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148fb626c7ce5d831df8363430770c8b
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-mn-5773-story.html
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Greece, Israel Hit by Exodus From Albania
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Greece, Israel Hit by Exodus From Albania
Surprised Greek officials struggled to put up hundreds of newly arrived Albanian refugees in makeshift shelters today, and Albanian Jews were arriving in Israel under relaxed travel restrictions.
Hundreds more Albanians trekked across frozen mountains and rivers today in the biggest exodus from their country since its Communist government promised reforms last summer.
Military sources in the northwestern Greek border town of Filiates said today that 632 Albanians, most of them ethnic Greeks, had crossed the frontier since daybreak.
On Sunday, at least 500 Albanians arrived in northern Greece seeking political asylum. In addition, 37 Jews flew to Rome from the Albanian capital of Tirana en route to Israel.
So far this month, more than 1,600 people from the tiny Balkan nation of 3.3 million have fled into Greece across the once tightly sealed 100-mile frontier.
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37bb841dfddb2a7143d6e7e3de17705f
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-mn-5775-story.html
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WORLD : Gorbachev Tells of Errors, Hopes
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WORLD : Gorbachev Tells of Errors, Hopes
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev admitted today that serious errors had been committed under his leadership but predicted that the Soviet people would see a turning point in their fortunes in the coming year.
Gorbachev, in a New Year message broadcast just before midnight, described 1990 as “an exceptionally difficult year.”
He said economic problems were inevitable in a vast country embarking on a transition to a market economy.
“To this were added shortcomings and errors of even recent times--errors by the country’s leadership, our common inadequacies,” he said.
He demanded a commitment to hard work and discipline to halt a decline in living standards. “However deep the crisis endured by our country, we can and must achieve a turning point for the better . . . in the coming year,” Gorbachev said.
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00ec58bf4d827aa7335427689188b144
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5526-story.html
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REPORT CARD : And They Brought Art Shell an Apple . . .
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REPORT CARD : And They Brought Art Shell an Apple . . .
I QUARTERBACKS
An incomplete for John Friesz, who is now only 42,942 yards away from catching Dan Fouts and only 204 days away from the start of training camp.
A RUNNING BACKS
Chargers have thought about trading Rod Bernstine. You can call Stella, the team’s receptionist, at 280-2111, and tell her what you’re thinking.
F RECEIVERS
You know you’re in trouble when the plowhorses (Walker, Cox, McEwen, Hendrickson) have more catches than the thoroughbreds (Miller, Bernstine, Lewis).
C+ OFFENSIVE LINE
Sack and holding call with game on the line hurt. Kudos to Eric Floyd who earned 16 paychecks without aid of deadly disease to wipe out competition.
C DEFENSIVE LINE
Just isn’t the same without Burt Grossman stepping offsides. But then line hasn’t been the same since some dunderhead moved Lee Williams to tackle.
F LINEBACKERS
In losing to Broncos, Chiefs and Raiders, a linebacker has allowed big play to lose the game. And you thought the Chargers’ problem was Tolliver.
B- DEFENSIVE BACKS
Despite first reports, the official who called pass interference on Sam Seale (as he covered Willie Gault) was not wearing a black eye patch.
A SPECIAL TEAMS
Ort the Charger did what he could to help. What did you expect? Steve Ortmayer’s special teams were as bad as his trades while working with Chargers.
F COACHING
First reaction is to praise Dan Henning for not letting his troops quit. Lasting reaction is to rip him because fake punt gave them cause to quit.
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5ed99df33eb5b45e1386dfa6f3301eeb
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5527-story.html
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Talk of Next Season Tires Some Chargers
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Talk of Next Season Tires Some Chargers
A sour expression appeared on Sam Seale’s face.
He’s sick of hearing it. And Sunday he heard it again.
The Chargers had just punctuated their season with a question mark in the form of a 17-12 loss to the Raiders at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The defense, as usual, was good but not good enough. Same as last year.
So somebody asked Seale about next year.
“I’m tired of people saying wait ‘til next year, wait ‘til next year,” he said. “This is my seventh year. I’m tired of next year. I don’t know how many more years I have in the NFL.”
Certainly, seasons such as this are worth more than one year in the aging process. A defense that was supposed to protect the offense the way big brother protects little brother was only able to stick up for itself this season. That left the offense on its own. And the offense got picked on.
It’s hard to pile too much blame for a third consecutive 6-10 finish on the defense, but it’s equally hard to ignore that this group often played well for three quarters and played hooky for the fourth.
Sunday was a typical day at the office. Jay Schroeder’s Raiders foundered in a barrage of Charger blitzes for three quarters. At the end of the third, the Raiders’ only touchdown had come with assistance from a questionable 45-yard pass interference penalty on Seale.
Then the fourth quarter arrived, and the Charger defense departed. The Raiders went 80 yards for a touchdown. So the Chargers handed the ball over to rookie quarterback John Friesz. He didn’t look like Joe Montana. And the Chargers went down stinging.
“Disappointing,” cornerback Gill Byrd said of the defense’s play. “Disappointing, disappointing, disappointing, disappointing. That’s the one word: disappointing.”
“Yeah, you get tired of talking about next year,” safety Martin Bayless said with a shrug. “But what else do you have to look forward to?”
New Year’s Day with the family? The AFC playoffs in the warmth of your living room?
And, maybe, thinking about how to change things for the better. It starts, says Byrd, with complete performances.
“We played good for three quarters, three-and-a-half quarters,” Byrd said. “And when you add it all up, maybe a half a quarter we just didn’t play well and that would cause teams to get in a position where they were winning games.”
Also, this year’s defense wasn’t exactly charmed. Linebacker Junior Seau, the Chargers’ first round draft choice, missed nearly all of training camp while his contract was negotiated. Byrd and safety Vencie Glenn missed portions of camp because of negotiations.
Then, after the third game, nose tackle Joe Phillips was lost for the season after he was assaulted by three men in Mission Beach. That created a big gap in the center of the line that was filled adequately but not spectacularly by Les Miller and George Hinkle.
Linebacker Billy Ray Smith missed five weeks with an abdominal strain, Glenn was a permanent fixture on the injury report for a variety of leg ailments and Byrd was also banged up for a number of games.
Mix that in with the inexperience of both cornerback Donald Frank and safety Anthony Shelton and it spells inconsistency.
“This is closer than we’ve ever been since I’ve been here,” said defensive coordinator Ron Lynn after his fifth season with the club came to a close, “but still not close enough to get the thing done.”
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c379eb66161fb63cc467268938cef008
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5528-story.html
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CHARGER REVIEW : NOTEBOOK : Henning Wants Bernstine to Return
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CHARGER REVIEW : NOTEBOOK : Henning Wants Bernstine to Return
After Rod Bernstine ran 27 times for 114 yards, Coach Dan Henning said it would be his recommendation to the front office to sign and keep Bernstine for next season.
There have been rumors that the Chargers have been unhappy with Bernstine and his penchant for being hurt. He becomes a free agent Feb. 1, and he’s represented by Ralph Cindrich, who was involved in Gary Anderson’s negotiations.
“Bernstine is a hell of a player,” General Manager Bobby Beathard said. “The question on Bernstine is the same this year, last year, whenever. If you can guarantee if he’s going to be healthy for 16 games . . . nobody can guarantee that.
“Every time we discuss Rod that comes up,” said Beathard. “When he’s healthy he plays like hell. I think he can be a big part of this offense. We’re going to try real hard to sign him, but it won’t be easy.”
Beathard said, “Yeah, we’d like to keep him,” but does that mean the Chargers will keep him?
“I’ll continue to go out and give it my all each game when healthy,” Bernstine said. “It’s up to the coaching staff or the GM to get my contract done. Hopefully they want me.
“Like I’ve said all along I want to be here. It’s a question now if they want me here. It’s not like I go out and try to get hurt. I’d like to see myself go through 16 games and see how many yards I could compile. I think me and Marion (Butts) could both get a 1,000 here.”
Normally mild-mannered, linebacker Billy Ray Smith let the officials have it after the Chargers lost, 17-12.
“It’s mysterious to me how the officials can (bleep) so many calls in a single game on one side,” he said. “It blows my mind.”
Smith took offense to a pass interference call on Sam Seale, a holding call on Broderick Thompson and an official’s ruling that Anthony Miller didn’t get out of bounds to stop the clock.
“They need to get full-time guys who aren’t bankers, lawyers and school teachers,” Smith said. “Make them be accountable for the money they get for officiating these games.”
Smith was asked if players can be fined like coaches for criticizing the officials.
“I don’t care; what are they going to do, suspend me for a game?” he said. “I just think they like officiating in LA so they can come back and get a little southern California nightlife. . . . I have no idea (why it happens).”
Smith was also perturbed the officials’ refusal to call a penalty on the Raiders’ Greg Townsend after he tossed quarterback John Friesz to the ground.
“When they take Friesz and flip the guy over, you gotta be kidding me. That’s only right out in the middle of the field. What are they going to tell me they didn’t see that? To the quarterback? How can they justify that? Do they figure he’s a young guy and needs to get used to it? What’s the deal?”
Pop composer Hoyt Axton’s rendition of the National Anthem sounded a lot better than Roseanne Barr’s, but Axton ran into trouble when he got to the “Oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner . . .” He sang ‘Oh . . .,” paused for a second and said sheepishly: “I’ll be damned. I forgot the rest of it.”
Boos followed. Axton said: “Don’t boo me, I’m a Raiders fan.” That brought a few cheers. Then, Axton stumbled through the last lines and walked off, receiving several sympathetic handshakes and pats on the shoulder from bystanders on the field.
The troubled season of Charger safety Vencie Glenn ended on a troubling note.
Glenn, who missed time earlier this season because of a concussion and then because of a hamstring pull, suffered a sprained shoulder on the Raiders’ first possession. Glenn left the field on a cart and was unable to play the remainder of the game.
Glenn, sensitive to suggestions that he has not had a good year, said he’s heard rumors he might not be protected in Plan B free agency and might not be back with the Chargers next season.
“I think it’s 50-50 I’ll be back,” said Glenn, who had one interception this season. “But I know this, I can play. And I’ll be playing somewhere next season.”
The last time he was at the Coliseum, in an exhibition game Sept. 1, he threw a punch and was tossed from the game.
Charger linebacker Junior Seau not only stayed around for the whole game, but he recorded his first NFL sack.
Seau pulled Jay Schroeder to the ground in the waning moments of the first half for a 12-yard loss. After getting to his feet, Seau threw his fist into the air in celebration.
“I was excited at the time,” Seau said. “We were winning at the time. The loss really took a lot away from it.”
What we’ve got here is a quarterback controversy. Billy Joe Tolliver or John Friesz?
“I really believe they can do it,” said quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner. “It’s gotta happen fast; it’s gotta happen next year. But I believe we can win with what we have.”
After his NFL debut Friesz said, “It’s not the Big Sky (Conference).
“I didn’t do that much to hurt us and didn’t do that much to help us,” Friesz said. “I think there will probably be four of us competing next year. They’ll have another guy from the draft or Plan B.
“None of us proved this year we could do it; we all had good moments, but we couldn’t make the plays when needed.”
Something to ponder while watching the Raiders on TV in the playoffs.
“San Diego pushes a lot of teams to the envelope and finds a way to lose,” Raiders defensive lineman Howie Long said. “The Raiders push teams to the envelope and find ways to win. San Diego is a minute away from being 10-6.”
Or a year away from going 6-10 for the fourth year in a row.
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f0e5ca320db2d2992e8c84783bb610c9
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5529-story.html
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Aztec Women Win, 73-59
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Aztec Women Win, 73-59
San Diego State’s women’s basketball team took advantage of some poor shooting by Eastern Michigan, which made just 28% of its shots from the floor, and coasted to a 73-59 victory in front of 145 fans at Peterson Gym.
The Aztecs (6-4), behind center Kieishsha Garnes, who had 10 rebounds and 14 points, led, 43-27 at halftime, after shooting 54% from the field in the first half. They shot 44% for the game, 61% from the free-throw line. Garnes, who played just 28 minutes because of foul trouble, was five-for-six in free throws.
UC San Diego was trounced in the championship game of its own tournament by St. Thomas of Minnesota, 64-34.
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7f229f105cdb1941e86e48cbdff69635
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5530-story.html
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SAN DIEGO SPORTS IN REVIEW: 1990 : Of Roseanne, the Ripper, Socker Success and 6-10ness
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SAN DIEGO SPORTS IN REVIEW: 1990 : Of Roseanne, the Ripper, Socker Success and 6-10ness
JANUARY 2 Christine Adams of Grossmont High sets a section record for three-pointers in a girls’ game with eight in a 70-61 loss to Helix. Adams finished with 45 points.
3 Chargers owner Alex Spanos says, “I’m just tired of losing,” as he announces the signing of Bobby Beathard to a three-year contract as the Chargers’ general manager. “I wish he stayed in the NFC,” says Denver general manager John Beake.
7 Keith Weller, a former Sockers assistant coach, returns to San Diego for the first time as head coach of the Tacoma Stars and watches his new team defeat the Sockers, 4-2.
8 Paul Azinger pars the 18th hole to win the Tournament of Champions at La Costa. Azinger had a four-day total of 272, the second-lowest in the history of the tournament.
11 Dodo Cheney of Santa Monica wins the women’s 65 and 70s singles titles at the San Diego Super Senior Tournament at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club.
22 After beating Hana Mandlikova and Gigi Fernandez earlier in the Australian Open, Angelica Gavaldon of Coronado falls to unseeded and 75-ranked Claudia Porwik, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.
23 In reaction to continuing violence on the playing field, the Board of Managers for the San Diego Section votes unanimously to accept an “Ethics in Sports” policy. Each athlete must sign a Code of Ethics before being eligible.
26 Christian High’s Tony Clark breaks the San Diego Section career-scoring record with a 58-point effort against Clairemont High. Clark surpassed the record of 1,982, set by Bonita Vista’s Paul Halupa in 1970.
31 Sue Hegerle-Snyder takes over as women’s volleyball coach at USD. A former star player and assistant coach at SDSU, Hegerle guides the Toreras to a 15-16 record in the fall, a significant improvement over the 2-26 mark posted in 1989.
FEBRUARY 3 SDSU center Marty Dow tears a tendon in his foot during a 61-49 loss at Utah. The Aztecs win one more game--a week later over U.S. International, 108-97--before losing its final eight in a row. . . . Rick Leach and Jim Pugh clinch the United States’ first round-Davis Cup victory over Mexico by defeating Leonardo Lavalle and Jorge Lozano in four sets at La Costa.
6 Socker owner Ron Fowler creates a stir by announcing that he will consider selling the Major Indoor Soccer League team at the end of the season if ticket sales and advertising revenues don’t increase.
8 Athletic Director Fred Miller confirms the U.S. Department of Education is investigating a complaint alleging sex discrimination against SDSU.
10 Shawn Jamison scores a season-high 37 points during the Aztecs’ victory over USIU. Jamison, a junior, ends up being declared academically ineligible during the summer and transfers to Texas-San Antonio. . . . Jose Luis Noriega of USD loses a three-set match to Todd Martin of Northwestern in the semifinals of the National Indoor Collegiate Championships in Minneapolis.
13 Oceanside High’s Terry Vaughn, the leading rusher in San Diego County, announces he will attend the University of Arizona on a football scholarship. Vaughn also said he will play baseball at Arizona.
14 Padre catcher Benito Santiago receives $1.25 million in an arbitration ruling, the highest in franchise history.
16 SDSU President Thomas Day issues a directive to upgrade academic standards for athletes. Among his goals are to reduce the number of athletes “specially admitted” to the university, ban most “special admits” from competition during their first year, limit the amount of time athletes can spend on academic probation and still retain their eligibility and encourage athletes to take courses that fulfill graduation requirements rather than eligibility requirements. . . . Tim Rapp scores a school-record 42 points in UC San Diego’s 99-74 victory over Cal State San Bernardino.
17 Kevin Bradshaw, a 6-6 junior guard, sets a single-season school scoring record in U.S. International’s 109-91 basketball loss to Missouri-Kansas City. Bradshaw scored 29 points in the game to bring his season total to 773. . . . Valhalla captures the 2-A section wrestling title, 257 1/2 to 246 1/2 over Monte Vista.
18 Dan Forsman shoots a par round of 72 to win the Shearson Lehman Hutton Open at Torrey Pines by four strokes over Tommy Armour.
21 Five Sockers--Brian Quinn, Branko Segota, Zoran Karic, George Fernandez and Kevin Crow--participate at the MISL All-Star game held at the San Diego Sports Arena. Fernandez scores a goal and assists on another to earn the game’s MVP award.
23 Padre owner Joan Kroc puts her son-in-law, Jerry Kapstein, in charge of Padre operations. Within a month, he already is comparing the Padres to the Big Red Machine. “It’s foolish to say we have a great club before we start playing,” he said, “but I know it has talent. It has chemistry. I just sense a great togetherness on this ballclub.” . . . Bishop’s defeats Calvin Christian, 4-0, to win its second consecutive 1-A soccer title.
24 The USD women’s basketball team finishes its best season ever at 17-10 with a 72-56 rout over Pepperdine. Candida Echeverria, a first-team all-West Coast Conference guard, ends her career with 1,211 points, the most in Torera history. . . . The Sockers sink to an all-time low, losing at home to the St. Louis Storm, 6-1, to put their season record at 14-20.
25 Tony Clark sets a section single-game scoring record with 64 points in a 103-66 quarterfinal victory over La Jolla Country Day in the Division V quarterfinals.
