The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 77

The Boston Globe F3 Fans' exhilaration reaches new heights atop wall WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2003 By Gordon Edes GLOBE STAFF down of the Venezuelan Summer League. Eljaua said the coaches, staff, and 1 8 players signed by the Sox in Venezuela will be integrated in the Dominican Summer League, where the Sox wul have two teams. Luis Eljaua, the director of international operations, plans to fly to Venezuela today to visit the team's academy. It will be Eljaua's first visit since political unrest in that country cut short the winter league season and caused a shut Idelson, a native of Newton who visited the Wall before the game, added, "It's cool If emotional It stirs a lot of emotion. There really was a lot of history associated with the screen; but now the screen takes its place in history, and I can stand near the foul pole and look down from here, and I can see Carlton Fisk.

It brings it all to life. I look up at the light tower from here and wonder dangerous." Howry demoted Reliever Bobby Howry, part of the beleaguered bullpen by committee, was sent down to Paw-tucket last night, even as the bullpen was blowing another lead. Howry, who did not pitch in the 6-5 victory over Tampa Bay, had a 12.46 ERA in four appearances, giving up 1 1 hits and 3 walks in 4 innings. There was no word on who would take his place front-row look. "This is a view I never envisioned in my whole life Greg Hawko, who works security at Logan Airport, also was an early bird at the Fens, showing up at 4 am.

He, too, could do no better than standing room. "This is the best seat Fve ever sat at here at Fenway Park," he said. "If just such a difference seeing a game above everything. If you sat in the upper deck in some other ballparks, you'd be in no man's land, but here you feel like you're right on top of the action." Jeff Idelson, vice president of communications for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., said he hadnt spoken with the Red Sox about possibly retrieving the first home run ball hit into the Monster seats. "Obviously a change in history in a relic like Fenway, what was has to be respected," Idelson said.

"The Red Sox people are very cognizant of baseball history, and no doubt the Wall will be well OHVtS Dave Kres, a student at the New England School of Law, drove down frnm Peahrvtv at 3 RED SOX notebook a.m. Monday, hop- ing to score tickets for the Green Monster seats that became available for this home-. stand. Even at that hour, there was such a long line on Yawkey Way, the best he could do was standing room. But on a gorgeous night at Fen-.

way, and in the company of his girlfriend, nursing student Lauren Masterson of Peabody, 1 Kres had no complaints. From where he was sitting, he could be-, hold the ballpark and a full moon hovering over the right-field grandstand, then turn and behold the sun setting behind him. "This is a whole different world up here you're above everyone, looking down at the whole park," Kres said during batting practice, for which he had moved up for a if, v. 5 ESI 1 K1 UP TOP IT7 women's clothing Men's Clothing Luggage Gifts 1 APRIL 17, 18 19 Thur 9AM-7PM Fri. 9am-7pm Sat.

9am-6pm GLOBE STAFF PHOTOMATTHEW J. LEE Trot Nixon bails out as a fourth-inning pitch by Tampa Bay's Nick Bierbrodt is too close for comfort. It went from brush-back to strike, though, as Nixon couldn't check his swing. llllllinillMMIIIIMMIIIIIIIiniMMnillllllllMIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIMKMIMIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIII mam Am Red Sox averages New golf club's secret metal hits too far on some par 4's. how Jim Rice ever hit balls over the light towers." Terry Shumpert of the Devil Rays hit a home run over the Monster in the second inning, but the ball struck an advertising sign and bounced back on the field.

Manny Ramirez flipped it into the stands. "I really like it; it looks like it's been there forever. It really does," Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said. "I read about it over the winter and into the spring, and I envisioned something different, quite frankly. But at the same time, if a wonderful, wonderful job." Cloningeron hand Red Sox pitching coach Tony Cloninger made his first appearance at a game this season.

He met with manager Grady Little and sat in on the pitchers' meeting, but watched the game from the clubhouse. He will follow a similar course today, though he also plans to be on the field before the game working with the pitchers. The hope, he said, is that he can return to work by the weekend, then accompany the team on next week's trip to Texas and Anaheim. Cloninger underwent a series of tests at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton that showed that he no longer was suffering from anemia the condition that caused him to be sent home from the team's opening series against the Devil Rays in Florida and had only small amounts of blood in his urine.

Cloninger may begin chemotherapy for his cancer Friday, though doctors may elect to wait until he returns from the trip. Cloninger said he was deeply moved by the reception he got in absentia during last Friday's Opening Day ceremonies. He was at home in North Carolina, watching on TV. "That was beautiful," Cloninger said, "probably my most heartwarming moment I ever had in baseball, the reception and the introduction the Red Sox and the fans gave me. I say this from the bottom of my heart: I'm going to beat cancer, and I want to finish my career with the Boston Red Sox." Third base coach Mike Cub-bage, who suffered a frightening diabetic seizure during Saturday's game and was absent Sunday, was back at his post last night.

