The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 23

cum SECTION IKS TRADES Detroit eager for revenge against mighty Lakers. C4 Junior Felix had a great weekend as Jays win big. C2 Employment Trades Classifications 49-50 Mil mm MONDAY. JUNE 5, 1989 Buffalo ball park shames SkyDome TP i in mind," said Buffalo Bison's general manager Mike Billoni. "We wanted the team to play on grass.

We built it so that 20,000 seats could be added to the stands in seven months' time on the chance we got a major league franchise. All the dimensions and facilities are built to major league specifications, from the width of the concourses to the size of the field. The clubhouse is major league quality (and makes the Toronto Blue Jays' new clubhouse in the SkyDome look sterile). This is a major league park, only we happen to have a minor league ball club." It puts most major league parks to shame. A 300-seat restaurant, filled to capacity every day of the week, overlooks the first base line.

Luxury suites overlook homeplate and the third base line. All 38 have been leased, and a long list of hopefuls have their bids in for 12 luxury suites that will be added if Pilot Field does get a major league franchise. A tented party area behind Please see McMARTIN, C2 built since the construction of the game's holy triumvirate Wrigley, Fenway and Briggs (since renamed Tiger Stadium). The Sporting News thought it "an oasis that has blended the best features of old and new baseball architecture." Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth said, "I think one of the best baseball experiences in America will be in Buffalo with its new stadium." It was Ueberroth, remember, who before leaving the commissioner's office, set the Major League criteria that cities with open-air ballparks would be given preferential consideration for new franchises. That, of course, is of particular concern to Vancouver.

B.C. Place's fabric roof is a liability, not an attraction, to professional baseball. Buffalo set new standards by specifically designing a ballpark without a roof. More importantly, it satisfied Ueberroth's wish for baseball under the sun. "We designed Pilot Field with a major league franchise PETE wis.

3 ,1, McMARTIN with the citizens of Buffalo that it has helped rejuvenate Buffalo's once-decaying downtown. "On weekends," said Bisons' public relations manager Mike Buczkowski, "it used to be you could shoot a cannon down the street. Now, downtown is a place to come for entertainment." It was a matter of philosophy Toronto built an edifice: Buffalo embraced an idea. Toronto elevated technology over the game: Buffalo honored the past Buffalo ended up with the better ballpark. It may be the best ballpark ft -v," -i If 3 XT HbUlhH FANS needed umbrellas when SkyDome roof had to be completely opened before being closed when rain came Trjp Mi derate BUFFALO I HAVE seen the future of baseball and it looks a lot like the past.

The best new ballpark in North America looks like the best old ballpark in North America. Forget SkyDome. Pilot Field, home to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons baseball club, makes Toronto's newest toy look like a crass gimmick. It dares to offer the revolutionary concept of playing baseball on grass, open to the elements. And it does it in the prettiest playground in the game.

Built last year for $42 million (compared to Sky Dome's half-billion), Pilot Field resembles a turn-of-the-century ballpark complete with soaring archways, exposed girders, paladian windows, and a copper-green metal roof above the stands topped with two cupolas. Its concrete facade has been "rusticated" to resemble the limestone walls of the heritage buildings in the downtown neighborhood that surround it. Pilot Field is so wildly popular sion to the 86ers. "Our back four and midfield was non-existent tonight. We had a total lack of commitment.

There was no pride in our play whatsoever." Doug Muirhead, Jim Easlon and player-of-the-game Ivor Evans sent the 86ers to their 3-0 lead at the intermission. Scot "It's not that he did anything wrong we found out he guaranteed the loans himself," a player agent said. "But it exposed his arrogance and the cavalier attitude in hich he was operating the union." The report said Eagleson agreed to several changes including the complete separation of his law firm from the association; the hiring of a labor lawyer to work with him; implementation of a new association 86ers give 86ers trounced 'TX? i A it uJi-JxHM -tU-, 1 iltr 86ers' streak reaches full year ByDAXSTINSOX It was one year ago today when the Vancouver 86ers last lost a Canadian Soccer League game. That's one year as in 365 days. A remarkable record, by anyone's standard.

