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Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 15

Location:
Santa Cruz, California
Issue Date:
Page:
15
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Sentinel Thursday April 3, 1997 Sectioi on- GOOD DREAM i Billiards thrives at the local pool halls Breaking away. Page B5 Hi -l-z The NBA, Page 2 Scoreboard, Page 4 3 Cleveland 9, Oakland 7 000 Turn to -fa nightmare for Oakland Th Associated Press OAKLAND The lineup is dramatically different for the Cleveland Indians this season. The results are similar. David Justice hit a tie-breaking homer and also tripled and singled in his AL debut, and newcomer Kevin Mitchell also homered, as the revamped Indians defeated Oakland 9-7 in Wednesday night's seascji opener. It didn't take Justice long to adapt to American League pitching, just eight days after being traded from Atlanta.

"Good athletes have a way -r of shortening their adjustment Tino Martinez I period. David's a good ath- hit three HRs lete, said Cleveland manager pnoo do Mike Hargrove. "David Jus- raVDiS tice came up huge for us to uary znejjieia signs record pact PageB2 night." Justice's two-run homer in the seventh broke a 6-6 tie. After the A's scored in the eighth on a wild pitch, Jim Thome led off the ninth with a homer to restore the Indians' two-run margin. Justice's home run ball, which landed in the second deck in right field, was retrieved for him.

Though he feels settled with Cleveland, he said he also is enjoying the new experiences of the American "I've gotten over the shock (of the trade) now. But I'm definitely a newcomer," he said. "It's been great. Everything's been smooth sailing They've made the transition an easy one." Justice also had an RBI groundout in Cleveland's four-run first as the Indians, despite a radically changed lineup, showed they still have plenty of power. The Indians have only 11 players remaining from the team that won the 1995 AL pennant.

And the lineup has undergone a huge makeover since Cleveland won its second straight AL Central title while winning 99 games last season. Mark McGwire drove in three runs for the Athletics, including a two-run double with the bases loaded that tied the game 6-6 in the fifth. But he grounded, out with the tying runs on base and two outs in the seventh. i The Associated Press Arthur Pickrom, 7, of Oakland, waits for autographs before Oakland's season-opener against the Cleveland Indians. Baseball reconciliation is at hand They screw up once, and they are in Advertising executive Paul Much By PETE COATES Bloomberg News NEW YORK Major League Baseball enters the 1997 season much like a player trying to come back from a ening injury.

The pain is gone and the crisis is over, yet baseball is involved in a long, frustrating rehabilitation process to repair its public image, seriously damaged during the players strike two years ago. "Baseball is on the rebound and will be healthy," said Kansas City Royals Director of Marketing and Communica-" tions Mike Levy. "But you just can't go from sick to healthy in just one day. It's in -rehab, but I think it's going pretty fast." I There are signs that baseball is on its back now that owners and players -finally settled the labor dispute that forced the cancellation of the part of the 1994 regular season, the 1994 World Sell ries and the start of the 1995 campaign. "Last season was played without a labor agreement, leaving open the possibility of another strike or lockout.

For some teams, the status of base- 0 tract this winter, a move aimed at improving the team's place in the standings and its attractiveness at the box office. It will be a while before the Blue Jays will know whether its investment on a 34-year-old legend will pay dividends on the field, although they have some early returns from the ticket window. "Ticket sales haven't been as brisk as we thought they would be," said Blue Jays Marketing Director Paul Markle. Markle said the Clemens signing would have had a bigger impact on sales four years ago, before fans were jilted by the strike. "I think people are still upset," he said.

Markle said the team is short of its Please see BASEBALL B3 ball's recovery is reflected in ticket sales. Levy said the Royals' single-game sales are up about up about 80 percent over last year, and group sales have more than doubled. Season ticket sales, an important source of steady revenue, are running about the same. "It seems like the fans are more excited than the corporate community," Levy said. The San Diego Padres, coming off their first playoff appearance since 1984, had sold out their season opener against the New York Mets last Wednesday, the club's earliest Opening Day sellout in 12 years.

