The Daily News Leader from Staunton, Virginia • 21

Daily News Leader, Wednesday, December 8, 1993 PORTS Scoreboard, Page D2 IPeH tea? fop fFoliev WWII costs Feller four prime years I 1 i 4 St land, a reminder of better times for the Indians. He is involved in campaigns like the Gift of Sight, sponsored by LensCrafters and the Lions Clubs International to collect used glasses for distribution in poor nations. The program seeks to collect one million pairs of glasses this year. Ball players with glasses were a rarity in Feller's era. Now, even umpires wear them.

It was as a pilot Feller has flown since 1939 that he first figured out he needed glasses. "I was coming in for landings three feet too high or three feet too low," he said. That was not his first crisis, though. In fact, Feller's Hall of Fame career almost came apart at the start. In 1937, his first full season, he started the third game and was cruising along with 13 strikeouts in the first six innings.Then, trouble.

"It was a rainy day and I slipped throwing a curveball," he said. His arm went out, for the first and only time in his career. "The arm healed, but I couldn't straighten it out," Feller said. "They sent me everywhere, the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins. Nobody could help." The Indians were in danger of losing a valuable arm when help arrived.

Dr. A.L. Austin advised the club that he could fix Feller, and he did. "He said the problem was adhesions," the pitcher said. "He packed the arm in hot towels and rubbed it.

Then I stood behind him. He took hold of the arm and straightened it out, just like that. He told me I could pitch the next day. I waited two days. I went out and pitched and never felt it again.

He saved my career, right then and there." Dr. Austin charged $10 for his service and for Feller, who had traveled all over the map looking for help, the best part was the convenience. 'V- v.Jn JIM SHUCK ICeyeSets fire ShucEt LEXINGTON (AP) Virginia Military has fired football coach Jim Shuck after five losing seasons, the school announced Tuesday. VMI said it would honor the two remaining years of Shuck's contract. Under Shuck, the Keydets were 14-40-1.

Prior to this season, the school had extended Shuck's original five-year contract for two additional years. This season, the Keydets were 1-10, beating only Tennessee-Chattanooga. Major Gen. John W. Knapp, VMI superintendent, praised Shuck's abilities.

"Coach Shuck has faced the toughest Division I-AA schedule in the country and has had to do so in a period of constrained resources." Knapp also praised Shuck's program for its "integrity, hard work and fair play" and his commitment to the academic success of his players. "However, institute officials feel that now is a time for a change," Knapp said. Knapp announced a search is under way for a replacement. Shuck declined to comment. VMI has not had a winning season since 1981 when the Keydets were 6-3-1 and finished second in the Southern Conference.

The Keydets last won a Southern Conference title in 1974. Shuck served seven years as an assistant coach at Indiana. In 1983, he moved to West Point where he coached the offensive line for four seasons before becoming the offensive coordinator in 1987. He took the VMI job in 1989. CLEVELAND INDIANS pitcher Bob Feller, at the beginning of a Hall of Fame career in shown in this 1 951 file photo, doesn't need the 1 941 and lost four years to World War II.

date to remind him of Pearl Harbor. Feller was (AP Photo) By HAL BOCK AP Sports Writer Each Dec. 7, Americans pause to remember Pearl Harbor and the start of World War II. Bob Feller doesn't need the date to remind him of the anniversary. Feller was at the beginning of a Hall of Fame career in 1941.

He had won 24, 27 and 25 games the previous three seasons and punctuated that stretch with a no-hitter on opening day of 1940, the only first-day, no-hitter in baseball history and one of three he threw in his career. His 100-plus mph fastball spun heads and the grizzled stars of a previous era offered some grudging praise. "Ty Cobb saw me and said, 'The kid is pretty fast. I'd probably have to hit him to Feller recalled. "And Walter Johnson said, 'The boy throws pretty hard, but I was a mite Then war came and cut almost four full seasons from Feller's 266-win career.

