The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 33

CALL us INSIDE Scoreboard 2C Football 3C Baseball 4C Markets 5C Business 6C Questions? Suggestions? Call (800) 269-0488 or Executive Sports Editor B. Duane Cross, 425-9750. Sports Editor Dan Morris, 425-9636. High schools reporter Rich Loup, 425-9634. Copy desk Jarrod Breeze, 425-9754.

Copy desk Mark Spoor, 425-9635. Friday, July 23,1999 PAGE 1C New York biggest apple in sports barrel Predictions from a day in the life CITY LIGHTS The Sporting News 1. New York 2. Dallas-Fort Worth 3. Denver 4.

Atlanta 5. Philadelphia Rankings based on cities in the United States and Canada with a major-league baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA Division I basketball or football team, or a baseball or football training camp. Giuliani, who held a City Hall celebration for David Cone's perfect game and welcomed the women's World Cup championship team this week, proudly accepted the award for his town, which moved up from No. 7 a year ago when Detroit was No. 1.

"Whether it's the world championship Yankees or this year's Knicks appear Division I basketball or football team, or a baseball or football training camp and then ranked them according to several criteria. "Typically, we've tried to reward quality over quantity in our annual rankings," said Sporting News managing editor Bob Hille. "But New York gave its fans both over the last 12 months." York as the best sports city in America for 1999, Knoxville was picked best for college football, Green Bay the best for pro football, and Cleveland the best baseball city. The pro basketball nod went to San Antonio, with Durham, N.C., picked as best for college basketball and Toronto best for hockey. Knoxville rates as the top town for college football.

From wire reports NEW YORK Mayor Rudy Giuliani has suspected this for some time, and Thursday the Sporting News confirmed it, selecting New WW ER BB SO 0 0. 4 5 Lsml 0 OH (SOS IP Diamond Jaxx David Manning 9 0 nil L-J 2 Jaxx' Manning blanks Jacksonville tlllBII ill. KlfiSsoini Jackson native joins NFL champs today at camp. By JOHN MOSSMAN The Associated Press DENVER Two days before the start of training camp, the Denver Broncos reached agreement with first-round draft choice Al Wilson on a multi-year contract. He was the 31st and last choice in the first round.

The linebacker's agent, William "Tank" Black, told The Associated Press on Wednesday night that the five-year deal was for "more than $5 million," including a $1.7 million signing bonus. "We've been working on the contract for a while, but we really had no problems with it," Black said. "Denver is a first-class organization. We're pleased to get it done I before training camp. We've represented over 100 players and haven't had a player miss camp since 1988." The Denver Post reported Thursday that Wilson's contract is for $5.6 million.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Broncos open camp today, when wit ID if ance in the NBA Finals, New York City's sports teams keep New Yorkers rooting throughout the year and make our city home to the world's greatest sports fans," Giuliani said. The Sporting News studied every city in the United States and Canada that has a major-league baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA in fishing, there's the skin-off and The World Championship Catfish Cook-Off. First-place prizes of $100 goes to the best fried catfish, best smoked catfish and best hushpuppies. Entry fee is $25 per team per category. The judging will start at 5 p.m., and the public can sample some of the cooking.

Catfish meals will be sold at The Botel. "There really is something for everyone," event chairman Jay Barker said. "This is the only event of its kind, and it's really beginning to get national attention." The National Catfish Derby began in Savannah in 1952 and ran through 1969. Barker got it started again in 1993. ood morning.

Welcome to July 23, 1999. Todav is cir cled on the calendar for fine reason: I 7 John Elways uniform number. -23 Michael Jor-San's uniform number. ZM 99 Wayne Gretz-lEy's uniform number. Those are the uniform numbers 7, 23, 99 of sports most recently Setired icons: 7-23-'99, or 3uly 23, 1999.

