Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 25

ft U-E DROPS FORKS 3D GOLF IMMORTALS 3D www.pressconnects.com 4 SECTION Press Sun-Bulletin TUESDAY MAY 19, 1998 CHARLIE JAWORSKI EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR 607-798-1191 1-800-365-0077 WNBA's Jordan recognized for impact TOP 5 VOTE-GETTERS Guard's kudos include 5th MVP Malone, Stockton play classic Jazz to 2-0 lead NEW YORK (AP) Results of the voting for the 1 998 NBA Most Valuable Player Award, as selected by a panel of the media In the U.S. and Canada with first-place votes in parentheses: Player, Team Points Michael Jordan, Chicago (92) 1 ,084 Karl Malone, Utah (20) 842 Gary Payton, Seattle (3) 431 Shaquille O'Neal, LA. Lakers (1 311 Tim Duncan, San Antonio 1 48 Chicago Bulls to their sixth title this decade, won the award in a landslide over last added 11 points, including two free throws that helped clinch the victory with 24.5 seconds remaining. But it was a reserve, Chris Morris, who triggered the decisive fourth quarter run for Utah. The best-of-seven series resumes Friday at the Forum in Inglewood.

INSIDE A fourth-quarter fade sinks the Lakers. PAGE 60 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Karl Malone and John Stockton aren't ready for rocking chairs yet. Malone, at the top of his game at age 35, scored 33 points Monday night and Stockton, 37, added 22, his highest-scoring game of this year's playoffs. They led the Utah Jazz past the Los Angeles Lakers 99-95 to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. Another old-timer, 35-year-old Jeff Hornacek, year winner, Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz.

Jordan got 92 first-place votes to 20 for Mal-one. Gary Payton of Seattle fin JORDAN ished third, garnering three first-place votes, and Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers received one first-place vote from an international panel of sportswrit- ft) gotten in today's game. "I've always respected my elders, learned from them and tried to maintain the excellence of the game that they provided. For him to come here today is truly a trophy in itself." Jordan, 35, previously won SEE JORDAN 6D Pitching gem tarnished NORTHBROOK.Ill.(AP) Michael Jordan won his fifth Most Valuable Player award Monday, and it came packaged with the highest raise imaginable from Bill lussell another five-time MVP winner. "Over the last year and a half, more than ever, I've been asked who's the best player who ever played," said Russell, who presented the award to Jordan.

"I will say this about you: I cannot imagine anyone playing any better than you do." Jordan, trying to lead the KEVIN STEVENS Commentary Golf perils also include oral bogeys It is a word that'll stop a guy in his tracks quicker than a wink and a smile from Cindy Crawford. It'll drop a man more swiftly than a straight right hand to the kisser. Fore! It is a word unique to golf, a warning that, if not heeded, could result in great pain. The word means business, and is not to be taken lightly. It is a word that takes on many different forms, some welcome, others, well, not.

We've all heard: The mid-stroke fore: On one hand appreciated, on the other highly infuriating. Take the putter back for a six-footer with seven skins on the line and FORE! you stub the blade into the ground leave the putt 3Vi feet short. The heartfelt fore: A favorite of a guy with hom I play the bulk of my golf. This one, when bellowed with particular feel, can be roared on the 15th fairway at Ely Park and have the player approaching No. 9 at Endwell Greens taking cover.

The "Look out world" fore: Not to be confused with the heartfelt fore, this has more to do with proximity than volume. It's where several holes and numerous groups are clumped closely together on a portion of the course, and one man's voice sends 24 people into a head-covering, back-to-the-noise crouch. The tardy fore: This one, where the yell and the contact of his golf ball on my golf bag come simultaneously, is a mystery. The overly cautious, or unnecessary fore: To err on the side of caution is one thing, surely the wise move. But some common sense should be applied.

Let's face it, the approach that rolls to a stop 53 yards from the green on which the group ahead is putting Wells perfectly happy to live mm in the past ers and broadcasters. "The biggest trophy I could gather (Monday) is that a legend like Bill Russell could take time out of his schedule to come here and present the trophy to Jordan said. "That is true respect, and a touch of some of the past success and history of the game of basketball that somehow gets for- I r- i v. 4 KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY staff photographer out nine in 6 13 innings against the Sea Dogs, but did not figure in the decision. Portland rallied in the ninth for a 6-5 victory.