He celebrated his return with 348 strikeouts in 1946, when he won 26 games. If those lost seasons were mediocre 10-win years Feller had few mediocre years he would have been a 300-game winner, just like Nolan Ryan. Ryan, who retired after the 1993 season, was the modern day Feller, a flame-thrower whose fastball was measured in miles per hour. "I'll say this for him," Feller said, noting Ryan's seven no-hitters, 324 wins and 5,714 strikeouts. "He pitched more great individual games than anybody in history." Left unsaid was the fact that Ryan's career was undisturbed from start to finish, unlike Feller's, which had four years off for the war.

Feller turned 75 last month and remains a high profile part of Cleve ASHBURN (AP) The Redskins will build a new stadium between Washington and Baltimore, owner Jack Kent Cooke said Tuesday, abandoning an on-off-on-again effort to keep the team in the nation's capital. "For almost five years, I have planned and struggled to obtain permission to build the new Redskins Stadium in the District of Columbia," Cooke said in a statement. "I now know I cannot overcome the forces against me. So I have decided to build the stadium elsewhere." But Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer, accusing Cooke of sabotaging Baltimore's attempt to win an NFL expansion team, said he attack, in which seven different Indians would tally, with four points as Fort Defiance held a seemingly comfortable 35-21 cushion at the break.

Buffalo Gap then came out of the locker room on fire as it exploded at the start of the second half with a huge 16-2 run to tie to game at 37-37. Quick spearheaded the charge with four of his game-high 19 points, while Gee, who had a triple-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks, also added a pair of buckets. The game then see-sawed back-and-forth until just over the three minute mark when the Bison held their last lead of the contest at 59-58. Wekelo, who finished with 14 points, and Sam Veney each hit a 3-pointer and the Indians were able to hold off any chance of a Gap rally by converting 7-of-10 from the charity stripe to hold on to the 75-71 decision. The two teams combined for 71 turnovers with the Bison committing 35 to Fort's 36.

The difference in the contest was at the charity stripe where the Indians went to the line 31 times to only 12 for Gap and converted on 12 more points at the stripe then the Bison. Fort made the night a complete sweep by pulling out a come-from-behind 56-51 victory in the junior varsity contest. Joe O'Gorek led the winners with 16, while teammates Troy Perryman and Ben Halterman added a dozen apiece. Ryan Durham led the Bison with a game-high 19. Recalling that Cooke last year broke off negotiations with Washington because of earlier delays, some D.C.

officials also said Tuesday they do not think putting the stadium in Maryland is a done deal. Cooke and current Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder announced an agreement in the summer of 1992 to build a new stadium for the Redskins in Alexandria, but it fell through under local opposition. "He is very unpredictable," said D.C.

council member Marion Barry, who recalled spending nearly three years negotiating with Cooke on a stadium when he was Washington's mayor. "It's probably a ploy. BnsBians overcome Buffalo Gap, 75-71 Edison-less Giants topple hornets would fight the plan. The 81-year-old Redskins owner wants to build a stadium on a 55-acre site next to Laurel Racetrack in Ann Arnundel County, Md. He hopes to open the 1996 season there.

The Redskins' lease one RFK Stadium in Washington expires after the 1995 season. The new stadium would be built about 20 miles northeast of RFK, the Redskins' home since it opened in 1961. In his statement, Cooke thanked Virginia George Allen the son of the late Redskins' coach for his efforts to find a site in northern Virginia. "However, since the majority of yf tr Redskin fans who attend RFK Stadium are Marylanders, I have opted to build the stadium in Laurel," Cooke said. Schaefer said the Cooke plan would hurt efforts by Baltimore to lure an NFL franchise from another city.

League owners, meeting in Chicago a week ago, rejected Baltimore in favor Jacksonville, for an expansion team. "He worked against us in Chicago by saying he was going to build a stadium in Maryland," said Schaefer, a former Baltimore mayor. "It was a dirty trick. "He'll need roads to get in there and other things. I'm not going to approve that." I t.

