The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 31

SPORTS the Journal Times THURSDAY July 18, 1996 SECTION Baseball makes Schott buy ticket 6D First elk born in state in century page editor Mike Moore mow 2 MOSS Parkside ready to name coach Seattle, Boston in running play with Antoine Walker and Dino Radja (in Boston), where you '(Mcllvaine) would complement them," Grinker said. "Or you have a chance to go to Seattle and fit in like a linger a glove, knowing what they need an A ovnant frJJ "Ty're W.IJUMJM A zJX amereni cnoices, but two very nice choices." Of course, Mcll-vaine's choice may be made a lot easier if Boston doesn't auicklv make placed upon them. "Unless Boston can compete financially, then there will be no decision to make." Grinker didn't disclose what type of contract he was seeking for his client, who played in 80 games last season and averaged 2.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots. However, a front office official for an NBA team said Grinker was seeking at least a five-year contract with an annual starting salary of at least $3 million. The Seattle Times reported Wednesday the SuperSonics have exceeded those terms, offering Mcllvaine a seven-year, $35 million offer.

Mcllvaine made approximately $540,000 last season. Mcllvaine's decision to chose between Seattle and Boston comes after nearly two-thirds of the NBA's 29 teams had contacted Grinker about Mcllvaine's availability. Besides Boston and Seattle, Grinker said he and Mcllvaine took a "strong, hard look" at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Grinker also noted that he and Mcllvaine eliminated Minnesota More on MAC, Page 2D GERY WOELFEL Journal Times Left Coast versus Right Coast? Championship contender versus ambitious rebuilder? High expectations versus moderately-low external pressure? Those are some of the decisions Racine native Jim Mcllvaine will likely be making today in determ-ing whether to sign with the Seattle SuperSonics or the Boston Celtics. Mcllvaine, a free-agent center who played the last two seasons with the Washington Bullets, dwindled his lengthy list of courters to those two teams Wednesday.

According to Ron Grinker, Mcll-vaine's Cincinnati-based agent, a final decision is imminent. "We're probably very close to making a decision," Grinker said in a telephone interview Wednesday night. "It's down to those two teams." Seattle was the Western Conference champion last season and lost to the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. Most NBA observers believe the Su GERY WOELFEL Journal Times UW-Parkside officials will announce their new men's basketball coach today, Parkside vice chancellor John Ostheimer said Wednesday night that a decision on a new coach was made Wednesday morning. "We're done," Ostheimer said.

"I'm sure we'll be making an announcement in the morning." Ostheimer refused to disclose the name of the new coach. However, he did confirm that it was one of the five finalists the Journal Times reported last week. They are Rees Johnson, a former UW-Parkside head coach now the head coach at Northeastern Illinois; Thomas Trotter, Johnson's assistant coach at Northeastern Illinois; John Muraski, the head coach at UW-Stout; Jeff Rutter, a West Allis native who is an assistant coach at Stetson University, and perSonics are only a center away from making an even more serious run at the title. The SuperSonics, whose featured stars are Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, recently took huge steps to free up money on their salary cap. They renounced the rights to center Ervin Johnson and forward Frank Brickowski and traded swingman Vincent Askew to New Jersey.

Unlike Seattle, Boston isn't close to contending for a championship. The Celtics are in the midst of a rebuilding program and are hoping to add Mcllvaine to a frontline that includes a quality veteran in Dino Radja and two promising younsters in second-year forward Eric Williams and rookie forward Antoine Walker. Like Seattle, Boston needs a quality center. The Celtics traded underachieving center Eric Montross to Dallas before the June 26th draft. Their only centers now are Pervis Ellison and Alton Lister, two players near the end of their careers.

"Basically, you have a chance to Steve Larson, the head coach at Edgewood College in Madison. Johnson, who coached at Parkside from 1982-88 and compiled a 111-67 record, had been considered the frontrunner for the position. Sources said Johnson had been offered the job last week. But it now appears he is leaning toward remaining at Northeastern. He has continued to recruit for Northeastern in recent days and was in Las Vegas Wednesday attending a high school basketball tournament.

He was unavailable for comment. Parkside officials have been searching for a coach since Marty Gtflespie resigned May 30. Gillespie had been the Rangers' coach the last four years. He quit, citing the school's lack of commitment toward its NCAA Division II program. Mcllvaine which coast? some other player moves.

