Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • 21

Section nn Bears get back to work: 5S QUAD-CITY TIMES Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1 996 SPORTS EDITOR: Chris Juzwik (319) 333-2280 League strips team of Q-C tourney title enly, a prospect THE LUGO FILE St. Louis team raised eyebrows here By Craig Cooper QUAD-CITY TIMES Bom: Nov. 16, 1975, Barahona, Dominican Republic Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y. Bats: Right.

Throws: Right. Height: 6-1. Weight: 165. College: Connors State College, Connors, Okla. Drafted: 43rd round, June, 1994 draft.

199S numbers at Auburn: Batting average, hits, 67; doubles, triples, home runs, 1 RBI, 16. 1996 numbers at Quad-Cltles: Batting average, hits, 87; doubles, 1 triples, 1 home runs, RBI, 33. Pankovits said. "Offensively, we knew he had some ability and we thought he would do well but he needed to improve his defense and he has. He's worked hard at that this year and that's paying off." Lugo said the chance to play every day has helped his defense.

"It's made a difference," Lugo said. "When you are out there regularly, it helps you get better." Although coming out of spring training Lugo figured Guillen would be the regular shortstop in the lineup, he prepared himself to take the field on a daily basis. "I tried to prepare myself like I was an everyday player because in this game, you never know," Lugo said. "I'm sorry (Guillen) got hurt, but that gave me the opportunity to play I knew I could do well if I got the chance to play and I'm glad I got that chance." He credits Pankovits and Quad-Cities coach Joe Pittman for the -LUGO Please turn to Page 5S Bandit shortstop turns career around By Steve Batterson QUAD-CITY TIMES These days, Julio Lugo makes the most of his opportunity Because of that, people are tossing the word "prospect" around when discussing the Quad-City River Bandits shortstop. Houston's 43rd-round selection in the 1994 draft, Lugo was expected to see limited action for Quad-Cities this season as a backup for both shortstop Carlos Guillen and second baseman Carlos Hernandez.

When Guillen went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in May, the shortstop position belonged to Lugo and within days he made himself at home. "He's made tremendous progress defensively this season," Quad-Cities manager Jim "That's what alerted me that there was a problem," explained John Greco, the manager of a team from Millard, which was also in the field. "He (Johnson) said that he had two kids from St. Louis on his team and the rest were from the Illinois area. "He was open about it, although that would have appeared to be outside the rules the rest of us were playing under.

We're not supposed to have select teams but this, appeared to be one." There were also suspicions that the Johnny Mac Bears might have, had players who were too old for a 13-14-year-old tournament, but Zone vice-president Joe Michelich. denied that allegation Monday "I don't think so. I disqualified them because they had played five tournaments before June 20, which is a violation of Pony Baseball rules," said Michelich, who owns -PONY Please turn to Page 2S The "suspicious team" fans and opposing teams eyed warily over the weekend at the Pony League regional tournament in Davenport is no longer just suspicious. That team is disqualified. The Johnny Mac Bears of St.

Louis, who won the tournament to advance to the North Zone tournament, were disqualified on Monday and will be replaced in this week's tournament by Herrin, 111., the team which finished second. From the initial coaches meeting last Wednesday, opposing coaches were concerned that Johnny Mac team officials did not know the Pony Baseball rules and the coach, Bernie Johnson of Remington, also said his team had never been a Pony Baseball team. Lelsa ThompsonQUAD-CITY TIMES The Bandits' Julio Lugo has picked up the slack for an Injured teammate. ATLANTA WRAP-UP HOT BOX weir ftuD eEiamps i i Don Doxsie 'kJ' i SSi linn" i U.S. women's athletics can build on '96 performances By Christine Brennan THE WASHINGTON POST ATLANTA For some U.S.

athletes, they were a glorious last stand, a grand stage on which to say good-bye, a final, tearful wave to a crowd. For others, they became a chance to be discovered, to obtain an agent, to do a Wheaties box, to become a millionaire. The Olympics that every American athlete was waiting for that thousands of athletes actually planned their lives around ended Sunday The made-in-America Games are over. The Atlanta Games brought an end to the Olympic career of Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Janet Evans, but also altered perceptions of women sports stars. There were pixies in leotards but there were also bruised women athletes in grass-stained shorts.

