Great Falls Tribune from Great Falls, Montana • Page 15

o) Q) 2B Steinbrenner fires Green 2B The Basebafl 3B GoH roundup 4B Great Falls Tribune Saturday, August 19, 1989 Dodgers cut magic muundber down to one One to go HELENA (S) By SCOTT MANSCH Tribune Sports Writer Frank Humber feels a little like the Maytag repair man of TV commercial fame. You know, the fellow who's never called upon be GREAT FALLS (4) ab bi abrhbl 1100 2 0 10 Goodwin cl Howard 2b Collier dh Deutsch lb Wismer rl Teelc CWhlte lb Barker ss Harvell If Totals 112 1 4 0 12 4 0 10 10 10 1100 4 12 0 4 111 4 0 10 10 0 1 Sll 4 0 12 2 2 2 0 4 0 10 4 0 0 0 112 1 1110 4 111 Brown ss Houaen7b O'Leary II Dodson lb Chorpia 3b Snyder While dh Roebuck rf Dial cf Totali Helena 1 4 4 II oio en 010 100 4 4 Great Falli Diaz. Barker. Snyder. DP Great Falls 3, Helena 1.

LOB Helena 11. Great Falls 4. Wismer. Howard, CWhlte. Hansen.

Dodson. SB Deutsch 2, Brown. Goodwin. Barker. Charoia.

SF Oku. IP ER BI SO X. 4 4 1-1 2 12-1 1 Muscot Wilson L.3-4 Volt Great Falls Brosnan Mad sen 2-1 1 Crone W.3-0 111 2 Humber S.I 12-3 1 relinquished. "If we get Goodwin out at first then all they can do is tie," said Helena manager Dusty Rhodes, criticizing his catcher's judgement on the bunt. "Goodwin's the guy who can hurt you.

He's the one that can score from first on a long single." Helena threatened in the eighth against Dodgers reliever Rich Crane, who walked two straight hitters after one out. Humber, a hard-throwing southpaw, came on to get Troy O'Leary on a fielder's choice, with Reggie Brown moving to third. Moments later Brown attempted to steal home, but Humber threw quickly to catcher Garett Teel for the out. Rhodes said the Brewers had noticed that Teel took his mitt off occasionally to adjust his facemask. When Brown noticed the Dodgers catcher put his mitt between his knees, he took off.

"It was a good play," said Humber, who noticed Brown immediately. "But Garett was quicker." "We thought we had to try it," said Rhodes. "(Brown) just left a little late." The Brewers also threatened in the ninth following Bo Dodson'S leadoff double. Reed Charpia sac rificed, but Humber then got Snyder and Darrin White to ground out, ending the game. -I The Dodgers will try to clinch the Northern Division flag Saturday Brosnan pitched to 1 batter In the 4th; Muscat pitched to 2 batters In the 7th.

3:05. cause he's never needed. But Humber, whose slam-the-door efforts out of the bullpen have been rarely required by the Great Falls Dodgers this summer, was there when he was needed Friday night. Humber's solid work out of the pen helped the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory over the Helena Brewers before a crowd of 2,880 at Legion Park. "I'm ain't complaining," said Humber, a closer on a team that hardly ever requires one.

"It's a lot of fun playing on a winning ball club." Humber leads the Dodgers with eight saves, one of the top totals in the league. The Dodgers are 44-12, the best record in all of professional baseball. Great Falls owns a 13-game lead over the second-place Brewers in the Pioneer League's Northern Division and can clinch the division title with a win tonight against the visiting Medicine Hat Blue Jays. A Helena loss would also give Great Falls the North championship. The Dodgers had been in what was their first slump, minor as it was, losing of-7 until Thursday's double-header sweep of Helena.

Now, the Dodgers are on another winning streak. "Maybe when we clinch it we can relax a little," said Dodgers shortstop Tim Barker, whose infield sin- gle in the seventh helped spark a four-run inning that brought the Dodgers from behind. "I've been struggling at the plate. Our whole team has been slumping a little. But we've got to keep battling." Barker, O-for-14 in his previous four games, grounded a single to deep short following Craig White's leadoff walk in the seventh.

The Dodgers trailed 5-2, but drew closer when Rod Harvell looped a run-scoring single to left. Speedster Tom Goodwin then bunted, and Helena catcher Randy Snyder threw the ball away attempting to get Barker at third on the force play. Anthony Collier's two-run single later in the frame gave Great Falls a lead they never Tribune Photo by Stuart S. White night against Medicine Hat. Jamie McAndrew (9-0, 1.93) will pitch for Great Falls.

Great Falls Dodgers' first baseman John Deutsch, all 225 pounds of him, bears down on Helena catcher Randy Snyder as he scores a Dodger run Friday night. Big Eight yearns for Era ends as McMahon non-Oklahoma champ KANSAS CITY, Mo. If Oklahoma squares off against Nebraska next fall for the Big Eight football a. heads to SD One of a series championship, the Sooners wont have many mends in nrmnauii the league. Neither will Oklahoma State if the Cowboys I yl Id Jl CVltJW make a title run.