The Celtics are over the salary cap and, in order to fit Mcllvaine into their salary structure, they would have to renounce the rights to some players. If that doesn't occur, Mcllvaine is bound for Seattle. "In all candor, Boston can't fulfill our financial needs at this time," Grinker said. "And they might not be able to in the time frame we Angler tops traffic flow, 1 8-pounder But fish lost 1 pound on three-state journey GERY WOELFEL Journal Times 'y I For most anglers, the toughest part of Salmon-A-Rama is catching a prized fish. For Mike Sliwa, though, the toughest part of SAR is probably getting to the weigh-in stand.

Sliwa, you see, lives in Highland, or just south of Chicago. The quickest way for him to get to Racine is driving through the heart of Chicago. Usually, it isn't a problem. Unless, of course, he's pulling his boat. That's a different story.

"I've done that before where I've gotten stuck in traffic, with my boat," Sliwa said. "That's nasty." Fortunately for Sliwa, his trip through the Loop Wednesday morning was a breeze. He left Highland at 5:30 Associated Press A Jose Valentin of the Milwaukee Brewers slides across home plate to score the tie-breaking run in the 10th inning on a Jesse Levis hit Wednesday at Milwaukee. The Brewers came from behind to win 3-2. a.m.

and arrived at Festival Hall grounds two hours later. Despite his quick trip, Sliwa wished he had arrived in Racine sooner. A lot sooner. Like the night before. That's when he landed an 18.32-pound rainbow trout near Portage, Ind.

Because Sliwa knew he Tv rowers snap exfrsHnriing curse couldn't get to Ra- cine before the AOv weigh-in stand closed, he was (fS' forced to wait untiuQ Wednesday morn- Levis drives in winner in 10th ing. The wait was worthwhile, sort of. While his. rainbow trout turned out to be the heaviest ON DECK Yankees at Brewers PITCHERS: New York's Dwight Gooden (9-4, 4.44 ERA) vs. Milwaukee's Scott Karl (8-5, 5.02) WHEN: 7:05 p.m.

today RADIO: WTMJ (620 AM) and WLIP(1050AM) Phil Garner said. "It seems like when the game gets on the line, Jesse has a real good, concentrated approach at the plate." Milwaukee ace Ben McDonald matched his season high with eight strikeouts and gave up just two unearned runs in nine innings, but Tigers right-hander Omar Olivares matched him with a sharp nine-inning, four-hit effort. "I've been getting a ton of run support, so I can't complain," McDonald said after his longest outing of the year. "I was able to keep us in the game and we got it done when we had to." Both teams scored two runs in the sixth, when Detroit struck first behind some sloppy Brewers defense. Fausto Cruz led off with a single and Bobby Higginson reached when his short More on BREWERS, Page 4D plate, but now it feels good.

It's the first time I've won a game with a ninth-inning hit since I've been in the majors." After waiting out a 2 hour, 22 minute rain delay before the first pitch, Milwaukee (46-47) won its second straight game thanks to two mistakes by Tigers reliever Tom Urbani. After getting ahead 1-2 in the count, the left-hander walked Valentin to start the 10th. Urbani again went ahead 1-2 when Mark Loretta fouled off two bunt attempts, then fired a wild pitch that moved Valentin to second. Loretta bounced out to third, but Levis inserted as a ninth-inning defensive replacement after Fernando Vina pinch hit for Mike Matheny in the eighth ripped a 1-0 fastball the opposite way to knock in the winning run. "We needed that," Brewers manager ANDREW COHEN Wisconsin Stale Journal MILWAUKEE Never mind that it happened against a horrendous team.

Never mind that it happened with the aid of a wild pitch. The only thing that mattered to 21,121 soggy fans at County Stadium Wednes-day afternoon was that the Milwaukee Brewers finally won an extra-inning game at home. Winless in five attempts coming into its American League game against the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee snapped the stubborn string when backup catcher Jesse Levis slapped a one-out single in tin from second base and gave the Brewers a 3-2 win. "It's kind of ironic because I just heard that today," Levis said of his team's extra-innings struggles. "I don't think that made a difference at the registered in the off-shore division during SAR this year, he said it wasn't the fish's true weight.

"I lost more than a whole pound on the fish overnight," Sliwa said. "My scale is pretty darn accurate, and it said 19'A pounds. "It's not surprising that the fish lost weight, but it is unfortunate." That one-plus pound, Sliwa believes, could be costly when the SAR contest ends Sunday. He has a hunch another angler will top his fish by then. Sliwa, 31, has this feeling despite knowing that his catch was bigger than Racine's Ron Brooks' winning catch of 17.24 pounds last year.

