The Lompoc Record from Lompoc, California • 9

Sports Monday, October 7, 1991 LOMPOC RECORD (Lompoc, Calif.) B1 Vadium Club artificial high mm High-flying Hanger Second baseman Julio Franco became the first Texas Ranger for-4 Sunday as Texas beat Oakland and edged past the A's to win an American League batting championship, going 2- into third place. It's Franco in American League New Topps. cards scarce By Skip Lackey Scripps Howard News Service The Topps a giant in the baseball-card industry, released its Stadium Club limited edition series this year a card so glitzy and so high-tech looking that kids across the country are clamoring for them. Good luck. Adult vendors are snatching them up by the box full before the cards can be displayed on store shelves.

At least one drug-store chain has fired employees for diverting the cards to private dealers. Clerks are being paid to tip collectors when supplies of cards are delivered to stores. New Stadium Club baseball cards, manufactured in two limited edition series, are showing up at flea markets where vendors will rake in what the market will bear. A $1.25 pack of cards is selling for $6 to $12, depending on the area of the country. Greed is the biggest reason why kids can't find the cards, said Steve Goosie, assistant manager at Baseball Card World in Knoxville, Tenn.

"It's turned out to be a money thing to a lot of people, not just collecting," Goosie said. "It just raises the price of the cards up higher. People go out and buy them before they get out to the racks. They're making an instant profit when they buy it." A pack of 12 Stadium Club cards has a suggested retail price of $1.25. There are 36 packs to a box, 12 boxes in a case.

After vendors buy all the cards they can get and resell them to collectors and dealers, the cost to the consumer jumps dramatically. "We're paying more than the original price just so we can carry them," said Goosie, who is asking $4.95 for a pack of Stadium Club baseball cards $3.75 more than the suggested retail price. Goosie said Baseball Card World has Stadium Club cards for sale because the store's owner bought a case "over the wire" a national computerized network for card dealers who buy from other dealers. Five Revco Drug Store employees were fired after they bought quantities of new limited edition baseball cards en route to Knoxville stores, then sold or traded them for profit. FJevco spokeswoman Diana Lueptow in Twinsburg, Ohio, confirmed tin employees kept Topps Stadium Club baseball cards from reaching Revco customers.

Lueptow said that when Revco's allotment oL cards arrived at the company's West the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Rangers 4, Athletics 2 Julio Franco went 2-f or-4 and led the majors in batting, and Juan Gonzalez hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning that enabled Texas to finish ahead of Oakland. The Rangers and the three-time AL champion Athletics went into the game in Texas tied for third place. Ryan struck out 10 in seven innings, raising his season total to 203, and allowed only three hits. Reliever Terry Mathews (4-0) was the winner.

Angels 3, Royals 1 Mark Langston matched his career best with his 19th victory and Gary Gaetti hit a three-run homer as California ensured that every team in the AL West finished at .500 or better. The last-place Angels wound up 81-81, marking the first time every team in a division has been at break-even or better. "If it's never happened before, it's never going to happen again with expansion," Angels manager Buck Rodgers said. Langston (19-8) struck out 10 and gave up five hits in 7 2-3 innings. Langston, who won 19 games with Final roundup second victory in three days at the Metrodome.

Twins manager Tom Kelly said the only games that matter begin this week. "There wasn't a great deal we learned other than these games don't mean anything. Showtime starts Tuesday night," he said. The Blue Jays beat Minnesota 8-4 in the season series. Toronto finished at 91-71 and the Twins were 95-67, a 21-game improvement over last year's last-place finish.

Jack Morris will pitch the playoff opener for Minnesota against Tom Can-diotti. Tigers 7, Orioles 1 A crowd of 50,700 saw Frank Tanana (13-12) spoil another party. Tanana also won the first game ever played at Seattle's Kingdome in 1977 and won the first game at the new Comiskey Park this year. Tanana pitched a four-hitter. The Orioles were at Memorial Stadium, where they began playing after moving from St.