And one that's being noted all the way back to Montreal. The Montreal Canadiens had held the standard for the longest undefeated streak by a Canadian professional sports team 28 games during the 1978-79 NHL season. But the 86ers eclipsed the mark Sunday night. After trouncing the hapless Calgary Kickers 7-3 at Swangard Stadium, the defending CSL champions ran their regular season undefeated streak to 29 games 31 including playoffs. Bob Lenarduzzi sees no reason for the bubble to burst.

"Maybe we're starting to buck the odds a little," the 86ers' head coach acknowledged. "But I haven't changed my philosophy since my first day with this team. I've always said that we're going to be an attacking side not for 30 or 60 minutes, but for the entire 90 minutes. "If the teams in this league are coming in here and worrying about us scoring goals, why disappoint them?" Certainly that appeared to be Calgary's biggest fear. Riding a two-game winning streak, the Strikers surrendered three first-half goals and were down 7-1 before scoring two late tallies to make the margin semi-respectable.

The final 10-goal total established a CSL single-game Eagleson Canadian Press TORONTO Alan Eagleson survived a non-confidence vote Sunday as executive director of the NHL Players Association and the union will never be the same. "It was a cleansing for me in particular," Eagleson said after winning the vole by player representatives from the 21 teams and the seven-man association executive committee 16-12. "It would have been nice if we'd used a softer enema," the 56-year-old said in an interview in West Palm Beach, Fla. The price paid by Eagleson was steep: The Toronto lawyer said he is leaving the player-agent business and curtailing time at his law practice to devote his full attention to association business. A Toronto report said Eagleson received the support of the seven committee members and nine player representatives.

Organized opposition to Eagleson began about five months ago when player agents Ron Salcer of Los Angeles and Rich Winter of Edmonton decided to seek support for an investigation into Eagleson and his CRAIG HODGE pursuit in CSL game Sunday. the visiting Strikers 7-3. UNDER SIEGE: Calgary goalie James Buchan attempts to clear ball as three record, breaking the 7-1 count by which 86ers defeated the Edmonton Brick Men on July 20, 1988. "This certainly brings my players back down to earth," said Cafgary coach Tony Towers, whose squad was minus four starters and surrendered first place in the Western Divi revolution already is giving way to a tidal wave of even younger players. Without veterans Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who withdrew from this tournament and may never play here again, the stage was set for their successors to stamp their mark on the season's second Grand Slam tournament.

But while Graf, a seasoned veteran herself at 19, is still sweeping towards a third straight women's crown, Sabatini and others have come unstuck, overpowered by a new breed of pony-tailed base-liners. Sabatini, who was expected to the best chance of upsetting Graf in a Grand Slam tourney, was beaten 6-4, 6-4 Sunday by Mary Joe Fernandez, a 17-year-old from Miami with braces on her teeth and her hair tied with a It was Fernandez's fourth straight win over Sabatini, and she will face Helen Kelesi of Thornhill, the 10th seed, in Tuesday's quarter-final meeting. Kelesi defeated Ann Grossman on Sunday. Fernandez was joined in the quarter-finals by five other teen-agers, including 15-year-old Monica Seles, a Yugoslavian. Seles, the only unseeded player left in women's singles, beat Jo-Anne Faull of Australia 6-3, 6-2.

Seles will next meet Manuela Maleeva, at 22 the oldest woman left in the draw. Grafs next opponent is Conchita Martinez, a 17-year-old Spaniard who advanced with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria. Another 17-year-old Spaniard, Arantxa Sanchez, beat Amanda Coetzer 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarter finals. LOUISE DENIS FINE FORM helped Kelly Gibson to Victoria Open win Sunday. Story C2.

