The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 21

The Orlando Sentinel WMmdtk A Eric Undros agrees to deal with Flyers, C-2 WEDNESDAY, July 15, 1992 PSw'ar: 77 3 baseball brats Ken Griffey Cal: Ripken and Sandy Alomar Jr. spark the AL's record performance. THE SPORTS COLUMN compiled from wire reports -'t SAN DIEGO Hey, junior! Great game. Baker-Finch confirms VK generosity with replicas Ken Griffey Cal Ripken Jr. and Sandy Alomar three baseball brats who grew up in ballparks, started a record-shattering show Tuesday night as the American League embarrassed the National, 13-6, in the All-Star Game.

MUIRFIELD, Scotland Ian Ba- tVlATLM i -L. i 1 ker-Finch brought back the sto- tJlH UIRFIELD, Scotland Ian Baker-Finch brought back the storied silver claret jug when he ar The Americans rapped seven consecutive singles, capped by hits from Ripken, Griffey and Alomar, during a four-run first inning to set one mark, and battered Tom Gla-vine for nine hits to establish another. Eventually, it added up to a record fifth consecutive victory and a record-tying run total for the AL. Griffey Jr. was named the game's Most Valuable Player after going 3- 1 MM I ZJ 1 1 v.

lit! i. tl. 1 -v. SIM' i TT- 1 I i 4 ASSOCIATED PRESS Ken Griffey Jr. is congratulated by Kirby Puckett and Chuck Knoblauch after hitting a homer in 3rd.

for-3, with a single, double and Glavine home run. The American League the junior circuit, an appropriate nickname in this case also shattered the All-Star record with 19 hits, two more than the AL gathered in 1954. Things went so well all night long for the Americans that even a pitcher, Cleveland's Charles Nagy, added to the hit total Nagy, wearing a Texas Rangers' batting helmet in his first major-league at-bat, beat out an infield chopper in the three-run eighth for the first hit by an AL pitcher in the AU-Star Game since Ken McBride in 1962. Glavine, though, had problems. Like many top pitch- ers, he tends to struggle most in the first inning, and he picked a bad lineup for his latest problems off the pad "There's not much you can do about it," Glavine "They hit a few pitching-wedge shots, kind of broken-bat hits that just fell in.

I didn't really have anything to, prove here. I've established myself and have had a pret-, ty good first half of the season." The AL knocked out Glavine by getting another run' on two more singles in the fifth. Then, with the reliev- ers in, they started bringing out the extra-base punch. The next five runners who scored got on base with an extra-base hit. Please see ALL-STARS, C-5 Magic forward travels by bike By Tim Povtak OF THE SENTINEL STAFF This wasn't what the Orlando Magic expected when they told Brian Williams to keep busy and stay in shape during the off-season.

Williams, the free-spirited, second-year power forward, hasn't played much basketball since his strong finish in the 1991-92 season, but he has had a blast do-' ing other things. He traveled from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas on a. bicycle, often riding 7 to 8 hours each day through the. mountains and desert He traveled through Southern-France. He watched parts of the Tour de France, the world's most famous cycling competition, and even biked selected segments of the course.

He attended the Fiesta of San Fermin in Pamplonaj Please see MAGIC, C-2 Varitek headed to the Olympics COMPILED FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS i A rived as defending champ of the British Open earlier this week, but not before shelling out for four expensive replicas. This is the kind of guy your Orlando neighbor Ian is: After he won the Open last year at Royal Birkdale, he wanted to share the glory and say thanks to so many people near and dear to him that he spent nearly $40,000 for the duplicates. He also shared the joy with several of the clubs where he sharpens his craft between tournaments. He placed the Open trophy on display at Sanctuary Cove, his home club in his native Australia, for a couple of weeks last winter. He similarly loaned it out for oohs and ahhs at the Bay Hill and Lake Nona clubs in his adopted Orlando hometown.

In between, it proudly rested in a display cabinet he had custom built in his home near Bay Hill. With the genuine article now in the esteemed hands of the Royal Ancient, Ian's cabinet contains one of the two-thirds-sized replicas, which is what the allows its champions to commission. "I know other people who had replicas made the full size, but I just did what they said and made them two-thirds," Baker-Finch says. "But the replicas have all the engraving on them, all 110 names. The only difference is they leave off the word On the real trophy, it says, 'Ian Baker-Finch, Royal Birkdale, 1991, 271 If you add all the times 'strokes' is engraved on there, it saves enough room to get all the names on the smaller size." Besides the one on display in his home, Baker-Finch gave one replica to "me mum and dad;" one to his veteran caddie, Pete Bender; and finally one to Mitchell Spearman, a Lake Nona-based instructor under famed swing guru David Leadbet-ter, whom Ian credits for toning his swing to major championship form.