27 John Jerome becomes USD’s single-season scoring leader for men’s basketball with 23 points in a 100-91 victory over Southern Utah State. Jerome finishes the season with 540 points and a 19.3 scoring average, another Torero record.
MARCH 1 In the section basketball finals, played at Golden Hall instead of the Sports Arena, Lincoln beats USDHS in the Division III boys’ final, 83-66, and Our Lady of Peace defeats the Lincoln girls, 67-60.
2 Top-seeded Sweetwater defeats No. 2 Mt. Carmel, 78-71, to win the boys’ Division I basketball title, and Mt. Carmel’s girls beat Sweetwater, 56-55. Coronado’s boys and the girls from La Jolla Country Day and Holtville also win titles. . . . Poway’s boys defeat Bonita Vista, 2-0, to win the 3-A soccer final, and Torrey Pines wins its third consecutive girls’ title with a 1-0 decision over Bonita Vista.
3 Pat Holbert scores 27 points to lead USD to an 80-74 victory over San Francisco in the first round of the West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament. It would end up being USD’s last game of the season, because the WCC tournament is canceled because of the death of Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount, USD finishes 16-12. . . . El Camino beats University City, 68-65, to win the boys’ Division II section basketball title, and Point Loma’s girls win their second consecutive title and sixth in seven years with a 62-34 victory over San Pasqual. Christian wins the boys’ Division V title. . . . San Diego’s 1-0 victory in the 2-A boys’ soccer final ends Valhalla’s streak of 78 consecutive games without a loss. After playing in the basketball final, Nikki Gannon helps San Pasqual win its fifth consecutive girls’ crown, 3-1, over USDHS. . . . Poway, which qualified a state-record 12 wrestlers out of 13, finishes third in the state meet.
5 After SDSU dropped its final six games of the regular season, Coach Jim Brandenburg receives a one-year contract extension, taking him through the 1992-93 season.
7 SDSU finishes 13-18 after a 70-64 loss in overtime to Air Force in the WAC tournament. . . . The Sockers announce that they have traded forward Zoran Karic to the Cleveland Crunch for Paul Wright, a former Socker who played at Grossmont High School.
10 Tony Clark’s 48 points give Christian an 80-72 victory over Canoga Park in the Southern California Regional Division V championships. Top-seeded Point Loma blows a 28-13 halftime lead in a 43-38 loss to Pasadena Muir in the Division II girls’ championships. Afterward, Coach Lee Trepanier, with a 335-51 career record, announces his retirement, citing health reasons. It would later be revealed he has stomach cancer.
12 Gene Klein, 69, who owned the Chargers from Aug. 25, 1966 to Aug. 1, 1984, dies of a heart attack. Klein also was a three-time winner of the Eclipse Award, given to America’s leading thoroughbred owner.
13 After an initial secret ballot, San Diego learns its bid to host the 1993 Super Bowl has fallen short. Phoenix wins on a fifth ballot over the Rose Bowl. “I’m just shocked, absolutely shocked,” Chargers owner Alex Spanos says. . . . Orange Glen pitcher Scott Coleman, who threw consecutive no-hitters, has his no-hit streak end at a section-record 16 innings.
17 Christian Heritage wins the National Christian College Athletic Assn. men’s basketball title over Cedarville (Ohio), 106-97.
18 The baseball lockout ends. “Everything’s all set to go now,” Padre catcher Mark Parent says. “Now, all we have to do is go out and win the World Series, huh?”
22 Brent Noon becomes the first California school boy to top 70 feet in the shot put--doing it six times--with a best of 73-3, the nation’s third-best mark ever.
25 Doug Padilla wins the Carlsbad 5,000 in 13:29.50, edging Mexico’s Ignacio Fragoso (13:31), to set the American 5,000-meter road race record.
29 Oceanside baseball pitcher Ben Pai dies after suffering an asthma attack shortly after playing a recreational basketball game. Pai’s father, Benjamin Sr., speaks to the team prior to the fourth inning in Oceanside’s first game after the tragedy and they respond with eight runs in a 9-2 victory over rival El Camino.
APRIL 1 Christian’s Tony Clark is named The Times’ boys’ basketball player of the year after setting county marks for points in a game (64), season (1,339) and career (2,549). His 43.1 average is the second-highest in state history. The Times’ other honorees are Point Loma’s Tyeast Brown (girls’ basketball), Sweetwater’s David Ybarra (boys’ coach), and Mt. Carmel’s Peggy Brose (girls’ coach).
2 The Padres announce that the team will be sold for $75 million to a group headed by TV producer Tom Werner.
4 Laker and Forum owner Jerry Buss says he wants an NHL expansion team before he builds an arena for the franchise, either in San Diego, Orange or Riverside counties.
8 Just as she did in 1989, Nancy Brown enters the fourth round of the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori golf tournament at Poway’s StoneRidge Country Club with an eight-under 205 and a one-stroke lead, only to lose it with a disastrous final day. Her five-over-par 76 drops her to seventh. The winner is Kris Monaghan, who finished with an eight-under 276.
13 The University of Washington wins the San Diego Crew Classic’s Copley Cup--again--when the U.S. Rowing committee overturns the re-row victory by Harvard.
14 University City’s Jerome Price jumps 25-5 in the Sundevil Invitational to become the national high school leader.
15 The Padres complete their first three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park since 1982, creating an immediate wave of euphoria in the Padre clubhouse.
18 The Padres lose two consecutive games to the Reds, who remain undefeated, 8-0. Still, the Padres are undaunted. “I’m not taking anything away from them,” Manager Jack McKeon said, “but things are just going right for them now. Everything’s going their way. But eventually, things will go wrong. Things don’t always go right.”
19 Chargers end a year of bickering with running back Gary Anderson and send their 1988 most valuable player to Tampa Bay for a pair of draft choices. Anderson, who sat out the 1989 season, signs a $3.6 million contract with the Bucs and will make $1 million in his first season.
22 USC linebacker Junior Seau, who grew up in Oceanside, is selected in the first round of the draft by the Chargers. “I’d give up a couple of hundred thousand dollars to come back home,” says a happy Seau. . . . Continuing to take an active role in the athletic department, SDSU President Thomas Day announces a three-pronged program which includes looking into the possibility of joining either the Pac 10 or Big West. . . . Chris Huber, who could barely walk a day earlier because of muscle spasms in his abdomen, wins the 40-mile La Jolla Grand Prix cycling race. Marianne Berglund wins the women’s race, her fourth victory in La Jolla.
26 Quarterback Jim McMahon, who was booed on Fan Appreciation Day, is told by the Chargers to seek employment elsewhere. “Billy (Joe Tolliver) now is the guy,” says general manager Bobby Beathard.
27 The New York State Court of Appeals rules 5-2 to return the America’s Cup to the San Diego Yacht Club. . . . Charger center Don Macek, the last remaining member of the Air Coryell teams, announces his retirement. “We played football with a style and flair that nobody has done before I don’t believe anybody else will do again,” says Macek.
MAY 3 U.S. International representatives and athletic directors from six independent schools throughout the country meet in Mission Valley to discuss the possibilities of forming a new basketball conference for the 1991-92 season.
4 After three years of legal battles and a year in a dark New York bank vault, the America’s Cup trophy returns to sunshine and cheers in San Diego. . . . A baseball game between USD and Nevada Reno is cancelled in the fifth inning after a benches-clearing brawl erupted. A doubleheader the next day between the two schools is also cancelled and later ruled forfeitures by USD. USD Coach John Cunningham is suspended for three games by West Coast Conference Commissioner Michael Gilleran. Nevada Reno Coach Gary Powers is suspended for four games. Jake Molina, a USD assistant coach, is suspended for two games, as were the two players, one from each team, who were deemed the instigators.
5 The Sockers defeat the St. Louis Storm, 5-4, in St. Louis to win the Western Division semifinal series.
6 UC San Diego wins its second USA Women’s Collegiate Water Polo National Championship with an 8-3 victory over UC Davis in Providence, R.I., and finishes undefeated (26-0) for the first time in school history.
9 Jack McKeon has his first closed-door meeting with the team after their 11-5 defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals, after leading 5-0. “It’s embarrassing knowing that your club is better than this,” McKeon said.
10 The USD women’s tennis team, ranked 14th, makes the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, but are ousted in the second round by No. 3 Cal.
18 Julianne Bauer of Bonita Vista chooses diving over cheerleading and wins the Section championship with the third-highest point total ever. Bonita Vista pulls a double when Chris Chapman wins the boys’ title.
19 SDHS’s Alison Terry breaks Section girls’ swimming marks in the 100-yard butterfly and 100 individual medley. She broke records in two events in both her sophomore and freshman years as well. Mira Mesa’s Mike Picotte is a three-event winner. Poway boys’ and girls’ win team titles. . . . The SDSU baseball team scores in the bottom of the 11th to defeat Brigham Young, 5-4, and win the WAC title in Honolulu. . . . Behind the steady play of seniors Dan Mattera, Chris Toomey and James Edwards and sophomore Jose Luis Noriega, who was ranked fifth in the nation, the USD men’s tennis team, ranked 17th, makes it to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to UCLA.
20 Brazil’s Jackie Silva and San Juan Capistrano’s Janice Opalinski come through the loser’s bracket to win the the San Diego Open, a women’s professional volleyball tourament at Pacific Beach. . . . Rolando Vera of Equador runs the fastest-ever 10 kilometer race in San Diego (28:08) in the inaugural Trib 10K downtown. Shelly Steely of Eugene, Ore., wins the women’s race.
22 Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn learns that teammate Mike Pagliarulo was talking about Gwynn when he told the New York Daily News that there’s a selfish player on the team. “You know, I thought I got along with everybody,” Gwynn said. “I’ve always tried to do my very best. And God only knows how much I love to win. I never thought any of my teammates would ever think of me this way.” Pagliarulo still refuses to say whether he was referring to Gwynn: “Let him assume what he wants. If you’re a team player, you don’t worry about it, do you?”
23 The Padres hold a 50-minute players-only meeting to discuss Pagliarulo’s comments. In the meeting, Clark, Garry Templeton and Fred Lynn each back Pagliarulo, accusing Gwynn of caring only about his statistics. “We got a lot of things off our chest,” Clark said. “I know I got things off mine.” Said Gwynn: “I’m more confused than at any time in my career. . . . El Camino’s Mona Nedjar wins the all-around optional title at the Section gymnastics championships. Torrey Pines’ Lauren Gist wins the all-around compulsory title and Torrey Pines defends its team championship. . . . A birdie on 18 wins the Section individual golf championship for Madison’s Chris Riley at Singing Hills Golf Course. . . . After trailing the Dallas Sidekicks two games to one in the Western Division Finals, the Sockers come back to win three in a row and the series with a 3-1 victory at Reunion Arena.
24 Danish foreign exchange student Chris Hansen, playing for University City, wins the boys’ Section badminton singles title, then teams with Eric Lee for the doubles championship. . . . La Jolla (2-A) and Poway (3-A) win the Section team boys’ tennis titles.
25 San Dieguito captures its third consecutive 3-A Section boys’ volleyball final over Mt. Carmel and finishes the season 16-0. San Pasqual defeated University City for the 2-A title. . . . Jack Clark, who was within days of being activated after an earlier injury, is running sprints in the outfield before a game with the Yankees when teammate Pat Clements accidentally hits him with a baseball, fracturing his left cheekbone. When Clark finally returns June 6, guess who’s sent to the minors . . . Clements.
26 SDSU loses to Stanford, 6-2, but bounces back in the afternoon to defeat Southern Illinois in 10 innings, 4-3, to stay alive in the double-elimination NCAA tournament. . . . Mt. Carmel sophomore Allison Dring sets a Section record of 54.29 in the girls’ 400 meters and wins three other events, including two relays, in the track and field finals at Poway High. Other multiple winners were Morse’s Chris Jones, Fallbrook’s Brent Noon and Milena Glusac and Oceanside’s Angela Sims. . . . Santana pitcher Shelly Hawkins holds Madison to two hits to lead the Sultans to a 1-0 victory and the Section 2-A softball championship. Rancho Buena Vista blanks Orange Glen, 5-0, for the 3-A title and Bishop’s takes the 1-A with a 7-4 victory over La Jolla Country Day.
27 Padre reliever Greg Harris hits New York Met shortstop Kevin Elster with a pitch, igniting a bench-clearing brawl. It’s the Padres’ first brawl since July 7, 1987, when pitcher Show beaned Andre Dawson of the Cubs.
28 Needing two victories to advance to the College World Series, SDSU loses to Stanford, 6-2.
30 Top-ranked Grossmont High, No. 18 in the nation by USA Today, wins the Section 2-A baseball title, 5-2 over San Diego. Travis Denmark retires 16 of the final 18 batters as Julian High wins its second 1-A title in three years, 5-2 over Midway Baptist.
31 Mira Mesa, seeded 15th in 16 teams in the 3-A baseball playoffs, defeats Monte Vista, 8-1, for the Section title. The Marauders finished third in the City Eastern League.
JUNE 1 St. Augustine’s Ignacio Martinez takes almost three hours to recapture the Section high school boys’ singles tennis title at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club. . . . Rowdy Brazilian fans help their men’s national volleyball team defeat the United States, 13-15, 15-9, 15-8, 15-6, in World League play at the Sports Arena.
2 Fallbrook’s Brent Noon falls short of his goal of a national high school shot put record of 77-feet-0, but still betters his own meet record to win the state title in Norwalk with a heave of 74-4 3/4. . . . Heart of America wins the featured 12-meter yacht race of the fifth BMW regatta on San Diego Bay.
4 Despite signing a letter of intent to play basketball at Arizona, Christian’s Tony Clark is picked second in baseball’s free agent draft by the Detroit Tigers.
8 After blowing an opportunity to win the championship in front of their home fans for the second year in a row, the Sockers wrap up their eighth title in Baltimore with a 6-4 victory over the Blast. Midfielder Brian Quinn is chosen MVP of the playoffs.
9 USDHS alumnus and Arizona State sophomore Phil Mickelson, the San Diego Section golfer of the year in 1987 and 1988 and the NCAA champion in 1989, is the first repeat champion since San Diego’s Scott Simpson in 1976 and 1977.
10 Pat Duncan is declared the winner at the 58th San Diego Men’s Amateur Golf Championship at Torrey Pines. The event was rain-shortened.
11 USIU’s bid to form the American Conference, an NCAA Division I independent basketball league for the 1991-1992 season, is stalled until 1991 when not enough schools in the proposed 10-team conference make formal commitments.
14 Padre catcher Benito Santiago sustains a broken right forearm when he was hit by a pitch thrown by Giant reliever Jeff Brantley, drawing the ire of teammates, particularly Jack Clark. “You know how I feel about the Giants, anyway,” Clark said, “I can’t stand them. Now I just hate them that much worse. Their time will come, believe me, their time will come.” . . . San Diego is awarded a franchise to begin play in the International Hockey League in less than four months. San Diego is expected to compete in the league’s Western Division with Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Peoria, Ill. . . . Patrick Henry High is ruled ineligible to compete in postseason baseball playoffs in 1991 and Monte Vista is put on probation, the result of a brawl between the two schools in the Section semifinals, Commissioner Kendall Webb announces.
15 A day after it is announced that there would be a hockey franchise playing in the San Diego Sports Arena in the fall, Socker owner Ron Fowler says he won’t post the $500,000 letter of credit for this season unless he receives scheduling priority over the Gulls. He was later given first pick of arena dates and the problem was solved.
16 The United States Olympic Committee breaks ground for its first year-round training center in Otay Lakes.
23 Don Waddell is named general manager of San Diego’s yet-to-be-named hockey team.
24 Australian Greg Welch, who now lives and trains in San Diego, and Encinitas’ Paula Newby-Fraser set course records and win the Mountain Dew Sport San Diego International Triathlon. . . . Santa Barbara’s Chris Brown wins the $50,000 Killer Loop Surf Classic at Oceanside Pier. . . . And in a game that perhaps best-exemplifies the Padres’ rotten season, the Padres have 17 hits, hit two homers, steal seven bases, and get a three-run pinch-hit double from a pitcher, and still lose, 11-10, in 12 innings to the Atlanta Braves.
JULY 2 SDSU President Day announces that local residents and businesses have donated or pledged a total of $1 million over the next seven years in an effort to eliminate the $518,000 budget deficit facing the SDSU athletic department.
8 Tony Bujon of Texas Christian defeats San Diego’s Anthony Trear and USD’s Tanya Fuller outlasts SDSU’s Dorey Brandt to capture the open singles titles in the 74th La Jolla Tennis Championships. . . . The Detroit Tigers sign Christian High basketball and baseball star Tony Clark.
11 The Padres announce Jack McKeon is stepping aside, devoting full attention to his job as general manager. Greg Riddoch, who has not managed in 10 years, since he was in the Northwest rookie league, takes over.
18 Mike O’Connell, a 12-year NHL veteran defenseman, is named coach for the still unnamed IHL hockey expansion team. O’Connell, 34, played for the Detroit Red Wings the past four years.
19 The Padres, losers of 21 of their past 25 games, are called the most comical team since the 1951 St. Louis Browns in the Times. Portions of the article appear two days later in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Garry Templeton, team captain, has the story copied and leaves one for each player as they arrive into the clubhouse. He also calls a team meeting two days later, chastising the reporter.
20 Lisa Kiggens of Bakersfield and Notah Begay III of Albuquerque, N.M., capture the girls’ and boys’ 15-17 division titles of the Optimist Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines.