Louis for the 1954 season. Baltimore will play next year at Knoxville distribution center, the employees bought quantities using their Revco discount. The employees were fired on Aug. 12. "WeYe continuing the investi-gation to make sure it doesn't happen again," Lueptow said.

Topps targeted the slick, limited-edition cards to the public, including boys ages 8 to 14. Goosie said he gets 20 to 30 kids a day who want to buy Stadium Club baseball cards. The cards are made of white high-gloss, borderless paper, and the players' photos are 25 percent larger than conventional cards. Timm Boyle, a Topps spokesman in Chicago, said the company has heard reports that consumers are paying as much as $12 for a pck of Stadium Club baseball cards. "It's not really black market," Boyle said.

"It's part of the American free-enterprise system." Boyle confirmed reports that the cards are being diverted from retail sale as cases are sold "right off the trucks" at the wholesale level. "We don't like the fact that people are taking advantage of the limited quantities to make a lot of money off of this thing," Boyle said. "To the best of my knowledge, there's nothing illegal about it." Boyle said that when the company heard about the high prices consumers were paying across the country, Topps increased production in a unsuccessful attempt to drive the price down. "It was already too late for that," he said. "We are going to rectify the situation for next year.

"We want to get more cards out there on the market. That should drive the price down considerably." Boyle said company policy forbids him from disclosing how many of the limited-edition cards have been printed. "The overwhelming response was even greater than we thought it was going to be," he said. "It just seems to be an increasing market for these high-tech, upgraded type of cards. "We've used something that I believe is new Kodak imaging technology.

The photos really jump out at you." On the backs of the cards are miniature reprints of players' rookie cards and statistics about career records that "have never appeared" anywhere else. "We get calls all the time from consumers," Boyle said. "They say, 'Why are you guys charging so much for "We tell them we have no control over the prices once we've sold these cards to distributors and wholesalers." NL roundup the most of his only start of the season. Astros 8, Braves 3 Houston snapped Atlanta's eight-game winning streak and also ended a 10-game losing skid to the Braves. Padres 3, Reds 1 Cincinnati's Hal Morris went 3- for-4 and finished second in the NL batting race at .318.

A fourth hit would have raised his average to .320, edging him past Pendleton. Jose Rijo (15-6) allowed three runs and seven hits, losing the NL ERA title to Montreal's Dennis Martinez (2.39 to 2.51). Pirates 7, Expos 1 John Smiley J20-8) joined Atlanta's Tom Glavine as the NL's only 20-game winners, pitching seven shutout innings at Three Rivers Stadium. The Pirates finished 98-'64, the major leagues' best record. Cubs 7, Cardinals 3 Andre Dawson hit two home runs, raising his total to 31, the 33rd multi-homer game of his career.

trip through By Ben Walker Associated Press On a day when the Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins tuned up for the last time, the Baltimore Orioles bid farewell to an old ballpark and the American League West welcomed a new order. And while there weren't any pennant races to be decided on the last day of the regular season, several other titles went down to the final swing. Julio Franco became the first Texas Rangers player to win a batting championship at .341 and Jose Canseco and Cecil Fielder both were shut out and wound up tied for the home run title at 44. Canseco went l-for4 and did not come close to homering. Canseco, who won the AL homer title in 1988 with 44, connected only once in Oakland's last nine games; Fielder hit just one home run in Detroit's final 15 games.

Nolan Ryan, meanwhile, finished up in style. He reached the 200-strikeout mark for the 15th season. On Tuesday night, the AL playoffs begin in Minnesota with the Twins and Blue Jays. On Sunday, Toronto won 3-2 in 10 innings for its A By Barry Wilner Associated Press If you swoon in September, the rest of the NFL schedule can be a long trip through purgatory. Ron Meyer's journey was cut short when he was fired as coach of the Indianapolis Colts last week.

