The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 23

(The (Charlotte (Observer Thursday April 23 1992 SECTION Padres use Glavine for batting practice Associated Press SAN DIEGO The San Diego Padres chased Tom Glavine before running the Atlanta Braves out of town The Padres hit Glavine hard handing the 1991 National League Cy Young Award winner his first 1992 loss 9-4 on Wednesday Bruce Hurst meanwhile pitched 7lA strong innings for his first victory Glavine (2-1) gave up 11 hits in four innings the most hits and his shortest outing this season Every Padres regular except Darrin Jackson had at least one hit off Glavine and the top four batters had two the middle part of the plate Some of our guys were a little bit selective with him in terms of not chasing pitches like he usually gets guys to do So we got a chance to get into some good hitting counts" Tony Gwynn and Gary Sheffield each had three of the season-high 15 hits San Diego had 13 Monday in a 10-4 loss to the Braves Deion Sanders whose 14-game hitting streak ended Tuesday night gave the Braves a 1-0 lead He scratched out a leadoff infield hit stole second and third and scored on Terry groundout apiece really have anything to attribute it to other than 1 just kept missing up over the plate and when I do that I tend to get killed" Glavine said Coming off three losses at Houston the Padres outhit the Braves 39-25 in winning two of three games against the defending NL West champions Fred McGriff hit a two-run double and Jerald Clark a two-mn homer in a five-run first inning and McGriff added an RBI single in the second giving him 15 RBIs Riddoch said Glavine left balls over After retiring leadoff hitter Tony Fernandez Glavine gave up four straight hits Gwynn and Sheffield singled and scored on double to the base of the left-field wall McGriff took third on Benito single to right and scored when Deion Sanders booted the ball With two outs Clark broke a zero-for-nine slump by hitting a 1 -1 pitch over the left-field wall his third homer Hurst (1-1) recorded his first victory in four starts He allowed three runs two earned on six hits while striking out eight Box scorepage 5B Just One of the Guys Will there he a Bull rim in playoffs? If so Jordan will likely ramrod the stampede NBA openers The schedule for the first games in each of the eight NBA first-round playoff series: GAMES New Jersey at Cleveland 7:30 Indiana at Boston (TNT) 8 LA Lakers at Portland (TNT) 10:30 Seattle at Golden State 10:30 GAMES Miami at Chicago (TNT) 8 Detroit at New York 8 LA Clippers at Utah (TNT) 10:30 San Antonio at Phoenix 10:30 A guide to the NBA playoffspage 4B By LEONARD LAYE Sports Editor So it has come to this for the Chicago Bulls: As the NBA playoffs open a two-month run the big question for some around the Windy City seems to be not if the Bulls can repeat do we dare question that? but whether they can do it in a sweep s-w-e-e-p as in 15-0! what one Chicago columnist was proposing apparently only semi-tongue in cheek this week And before you think it ludicrous to consider the Bulls running the table on the rest of the league remember that they lost only twice during last rush to the championship Now with four first-round series beginning tonight and four more including first test against Miami following Friday the Bulls will be trying to do something no other team has ever done Can they be beaten in one or more games if not in a series? The answer obviously is yes But ask anyone around the league how to do it and chances are your answer will come with a helpless grin just so tough to figure out a way to beat them because it all goes back to said Cleveland center Brad Daugherty so active and everything he does gets you in Boxing taught Wheeler many lessons Kids box for different reasons Humpy Wheeler boxed because Allen Wilson did Wheeler lived on the other side of the tracks in Belmont a tough mill town back in the 1950s He says there was no good side of the tracks He just came from the other side As a 1 5-year-old Wheeler fought on the streets about once a week He proud of it but it was easier to fight and even to lose than to back down Across the tracks from Wheeler was a neighborhood called Eagle Mill village The teenagers there were known as good fighters and the best of them was Wilson Wheeler knew he and Wilson would fight eventually and I had gotten into some close says Wheeler who grew up to become HA Wheeler president of the Charlotte Motor Speedway He might have been tough but he tough enough to go by HA then In 1955 Wheeler heard: Wilson had gone to the gym to box Wheeler let Wilson get an edge So he went to the gym to box too Wheeler is still boxing although his opponent these days is the heavy bag in the garage of his Lake Norman home On Friday night Wheeler and five other boxers will be inducted into Car-olinas Boxing Hall of Fame The others compiled splendid amateur or professional records They are Guido Capri from Greenville SC Samuel McManus from Mount Holly and from Charlotte Ronald Short Carl Flowe and the late Clifford Smith Wheeler is being inducted in part because of his 38-2 amateur record and several Golden Gloves titles But the induction also is a reward for the work he has done to promote the sport He has put on 40 fights among them the 1982 World Boxing Association title fight between Charlotte native Bernard Taylor and Eusebio Pedroza And he has offered the boxing hall a permanent home at Charlotte Motor Speedway Club where annual dinner and induction ceremonies will be held The evening is an excuse for fighters from the 1940s and to gather On Friday joke and gossip and exchange warm hugs When they got together 40 years ago it was to fight In mill towns and in tough city neighborhoods what kids most of them poor kids did The toughest of them found their way to the