Cub-bage said he took an unneeded injection before the game Saturday that left his insulin level at a dangerously high level. He said he was conscious when he left the field but was disoriented and later passed out in the first-aid room. He was taken to the nearby Joslin Center, one of the foremost diabetic treatment centers in the United States, and held overnight. The next day, he said, he felt "wrung out," but he felt fine yesterday. The center, he said, provided him with additional information about how to monitor his condition, and he also had a new meter.

"I need insulin to survive," he said. "All diabetics do. But it also can be said Baldelli, who rose from Single A to Triple A in one season last year. "I played in the fall league, and I worked out in the winter to get ready to come here in the spring for what I hoped I ultimately would do. "I wouldn't have had a problem if I wasn't here.

There are people around here making decisions on your career. There's no need getting upset if things don't work out." Early in spring training, Rays manager Lou Piniella anointed Baldelli his center fielder, and after having him hit in the No. 2 slot, had him hitting third last night. Baldelli lined a single to right in the first, doubled to the left-center gap in the sixth (and was thrown out trying to steal third with his team down, 5-1, a real no-no), then had an RJBI single during the Rays' four-run rally in the eighth, when they came back to tie. J' BATTING AB RBI Avg.

2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO Millar 13 45 12 18 12 .400 5 0 3 0 0 0 6 7 Nixon 12 36 8 13 4 .361 5 0 1 1 2 0 5 7 Hillenbrand 13 50 5 16 18 .320 6 0 1 1 1 0 3 9 Mueller 9 23 3 7 2 304 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 Garciaparra 13 60 12 18 9 .300 4 1 3 2 0 1 3 6 Varitek 12 33 8 9 6 .273 402000 5 9 Walker 12 52 9 14 7 .269 1 0 2 1 0 1 4 6 Ramirez 13 54 8 14 9 .259 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 6 Damon 13 57 13 14 8 .246 5 0 4 0 3 0 5 7 Jackson 8 9 2 2 1 .222 000 030 0 4 Giambi 8 29 2 4 6 .138 1 0 1 0 0 0 7 13 Ortiz 7 25 4 3 2 .120 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 Mirabelli 5 13 0 0 1 .000 000000 3 4 Team totals 13 487 86 132 85 .271 40 1 18 5 9 2 52 87 PITCHING App. ERA IP CG ER BB SO HR Sv. Lyon 4 1 0 1.29 7 4 0 1 4 6 0 0 Woodward 3 0 0 2.70 6 7 0 2 3 5 0 0 Burkett 2 1 0 3.17 lift 12 0 4 8 6 0 0 Timlin 5 2 0 3.72 9 9 0 4 0 4 1 0 Wakefield 3 1 0 4.85 13 10 0 7 7 10 2 1 Fossum 3 1 1 4.87 16 15 0 9 5 19 3 0 Lowe 3 2 1 4.91 18Vi 20 0 10 7 12 2 0 Martinez 3 0 1 5.12 19Vi 16 0 11 5 17 0 0 Fox 5 0 2 6.75 4 4 0 3 5 3 1 1 Embree 4 0 0 12.27 3 6 0 5 2 3 2 0 Howry 4 0 0 12.46 4Vs 11 0 6 3 4 1 0 7 0 0 16.71 7 18 0 13 4 2 1 0 Team totals 13 8 5 5.67 119 131 0 75 53 90 13 2 Once-secret Armor Pierce Metal was developed by the military for the tips of shells and torpedoes. On the face of a golf club the metal's extreme hardness adds significant yardage to a golf shot Dog Nests 1 imimm'J real-life golfers. The results were just as startling.

They landed four times -four times -as many tee shots within ten yards of the centerline with the Controller Driver than with their own drivers. "The club's dynamite. We know of no other driver that can match its power." The Controller Driver's head is about the same size as the Great Big Bertha titanium driver and its shaft is 45-inch long for extra club-head speed. If you want to try it on the course on in a long-ball contest, the maker, NGC Golf, will let you keep the club for 30 days and return it for a refund, if its extra power doesn't help you cut 6 to 8 strokes off your score (if you average 85 or higher). To order the Controller Driver, call 1-800-285-3900 or click www.ngcgolf.comr (anytime or day).

Or send your name, address and check (or cc number and exp. date) to NGC Golf (Dept. ON2899), 60 Church Yalesville, CT 06492. Ask for the Controller Driver and choose from three shaft models: steel at $149.00, graphite at $179.00 and their top-of-the-line, big-butt TurboTip graphite at $195.00. Add $12.95 sh.