1 mmmbmmmdm "It wouldn't be anything personal," Kansas athletic By JOE MOOSHIL AP Sports Writer 'y San Diego quarterback Jim McMahon LAKE FOREST, 111. Jim McMahon, the tempestuous Chicago quarterback whose feuds with Coach Mike Ditka became as famous as his shuffle to the Super Bowl, was traded Friday to San Diego. He is expected to be in uniform for the Chargers' exhibition game against the Bears in Chicago on Saturday night. Though it's doubtful he will play, his probable presence on enemy sidelines is sure to create a spectacle. "Ditka and I didn't speak at all during training camp, and I figured something was going on," McMahon said.

"And I guess I was right. "I'm very relieved. I feel sorry for the rest of the guys who've got to put up with it." McMahon, who will tum 30 on Monday, was competing with Mike Tomczak and Jim Harbaugh for the Bears' starting quarterback job this season after being plagued by injuries for the past five years. He completed four of six passes for 47 yards in the Bears' 28-20 exhibition victory over Miami on Monday night. "We decided to go with the young quarterbacks.

Jim McMahon is a starting quarterback and I couldn't give him that guarantee," Ditka said. "It was a tough decision. I don't like to make those decisions. "I wouldn't say things had soured, but this was a perfect fit. They needed a starting quarterback and it's an ideal situation for Jim.

We'll find out if it's ideal for us." The Bears' compensation is conditional, depending on the success of McMahon and the Chargers. It could be as high as a first-rouncTpick in the 1990 draft or as low as a third-round pick. McMahon cleared his locker early Friday after talking briefly with Ditka. He said the coach told him: "We made a deal. We appreciate all you have done for us in Chicago." It was with McMahon at quarterback and Ditka as coach that the Bears became Monsters of the Midway again, winning five the NFC Central Division five straight years and the Super Bowl in January 1986.

"Mike Ditka believes he can win with anybody," McMahon said. "Look at the trades that have happened over the last couple of years getting rid of the likes of Wilber Marshall, Willie Gault, Mike Richardson, Otis Wilson. "He thinks his coaching gets it done; now I don't have to deal with that anymore. I'm relieved." An indication that something was brewing came when Ditka gave Tomczak the start in last Monday's exhibition with Miami and then said Harbaugh would start against San Diego. Ditka said the trade simplified matters for the Bears.

"We now have two guys competing for the starting job instead of three. Yes, he could have been our starting quarterback. I've proclaimed all along that any one of the three could start. director Bob Frederick said. "It could mean the loss of $4 million." As always, the Big Eight champion will automatically get a berth in the Orange Bowl, whose $2 million payout has been doubled by new corporate sponsorship.

But Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are beginning lengthy NCAA probations banning them from television or bowl appearances. And some far-sighted Miami official once had written into the contract with the Big Eight that if the league champion happens to be doing time in the NCAA lockup, then the Orange Bowl does not have to invite the runner-up. That doesn't necessarily mean Orange Bowl officials would not take the Big Eight's No. 2. But if a national championship match could be arranged between, say, Miami and Penn State, they will surely be tempted.

And the loss of that $4 million paycheck could create a severe financial crunch for the league that seems to have replaced the Southwest Conference as No. 1 on the NCAA most-wanted poster. Staggered by two probations in football and one in basketball, Big Eight schools already project a loss this year in bowl, television and tournament money of roughly $500,000 each. Things could get even worse if Missouri's successful basketball program, now under NCAA investigation, also gets socked. But that annual Orange Bowl money has been a part of Big Eight membership for so long, schools have begun treating it the way a pensioner regards his social security check.

"We have it spent even before we get it," Frederick said. "If we lose that money, I think for most of us, it would be disastrous. We've already budgeted income for next year based on receiving that Orange Bowl money, and I would assume other conference schools have done the same. It would hurt some more than others, obviously, but it would put everybody at a disadvantage." The Big Eight has always promoted conference unity. To outwardly cheer for or against a fellow conference member is considered gauche.

But Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, with their outlaw images, weren't exactly the most popular kids on the block to begin with. And with the possibility of real financial hardship riding on the outcome of this year's race "It's safe to say that all of us are going to be pulling for Nebraska and Colorado to do well," Frederick said. "This fall, more than ever, our eyes are going to be scanning the scoreboards to see the other scores around the league." The Huskers, despite losing 11 all-conference starters, are the preseason favorites in the summer media poll to win their second straight crown. Colorado, 8-4 last season, returns 18 starters and seems poised for a championship breakthrough. But coach Bill McCartney has been wrestling with a rash of off-campus police incidents involving many of his players, and quarterback Sal Aunese has been stricken with cancer.

But in tailback Eric Bieniemy, McCartney will have the sixth-most productive rusher in Division I-A last year with 1,243 yards. Nebraska must replace all-Big Eight quarterback Steve Taylor and all-America linebacker Broderick Thomas. But quality football players always abound at Nebraska and the vaunted Comhuskers' depth also will provide a boost. Oklahoma, for the first time since 1973, will not be under the direction of Barry Switzer. The admission last winter, of quarterback Charles Thompson to selling cocaine to an undercover FBI agent turned out to be just one sad entry in a series of criminal incidents that eventually swept five players into court and ended the Switzer era.

