The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 45

Pan Am Games 2 NL Roundup 5 The Buffalo News Bpor Baseball 3 Classified 7 Wednesday August 12 1987 Horoscope 16 elser Sports Editor NY Teams Somehow Stand Heat iA: TO UNCTION in New York City is to live life with the volume turned up to the highest decibel Last week the lifestyle even struck down Ed Koch the barbed wire mayor So understandable that the sports teams have be come crises junkies Consider the defending World Series winners the New York Mets Lee Mazzilli and Keith Hernandez fingered Darryl Strawberry as a malingerer The Straw Man publicly identified Wally Backman as a little creep The team still needs a baby sit ter for Dwight Gooden It must be the stress of living in the unlivable Then there are the Yankees a far more harmonious bunch than the Mets Considering their flaws unstable pitching and inferior catching the Yanks have made an amazing run at winning the American League East BUT THEIR owner George Steinbrenner has been import ing turmoil every time he flies up from lorida under standable Steinbrenner lives on the shores of Tampa Bay which is tranquil enough to soothe even his outlook When Steinbrenner enters the world of Primal Shriek Lou Piniella Dave Win field and Don Mattingly suffer the resulting fallout The latest Yankee to go into Bronxshock is pitcher Steve Trout the left hander for whom New York traded recently Trout was an effective pitcher for the Chicago Cubs As a Yan kee he has an earned run num ber that resembles the Dow Jones averages He launched so many wild pitches the on deck circle may be declared a hazard ous area Also understandable Trout came from Heartland into Root Canal The players who inhabit Wrigley ield have to cope with anything like in dignation The newest sports crisis in New York is the publish ing wars In the long tradition of suc cessful Gotham athletic teams just about everyone from the Gi launderer to the head coach wrote a book about the experience of winning the last Super Bowl Leonard Marshall a relative ly obscure defensive end put the rap on Jim Burt because of the nose tackle's unbridled exuber ance after the Giants beat Wash ington for the National Confer ence championship Lawrence Taylor the rogue ele phant ripped Burt's etiquette on the golf course in his book THE COACH Bill Parcells put his zinger on the gen eral manager George Young as a payback for Young making contingency plans involving a new coach three years ago when Parcells did not look as if he would be the second coming of Don Shula The interesting part is that life as traumatic as it may ap pear keeps flowing for the New Yorkers Strawberry switches off the alarm and goes back to sleep Gooden still requires a baby sit ter and the rest of the Mets may get peptic ulcers but they're climbing in the standing No one should be surprised if they over take St Louis in the end Despite hyper tension the collapse of the pitch ing the injury to Willie Ran dolph and the absence of Rickey Henderson the Yanks remain just a tick out of first place They may be fading now but a month from now when they en gage Toronto once again they could be rejuvenated In the training camp Burt is having an excellent sum mer So is Taylor So is Mar shall Together even though they may despise each other pri vately they still comprise the core of the championship de fense Parcells and Young not pals at all still work smoothly together Conducting sports business in New York is a lot like riding its suitways The object is to sur vive and then get to your desti nation Weimer Reaches Indy With Career on Course nTnwMMhit WW By JIM KELLEY The last time Gretchen Weimer waited for her ship to come in it arrived in pieces That was during the 1984 Olympic Row ing Trials in San Diego when an air freight company handled her racing shell with the sort of tender loving care Mike Tyson usu ally shows for a heavy bag So brutal was the beating the case is still in court This time it will be different This time Weimer transported her own shell and while the destination might be different the Pan American Games in Indianapolis the goal is the same still going for the Olympics" the 25 year old West Side Rowing Club member said definitely my It would appear to be getting closer Weimer qualified for the Pan Am com petition by winning the Pan Am Trials two weeks ago in Mercer County NJ She is scheduled to compete Sunday in the Pan Am final in Indianapolis It is the first time a woman from West Side has qualified for such a prestigious event It also is the first time any West Side member has qualified since 1951 Weimer did it by winning both the semi final and final competitions in the elite women's single scull competition In the course of the trials she teat notables such as Kris Karson Eileen and Lisa Hud Karson was silver medalist in the recent World University Games O'Rourke a world class singles sculler also happens to be long time doubles partner Hud was this Pan Am represen tative in 1983 What made Weimer's victory even more intriguing however is it was accomplished with only seven practice Weimer had been spending most of this summer in the two and four member shells and did not turn her attention seri ously to singles racing until returning from Gretchen Weimer talks over strategy with her coach Dr James McMullen ROBERT STODDARDBuffalo News Seo Weimer: Page 2 Column 1 ort Erie Aims to Upgrade Its '88 Season By ROBERT SUMMERS Neirs Staff Reporter ORT ERIE Ont Although attendance and wagering at Prince of Wales Stakes the ort Erie Race premier annual event slipped slightly from last year track manager Don Valliere says busi ness is up and steps are