CT add sales tax. When you buy the driver, the matching 3 and 5-woods are available at a $20.00 discount off the driver's price. Be sure to specify regular or stiff flex, right or left-handed, men's or ladies'. Oh, yes. If you swing at 120 MPH, carry some extra balls.

MD-8 ONQC Worldwide, Ino. 2001 OapL ON28M I SOX RECORDS Home 2 1 Away 6 4 Day 3 2 Night 5 3 One-run games 4 1 Two-run games 1 1 Extra Innings 1 0 Shutouts 1 0 Metal created by Department of Defense for tips of torpedoes and shells How to win a long-ball contest YALESVILLE, CT-A once-secret metal used to penetrate enemy armor is now helping golfers hit very long shots. The metal a combination of ceramic, tungsten and four other necessary because steel and by Charlie Allen titanium are too soft to pierce modern-day armor. Now, an ex-Navy engineer working with a small golf company in Connecticut has applied the metal to the face of a driver, and some strong golfers are hitting shots so far they have to use the 3-wood on par-4's to avoid over-hitting the green. For instance, a PGA professional who played a round with the new driver told me he had to use the 3-wood on 300 to 330-yard holes to keep the ball from flying over the green.

Here are more stories that help illustrate the club's potential power. A golfer in California, after 40 years of golf, won his first long-ball contest using the club. Another shot his first sub-par round in 20 years. A Two broken balls-two long-ball wins golfer handicapped with an artificial leg out-hit his pro with a 320-yard drive and cut six strokes off his score. At a driving range, a golfer using the new club was hitting the ball so far others had to try it.

Everyone out-hit their own driver, including a young man who had just bought a new $400.00 titanium driver. Another golfer, a long hitter surely with some help from the wind, hit a 420-yard tee-shot. That exceeds the average drive on the PGA Tour Baldelli going at quite a clip by over 150 yards. Another hit shots so hard he split a balata ball and a Surlyn-covered Titleist. He destroyed two balls, but he won two long-ball contests.

A Director of the company that markets the new driver told me this. 'Twenty-three years in the business and I have never seen shots hit so far. This new Armor Pierce Metal clobbers balls like a battering ram. There is virtually no loss of energy at impact. All the juice 78 Straighter goes into the ball.

At high club-head speeds, it can actually break balls! And it's easy to control. "A well-known professional we know tested the club for us during a tournament warm-up and was curling 300-yard shots around trees with such accuracy several of his peers wandered over to try it. They were awed. But for their contracts, seven top pros could have been playing our Controller Driver in a national tournament that day. We would have sold thousands.

"The Controller Driver's control comes from probably the biggest, most forgiving sweet spot in golf-and a scientific roll and bulge that tames hooks and slices. A good golfer can draw and fade shots just like our famous friend. "An independent lab found that these features keep tee shots 78 closer to the centerline than a leading tour driver. We found this so startling we asked an outside consultant to test it among a group of SOX VS. OPPONENTS Sox Opp.

Home runs (home) 4 1 Home runs (away) 13 9 Stolen bases 9 10 Left on base 94 101 Errors 6 14 Double plays 11 11 Complete games 0 0 said of Little's comment, "people compare you to other players. As complimentary as it is, it's not something you take too seriously. It's a comparison you dont want to take too literally. I thank him for it, but it's not something Fm thinking about." Baldelli, who was born in Woonsocket and attended high school at Bishop Hendricken in Warwick, expected nearly 200 family members and friends at his Fenway Park debut. Many of them bought bleacher tickets and sat behind him in center field, chanting his name.

He had come here frequently as a fan, and attended a predraft workout at Fenway during his senior year in high school but was injured and did not participate. The Sox had no shot at drafting him; he was the sixth pick overall in the 2000 draft, and less than three years later is in the big leagues. "That was what my goal was," By Gordon Edes GLOBE STAFF So, Grady Little, what do you think of this kid Baldelli? "You mean Joe DiMaggio?" Little said. And that was even before Tampa Bay center fielder Rocco Baldelli, the 21-year-old from Rhode Island, had three more hits night to extend his season- starting hitting streak to a dozen games. He is 23 for 54 on the season, a robust .426 average.

The last rookie to have 20 hits or more in his first dozen games was Mike Lansing, the former Red Sox infielder who had 20 for the Montreal Expos in 1993. The DiMaggio reference comes from the fact that Baldelli plays center field, wears No. 5, and has an owner, Vince Naimoli, who got carried away and compared Bal- delli to a "young DiMaggio." But the kid can handle it. "As a young player," Baldelli.