Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 13

Section Michigan Dateline, Page 4. Obituaries, Page 9. Call City Desk, 222-6600 Jb Mf i -i state tf "sftfwy fc 4f JDeltoil 4frce Stress Saturday, March 3, 1990 Beloved Bad Boy returns 10. 1 TOGETHER If East and West Germany had competed as one team in the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics, the unified Germany would have won 10 more medals than the top winner, the Soviet Union. Winter Prix season Ptost-Seima feud ready to resume Deep down Rick Mahorn is probably as sensitive as the next guy.

But that would be very deep down. It would be below the suet and the muscle. Beneath the bone and the tissue and below all the brash facade that he pushes around ahead of him, sweeping away everything in its path like a cattle guard on a freight train. COUNTRY MEDALS Germany 33 USSR 29 Switzerland 15 Austria 10 Finland 7 Summer COUNTRY MEDALS Germany 142 Soviet Union 132 United States 94 Bulgaria 35 South Korea 33 He came back to town Friday, for the first time since he left in the sad aftermath of the World Championship celebration, tarnished by the news that he the original Bad Boy had been put up for grabs in the NBA's expansion draft. He came into the loading dock entrance of the Palace about 90 minutes before tipoff and was surrounded by Pistons ballboys who barely came to his knees.

He hugged them, slapped high fives and you could see their eyes gleam. Not just the CHARLIE Vincent Km. BY TIMOTHY COLLINS Reuters if LONDON French world champion Alain Prost and bitter rival Ayrton Senna are gearing up for a renewal of their feud which almost cost the Brazilian the chance to drive in the 1990 Grand Prix season, which opens March 11 in Phoenix. 11 The enmity between the world's two leading Formula One drivers, which erupted into a fierce battle last year even though both raced for the dominant McLaren team, will be was dressing beside Mahorn, "this is the only place you don't get booed." He spent four years here, one stop in an NBA career that began in Washington, almost took him to Minneapolis and deposited him in Philadelphia, once again in the middle of the race for the NBA championship. Those four years may as well have been a lifetime.

Here he lived through the frustration of watching the Pistons fall one win short of winning the championship two years ago, laying on his stomach in front of the bench, because his back was too sore to allow him to play or to sit or to sleep in any position other than face down. Here he had the back operated on, though he feared the surgeon's knife as much as any man on earth. Here he played a role, physical and emotional, in crafting the first basketball world championship in the history of this state. Here he became the core of the image that identified that team. Here he became the Bad Boy.

In Michigan, the Beloved Bad Boy. He came back Friday. Probably it is not quite right to say he came home. He came back to a state that cheered Kirk Gibson and Adrian Dantley and now Rick Mahorn, too, and lost them all. That is the way the business is played.

When he settled down in a folding chair in the visitors locker room Friday he conceded: "This feels a little strange. But what can I say. It's part of the business I miss the Pistons. I miss the fans and the ballboys. I have a lot of feelings, but you go on with your life." Rick Mahorn will see that his championship ring gets back to his mother in Hartford.

But when he left the Palace Friday night he carried with him something he can not share the affection of 21,000 people. Mahorn Palace visit has strange ring to it His disregard for niceties on the court endears him to teammates and enrages He is their bully. He is our misunderstood Bad Boy. That's past, though. It's only a memory, he says.

As he breaks away from the adoring ballboys and ambles toward the visitors locker room, he says, shucks, this is just another ballgame. "I've got 82 of 'em," he says. "It's just a matter of winning or losing." Just another game. Probably not. Beneath the suet and muscle, bone and tissue and bravado, I have to believe Rick1 Mahorn felt something tingle Friday night when they called him out to the center of the court in the Palace and gave him his championship ring.

The ceremony was a bit of show business. James Edwards delivered the ring to a friend of Mahorn's in Washington in November. The friend saw that Mahorn got the ring and Mahorn eventually passed it along to his mother in Hartford, for safe keeping. The ring was retrieved for Friday's ceremony. If the presentation wasn't exactly real, though, Mahorn's reception back in Auburn Hills was.