And even in gymnastics the most graceful of women's sports, the stars were the strong and resilient performers, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller and Kerri Strug. "This may have been the Games of our ASSOCIATED PRESS On the Mark Mark McGwire removes his batting gloves after hitting his 39th homer of the season Monday. Baseball report: 3S NEWSMAKER It's official: Bulls sign Rodman for 1 year CHICAGO (AP) Free agent Dennis Rodman, whose league-leading rebounding and defense helped the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship, signed a one-year contract Monday to remain with the team. Rodman's agent, Dwight Manley, on Sunday said it was for slightly less than the $10 million Rodman had de women, said U.S. Olympic Committee executive director Dick Schultz.

"What happened here can be an inspiration to a lot of young girls in America. We've developed a lot of positive role models." American women won more medals 37 and more gold medals 18 than ever before at a non-boycotted Olympic Games. In softball, the heroine, shortstop Dot Van Dyken (' 1 ft V- All in all, y'all, a great party ATLANTA A pretty memorable 16 days, don't you think? The Centennial Olympic Games came and went in a hurry, leaving the capital of the South with a surplus of capital. 7 In case you missed it, the Kerri Strug limped into the. limelight and vaulted into a higher tax bracket in one brief moment that would have been memorable even if NBC hadn't replayed it 2,377 times.

Carl Lewis launched one last incredible jump, lobbied shame-; lessly for an undeserved shot at another gold medal, then got incredibly lucky when they turned him down. Amy Van Dyken won more gold medals than any athlete in any sport (four) and became a Wheaties cover girl in the process. Matt Ghaffari settled for a sil- ver medal in an obscure style of an; oft-ignored sport but still became a -major celebrity simply by showing 1 up everywhere and being the most personable 285-pound Iranian refugee in the world. The U.S. won team gold medals in women's women's softball, women's soccer, women's synchronized swimming and women's gymnastics, confirm-' ing a concept at which many previ-! ously scoffed that these games were the coming-out party for women's athletics in Justin Huish won two gold medals in a sport in which Ameri- cans don't normally do well and managed to retain his anonymity because it's a sport to which Americans don't pay any attention.

"iZ Marathoners Fatuma Roba- and Josia Thugwane came from the depths of obscurity to strike mean-i ingful blows for their African nations. Kurt Angle won every one of his wrestling matches in nailbiter 1 OLYMPICS Please turn to Page 5S manded. Rodman earlier said he was insulted by the Bulls' original offers of $5 million Lit Rodman Richardson, wore a gold medal on Tuesday night and a white hospital coat on Thursday morning, when she resumed her work as an orthopedic surgery resident at a Southern California hospital. In basketball, a $3-million enterprise to field a national team ended with the only prize that was acceptable for the U.S. women and their numerous sponsors: a 111-87 victory over Brazil and a precious gold medal that arguably is more memorable than that won by the U.S.

men. In swimming, U.S. women outperformed the men, winning 14 of 26 total medals, and seven of 13 golds. Amy Van Dyken, who was predicted to win no gold medals, now is wearing four. Before the Games began, she declared, "The Chinese women can and will be beaten." And when the swimming competition ended, China had won one gold medal, and in each of her victories, Van Dyken had beaten a Chinese swimmer to the wall.

Many women's sports will use the Games as a launching pad for future fame and fortune. Women's basketball expects to turn seriously professional in America next year with a league of its own. Softball, soccer, swimming and gymnastics all hope for a jolt in spectator and participant interest. "Hopefully, we have shown that women can do whatever men can do and probably do it better," Van Dyken said. "Growing up, we didn't have as many role models as the boys did.

