The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 172

SDVRSPOKJS Sunday April Page 1 SPORTS Friend and foe mesmerized by Magic spell By Tom Friend So on goes the water And here come the tunes you don't have to put on the red him singing in the shower awful When he comes back he does a television interview signs one autograph does a newspaper interview Then he does it all again Everything is in order But then his life is order Sure there have been some downers but this man almost always has lived on Cloud 999 He has time for most everyone And everyone else certainly has time for him This is Magic World Championship series and has been an all-star for four straight seasons He might win the MVP award for this season After all he is the original human assist But he also is the original human pinball the lights the noise the points Johnson never stop6 He whoops when his teammates droop He peeps when his teammates weep He has overdosed on excitement energy and madness Will this man ever shut up? Probably not And the Lakers want him to He makes practice fun If Bob McA- See Magic pg 10 col 1 This is murder The Kings cant take a game from the Los Angeles Lakers because Earvin Johnson Jr wont let them At noon today game three of this best-of-five playoff the Kings trail two games to will go down at Kemper Arena And the Kings still pray for a letdown But is it possible? Doubtful Magic Johnson down Rarely And wherever Magic leads his teammates normally waltz with him Take game two Friday night in Los Angeles The Kings came close but Johnson wouldn't let them grab the cigar He just took over Which is to be expected from the man has been most valuable player of two This is Magic He sits on a stool after the National Basketball Association All-Star game and looks around the locker room Where is everybody? Some fans are there hoping write his name on a piece of paper and some reporters want to put his words into a newspaper but where are the other all Gone alone So he sighs and begs forgiveness He will take a two hours after the and be back soon worry nesays Indians Blyleven top Royals Missed chances hurt in setback By Tracy Ringolsby Lakers push Kings closer to next year entertainment the NBA am playoff series between the Kings and Lakers has the same sort of appeal as that Hollywood epic of the gore genre Texas Chainsaw Having lost twice in Los Angeles the Kings enter game in Kemper Arena one game away from elimination Beating the Lakers in The Forum is difficult for anyone but where most teams calculate their record there in the traditional manner the Kings employ a calendar As of Friday night they had gone nine years five months 29 days without winning in Los Angeles lief ore leaving the dressing room after the 109-102 loss Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons stopped for one last television interview He called to his assistant Frank Hamblen who was walking ahead of him Fitzsimmons said that bus leave me in The Forum Cotton made the bus but what the Kings left in The Forum was any shred of hope they might have had in this series If there is a fat lady in the audience today at Kemper she would do well to make sure she is in good voice because she could be called on to perform Neither Fitzsimmons nor his players is surrendering but the opera is about over know a tough mountain to climb but that is why they make Fitzsimmons said Optimism as Kings fans know is game You can be sure he was the last kid on his block to S've up on the Easter bunny Un-rtunately optimism will not make much of a dent in the Lakers What the Kings are playing for today is pride They are tired of hearing about the Lakers They are tired of hearing that playing the Kings is like getting a bye One victory at least would make their memory of this series a little more bearable like someone to beat us three Fitzsimmons said Hie problem is that the Lakers have beaten the Kings eight straight times and have a 7-0 record against them this season What will the Kings have to do to break that streak? First they will have to shoot better They made 42 percent Friday night and trying to defeat the Lakers with that kind of shooting is like trying to pole vault with a fly rod If the Kings are to have a better shooting percentage they must penetrate more The Kings are a good outside-shooting team but it is extremely difficult to sustain perimeter shooting an entire game The decisive development In the loss Friday night was a stretch in the second period when Bert Blyleven had a hard time getting started Saturday afternoon but the Royals made it easy for him And by the time the work had ended the Royals had paid for their Blyleven pitched Cleveland to a 3-2 victory With the aid of Andre homer in