The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 10

B2 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1991 Sports Provincial final shows Bodogh knows curling but Houston knows curling a touch better By Bob Ferguson 'Citizen sports writer I thought we curled well. But they curled a bit better. At this level of play, it's what you expect. Marilyn Bodogh St. Catharines skip lands entry skipped by Jo-Ann Rizzo in semifinal action Sunday morning and stole a point in the 10th to claim a 7-6 victory.

You might have trouble convincing Bodogh and company the Thunder Bay crew is less than perfect, at least in their two meetings here. "I thought we curled well," said Bodogh. "But they curled a bit better. At this level of play, it's what you expect. "A slight miscalculation or anything short of a perfect shot can kill you.

We both had our share of great shots and the odd not-so-great shots. I guess we just had a couple more of the latter. "Marilyn deserves a lot of credit for showing Ontario's women they could be national and world champions," said Houston. "Until she won in '86 Ontario had never won a national women's title. Since then we've taken three of the last four.

"We've played each other maybe half a dozen times and when they were hot we couldn't beat them. Now the momentum seems to have swung our way." Along with Houston and Goring, the following rinks will contest the women's national championship at Saskatoon: former champion Colleen Jones of Nova Scotia; B.C.'s Julie Sutton; Heidi Hanlon of New Brunswick; Quebec's Francine Poisson; Newfoundland's Cathy Cunningham; Angels Roberts of P.E.I.; Saskatchewan's Sandra Peterson; and Kathie Allardyce of Manitoba. The Alberta representative has yet to be determined. The Scott Tournament of Hearts national women's curling championship is becoming a way of life for Heather Houston and her rink from Thunder Bay. i For the fourth straight year, the Houston foursome from the Fort William Business Women's club will be at the nationals, this time after defeating Marilyn Bodogh of St.

Catharines 6-3 in the provincial final at the Rideau Curling Club on Sunday. The win over Bodogh, the 1986 Canadian and world champion, marks the second time Houston along with Lorraine Lang, Diane Adams and Diane Pushkar has taken the Ontario crown. The Houston rink won in 1988 and was the runner-up at the world championships. In 1989, entered as Team Canada, Houston was national champion and went on to add the world crown. Representing Team Canada again last year, the rink fell to Allison Goring in the Tournament of Hearts at the Civic Centre.

Now they are returning to the 1991 Canadian championship Feb. 23-March 2 in Saskatoon. Houston was asked following Sunday's final if the thrill of victory wanes after such a string of successes. "Never," said Houston. "Winning is still the whole purpose of the exercise.

However, I don't think we enjoyed last year. The fun seemed to have gone out of it. "Maybe all the pressure of being in the limelight got to us. I can't pinpoint the problem but it was different." This year, Houston insists, the fun is back. The rink, which saw a change at the lead position with Pushkar replacing Tracy Kennedy, still enjoys a reputation as a winner but they don't expect to be perfect.

Houston's rink concluded the nine-game round-robin Saturday in a tie with Bodogh for top spot at 8-1. But Houston was awarded first place by virtue of her victory over Bodogh on Friday. Bodogh along with Kathy McEdwards, Christine Jurgensen and Gail Shields faced the London High- wo! Anand Maharaj, Citizen After the shots: Heather Houston follows stone down ice on Sunday Dozy 67's nearly caught napping Dispute costs Ottawa West star player in Hull tourney 67's 4, Platers 3 By Ken Warren Citizen sports writer By Ken Warren Citizen sports writer '1? it; T- tiM Ti ii it this was In my view a vindictive act. 1 ijf i 1 55 Ralph Robertson Ottawa West minor hockey official last year that we did not support this was a vindictive act and the end result is a vicious act against Menard and in fact the entire team." Pilkington said he knew nothing about the situation before Wednesday. "To say I deliberately timed it is ludicrous," he said.

"I deny I knew anything before I was told by my midget coach on Wednesday. If I had known about it in September, I would have done something about it." Ottawa West coach Steve Sundin says the loss of Menard who leads the midget league in scoring with 64 points in 30 games shook up his team before the championship game. "It happened a half-hour before game time, one of the biggest games all year; we were devastated," said Sundin. "I'm not saying Danny would have made the difference. "Barrie is a great team and I don't want to take anything away from them," said Sundin.