being made to ex pand and upgrade the 1988 racing season He said unofficial plans which still must be approved by trustees of the Ontario Jock ey Club which owns the track and the On tario Racing Commission call for a possi ble expansion of next season from four to five racing days a week make those decisions Those are made by the senior people at said Valliere I have recommendations and one of my thoughts is because this is such a great vacation area and our market really goes up dramatically in July and August I think I would look seriously at racing five days a week in July and August horse population now is such that I think it could sustain five days a week and I know we have the market here in July and August That mean we're going to do that but that would be my ort Erie now races Saturday through Tuesday in July and August and Saturday through Monday in May June September and Octoter He said the track plans to upgrade its racing quality next year by boosting the min imum claiming prices and increasing the purse sizes for stakes races "The minimum claiming price will go up from $2000 to $2500 next year" he said will be no more $2000 claiming races after this year There is a change in the economy and inflation and I think it makes sense" The manager of the 90 year old facility also said he would try to convince manage ment to increase purses for the International Turf Cup and suggest a bonus system to make the Prince of Wales Stakes more at tractive to the top horses thought the International Turf Cup (first run this year) really went well My plan now is to increase the size of the purse if I Valliere said like it if I could to get that race increased in value to make it even more of a major He also suggested a bonus system for Can ada's Triple Crown the Queen's Plate Prince of Wales and Stakes than to just increase the size of the ($150000 added) purse for the Prince of Wales maybe we should look at some sort of bonus or point system or something as done for the Triple Crown in the US That would help us all if there was more incentive for all the horses to run in it (the Prince of he said Valliere attributed decline in Prince of Wales Day attendance (9151 as compared to 10028 last year) to several fac tors including a mysterious falloff in atten dance from the US side of the border were down slightly from last year and most of them (the missing) were our American he said have to figure out why and try to rectify Valliere said last year's Prince of Wales attendance was helped by discount parking coupons Senior Citizen discounts and other promotions that were lacking this year I do it again next year I like to get 10000 It's a nice round he said Valliere said average attendance this sea son is up about 4 percent while wagering is up about 10 percent from 1986 averaging $556000 a day That's pretty gratifying Those are nice numbers a far cry from a so called 'B' meeting" he said Valliere said the current capital improvements installation of a new grand stand escalator and painting and refurbish ing of the upper grandstand will be fin ished by the end of the meet The escalator should be in operation by the end of September and the sandblasting and painting will start day going to have to close areas of the he said "but I think it will be too much of an inconvenience because most the work will be done on our off Valliere said he plans to recommend that next budget include money for expand ing the Terrace Dining Room in the lower clubhouse from 200 to 260 seats plus installa tion of television sets at the tables He noted any improvements must be ap proved by OJC management and the Ontario government which provides money through the province's race track assistance pro gram Richardson Is Seeking Breakthrough Season By MILT NORTHROP Neus Staff Reporter REDONIA Life with the Buf falo Bills the last three years teen easy for wide receiver Eric Richardson At times persons inside and out side the organization have questioned the courage the football intelligence the concentration and the dedication of the player Buffalo selected in the second round with the 41st pick overall of the 1984 college draft So far Richardson has teen con sidered one in a series of second round draft failures in the 1980s by the Bills Richard son admitted Tuesday my productivity has been limited for one reason or This year though Richardson fi nally is showing signs of making a breakthrough and perhaps reward ing the Bills for not giving up on the former high draft pick On Saturday Richardson caught a 9 yard pass from Jim Kelly for Buffalo's only touchdown in the scrimmage against Cleveland Aside from that he is having his best training camp as a Bill feel more productive than ever felt before Richardson said feel more confident in my ability and I feel more confident in the Richardson gives a lot of the credit for the transformation to new receivers coach Ted Tollner seems to have a way of com municating of getting across what trying to teach" Richardson said Richardson wasn't finding fault with his previous position coaches Milt Jackson in 1984 Bob Leahy in 1985 and Joe Daniels last year but said just seem to relate well to him Tollner thinks more a case of Richardson taking advantage of the fresh start he has teen given fresh start for a player whoias te'en frustrated can be Tollner said "Eric hasn't teen a disappointment to me because I teen here "The most important thing is I think he has the ability to help our football team strong He has good natu ral movement and body control all the tools and apparently has the ability to work need someone to surface at the position and Eric is capable of doing Richardson