With all theY2K talk cluttering the airwaves (and the expected chaos of Sept. 9 9-9-'99), here's what pre- B. Duane Dross 2 diets for West Tennessee today: After bumping his Bead, WBBJ sports Snchor Eric Waddell mercifully will not show high-fights from the Cincinnati Reds game ZM After bumping his bead, Diamond Jaxx manager Dave "Complete Game" Trembley will not go to the bullpen three times in the final two innings much to the relief of a particular newspaper trying to make deadline -rH In a stunning move, Gleason basketball standout Ashley McEl-hiney snubs Vanderbilt, and signs with Union. Smelling another national championship, recently retired Lady Bulldogs coach David Blackstock, using his athletic director powers, moves first-year women's coach Mark Campbell to cq-head coach and names himself head coach, again Seeing the writing on the wall, former University School of Jackson football standout Tripp fucker opts out of his committment to Tennessee Martin and signs with Lambuth. Skyhawks Coach Jim Marshall retools the "Marshall Plan," and UTM wins the Valley Conference Si its final season of scholarship football ZM Continuing to load up with Division I transfers, Eambuth hooks Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin, who becomes the first D-I football transfer to gctually graduate from Come back in five months 1-2-'00 (if we Survive the Y2K bug) gnd Nostradamus will tell you what Penny Hardaway, Lawrence Phillips and Robert Thief Parrish have in cpmmon.

And it has nothing to do with being selfish or sending smoke signals: 33. Duane Cross is Qcecutive sports editor of The Sun. He can be reached at (901) 425-9750 br (800) 269-0488. By RICH LOUP The Jackson Sun Thirty-five minutes after making history, David Manning still conducted his post-game routine of running laps around the warning track at Pringles Park. No rest taken by a guy who threw the first no-hitter in Diamond Jaxx history Thursday night at Pringles Park with a 1-0 victory against Jacksonville.

One start after he was a strike away from a seven-inning no-hitter at Hunts-ville, Manning (7-0) struck out five, worked around four walks, and retired the last 11 batters he faced. No Jacksonville batter got past second base, and the Suns had just one inning with more than one baserunner. "First, I have to thank God for giving me the opportunity to do this because I never thought I'd get a second shot, especially after the last game," Manning said. "I'd been struggling a lot mechanically and with control. But (Thursday night) it started to lock in." Center fielder Tarrik Brock went to the warning track in right-center field to haul in a fly ball hit by Eric Gillespie to secure Manning's no-hit gem.

Manning's teammates surrounded him Please see MANNING, 3C sips players report to Greeley, Colo. The first workouts are Saturday. The Broncos still have two remaining unsigned third-round McGriff and David Bowens, Wilson is Wilson draft choices, pick Travis fifth-rounder one of four former Volunteers on the Broncos' roster, joining Trey Teague of Jackson, Marcus Nash and Tori Noel. Wilson, a team captain, helped lead Tennessee to a 13-0 record and the national championship last season. He recorded 77 tackles, 54 of them solo, with four sacks and six tackles for losses.

He forced five fumbles, recovered two, and de- fleeted three passes, intercepting another. The 5-foot-llV2, 239-pound Wilson, who played at Jack-; son Central-Merry High School, is called a relentless' competitor by scouts. He started at outside linebacker his sophomore and junior seasons at Tennessee before moving to middle linebacker as a senior. Summertown's Allison Franks pitched a Summertown scored two runs in the first inning and six in the second. In Thursday's first Central scored six runs in the last inning to eliminate Covington.

Morgan Walley hit a two-run single and slid under a tag at home for the third run. Then, two runs scored on Megan Latimer's single, and Jessica Hill singled home the sixth run. Latimer got the victory by striking out two batters to kill a Covington charge in the bottom of the Starting pitcher Lauren Alex Chase, who worked 4Vs' innings, re-entered in the; fifth at pitcher and retired the side. Walley, who had two hits Wednesday, was 3-for-3. Ali; Bozzawas2-for-3.

Team members, 2C. I I -r- I Madison Central falls in tournament finale JEANNE REISEUThe Jackson Sun David Manning turned in the top pitching performance in Diamond Jaxx team history Thursday night: a 1-0 no-hitter against Jacksonville at Pringles Park. Catfish under the hook in Savannah have it ready for the frying pan. The world record is 11.26 seconds. There is no entry fee for the contest, which rewards $100 to the winner and $75 to second place.