22 Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe shoots a final-round 70 to win the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship at the Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles. Duncan finishes at five under par for the tournament.
23 The Padres, losing 9-2 to the Cincinnati Reds, lower Riddoch’s managerial record to 1-11. It’s the worst start of any Padre manager in history. “I’ve learned in this business you can’t put too many pictures on the wall,” Riddoch said, “because you might soon be taking them down.” . . . Sockers owner Ron Fowler holds a press conference in San Diego while St. Louis Storm owner Milan Mandaric does the same in St. Louis. The announcement: Mandaric will continue to fund the team and the MISL will go forward. If the Storm had folded, so too would the Sockers and the league would have gone down.
24 Now that the MISL is safe for its 13th season, it changes its name to the Major Soccer League.
25 Roseanne Barr, asked by new Padre owner Tom Werner to sing the national anthem between games of a doubleheader against the Reds, shocks and insults a crowd of 25,744 with her cracking, screaching, mocking rendition. She tops it off by grabbing her crotch and spitting. . . . Shawn Jamison, the SDSU basketball team’s leading scorer, and Michael Hudson, a swingman who moved into the starting lineup toward the end of the season, are declared academically ineligible and drop out of school.
28 San Diego’s new minor league hockey team is given an old name . . . the Gulls. A team with that name played here in the World Hockey League in the late 1960s.
AUGUST 4 Oceanside’s Terry Vaughn rushes for 165 yards and two touchdowns to lead San Diego to a 28-19 victory over Los Angeles in the Southern California College Prep Football Game at Mira Mesa High.
8 Former Los Angeles King left wing Charlie Simmer is hired as a Gulls’ player/assistant coach. Simmer, Mercel Dionne and Dave Taylor made up the famous “Triple Crown Line” of the early 1980s.
10 Benito Santiago returns 56 days after suffering his broken forearm. At the time of his departure, he was hitting .317 with nine homers and 33 RBIs. In his absence, his replacements batted .205 with three homers and 13 RBIs.
11 La Jolla’s Ditta Huber, 14, defeats Lisa Pugliese of Boca Raton, Fla., 7-6 (9-7), 1-6, 6-2, to win the U.S. Tennis Assn. Girls’ 16s National Singles Championship at San Diego’s Morley Field. Huber and Lindsay Davenport of Palos Verdes also capture the doubles championship.
12 Steffi Graf captures her 50th career singles title, winning the Great American Bank Tennis Classic at San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club. She defeats Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 6-3, 6-2, in the final.
14 A crowd of 10,590 turns out at the San Diego Sports Arena for the Seagram’s Coolers All-Star Basketball Classic expecting to see NBA stars Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Mark Aguirre only to find out all three are no-shows. The White team’s 169-156 victory over the Blue team is anticlimactic.
24 Padre Manager Greg Riddoch is rehired for the 1991 season, paying him $160,000.
26 San Diego’s Phil Mickelson whips his former teammate at USDHS, Manny Zerman, five and four, to win the U.S. Amateur championship in match play. Mickelson, a two-time NCAA champion at Arizona State, earns the right to play in the 1991 British Open, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open and Masters.
27 An unhappy Junior Seau ends training camp-long holdout and signs a $4.525 million five-year contract. “Shoved down my throat? No. But from the other end maybe,” says Seau.
29 San Diego’s Peter Isler, the first American to declare an America’s Cup defense campaign for 1992, becomes the first to drop out because of a lack of funds.
31 The Padres make their first offer to Jack Clark, a contract that will pay him $2.1 million with $400,000 in incentives. Clark’s reaction: “That’s like Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s ugly. It’s disgusting. It’s disgraceful.”
SEPTEMBER 3 Sept. 3--Trainer Charlie Whittingham wins his third Del Mar Handicap race in four years when his Live The Dream wins the $300,000 race at Del Mar. Alex Solis rides Live The Dream to the victory less than 24 hours after winning the Del Mar Debutante aboard Beyond Perfection.
5 The USD men’s soccer team ties UCLA, 3-3, becoming the only team to score three goals off the eventual NCAA-champion Bruins.
8 Tony Gwynn finds a mutilated figurine of himself hanging from a coat hook in the dugout, leaving him enraged. “It shocked me, absolutely shocked me,” Gwynn said. “I can’t believe someone would do that.” . . . SDSU opens its football season with a 42-21 loss at Oregon. Duck quarterback Bill Musgrave completes 31 of 46 passes for 443 yards. SDSU is called for five penalties in the first quarter.
9 Mark Vlasic starts the regular-season opener and takes the Chargers into the fourth quarter in Dallas with 14-10 lead, but Dan Henning’s call for a fake punt backfires and leads to the Cowboys’ 17-14 victory. “I called it and I shouldn’t have called it,” Henning says. “It’s my dumb mistake.”
11 UC San Diego men’s soccer goalie Brian Siljander records his 27th career shutout, a school record, in a 2-0 victory over Biola.
12 Best Pal becomes that to bettors who wager on the 2-year-old gelding in the $344,100 Del Mar Futurity. Best Pal is named horse of the meet and troubled jockey Pat Valenzuela wins the riders title. Richard Mandella wins his last five starts to tie Bill Spawr and Wayne Lukas in the trainer standings.
14 Rashaan Salaam of La Jolla Country Day, a 15-year-old junior, scores a county record seven touchdowns in a 68-0 romp over Marian. Rancho Bernardo High wins its first ever football game, 20-7, over Coronado.
15 Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn breaks his right index finger in Atlanta, ending his season. . . . USD’s Brian Fogarty becomes the school’s winningest football coach after a 31-7 victory over Claremont.
16 After setting speed records all week long, Chip Hanauer, driving Circus Circus, wins the Budweiser Cup unlimited hydroplane race on Mission Bay.
20 Padre President Dick Freeman announces that a member of the grounds crew is responsible for the mutilated doll of Gwynn. No name is released, no one steps forward and no one believes it.
21 Jack McKeon addresses the Padre ownership group and, five hours later, is fired. In the next two months, 30 more Padre officials in the McKeon regime would be fired. . . . The hockey Gulls announce they have reached a partial working agreement with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, who immediately supply the IHL team with seven players.
22 The Aztecs lose at Brigham Young, 62-34. The game was telecast by CBS to approximately 80% of the nation, and the two quarterbacks--SDSU’s Dan McGwire and BYU’s future Heisman Trophy winner, Ty Detmer--put on a show. McGwire passes for 362 yards and three touchdowns and Detmer passes for 514 yards and three touchdowns.
23 Mike Pigg of Arcata and Joy Hansen of Newtown Square, Pa., win the men’s and women’s divisions of the San Diego Bud Light Triathlon in Encinitas.
26 Jack Clark becomes the first player in baseball to heave a base, throwing the first-base bag toward the stands at Candlestick, resulting in his fourth ejection of the season. Padre officials secretly reveal that Clark will not be back. . . . Starting nose tackle Joe Phillips is badly beaten outside a Mission Beach Rastaurant. Phillips suffers a fractured eye orbit.
27 Craig Anderson of Fallbrook and Bill O’Connor of Beverly Hills combine to win the Trans-Mississippi Four-Ball golf championship at Rancho Santa Fe.
28 Markeith Ross of Rancho Buena Vista ties the county record with seven touchdowns, rushing for 329 yards in a 54-33 victory over Poway. The following week, Ross rushes for 294 yards and scored five touchdowns in a 58-19 victory over Vista.
29 Jack Clark blames Gwynn for most of the Padres’ problems and says that unless they trade Gwynn, the Padres will continue to be a losing organization. “You hear all this talk about Mr. Padre, Mr. San Diego, and all that crap,” Clark said, “I just want to laugh.”
30 Chargers fall to 1-3 with 17-7 loss to Houston as placekicker Fuad Reveiz misses two field-goal attempts. Reveiz’s 2-for-7 performance causes the Chargers to switch to John Carney.
OCTOBER 2 Joe McIlvaine is introduced as the Padres’ new general manager and tries to be optimistic in his press conference. “I’m going to wipe the slate clean,” he said. “I’m the new man in town. Anything that’s happened in the past, I have no control over.”
4 Rudy Suwara coaches his 400th women’s volleyball match victory at SDSU as the Aztecs defeat Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 15-8, 15-10, 15-6.
5 Hockey returns to San Diego with much hoopla and a opening night crowd of 9,046. The Gulls’ respond with a 4-3 victory over Salt Lake at the Sports Arena.
6 San Diego State’s football team scores 51 points--only to see Wyoming get 52. The trip to Laramie turns into a nightmare. Dan McGwire passes for 415 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. The two teams combine for 13 touchdowns, four field goals and 1,263 yards of total offense.
7 Don Janicki wins the Coronado Bridge 6.5-mile race after runner-up Tony Niemczak of Poland took a wrong turn with less than a mile to go.
10 After Steelers end a four-game touchdown drought against Chargers with 36-14 victory, rumors circulate that owner Alex Spanos has been talked out of firing Dan Henning as head coach by General Manager Bobby Beathard. “That’s bull,” says Spanos. “There’s no truth to it whatsoever.”
14 Tonya Fuller of USD upsets Danielle Scott of Arizona, 6-2, 6-2, to win the Rolex Intercollegiate Tennis Southern California championship at UC Irvine. Dorey Brandt and Nicole Storto of SDSU defeated Scott and Banny Redhair of Arizona to win the doubles title.
19 Point Loma Nazarene clinches its first Golden State Athletic Conference women’s volleyball title with a 3-2 victory over Westmont.
21 John Halverson of Norway and Shelly Steely of the United States win the men’s and women’s races in the Arturo Barrios 10K in Chula Vista.
26 The pregame buildup proves to be better than the game as No. 1 Morse routes No. 2 Point Loma, 40-13, in high school football at Point Loma.
NOVEMBER 2 Markeith Ross, a senior running back at Rancho Buena Vista, becomes the Section’s all-time leading rusher as he gains 159 yards on 18 carries in a 38-24 victory over Fallbrook. Ross’ total reaches 4,496, surpassing the 4,486 yards former teammate O.J. Hall accumulated for RBV in 1987-89.
3 Mira Mesa’s Valerie Lafon wins the 48KG division at the U.S. International Invitational Judo Championships for the second year in a row. Lafon is later named the sport’s athlete of the year by the U.S. Olympic Committee. . . . Tom Higginson, owner of the San Diego Indoor Soccer Center, the Sockers’ practice facility, tells the team to find a new practice rink after reading derogatory remarks made by Sockers players about his field. A week later, Higginson says he over-reacted and welcomes the team back.
7 The city of San Diego, which in past years sparked bitter controversy by deciding not to name Market Street and the San Diego Convention Center after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., suddenly emerges as a contender to host the 1993 Super Bowl because Arizona voted down referenda honoring Dr. King.
10 The Fiesta Bowl committee jumps on the bandwagon and announces a contingency plan to move the New Year’s Day bowl to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for the same reason the NFL wants to take the 1993 Super Bowl away from Phoenix. . . . With a commanding 21-10 football victory over Azusa Pacific, USD finishes 7-2 for the second consecutive season.
11 Juan Manuel Fangio II mounts a new engine onto his Toyota Eagle and ends up winning the Camel Grand Prix of Greater San Diego, averaging 78.836 m.p.h. per lap. . . . Chargers whip Denver 19-3 for their third victory in a row to even their record at 5-5 before 59,557 fans. “I haven’t seen the stadium like this in a long time,” cornerback Gill Byrd says after intercepting a pair of John Elway passes.
16 Holtville’s football team upsets Army-Navy Academy, 37-27, for the Section 1-A championship.
18 A dream season for the USD men’s soccer team comes to an end with a 2-1 overtime loss to UCLA in the semifinals of the NCAA West Region playoffs at UCLA. Later, five Toreros are named to the West Coast Conference first team, including defensive player of the year Trong Nguyen, who also becomes USD’s first soccer All-American. Seamus McFadden is named coach of the year in the WCC after guiding the Toreros to a 15-3-3 mark, the best in school history.
19 UC San Diego’s women’s volleyball team rallies from a one-game deficit and tops defending champion Washington, 15-4, 13-15, 9-15, 15-8, 15-6, to win the Division III national championship in St. Louis. It is UCSD’s sixth national title in 10 years.
20 Quarterback Dan McGwire, receivers Patrick Rowe and Dennis Arey and offensive tackle Nick Subis are named to the 1990 All-WAC team.
24 Dennis Arey passes the 1,000-yard mark for the season as SDSU defeats Texas El Paso, 58-31, to join Patrick Rowe and make SDSU only the second team in NCAA history to have two receivers accumulate more than 1,000 yards. . . . SDSU opens its basketball season with a 99-63 loss at North Carolina.
25 Tight end Arthur Cox draws an unsportsmanlike penalty that costs the Chargers a touchdown and then fumbles twice, including an overtime bobble, to set up Seattle’s 13-10 victory on national TV. “We’ve lost some games since I’ve been here, but this one hurts a little more than any other,” says safety Vencie Glenn.
27 Four SDSU players are invited to postseason bowl games--McGwire (Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Game), Arey (Blue-Gray and East-West Shrine), Subis (Blue-Gray and All-America Games) and defensive lineman Pio Sagapolutele (Hula Bowl). . . . USD escapes with a 75-74 victory over rival SDSU in a men’s basketball game at the San Diego Sports Arena. SDSU misses two shots in the final 21 seconds. It is USD’s first of five consecutive victories, a Division I best to start the season.
DECEMBER 1 The Aztecs nearly upset third-ranked Miami. The Hurricanes win, 30-28, but only after turning an SDSU interception and fumble into 10 points and watching Aztec kicker Andy Trakas miss three field goals. . . . Brett Salisbury passes for 379 yards in the first half as Palomar College defeats Antelope Valley, 28-24, in the fifth Hall of Fame Bowl.
5 Padre General Manager Joe McIlvaine pulls off one of the biggest trades in the history of the winter meetings, dealing Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for shortstop Tony Fernandez and first baseman Fred McGriff. . . . SDSU’s Patrick Rowe, who finished the season first in the nation in receiving yards per game, is named to the second team of the Associated Press All-American team.
7 Stanford eliminates SDSU from the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament with a West Regional semifinal victory, 15-11, 13-15, 15-6, 15-1.
8 To no one’s surprise, Morse claims the Section’s 3-A football title by defeating Orange Glen, 28-7, and finishes its season with a perfect record, 14-0. Later at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, El Camino upset Kearny, 26-7, for the 2-A title. . . Jack Clark blasts Padre Manager Greg Riddoch, telling The Times, “He’s a bad, bad man, and he’s sneaky. He’s a snake. Well, not just a snake, but a s-s-s-n-n-nake . . . He’ll stab anyone in the back to get to the top.”
9 After running into many roadblocks, the San Diego Marathon is run on a new North County course. Benjamin Paredez Martinez of Ecatepec, Mexico, finishes first in the men’s race (2:19:3), and Kathy Smith of Newport Beach does the same in the women’s race (2:43:05).
12 Coach Dan Henning blasts linebacker Leslie O’Neal in team meeting for published comments about the team’s promotional efforts and Billy Ray Smith. Henning threatens O’Neal with suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, and O’Neal responds by proclaiming he stands by what he said.
14 After winning five men’s basketball games to start the season, USD dropped its third in a row, 83-73, to Cal State Northridge. Coach Hank Egan called it “The worst game I’ve ever seen.”
16 Chargers are eliminated from playoff contention with a 20-10 defeat by the Broncos in Denver, but running back Marion Butts sets a single-season rushing mark with 1,225 yards. Butts eclipsed Earnest Jackson’s total of 1,179 yards and leads the NFL in rushing.
18 Nose tackle Joe Phillips has a press conference and announces he has undergone alcohol dependency treatment at the Betty Ford Center. When the Chargers learned of his visit, he says they decided to pay him half of his salary rather than a full $315,000. He says he may file a lawsuit and declines to rejoin the team for practice. . . . SDSU extends football coach Al Luginbill’s contract by one year, through the 1993 season.
23 Padre catcher Benito Santiago is arrested on Coronado on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest after an incident during which Santiago alleged he was beaten by three police officers.
28 Tony Clark, former Valhalla and Christian High standout, announces he is quitting the University of Arizona basketball team after playing in just five games. Clark, picked No. 1 in the major league baseball draft last June, cites personal reasons and lack of sufficient playing time for leaving Arizona. . . . U.S. International University’s board of trustees, having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, terminates the schools sports programs, effective immediately. The only exception is men’s basketball, which is allowed to finish the 1990-91 season.
29 Unranked Texas A&M; rips Brigham Young in the 13th Holiday Bowl, 65-14. Aggie quarterback Bucky Richardson, offensive most valuable player, stole the show, completing nine of 11 passes for 203 yards, rushing 12 times for 119 yards and even catching a 22-yard touchdown pass from halfback Darren Lewis. BYU Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer, meanwhile, leaves early in the third quarter after separating both shoulders. Texas A&M;'s 65 points represents the largest output in college bowl history. “That’s all we heard about was Ty Detmer this, Ty Detmer that,” Aggie linebacker William Thomas says. “I don’t know about everybody else, but I got pretty sick hearing about that guy.”
30 The Raiders clinch the AFC West Division championship with a 17-12 victory over the Chargers, who create controversy by starting rookie John Friesz--who hadn’t played a down all season--at quarterback instead of Billy Joe Tolliver. The Chargers finish with a 6-10 record for the third consecutive season.