Dan Henning, Richard Williamson and Sam Wyche had to wince a bit when they heard the news. Wyche and Rick who replaced Meyer, probably still are cringing. Henning and Williamson are all smiles today. When San Diego beat the Los Angeles Raiders 21-13 and Tampa Bay edged Philadelphia 14-13, Henning and Williamson got their first wins of the season. Both teams did it with strong defense and some opportunistic offense.

Wyche and Venturi weren't so fortunate. Seattle beat Wyche's Bengals 13-7, while Pittsburgh was a 21-3 winner over Indianapolis in Venturi's debut. The Redskins' stayed unbeaten with a 20-7 victory over Chicago. Buffalo has a chance to match that 6-0 record tonight against Kansas City. New Orleans, the NFL's other perfect squad, had a bye this week, along with San Francisco, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Rams.

Steelers 21, Colts 3 It was hard to see any difference in the Colts after the coaching change. They were hit by two more backfield injuries they already have nine players on -injured reserve as Anthony Johnson sprained his knee and ankle and Eric Dickerson played only briefly in the second half because of a strained hamstring and gained only 24 yards. Bubby Blister connected on all seven of his second-half passes, including of 21 yards to Eric Green and 24 yards to Barry on Seattle in 1987, became California's biggest winner since Nolan Ryan won 19 in 1977. Last year, Langston was 10-17 in his first season with the Angels. Brewers 6, Red Sox 3 Roger Clemens won the AL ERA and strikeout titles, but lost the game on Darryl Hamilton's tie-breaking, two-run single in the ninth inning at Fenway Park.

Clemens (18-10) gave up 13 hits in his 13th complete game. He finished with a 2.62 ERA and 241 strikeouts; David Cone of the New York Mets struck out 19 Phillies on Sunday and tied Clemens for the major league lead. Paul Molitor got two hits for the Brewers and led the league with 216. Yankees 7, Indians 4 Kevin Maas hit two home runs and New York sent Cleveland to its 105th loss, the most in team history. White Sox 3, Mariners 2 Chicago won on homers by Dan Pasqua and Matt Merullo.

The Mariners wound up at 83-79 for their first winning season in the 15 years of the franchise. The White Sox were second for the second straight year and went 87-75, a dropoff of seven victories. Cowboys 20, Packers 17 The last time the Cowboys were 4-2 was 1986. Lots of bad things have happened to America's Team since. But out of those stale years have come heroes, most notably Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Jay Novacek and Ray Horton on Sunday.

Aikman, the top pick in the 1989 draft, continued his rapid development, hitting 31 of 41 passes for 287 yards. Smith, the team's first-rounder in 1990,, ran for 122 yards. Novacek, signed in Plan last year, caught 11 passes for 121 yards. Horton, a 1989 Plan acquisition, had a 65-yard interception TD return. Jets 17, Browns 14 At Cleveland, Blair Thomas threw an option pass to Rob Moore for a touchdown, Ken O'Brien was -19-for-23 for 195 yards and the Jets moved to 3-3.

Cleveland couldn't win despite holding the NFL's top-ranked rushing attack to 76 yards. Pat Leahy's 28-yard field goal in the fourth quarter was the difference. Dolphins 20, Patriots 10 Dan Marino, who threw one touchdown pass in his previous three games, got two in one minute. Overall, he hit on 25 of 38 passes for 321 yards. In the last two minutes of the opening half, Marino connected for 24 yards to Mark Clayton for a TD, then hit Jim Jensen for a 5-yarder.

E.J. Junior had four of Miami's six sacks. Giants 20; Cardinals 9 Rodney Hampton, healthy at last, had a career-best 137 yards rushing. He ran for 101 yards in the first half and scored as New York grabbed a 17-3 halftime lead. Jeff Hostetler was 14-for-18 for 200 yards and the host Giants held Phoenix without a touchdown.