In Toronto, the Blue Jays signed three-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens to a three-year, $24 million con K1V 1 The Associated Press The moods are light and optimism abounds as the season begins, as David Justice (from left), Marquis Grissom and Geronimo Berroa can attest. Strange ballot angers 49ers Girl, 14, set to tee 'off in LPGA event 49ers sign budget kicker- A I B- Ifnnnn UIh. .1.1 T- ,1 The Associated Press keeps him away from the Dallas Cowboys, who wanted him to. SANTA CLARA Placekick-er Jon Baker has been signed by the San Francisco 49ers to a bargain-basement two-year contract and was told the job is his to lose. Baker, 24, who kicks barefoot and played his college football at Arizona State, will be paid the NFL minimum of $164,000 this season plus a $7,500 signing bonus and incentives.

Signing Baker also served a second purpose. Besides replacing Jeff Wilkins, who left to play for the Rams, the contract replace Chris Boniol. Before the 49ers signed Wilkins in the middle of the 1995 season, his only NFL experi-j' ence consisted of kickoff Baker has a similar resume, kicking off for three games with i Dallas in 1995. Wilkins went on to set 49ers' records last year for field goals made and for ac- curacy, but was allowed to become a free agent. Baker made 35 of 50 field goal attempts in two years at ASU.

The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO With friends like these, the San Francisco 49ers say, who needs enemies? The football team has a $100 million bond issue on the June 3 city ballot for a new stadium, and is angered by a group that has submitted a satirical ballot argument thpt purports to the back the stadium. The group's real take, however, is apparent in its name Multimillionaires for Corporate Welfare, headed by Daniel Larkosh. In an exchange of letters, the 49ers have threatened criminal action against Larkosh, who paid $269 to put his argument on the "for" side of the ballot. Larkosh calls the threats a "blatant attempt at intimidation," and "laughable." Larkosh's stunt has thrown the Elections Department into a tizzy. Registrar of Voters Germaine Wong has gone to court to gain permission to shift the argument from the support to opposition section of the voter pamphlet, which will be sent to 480,000 voters before the June 3 election.

Judge William CahiU set arguments Monday on Wong's motion. The 49ers object to the language of several paid arguments against The Associated Press LINCOLN Natalie Gulbis is 14 years old and ready to play- in an LPGA tournament. Beverly Klass has been there before. Gulbis, a freshman at Granite Bay High School in Citrus Heights, begins play Thursday in the $500,000 LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge. -After qualifying as an amateur Monday with a 6-bver-par 78, an LPGA executive confirmed Gulbis was youngest player to compete in a LPGA tournament.

Not so fast. More than 30 years ago, Klass of Tarzana, turned professional at age 9 and won $31 during the 1965 LPGA season as a 10-year-old, according to LPGA records. At age 10, Klass also played in the U.S. Open, earned $100 but did not qualify for the final two rounds. After being reinstated as an amateur, Klass went on to a distinguished amateur career and eventually a 13-year career in the LPGA.

Gulbis, whose final exams have been postponed one week, and Klass both began learning golf from their fathers. Both also developed their driving skills early on. Gulbis hit a 250-yard drive during her qualifying round. But Gulbis, the 1996 California State Women's Amateur runner-up, hopes she doesn't share another similarity with her young counterpart. In her LPGA debut at the Dallas Civitan Open, Klass shot 88-88-90-99, a 365 total for last place.

EI er jacK uavis, accused LarKosn or ulnlntlncr iha otato PnllHnal Dnfn4k Act. Reuben advised Larkosh that he's turning the case over to the district attorney's office and thfl' Ethics Commission, 1 iv Propositions and the bond issue and land use ordinance that must win voter approval to make the team's $525 million stadium-mall proposal work. But Larkosh's Jab which says, among other things, that DeBarto-los need the money because they live in Ohio and must maintain two residences evidently got under their skin, Attorney James A. Reuben, who represents 49ers campaign manag Reuben claims the true source of the $269 that paid for Larkosh's ballot argument was misrepresent-' ed and violated a section of the act The Associated Press Natalie Gulbis will become the youngest player on the LPGA tour since 1 965. prohibiting cash expenditures of more than $100..

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About Santa Cruz Sentinel Archive

Pages Available:
909,325
Years Available:
1884-2005