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NBA ROUNDUP : Bucks Stay Unbeaten at Home
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NBA ROUNDUP : Bucks Stay Unbeaten at Home
The Milwaukee Bucks are the Rodney Dangerfield of the NBA. Although they keep doing quite well, they don’t get much respect.
Even Sunday night when they held off the powerful Portland Trail Blazers, 117-112, for their 15th consecutive victory at home, it was downplayed.
The Trail Blazers, losing for only the fourth time in 31 games, were tired. They were playing their fourth game in five nights on a trip East that began on Christmas.
Coach Rick Adelman and his players were angry because they had to fly cross country to New York instead of spending the holiday with their families. They took their anger out on the Knicks, Charlotte and Cleveland and Milwaukee--for a while.
The Blazers led, 76-74, with three minutes left in the third quarter when Ricky Pierce, who had 31 points in 31 minutes as a substitute, led a 16-5 surge that put Milwaukee ahead, 90-81.
Pierce had four of the Bucks’ 12 three-point baskets in a game in which there were a record 21 three-pointers by the two teams. The previous mark was 20, set on Feb. 9, 1989 by Sacramento and Golden State. The Kings had an NBA record 16 three-pointers in that game.
The Trail Blazers had one run left in the fourth quarter. They fought back to tie, 108-108. But Pierce sank a jump shot and Clyde Drexler missed two free throws with 1:38 left. Frank Brickowski made two free throws, and the Portland rally fell short.
Although the Bucks, the only team that hasn’t lost at home, lead the tough Central Division with a 21-8 record, nobody believes Del Harris’s team is really that good.
The Bucks, who have had problems on the road, beat the New York Knicks Saturday night at New York.
Charles Oakley, an angry Knick, said, “The Bucks are not really a powerhouse, but they play well together.”
Adelman said that the schedulemaker, if he wanted the Trail Blazers to play on the road the day after Christmas, should have sent them to nearby Seattle. But he wouldn’t use the trip as the excuse for the Blazers’ third road loss in 15 games.
“It was their deadly shooting from outside that beat us,” he said. “Even the way they were shooting, we had a chance to win it. I’m proud of the way this team battled. We came back from 12 points in the last quarter to tie. We didn’t have anything left.”
The Trail Blazers, who are runaway leaders of the Pacific Division, return home to play the Lakers Thursday night.
Minnesota 126, Seattle 106--The Timberwolves ended a seven-game losing streak with their finest offensive performance. The previous record was 125 points in overtime against Philadelphia early last season.
The Timberwolves, the poorest shooting team in the league, had a string of eight consecutive baskets in the first quarter.
The SuperSonics, looking weary in their third road game in four nights, lost their second in a row after winning six in a row.
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Oilers Beat Steelers, Slide Into Playoffs : AFC: Backup Cody Carlson passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns in 34-14 victory.
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Oilers Beat Steelers, Slide Into Playoffs : AFC: Backup Cody Carlson passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns in 34-14 victory.
So much for Warren Moon’s dislocated thumb--at least for now.
With Cody Carlson doing a perfect imitation of their injured Pro Bowl quarterback, the Houston Oilers ran and shot their way into the NFL playoffs Sunday night by beating Pittsburgh, 34-14, and brought Cincinnati in with them.
In this season of falling quarterbacks, that made Houston the fourth team entering the playoffs with a backup. But like Frank Reich of Buffalo and Jeff Hostetler of the New York Giants, Carlson was nearly as good as the injured starter.
“It was a blur at first,” said Carlson, who completed 22 of 29 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. “I’d never been in a game of this magnitude before, but after the first three completions, I settled down. The plays that were called were just right.”
Of Carlson, Coach Jack Pardee said: “I thought he’d do that. He was untested, but he has the ability.”
Carlson and the Oilers riddled a defense that hadn’t allowed a touchdown in its last three games and entered the game ranked first in the league. Lorenzo White rushed for 90 yards behind a revised offensive line as part of a 195-yard rushing attack that helped knock the Steelers and Seattle out of the playoffs.
“That the running game went so well took a lot of pressure off me,” Carlson said. “Nobody expected that.”
But Carlson got his share of the credit, with Moon leading the cheers from the sideline.
“It came down to the last game of the year and I certainly would have liked to be in there,” Moon said. “But Cody came in and did a perfect job. He was really riding high.”
After missing a field goal early, the Oilers scored on five straight possessions. They took a 24-0 halftime lead as Carlson completed 16 of 21 passes for 156 yards, running up 264 yards in the half against a team that had allowed just 246 a game. Their only punt came with just more than two minutes gone in the fourth quarter.
“They beat us running and they beat us passing,” Pittsburgh Coach Chuck Noll said. “Obviously, we didn’t play as well as we’re capable as playing.”
The results left Houston, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh tied at 9-7 in the Central, with Seattle of the AFC West also 9-7.
The Bengals claimed the Central Division title because they had the best intra-division record at 5-1.
Houston won the final wild card over the Steelers and Seahawks because its conference record of 8-4 is the best of the three.
The Oilers will play next week in Cincinnati, where they lost, 40-20, last week, when Moon dislocated his right thumb.
That injury was supposed to give the Oilers little chance to make the playoffs for a fourth straight season, a streak currently bettered only by San Francisco.
But Carlson, making just the sixth start of his four-year career, provided a lesson in the run-and-shoot offense that was close to the best of Moon, who had 4,689 yards in 15 games. That included a 527-yard game against Kansas City that was the second-best in NFL history.
He had a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ernest Givins, a three-yarder to Drew Hill, then hit Haywood Jeffires for 53 yards in the third quarter after Pittsburgh had scored on its first possession. White ran one yard for the first score.
“It would be hard to beat that, particularly in a game this big,” Pardee said. “I don’t think they stopped us for most of the game, except for that missed field goal.”
The defense, meanwhile, controlled Bubby Brister and the Pittsburgh offense. Brister finished 15 of 26 for 240 yards, most of that when the game was out of hand.
The Oilers, who had 18 plays to one for Pittsburgh in the first 10 minutes, missed a chance on their first possession when Teddy Garcia missed a 50-yard field goal.
But rookie linebacker Lamar Lathon knocked the ball loose from Tim Worley on Pittsburgh’s first play and John Grimsley recovered at the 36. Eight plays later, on fourth down, White went in from the one for the first touchdown in 15 quarters against the Steelers’ defense.
The Oilers made it 14-0 in the second period with an 80-yard, eight-play drive capped by Carlson’s 14-yard pass to Givins, the first touchdown pass in four games against Pittsburgh, which had allowed just six all year. Givins’ 31-yard run on a reverse put the Oilers into scoring position.
Again came the Oilers, this time 68 yards in 10 plays, with Carlson hitting Hill in the back of the end zone from the three, and the rout was on.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5540-story.html
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For Bengals, News Is Worth the Wait : AFC: Cincinnati beats Cleveland, then claims AFC Central title when Pittsburgh loses.
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For Bengals, News Is Worth the Wait : AFC: Cincinnati beats Cleveland, then claims AFC Central title when Pittsburgh loses.
The Cincinnati Bengals waited until the end to put away the Cleveland Browns, 21-14, Sunday afternoon, then settled in for an even longer wait to see if they made the playoffs.
It was worth the wait.
The Bengals claimed their second AFC Central Division title in three years when Houston beat Pittsburgh, 34-14, in the Sunday night game. The three teams finished 9-7, giving Cincinnati the title by virtue of a better record in head-to-head games.
It’s the second time Cincinnati has made the playoffs in seven years under Coach Sam Wyche, who led the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1988. The Bengals have been eliminated in the last week of the regular season four times under Wyche.
“It feels good to finally have one go our way,” Wyche said after the Houston game.
The first step towards the title was the victory over Cleveland, decided on a 48-yard touchdown pass play from Boomer Esiason to Eric Ball midway through the fourth quarter.
The Bengals then went home to watch Seattle beat Detroit, 30-10, taking away the possibility of a wild card for Cincinnati. Their hopes rested entirely on a Houston victory.
“We led our division for 14 of the 16 weeks,” quarterback Boomer Esiason said. “If there’s any justice in this world, somehow we’ll be in the playoffs. In the last four or five weeks, we’ve played our best football as a team.”
Esiason got his wish seven hours later when Houston finished off Pittsburgh, setting up a first-round playoff game next weekend between the Bengals and Oilers.
Although the Bengals weren’t at their best Sunday, they were just good enough to outlast a Cleveland team completing the worst year in franchise history at 3-13.
The Browns rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit to throw a scare into the Bengals. Kevin Mack ran two yards for a touchdown and Pagel connected with Brian Brennan on a 16-yard touchdown pass play in the first five minutes of the second half.
But the Bengals took control again with a play they couldn’t get right in practice last week.
On third and two from the Browns’ 48, Esiason faked a handoff to Ickey Woods and lobbed a pass down the left sideline to Ball, who was uncovered. Ball caught the pass in stride and sidestepped Stephen Braggs at the 12 to score on only his second catch of the season.
“In practice Friday we had to run that play over four times because Eric couldn’t get the hang of it,” Esiason said. “I remember the offensive line getting ornery, saying, ‘Why do we have to keep running it over?’ I looked at Eric before the play today and said, ‘This is the short-yardage play.’ He said, ‘I know, I know.’ ”
This time, it worked perfectly.
“The Browns’ defense was playing the run,” Ball said. “All I did was block the corner, swing out and get behind them. They were certainly expecting the off-tackle run by Ickey. That’s all we’d run.”
Cleveland had two chances to tie, but wasted both with mistakes.
The Browns drove to fourth and four at the Cincinnati 23, but Eric Metcalf dropped a pass from Pagel. Cleveland got the ball one more time and moved to the Cincinnati 32 with less than a minute left. David Fulcher intercepted an overthrown pass by Pagel at the six to clinch the victory.
Cleveland wasted an opportunity in the first quarter when four running plays from the Cincinnati one came up short.
Bengal rookie linebacker James Francis put Cincinnati ahead midway through the second quarter when he intercepted a pass by Pagel that was intended for Brennan and returned it 17 yards for his first NFL touchdown.
Lewis Billups tipped a pass by Pagel on the Browns’ next possession and Barney Bussey intercepted, giving the Bengals the ball at the Cleveland 39. Six plays later, Esiason hooked up with Rodney Holman on a 22-yard touchdown pass play.
The Browns stunned Cincinnati with a pair of touchdowns in the first five minutes of the second half.
Esiason tied a team record with his 22nd interception of the season, which was returned by Felix Wright to the 19. Mack carried three times, the last for two yards and a touchdown.
Cincinnati ran three plays and punted, and the Browns went 52 yards in five plays for the tying touchdown on a 16-yard pass play from Pagel to Brennan.
Both teams failed to convert scoring chances with the game tied. Jerry Kauric was wide left on a 48-yard field-goal attempt for the Browns, and James Brooks fumbled at the Cleveland six-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
After the game, some of the Bengals said they couldn’t bear to watch the Oiler-Steeler game. Wyche said he was going to go out with his family for Chinese food and wouldn’t hurry back.
Said Esiason: “I’m not going to be sitting in front of a TV. I can only hope that when I see the 11:30 news or when I wake up tomorrow morning, they’ll tell us Houston won that game.”
Whenever Esiason got the news, it was good.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5541-story.html
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Falcons Ruin Cowboys’ Party, Pop Own Cork : NFC: Glanville has a $2.29 bottle of champagne for his team after 26-7 victory. Dallas now must count on help from Rams.
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Falcons Ruin Cowboys’ Party, Pop Own Cork : NFC: Glanville has a $2.29 bottle of champagne for his team after 26-7 victory. Dallas now must count on help from Rams.
The Dallas Cowboys have suddenly become Ram fans.
The Cowboys lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 26-7, Sunday, so they’ll be rooting for the Rams to beat the New Orleans Saints tonight.
A Ram victory would enable the Cowboys, despite a record of 7-9, to advance to the playoffs as the NFC’s final wild-card team and play the Chicago Bears in the first round.
If the Saints win, they’ll finish 8-8 and play the Bears next weekend. The Cowboys, 1-15 last season, will advance if both teams finish 7-9 because they beat the Saints, 17-13, on Dec. 2.
Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson didn’t sound very optimistic about his team’s chances after Sunday’s loss. “The Saints can get ready to play Chicago,” he said.
Johnson’s foul mood was understandable. “It was one of those days everything we did was wrong,” said Johnson of a offense that managed only 151 yards.
For the Falcons, Keith Jones returned the second-half kickoff 76 yards for a touchdown and Deion Sanders added another touchdown on a 61-yard interception return.
The Falcons, who last week beat the Rams, 20-13, won their second in a row for the first time since November, 1988, to finish 5-11.
Atlanta Coach Jerry Glanville said: “They came in here to go to the playoffs and we came in here to show them who the best team was.
“We heard they had five cases of champagne on ice, so we bought our own bottle, which cost us $2.29.”
Dallas defensive back Bill Bates said: “We hope New Orleans loses, but if they don’t we’ll look back on the situation and say we had it within our grasp.”
Jones’ 76-yard return to open the second half gave the Falcons a 14-0 lead and was their second touchdown within 42 seconds. With 24 seconds left in the first half, Tracy Johnson scored from the one to cap a 79-yard drive.
The Falcons added a safety 4:02 into the third quarter when Emmitt Smith was tackled in the end zone by Tim Green.
The safety came after Atlanta’s Mike Rozier, who gained a career-high 155 yards in 21 carries, ran 67 yards to the Cowboys’ one. The run was a club record for longest run from scrimmage, breaking the previous record of 66 yards by Harmon Wages.
The Falcons, however, failed to score in four tries and Dallas took over, leading to the safety.
Greg Davis kicked a 23-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 19-0 after the Falcons drove 74 yards in 19 plays, with Rozier picking up 59 yards.
On the next series, Dallas quarterback Babe Laufenberg, making his first start since Nov. 27, 1988, threw his second interception, which Sanders picked off and returned 61 yards for the score. It was Sanders’ third touchdown of the season, his second on an interception, with the other coming on a punt return.
The Cowboys managed only four first downs and 77 yards through the first three quarters in a game played on a slippery Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium field after three days of light rain. The field also was chopped up by Auburn and Indiana in the Peach Bowl the previous day.
The Cowboys averted a shutout when Laufenberg connected on a 27-yard touchdown pass play to Jay Novacek with 2:35 left in the game.
Laufenberg, who replaced Troy Aikman last week after the starter suffered a separated shoulder, completed only 10 of 24 passes for 129 yards with two interceptions.
The Cowboys’ Smith, who needed 97 rushing yards for 1,000, managed only 34 in 16 carries.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5542-story.html
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Broncos’ Winder Winds Up on a High Note
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Broncos’ Winder Winds Up on a High Note
Sammy Winder completed a nine-year career with the Denver Broncos by rushing for 80 yards in 15 carries and came within six yards of what would have been a fitting climax as Denver defeated the Green Bay Packers, 22-13, Sunday.
Both Winder and Coach Dan Reeves wanted him to score following a 15-yard run that put the ball on the six-yard line with seconds remaining.
But Reeves instead had backup quarterback Gary Kubiak sit down and run out the clock.
“We would have loved to have gotten him in the end zone at the end,” Reeves said. “But Sammy, as much as anyone else, understood why we didn’t go for the touchdown when we already had the game won.
“His contribution was the yardage that he gained when the game was on the line.”
Said Winder: “I was trying to get in there as hard as I could. That was my goal today, to get in the end zone one more time.”
The game carried little meaning for either team because both had been knocked out of the playoffs earlier. For the record, Denver wound up 5-11. Green Bay finished 6-10.
Quarterback John Elway called it good “to go out on a winning note,” but added, “It doesn’t take the sting out of the season.”
Elway threw a quick slant pass to Mark Jackson late in the third quarter for 15 yards and a touchdown that was the deciding blow against the Packers.
David Treadwell kicked field goals of 22 and 31 yards in the first half to match Green Bay’s Chris Jacke, who had first-half field goals of 37 and 24 yards.
Denver’s other touchdown was scored on a five-yard run by Bobby Humphrey to break a 6-6 tie early in the third quarter.
Winder, who earlier announced he would retire after this season, was a sentimental starter, ahead of Humphrey, and responded with 17 yards on his first three carries.
Winder, who ranks second on the Broncos’ all-time rushing list, brought the Denver crowd to its feet with a 19-yard run midway through the fourth quarter when the game appeared safe for the Broncos.
The crowd was on its feet again a few minutes later when the Packers quickly drove 80 yards for a touchdown with 4:31 left to close the gap to 20-13.
Packer quarterback Anthony Dilweg hit Herman Fontenot on a 59-yard bomb, and Charles Wilson with a 12-yarder to the nine-yard line, then threw to Sterling Sharpe on a nine-yard scoring play.
Then the Green Bay defense held the Broncos on three plays and the offense got the ball back at the Packer 21 with 3:44 left.
But the center snap to Dilweg, playing out of the shotgun formation, sailed over his head and the Packers’ quarterback fell on the ball on the Green Bay three.
On the ensuing play, Denver linebacker Karl Mecklenburg trapped Dilweg in the end zone for a safety.
The Packers had one more opportunity with an onside kick following the safety, but Steve Atwater covered the ball on the Green Bay 39 and the Broncos ran out of the clock.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5543-story.html
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Seahawks Do Their Part, but Miss the Playoffs : Interconference: Seattle defeats Lions, 30-10, but is eliminated when Pittsburgh loses to Houston.
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Seahawks Do Their Part, but Miss the Playoffs : Interconference: Seattle defeats Lions, 30-10, but is eliminated when Pittsburgh loses to Houston.