Closers feature various records threw an 8-yard TD pass to Robert Wilson two plays later. Then he directed a six-play, 54-yard drive that produced Bruce Hill's game-winning 5-yard reception with 1:09 to go. Redskins 20, Bears 7 At Chicago; Mark Rypien threw a pair of TDs to Art Monk, while interceptions by Fred Stokes and Kurt Gouveia in the fourth quarter led to 10 points. Neal Anderson's 1-yard run assured the Redskins would not get. their fourth shutout in six games.

Joe Gibbs became the first coach with three successive wins over Chicago's Mike Ditka. The Redskins won Super Bowls in 1982 and 1987, but haven't been 6-0 since 1978. Oilers 42, Broncos 14 Cornerback Cris Dishman returned a fumble by Steve Sewell 19 yards for a touchdown and set up another score with a 43-yard interception return. Safety Bubba McDowell recovered a blocked punt in the end'zone, had a sack, blocked a field goal on the final play of the first half and was involved in 11 tackles. 'Ernest Givihs had five catches for 151 yards and Warren Moon threw for two TDs.

Houston also held Gaston Green, the AFC's leading rusher, to 35 yards and sacked John Elway five times. Lions 24, Vikings 20 When in doubt and in trouble, call on Barry Sanders. The All-Pro running back keyed a 21-point comeback and scored the winning TD from 15 yards with 36 seconds to go. Sanders had 70 of his 116 yards rushing in the final eight minutes and caught nine passes for 76 yards. Detroit is in first" place in the NFC Central for the first time since 1983.

NFL roundup Seahawks 13, Bengals 7 Cincinnati (0-5) came up short literally and matched its worst start since 1984, Wyche's first year as coach. 1 With fourth-and-four at the Seattle 22 in the" dying seconds, Boomer Esiason threw a short pass to James Brooks, who had stopped near the first-down marker. Dway-ne Harper wrapped him up, immediately and Nesby Glasgow helped knock him back. A measurement showed he was inches short of the first down and Seattle ran out the clock. John Kasay kicked field goals of 36 and 31 yards early in the third quarter for the winning margin.

Chargers 21, Raiders 13 Losers of eight straight, dating back to last season, the Chargers turned to Henry Rolling to play hero. He returned a fumble 53 yards to set up a touchdown early, then intercepted a pass to secure the win in a surprising place the Raiders lost at home for fli first time in four games this sea'son and only the third time in 20 games since Art Shell became coach two years ago. Buccaneers 14, Eagles 13 Until Chris Chandler got Tampa Bay's offense untracked in the fourth quarter, this was an ugly game of mistakes and missed opportunities. The Bucs turned the ball over six times, but came back from a 13-0. deficit with five minutes to go.

Eagles punter Jeff Feagles fumbled a snap and Broderick Thomas tackled him inside the EaglesMO. Chris Chandler, off the bench to replace Vinny Testaverde, By The Associated Press I Sunday in the National League was a day for the record books. At Philadelphia, David Cone tied an NL record with 19 strikeouts as the New York Mets ended their worst season since 1983 with a 7-0 victory over the Phillies. At Chicago, Ryne Sandberg became the first Cub second base-! man ever to drive in 100 runs or more in consecutive seasons. At Atlanta, even though Terry a Pendleton didn't play, he capped his championship weekend by win-j; ning the NL batting title with a .319 average.

Cone (14-14) just missed the major league record of 20 strike-outs set by Boston's Roger Clemens on April 29, 1986, against Seattle. The 19 strikeouts gave Cone 241 for '2 the season as he won the NL title -fpr the second straight season. Howard Johnson of the Mets led NL with 38 homers and 117 XRBIs. dodgers 2, Giants 0 ZThe Dodgers finally beat the giants at Candlestick Park, but it jSdn't matter. Chris Gwynn singled jS twice and scored a pair of runs and jtft-hander Dennis Cook (1-4) made.