Whatever the NBA's office thought of Mahorn last season, when he was amassing record fines, here people learned to love him. Here they let him know how they felt about him, even if he is sometimes reluctant to share the depth of his feelings. "Here, I know I won't get booed," Mahorn said. "Yeah," replied 76ers guard Scoot Brooks, who i heightened now that Prost has switched to Ferrari. Prost clinched his third world crown in October's Japanese Grand Prix even though he was bumped by Senna and crashed out of the race.

Senna won the race but kids eyes; Mahorn too. He is a strange mix of cream puff and nitroglycerine. He is loud and profane and there is no way around this if the game is on the line, he plays only by Rick Mahorn's rules. But he is a man, too, who before every ballgame in the Palace stops at courtside for a kiss from a special little child named Courtney. He came to Detroit a loathed enemy, a big bully who leered at fallen opponents as he stepped over them.

Once, when he was with the Washington Bullets, he bounced Isiah Thomas around like a pinball once too often and Thomas leaped as high as he could to ricochet a set of knuckles off Mahorn's head. Prost I i- was disqualified for reckless driving, denying him any chance of overhauling Prost. An enraged Senna accused Jean-Marie Ba-lestre of France, president of the International Motor Sport Senna I J. Ik VJ I 5v V.iI German gymnasts find future unsettling By Michelle Kaufman Free Press Sports Writer FAIRFAX, Va. Most of the world cheered when the Berlin Wall came crumbling down Nov.

10, 1989. Ralf Buechner celebrated right along. But the young East German gymnast admits there was fear buried in his heart that day, and it hasn't gone away. "I'm worried about what will happen to us after the March 18 elections," said Buechner, one of 10 Eastern bloc gymnasts competing this weekend in the American Cup, an international competition at George Mason University. "There are a number of parties that support the elite sports, but others do not.

"We, the athletes, have been making demonstrations since January asking for continued support of sport. I have a wife and small child. I must compete to make a living." Public outcries in East Germany have called for government cutbacks in funding for top athletes. There were reports of vandalism to athletes' cars and living quarters. Many East Germans think federal subsidies would be better spent on welfare programs.

In West Germany, athletes and coaches harbor reservations of their own. "It is not as simple as the Americans think that you just tear down a wall and everyone is happy," said coach Jan Vlacil. "It's a very complex process. There are many differences in the two societies. We have separate identities." But it might not be long before those identities are abandoned at least in athletic competition.

The East German sports federation will elect new officers Monday, and there is talk of the two Germanies competing under one flag for the 1992 Olympic Games. Germany competed as a single team through 1936. "There is such an upheaval now, such insecurity and unsureness," said Buechner's coach, Reinhard Rueck-riem. "We're scared. All of us.

If they change the way things are handled, and my existence is challenged, I would have to consider moving toward the western part of Germany where I could pursue my career." Some observers, such as West German gymnast Daniel Orlet and U.S. gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi, predict that the East German sports machine is destined to sputter regardless of government support. They claim newfound freedom will mean the beginning of the end of East German dominance in Olympic sports. "The East Germans won't be the same anymore because they have all these new freedoms to think about," said Orlet, 21, of Munich. "Now, they can travel.

They can make money. They can do things they never dreamed of. These things will take away from their performance." Said Karolyi, who emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the 1980 Olympic Games: "Those children are waking up Into a wonder world. A fairyland. All of a sudden, they have options, freedoms, opportunities to use their mind.

They will see that it doesn't have to be dead br alive, win or die, this or that. The pressure-cooked performances are over. Federation (FISA), of manipulating the outcome in favor of Prost. Senna was fined, given a suspended six-month ban and described as a dangerous driver, while Balestre declared that the Brazilian would not be allowed to race this season unless he apologized. Senna stayed silent right up to the deadline two weeks ago before backing off slightly, which was enough for Balestre to drop his threat.

