The Bellingham Herald from Bellingham, Washington • 13

section M'S LOSE Pg B3 WORLD CUP Pg B4 CLASSIFIEDS Pgs B5-B12 The Bellingham Herald Saturday June 23 1990 Kaeding leads charge to Dirt Cup finale The final day of Dirt Cup begins at 7:30 pm at Skagit Speedway Open season on Mariner Moose proves aimless Ammon Spiller fifth grade artist-in-resi-dence at Central Elementary School will be on hand to show off his masterwork at Joe Martin Field tonight The Mariner Moose is loose and coming to Bellingham Ammon the 11-yearold son of Pat and Jessica Spiller of Bellingham won a Dcon-test to create a mascot for the Seattle Mar re-qualify if he pays another entry fee and uses a different car Kaeding dug into his pocket for the entry fee and his pit crew led by Ron Westphal took care of the rest ready took a lot of hard Kaeding said one thing about this group is they worked hard to get it Race of Champions will have an inverted start for the first time in Dirt Cup history The type of start is determined by reaching into a hat track officials said The inverted start puts the winner of the fourth heat Thursday and Friday Kevin Pylant and Jimmy Sills into the front row The third heat winners are in row two with the second heat champions in row three The winners of the first heats are in row four racing which ended at 11:30 P-m featured at least one yellow flag in each event The last chance race had five flags four yellow and one red That was won by Todd Burrow who will start in the back of main race main event had one red and three yellow flags The last yellow flag probably saved the win for Kaeding Kaeding led for most of the first 28 laps Tim Green raced past Kaeding on the final lap but a yellow flag wiped out Green's charge Kaeding was given back the lead for 'the restart and held on to edge Green To the surprise of no one five-time Dirt Cup champion Jimmy Sills easily won the fourth heat (Continued on Page B3 CoLl) By VICTOR YOSHIDA ol the Herald staff ALGER Brent Kaeding was the hot driver at the 19th annual Jim Raper Memorial Super Dirt Cup Friday night at the Skagit Speedway Kaeding was so hot he was on fire liters ally Whenever he had to slow down for a yellow flag in the second heat flames would spurt out of exhaust pipe The Campbell Calif driver said the flames were caused by fuel accumulation in the muffler in order to keep his engine noise under the 95 decibel limit not a problem except when right by a tire because if it gets too hot it could blister Kaeding said In front of a crowd of 7000 fans Kaeding blistered the rest of the field Friday winning his heat and the 30-lap main event as welL The two victories paid off a gamble by Kaeding who decided to go for broke instead of playing it safe Kaeding finished third in the first heat Thursday which qualified him for the main race Most drivers would be happy with that Not Kaeding Track rules say a driver can attempt to One bad pitch costs Baby ballgame STARS: Jay Gainer belted a grand slam to drive in the game's only runs RECORD: 2-3 tied for third place in Northern Division one game behind Everett and Spokane TODAY'S GAME: Spokane at Bellingham 7 pm Kicks are for kids Photo by Dav Rubort The FC Rangers defeated the Femdale Red Lions 7-0 during action at The Baker Blast a 65-team youth soccer tournament being held at Northwest Soccer Park The tournament concludes on Sunday By THEO GROSS of the Herald staff It was a one-pitch ball game said Bellingham manager PJ Carey about Northwest League contest between the Mariners and Spokane Indians at Joe Martin Field Jay Gainer drove the pitch a two-out fourth-inning fastball from Baby starter Rich Green high over the rightfield fence for a grand slam which powered the Indians over Bellingham 4-0 The loss dropped the Baby record to 2-3 and raised Spokane to 3-2 The teams continue their five-game series at 7 pm today at Joe Martin Field threw a super ball said Carey after munching a postgame hamburger was battling that hitter and Just got the pitch up in the wheelhouse and he (Gainer) took him The decisive fourth inning was the only inning which Spokane managed to get a runner past second base as the Indians loaded the bases with nobody out Green struck out Dave Adams and Matt Mieske before falling behind Gainer in the count 2-1 Soiiics out to beat odds again iners in February sketching out his moose and submitting a short essay on why his mascot should win It did beating out other entries such as a seamonster and a worm and Spiller was awarded a $1000 scholarship and his biggest claim to fame The Moose will appear at the Bellingham game with Everett tonight and Spiller will be there to throw out the first pitch kinda he said I do it real sloppy give me a bad The Moose is not the homliest of Homo Mascotus Just the newest oversized member of the Animal Kingdome It Joins other odd creatures like The Famous (ex-San Diego) Chicken the Phillie