"It'll depend on the weather," said Sliwa, who could win a 15-horsepower outboard motor if he wins the off-shore trout division. "But I don't think this one will (hold up). But there's always hope." FAMILIAR FIGURE: Steven Turkowski of Racine knows something about winning at SAR. Turkowski was the off-shore rainbow trout winner in 1990 and the on-shore rainbow trout winner in 1994. Now, he's threatening to win the on-shore rainbow trout title again.

Turkowski, fishing north of Milwaukee, landed a the 10th inning that drove in Jose Valen- Favre reassures fans toughness will remain k'. 16.56-pound rainbow trout Wednesday. That put him in Journal Times news services GREEN BAY It was a united front the Green Bay Packers have built, a consortium of consensus with one party line: Brett Favre will be fine. Packers general manager Ron Wolf has said so, incessantly. Wednesday, sitting next s.

to Favre, Packers coach Mike Holmgren repeated the mantra. Favre said it himself, over and over. "I'm still tough old Brett," he said at one point during his news conference. That, of course, is not true. A lot has changed.

Favre addmitted an ad PACKERS NOTES week, Landry voiced his opinion that Favre's streak of starting 68 straight games the National Football League's longest has more to do with Favre's toughness than any narcotic pain medication. "He's a tough son of a gun and that's one of the reasons he helps the team," Landry said. "The better quarterbacks have to be tough, that's the way they lead their team. No, I don't think (painkillers) were why he was able to play all the time. I think he's just tough." Favre said that won't change, even though he admitted that the pain of playing was what exposed him to the drugs in the first place.

Holmgren, too, insisted there would be no change. "The question that is brought up the most is if he gets banged up, as will happen during the season, and is in pain, what do we do?" Holmgren said. "That's something we've talked about as an organization and as a staff. Our medical people have consulted with the top experts in pain medications that Brett will use now. There are non-addictive, nonnarcotic types of medicines now that Brett will use.

Because it will happen, he will get hit. He will need some sort of medication." That's not to say it won't be easy for Favre, who has shaken off hip, shoulder and ankle injuries while compiling his streak. It will not. But Favre's innate toughness, coupled with the use of non-narcotic painkillers, should keep Favre going through the normal bumps, twists and bruise that regularly afflict NFL quarterbacks, More on FAVRE, Page 5D first place, just past Robert Jorgensen of Racine, who had caught a 16.48-pounder. "We had heard that there were two 17-pounders already registered, so we weren't going to come down until tomorrow," Turkowski said.

"But I said, 'What if they're As it turned out, it was misinformation. They were two 17-pounders in the boat category." Turkowski said he isn't optimistic his fish will remain atop the leader board. However, he does have history on his side. "When I won in '94, 1 caught it early on Tuesday and I didn't think it would hold up," Turkowski said. "But it held up.

So you never know." TAKING CONTROL: Randy Paulsen is starting to monopolize the off-shore perch division leaderboard. Paulsen, a Racine resident, ranks first, second and fifth in the division. He surpassed his top total Wednesday, collecting five perch for a total of 7.82 pounds. Considering his success, it's understandable why Paulsen wouldn't reveal the location of his favorite fishing spot. "I don't need any compansions," Paulsen said, laughing.

"There's enough people there already." Paulsen, by the way, began fishing at 4 a.m.; he registered his perch more than 12 hours later. FEATURED FISH: Danny Bomia of Kenosha earned a $200 savings bond for catching the largest lake trout in the off-shore division Wednesday 16.36 pounds. Ronald Weinzierk, also of Kenosha, earned a $100 savings bond for the largest perch in the on-shore division at S.38 pounds. Today's featured fish in the off-shore and on-shore division is rainbow trout. TODAY'S WEIGH-IN TIMES: 7 a.m.

to 8:30 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. I diction to narcotic pain- Wolf killers in May, emerged Parkers. GM from six weeks of treat- racers um ment in a Topeka, clinic June 28 and spent more than 30 minutes Wednesday talking about a changed life.

But this much, he and Holmgren claimed, has not changed: Just because he can't be treated with the narcotic painkillers doesn't necessarily mean he will lose his legendary toughness. Well, here's a second opinion: "I don't think (taking the painkillers) was why (Favre) was able to play all the time," said Dr. Greg Landry. Landry, a physician with the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, is one of the UW football team doctors. He is used to dealing with pain football can cause.

Earlier this A Sandblasting Caroline George watches the flight of the ball as she hits out of a sand trap near the second green Wednesday during the Racine Junior Championship golf tournament at H.F. Johnson Park. She shot a 67 for second place In the girls' 18-and-under division. A A A A A A -t A- kAA-f A A rif-fr4 AAl A A A A.A A A A A. A A A A.

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