Girls need to understand it's cool to be athletic." From Van Dyken's wide-eyed recognition of victory to Lewis' and Joyner-Kersee's last great long jumps into history, the Atlanta Games were the quintessential American sports spectacle. After experiencing the roar of 76,000 at the gold- medal game against Norway, U.S. soccer player Michelle Akers could think only of going far away for a couple months, to a mountaintop near Seattle, to contemplate. "I'm going to sit still," she said, "and have a grin on my face." and $6 million. "We are very happy to have Dennis back for his second year with us," said Jerry Krause, vice president of basketball operations.

Rodman, 35, made $2.5 million last season. "The contract is done," Rodman said Monday. "I'm happy to be a Bull again and now all I want to do is help bring another championship to the Chicago fans." INSIDE iiim.hh-iiiJWi' n'mil'W -Z. The Insider 2S TVRadio 2S Q-C People 2S Scoreboard 4S Midwest League 5S NFL 5S High schools 6S ASSOCIATED PRESS The determination of Kerrl Strug Is something we'll remember about the '96 Games. Hold on: Shrine Bowl MVP gets walk-on invite from Hawkeyes O'Neill's performance catches Iowa's eye By Dearrel Bates QUAD-CITY TIMES iljir O'Neill Bielema son and Dempsey Miller (college players at Western Illinois and Northern Iowa) and some others," he said.

"I'm getting a workout program from Iowa, and will be doing a lot of running and lifting in the next couple of weeks. I weigh about 240 right now, but want to get down to about 230 or 235 before practice begins." O'Neill wasn't the only Quad-City area player among the 11 involved in the Shrine game to play well. Maquoketa's Sage Rosenfels, the North starting quarterback who is headed to Iowa State, dashed 44 yards for his team's first touchdown. He had seven carries for 55 yards and was 4-of-7 for 24 yards passing. Next year's 25th anniversary Shrine game will be played at Davenport's Brady Street Stadium on Aiig.

2. minutes of the game when coaches can insert any player into the lineup. "In the first quarter, I blocked the extra point after the North had scored a touchdown and felt it could be my day," he said. "Our basic defense was set up where the linebackers can make a lot of tackles, much like we had at Assumption." Like all the players involved in a Shrine game, O'Neill found the game itself secondary after all the other activities. There was a trip to the Shrine Burn Center in Minneapolis, the fun trips to places like Adventureland, an Iowa Cubs baseball game and Iowa Barnstormers Arena Football League game, dinners and a parade.

Then there were those two-a-day practices. "I had been working out this summer with James Jones (the NFI player), Vince Jack state linebacker collected 15 tackles, an interception and a blocked extra point kick. Still, his South team dropped a 12-10 decision to the North team. "He called not only about the Shrine game, but also to talk about me walking on with Iowa this fall," said O'Neill, who already was enrolled at Iowa. "Everything these past two weeks has happened so quickly, and will be again the rest of this month." Like all Iowa walk-ons, O'Neill will report after fall drills get under way for the scholarship players next week.

All of the walk-ons come in for several days of testing before joining the other players at practice. O'Neill was planning to attend Iowa even before the Shrine game. He thought, however, it would be for track and growing the A phone call to Tim O'Neill Monday morning had to be put on hold, at least on one end. O'Neill was busy taking another call, this one from University of Iowa linebacker fcoach Bret Bielema. Bielema was telephoning to congratulate O'Neill for winning the most valuable defen-: sive player award Saturday for his South team in the 24th annual Shrine Bowl football game in Des Moines.

The former Davenport Assumption yll- shot, plus a chance at playing football. "I never signed a national letter for track, and when Ted Wheeler (Iowa's track coach) resigned, things just didn't happen," O'Neill said. "I'm still planning to go out for track next spring." As a starter Saturday, O'Neill played the first and third periods, plus tl final eight.