The Seattle defense couldn’t have picked a better time to go on the offensive.
The Seahawks returned a fumble for a touchdown and intercepted a deflected pass to set up a field goal during a wild 3 1/2 minutes in the third quarter Sunday as they rolled past the Detroit Lions, 30-10.
The victory temporarily kept alive Seahawks’ hopes of a playoff spot, but those hopes were dashed a few hours later when Houston beat Pittsburgh, 34-14, eliminating Seattle and Pittsburgh from wild-card playoff contention.
“They scored 10 points on us. Ten points,” Seahawk safety Eugene Robinson said. “That says something about our defense and that says something about how much we wanted to win this game.”
Robinson scooped up the loose ball and scored the go-ahead touchdown after Lion quarterback Rodney Peete was hit from the blind side by Vann McElroy.
“I was just the recipient of a great play by Vann McElroy,” Robinson said.
The Seahawks had to wait until the Houston-Pittsburgh game was completed Sunday night to find out that their season was over.
But the Seahawks figured they proved something by winning nine of 12 games following an 0-3 start.
“We’re a good team,” running back Derrick Fenner said. “We had critics say we were going to go 3-13. That’s ridiculous. I think they were talking about Denver.
“We started out 0-3 but everyone just hung together and we came back and got the job done.”
Detroit (6-10) was tied with the Seahawks, 10-10, at halftime.
Seattle sacked Detroit quarterbacks five times, four in the second half.
“We got a good tail-kicking,” Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes said. “No excuses. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it. This could be the worst beating we’ve taken this year.”
Fenner rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns, including one on a nine-yard sweep with 4:43 left. Seahawk quarterback Dave Krieg completed 21 of 33 passes for 225 yards, but he also had two passes intercepted--once in the Detroit end zone and again on the Lions’ five-yard line. Krieg also lost a fumble.
Detroit’s Barry Sanders was held to 23 yards in nine carries, but he won the NFL rushing title with 1,304 yards. Sanders started the day 16 yards behind Buffalo’s Thurman Thomas, but Thomas didn’t gain a yard in five attempts on Sunday.
Sanders, whose 16-yard touchdown run was his only big play against the Seahawks, is the first Detroit player to win the league rushing title since Byron (Whizzer) White did it in 1940.
“I don’t feel successful, not at all,” Sanders said. “What does this (rushing title) mean? I haven’t really thought about it. It’s no big deal right now.”
Even though the Detroit offense sputtered, Sanders and the Lions both tied team records for most touchdowns in a season. Sanders’ scoring run gave him 16 touchdowns for the season, tying the mark set by Billy Sims in 1980. It also was the 46th touchdown for the Lions this year, equaling the mark set by the 1981 team.
“I think Barry Sanders is the finest running back in the National Football League,” Seattle Coach Chuck Knox said. “I’ve looked at him on film all week and he’s just dynamite, but our defense did an excellent job.”
Seattle scored what proved to be the winning touchdown on Detroit’s first series of the second half. Peete went back to pass and fumbled after being hit by McElroy.
Robinson kicked the ball as he tried to pick it up, but finally got control and ran 16 yards for the touchdown to put the Seahawks ahead, 17-10, with 12:36 left in the third quarter.
On the next Detroit play, Eric Hayes deflected a pass by Peete, one of three deflections by the Seahawks’ lineman in the second half, and David Wyman intercepted to set up a 25-yard field goal by Norm Johnson.
Johnson also had field goals of 43 and 37 yards.
The Seahawks dominated the first quarter. On their first possession, they drove 76 yards in 14 plays, with Fenner diving over the middle from inside the Detroit one on fourth down for the touchdown.
There were 13,847 no-shows at the Kingdome, probably because of a forecast of snow and freezing rain. The crowd of 50,681 was the smallest in Seattle this season.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5544-story.html
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Dolphins Clinch Home-Field Advantage, 23-17 : AFC:Miami beats the Colts, setting up a playoff game against Kansas City at Joe Robbie Stadium.
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Dolphins Clinch Home-Field Advantage, 23-17 : AFC:Miami beats the Colts, setting up a playoff game against Kansas City at Joe Robbie Stadium.
The Miami Dolphins had been struggling of late, losing three of their last six games.
But Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, the Dolphins won, 23-17, to assure themselves of the home-field advantage in next week’s wild-card playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s always good to win; it gives you momentum,” said Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, who completed 14 of 26 passes for 192 yards. “But the big thing is that we get to play at home.”
The Dolphins finished with a 12-4 record, their best since they last made the playoffs in 1985.
“We’ve come a long way,” Coach Don Shula said. “There won’t be too many records better than 12-4 in the NFL. We’re one of the top teams.”
The Colts, eliminated from playoff contention last weekend, finished 7-9, their worst record since 1986.
“A lot of people said we were playing for nothing,” said Indianapolis Coach Ron Meyer, who finished with a losing mark for the first time in eight seasons as a pro coach. “I didn’t see it. I thought we played hard.”
Dolphin running back Sammie Smith, inconsistent during his two NFL seasons, carried a career-high 29 times for 108 yards.
“We’ve taken lot of criticism about our running game,” said Smith, who had only 45 yards rushing in the Dolphins’ four losses. “Whenever the line pushes off the ball the way they did today, I can run the ball. It’s as simple as that.”
Smith also scored on a 53-yard touchdown pass play from Marino, Smith’s longest gain as a pro. Smith sneaked over the middle, made the catch in stride and outran the secondary.
“We practiced that play all year but only tried it once before,” Smith said. “The guy who was supposed to cover me (linebacker Jeff Herrod) blitzed, and I knew right away I’d be open for the touchdown.”
Miami also benefited from two plays by defensive end Jeff Cross that produced nine points.
Cross set up the only touchdown of the second half when he rushed in from Colt quarterback Jeff George’s blind side and knocked the ball out of his hands. Lineman Brian Sochia, an eighth-year pro, picked up the fumble and raced 13 yards for his first NFL touchdown.
“I knew it was on the ground, but I couldn’t find it,” Cross said. “Next thing I knew, Sochia scooped it up, and it was six points.”
Miami scored a first-half safety when George was penalized for intentional grounding while trying to elude Cross in the end zone. George, concluding his rookie season, also had two passes intercepted by Jarvis Williams.
Indianapolis scored the final points on a 55-yard field goal by Dean Biasucci--the longest ever against Miami--with 5:18 left.
Only 13 seconds remained by the time the Colts got the ball back at their 20, and the clock ran out after they reached the Dolphins’ 47.
Eric Dickerson gained 110 yards in 20 carries for the Colts. George, who completed 18 of 30 passes for 222 yards, connected on touchdown pass plays of 15 yards to Albert Bentley and 64 yards to Jessie Hester.
“We have some great talent,” George said, looking forward to next season. “It’s just a matter of time before we turn things around.”
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5545-story.html
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Redskins Play It Seriously and Beat Bills, 29-14 : Interconference: Buffalo rests starters in second half. Washington doesn’t. Lohmiller kicks five field goals.
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Redskins Play It Seriously and Beat Bills, 29-14 : Interconference: Buffalo rests starters in second half. Washington doesn’t. Lohmiller kicks five field goals.
The Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins tuned up for the playoffs in markedly different fashion.
Buffalo, already assured of the best record in the AFC, rested its starters through the second half in its season finale Sunday, and the Redskins went into their wild-card game next week with a 29-14 victory over the Bills.
Chip Lohmiller matched a team record with five field goals on a soggy field, and the Redskins intercepted two passes by third-string Buffalo quarterback Gale Gilbert to finish the regular season 10-6.
“We needed this to regroup going into the playoffs,” said Coach Joe Gibbs, whose Redskins won four of their last five games.
Unlike the Bills, the Redskins went with their starters most of the way as they prepared for next week’s game at Philadelphia.
“Nothing was really riding on this game, but it gave us a chance to go out and play for pride,” Gibbs said.
The Bills, ending 13-3 for their best record since 1964, rested quarterback Frank Reich and several other starters in the second half. They lost defensive end Leon Seals because of a sprained knee in the second quarter, but he said he would return for the playoffs.
Buffalo has a week off before starting its playoff run and is hoping quarterback Jim Kelly, who sustained a sprained knee two weeks ago, can return by then.
“When you know what your playoff situation is, you walk on eggs a little bit,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “But our effort was excellent. We just turned the ball over.”
Besides Reich, Levy rested running back Thurman Thomas, wide receiver Andre Reed, defensive end Bruce Smith and others in the second half.
“We have other things to look forward to,” said Smith, who ended the season with a team-record 19 sacks. “We have accomplished 99.9% of our goals this year.”
Lohmiller kicked field goals of 37, 24 and 19 yards to give Washington a 9-0 halftime lead and added kicks of 43 and 32 yards after Gilbert pulled the Bills to within 9-7.
“The defense gave me the chance to get the points early,” Lohmiller said after tying the team record shared by Curt Knight and Mark Moseley. “If the offense is unable to get points, my job is to get out and get points for them.”
Gerald Riggs, playing for the first time since spraining his left foot Nov. 12, scored on a three-yard run and Mark Rypien threw an 18-yard scoring pass to rookie Stephen Hobbs after Lohmiller’s field goals gave the Redskins a 15-7 lead.
Reich, a loser for the first time in five starts, got Buffalo only as far as the 50 in the first half before giving way to Gilbert.
Gilbert, who last took a snap with Seattle in 1986, threw two touchdown passes in the second half. But his two interceptions set up both Washington touchdowns.
His 23-yard scoring pass to Kenneth Davis got the Bills within 9-7 before Lohmiller kicked two more field goals and the interceptions put it out of reach.
Gilbert finished eight of 15 for 106 yards which included a late 20-yard scoring pass to Steve Tasker.
Thomas, who finished the regular season with 1,297 rushing yards, failed to net any yardage in five carries against the Redskins and lost a fumble that set up Lohmiller’s second field goal.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5547-story.html
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Young’s Montana-Like Heroics Give 49ers a Win Over Vikings : NFC: Backup quarterback’s touchdown pass play with 29 seconds left is the difference.
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Young’s Montana-Like Heroics Give 49ers a Win Over Vikings : NFC: Backup quarterback’s touchdown pass play with 29 seconds left is the difference.
Steve Young, understudy to Joe Montana, used a Montana script to rally the San Francisco 49ers to a 20-17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday.
Young, who relieved Montana in the second half, teamed with John Taylor on a 34-yard touchdown pass play with 29 seconds left to enable the 49ers to finish the regular season 14-2, the best record in the NFL.
Montana has led countless comebacks. Last week, Young had the chance, but the 49ers lost, 13-10, to New Orleans.
Minnesota Coach Jerry Burns wasn’t surprised by Young’s heroics Sunday.
“It epitomizes the whole season. We had our chance to win the game and we couldn’t stop them,” Burns said. “I just had a premonition they’d go right down and score and we wouldn’t stop them. The secondary play was sick. The pass rush. The whole thing.
“They know how to win and this team doesn’t. Anytime you win you can feed off that success. You know that, in the past, you’ve come back and won games. This team hasn’t done it.”
NFC Central champions last season, the Vikings (6-10) finished in last place for the first time since 1984. They ended the season with a four-game losing streak.
“You really have to be scratching to find anything positive,” Burns said. “When I saw that guy shoot that gun at the end, that was the most positive thing I saw.”
While Burns’ most frustrating season finally ended, the 49ers will now begin concentrating on the playoffs in an effort to become the first NFL team to win three consecutive Super Bowls and five overall.
“I had a decent day and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to catch 100 balls,” said 49er receiver Jerry Rice, who caught nine passes for 118 yards and became the fourth player ever to reach the 100-reception mark in a season. “I think that’s something to be proud of, but I’m just looking forward to the first playoff game.”
The 49ers’ 18th consecutive road victory extended their own league record. However, they won’t enjoy the “road-field advantage” in the playoffs, having clinched home-field throughout the playoffs two weeks ago.
San Francisco Coach George Seifert said the victory wasn’t insignificant. “Coming into the playoffs, winning the game instead of losing, allows us to have pride in ourselves,” he said.
San Francisco, which won 15 games in 1984 and 14 in 1989 and went on to win the Super Bowl those years, used victories over Minnesota to springboard to its last three championships. The Vikings’ last three seasons have ended with losses to the 49ers.
As he had planned to do before the game, Seifert started Montana and used Young for the entire second half. Montana completed 10 of 20 passes for 88 yards and had one pass intercepted as the 49ers trailed, 10-0, and had a scoreless first half for the first time since Dec. 17, 1989 against Buffalo.
Young sparked the 49ers with his passing and scrambling. He was 15 of 24 for 205 yards passing and added 59 yards in six rushes.
On the winning drive, Young completed six of seven passes for 88 yards and also had a two-yard dive on fourth-and-one. Ken Stills was the closest Minnesota player to Taylor when he caught Young’s pass at the 16 and went untouched into the end zone.
“It’s a play that takes a while to develop,” Young said. “I told the guys in the huddle that we needed a little extra tick to throw the ball.”
Young’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Rice with 8:37 left--which he set up with scrambles of 14 and 19 yards--gave the 49ers a 13-10 lead. Minnesota came back to go up, 17-13, on Alfred Anderson’s one-yard run with 3:14 left before Young did a splendid impression of a Montana rally.
The Vikings, who sacked Montana and Young six times, with Ken Clarke getting three of the sacks, used an aggressive defense and Herschel Walker’s versatility to take their 10-point halftime lead.
After Fuad Reveiz’s 34-yard field goal, Walker capped a 79-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown run. Walker had four carries for 30 yards, caught an 18-yard pass and threw a 12-yard halfback option pass to D.J. Dozier during the drive.
Mike Cofer’s field goals of 29 and 35 yards made it 10-6 early in the fourth quarter.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5550-story.html
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COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Middleton Steals the Victory for Chapman in Chico Tourney
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COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Middleton Steals the Victory for Chapman in Chico Tourney
Rog Middleton stole the ball, then went the length of the court for a dunk as time ran out to give Chapman College a 70-68 victory over Chico State in the final of the Chico State Tournament Sunday in Chico.
Chapman (9-6) led by as many as 13 points in the second half but Chico rallied to tie it at 68 with about a minute left.
Chapman then turned the ball over and Chico was setting up for a final shot when Middleton, the tournament’s most valuable player, stole the ball, and moved in for the winning slam.
“This is a big step for us,” Chapman Coach Bob Boyd said. “We have not been a good road team until now. We stress defense and it really paid off at the end for us.”
Middleton finished with 23 points and Andre Hill had 13. Zlatko Josic and Frantz Reyes each had 12 points for Chapman, which shot 59.9% (29 of 51) from the field. Josic also had a team-high six assists.
Middleton scored 33 points in Saturday’s victory over Texas A&I; in the semifinal round.
In the Fullerton Wrestling Invitational:
Fresno State won the team title with 153 1/2 points, and Cal State Fullerton was second with 124 points. Fullerton’s Michael Grubbs (118 pounds), Ramon Diaz (177) and heavyweight David Jones won individual titles.
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85ea2f196057d5a07aad4c1d5bfb0aa4
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5551-story.html
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NATIONAL ROUNDUP : No. 7 North Carolina Beats Stanford, 71-60
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NATIONAL ROUNDUP : No. 7 North Carolina Beats Stanford, 71-60
North Carolina pressured Stanford into committing 11 turnovers in the second half, enabling the No. 7 Tar Heels to overcome a five-point deficit and beat the Cardinal, 71-60, Sunday in the championship game of the Red Lobster tournament at Orlando, Fla.
“When we were down with 10 minutes left, I just told them we want to come away with our first championship of the year, and we did,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said after his team improved to 9-1 with its seventh consecutive victory.
Hubert Davis started the Tar Heels on a decisive 18-6 run by making a three-point shot from the left corner with 12:45 left.
Rick Fox, voted the most valuable player in the tournament, led the Tar Heels with 20 points.
Adam Keefe scored 20 points for Stanford (7-3).
No. 22 Nebraska 94, Citadel 80--The Citadel pulled to within 75-72 with six minutes left before the Cornhuskers launched a 19-8 run that put the game away at Charleston, S.C.
Rich King scored 18 points for the Cornhuskers (12-1). Todd Holstein led Citadel (2-5) with 21 points.
No. 23 Iowa 104, Chaminade 64--Acie Earl scored 20 points to lead the Hawkeyes to the championship of the Big Isle tournament at Hilo, Hawaii.
Earl had 10 points in the first half as Iowa (11-1) built a 66-34 halftime lead. George Gilmore had 23 points for Chaminade (6-8).
REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
MIDWEST
Oklahoma State beat Marquette, 70-43, at Milwaukee as the Cowboys (9-2) held the Warriors (4-4) to their lowest point total since a 51-35 defeat to Notre Dame in the 1958-59 season. . . . Anthony Peeler scored 19 points to lead Missouri (5-4) to a 75-56 victory over Texas Pan American (2-8) at Columbia, Mo.
Ashraf Amaya, playing only 22 minutes because of foul trouble, had 22 points and six rebounds for Southern Illinois (6-2), which defeated Indiana State, 75-62, in a Missouri Valley Conference game at Carbondale, Ill. Eddie Bird led the Sycamores with 15 points.
SOUTH
DePaul (5-5) ended a five-game losing streak by defeating Central Florida, 81-79, in the consolation championship of the Red Lobster tournament at Orlando, Fla. Stephen Howard scored 26 points for the Blue Demons. Central Florida is 5-4. . . . Anthony Douglas scored 17 points as Memphis State (6-4) wore down South Carolina State (3-6) in a 78-58 victory at Memphis, Tenn.
