News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 45

Sunday, February 24, 1991 News Journal, Mansfield, 0. Sports 3 Tribe skipper asks: Is it live or Memorex? Hal Ij5l Lebovitz I Vr 'x. 1 I i A IV I I Tom Miller of Mansfield lifts 260 pounds during the benchpress portion of the Mansfield Weightlif ting Doflt drOD It Competition on Saturday at Mansfield Christian High School. Miller was competing in the 165-pound class. (Photo by Jack Hanrahan) Palmer ready to begin comeback Baseball his second workout in Port St.

Lucie, Fla. "I would love to stay in New York. I love the people and I love the city. "I have nothing against the organization or (general manager) Frank Cashen," he said. "We'll see what happens." Youmans' return to the majors is moving slowly, too.

One day after reporting to the White Sox camp, he complained of a stiff arm and skipped throwing. Youmans has not pitched since June 1989, when he was sidelined with rotator cuff surgery while with Philadelphia. In a move the White Sox expected, Carlos Martinez refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Vancouver and became a free agent. Martinez batted .224 in 272 at-bats last season and made eight errors in part-time duty at first base. Wills, one of the game's greatest speedsters, hopes to teach Dodgers minor leaguers how to hit and run better.

He began guiding 16 minor leaguers, known as the "Dodger Burners," in the skills of bunting and stealing bases. "We're glad to have Maury working with us," Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said. "Speed is one thing we're always looking for." Among those who watched workouts was San Francisco's Kevin Mitchell. Mitchell, who had post-season surgery on his right wrist, reported late and did not take part in the practice, explaining he did not arrive at the club's hotel until the pre-dawn hours Saturday. "I haven't been hitting this winter," Mitchell said.

"I went to see the doctor, and he told me to take it easy because of the scar tissue." The Associated Press Jim Palmer took his number out of retirement and began his improbable comeback, Roger Clemens shifted numbers for his first spring workout and Dwight Gooden softened his stance Saturday on leaving the New York Mets. Maury Wills, meanwhile, started his school for speed in the Los Angeles Dodgers' camp. But Floyd Youmans, trying to bounce back with the Chicago White Sox, shut down because of a stiff arm. Palmer, hoping to revive his Hall of Fame career at age 45, threw for 10 minutes in front of pitching coach Al Jackson in Baltimore's camp at Sarasota, Fla. Palmer wore his familiar No.

22, which the Orioles had retired in 1984. "I'm here to make the ballclub if I can," Palmer said. "If I can't, I hope I have a good influence on the young players. At the very least, as a broadcaster, I'll know the players a lot better." Manager Frank Robinson, who played with Palmer on the Orioles' World Series winning teams in 1966 and 1970, didn't see the former ace throw. "There was no sense in watching," Robinson said.

"You're not going to judge him on what he did today. The important thing is for the pitching coach to see him and get familiar with him. It was just nice to see him in uniform." Clemens, in his first workout since signing a $21.5 million contract that made him the highest-paid player in baseball, threw for 10 minutes in Boston's camp at Winter Haven, Fla. "I almost feel embarrassed to talk about my contract," Clemens said. "I'm happy with it, I'm in the position I want to be and I'm thankful, but I don't think it proper to talk about it with the war going on." Saying that he is not into a "rah, rah situation," Clemens plans to lead by example.

He set that example early, by arriving for his first workout shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, getting into uniform and then running hours before other players had checked into the clubhouse. "He looks good and he's in a good frame of mind, and he threw he ball good," pitching coach Bill Fischer said. "As long as you've got No. 21, you're in good shape." Clemens, however, isn't wearing his usual number.

Instead, in spring training he's wearing No. 24, a tribute to Dwight Evans, who was released by the Red Sox after 18 years and signed by Baltimore. Just where Gooden will be next season is still undecided. Gooden set Friday as a deadline for getting a contract extension. When the Mets did not offer a Clemens-style deal, he said he would not negotiate during the season and would file for free agency when it ended.

But Saturday, Gooden seemed to back off a bit. He left open the possibility a deal could be done with the Mets before he, like Darryl Strawberry, walked away. "I didn't do that for a threat," Gooden said after Last season Indians' manager John McNamara carried a note pad with him as he moved around Hi Corbett Field in Tucson. Now he is carrying a tiny tape recorder and records his immediate thoughts. He's so delighted with the gadget you'd think he discovered another Mac saw Tom Candiotti throw a knuckleball to Sandy Alomar during a warmup he rushed up to Candy and feigned anger.

"Don't throw that stupid pitch and take the chance of hurting this kid's thumb again." Candy's knuckler kept Sandy's thumb sore all last season. Not until Mac grinned did everybody After the workouts Greg Swindell heads to the University of Arizona field house to shoot baskets with the varsity. He's close friends with some of their starters. Greg, to McNamara's delight, is in super shape. Same weight, he says, but no fat.

