The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 17

Ill BASEBALL ATLANTA BRAVES NATIONAL LEAGUE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHARLOTTE OS Result Philadelphia 5 Atlanta 1 Kevin Gross snaps three-game win streak with four-hitter Game Atlanta at Cincinnati 7:35 pm WTBS Results Philadelphia 5 Atlanta 1 New York 7 Cincinnati 2 St Louis 3 Los Angeles 1 Montreal 7 Houston 6 San Francisco 2-2 Chicago 1-1 (1st 10) Pittsburgh 5 San Diego 2 BBaseball report Page 5B Results Sunday's Result Memphis 8 Charlotte 2 fl four-run first inning sends O's to fourth straight loss Today's Game Charlotte at Memphis 8:30 pm WSOC (930 AM) Boston 4 Texas 4 Detroit 4 Toronto 3 Milwaukee 5 Cleveland 6 Kansas City 1 1 Oakland 1 New York 3 Minnesota 1 Seattle 2 California 3 Chicago 4 (10) Baltimore 1 Allison Wins At Talladega Edg es Past Earnhardt In Wild Finish By TOM HIGGINS Stiff Wrttr TALLADEGA Ala After a fan delayed the start of the Winston 500 by stealing the pace car Sunday Bobby Allison stole to a stirring victory in a race that appeared to belong to Bill Elliott Allison delighted a massive home-state Alabama International Motor Speedway crowd estimated at 130000 by narrowly outrunning Dale Earnhardt and Buddy Baker to the checkered flag Becoming the oldest driver ever to win a NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car race the Buick-piloting Allison 48 beat Chevrolet by two car lengths with Baker's Olds-mobile another length back "I tell you what so happy I know what to gushed Allison who held his wife Judy sidesaddle in the window of his car for the ride from the pits to the victory ceremonies "It has been a little too long between wins" AP Photo Eddie Bierschwale (54) bumps Chet Fillip of Kannapolis in second turn 55-Race Drought Ends For Allison In giving the Stavola Brothers team of Harrisburg its first-ever victory Allison who is from Alabama snapped a personal nonwinning streak of 55 races dating to Charlotte Motor World 600 in May of 1984 Allison's 21-year-old teammate Bobby Hillin finished fourth in a Buick about 100 yards behind the leaders edging Phil Parsons in an Olds Completing the top 10 were Morgan Shepherd Richard Petty Rick Wilson Ron Bouchard and Greg Sacks Elliott flashing the form that put his Ford in superspeedwav victory lanes a record 11 times in 1985 led 118 of the 188 laps on the 26-mile track At one point Elliott sped to a nine-second advantage turning laps at 2055 mph in the machine he'd whipped to the pole at a NASCAR record 212229 Elliott See ALLISON Page 4B mentally And I still felt competitive slipped out of my grip there for awhile (after the split with DiGard last July when he raced on his own the rest of the season) Then the Stavolas gave me a shot this season and I appreciate Allison joined the Stavolas in the 1985-86 offseason as a teammate to Bobby Hillin 21 "They made a commitment to me to provide the best situation possible and done that both with personnel and equipment I also owe a lot to my sponsor Miller Beer which kept back- See DROUGHT Page 4B His win follows the dramatic Masters triumph of Jack Nicklaus 46 and the victorious ride in Kentucky Derby by jockey Willie Shoemaker 54 the youngsters to hang in there" cracked Allison his eyes twinkling Then Allison got serious admitting he had "at times wondered about ever winning The last triumph had been 55 races back in the World 600 of 1984 Since then Allison had broken with the DiGard team of Charlotte and gone with the relatively new Stavola Brothers outfit based in Harrisburg felt it could happen again" said Allison "I feel good physically and By TOM HIGGINS Staff Writar TALLADEGA Ala For years Bobby Allison has been known as the leader of Alabama Gang" of stock car racing drivers Lately there has been whispered speculation on Winston Cup circuit that the graying grandfather 48 might be the leader of the The Hill Gang" Allison silenced all that talk Sunday impressively winning the Winston 500 at Alabama International Motor Speedway to continue a springtime streak for old-timers in major sports events If You Think This Column Is Good Last week Chris Padget of the Charlotte hit a long home run at Crockett Park The distance was uncertain since the do not pay people with rulers to patrol the dirt beyond the fence But 400 feet was a reasonable guess Few things though grow as fast as an accomplishment in sports Babies plants and national debts keep up with a home run that is allowed a night to fester and grow When the home run was discussed again at Crockett Park the next night it had grown in the opinion of one man to 500 feet although the more reasonable among us kept It to a mere 450 In most facets of life not permitted to play loosely with the facts not permitted to pad the number of sales we make or the number of items we produce To exaggerate our productivity at work is to cheat and the very act implies a lack of self-confidence Only in expense accounts and income tax returns are we permitted even a little latitude But sports are a release not just from work but from the facts A 6-foot putt that saved par becomes a twisting 12-footer on a monster green A 12-foot jump shot behind a doublepick becomes a 20-footer off an Earl Monroe move from the top of the key A 20-foot throw that got the overweight guy with the bad ankle becomes a 40-foot bullet that nailed Vince brother We also exaggerate feats of others provided we were there when the feats occurred A month from now people will be saying that yes that was a nice home run but if you want a real home run you should have been at Crockett Park the night Padget hit one 515 feet Historical perspective helps A young guy for example will watch Michael Jordan or Dominique Wilkins play basketball and blindly state that they are best leapers ever to play the game An older guy will grant that Jordan and Wilkins have better than average leaping ability but add that they get nearly