WEST
Brian Hendrick scored 27 points as California (4-5) took seventh place in the Rainbow tournament at Honolulu with an 81-64 victory over Iona. . . . Mark Lenoir, playing with a broken left wrist, scored 24 points to give Division II Alaska-Anchorage (10-7) an 86-78 win over Tennessee (6-5) and fifth place in the Rainbow tournament.
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bcad570e7e3a40a63ece20f48a8cfd88
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5552-story.html
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Bennett Leads La Quinta to Victory
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Bennett Leads La Quinta to Victory
Lloyd Bennett scored 23 points to lead La Quinta High School to a 67-60 victory over St. Joseph of Hawaii in the consolation championship of the Kamehameha Tournament Sunday in Hawaii.
Bennett, who was the top scorer in the tournament with 66 points in three games, was named to the all-tournament team. Li Riopelle had 19 points and 13 rebounds for La Quinta (3-6).
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735138f2595a54137ba8ed7731cc90de
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5553-story.html
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FULLERTON WOMEN’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Golden West Edges Sequoias Without Sirchia
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FULLERTON WOMEN’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Golden West Edges Sequoias Without Sirchia
Golden West College, playing without its top player, won the Fullerton women’s basketball tournament Sunday because of some horrible work at the free-throw line by College of the Sequoias.
The Rustlers came away with a 71-68 victory, and Sequoias got a four-hour bus ride home to Visalia to ponder a game in which the Lady Giants made only six of 29 free throws.
Golden West (18-1) had its own handicap with Bits Sirchia, an all-state guard last season, sidelined with a twisted right ankle.
But Tracy Wolfe, Allison Bickel and Jennifer Harney made the key plays in the final minute to secure the victory. Wolfe stole a pass with 46 seconds remaining and made a layup with 30 seconds left to give Golden West a 69-68 lead.
Sequoias’ Shaulonda Rittenhouse then missed a shot with 12 seconds to play. A scramble involving several players followed, then Golden West gained possession after a jump ball was called with 10 seconds left.
But the Rustlers turned the ball over when they failed to get it inbounds in the allowed five seconds. Sequoias (15-4) then inbounded the ball to Lataria Andrews, who was fouled while shooting with eight seconds left.
Andrews missed both free throws, and Harney got the rebound and was fouled with five seconds left. She missed her free throw, but Bickel got the rebound and made the layup for Golden West with two seconds left.
Sequoias failed to get the ball to half-court before time ran out. Harney, the tournament’s most valuable player, led Golden West with 24 points, 20 in the second half. Bickel added 13.
In the third-place game:
Fullerton 80, Los Angles Valley 57--Hollie Keeton scored 17 points, 13 in the second half for Fullerton (14-3). Nicki Durity added 16 and Vicki Evans and Keri Erkenbrack each had 13 for Fullerton, which led at the half, 41-33.
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5e789f87331dbd5e3cfd74d06bfdde46
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5555-story.html
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Fire In Ice Wins at Laurel
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Fire In Ice Wins at Laurel
Fire In Ice scored a front-running victory in the $54,325 Inner Harbor stakes at the Laurel Race Course Sunday. The favorite, ridden by Marco Castaneda, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:52 3/5 to finish 1 1/4 lengths in front of Petty Amusing.
Fortunate Lance finished three lengths behind in third in the field of six 2-year-old. The winner paid $5.80.
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661511dcb3ae5984609d15d84b93dbf3
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5557-story.html
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Skiing
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Skiing
Jens Weissflog of Germany soared 107 and 106.5 meters at Oberstdorf, Germany, winning the first leg of a four-hill World Cup ski jumping tour.
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dc18a0697173183165de2d3ab33043f6
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5558-story.html
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NHL ROUNDUP : MacTavish Keeps Up the Pace, Powers Oilers Again, 4-3
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NHL ROUNDUP : MacTavish Keeps Up the Pace, Powers Oilers Again, 4-3
The Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers had finally rounded into form 10 days ago when their best player, Mark Messier, reinjured his knee.
Messier has been out of the lineup much of the season. Earlier when he was hurt, the Oilers won only one of 12 games.
Craig MacTavish, who has been known as a defensive center in his 10 seasons in the NHL, took it upon himself to make up for Messier on offense. Under his leadership, the Oilers have flourished.
MacTavish had another goal and goaltender Bill Ranford made 38 saves at Edmonton Sunday night to lead the Oilers to a 4-3 victory over Hartford.
It was the Oilers’ fifth consecutive victory since Messier’s latest injury. In the five games MacTavish, who had only three goals in the first 32 games, has scored six goals.
The Oilers, who opened the season with only two victories in the first 15 games, pulled above .500 for the first time this season.
The terrible start left the Oilers 19 points behind the Smythe Division leader, the Kings. With an 18-17-2 record, the Oilers are only three points behind the Kings and eight out of first place.
Esa Tikkanen, another Oiler who has started to roll on offense, scored twice as the Oilers opened a 4-1 lead by the middle of the second period.
“Most of my goals lately have come because of our tight checking game,” MacTavish said. “I’m not really a great scorer, but give me good shots around the net and I’ll put the puck in it.”
New Jersey 2, N.Y. Rangers 2--The Devils are fit to be tied lately. Although they stretched their unbeaten streak to eight in this game at New York, they have won only three games in the spurt.
This was their third consecutive tie. Mike Gartner scored his 20th goal on a power-play late in the second period to tie the score, 2-2. All four goals were scored in less than 14 minutes of the period.
Goaltenders Chris Terreri of the Devils and John Vanbiesbrouck of the Rangers took charge after that. Vanbiesbrouck had to stop four New Jersey shots in overtime.
Both goalies had to stop a breakaway in regulation. Vanbiesbrouck stopped a point blank shot by Brendan Shanahan with two minutes left. On the return up ice, Gartner went in alone and Terreri made a brilliant save.
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84d0af9a2d04fc4210bb0b7b51133a53
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5559-story.html
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Champion Emerges as Yet Another Chang for the Better : Tennis: Michael’s older brother Carl, the No. 3 singles player for California, defeats Pepperdine’s Joffe for Holiday Classic title.
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Champion Emerges as Yet Another Chang for the Better : Tennis: Michael’s older brother Carl, the No. 3 singles player for California, defeats Pepperdine’s Joffe for Holiday Classic title.
Carl Chang, No. 2 singles player in his family and No. 3 on his college team, was No. 1 Sunday.
With younger brother Michael watching from the sidelines, Carl Chang won his first collegiate singles title with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Pepperdine’s Howard Joffe in the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches’ Assn. Holiday Classic final.
Michael, a French Open and Davis Cup champion, held the rackets and beamed after Carl’s match at Sunny Hills Racquet Club in Fullerton.
Carl, a senior at California, said he was lucky to win, having recently completed final exams at school. He had hardly picked up a racket in the days before the tournament, which began Wednesday.
“I wasn’t prepared to play this tournament,” Chang said. “I was a little lucky.”
Was it luck that four of Chang’s lobs sailed over Joffe’s head and bounced out of reach on the baseline for winners? Maybe, but Chang seemed to make all the same shots Joffe tried, but couldn’t make successfully.
And with Joffe’s powerful serve misfiring late the second set, it provided enough of an opening for Chang to win.
Joffe was often overpowering, with a strong serve-and-volley game. But Chang was steadier, coming to the net less frequently than Joffe but accomplishing more while he was there. Chang’s volleys certainly weren’t quite as strong, but they were more consistent.
“He played pretty good,” said Joffe, a 19-year-old sophomore from South Africa. “Well, actually, he played a lot better than me.”
Because of his lack of preparation, it was an especially gratifying victory for Chang. “I’m happy,” he said. “This gives me a confidence boost going into the season.”
Later, Joffe and Ari Nathan, a freshman at Pepperdine, were beaten by Bill Terry of Bakersfield College and Mark Segesta of UC Davis, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, in the men’s doubles final.
Joffe had about 20 minutes of rest between matches.
In the women’s final, Mimi Burgos of Clemson won when Dorey Brandt of San Diego State, suffering from flu, retired after losing the first game of the second set. Burgos had won the first set, 6-1.
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0c68c64ecd4f130c17e52a72325f2498
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5560-story.html
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Skiing
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Skiing
Klaus Sulzenbacher of Austria won the World Cup nordic combined competition at Oberwiesenthal, Germany, overtaking Norway’s Fred Boerre Lundberg on the 15-kilometer cross-country course. Sulzenbacher won in 43 minutes 3.1 seconds.
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e04bdb3e3d0385055f9446695bcca424
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5561-story.html
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Miscellany
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Miscellany
Australia’s Nicky Wood took surfing’s biggest prize, $40,000, for winning the Billabong Pro in 6-8 foot conditions at Sunset Beach, Hawaii. Tom Curren of Santa Barbara clinched his third Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Tour championship.
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ef59167ffa863183cce6d6e03653af31
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5563-story.html
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Miscellany
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Miscellany
Three-time champion Ari Vatanen of Finland took the lead in Clermont-Ferrand, France, after the short prologue of the 13th Paris-Dakar Rally. Vatanen’s Citroen toured the twisting 2.3-mile course in 3 minutes 45 seconds.
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a2063cf63aab288a8bbec57a33b90e97
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5565-story.html
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Miscellany
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Miscellany
Staffan Lundh and Hakan Loob each scored twice and had one assist as Faerjestad of Sweden downed Dukla Jihlava of Czechoslovakia, 7-4, in the fourth round of the Spengler Cup hockey tournament at Davos, Switzerland.
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9b4cffcb1a1d9d0e7b6fa0cfc9d15e9c
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5566-story.html
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Tennis
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Tennis
Jakob Hlasek overpowered Pat Cash, 6-2, 6-4, to lead Switzerland to a 3-0 victory over Australia in the quarterfinals of the Hopman Cup team tennis championship at Perth, Australia.
Also, Yugoslavia beat the Soviet Union 2-1. Monica Seles defeated Natalia Zvereva, 6-2, 6-1; Andrei Chesnokov came back for the Soviets to beat Goran Prpic, 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-2, but Prpic and Seles combined to beat Chesnokov and Zvereva, 7-5, 6-4.
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8db6b3164796003146b6e3a620734422
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5647-story.html
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El Paso Has Slight Scent of a Rose : John Hancock Bowl: The Trojans will face a top Big Ten team today, but not in Pasadena. Marinovich will start.
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El Paso Has Slight Scent of a Rose : John Hancock Bowl: The Trojans will face a top Big Ten team today, but not in Pasadena. Marinovich will start.
For the first time in four seasons under Coach Larry Smith, USC failed to qualify for the Rose Bowl. But the Trojans (8-3-1) will play a Big Ten opponent today in the John Hancock Bowl.
A pretty good one, too.
Michigan State (7-3-1) shared the Big Ten championship with Iowa, Michigan and Illinois, winning its last five games.
“Over the last four or five games of the season, they (the Spartans) were perhaps the most efficient team in the country,” said Smith, who on Sunday named Todd Marinovich as his starting quarterback.
Only 12 points separated Michigan State from an unbeaten and untied season. The Spartans tied Syracuse in their opener and lost by a point to Notre Dame, by two points to Illinois and by five points to Iowa.
As they have been for most of their eight seasons under Coach George Perles, a former Pittsburgh Steeler assistant who helped design the “Steel Curtain” defense of the 1970s, the Spartans are a big, physical team, featuring a punishing ground game and an unforgiving defense.
Challenging that defense will be Marinovich, who had been getting most of the practice time, although earlier in the week Smith said he didn’t have “the slightest idea” who would start.
If the game dictates, Smith said Sunday, he would also like to use backup quarterbacks Shane Foley, Pat O’Hara and Reggie Perry.
While USC is the more balanced of the teams, relying almost equally on the passing of Marinovich and the running of tailback Mazio Royster, Michigan State is more ground-oriented.
The Spartans led the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 253.9 yards and more than three touchdowns a game on the ground.
They feature two 1,000-yard rushers in tailbacks Tico Duckett and Hyland Hickson. Duckett and Hickson need six yards today to unseat Ohio State’s Archie Griffin and Pete Johnson, who combined for 2,509 yards in 1975, as the most productive rushing tandem in Big Ten history.
“There are thinking games and non-thinking games, and this one’s more of a non-thinking game,” USC linebacker Scott Ross said last week. “It’s more of a reaction game. They just basically set it up and run at you. You just watch the ball carrier and go.”
Duckett, a sophomore, led the Big Ten in rushing with 1,376 yards, averaging 5.5 per carry and scoring 11 touchdowns. He was chosen as offensive player of the year in the conference in a vote of the media.
“If we gave the ball to Tico more, instead of having him split time with Hickson,” Perles said, “Tico would probably lead the nation in about every category.”
Hickson, a senior from Dillard High in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the same school that produced former Michigan State tailback Lorenzo White, ran for 1,128 yards and scored 14 touchdowns, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
He is more of a power runner than Duckett, who is more elusive.
Senior quarterback Dan Enos completed 63.1% of his 203 passes, but threw 10 interceptions and only three touchdown passes, none to a wide receiver.
Michigan State scored 34 of its 37 touchdowns on the ground behind an offensive line that features Jim Johnson, a 6-foot-5, 305-pound junior tackle, and Eric Moten, a 6-3, 300-pound senior guard who could be a first-round NFL draft pick, Perles said.
Tight end Duane Young caught only 12 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown, but Perles described him as “the best blocking tight end in the Big Ten and maybe in all of college football.”
Defensively, Michigan State ranked third in the Big Ten against the run and second overall, giving up 113.2 yards a game on the ground and 313.1 overall.
Its leaders are outside linebackers Carlos Jenkins and Dixon Edwards.
Middle linebacker Chuck Bullough, who made a team-high 148 tackles, and tackle Bobby Wilson also were all-Big Ten picks.
Trojan Notes
Senior Frank Griffin, who was sidelined for the last seven games of the regular season after undergoing knee surgery, will start at tight end for USC. . . . Senior Gene Fruge, who missed USC’s last four games because of a stress fracture in his right leg, will start at nose guard. . . . Coach Larry Smith said that Shane Foley would be the first quarterback off the bench. . . . USC and Michigan State, which drew 103,847 to the Rose Bowl in 1988, will attract about half as many today. A crowd of about 50,000 is expected in the Sun Bowl, which has a listed capacity of 52,200. . . . USC sold only about 1,000 tickets.
Only the Rose Bowl is older than the John Hancock Bowl, which started in 1935 and was known as the Sun Bowl until last year.
This will be USC’s 34th bowl appearance, its seventh outside the Rose Bowl. . . . The Trojans are 22-11 in bowl games, but have won only twice in their last seven bowl appearances and are 0-3 outside the Rose Bowl since 1977. . . . Michigan State is 4-5 in bowl games. . . . USC has won 20 of its last 24 games against Big Ten opponents, but lost twice to Michigan State in Coach Larry Smith’s first season--27-13 at East Lansing, Mich., in its 1987 opener and again in the 1988 Rose Bowl. . . . Nine current Trojans played against Michigan State in the 1988 Rose Bowl, including linebacker Scott Ross, who led USC with 13 tackles.
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980d774ef5d51d6bacb59bd9808aa3e4
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5649-story.html
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NFL PLAYOFFS
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NFL PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND
JAN. 5-6
AFC
* Kansas City (11-5) at Miami (12-4)
* Houston (9-7) at Cincinnati (9-7)
NOTE: Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh and Seattle all finished with 9-7 records. Cincinnati was designated as the Central Division champion because it had the best intradivision record, 5-1. Houston gained the final AFC wild-card spot over Pittsburgh and Seattle because its conference record of 8-4 was the best of the three.
NFC
* Dallas (7-9) or New Orleans (7-8) at Chicago (11-5)
* Washington (10-6) at Philadelphia (10-6)
SECOND ROUND
JAN. 12-13
AFC
* First-round winner at Buffalo (13-3)
* First-round winner at Raiders (12-4)
NFC
* First-round winner at New York Giants (13-3)
* First-round winner at San Francisco (14-2)
CONFERENCE FINALS * JAN. 20 FOR AFC AND NFC
SUPER BOWL * JAN. 27 AT TAMPA, FLA.
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4036957799a4ca0b38ab1ba25cff0c97
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5650-story.html
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Valenzuela’s Appeal Fizzles; Penalty Stands : Horse racing: Jockey’s attorney says doctor declined to sign a crucial affidavit.
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Valenzuela’s Appeal Fizzles; Penalty Stands : Horse racing: Jockey’s attorney says doctor declined to sign a crucial affidavit.
Pat Valenzuela’s attorney said Sunday night that he and the embattled jockey have exhausted their means of appealing a six-month suspension that will keep Valenzuela grounded through May 11.
According to Sam Silverstein, Valenzuela’s last chance of getting a temporary restraining order disappeared when Dr. Neal Fisher declined to sign an affidavit that would have supported the jockey in court.
Silverstein, who was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, suggested that he was misled by Fisher.
“I talked to Dr. Fisher at least four times about the affidavit, including as recently as Saturday,” Silverstein said. “He was going to say that he never asked Pat to test (for drugs). But when I sent the affidavit over to be signed, he wouldn’t do it and said he didn’t want to get involved. He was the linchpin in our appeal. If he had told me up front how he felt, I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself. This leaves us with no place to go. We can’t do anything else.”
Attempts to reach Fisher and his associate, Dr. J.W. Donohoe, were unsuccessful Sunday.