gym They learned to work with adults coaches and trainers who cared about them They learned to control their tempers Street fights occur when tempers are lost Boxers afford to lose theirs The smart ones learned that fighting just the act of standing in the street and exchanging blows solved nothing always hard being a kid because adults are always telling you not do to do says Wheeler 53 you know a lot of people think boxing trainers and managers are bad people And the truth is if one of our missions in life is to help each other then these people were practicing the greatest religion possible And that was taking some very very tough kids that would have ended up leading a very bad life and getting them at least turned down the right In 1955 the road led to Allen Wilson So Wheeler 15 walked into the gym Hanging from the ceiling were a few dangling light bulbs two speed bags and one heavy bag Two walls were padded and a boxing ring was shoved against it And when Wheeler had hung around long enough to prove to Ebb Gantt the big man who ran the place that he quit it was to the ring that he and Wilson went went at it" says Wheeler They stop until Gantt made them I think when we finished we were happy we ever have to fight each other without gloves on Wheeler says Wheeler and Wilson went to become champions and friends In the gym everybody is on the wrong side of the tracks More on the other induct-eesnext page As good as the Bulls are at 67-15 as good as become in building a championship team with such exceptional players as Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant and solid starters Bill Cartwright and John Paxson it does always get back to Michael Jordan Jordan the league's leading scorer and the man who carried the Bulls to respectability before management provided the rest of the pieces of a title team is the reason anyone could dare consider a playoff sweep let him get in the paint and Please see Bullspage 4B Pfeiffer says you can call him Associated Press Sweet-swinging Freddie: Fred Couples criti- the golf world standing at attention won cized for being nonchalant about his game has more than $1 million in less than four months Couples has golf come to him By TOM HIGGINS Staff Writer MISENHEIMER The occasion has to be extremely special Richard Petty acknowledged for him to remove his sunglasses One of those rare times came Wednesday Petty 54 whose 200 victories and seven driving championships are NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car racing records was presented an honorary doctor of humanities degree in a convocation at Pfeiffer Petty After the ceremony Petty stood beaming for a long standing ovation from students and faculty in a packed Henry Pfeiffer Chapel He did not address the gathering think Richard would have been able to say said his wife Lynda feels so humble about this the words have come and unusual for Immediately after the ceremony Petty one of the most recogniz able figures in sports stood on the chapel steps signing autographs while still wearing cap and gown A professor Richard Cosgrove even had Petty sign a door off one of his No 43 Pontiacs is an emotional deal for me and not ordinarily an emotional said Petty who is retiring as a driver at the end of this season a great feeling There are some things that you know supposed to win But this is a different category and that makes it special I got racing awards and I worked for those things you expect Something like this is out of my realm of Pfeiffer President Zane Eargle said the degree was conferred on Petty for contributions to society" including many that been publicized honors Pfeiffer College in accepting not a case of us honoring him Recognizing Richard has had a lot of positive reaction and it was very popular with our students and In the convocation address Dr Lawrence McCleskey of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Please see Pettypage 6B round that would set the target score for National Golf Day and he touched his clubs since packing them to leave Augusta Just because the hottest thing to hit golf since metal woods is no reason for Couples to change always going to be the same old Freddie" fellow Tour golfer Mark O'Meara said But his golf game a smoldering work in progress the past decade or so has become state of the art Already this year Couples has won three tournaments including The Masters finished second twice and won more than $1 million before the year was four months old Until Couples broke the bank this year no player had topped the $1 million mark before the final event of the season Now people are suggesting he might win $2 million this year Couples could easily have won five tournaments this year Corey Pavin holed a shot from the fairway on the 72nd hole at the Honda Classic to force a playoff in which he beat Couples The following week Couples finished second to Ray Floyd but only after missing two short birdie putts on Please see Couplespage 3B People say we have any heroes Well we have one now" British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch eBy RON GREEN Jr Staff Writer REENSBORO Fred Couples is a little uncomfortable being a hero Give him a 6-foot downhill slider to the right on a slick green and fine But start telling his life story splash his face across magazines put him on or make him a celebrity He gets uncomfortable when people approach him in airports It embarrasses him want it to get to the point where everyone thinks they know Couples said Wednesday at the mart Greater Greensboro Open which starts today Freddie wants to be one of the guys reluctant hero Let him win The Masters and take the next week off totally off No golf clubs no interviews no nothing the way always been The laid-back image he admits will live forever Couples showed up Monday in Florida to play a.