The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 369

SUNDAY AUGUST 23 1998 THE HERALD 3C Sophomore strides Amid successes WNBA kicks off a second year of playoffs FLA GAME-WINNER: Dan Greene is mobbed by his USA West teammates after he was driven in by Kevin Howard to win the Big League World Series on Saturday Howard had failed in a similar situation in the 1996 Junior League World Series final in Kissimmee Howard gets big hit in Big League MVP wins title for USA Wfest By RAMA CASH Herald Sports Writer Ken Griffey Jr buys a season ticket to an unnamed franchise The worst team in the league draws 16000 to its home games and the race for MVP is causing headaches This is the WNBA in its second year I It has more than a million fans nationwide and rivalries compa-1 rable to those in the NBA I The 1998 season entered the championship semifinal rounds Saturday with Houston traveling to Charlotte and Phoenix playing host to Cleveland As its sophomore year concludes the league is still thriving off the freshness of a new summer sports interest but this is also the year in which it seems to have solidified its future on the court and off having everybody playing together for a year meant so much to the said Houston Comets coach Van Chancellor were just discussing this over lunch Phoenix drew 1 5000 and what Washington is doing is unbelievable This league has made it It is going places Our fans love what Regular-season attendance is up 1 1 percent from last year The 10-team league averaged 10869 fans per game compared to 9669 in the inaugural season Surprisingly the Washington Mystics one of two 1998 expansion teams along with the Detroit Shock averaged 16003 at the MCI Center Their June 19 game against the Utah Starzz drew a sellout crowd of 20674 This is in spite of having the worst record in the league The Mystics finished 3-27 worse than the 1 10 winning percentage of the 1972-73 Philadelphia 7 6ers who went 9-73 (the worst in NBA history) And in Orlando which was awarded a franchise to start next summer after securing 5000 season-ticket pledges Griffey became the 4500th to purchase season Television ratings have dropped but more people are going to the games On NBC ratings fell from 19 to 16 per game ESPN dropped to 65 from 84 and Lifetime fell to 49 from 56 But television marketing including commercials featuring Every sport needs one a team that stands out above the rest think if we have a Chicago Bulls in the WNBA right league president Val Ackerman said is certainly Houston 1 think clearly helped to create recognition for the league to have a team with such star Chancellor said he believes his winning percentage 900 could stand as a league record for a very long time The record itself because next year the league will advance to a 32-game regular season think there is Houston then there is everybody Phoenix coach Cheryl Miller said The 1998 draft brought in many premier players Among them was Tracy Reid a Miami Central High graduate who was All-American at North Carolina Reid Ticha Penicherio (Old DomininonSacramento) Octavia Blue (MiamiLos Angeles) and Murriel Page (Flori-daDetroit) were among the most prominent rookies credited for bettering this season not sure how Tracy Reid was available at No 7 in the Meadors said watched her in high school and coached against her in college She is such a hard player to defend She brings so much fire and Florida International Gergana Branzova played for the Detroit Shock It was her rookie year but Branzova is already making long-term plans for herself in the league are still trying to provide a Branzova said pay is underrated going to grow base that on the effort we put in It matter if women proven ourselves The WNBA is now where the NBA was 40 years Eventually Ackerman said she would like to see a WNBA team in each of the 29 NBA cities Miami Atlanta Dallas San Antonio Denver and Detroit have all expressed interest in WNBA franchises Monday's gamos Phoenix at Cleveland 6 pm (ESPN) Charlotte at Houston 10 pm (ESPN) Tuesday's games Phoenix at Cleveland 0 pm (ESPN) at Houston 10 pm (ESPN) CHAMPION8HIP (6E8T OF 3) Thursday Aug 27 pm Saturday Aug 29 4 pm Tuesday Sepf 1 pm DAVID PHHJJP AP COOL COOP: Guard Cynthia Cooper the leader of a dominant Houston team is a strong candidate for most valuable player who hit 714 with two home runs and nine RBI to earn Big League MVP honors get a second chance and to come through is just picture-perfect This is the best Howard never would have gotten a chance for heroics if not for catcher Joe three-run homer in the sixth that brought the