Valenzuela, who received a 60-day suspension after he tested positive for cocaine at the end of 1989, called in sick to the Santa Anita stewards on Nov. 3, the day of the $1-million California Cup races. Fisher told the stewards that Valenzuela refused a drug test, which constituted a violation of his probation from 1989.
The stewards suspended Valenzuela indefinitely Nov. 12, then after a hearing Dec. 21 they ruled that he couldn’t ride through May 11.
Valenzuela, 28, is one of the country’s leading jockeys. He won the Kentucky Derby aboard Sunday Silence in 1989 and Daily Racing Form statistics credited him with $7.2 million in purses, 11th nationally.
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d5bdd138f945a7f9f4aece00dcad5c8f
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5651-story.html
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Raiders Become Best in the West : Pro football: They heat up in the fourth quarter to beat the Chargers and their rookie quarterback, 17-12, winning the AFC West title. L.A. trails at halftime, 9-7.
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Raiders Become Best in the West : Pro football: They heat up in the fourth quarter to beat the Chargers and their rookie quarterback, 17-12, winning the AFC West title. L.A. trails at halftime, 9-7.
The Raiders were 11 minutes 20 seconds from explaining a loss to a former University of Idaho quarterback named John Friesz and booking wild-card passage to Miami. Then they reached down deep and pulled out the AFC West title, rallying to defeat the San Diego Chargers, 17-12, before 62,593 at the Coliseum Sunday.
The Kansas City Chiefs, who needed a San Diego victory to win the division, looked on from home in glee, then horror, as the rookie quarterback Friesz guided the Chargers to the brink of victory. Friesz only acted his age when it mattered.
As if waiting to be scared stiff before reacting, the Raiders ordered up an 80-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter, capped by a 17-yard pass from quarterback Jay Schroeder to fullback Steve Smith with 3:53 to play.
It was as easy as that. Some Raiders didn’t wish to face the consequences of a loss to Charger players who will pick up their paychecks Tuesday and call it a forgettable season.
So the Raiders survived a scare, won their division, received a first-round bye and now prepare for an unknown opponent. That won’t be determined until first-round games are completed next weekend.
A Raider loss would have set up a wild-card game next weekend in Miami against the Dolphins.
“It entered my mind,” defensive end Greg Townsend said. “But I didn’t think about it.”
The Chargers were accused by some of football heresy for throwing the upstart Friesz into real, live NFL action, but the Raiders certainly didn’t make San Diego pay for it.
Imagine the locker-room scene at halftime, when the Raiders pulled in trailing, 9-7.
“I’ll tell you what, it was real quiet,” Schroeder said. “What could you say?”
With no one suggesting setting their watches ahead three hours to Miami time, the Raiders opted to make enough big plays in the second half to win the game. Four seemed to be about right.
Big Play No. 1: Special teams man and backup safety Dan Land got it started on the kickoff following Jeff Jaeger’s 45-yard field goal that gave the Raiders a 10-9 lead with 13:33 left in the third quarter.
Donnie Elder took the ensuing kickoff and went 90 yards down the left sideline. Land never conceded the touchdown and tripped Elder up at the seven-yard line.
“That was the biggest play,” Townsend said. “If they score, who knows what happens?”
The Chargers settled for a 21-yard John Carney field goal with 11:36 remaining. San Diego regained the lead, 12-10, but the Raiders took a measure of pride in holding the Chargers to three points.
Land didn’t only see Elder running away from him. He saw the Raiders’ season running away with him.
“I’ve got to catch him,” he said he told himself.
Trailing again, the Raiders took over at their own 20 and wouldn’t give the ball up until after Smith scored the game-winner and 3:53 remained.
Schroeder, who struggled most of the game, was five for five on the drive for 70 yards.
Big Play No. 2. On third and six at the Raider 24, Schroeder found Tim Brown open over the middle for a 22-yard gain to the San Diego 46. After a two-yard run by Bo Jackson, Schroeder passed 18 yards to Jackson.
Big Play No. 3. On third and three at the San Diego 27, Schroeder rolled left and scrambled four yards for the first down, lowering his shoulder into two Chargers defenders to make the necessary yardage.
Schroeder’s thoughts: If not him, who? If not then, when?
“I knew I had to get it,” he said. “I saw the down marker on the sideline.”
Schroeder’s first down set up a scoring pass to Smith that fooled everyone in the stadium, including the Chargers. Smith is best known as a blocker for Heisman Trophy winners Jackson and Marcus Allen. Once a season, around the holidays, Smith becomes a secret weapon. This was the time, and Smith won the division. He slithered out of the backfield into the left flat, accepted the perfect pass from Schroeder and raced into the end zone untouched.
Most figured that was the game. Friesz, remembering all those comebacks he led in Division I-AA at Idaho, gave it one last fling. He threw 16 yards to Anthony Miller on third and 15 to give the Chargers a first down at the Raider 46.
But on second and 10, defensive end, Scott Davis, who earlier had blocked an extra point, came up with Big Play No. 4 when he sacked Friesz for a seven-yard loss. Friesz threw six yards to tight end Arthur Cox on third down, but his fourth-down pass fell incomplete with 51 seconds left, preserving the Raiders’ first division title since 1985.
While it wasn’t a championship effort by the Raiders, they came up with enough moments.
“We did what we had to do,” Allen said. “Guys like Dan Land, who ran down that guy on the kick return. Jay Schroeder lowering his shoulder on that big third down play. Steve Smith making the catch and taking it in for the touchdown. Scott Davis making the big sack. I like to think that’s a sign of a champion.”
Raider defensive end Howie Long said it’s the little things that separate champions from Chargers.
“San Diego pushes a lot of teams to the envelope and finds a way to lose,” he said. “The Raiders push teams to the envelope and find ways to win. San Diego is a minute away from being 10-6.”
The Raiders are two victories from the Super Bowl, although you wouldn’t know it by Sunday’s post-game celebration. There was none. No champagne, no balloons, no party favors.
“We just won the AFC West,” Long said. “See me after the Super Bowl, then I’ll tell you we’re there.”
Still, five years is a long time between playoff games.
“We got knocked off the mound,” Townsend said, “and it was a long, hard climb back up.”
Who’s back yet?
Raider owner Al Davis, measuring his elation, roamed the locker-room floor and dreamed of bigger games to come.
“Start worrying about the next one,” he yelled to Long.
Raider Notes
In his first NFL appearance, quarterback John Friesz completed 11 of 22 passes for 98 yards and one touchdown, a seven-yard pass to Craig McEwen in the second quarter. Freisz: “I did some good things and I did some bad things.” That seemed the consensus. “Friesz had an up-and-down day,” Chargers Coach Dan Henning said. . . . Quarterback Jay Schroeder also completed 11 of 22 passes for one touchdown, although he totaled 162 yards. Bo Jackson, who gained only 28 yards in 11 carries, refused to speak with the media afterward.
San Diego tailback Rod Bernstine led all rushers with 114 yards in 27 carries, punishing Raiders along the way. “Bernstine must have a new contract to do this year,” defensive end Greg Townsend said. “He deserves whatever he gets.” . . . Cornerback Lionel Washington missed the game with his sore hamstring pull. He said the decision not to play was made 20 minutes before the game after owner Al Davis asked about his condition. “I said I was 90%,” Washington said. If he had to do it over? “I’d have said I was 100%.” Washington expects to start in the playoffs. . . . With one catch for 30 yards, Willie Gault fell 15 yards short of surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for the season. . . . Jackson won the team rushing championship with 698 yards to Marcus Allen’s 682. . . . San Diego linebacker Junior Seau, the first-round pick and former USC star, recorded his first sack of the season in the first half. . . . Schroeder finished the season with 19 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5652-story.html
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Running Wounded Get Magic First Aid : Lakers: His 34 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists are what the doctor ordered in 115-107 victory over 76ers.
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Running Wounded Get Magic First Aid : Lakers: His 34 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists are what the doctor ordered in 115-107 victory over 76ers.
With their roster besieged by flu, the Lakers tried occupational therapy Sunday night.
They ran a track meet on the Philadelphia 76ers, took a 22-point lead and held on to win, 115-107, before 17,505 in the Forum behind Magic Johnson’s big-time triple double: 34 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists.
The Lakers, winners of three in a row, started the night with two shaky starters, James Worthy and Byron Scott, who had missed the last two days of practice. Elden Campbell also missed practice Friday, obliging Coach Mike Dunleavy, who had missed Wednesday’s game, to attempt to participate.
Dunleavy emerged lightheaded from the drill.
“I was sick for the last game,” he said, “and I’ll be dead for this one.”
Sunday, Worthy and Scott managed 71 minutes and 34 points. What they couldn’t deliver, their old buddy did.
“Two guys were down,” Johnson said. “I had to pick it up.
“I haven’t been quite as aggressive offensively. Tonight I knew I had to be.”
The Lakers hit the 76ers with a 36-19 first period and went from there. It was either an inspirational effort, or a walkover, take your pick.
“That’s just bull, what we did in the first quarter,” the 76ers’ Charles Barkley said. “We didn’t give 110%. The numbers don’t lie.
“My rhythm was there (Barkley scored 14 of his team’s 19). You have to ask the other guys why their rhythm wasn’t there.”
The Laker lead grew to 22 in the second period. It was 16 at the half and 18 early in the fourth quarter.
Back came the 76ers. They were zone-pressing with 7-foot-7 Manute Bol guarding the basket, persuading the Lakers they would be better off firing from outside. The 76ers pulled to 97-88 when Sam Perkins tried to fool Bol with an underhand scoop shot. Perkins got the ball to the basket, but it rolled off the rim. Johnson, camped on the other side, nudged it back up on the rim, where it rolled around . . . and around . . . for a full second before dropping in.
Barkley made two-three pointers and scored 10 points in the last 2:33, but the Lakers hung on.
With the 76ers within 109-103, A.C. Green scored on a fast-break dunk.
With the 76ers within 111-105, Johnson was fouled on a drive and made two free throws.
With the 76ers within 113-107, Scott made two free throws.
The Lakers now have three days of practice before playing again. If no one else gets sick, they’ll consider it a vacation.
Laker Notes
Vlade Divac scored 19 points, had eight rebounds and made seven of his nine shots. Said Coach Mike Dunleavy: “He’s getting better. If you play a guy, he grows as the year goes on. He’s only 23 years old.” . . . Magic Johnson on Divac: “I tell you, if he can just play like this tonight. I’ve never seen him attack the basket like he did tonight. Usually, if someone jumps out, he takes it to the other side. Tonight, he was going at them. I said, ‘Wait a minute, is that Vlade?’ ”
The Lakers came home from the last trip with a 103-point scoring average, No. 15 in the league. Since, they have begun pushing the pace and have averaged 114 points. . . . Dunleavy, on the fact his team had been rebounding well but not running: “It was worrisome. What could I do, tell them not to rebound?” . . . The loss was the 76ers’ seventh in a row in the Forum. Charles Barkley has never won a game here. Since he is the senior 76er in time of service, none of his teammates have won in a Philadelphia uniform, either. . . . Barkley scored 39 points, giving him 119 in three games. He now leads the league in scoring.
Barkley, on the theory that great players are the ones who make the players around them better: “That’s a bunch of . . . Me and Michael Jordan haven’t been fortunate to have great players surrounding us.” . . . Sixer Coach Jimmy Lynam, who went 52-91 as the Clippers’ coach, is 134-78 in Philadelphia and up to 186-189 overall. . . . The sellout was the Lakers’ second of the season. . . . Lakers next: a trip to Portland Thursday night and Golden State Friday night.
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f7d64864cdcabbbfe2c5d225095cd5ad
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5653-story.html
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Perhaps Some Boxing Tips Are in Order
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Perhaps Some Boxing Tips Are in Order
After the National Hockey League announced that it planned to add a team in Tampa, Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome came up with a list of “everything anyone needs to know about the game.”
Lincicome’s public service included:
“The puck. The object of the game is to see it. No one ever has. Hockey is one long parlor trick.
“Icing. There is way too much of this, to my way of thinking.
“O Canada. This is where they give the hockey scores at the beginning of the sports report instead of the end.
“Orr. Generally 17 down in the Sunday crossword puzzle.
“The crease. This is the longest scar on a goalie’s face. The reason they wear their masks into singles bars.”
Trivia time: In a poll of sportswriters conducted by the Soviet news agency Tass, who was the USSR’s top athlete of 1990?
Sleep on it: Last year’s Liberty Bowl drew a record 60,128 fans for Air Force and Mississippi. This year, only 13,444 of a paid 39,262 braved 36-degree temperatures for Thursday’s game between Air Force and Ohio State.
Asked whether the Liberty Bowl might look for a corporate sponsor, executive director A.F. (Bud) Dudley said: “That is an area we might put emphasis on in the next two months. It seems to be the thing of the future.”
The Fun Bowl: The Seattle Times has been publishing “Husky Diary.” Each day, a Washington player shares something that impressed him during the previous 24 hours of his Rose Bowl experience.
Wide receiver Curtis Gaspard liked the time UW and Iowa players visited a medieval theme restaurant.
Said Gaspard: “We went through this one door and into what was like a big auditorium, or something. It was like a big feast. And as we ate there was this entertainment. . . .
“And it was a competitive thing because there was a horse and a knight representing each section. You cheered for ‘your’ knight.
“So that was real good.”
A month?: In 1990, whenever Raghib (Rocket) Ismail was available for an entire game, Notre Dame was undefeated. The Irish’s two losses came when Ismail’s thigh injury limited him to one play against Stanford and one half against Penn State.
Coach Lou Holtz said last week: “When you don’t have Rocket Ismail, it hurts you. It’s like ‘Phantom of the Opera’ wouldn’t be the same without that actor. . . . I wish I could remember his name.”
Holtz added: “I took my wife to see ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and she wouldn’t look at me for a month unless I wore a mask.”
Smart mom: Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors was second in the 1956 Heisman Trophy voting as the Volunteers’ star tailback, but in their 1957 Sugar Bowl loss to Baylor, Majors fumbled a punt at his team’s 15-yard line, leading to the Bears’ winning touchdown.
Earlier, Majors’ roommate, Bruce Burnham, was kicked in the head and went into convulsions. In the locker room after the game, the team learned Burnham was OK.
Majors recalled that the first thing his mother asked about was Burnham’s condition.
What was her opinion of her son’s performance?
Said Majors: “She was a teacher and had eight kids, so she cooked a lot. A reporter asked her about my fumble, and she said, ‘Even I burn the biscuits on occasion.’ ”
Trivia answer: World chess champion Gary Kasparov, who successfully defended his title against Anatoly Karpov in a two-month series that is expected to end this week.
Quotebook: Colorado punter Tom Rouen, on how he would react to an Orange Bowl victory over Notre Dame for the national championship: “I’d probably go nuts.”
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84718b33446a797695cb1441515b8d4a
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5655-story.html
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Skiles Is Magic With His Assists, Setting an NBA Record With 30
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Skiles Is Magic With His Assists, Setting an NBA Record With 30
When offensive records fall in the NBA these days, it’s a sure bet the Denver Nuggets will be involved.
While the Magic was setting a club scoring record in a 155-116 victory over the Nuggets Sunday night at Orlando, Fla., guard Scott Skiles set an NBA record for assists.
Skiles, 23rd in the league with a 6.6 average, had 30 assists. The former record was 29 set in 1978 by Kevin Porter of New Jersey.
Skiles, a fifth-year guard from Michigan State, tied the record with almost seven minutes remaining. He then made eight passes on which his teammates failed to convert. There were only 20 seconds when Jerry Reynolds took a pass from Skiles and sank a 20-footer for the record-breaker.
Skiles, who had 18 assists earlier in the season, had 14 in the first half when the Magic built a 72-49 lead.
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c737976bd798565b53653d7f2e3df6f2
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5657-story.html
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Dynamo Riga Wins the USA Cup, 5-2
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Dynamo Riga Wins the USA Cup, 5-2
Igor Pavlov and Oleg Znarok scored 50 seconds apart in the third period as Dynamo Riga held off the United States, 5-2, to win the USA Cup Sunday night.
Pavlov broke a 2-2 tie at 5:20 when he took a drop pass behind the net from Ilmars Tomanis and flipped a backhander past goalie Scott LaGrand as he skated through the crease.
Znarok was the leading scorer in the four-day tournament with four goals and four assists.
Stockholm AIK defeated Canada, 6-5, in the consolation game.
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b41b2df2090b1a4b4c4eecfe6c1dc3d4
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5658-story.html
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Notes on a Scorecard
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Notes on a Scorecard
A bit of Americana came to Plaza Monumental in Juarez the other evening. . . .
The wave was performed in the stands at a bloodless bullfight staged for the USC and Michigan State football teams. . . .
The bulls at first refused to cooperate, but eventually appeared in the corrida , one of many events held in conjunction with what the local citizenry likes to call “America’s Fun Bowl.”. . .
Not long ago, it was also known as the Sun Bowl. But now it is the John Hancock Bowl, primarily because John Hancock Financial Services kicks in $1.5 million a year. . . .
The Trojans and Spartans have been treated to team breakfasts, luncheons, dinners and snacks, police escorts and a tour of a boot factory as well as the bullfight. . . .
In return, they will be asked to entertain today in the nation’s second oldest bowl game, a fixture since the El Paso All-Stars nudged Ranger, Tex., 25-21, on New Year’s Day of 1935. .
USC Coach Larry Smith, who said last week that he had no idea who would start at quarterback, made the shocking revelation Sunday that it would be Todd Marinovich. . . .