the fourth and game-winning sacrifice fly in the eighth Blyleven beat the Royals for the second time this season And by beating the Royals for the 21st time in his career Blyleven tied Jim Palmer for most career victories against Kansas City After struggling to make it out of the first inning Blyleven managed to hang around for which is longer than most of the 7276 fans who braved 39-degree weather stayed around Munici-palStadium Blyleven had to pitch out of jams in each erf the first two innings but escaped with minimal damage The Royals managed just one run and stranded five men on including Greg Pryor who led off the second with a triple never put myself in a position of saying we win a Royals Manager Dick Howser said no question if you get a good pitcher early he is going to be trouble When you get a chance against a guy like that better jump on it The Royals did lots of jumping but kept falling in the clutch Darryl Motley and Pat Sheridan opened the game with singles and Motley scored on a grounder by Jorge Orta After Hal single put two men back on base Blyleven got Frank White to pop up on a 3-2 pitch Blyleven then loaded the bases with a walk to Steve Balboni but ended the inning when he threw a called third strike past Don Slaught End of first threat After triple opened the S6C-ond Blyleven got Onix Concepcion and See Royals pg 4 col 1 Dennis Lewis of the New Balance Track Club tried to feet 3 inches Nat Page finished second clearing 7-get a grip on himself after his winning high jump of 7 0 (staff photo by Erik Hill) Moroccan sets hurdles mark in KU Relays Indians 3 Royals 2 former Kansas Relays record was 5860 set by Sandy Myers of the Los Angeles Naturite Track Club in 1981 liked the weather today but not Moutawakil said of the wind and rain coach says I should think about first place not the Moutawakil who won the Texas Relays 400-meter hurdles in 5657 easily outdistanced the field Nicole Ali a Nebraska hurdler was second in 5942 Ali won here a year ago in 5895 But Moutawakil was too much on this day when Iowa State names were popping up all over the place in the victory column the Texas and KU relays I sure of myself" Moutawakil said now I am more sure I like the hurdles because a new event The girls have just discovered it I just like it when I jump a relief between How did a woman from Morocco end up sometimes-frozen Ames Iowa? Competing for Morocco in the World University Games last year in Canada she met Sunday Uti a Nigerian runner who competes for the Cyclones He convinced her to go to Iowa State And on Saturday she joined a group of Cyclone runners who collected various titles Uti a junior won the prestigious open 400-meter dash in 4615 beating See Relays pg 8 col 1 By Steve Richardson sportswritef Lawrence On a misty afternoon with temperatures in the 40s a girl from sunny Morocco stole the show Saturday in the 59th annual Kansas Relays Nawal el-Moutawakil of Iowa State whisked around the Jim Hershberger track in a collegiate record of 5567 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles of the 59th annual Kansas Relays Moutawakil a 22-year-old freshman who will compete for Morocco in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles bettered the collegiate record of 5509 set by Lori McCauley of Rutgers in 1963 Hie ROYALS FIRST: Motley led off with single and stole second Sheridan singled Motley to third Oita reached Drat on a fielder's choice Motley scored Sheridan out at second Royals 1 Indians 0 INDIANS THIRD: Nbton led off with a walk and stole second Butler singled Nixon to third Bemazard grounded into a double play Nixon scored Royals 1 Indians 1 INDIANS FOURTH: Thornton led off with a home run Indians 2 Royals 1 ROYALS FIFTH: With one out Sheridan singled and stole second Oita grounded out Sheridan to third McRae tripled Sheridan scored Roystts 2 Indians 2 INDIANS EIGHTH: Butler led off with a walk Bemazard sacrificed Butter to second Franco singled Butler to third Beckwith replaoed Jackson Thornton hit sacrifice fly Butter scored Indians 3 Royals 2 Comets lose face St Louis in playoffs By Randy Covitz pitcher stops Cards on five-inning perfect game By The Associated Pres have a couple of going to try to do to get Fitzsimmons said just have to see if we can execute them not very fluid in the middle While Fitzsimmons was juggling and Lakers Coach Pat Riley professed to have some concerns of his own wish we were more consistent when we have big leads" Riley said am a bit concerned with our continuity off the bench Now there basketball fans is a coach with big problems Although psychological factors might be a minor consideration there is no mystery why the Kings lose so consistently to the Lakers They simply do not match