Phanatic Gorilla etc Remember the Wheedle the teddy bear of a mascot who used to patrd Seattle Super-Sanies games? None of the above has taken as bad a beating as the Mariner Moose Like any form of artistic expression the Moose has its critics It comes with the territory And if you read the Seattle papers you would think Spiller and his Moose are an endangered species Moose mashing is all the rage in the Emerald City embarassing Mariner Moose continues to fall on his face through the early works of the baseball wrote Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley recently big complaint it seems is that the Moose is not as as the celebrated Phanatic a fuzzy green monstrosity that appears at various Philadelphia sporting events has to be wrote Kelley the Moose should be improved or he should be Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports columnist and part-time KIRO radio commentator Art Thiel also ripped the moose even going so far as to blame the mascot for the less-than-sparkling home record Entering game at Texas the are 18-16 on the road but only 15-20 in the Kingdome Thiel points out that the obvious airfield difference in the team this year is the presence of the Moose Mariners never lost at home like this before they had a dumb Thiel said come up with a better rationale to get rid of the moose I think I can wait until hunting enough to make a guy want to hang up his antlers Spiller has even heard his peers try to bag his moose friends tease me I think they want the money when they get mad at he said say the moose is dumb I say would you have done Like any misunderstood artist Spiller defends his handiwork I made the Mariner Moose I was expecting people would disagree with me I mean there were already 2000 other kids entering different ideas so I know they probably disagree with me I like it And to me really what What also really counts is what happens between the first pitch and the last on the field not on the sidelines or in the stands (unless of course renting a room in Sky Dome 1 sporting ought to be concerned about the lack of a solid fifth starter depth in the middle infield or lack of medical assurance on oft-injured Jay Buhner With Ken Griffey Jr Randy Johnson and Harold Reynolds as the feature attraction surely those sports writers can find something better to do than write reviews on the warm-up act Forget about some bozo in a Bullwinkle suit To all you moose mashers out there some words of advice lighten up Give the kid a chance And may a lovesick bullmoose comer you in a dark alley some night Jim Donaldson is the assistant sports editor for the Bellingham Herald was thinking it (count) was 3-1 for some reason otherwise I would have come in with a said Green who made his first start for the Baby after beginning the season with Class A San Bernardino felt good and was hitting my spots I went after them and got two outs and just needed that last The left-handed hitting Gainer said he was looking for the fastball which he hit high and hard into the strong wind blowing out toward right field him (Green) behind in the count I was pretty much sitting on the Gainer said Everybody knew if you could get the ball up (to right field) it would go first professional home run might have left the park even if the wind was blowing in It was a decisive blow one which spoiled a fine effort from Green (0-1) whose linescore showed no earned runs (an error made at bat possible) five hits one walk and six strikeouts in five innings Baby relievers Randy Rivera and Dave Adam limited Spokane to just one infield hit during the final four innings but offensively the Mariners were stifled by Spokane pitching starter Scott Sanders (1-0) who was the 32nd pick overall in this baseball amateur draft scattered three singles and struck out seven batters in six innings of work slider was my best pitch he said was throwing my fastball hi and then busting them with the slider Indians reliever Bruce Bensching proved even more adept than Sanders at making the Baby look seasick at the plate Bensching fanned eight Baby and allowed no hits in three innings of work to preserve the shutout Defensively the Indians turned three double plays behind Sanders and Bensching The Baby best scoring threat of the game came in the first inning as Sean Twitty led off with a walk stole second and was sacrificed to third by Willie Wilkerson Sanders however struck out Brian Stephens and Rob Nichols to end that threat In the sixth inning Toiiy Kounas rapped a leadoff single and Willie Romay was hit by a pitch but Sanders punched out Glen Raasch Lipso Nava and Twitty to finish his night in style BABY NOTES: Doug Nufer author of the Guide to Northwest Minor League wUl appear at game for an autograph session First baseman Rob Nichols hit by a pitch in the first inning and leftfielder Brian Stephens injured on a double play in the seventh miss a few games