While the soap opera unfolded, Prost worked with his new team to help Ferrari in its preparations to claim its first constructors' triumph since 1983. "Now McLaren is in my past," he said. "I really feel part of Ferrari and my main motivation is to win the championship for Ferrari. Of course, I want to win the drivers' title myself." Prost made it clear that the season would be more pleasant now that he had Britain's Nigel Mansell as his teammate in place of Prost. "If Nigel wins the drivers' title instead of me, it will still be a victory for me to be a part of the winning team.

Nigel and I have been friends for a long time and we think the same way about motor racing," he said. McLaren, however, will remain the team to beat. After signing Austrian Gerhard Berger from Ferrari to replace Prost, it can boast a formidable driver lineup, a proven car and team, and the best engine in the Honda V-10. Ferrari, with Prost alongside Briton Mansell in a revamped team with a modified car and improved engine power, is likely to be McLaren's closest challenger, followed by Williams and Benetton. Williams, after a settling-in year with Renault engines, will try to improve on its two Grand Prix wins last year in Canada and Australia with the same driver lineup of Belgian Thierry Boutsen and Italian Riccardo Patrese.

Benetton, having signed former champion Nelson Piquet of Brazil to team up with Italian Alessandro Nan-nini, will also try to improve on last year's lone victory in the controversial race at Suzuka. The team has been boosted by the arrival of John Barnard, formerly chief designer at Ferrari, whose long-term work and revisions to the current car will ensure improvements in handling and could see Benetton emerge as the most serious threat to the McLaren-Ferrari domination this year. Lotus, which last year endured one of its worst seasons, has completely revamped its team. It will start the season with two new drivers in Britons Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly and a new engine in the Lamborghini V-12 which proved full of promise in its first season with Lola last year. Tyrrell has also undergone several changes and will begin with former Lotus driver Satoru Nakajima of Japan partnering Frenchman Jean Alesi in one of the sleekest cars of all.

MARY SCHROEDERDetroit Free Press you know, go with the home team." Former MSU defensive back Todd Krumm: "I thought that if the Tigers made me an offer I would take it Krumm changes uniforms Ex-Spartan football player tries out with Tigers Career numbers Todd Krumm's career statistics at Michigan State: Hitting YEAR AB HR Bl 1985 114 38 2 19 1986 80 22 1 14 1987 97 31 4 16 1988 129 33 8 30 Pitching YEAR W-L IP SO ERA 1985 1-1 21 12 7.89 1986 2-1 20 25 2.70 1987 4-1 41V4 46 4.35 year, the Mets drafted me, but I decided to stay in school." Tigers president Bo Schembechler said he wasn't surprised when Joe McDonald, the club's minor-league director, told him they were going to sign Krumm to a Class A contract. "I remember Todd beating Michigan, 2-1, in the Big Ten Tournament when he was a senior," Schembechler said. "He not only pitched a great game, but he got a couple of hits, too." Krumm was recruited by U-M and MSU, but decided to go to Michigan State because "I thought it would be exciting to be a part of a program that was rebuilding." The Spartans' football team was 28-18-1 during Krumm's four years and won the Big Ten and Rose Bowl in his senior season. Krumm joins former U-M kicker Mike Gillette in camp. Gillette is a catcher.

See TODD KRUMM, Page 5B BY GENE GUIDI Free Press Sports Writer LAKELAND, Fla. The baseball jersey didn't have a name or number, but Todd Krumm didn't care. He was in uniform again, and that's all that mattered. Krumm, a former Michigan State defensive back (1984-87) who played one season with the Chicago Bears, is in the Tigers' minor-league camp trying to make it as a pitcher. "It felt a little funny putting on a uniform again," Krumm said Friday as he prepared for his first workout with the Tigers.

"Last year was the first time in a long time that I wasn't in one kind of uniform or another." Krumm, 24, was a star athlete at West Bloomfield High before he went to MSU. He played defensive back with the Bears in 1988, but didn't survive the final cut in training camp last year. But Krumm had something to fall back on baseball. "I played baseball all four years at State," Krumm said. "I was a centerfielder and pitcher.

After my junior 1988 4-2 78 4.04 See Olympics, Pajp 2B.