Mets starter Octavio Dotel, who was named the Eastern League's pitcher of the week Monday, allowed two unearned runs and struck BY BRIAN HEYMAN Gannett News Service WILTON, Conn. There was New York Yankees pitcher David Wells the day after, floating around the Rolling Hills Country Club golf course, still riding the ultimate high from his perfectly wonderful Sunday drive through the Minnesota Twins lineup. "I don't think I'll ever come down," Wei Is was saying near the 10th tee Monday afternoon. "It's going to be hard to let go." Who would want to let go of this? Wells will turn 35 Wednesday. He threw himself a nice party three days early.

The 49,820 guests had a blast, too. WeBs readied out and grabbed a line for himself in baseball's book of best pitch WELLS ing performances ever. There had been only 12 other games this century like the game he threw at Yankee Stadium his perfect game. Pat Meares lifted that fly toward Paul O'Neill near the right field line with two out in the ninth, and Wells was thinking to himself, "Oh, my God, this is going to happen." After it did, the celebration was on. And it hasn't stopped.

Wells was mobbed at the mound, then carried off to the dugout by Darryl Strawberry, Bernie Williams and Willie Banks. Then the calls started coming, congratulations from owner George Steinbrenner, congratulations from Don Larsen, the only other Yankee to pitch a perfect game. Then the partying came. Wells went out for some drinks on the Upper East Side Sunday night with David Cone, Graeme Lloyd, Dale Sveum and some other teammates. They walked into a place called Dorian's and it didn't take long for everyone to realize who was in the house.

"Everyone just stopped and applauded and went crazy," said Lloyd, one of Wells' best pals on the team. "It was a very good night. It was a long evening. It was fairly tame. It was exciting to be out under those circumstances.

Getting 27 big-league outs in a row is Mets foiled by Portland's 'ill te 1 I 1 1 I I i i i I season. "It was a slider that hung up on me." The loss extended the Mets' losing streak to a season-long four games, making the defeat that much tougher to take. "Coming off a tough series (in Harrisburg), it would have been a big win for us, huge," Mets manager John Gibbons said. "We got roughed up over the weekend and we played a good ballgame tonight, but it got away. It hadn't happened to us all year.

We'll be back (today). We've got too good a club to let this destroy us." Said first baseman Matt Raleigh, "Without a doubt, the toughest loss of the year. It was one that just slipped away. (Turrentine) has been our man all year, he's still going to be our man. It's just part of baseball.

Hopefully we'll learn a lesson to not be satisfied with a 5-0 lead. We should have put them away Two weeks ago, the Ontario Hockey League banned Boulerice for the 1998-99 season after he hit Andrew Long, a forward with the OHL's Guelph, Ontario Storm, across the face with his stick during a game with the Plymouth Whalers. Bloomberg Hall acquires mementos NEW YORK (Bloomberg) The Baseball Hall of Fame will receive David Wells's New York Yankees cap, a game ball, a ticket and a Beanie Baby to commemorate Wells's perfect garde Sunday against the Minnesota Twins. Wells threw the 15th perfect game in major-league history in a 4-0 victory over Minnesota before 49,820 fans on a Beanie Baby giveaway day at Yankee Stadium. an amazing feat." It was little wonder why Wells and Lloyd showed up almost an hour late for this off-day golf outing.

It was the third annual Carl Rosen Celebrity Golf Tournament to benefit the Leukemia Society of America. Wells was the only one playing with a police escort, a Wilton cop tailing the five-some in a cart, just in case reporters and camera people and photographers got a little too close. It seems Wells can do very little wrong. Besides putting-down his last 37 batters over two games, he nailed a 40- foot chip for an eagle on No. 9." But Wells didn't have time to swing through all 18 holes.

After No. 10, he was off to the city to do the David Letter-man show. One perfect game has turned the guy into a home': town hero. Today, Wells gets the key to the city. "That's New York," Wells said.

"When you do something like what happened (Sunday), they acknowledge it. This city is known to do that. That's what makes it such a great city. They stand by their athletes and by the people they believe in. When you accomplish something like that, they're a big part of it.