He bought a Stairmaster for his home and worked on it daily. ROAD SHOW: Shawn Hillegas, pitcher aquired from the White Sox in the deal for Cory Snyder, lives in Chandler, about 100 miles from Tucson and has been commuting daily. "Too tough," he says. This week he plans to move into the team John Farrell finally will be allowed to make the first tosses since his shoulder injury last year. To keep from 'going crazy' he jogs every time he has the urge to throw.

"I'm ready for the marathon," he says. TEACHING TOOLS: Dan O'Dowd, director of player development, will institute two new approaches when the minor leaguers report. First, he will hold a mini-clinic for all the minor league managers and coaches. They will go over all the fundamentals for each position. The clinic will be taped and all Tribe teams will receive copies so that the methods and instructions will be the same on all levels from season to there will be special one-on-one, coach-player sessions, each 30 minutes long, every morning before practice Indians will honor Alomar, prior to their game June 2, for being named Rookie of the Tribe's baseball school in the Dominican Republic resumed classes last week.

Three, players from ft, all 18, graduated to minor league spots and will be in Tucson: Nicolas Sued, a catcher, Omar Ramirez, outfielder, and Jeus Gonzales, pitcher. TAXING: Cleveland's city council will hold hearings tomorrow night on increasing its current 3 percent amusement tax to 6 percent and it's a foregone conclusion that the raise will be adopted. Look for the Indians to pass on the increase to their fans immediately. The Browns, however, will keep their prices intact this season, paying the tax out of their own pockets at a cost of $500,000 to the team. The Indians would be losing about $250,000 if they adsorbed the tax.

Browns' owner Art Modell, now in Florida, spoke with Cleveland mayor Mike White by phone Friday. "I understand the city's fiscal problems," said Modell, "and since our ticket prices already have been announced we'll have to suck it in and take it. The new tax, if passed, would raise about $800,000 for the city and this means we'll be paying almost two-thirds of it." The Indians also have begun their ticket sale and Dennis Lehman, senior vice president in charge of business, said that if the tax is passed they will go back to their customers for the added fee. "It's going to be a logistical nightmare because all our tickets have been printed," he said. "We'll be at the meeting tomorrow to try to convince council to hold off until next season." It's unlikely, so look for an average increase of 21 cents per Tribe ticket.

Season ticket holders will have to come up with an additional $22. AIR WAR: When Booth Broadcasting bought WWWE-1100 a few years ago it was with the fanfare it would made the top sports station, doing play-by-play of Indians, Browns and Cavaliers games. Last week it lost the Browns to WHK-1420. And now I hear WKNR-1220, owned by SportsChannel, will be going all out to sign up the Indians when their current contract with WWWE ends at the close of this season. The word is that WKNR, which lost its big bid for the Browns, is prepared to offer whatever it takes to get the Indians.

Thus, by switching, the Browns have assured the Indians an excellent contract entry into the sports talk show field also has heated up the competition among the talk hosts. Mike Snyder, at WWWE, has snared Ozzie Newsome as his guest tomorrow night and Modell, via long distance phone from Florida, will be with Mike from 6-7 Thursday evening and will take calls from fans. SEEING REDS: Steve Lamar, who did the Tribe play-by-play with Herb Score on WWWE a few years ago but wasn't appreciated by the station, has hit the jackpot. He has just been signed to do 88 games, on cable and commercial TV, for the Cincinnati Reds. Also he will team up with Marty Brennaman on some radio play-by-play and he will have TV pre-game and post-game shows.

Last season Steve did Reds' games on cable only and made a big hear his agent, Armond Arnson, who also represents many of the sports voices on Cleveland stations got him a nifty contract. Lamar will continue to live in Cleveland and commute to Reds games. TO THE RESCUE: There was heavy fog last Monday night when Lewis Bowes, an area business executive, was driving to his Strongsville home from a company meeting. The poor visibility caused him to go off the road and into a ditch, one wheel sinking into a five-foot hole. He couldn't extricate the car.

A driver, seeing lights off the road, stopped and offered to help. The Good Samaritan spent nearly an hour assisting Bowes and finally pushed his car out of the ditch. The rescuer: the much-maligned Leroy Hoard, Browns' running back. Don't knock Leroy to Mr. Bowes.

NEAT TOUCHES: New Browns' coach Bill Belichick is meeting individually with members of the team. After each meeting he sends the player a hand-written personal spent nearly an hour with Hoard Friday afternoon. Hoard, who just purchased a condo in Strongsville, will start working out shortly, something he didn't do in the previous member of the Browns' coaching staff gets free use of an automobile. When Belichick's was delivered to team headquarters in Berea he had his wife there so the auto agency official could teach her how to work all the gadgets. "She'll be driving it, too," he explained.