"But it ruined the game for us. I had to move players into situations they had never been in before. Talk about misleading statistics, i Thirty-two points separate the Ottawa 67's from the Owen Sound Platers in the Ontario Hockey League standings, but there was little to choose between the teams in front of 1,660 onlookers Sunday afternoon at the Civic Centre. Brett Seguin's spinning backhand on a power play with less than four minutes remaining made the difference in a game played in slow motion most of the time. Seguin set the stage for his game-winner just over a minute earlier, exaggerating on a hook by Owen Sound's Jason Skellett to draw a penalty from referee Dan Emerson.

i Steve Parson had completed a hat trick and tied the game 3-3 on an Owen Sound power play a minute before the penalty to Skellett. i While hardly impressive, the 67's victory was their eighth straight at home and ninth in their last 11 games. 1 "Whether you're playing Oshawa or Owen Sound, you're always happy when you get the two points," said 67's coach and GM Brian Kilrea. "I would have liked us to play better, that's obvious. I think some guys had a pretty nice Saturday night." For much of the first two periods, it appeared the teams were skating on soft Rideau Canal ice rather than at the Civic Centre.

The Platers playing their third game in less than four days held a 2-1 lead heading into the final period. Ryan Kuwabara and Chris Snell put Ottawa ahead 3-2 in the third, and just as the 67's started to breathe easier, Parson scored. After Seguin's winner, Owen Sound had several chances to send the game into overtime but couldn't beat 67's goaltender Peter McGlvnn. Pat McGrath, Citizen Controversy marred Sunday's major midget AA championship game at the Hull Kiwanis International Tournament. Just 30 minutes before the start of the final, the Ottawa District Minor Hockey Association ruled Danny Menard of Ottawa West ineligible to play against Bar-rie.

Barrie rolled to a 6-0 lead before beating Ottawa West, missing Menard, 7-2. Menard, 17, Ottawa West captain and leading scorer, lives in Vanier, an area of the city with confusing jurisdictional boundaries. Both Ottawa West and Ottawa South can claim players from Vanier. On Friday, Ottawa South president Dave Pilkington registered a complaint with the ODMHA, saying Menard was actually the property of his district, not Ottawa West. But Ottawa West president Ralph Robertson says the timing of the complaint was suspect and alterior motives were involved.

"I feel it is highly improper," said Robertson. "It was the final game of the tournament and we are virtually at the end of league play." After checking over the weekend, Robertson says Menard, who has moved four times in the past six years, was indeed within Ottawa South's jurisdiction. But Robertson also says Pilkington has known that since September and deliberately timed the complaint to hurt Ottawa West in the championship game. "He had full knowledge that Menard was within his own jurisdiction at the start of the season. In that case, the onus is on the president of Ottawa South to inform us (so we can arrange a transfer).

"In my view, the reason this happened is because of a dispute over an appeal All-out save: 67's goaltender Peter McGlynn reaches for puck in crease to thwart Platers' Jeff Perry on Sunday afternoon wa shots, allowing only Chris Simon's goal to open the scoring. "When you play a team that much lower than you in the standings, you always think it's going to be an easy game and it's not," said Snell, who also had a pair of assists to merit first star. The 67's were forced to dress captain Jeff Ricciardi, still nursing an injured shoulder, as defencemen Scott Feasby, Doug Minor and Len DeVuono sat out serving suspensions. Kilrea will have Feasby and Minor back for Friday's game at the Civic Centre against Eric Lindros and the Oshawa Generals. The 67's play host to the London Knights the following afternoon.

The Platers, fighting with Hamilton for the final playoff spot in the Emms Division, outshot the 67's 11-7 in the final period. "We've been struggling a bit on the road," said Parson. "We had a lot of chances late in the game, but just didn't bury them. Usually we're a pretty good third-period team." "I thought we played well enough to salvage a point," said Owen Sound coach and GM Rob Holody. "We have lost a lot of one-goal games (11).

It starts to get frustrating after awhile." The 67's were the frustrated team for the first two periods as Plater goaltender Sean O'Hagan stopped 27 of 28 Otta "We ve had a good relationship with Ottawa South. I don't know why somebody would do this. It doesn't hurt anybody but Danny Menard." In the midget AAA final, Amos held off three-time defending champion Detroit Little Caesars in a 5-4 thriller. Amos led 4-1 after two periods, but Detroit was in a position to tie the contest with time running out. The Little Caesars had a power play with three minutes remaining and pulled their goal-tender, but couldn't get the equalizer.