California team back in it Down 9-6 after blowing an early two-run lead primarily because of two long two-run homers by Latin America third baseman Pedro Quero Yingling delivered the momentum-grabbing blast was a changeup in the dirt and I pulled out my nine-iron to hit said Yingling a 35th-round pick of the Detroit Tigers in baseball draft was big We really needed some kind of boost came in last week believing we were going to win the whole thing When that ball went out and then later Mr All-Everything Howard got a chance to win it we knew it was going to BIQ LEAGUE WORLD SERIE8 CHAMPIONSHIP By JOHN PATTON Herald Writer Clutching his bat and taking a deep breath Kevin Howard tried to focus on the Venezuelan delivery and not on the strange irony that had placed him in almost the same situation in which he had failed two years earlier And when Hermes 1-2 slider dove away from the plate the left-handed Howard dove with it blooping the ball into shallow left field just out of the reach of diving shortstop Walther Avila As he ran to first eyes were fixed on teammate Dan Greene who rounded third and slid safely into home giving USA West a dramatic 10-9 victory against Latin America in Big League World Series championship game at Floyd Hull Stadium in Fort Lauderdale write a better ending to a script than USA West coach Steve Henson said The last time Howard found himself in a bottom-of-the-sev-enth game-on-the-line situation it was in the championship of the 1996 Junior League World Series in Kissimmee With his team trailing Venezuela 4-2 with two out and the bases loaded Howard popped up to the second baseman was a moment never forget and never want to said Howard a 1 7-year-old shortstop from Westlake (Calif) High the funky WNBA band and the spunky little girl with a knack for putting fear in players such as Cynthia Cooper Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie is on the upswing The league has shown improvements in every other area including the three-game playoff format (it was single elimination last year) Talent and competition has grown as well The race for the final spot in the playoffs is the best example The Charlotte Sting led the Eastern Conference with a week left in the regular season but dropped behind the New York Liberty In need of a New York loss to Detroit in the last game of the year Charlotte waited to see if it would earn a playoff berth The Liberty was upset by Detroit 82-68 allowing Charlotte a fourth seed and a three-game series against the top seed and defending champs Houston Comets think the most streesful situation been in as a college or professional Marynell Meadors said know five or six days ago we were atop the Eastern Conference race Then two games out of that we even in the playoffs We were on the cell phone listening to the play-by-play It seemed like it took forever for the last three minutes to take The MVP race between Cooper and Jennifer Gillom is also fierce Then of course there are the Comets With a 27-3 record Houston is the premier team in the league Litin Anwrict 1 2 3 2 1 9 13 7 USAWMt 1I1M) )-l 12 3 Tyler Johnson Hermes Coscorrosa USA West (Falco Yingling) Latin America (Quero 2) USA West (Howard Rasmussen Bernstein) Latin America (Lara Lucena) USA West (Forkin) Tog htttm-USA West: Howard (3-5 2 RBI 2 runs) Rasmussen (3-4 RBI) Latin America: Quero (2-3 2 HR 4 RBI) Lara (3-4 2 runs) Even ailing Comets dominate Sting by 14 2 days after death Forkin gets emotional win From Herald Wire Services CHARLOTTE NC After cooling off the Charlotte Sting 85-71 on Saturday in Game 1 of their best-of-3 first-round playoff series the defending WNBA champion Houston Comets chilled out themselves A few minutes after the buzzer sounded Comets leading scorer Cynthia Cooper had her right knee wrapped with an ice pack Despite going down twice during the game she man- WNBAPLAYOFFS aged 27 points to lead all scorers Sheryl Swoopes who added 1 7 points wore an ice pack on her left knee Kim Perrot (13 points six assists) limped out of the locker room with ice on her right ankle the result of a sprain in the last regular-season game But none of the aches and pains prevented Houston 27-3 in the regular season from continuing its mastery over the Sting The Comets have won eight of nine from Charlotte over two seasons and can wrap up the first-round series with a victory at home Monday night all the injuries we kept our said Cooper who won her second straight league scoring title this year knew this was the playoffs and we knew how important it was to win on their home court felt a little pressure