as high as Julius Erving could when he was in the American Basketball Association An old guy will say that while Jordan and Wilkins have potential and Erving certainly was a good leaper none of them could compete with Elgin Baylor And the younger guy unless insolent can do nothing save wait until he grows old to take his turn We exaggerate most I think when we talk about our heroes Most of us had sports heroes when we were young We decided they were the best at what they did and we cling to the memories with a grip a razor blade break I remember telling somebody that Muhammad Ali was so fast that when he landed combinations you couldn't see his hands Not long ago I saw a film of his fight against Cleveland Williams Ali was never faster Were his hands really so fast you see them? No you could see them But only if you pushed the slow-motion button on the machine The people you have to watch are the ones who do not allow others their exaggeration the people who if they had their way would patrol the area beyond the fence at Crockett Park A few years ago somebody wrote in Sports Illustrated that Julius Erving left the court at the free-throw line en route to a dunk A curmudgeon of a newspaper copy editor who want readers indulging in the fantasy of an airborne Erving wrote to the magazine and stated in the most self-righteous of terms that the feat was impossible And then at the NBA all-star game last season Jordan put a piece of tape on the free-throw line He took off from behind it and he dunked the ball And in the process he provided another reason not to take curmudgeons seriously There are times when the tellers of the tales exaggerate to the extent that they become offensive A few days after a pickup basketball game in which I played I listened to a teammate give his wife an account of a crucial play In real life what happened was that the guy slapped a rebound away from an opposing player But after listening to the account I realized I could not have been at the same game He talked about the play for four minutes used adjectives generally reserved for the Apocalypse and generally gave the Impression that had he not made the play the world as we know it would be a less comfortable place in which to live When he finished his account 1 looked at his wife She understood he was exaggerating And that made it OK Dodgers Still Reeling From Guerrero Injury' By TIM LIOTTA Associated Press LOS ANGELES A moment's indecision that's all it was In spring training just days before the season started The Los Angeles Dodgers are still reeling from the awkward preseason slide that stole slugger Pedro Guerrero from their lineup Guerrero who never did quite decide whether to slide on the play finally did The Dodgers have been sliding since The Dodgers minus Guerrero won seven of their first 20 games and hit just 21! during that span It could go on until July the earliest Guerrero would be able to return from the knee injury he sustained on the slide always going to miss a bat like that the kind of production he's going to give you" Dodger veteran Bill Russell said "If you don't have a Pedro Guerrero that's a lot of hits and runs you have to go without" A team doing without a good way to describe the start this season They scored just five runs in their first four games and went on to lose seven of 10 one-run games They were held to See DODGERS Page 5B Norman Ties 2 Marks In Vegas Win From Associated Pres Reports LAS VEGAS Greg Norman snapped a two-year nonwinning string on Sunday with a record-matching performance in the Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational golf tournament Norman who chased Jack Nicklaus to the Masters title and was second to Fuzzy Zoeller in the Heritage Classic in his last two starts scored a runaway victory in the five-day tournament to earn $207000 His margin of seven strokes matched the best on the Tour this year and his 90-hole total of 333 tied Lanny total in the 1985 Bob Hope Classic 27-under-par total compiled over three desert resort courses also equaled the largest subpar total in tour history The record for a 72-hole tournament 27 under was set by Ben Hogan in See Page 3B Only Darkness Stops Littlejohn Neely In Four-Ball Inside Frank Day Dick Stimart-Jim Farrell and Mickey Ledford-Terry Wentzel Littlejohn and Neely have been one of the top duos in the area since they started playing together seven years ago "We used to beat each brains out" said Littlejohn about seven years ago we decided all this how the partnership began for the two who had played recreationally against and with each other since about 1970 They have won some other tournaments such as three straight titles in the East Mecklenburg Four-Ball at Larkhaven Golf Club and the Parbusters Four-Ball on the same course last month But their best showing in the Mecklenburg Four-Ball the county's premier four-ball event was in 1982 when they were runners-up by a shot Sunday it came together Thev began the day in a four-wav tie for first at six under par with Stimart-Farrell Mike Rogers-Stuart Smith and 1985 champions Larry Yount-Jerry Was-ham After playing the front nine in under they led Rogers-Smith by two shots Stimart-Farrell by three and Yount-Washam who took an eight on the See LITTLEJOHN Page 4B By GLENN ROLLINS Staff Wrltar Don Littlejohn and Phil Neely were on the verge of winning their first Mecklenburg Four-Ball golf tournament Sunday when darkness stopped them at the 17th green The duo had a five-shot lead over three teams and were the only players left on the Pawtuckett Golf Club course They will return today at 7 am and finish we just die out there win" said Littlejohn a five-shot lead we could come in double-bogey double-bogey and still win by a The three teams tied for second are Ron Hooper- Hawks Stay Alive The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics to keep their NBA playoff series going Page 4B ScorePhone 379-6535.