "I let them know how I felt. A couple of days later, they gave me a slap on the wrist by loaning me out to Tucson in the Astros' system.

That's when I really thought about quitting. It's so frustrating. You keep thinking, Why Or, Why not me? And you think about putting a wife and daughter through the life of a gypsy. This year we Please see GUEST, B-6 Pete Rose 10 Tony Perez 7 RichGossage 5 Tom Seaver 10 Cecil Cooper 7 Bob Horner 4 Steve Carlton 10 Ted Simmons 7 Lance Parrish 4 Reggie Jackson 10 Tommy John 7 Willie Wilson 4 Phil Niekro 10 Dole Murphy 6 Lou Whitaker 4 Mike Schmidt 10 Cat RipXen 8 Jack Morris 4 Don Sutton 9 Graig Nettles 6 Bert Blyleven 4 Nolan Ryan 9 Robin Yount 6 Andre Dawson 3 George Brett 9 Dave Winfield 6 Dave Kingman 3 Jim Rice 9 Rickie Henderson 6 Bruce Sutter 3 Gary Carter 9 Tim Raines 6 Dan Quisenberry 2 Steve Garvey 8 Dave Parker 6 Dave Concepcion 2 Eddie Murray 8 Fernando Valenzuela 5 Bob Boone 2 Wade Boggs 8 Ron Guidry 5 Don Baylor 2 BM on protection of Rum White ol th 8ntlntl Ufl. JIM BREDECKSENTINEt dm Business sense dictates USFL should play Trump I 2 By Brian Schmitz Of THE SENTINEL STAFF UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL The NFL was found guilty of being a monopoly but not of causing the USFL to file for Chapter Common sense should tell owners in the USFL to call their accountants, pronounce the patient dead and head to the nearest bar.

Folding is the only way they will not lose any more money. The future is not now. (At least not in the fall). The league already has been spindled and mutilated, but it resists being folded. USFL owners are too angry, too frustrated and too offended by the jury's token award to limp away.

Had two jurors listened to Judge Peter Leisure's charge there would not have been this fuss. The juror stirring the furor and keeping the USFL alive is Miriam Sanchez. Sanchez told the media after the verdict that she felt the NFL injured the USFL Please see USFL, B-9 Prudent business sense calls for owners of the eight United States Football League franchises to close shop. "Prudent business sense," Orlando Renegades Managing General Partner Don Dizney said, "calls for you not to get into the football business in the first place." Dizney laughed. Dizney's gallows humor is fitting, considering he may return from the USFL's owners meeting Monday in New York without a league in which to play.

USFL was looking to score big in their antitrust case against the National Football League. Claiming the NFL devilishly drove it to the poorhouse, the USFL was looking for a jury to award damages of $1.69 billion. It would even take $100 million. All the USFL got was $3. From shame to fame Former Green Bay Packers great Paul Hornung poses with portrait and bronze bust after induction Saturday into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Hornung, who had been eligible for 15 years, finally made it despite a controversial career that included a suspension for gambling on pro football games. Story, B-9..