Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 23

1 riiEE mess rrov Order Tomer to Copa," the story of the last game at Tiger Stadium and first at Comerica Park, and "State of Glory," our tribute to MSU, by calling 800-245-5082 or going to wvvw.freep.com. I Monday Mayl, 2000 Fishing 2 Boxing 7 Football 8 Auto racing 8 ON THf WEB www.fffop.com mora 313-222-60(30 Section the spark xs bacxh If the Red Wings don't win tonight and a couple goals would surely help it's time to send a 1 i innr 0 MY7 i I L3U UU uu I' EHIG SbALSueiiou tree Hress Former manager Sparky Anderson was riding high during a pregame ceremony. i dasedau. Anderson's return blast from past DESPITE the opening of Comerica Park, April was one of the worst months in Tigers history. The Tigers were 6-17 worst in baseball.

They were outscored, 140-78, and tftUT they scored 30 percent fewer runs than any other American League team. For the first time in club history, they lost six in a row by at least five runs. At home, they had as many shutout losses as total wins (four). The Tigers' new house looks haunted. Then Sunday, that haunted house welcomed a friendly ghost.

One with silver hair. The man with the silver hair and with more victories than any manager besides Connie Mack and John McGraw said people ask him when the Tigers will be a winner again. "Well, first of all, I don't think people can look in crystal balls and predict that," Sparky Anderson said, shortly before taking the field to be honored on his day. "Just go to the Cubs, for instance. They've been 55 years." Now there's a sobering thought.

The Tigers made their most recent World Series appearance in 1984. The Cubs were last in the Series in '45. And the next World Series at Wrigley Field doesn't seem imminent. During the ceremony, Anderson was lauded for being the Tigers manager with JULIAN H. GONZALEZDetroil Free Press Avalanche fans always love to get their digs at the Red Wings.

Remember the "1955 Chokers" sign from the 1996 playoffs? These T-shirts, displayed after the Avs' empty-net goal, were sponsored by a Denver radio station. hill rnnrjLio i provibshce Olympic baseball needs moors' cooperation PROVIDENCE It was the 10th inning and Team USA had just scratched out a 2-1 lead over Mexico when Sandy Alderson and Pat Gillick, co-directors of the American squad, got up out of their seats and walked right out of the ballpark. They couldn't take it anymore. The pressure had finally gotten to them. This was last year, the semifinals of the Pan American Games baseball tournament held at Winnipeg, Canada.

At stake was a berth in the 2000 Olympic Games The winner was going to clinch a trip to Sydney, Australia, the sight of this year's Games. The loser was going home, and now all Team USA needed was just three more outs. But Alderson and Gillick, veterans of major league baseballwars, couldn't bear to watch the bottom of the 10th. Alderson has won a World Series title as general manager of the Oakland A's; Gillick has done the same with the Toronto Blue Jays. But there they were, in the parking lot of some baseball stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba, pacing nervously back and forth.

By now, we all know what happened, of course. The Americans held on for a 2-1 triumph, thanks largely to sterling relief pitching by Dan Wheeler who set the Mexicans down in order in the last of the 10th, completing four shutout innings of relief. "Imagine baseball in the Olympics and no USA," said Fanucchi. "But that was the reality. And don't think the players didn't feel the pressure.

It was the most intense game I've ever seen." The Americans then lost to Cuba, 5-1, in the Pan Am final, but that didn't matter. They already had secured an Olympic berth. The other significant part of the tournament was that it marked the first time that U.S. squad was made up of professional players, mostly major-league prospects from Triple A and Double A. Now, for Sydney 2000, the U.S.

will again use professionals, and again they will come largely from Triple A teams from around the country. But don't think that that's going to guarantee the U.S. a gold medal. Far from it. Everyone else will be using professionals, too, in the eight-team tournament.

The Cubans, who have dominated Olympic baseball, have been using professionals for years. Korea will suspend its pro season for two weeks and send over an All-Star squad. The same with Japan. In a way, it's a shame that baseball has seen fit to resort to using pros in the Olympics, much like basketball, hockey and tennis have in recent years. But in an era where winning the gold is the only thing, it's survival of the fittest.

So that means an end to teams like the 1984 squad that included college kids like Mark McGwire, Will Clark, Cory Snyder, B.J. Surhoff and Billy Swift. That team won the silver medal after being upset by Japan in the final in Los Angeles. "The last time we used college kids was in 1998 in the World Championships," said Fanucchi. "We finished ninth.

The rest of the world has simply caught up to our best amateurs. And ninth place in baseball for the U.S. was totally unacceptable." So here come the pros. Last year in Winnipeg, other top prospects included second baseman Adam Kennedy (Angels), outfielder Dave Roberts (Indians) and pitcher Brad Penny (Marlins). "Frankly, the team for Sydney should be better than the one we had at the Pan Ams," Fanucchi said.

"If we can field our best young professional prospects, we can win." Of course, that's a pretty big if. What USA Baseball is going to need is complete cooperation from the big-league clubs. When the time comes for putting the team together, the clubs are going to have to make available some of their best prospects from their 40-man rosters. It all revolves around the major league's Sept. 1 callup date.

For example, if the Red Sox don't have a need for a Dernell Stenson or a Donnie Sadler at that point, they could make both of them available to the Olympic selection committee. At the moment, 19 scouts are currently whittling down a list of prospects that totaled 500 at the start of the season. They're now down to 250. The Olympic team of 24 players and six alternates will be selected the week prior to the Sept. 1 call-up.