Faulk entering NFL draft SAN DIEGO (AP) Marshall Faulk's next slash n' dash run will be in the NFL, not at San Diego State. The two-time AU-American running back, whose dazzling runs put the Aztecs on the college football map, announced Tuesday that he is giving up his final year of eligibility to make himself available for the NFL draft. His announcement came a week after athletic director Fred Miller fired coach Al Luginbill and his staff for failing to get San Diego State into a bowl game for the second straight year. Giants were too much for Wilson, who slipped to 0-2 on the season. However, the Hornets' slow, deliberate offense kept the game low-scoring and the visitors were actually within shouting distance through three quarters trailing by only 14 heading into the final stanza.

"It wasn't a delay tactic. We are trying to be deliberate and take the highest percentage shot we can," Wilson coach David Wade said. "It may have looked like a delay game, but it wasn't meant to be." However, the Little Giant pressure began to take its toll in the fourth quarter causing 10 of the Hornets 25 turnovers for the game and the home team outscored Wilson 22-7 over the last eight minutes for the final margin. Jacob Cabell led all scorers with 13 points while freshman John Owens added 11 and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Tripp Franklin tallied eight points to lead a Wilson team that showed great improvement from Friday's 79-22 shellacking at the hands of Fort Defiance.

"You had to see that game Friday to see why I am elated after this game," Wade said. "I thought we improved tremendously. We played great defense, we hustled and we battled them on the boards despite their height advantage." Waynesboro finished with a 29-20 advantage in rebounds. In the jayvee game, Barry Shifflett poured in 25 points to lead Wilson, now 1-1, to a 57-51 win. Chris Spaid scored 16 for the 0-1 Giants.

By KEN JACOBSEN Sports Writer BUFFALO GAP Fort Defiance had to overcome 36 turnovers, a relentless Buffalo Gap full court defense and a furious Bison second half comeback before taking advantage of a basketball players best friend, "the free throw line" to post an exciting 75-71 win in non-district action Tuesday night. The game had a little bit of everything and often resembled a see-saw as both teams took turns with scoring spurts. Buffalo Gap, playing its first game of the season, began on an impressive note as Benji Gee scored the games first basket on a one-handed dunk. However, it was the Indians who got off to the big start on the scoreboard. Following Gee's dunk, Fort Defiance (2-0) ran off 13 unanswered points with Mike King, who finished with 14 points, leading the way by tallying seven points on the inside.

The Bison then began what would be the habit of the contest by storming back with nine straight, including a pair of buckets by Andy Sayers to cut the deficit to two, 13-11. By quarter's end, Fort had increased its margin to four, 16-12. Nathan Quick buried a 3-pointer and added a free throw in the early stages of the second stanza as the Bison drew within one, 18-18. But, the wheels then fell off for Gap and Fort was ready to take full advantage. Chad Wekelo started a huge 16-3 scoring spree over the final six minutes of the half with a pair of free throws.

Mike Gale paced the Fort By MARIO RETROSI Sports Writer WAYNESBORO Waynesboro may have won its opening game of the season in convincing fashion, but head coach Randy Coulling and the rest of the Little Giant faithful received a giant scare Tuesday night. Standout forward Pedro Edison caught a finger in the eye early in the contest versus Wilson Memorial and was taken to Waynesboro Community Hospital for treatment. "He was sent (to the hospital) mainly for precautionary measures," Coulling explained. "I felt obligated to "rotect my players and not put them at risk so we made sure the doctors checked him out." After being treated and released from WCH, Edison returned to the gym with a patch over his left eye just in time to see his teammates finish off a 54-25 victory over the Green Hornets. The play happened only 20 seconds into the game.

Following Ryan Blosser's 3-point bomb to open the scoring, Edison came up with a steal and as he was driving to the basket, took an accidental finger in the eye from one of the Wilson defenders. "I got a cut under the eye and overtop of the eye," Edison stated. "It hurt at first, but it feels okay now. I will be ready to go Friday needing only my contacts." That is good news for Waynesboro, who will battle district rival Robert E. Lee in their next game.

Meanwhile, the Edison-less Little -Si. REJECTION Buffalo Gap's Benji Gee soars high above the rim to swat away a shot attempt by Fort Defiance's Marcus Bul-lett during the second quarter by their non-district clash Tuesday night Gee had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks for the Bison. (Photo by Vincent Lerz).