There also is a kid's fishing rodeo at Pickwick Landing State Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for ages 4-16. There is no entry fee. But that's just part of a show that starts at 7 a.m.

with a buddy fishing tournament in the Tennessee er. The team weighing in the top 10 fish on their stringer wins $2,500. Fishermen from nine states participated last year. Elton Taylor and Tommy Taylor of Burnsville, won first place with 49.3 pounds of Uackson "enae Jackson Henderson Pickwick Chester, XpHardin urn catfish, all caught at the dam. There also is a prize for the biggest catfish caught Saturday.

Entry fee for the fishing tournament is $100. For more information, call (800) 552-FUNN (3866) or (901)925-4787. For those not interested tfMHardin Championship competition begins at 7 a.m. Saturday. By DAN MORRIS The Jackson Sun They say there is more than one way to skia a cat, and that logic gets put to the test Saturday at The World Championship of Catfishing near Pickwick Dam.

A full day of activities includes a catfish skin-off about 5 p.m. at The Botel, which serves as tournament headquarters. The Botel is just below the dam, which is south of Savannah. Contestants race the clock to see who can skin a one-pound catfish the quickest and for a starting job at left guard. Reese has until Wed The Jackson Sun HOHENWALD Coach Woody Newman was hoping for two state-tournament wins out of his Madison Central softball all-stars, but they doubled his goal.

Madison Central won four games and finished second in the state after losing to defending champion Sum-mertown, 8-0, on Thursday in the Dixie Angels state tournament for ages 9-10. Central eliminated Covington, 6-1, in Thursday's first game. Summertown, which lost to Madison Central, 3-1 on Sunday, drew a bye into the final of the nine-team tournament. These girls surpassed all our expectations," Newman said. "It was the first Madison Central team of any age group to advance to state.

We beat some better teams than us up here because we played as a team the whole tournament." United States cyclist Lance Armstrong, who finished 51st on Thursday, retains the yellow jersey following the 17th stage. Me leads the Tour by 6-minutes, 15-seconds entering today's 117-mile trek from Jonzac to Futuroscope, France. Story, 2C. New St. San MORNING BRIEFING fitans sign third-round draft pick Piller BY THE NUMBERS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL American League York 5, Tampa Bay 4 Detroit 9, Kansas City 8 Seattle 5, Oakland 4 (10) Baltimore 5, Boston 2 Toronto 4, Cleveland 3 Minnesota 3, Chicago 0 Texas 9, Anaheim 7 National League Louis 6, Cincinnati 5 Milwaukee 5, Philadelphia 0 Chicago 5, Pittsburgh 3 Diego 8, San Francisco 7 New York 7, Montreal 4 Atlanta 6, Florida 4 Arizona 2, Houston 1 Colorado 4, Los Angeles 1 Colorado at Los Angeles (n) TOUR DE FRANCE GLANCE BORDEAUX, France A look at Thursday's 17th stage of the 86th Tour de France': Stage: A 123-mile ride from Mourenx at the foot of the Pyrenees near Spain to Bordeaux, a celebrated wine-making city.

Winner: Belgium's Tom Steels in a 4 hours, 22 minutes, 29 seconds. Tidbits: Earlier in the Tour, a fan knocked a rider down while he was taking his picture. On Thursday, a fan threw something Into the road maybe pepper that briefly blinded some riders and had them wiping their eyes. Firemen protesting working conditions forced the race to stop and restart, three miles into the stage. Quote of the day: "Go Lance Reach the Moon." Banner held by a fan along the road.

Next: Today's stage is 117 miles, from Jonzac to Futuroscope. "jiASHVILLE The Ten-pmsee Titans signed the first of "their eight draft picks by reaching a four-year deal with third-round pick, offensive lineman Zach jferms were not immediately available, but general manager Floyd Reese said tjiflt Piller and his agents Tom eirjdon and Ken Kremer were eager to agree to a deal. The 1'Osl pick overall, Piller played mi30 games for Florida as an offehsive tackle and he, was Afl-EC as a senior. PJller is expected to compete nesday to continue his record of signing all draftees before the rookies' first practice of training camp and said that reaching terms with top draft pick Jevon Kearse obviously will be the toughest deal. Piller said he, planned to work on Kearse.

"111 probably take Jevon out to dinner tonight and put pressure on him to sign," Piller said. 111. Ill I .1 I I I The Associated Press ft H.I WHWf KSI.H.H. HETTincBgc 1 MMi fclfc ill li.