up with them The Kings would prefer to play a running game but running is what the Lakers do best The Lakers are taller they have a better bench and they are more experienced LaSalle Thompson who is little more than a rookie in toms of experience has to play in the middle against Kareem Abdul -Jabbar rated by many authorities as the greatest player in history The Kings played a physical game Friday night in an eff ort to disrupt the Lakers who are a finesse team The approach was moderately successful The Lakers led by 17 points at two points in the third quarter but the Kings rallied and pulled within two points twice in the fourth quarter game is played in Earvin Johnson said have to make the last spurt and we If the Kings make the last spurt today well always next season which also was the date rf other start this season when he allowed Atlanta one run and four hits in five innings and was credited with the victory Saturday loser was Bob Forsch who pitched the last NL no-hitter last Sept 26 against Montreal The last Montreal pitcher to pitch a no-hitter was Charlie Lea against San Francisco mi May 10 1981 and the last time St Louis was held without a hit was June 16 1978 by Tom Seaver The Cardinals did not come close to a hit against Palmer Their only hard-hit ball was Andy Van line drive directly at second baseman Little for the second out in the fourth inning George fly to right leading oft the fifth was the only ball St Louis hit out of the infield as the Cardinals suffered their fourth consecutive setback The Expos scored three times in the first inning against Forsch 0-2 With one out Little beat out a bunt and went to third when right fielder Hendrick dropped Tim fly for a two-base error Tim Wallach walked to load the bases and Terry Francona delivered a two-run single After a walk to Jim WohJford Wallach scored on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Ramos Wallach hit his fourth home run of the season in the third inning for other run After compiling records of 10-2 in including a did) record of seven See Perfect pg 2 col 1 St Montreal right-hander David Palmer who sat out the entire 1963 season following his second elbow operation pitched a five-inning perfect game Saturday night as the Expos beat the St Louis Cardinals 4-0 in the rain-shortened second half of a twi-night double-header Palmer 26 Mho has spent only two full seasons in the majors because of elbow surgery in 1980 and 1962 retired all 15 St Louis 11 grounders one fly ball two strikeouts and one line drive to the second in his second appearance of the season The game was halted with Montreal batting in the top of the sixth and was called after a wait of 1 hour 17 minutes effort was the 16th perfect game in major-league history and the fourth to go fewer than nine innings Two were in 1907 and Dean Chance pitched five perfect innings against the Boston Red Sox in 1967 The last nine-inning perfect game was pitched by Len Barker against Toronto on May 15 1961 Hie Expos also took the rain-interrupted opener 6-3 as Bryan Little rapped two doubles and a single and Gary Carter hit a two-run double helping Steve Rogers win his first game of the year gem was the second no-hitter of the season and the first in the National League In the American League Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers held the Chicago jVhite Sox hitless April 7 Tacoma The Comets will be heading to St Louis for the playoffs goal 7 minutes 23 seconds into overtime capped a four-goal Tacoma comeback Saturday night and gave the Stars a 4-3 victory over the Comets The loss dropped the Comets into fourth place in the Western Division of the Major Indoor Soccer League with a 23-25 record and open the playoffs Tuesday night SL Louis 26-22 After Tacoma tied the game with three sixth-attacker goals in the fourth quarto the Stars stayed with the strategy and Comets Coach Pat McBride elected to match iq pulling goalkeeper Jim Tiet jens in favor of Greg Makowski Play was even for most of the period before Zequinha slipped a shot through giving the Stars a 22-26 record for its first season in the MISL you second-guess McBride said of lifting his goalkeeper who we led 3-1 was a good time to do it We worked hard to get to 3-0 and I thought we were playing well enough even when it was 3-1 and 3-2 so we decided not to do McBride second guess his deci- An unheralded runner named Billy Mills blazed onto the world track scene 20 years ago by setting an Olympic record in the 10000 meters Sunday Extra Page 15 Mike Durbin wins his third Firestone Tournament of Champions bowling title Page 15 Scorecard Pagaa 17 18 19 If you're ready for some spring hunting time to talk turkey Star Outdoors Page 21 I See Comets pg 13 col 1.