opening on the road because if we win this game it would put pressure on us at Perrot was listed as before the game but her injury appeared not to diminish her effectiveness I went down I think I was going to be able to Perrot said it turn out to be as bad as it A crowd of 6087 watched the Comets score 10 straight points midway through the second half to turn a 54-53 advantage into an 1 1-point lead Tora three-point play with 5:32 left trimmed the margin to 67-62 but the Sting 18-12 in the regular season got no closer Andrea Stinson and Rhonda Mapp paced Charlotte with 16 points each followed by Suber with 15 and WNBA rookie of the year Tracy Reid with 14 Miami Reid wins rookie of year From Herald Wire Services Miami Central graduate Tracy Reid of the Charlotte Sting was named the Rookie of the Year and Suzie McConnell Serio of the Cleveland Rockers won the Newcomer of the Year award Reid 1 20 of a IpSI possible 45 -s from a panel of spo writers and broadcasters The 5-11 for- ward from North Carolina Rw was second leading scorer averaging 138 points and third best rebounder averaging 52 McConnell Serio a mother of four had not played competitive basketball since the 1992 Olympics She averaged 86 points and 64 assists per game which tied her for second in the league back to Fort Lauderdale on Friday evening so Brian could play center field in the final Batting ninth on little sleep Forkin went 0-1 with three walks a stolen base and a run scored but contributed much more to the Conejo Valley Calif squad than the statistics indicated being here gave everybody a said coach Steve Henson whose team printed the letters on their caps go through that much and then think about your team a special team needed me and I going to let them said Brian 17 was raised to think that way And I wanted to do this for my Dad He would have been happy we By JOHN PATTON Herald Writer Following his USA West 10-9 Big League World Series championship-game victory against Latin America Brian Forkin clutched his mother finally able to release the emotion he had kept inside for two days love you he said with tears in his eyes love you Cheryl Forkin responded Thursday morning Brian had taken a 5:30 am flight home to California after being told his ailing father cancer had worsened Brian who learned the game from Mark did not arrive in time as melanoma took his 46-year-old life just after 8 am Then surprising teammates and coaches Brian and Cheryl flew PEOPLEfIN SPORTS gift received warmly Washington forward Juwan Howard gave $5000 to the family of a man who drowned at a party Howard attended in Centra-lia 111 last weekend Brian Pattaraon 34 drowned after he fell off a personal watercraft during a party being given by one of friends State authorities investigating the accident said that Patterson and Howard know each other Kathoryn Pattaraon the mother said her son have insurance and the family was struggling to cover the cost of funeral arrangements a wonderful wonderful young Kath-eryn Patterson said of Howard Oh baby! What a bet British soccer star Dsvid girlfriend Victoria Adams better known as Posh Spice reportedly is three months pregnant At least one of always alert bookmakers has made a betting line on the future exploits of their offspring Williams Hill is offering odds of 1000-1 that the child assuming it a boy will play soccer for England and 10000-1 that he will emulate his father and be ejected in a game against Argentina Beckham still is being blamed by some for elimination from the World Cup when he was shown a red card during the loss to Argentina England was forced to play a man short for 70 minutes The Sun the tabloid that reported the story said Adams broke the news to the other three Spice Girls on their current tour of America The couple will reportedly get married after the birth should get out of coaching This is driving me crazy MARYNELL MEADORS Charlotte Sting coach while waiting for the end of the Detroit Shock-New York Liberty game to see If her team had made the WNBA playoffs which It did Running around the question Pressed by a British reporter on the correct pronunciation of his surname 800-meter world record-holder Wllaon Kipkatar said he care how foreigners said it Unsatisfied the reporter asked again what do your family and friends call Kipketer replied sheepishly call me For the record the Kenyan-born Dane said Kip-KAY-ter TONS OF FUN Tennis players Patrick Rafter left and Yevgeny New Haven Conn In a sand sculpture made from Kafelnikov examine their likenesses Thursday In 75 tons of sand at the Pilot Pen International.