Spearman shared a rented house with Baker-Finch during last summer's successful campaign at Birkdale and is similarly numbered among Team Ian again this week. Ponying up for the replicas, Baker-Finch says, provided an extra rush of satisfaction when he saw the recipients' faces light up with surprise. "I felt good about that," he says. "The silversmith, a guy in London named John Bowles, did a great job. He used to work for Garretts, the crown silversmiths, when they restored the original Open trophy from drawings." Baker-Finch's distribution of the replicas is one more confirmation of his rep as global golfs genuinely winsome Samaritan.

Remember this was the same guy who unhesitatingly turned down a combined $500,000 appearance fee from five European tournaments right after his Open victory because he already had orally committed to a pair of conflicting events on the U.S. tour. A man's word is his word, Ian shrugged at the time. As that story circulated, a number of disbelieving capitalists in U.S. locker rooms cornered Ian to investigate the yarn.

"Yeah, I got a few friends who asked if that was true and I told them, yes, that's basically what what the deal was," Ian recounts somewhat sheepishly. "I got a little good-natured needling. But they said it was great that I lived up to my word." So that's the sort of fellow now enjoying his moment as defending champion as the world's top stars brace for another battle of Scottish links and North Sea elements for what many on this planet consider the grandest title in golf. "I hadn't really thought about what the feeling would be, returning as the defending champion. But I've certainly been looking forward to it," he said.

"Obviously, I'm not back expecting to win. I'm back to have a good time, play the best I can and enjoy being the Open champion. I know the crowds will be good and it should be great fun. I'll always be an Open champion, but this week at least until Sunday night I'm going to be the the Open champion." Carrying such a lofty title has put an extra bounce in the gait of this tall, Hollywood-handsome Aussie with the genteel ways. "You're held in higher esteem.

Your peers think more of you because you've won a major. Those things offer great inner feelings to myself," he told reporters Tuesday. "But it hasn't changed me or my family. If it ever does, let me know." i MILLINGTON, Tenn. Jason Varitek of Lake Brantley High School and Georgia Tech University is going to the Olympics after all.

Varitek, who was cut from the U.S. Olympic baseball roster last week but stayed with the team as a bullpen catcher for the remainder of its 30-game exhibition schedule, was named on Tuesday to replace mjured Jason Moler on the 20-player squad for Barcelona, Spain. Varitek, a sophomore at Georgia Tech, was one of five players released in the Olympic team's final cut. Moler, a junior from Gal State Fullerton, tore and ruptured ligaments in his knee on Sunday in a game against Korea. The U.S.

Baseball Federation had to petition the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee to get permission to reinstate Varitek to the roster. RED HUBERSENTINEL Brian Williams traveled by bicycle through France this summer. HlWiBllgMPJMJUiHilHimJl 1 ijij num HWPJl'i W'W IHII'llim I I'll lH IF llllill I I I il I 1 "I 1 1 I I I II I II I I I tjjEXSEfll Azinger tries to forget '87 British Open Magazine glut makes quality questionable By Larry Dorm an FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL By Mike Dame GULLANE, Scotland i Whitecaps danced be him' OF THE SENTINEL STAFF hind him on the Firth of 2 lirfiitt Forth, a fitting backdrop for Paul Azinger as he stood on the tee at No. 17 at Muirfield on Monday.

It was a practice round, and five people huddled in the cold near the ropes. They drew in their breath as Azinger hit a towering Azinger PHOTO ILLUblHAIIONrncLHnt m. coci GAINESVILLE The proliferation of tabloid talk shows on TV could be considered mild compared with the phenomenon taking place on magazine racks across the nation. Anyone who peruses the selection at bookstores, pharmacies and convenience stores can't help but notice: College football preview magazines dominate the landscape this time of year. Not that they're all worth buying.

"There's definitely a glut," said Gary Levy, editor of The Sporting News College Football Yearbook. "Every year I go to the newsstand and see two or three new ones. But to me, there's still only a handful that are credible and worth plopping down your $4.95 for." Where there used to be four or five magazines to choose from a decade ago now sits a dozen or more, ranging from national publications to regional previews to magazines de- shot that rode more than 300 yards on the 30-mph tailwind. "Whoooooeeee," Payne Stewart said, -striding over to his friend and slapping his back. "How much would you have paid for that one in '87, Paul?" How much? How about half the $3.5 million he's won playing golf since that bleak day five years ago, when he drove into one of Muirfield's 156 bunkers and lost the Brit- ish Open? How much is a major champion-" ship worth? Azinger has had half a decade to calculate it.

Florida State This could prove to be coach Bobby Bowden's best defensive unit' Lindy's Miami The scary thing is that Miami likely will have a more potent passing attack this The Sporting News Florida 'If limited expectations were gold, Shane Matthews would be a very rich Don Heinrich's College Football Please see MAGAZINES, C-4 Please see OPEN, C-4.