The 50,000, they were making me nervous out there. I look back at it now and it was just probably one of the greatest feelings, having all them people screaming and yelling for every pitch." INSIDE Griffey hits home run No. 16. PAGE 40 NBA playoffs Utah 99, LA Lakers 95 Page 10 National League Atlanta 4, Houston 0 Florida 7, St. Louis 3 Arizona 9, Pittsburgh 2 Colorado 8, Milwaukee 5 Page 4D For late scores, phone 798-1 343 9th-inning home run caps rally BY DAN RAFAEL Staff Writer Losses don't come much tougher than the one the Binghamton Mets suffered Monday night, a 6-5 defeat by the Portland Sea Dogs.

Comfortably ahead 5-2 going to the ninth, Mets closer Rich Turrentine, so splendid all season long, just didn't have it. He gave up two singles and hit a batter before yielding a grand slam to Amaury Garcia. "I made a bad pitch and he did what he's supposed to do, hit it out of the park," said Turrentine, who had not allowed a home run or hit a batter in 13 appearances this needn't be accompanied by a roar that would rattle glasses in the grillroom. The silent fore: The one you do not hear, from the individual lacking either a larynx or any semblance of a clue what he is doing out there. We've all seen him, the guy whose tee ball is yanked 70 yards and touches down at the heels of the player addressing his ball in the adjacent fairway.

Generally, it is followed by a) the blank stare, b) the boldface lie "Geez, I didn't see you over there." or c) the tall tale. "A gust of wind blew the head cover off my 3-wood, covering my mouth and muffling my Honest, that's how it happened." The drive-by fore: For some reason, I've found this one most often creeps into tournament golf. You know, the three morons cruising around probably en route to some really stimulating activity, like loosening lids of ketchup bottles on unattended picnic tables at the park belt out a few fores through the open windows of the '73 Chevelle. It just ain't funny. I mean, an aircraft sky-writing the word "Shank" over the course, now that'd be a hoot.

But feeble-minded souls making noise from an automobile is just plain annoying. The fake fore: Barked out by those with roughly the same IQ as those responsible for the drive-by fore, this one is usually the work of the individual playing his first round of golf, swinging rental clubs and wearing steel-toed work boots. Much like the drive-by fore, it is presumably fired off in an ill-advised attempt to get a few yukity-yuks from feeble-minded playing partners, but is more likely to draw some serious anger from its target. Stevens is a Press Sun-Bulletin staff writer. slam BINGHAMTi WATC TOUGH LOSS The Binghamton Mets (18-15) lost 6-5 to visiting Portland on Monday night.

The teams continue their three-game series at 6 tonight at Municipal Stadium. Red-hot Ed Yarnall (6-0, 0.44 ERA) pitches for the Mets. that's my out pitch. If I can't get that over, they pretty much know what's coming. Plus, my slider wasn't there." After the slam, Turrentine struck out two straight got an easy groundout to second.

"I have to get back out SEE METS 50 INSIDE Mets' current, alumni statistics PAGE 5D duties for Milbury of some of my responsibilities to allow me to concentrate on my duties as coach," Milbury said. "For instance, actual contract negotiations will now no longer be my responsibility." Milbury 's coaching role will also undergo changes. He will have four assistants, including an offensive and defensive coordinator. Associated Press earlier in the game." Turrentine came out for the ninth searching for his eighth save of the season, but Brandon Cromer singled to center to lead off. Walter White then punched a broken-bat single to short right before Turrentine hit Glenn Reeves to load the bases.

Garcia, who was in an 0-for-25 slump in road games, followed and got behind 0-2. After working the count to 2-2, Garcia ripped a hanging slider the opposite way in deep right field. "It's (a grand slam) not something you expect, especially with two strikes," Portland manager Lynn Jones said. "But Amaury has that kind of power to the opposite field. On occasion you don't go out there with your best stuff, but everyone goes through it." Turrentine said, "My splitty (split-fingered fastball) wasn't working and Islanders revise GM UNIONDALE New York Islanders coach Mike Milbury signed a five-year contract Monday to remain as the team's coach.

Milbury, who was also the team's general manager, will remain in charge of player per-sonnel. All other duties, including negotiating contracts, will be reassigned. "What this does is divest me SCOREBOARD BOTTOM OF THE FIRST Quick hits inside pitches Eastern League Portland 6, Mets 5 Page 1D American League Seattle 9, Toronto 4 Oakland 14, Chicago 0 Detroit 11, Anaheim 2 Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 3 Page 40 Stickwork earns ban from 2 leagues W.SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Philadelphia Phantoms left wing Jesse Boulerice has been banned from playing in the American Hockey League until Nov. 15..