Any players on the Olympic roster who are called up on Sept. 1 will be replaced by one of the alternates. On Sept. 2, the roster is set and the team will leave that day for two weeks of workouts and exhibitions in Brisbane, Australia. Alderson, who is assistant to baseball commissioner Bud Selig, will coordinate the effort.

And since things are going to be happening fast, it's likely that Team USA will not resemble a well-oiled machine. Offense falls into 0-2 hole Bourque gambit pays off for Avs By MICHAEL ROSENBERG FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER ByHELENEST.JAMES free press sports writer Please see LOWE, Page 5C Higgiiison's hit extra special Win in 12th pleases Garner ByGENEGUIDI free press sports writer Yes, the Avalanche rallied from an 0-2 deficit against the Red Wings last season. But the Wings haven't had much luck with that deficit recently. Down 0-2, Detroit lost to the Avs in six In 'BS, the Devils in four in '95 and the Blackhawks in four in '92. But in the first round in '92, the Wings overcame an 0-2 hole against the Minnesota North Stars to win in ssvsn.

11ZZ.Z? Fans must use tickets marked "Round 2, Home Game 1" for tonight's Game 3 at Joe Louis Arena. Want to see Game 4 in person? The Free Press has a ticket contest for you. All you need is today's sports section, a keen eye, a telephone and a little luck. The details are on Pap 3C. CCLtECT E-tJlli Come back on Thursday for the Free Press' seventh collector card The Captain, Stove Yzerman, B9RE0JI FACES 2-3C.

Win or lose, this has worked. That was always the fear, for fans if not for Ray Bourque himself that it would fail. That he would join the Colorado Avalanche and discover that it was not just his Boston Bruins who had faded. That he would be an average, aging player desperately hoping somebody else would help him win the Stanley Cup for the first time. That was the worry.

It is no longer a worry. If Colorado goes on to win the Stanley Cup, it could easily be argued that Bourque put the Avs over the top. Before Bourque arrived, the Avs were 30-27-10. Since they traded for the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer, the Avs are 18-3-1. (Bourque did miss one of those 18 victories, however.) 1 This is not just a statistical quirk.

With Bourque, who has been selected the NIIL's top defenseman five times, Colorado is a more confident defensive team, convinced it can hold one-goal leads. And when the Avs need to maintain a lead, nobody helps them do it more than Bourque. Against the Red Wings in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Saturday, Bourque played 31 minutes, 13 Has anybody seen the highest-scoring team in hockey lately? It's supposedly the Detroit Red Wings, but they have come home to play Game 3 tonight with precisely one fluke goal scored by a role player. Because their vaulted offense has done nothing, the Wings trail the Colorado Avalanche, two games to none, in their second-round playoff series. Asked Sunday whether having only one goal scored by Tomas Holmstrom to show for two games was embarrassing for the Wings' top stars and for a team that scored 26 more goals than anyone else during the season, center Sergei Fedorov had this to say: "It's a team effort.

I don't know where you can see embarrassment. Everybody is trying to do their jobs and obviously we're not sitting out there, we're skating and trying to put the puck in the net. What can you be ashamed of that? We're all playing and that's the bottom line." Fedorov, Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan the team's leading scorers during the season have had chances, which is encouraging; unfortunately, op- It's a good thing Carol Garner caught an early flight to Boston on Sunday. Otherwise, she would have had to listen to her husband, Phil, ranting at the Tigers game on TV something Tigers fans everywhere can relate to. "I was more than a little upset and used some choice words to express my displeasure," said Garner, serving an eight-game suspension from the April 22 brawls.

Garner's reaction while watching at his Detroit home was understandable. The Tigers appeared headed for another loss. Down to their last three outs and trailing, 3-1, to the White Sox, the Tigers scored twice in the ninth on Robert Fick's two-run double, then won it in the 12th on Bobby Higginson's single. The 4-3 victory ended the Tigers' latest losing streak at three and put Garner in a better mood as he returned to Comerica Park to accompany his team to Fenway Park. "It was about time some things broke our way," Garner said.

"We needed that." Please see WINGS, Page 2C Please see AVALANCHE, Page 2C If nocery 2-0 COLORADO LEADS DCTROIT, 3 Please see TIGERS, Page 5C Colorado Detroit Colorado Detroit May 9 at Denver, 8 p.m. TV: Channel 50. Tonight at Detroit, 7. TV: ESPN. Wednesday at Detroit, 7 p.m.

TV: Channel 50. Sunday at Detroit, noon. TV: ABC (Ch. 7), CBC (Ch. 9).

Friday at Denver, 8 p.m. TV: Ch. 50, CBC (Ch. 9). ural rssTcns cmsrs jirs iti ihzd sotzz miltvt so good I imgs 7C.

TICIRS' LGWLICHTS IN Finished the month 6-17. Scored 78 runs. Allowed 140 runs. Team ERA: 5.50. Shut out four times.

Allowed seven or more runs per game while losing eight straight games. Four times they scored six or more runs and lost. Four times they gave up three or fewer runs and lost. D- JERRY STACKHOUSE Team leader on the brink of joining the league's elite. TERRY MILLS Should have better luck next year if he's not forced to be the center of attention.

GRANT HILL Shot his best all season long before being shot down at season's end. CHRISTIAN LAETTMR Back to the drawing board or back to the bench for the big man..