Hall of Fame entryway dark even through Rose-colored glasses IRA BERKOW New York Times Thumbs will surely go down today in the meeting room of the board of directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and bury the hopes of Pete Rose. The board has gathered to act on the recommendation by a special committee that anyone (read that who is on baseball's permanently ineligible list be ineligible for the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame group seems dead set against the likes of Rose appearing on the ballot, on which, under normal circumstances, he would have been included for the first time in December. The controversy, a purely subjective and at core a simplistic issue, concerns a group of people's voting to supposedly deify baseball players. 1 Nonetheless, the Rose case has touched the ethics, morals, emotions and logic of a surprisingly large segment of the national populace, some of whom don't have the slightest Interest in ball games.

Much of the focus involves the whole point of a Hall of Fame, Is it a place to honor only the performance on the field of great ballplayers? Or is it to honor great ballplayers who were good citizens as well? Thumbs-downers say: Since Rose was banished from baseball for allegedly gambling on games and possibly on his own team, he should not be allowed to hang in the shrine. Thumbs-uppers like me, say: Let Rose be banished from further participation In baseball, but his activities off the field have nothing to do with the game. Well, there's a clause on the ballot that says "character, integrity, sportsmanship and contributions to the game" must be considered. It is not spelled out whether this means on-the-field only, or on-the-field and off-the-field both. If it means both, then of course a number of bad actors who were great pitchers and hitters should be thrown out.

And if it means good players who were outstanding citizens, then some like Dr. Bobby Brown, or Saul Rogovin, the pitcher-turned-school teacher, should be in. If it means on-the-field only, then no one played with more character, integrity or sportsmanship than Rose (some of his severest criticism leveled at him, in fact, was that he played too hard even in an exhibition like an All-Star Game). As for "contributions to the game," Pete Rose, according to one of the latest electees, Rod Carew, "is baseball." OK, but Rose knew the rules, posted on the clubhouse doors, which say No Gambling. But there are separate entities.

Nowhere on those rules does it say, "And if you gamble, then you will not be eligible for the Hall of Fame." It Just says you are subject to suspension or banishment. But precedent of the Black Sox players established that those deeply in gambling would not only be thrown out of baseball, but made ineligible for the Hall of Fame. The Black Sox players, it happened, weren't thrown out because they gambled. Their crime was fixing the 1919 World Series games for gamblers. They did it for the payoffs, and played dishonestly, or accepted the gamblers' money to play dishonestly.

There was, again, no taint whatsoever of that with Rose. Some half-thumbs-downers say: Then put on Rose's plaque in the Hall that he was banished. If we included negatives, then, in spite of the romance of the hall, perhaps traits ranging from immoral behavior to striking out should be mentioned on other players' plaques. Some half-thumbs-downers say: But it would be embarrassing to have Rose honored at the Hall of Fame ceremonies. The Hall of Fame is an honor, but an honor achieved purely through sweat on the field.

At the ceremony, one may say "tsk, tsk" instead of applaud. Others say: If Rose is elected, it shouldn't be on the first ballot. This is conceivably to make Rose suffer because he has been bad. But if one is good enough to be in the Hall of Fame, he should be good enough to be elected on the first ballot. For too many years, a majority of electors felt that no one should be chosen on the first ballot.

Joe f)iMaggio. for example, was not elected on the first ballot. It was unjust then and it's unjust now. his play on the field. Thumbs-downers say: Well, when he was a manager, he might have influenced games by his use of pitchers.

Rose, however, had been considered for the Hall of Fame strictly as a player, not as a manager. Was it then his bad luck that after his playing days he got a job In which he remained in uniform? Had he become a plumber or a lawyer, say, after he hung up his spikes, and was found gambling, he would most likely not be in the pickle he now finds himself. But, It is rightly contended, there was a brief overlap In his 24-year playing career when he was a player-manager. Yes, but nowhere has Rose ever been accused of throwing a game or trying as a player to do anything but his best to win. Mle was incontestably (at this writing, anyway) Charlie Hustle to the end, and the man who got more base hits than anyone else in the history of.