I 2i it' a I Associated Press PARIS Michael Chang, writhing with cramps and hardly able to serve, staged a sensational rally to upset top-seeded Ivan Lendl 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 today and reach the quarter-finals of the French Open tennis tournament. In a match of high drama and excitement that included a warning and penalty point against Lendl, the 17-year-old from Placentia, scored an improbable victory on Centre Court that had the capacity crowd of 14,000 wildly supporting the underdog. After playing the fifth set in pain, Chang fell on his back and burst into tears after Lendl's nerve cracked on match point with a double fault that ended the four-hour 38-minute contest. Earlier today, Ronald Agenor, an unseeded Haitian ranked 30th in the world, reached the quarter-finals, rallying to beat Sergi Bruguera of Spain 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. Agenor, who won the first Grand Prix title of his career six weeks ago in Greece, was outplayed for two sets by the rising young Spaniard, but then moved up a gear and forced Bruguera into errors from both the net and the back of the court.

Bruguera, who has risen from 349th at the start of the year to 44th in the world rankings, came into the French Open on a hot streak after beating Jimmy Connors at the Italian Open, where he reached the semi-finals. The Barcelona native looked on the verge of a quarter final place in his first Grand Slam tournament, but fell apart once Agenor got back into the match. Ivan Lendl, the top seed and favorite, played American Michael Chang on Centre Court as the last three men's quarter-final spots were disputed. Defending champion Mats Wilander met Lawson Duncan and Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union took on Jim Courier. Agenor, out of action for two weeks in April with a shoulder injury, also came from behind in a five-set battle with American Tim Mayotte in the second round.

He did the same against Bruguera, recovering from a slow start as he put more power into his service, went to the net more and moved the Spaniard around with delicate drop shots. By the time Agenor pulled even at two sets apiece, the inexperience ol the 18-year-old Bruguera showed. The Spaniard produced a stream of errors and was broken twice in the fifth set as Agenor took a 5-2 lead. When he served for the match, Agenor saved three break points and reached the quarter-finals on his second match point when Bruguera. netted a forehand.

It is the first time the 24-year-old Agenor has reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. Last year, a youth wave headed by Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini washed over the women's field on the red clay courts at Roland Garros. Twelve months later, the teenage survives non-confidence vote tish-born Andy Smith notched the first of his two tallies in the 54th minute for Calgary, but 86ers replied by scoring four straight. The marksmen were Sam Saundh, John Catliff, Guido Titotto and Dan Sudeyko. Titotto, a second-half substitute for injured Ivano Belfiore, notched his first CSL tally.

constitution with bylaws and full disclosure of financial statements. In return, Eagleson can expect a raise from the approximately $180,000 the association pays him this year. He is also allowed to keep his position as director and chief international negotiator for Hockey Canada. Eagleson said he was relieved the battle was finished and held no animosity toward his adversaries. role as head oftheNHLPA.

Ed Garvey, the founder of the National Football League's player association in 1972 and its executive director until 1985, was retained to assist in the investigation. Eagleson has been association executive director for the last 22 years. Garvey and the anti-Eagleson group presented a report Saturday to about 50 players attending the annual spring meeting. "There was a lot of disbelief by the players," said Mike Tallering, an agent from Port Washington, N.Y. "I think that what upset them was that the information had to be pulled out (of Eagleson) rather than volunteered." The report revealed Eagleson charged the association $463,839 over two years for expenses related to meetings; charged $43,269 over two years for automobile-related expenses, believed to be car rentals or leases; loaned more than $2 million from an escrow fund to private sources in return for mortgage security, and put $600,000 in a trust fund managed by his law partner Howard Ungerman.

Burke quells intrigue rumors Brian Burke said Sunday his so-called "mystery mission" last week had nothing at all to do with Soviet hockey star Igor Larionov. Burke, who returned to Vancouver late last night, said his much-speculated trip was to Sweden to nail down the final details of Robert Nordmark's new contract with the MIL team. "No, I didn't make a side trip to Moscow," said Canucks' director of hockey operations. "There's nothing new in that (Soviet players) area that I know of." There was also speculation Burke might be headed to New York to be interv iewed for the vacant general manager's job with the New York Rangers. But Burke said he hasn't been contacted by Rangers about the position and doesn't expect to be.

"I think they're looking for somebody with a bigger name," he said. i.