missed his entire rookie year with a knee injury Some around the club thought he was malingering but they were wrong As it turned out something was indeed wrong with his right knee and postseason surgery was necessary to remove bone chips from the joint As for his intelligence the for mer environmental studies major at San Jose State is no dummy Con centration may have teen a prob lem though and perhaps he wasn't geared to the mental adjustment from college to pro ball was fairly easy for conceded Richardson who caught 94 passes for a 159 yard average and 12 touchdowns in two seasons as a San Jose State Spartan under Coach Jack Elway father of Denver quarterback John Elway After missing his rookie season with the Bills Richardson played in all 16 regular season games in 1985 starting one and had 12 receptions for 201 yards The passing at tack improved last year with Kelly but surprisingly Richardson's pro duction dropped He had only three receptions in 14 games All three came within a two week span one in his lone start against New Eng land and two the next week at Tam pa Bay Ask Richardson if this is a make or break season for him as a Bill and he quickly replies: sure it See Bills Page 5 Column 1 Report Says Buffalo to Host Triple A Stars AiK'x iatel Prrsx An all star game next season between players of the three Tri ple A baseball leagues will be played in Buffalo according to a cable television network official The game was announced last week and will involve players from the Pacific Coast League the International League and the American Association which is headquartered in Buffalo While officials from the three leagues which are the last level before the majors have said a site for the July 13 1988 game has not teen set a television executive said it has reedom Sports Network vice president Dale Brooks told a Nashville Tenn newspaper that Buffalo's new Pilot ield will host the inaugural event "Buffalo will have Game said Brooks of the Colorado Springs Col based network still away from the de tails of the arrangement (but) actively involved in nego Buffalo Bisons Vice President and General Manager Mike Bil loni said he was surprised to hear someone say Buffalo had been chosen host would think we would be a contender with our new stadi said Billoni of the down town ballpark due to open next April we have a league meeting in a couple of weeks where that's going to be dis cussed along with the criteria for the Nashville Sounds President Larry Schmittou promotions chairman for the game also said the decision will not be made until the league meeting 'J Bisons Drop Into Last After lOth Inning Loss Special la The News OMAHA After a modest two month romp that earned them as high as fifth place the the Buffalo Bisons returned home Tuesday Home that is to the cellar as they squandered another fine pitching performance in a 4 3 loss in 10 in nings to the Omaha Royals Coupled with the Cubs win over Indianapolis the loss dropjted the Bisons to 54 63 dead even with the Cubs in last place in the Ameri can Association 11 games out of first Bison Manager Steve Swisher Tuesday was left bemoaning the sacrifice bunt or rather the lack of one Swisher felt the Herd was ready for the kill in the ninth with the game freshly tied at 3 3 courte sy of Scotti Madison's eighth inning sacrifice fly to knot it for Omaha Brian Dorsett opened the ninth with a single to chase starter Don Welchel who was operating on cruise control to that point having struck out 10 and walked none But Bill Crone muffed two sacrifice bunt attempts before lining a shot back to reliever and winner Dave Gum jH'rt (6 4) who converted the bullet into a double play capitalize on some of our early hits but I thought the big play of the game came in the ninth when we failed to get the run ner over to second and ended up hitting into a double said Swisher really killed Actually the homicide was per petrated an inning later Loser Mark Huismann (0 1) who struck out five of the 10 batters he faced ir relief of starter Scott Roberts yieU ed a lead off double to Jeff Schu' Dwight Taylor was brought in as pinch runner Huismann sot down the next two batters but Rondin Johnson came through with a sin gle Johnson admitted to being in belting a slider for the game winner has a nasty slider and we were having trouble with John son said "The first time I faced him he got me with some good sinkers low and away I went up there thinking that try to do that again" Starters Roberts and were taking turns making their op ponents look bad Welchel rendered Buffalo hit less from Doug fifth inning pop double until Dor single in the ninth double concluded a bizarre three run rally that unraveled like a bad dream for Welchel Bill Crone and Winston icklin each singled and both advanced on See Bisons Page 3 Column 1 Ch 49 to Carry 29 Sabres Games The Buffalo Sabres an nounced today that at least 29 of the National Hockey League club's 40 away games this sea son will be telecast by Channel 49 the new independent station the Sabres have agreed to pur chase The Sabres will be ending a 10 year association with Channel 2 which declined to match Channel offer Channel 2 carried 24 Sabres games last season The Sabres emphasized that the 29 games will he carried by Channel 49 this year even if their plans to buy the station are de railed by the ederal Communi cations Commission Some home games and addi tional away games may also land on Channel 49's schedule the Sabres said That will de pend on what comes of the Sa bres' negotiations with the local cable companies Channel 49 is scheduled to premiere on Sunday Sept 6 a full month before the regular hockey season begins.