This was a first for the Browns. COACHES CORNER: I hear George Sefcik, Browns' backfield coach last season, has applied for the head coaching job at the University of Toledo. The vacancy developed when Nick Saban was signed by the Browns as their defensive coordinator. Sefcik is an excellent coach. I'm sorry the Browns didn't keep him and I hope Toledo grabs am glad Belichick chose to return Hal Hunter as offensive line coach.

Hunter was pushed aside last season by Bud Carson, who wanted Dan Radakovich to take over the line, even though Hunter had done an excellent job the previous year. Rad, trying to be innovative, came up with a passive block: ing scheme which proved a now has applied to become offensive line coach with Tampa Bay, a post turned down by days after Belichick was named head coach, retired tackle Cody Risien visited him and suggested, "Hunter should be your line coach." The 'suggestion' obviously, had an job of obtaining a strength coach won't be a problem. Belichick already has received more applicactions for that post than any other and there are several exceptional candidates. WANTED: The Kansas City Chiefs are making a strong pitch to sign Dan Fike, Now on the Browns' Plan list. Marty Schottenheimer previously coached Fike and likes him.

As of now Fike and his wife prefer to remain in Cleveland. Fike was out most of last season, recovering from surgery. The return of Hunter as line coach'is another inducement for Fike to stay Schottenheimer was in town last week to attend a dinner for Don Shula, he visited the Browns' headquarters in Berea to say hello to Ernie Accorsi. Marty asked to see the Browns' new training facility and Ernie called Modell in Florida for permission. "Of course," said the Browns' owner.

"And give him my best." ACCUSED: Linebacker Marcus Cotton flew in from Arizona to plead not guilty to a rape charge. No date has been set for the trial. Langhorne finally has completed his project, a home for mentally retarded in his Hampton, Va. community. He raised all the money for this facility, the only one there.

He calledl the Browns for a donation for furniture and filing cabinets. It was quickly will fly in tomorrow to review possible Plan signings with the coaches. "I don't think we'll go after them as heavily as in the past," he says. "It hasn't worked out too will take all the coaches to dinner Tuesday night, then resume his Florida vacation. Dibble already starts contract complaints sitting on the bench the last three years in the big leagues and guys that because they had 30 or 40 more days than us, that were eligible (for arbitration).

You have some of those who didn't even submit arbitration requests, and I think that is sick," Dibble said. union because I feel they let those of us with under three years down." It angers Dibble to see players who have been less successful get more money simply because they have more time at the major-league level. "You have guys that were mainly Dibble, who gave up the decisive hit in the All-Star game and was co-Most Valuable Player in the NL playoffs, said he deserves better. "I made the All-Star team, I was MVP of the (NL) playoffs and I get nothing," Dibble said. "I know I will never be happy with the players' USA-Built Tandy 4016 SX With 2MB RAM 16MHz Intel 80386SX 32-Bit Performance 52MB SmartDrive Microsoft Windows 3.0 16-Bit VGA Color Graphics Monitor MS-DOS 4.01 Mouse With Pad Reg.

Separate Items $3943.75 Save LaiCii Low As $88 Per Month Low As $88 Per Month PLANT CITY, Fla. (AP) It didn't take Rob Dibble long to find something to complain about. The Cincinnati Reds reliever started training camp in a good mood Thursday, saying he wanted to concentrate on baseball instead of lapsing back into the contract complaints of last fall. Now he's lashing out against the front office and the major league baseball players' union over his contract situation. "I'm treated like a second-class citizen here, and it's pretty sickening," Dibble said.

It's become a familiar refrain for Dibble, who lobbied for a large contract or a trade during the National League playoffs last fall. He's in no position to demand either he doesn't have enough time at the major-league level to be eligible for salary arbitration. He later apologized for the self-promotion while the team was in the playoffs, and said he'd leave all money matters to his agent, Eric Goldschmidt, this year. When he reported for the Reds' first workout of pitchers and catchers Friday, he sounded optimistic about his contract prospects. Dibble, who made $200,000 last year, said the Reds had offered a $400,000 base salary.

He wanted a $500,000 base. But when talks snagged between Goldschmidt and Reds general manager Bob Quinn, Dibble again was unhappy with the front office. He also was upset that he had no recourse under the basic agreement accepted last year by the players' association. "That's why after four years here and free agency I just might pack it in and go to Japan," Dibble said. "As far as I am concerned, I have to worry about my family.

No one else is worrying about my well-being." Dibble has spent less than three years in the major leagues, so the club can automatically renew his contract if there's no agreement He's upset that his shortfall in major-league service leaves him without bargaining leverage, and he blames the players' union for his plight. May require special order in some stores Mostly demos. Hurry sure to sell lastl 25-490140414124104241144200503326-237. Save $844 Same system as above, but with 20MHz Tandy 4020 SX in place of Tandy 4016 SX. Reg.

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