Embattled on almost every front, Switzer resigned in June and turned over the job he had held since 1973 to 36-year-old assistant Gary Gibbs. "All I can do is be Gary Gibbs," he says. "I can't worry about anybody else. I feel like I've played a role in the success we've had to date over the past few years as a defensive coach and defensive coordinator. The great tradition that has been established at Oklahoma over the years was established by quality people.

And we have quality people in the program now." Gibbs is one of three new coaches in the league. Replacing the fired Woody Widenhofer at Missouri is Bob Stull, who just may have inherited the sleeper team of the season. Widenhofer had carefully redshirted a host of highly recruited young players who could provide Stull with an unexpected boost and tum him into an early favorite for coach of the year. Bill Snyder, Hayden Fry's long-time aide at Iowa, is now in charge of a Kansas State squad that has not won since October, 1986. The Wildcats, who can least afford to lose their best player, did just that when wide receiver Greg Washington, who set three school records last year, was declared academically ineligible.

K-State, Kansas and Iowa State totaled just six victories among them last year and figure to remain at the bottom. But Oklahoma State has won 20 games the past two years and dismissing the probation-bound Cowboys this early could be a mistake. Gone are Heisman winner Barry Sanders and pass-catcher deluxe Hart Lee Dykes. But back is Mike Gundy, just about 600 yards shy of the league's career passing record. "We don't necessarily consider ourselves going through a rebuilding year, although every team rebuilds every year in one area or another," coach Pat Jones said.

"But if we stay clear of injuries and a couple of kids develop in key areas, we could be right in the thick of it." i Tulsa, the only I-A independent in the Big Eight area, is clouded by the uncertain future of wide receiver Dan Bitson, an all-America favorite in many preseason magazines. He pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and unlawful entry and faces a Sept. 18 trial date. But quarterback senior T.J. Rubley needs just 225 yards to erase Jerry Rhome's school passing record of 5,004.

"We're going to have to come together in these early practices," second-year coach Dave Rader said. "My feeling is he needs a change of scenery, a new coach," Ditka said. "I think he'll be happier. His health is fine." Ditka said the thing he will remember most about McMahon is the 1985 season: "He backed up everything he said about the Super Bowl and went out and did it." The Chargers have been searching for a quarterback since Dan Fouts retired before last season. Their quarterbacks Mark Malone, free agent David Archer and second-round draft pick Billy Joe Tolliver were ineffective in a 20-3 preseason loss to Dallas last weekend.

McMahon said Coach Dan Henning told him he wouldn't play Saturday night. "But I told him I do want to get involved with the team right away. I probably will dress. Maybe I'll sneak my way in there," he said. When the Bears drafted McMahon in 1982 out of Brigham Young, he became the first quarterback they had selected in the first round since Bob Williams of Notre Dame in 1951.

McMahon set 71 NCAA passing records at BYU and broke in with the Bears in 1982. He was benched for two games during the middle of the 1983 season but after that he started every game when he was See MCMAHON, 2B director Montana appoints Noble The committee will include students, faculty, coaches and Grizzly Athletic Association members and will be formed when the fall quarter begins in late September. Koch has set Jan. 1 as a target date for selecting a new athletic director. "One of the things I chatted with the president about is I hope we're not in such a hurry that we choose someone who is not perfect for the job," Noble said.

"If by chance we don't find the right person in January, my suspicion is we could take until spring to do it." Noble joined the UM staff in September 1987 and her major responsibilities have included supervision of women's basketball and tennis. and travel. "I've had offers of help from the conference commissioner (Ron Stephenson). He'll come in and spend a couple of days if I want him to," Noble said. -Ensuring that the department stays within its budget "We've got a budget situation that everybody knows about," Noble said.

"Financially we're OK but we have to make sure we're OK, but we have to make sure we hold the line in every single area." -Finding a suitable athletic director. Noble will serve on a search committee chaired by Barbara Hollmann. UM dean of students and Noble's predecessor as associate athletic director. manent post of athletic director. One reason is a recent bout with cancer, she said.

"I just don't know if I'd have the stamina to do the traveling around Montana" that the athletic director's job would require, Noble told the Missoulian newspaper from her brother's home in Renton, where she is vacationing. But she's ready to tackle the new duties of acting athletic director for what is projected to be the next four months. Noble said she sees three major responsibilities: A full football season in which, for the first time, she is charged with directing the management of games MISSOULA (AP) The associatcathletic director at the University of Montana, Kathy Noble, will become acting athletic director Sept. 1, UM President James V. Koch said Thursday.

Noble will be the first woman in UM history to head the athletic department. She will replace Harley Lewis, who recently announced he will end a 23-year UM career as coach, teacher and administrator to become assistant director of championships for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Her selection as acting athletic director is subject to confirmation by the state Board of Regents. Noble said she will not be a candidate for the per-.