but their injuries are not serious said Baby trainer Spyder Webb Scoutingreports Gary Payton 6-4 1 90 Oregon State A solid pick won several player-of-the-year awards Great passer and extremely quick Gets a lot of steals Averaged 257 points and 81 assistsagame Derrick Coleman 6-10 230 Syracuse Considered top big player in draft A great rebounder (Nol in NCAA history) and strong force on defense Averaged 179 points and 121 boards a game Dennis Scott G-F 6-8 229 Georgia Tech Has tremendous range Extremely tough shooter to defend One coach calls him greatest 6-8 shooter in basketball Averaged 277 points for Final Four team Trade possible as NBA draft nears From Herald wire services The Seattle Supersonics who beat 65-2 odds to get the No2 pick in next NBA draft are not about to let their good luck run out Instead of sitting back and waiting for the draft president Bob Whitsitt and his staff are looking at all the options including trading their pick talked to 20 (college) Whitsitt said there are not 20 candidates we would take at No2 but we might move down in the draft so we have to be The Sonics lost a bidding war for veteran point guard Fat Lever on Thursday when Lever was traded from Denver to the Dallas Mavericks for two first-round draft picks Seattle now must figure out what the New Jersey Nets are going to do New Jersey has the Nol pick and team officials said Friday that the Nets will keep the top pick unless some team offers a lot more than has already been discussed in recent trade talks New Jersey coach Bill Fitch hinted that the Nets will likely take either Derrick Coleman of Syracuse or Dennis Scott of Georgia Tech Fitch said the Nets also are very high on guard Gary Payton of Oregon State but added that the team has more need for a big rebounder like Coleman or an outside shooting threat who can hit the 3-pointers like Scott Whitsitt said there are three or four players the Sonics are comfortable with at the No2 spot but he reveal their names know what New going Ida Ap La Mrpkoto Oregon State point guard Gary Payton would fill a pressing need for the Seattle SuperSonics to do and we want people to get a lock on what Whitsitt said Payton from nearby Oregon State says he and Seattle are a perfect match need someone to lead their ball-club and that would be an ideal situation for Payton said Sonics are stacked at almost every Seattle also has two second-round picks No38 overall their own pick and No53 which they acquired from Portland in a trade that sent Maurice Lucas to the Trail Blazers on Nov 11 1987 Before winning the draft lottery on May 20 director of operations Willis Reed (Continued on Page B3 Col 5) Thompson nixes Nuggets will stay with Georgetown Georgetown $7000 $1000 $1000 $1000 $350 $125 The Fifties 1952 Mickey Mantle 1955 Roberto Clemente The Sixties 1968 Nolan Ryan 1967 Tom Seaver The Seventies 1973 Mike Schmidt 1975 Robin Yount The Eighties 1980 Rickey Henderson 1 983 Wade Boggs The Nineties 1990 Ben McDonald 1990 Eric Anthony Source: Bellingham Card Co I HlkwiliJiHMPraCTErfgl TODAY The Peace Arch Games Whatcom County's Olympics-style recreational sports festival kicks off its first big weekend with the Peace Arch Games Triathlon at Lake Padden Park Soccer and coed softball tournaments also will begin The Jim Raper Memorial Super Dirt Cup winds up its three-day run on championship night with a last-chance race the main main and the featured main event Action begins at 7:30 pjn The Bellingham Mariners take on the Spokane Indians at Joe Martin Field at 7 UPCOMING SUNDAY: The Bellingham Mariners finish their season-opening home series with the Spokane Indians at Joe Martin Field with a special 2 jn contest the complete slate see Page B2 WASHINGTON (AP) coach John Thompson made the decision Friday to reject an offer worth at least $6 million to become general manager of the NBA Denver Nuggets Thompson agonized over the offer from the troubled franchise the first black-owned tPBm in professional Thompson sports for five days Clearly weary as he appeared at a news conference he said talked with an awful lot of people who mean an awful lot to me Then I gave Thompson who took Georgetown to the NCAA title in 1984 has been among the coaching giants for nearly two decades and has been the target of several NBA offers He called the Denver opportunity most serious by timing was just not the Thompson said looked at the total package and said The time is not He did not elaborate Earlier in the week Thompson appeared to be leaning the way pronouncing himself as over the offer particularly since it involved a 4 percent interest in the team as well as a salary near $700000 a year for five years Thompson makes more than $500000 annually at Georgetown including a salary of more than $317000 a shoe contract worth $200000 and other outside payments $100 $36 $175 $125 myself a day of reflection And I have decided to remain at.