Marinovich has missed some practices because of an ear infection, but backups Pat O’Hara and Reggie Perry each have missed taking snaps in 11 of 12 games. . . .
The other Trojan quarterback, Shane Foley, was charged with being drunk and disorderly Christmas Eve in Newport Beach. . . .
Little-known fact: Michigan State finished in a four-way tie with Iowa, Illinois and Michigan for the Big Ten championship this season. . . .
In a consolation prize bowl like this, the cliche fits. The team that wants it the most usually wins. . . .
Smith on USC’s attitude: “I was concerned at first, but after practicing and looking at the Michigan State films, I think I’ve got the players’ attention. A bowl victory is a great way to end a season and begin the next.” . . .
USC is 19-8 in the Rose Bowl, but only 3-3 in other bowls. . . .
Michigan State, which plays its home games on artificial turf, brought shoes with basketball-type soles. USC sent out a last-minute order for some, but only 30 pair had arrived by Sunday. . . .
The weather can change quickly here this time of year, but clear skies and temperatures in the low 50s are expected at kickoff time. . . .
There was a white Christmas in El Paso in 1987 when Oklahoma State beat West Virginia, 35-33. USC would have played Oklahoma State if the Trojans hadn’t beaten UCLA to win the Rose Bowl bid. . . .
USC and Michigan State each will receive $900,000, but must share it with other conference schools after taking expenses off the top. . . .
The Hancock Bowl can’t be accused of thinking big. It’s trying to sign a contract that would bring the Big Ten’s fourth -place team to El Paso every December. . . .
Collector’s items: Thirty dozen Hancock Bowl T-shirts show the matchup as being the USC Trojans against the Michigan Wolverines. . . .
During the Trojans’ final practice Saturday, Marinovich wore the No. 83 jersey of wide receiver Gary Wellman and imitated him raising his arms after a touchdown catch. . . .
Wellman--small, swift and tough--would be an ideal target for ex-teammate Rodney Peete in the Detroit Lions’ run-and-shoot offense. . . .
Smith on tailback Mazio Royster: “For two years, he didn’t do much at all. I tried to run him off twice and suspended him on a number of occasions because he was missing class and practice. He’s done a complete turnaround.” . . .
Sun Bowl participants included Hardin-Simmons Coach Sammy Baugh in 1958, Miami (Ohio) running back Ara Parseghian in 1948, and Florida State running back Burt Reynolds in 1955. . .
There still is a Sun Bowl. The name of the 52,200-seat stadium on the University of Texas El Paso campus wasn’t changed to the John Hancock Bowl. . . .
I kept trying to adjust the color on my TV set during the Freedom Bowl, but people tell me Oregon and Colorado State really were both wearing green and yellow uniforms. . . .
Florida State always likes to claim that it’s the best team in the nation after a slow start, but the Seminoles didn’t look the part against Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl. . .
The worst thing that could have happened to John Cooper was Ohio State being invited to the Liberty Bowl. . . .
Maybe Ty Detmer should decline the Heisman if it’s offered to him again next year with two games to play. . . .
Nine bowl games down, 10 to go. . . .
Master of Ceremonies Rocky Bleier at the Hancock Bowl luncheon: “I played for Notre Dame, so I’m impartial. I hate both USC and Michigan State.”
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9fb75517d10de2c852216f60d8acb852
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5659-story.html
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SPOTLIGHT / A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL : BEATING THE CROWDS
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SPOTLIGHT / A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL : BEATING THE CROWDS
On the last weekend of the NFL season, with many playoff spots already locked up, stadiums often look as if fans decided to leave early for the holidays.
On this particular NFL Sunday, only five of the 11 games had playoff significance. Here’s how the fans responded throughout the league:
Raiders 17, Chargers 12
Attendance: 62,593
Not a bad crowd for the Raiders, who usually have drawn well at the Coliseum only against the elite teams. Of course, it was just the AFC West title on the line.
Houston 34, Pittsburgh 14
Attendance: 56,906
The House of Pain could barely take the strain as the Oilers earned a playoff berth.
Atlanta 26, Dallas 7
Attendance: 50,097
A good crowd showed up in Atlanta to watch the Falcons hurt the Cowboys’ chances. Jerry Glanville has meant a lot to this franchise. This was the sixth sellout of the season, although there were 9,574 no-shows. In past years, a game like like wouldn’t draw more than 20,000.
Cincinnati 21, Cleveland 14
Attendance: 60,041
A capacity crowd braved the cold at Riverfront Stadium to watch the Bengals keep their hopes alive.
San Francisco 20, Minnesota 17
Attendance: 51,590
The Vikings are out of it and so were 11,878 no-shows at the Metrodome.
N.Y. Giants 13, New England 10
Attendance: 60,410
The strangest crowd story of the day. Tens of thousands of Giant fans, who usually can’t get a ticket to Giants’ home games, made the trek to Foxboro, Mass., filling the seats there for the first time this season.
Miami 23, Indianapolis 17
Attendance: 59,547
There were about 15,000 empty seats at Joe Robbie Stadium, with the home team’s playoff position set.
Washington 29, Buffalo 14
Attendance: 52,397
A battle between playoff teams with nothing on the line. Still the toughest ticket in the capital, if not the country.
Seattle 30, Detroit 10
Attendance: 50,681
Despite the importance to the Seahawks, this was the smallest crowd at the Kingdome this season. There were 13,847 no-shows, probably because of a forecast of snow and freezing rain.
Denver 22, Green Bay 14
Attendance: 46,943
The second-lowest crowd since Mile High Stadium was expanded more than a decade ago. Many of the 29,076 no-shows probably were discouraged because forecasts indicated the game would be played in bitterly cold weather. Sure, it was cold, but it was thought 70,000 Bronco fans would show up on draft day if they could.
New York Jets 16, Tampa Bay 14
Attendance: 46,543
Who knows what goes through the minds of Floridians?
RUNNING IN PLACE
The battle for the NFL rushing title turned out in much the same way as the NFC wild-card chase--in reverse. Detroit’s Barry Sanders, who came in second last season, was held to 23 yards in nine carries against Seattle but won the title with 1,304 yards. He started the day 16 yards behind Buffalo’s Thurman Thomas, but Thomas didn’t gain a yard in five attempts on Sunday against Washington.
Also, this from the Associated Press report: “Sanders, whose 16-yard touchdown run was his only big play against Seattle, is the first Detroit player to win the league rushing title since Byron (Whizzer) White in 1940. White went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice.”
It was not reported if Sanders, who defied convention two years ago by leaving Oklahoma State after his junior season, is planning to follow in White’s legal footsteps.
NAMES AND NUMBERS
Seattle, which has suffered a string of injuries to linebackers this season, lost another when starter Tony Woods injured his right knee in the second quarter. Coach Chuck Knox said Woods would undergo tests Monday to determine if there was any ligament damage. . . . Barry Sanders’ 16-yard scoring run gave him 16 touchdowns for the season, tying the team record set by Billy Sims in 1980. It also was the 46th touchdown for the Lions this year, equaling the mark set by the 1981 team.
San Francisco’s Jerry Rice caught nine passes for 118 yards and became the fourth player to reach the 100-reception mark. . . . The Vikings (6-10), who won the NFC Central last season, finished in last place for the first time since 1984. They ended the season with a four-game losing streak.
Atlanta’s Andre Rison caught five passes for 49 yards against Dallas, finishing the season with 82 catches for 1,208 yards. He broke the Atlanta club record of 81 catches set by William Andrews in 1981. . . . Mike Rozier’s 67-yard run from scrimmage was a Falcon record, breaking the mark of 66 by Harmon Wages.
Cincinnati offensive tackle Anthony Munoz was poked in the left eye early in the game against Cleveland and went to the sideline. The injury wasn’t considered serious. . . . The Browns finished the season with 228 points, their fewest in a 16-game schedule. The previous low was 250 in 1984. . . . Eric Metcalf set club records for kickoff returns and yardage--a sign of the Browns’ defensive problems.
Buffalo’s Leon Seals, the defensive end opposite Bruce Smith, went down with a sprained knee in the second quarter when several players fell on him as he tackled Washington’s Earnest Byner. He did not return, but said he would not miss the playoffs. . . . Art Monk extended his streak to 116 games with at least one reception, the fourth-best of all time.
New England scored just 51 points in its last seven games and failed to score more than one touchdown for the 12th time this season.
WAIT-A-MINUTE DEPT.
Indianapolis finished with its worst record since 1986, 7-9, but guard Brian Baldinger said the Colts might do well if they were in the playoffs.
“If they threw us in the pool, I think we’d be competitive,” he said, seriously. “No team puts fear in our hearts.”
Also, the weekly Bob Trumpy report: The NBC commentator chided Buffalo quarterback Gale Gilbert for lofting an incomplete pass in the corner of the end zone, then was back on Gilbert’s side on the next play, when he lofted a touchdown pass to Kenneth Davis between two receivers.
SWAN SONGS
Cleveland Brown tight end Ozzie Newsome completed his 13th and probably last season by catching one pass for six yards in a 21-14 loss to Cincinnati, leaving him 20 yards short of becoming the 15th player in NFL history to reach 8,000 yards receiving.
Denver’s Sammy Winder, who earlier announced he would retire, was a sentimental starter in a 22-13 victory over Green Bay. The nine-year veteran, second on the Broncos’ all-time rushing list, finished with 80 yards in 15 carries and brought the Denver crowd to its feet with a 19-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.
IN QUOTES
Raider Coach Art Shell on his club’s 17-12 victory over San Diego: “It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we did today what champions have to do--find a way to win.”
Charger quarterback John Friesz, who made his first NFL start: “I wasn’t nervous. I did some good things and I did some bad things. Our team played well enough to win and I just couldn’t get the job done.”
Seattle’s Derrick Fenner: “We’re a good team. We had critics say we were going to go 3-13. That’s ridiculous. I think they were talking about Denver.”
Atlanta Coach Jerry Glanville, after the Falcons beat the Cowboys: “We heard they had five cases of champagne on ice, so we bought our own bottle, which cost us $2.29.”
Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson, whose team could have clinched a wild-card spot, but will miss out if New Orleans beats the Rams tonight: “The Saints can get ready to play Chicago.”
Chicago Coach Mike Ditka on the Bears’ playoff opponent: “It doesn’t matter who we play. I’m sure they all want to play us after they watch today’s game.”
San Francisco’s Jerry Rice on the 49ers’ penchant for late rallies: “If we’ve got time on the clock, we’re going to get the ball into the end zone. We’ve always got somebody in the ideal position to make a big play.”
Minnesota Coach Jerry Burns, on the Vikings’ 6-10 season: “You really have to be scratching to find anything positive. When I saw that guy shoot that gun at the end, that was the most positive thing I saw.”
Cincinnati quarterback Boomer Esiason on his passing for more than 3,000 yards for the sixth consecutive season: “I don’t worry about things like that. I don’t really care about statistics. The players around the league that are that way are selfish. They’re not playing the right game. They should be playing tennis or boxing.”
Buffalo Coach Marv Levy: “When you know what your playoff situation is, you walk on eggs a little bit.”
Defensive tackle Bruce Smith on the Bills’ loss to Washington: “We have other things to look forward to. We have accomplished 99.9% of our goals this year.”
BACKUP UPDATE
After Washington defeated Buffalo, 29-14, veteran backup Frank Reich took his first loss in five NFL starts philosophically. He expects starter Jim Kelly to return for the Bills’ first playoff game in two weeks.
“The season is not over yet. My attitude is to stay ready,” Reich said. “Hopefully Jim will come back and lead us all the way. But I’m sure he will be a little bit more tender than normal, so I want to be prepared.”
Reich was ineffective against the Redskins, getting as far as midfield only once, in the closing seconds of the first half. He completed seven of 14 passes for 88 yards.
“The Redskins were in the same situation we were in (having already clinched a playoff spot). But believe me, there was a lot of intensity out there,” he said. “It was frustrating not to put any points on the board.”
Meanwhile, at New England, Jeff Hostetler stepped into Phil Simms’ spot and guided the New York Giants to a 13-10 victory.
Simms is expected to be sidelined for at least one playoff game. Asked if he would be comfortable using Hostetler in that game, Giant Coach Bill Parcells said, “Do I have a choice?”
“No.”
“Then,” he answered, “I’m comfortable with Hostetler.”
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58fb19fcb438e5abb939110d69497d52
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5661-story.html
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Hawkeyes Lose All-Big Ten Tackle Johnson
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Hawkeyes Lose All-Big Ten Tackle Johnson
Iowa’s all-Big Ten defensive tackle, Jim Johnson, won’t play against Washington in Tuesday’s Rose Bowl game.
Johnson suffered a strained left knee during practice Friday, Coach Hayden Fry said. Fry said the 6-foot-3, 270-pound senior was the only Hawkeye player who would miss the game because of an injury.
“That’s a big loss to us from a defensive standpoint,” Fry said. “On the other hand, Jeff Nelson and Ron Geater will do a very fine job handling Jim Johnson’s position.”
Nelson, a 6-4, 260-pound sophomore, will start Tuesday and Geater will back him up. Nelson played in 10 games this season and made 28 tackles. Geater, a 6-6, 270-pound junior, made 23 tackles in 10 games.
If Fry ran a professional football scouting service, he would make Nick Bell, one of his two No. 1 tailbacks, a first-round pick.
“He could be a running back, fullback, tight end or linebacker, he’s that versatile,” Fry said. “Most guys can play just one position. Nick has the capabilities to play four.”
Bell, a 6-3, 225-pound former all-state wrestler from Las Vegas, shares running duties with Tony Stewart, another senior from Union, N.J.
“Having two running backs is important in the Big Ten because week after week they take so much punishment that it’s almost impossible for a single back to go through the season without getting battered one way or another,” Fry said.
“Besides, we had two guys who wanted to be No. 1. We decided it would be better to call both of them No. 1 and have them share time than to call one of them No. 2.”
Once a Marine, always a Marine. That’s Fry’s philosophy, and he runs the team the way he used to train recruits at Quantico.
“I learned in the Corps what every Marine learns, that everything starts with discipline. I instill that in my team, and I’m proud to say that they respond very well to it.
“I want the team to do everything first class, from the way they run on the field to the way they break the huddle. Having a first-class attitude can become contagious.
“When our young men meet the media for interviews, I want them to have their hair combed, the shirt tucked in and their ties knotted. If their personal life is not in order, how can you expect them to be in order on the football field?”
Merton Hanks was voted to the all-Big Ten team as a cornerback, but he says the Iowa special teams are the Hawkeyes’ secret weapon.
Hanks, a four-year letterman, is the heart of the special teams. He has blocked three punts and a field goal attempt and intercepted three passes.
“There’s nothing like blocking a punt to disrupt the other team’s poise,” Hanks said. “If we can get one against Washington, it could turn things our way.”
Washington Coach Don James celebrates his 59th birthday today. And two of his players, tailback Beno Bryant and punter Channing Wyles, will turn 20 and 23, respectively, on New Year’s Day.
The dean of Pacific 10 coaches, James has a 13-4 record against Big Ten teams. He also has a record 83 conference victories.
Times staff writer Mal Florence and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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ac842ad364ed2eaa17ccfd13cf614181
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5663-story.html
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BOWL UPDATE : CITRUS : He Has Felt Persian Gulf Strife Up Close
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BOWL UPDATE : CITRUS : He Has Felt Persian Gulf Strife Up Close
Darryl Jenkins, a second team all-Atlantic Coast Conference tackle from Georgia Tech, has been especially interested in the situation in the Persian Gulf. His summer job moving boxes for a freight company found him working outside the fences that surround Ft. McPherson, Ga., where troops were being shipped to the Middle East.
“You see a lot of families out there waving goodby to their fathers,” Jenkins said. “While I never got to know my father, it struck me that they may never get to know theirs.”
Larry Jenkins, Darryl’s father, was killed in Vietnam shortly before Darryl’s first birthday. Darryl’s cousin, Michael, is currently in the Middle East.
“He said he wasn’t going to be over there for a month, but I think, you know, he’s probably going to be other there a while longer,” Jenkins told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
Darryl is 23, two years older than his father when he died.
“It makes you think,” Darryl said.
When Colorado scored 27 points in the fourth quarter to beat Nebraska, 27-12, the game had a profound effect on the Cornhuskers for the remaining two games.
“After the game we were very, very quiet,” said linebacker Pat Tyrance. “As much as you’d like to put it behind you, it’s really tough to do. It carried over to our next two games.”
The second of those games was a 45-10 loss to Oklahoma.
“I don’t think I have ever seen the mood that low (in Lincoln, Neb.),” Tyrance said. “We set a lot of goals for our team and had high expectations. The last game of the season was really disappointing. It’s tough.”
Nebraska finished the regular season 9-2. Georgia Tech is 10-0-1.
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aec83b2831e4918b525a1b24834a0dae
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5665-story.html
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BOWL UPDATE : SUGAR : His Virginia Friends Have Last Laugh
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BOWL UPDATE : SUGAR : His Virginia Friends Have Last Laugh
In addition to the approximately 10,000 fans Virginia has brought to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, some followers of the Cavaliers already live here.
One of those is Virginia graduate Hill Riddle, the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans. Riddle said some friends from his native Old Dominion have kidded him about his new home.
“I would tell them, ‘I’m going to live in New Orleans until Virginia plays in the Sugar Bowl.’ And then I would roll with laughter because I knew that would never happen.
“Well, I guess I’ve got to find another excuse to stay here now.”
Virginia defensive back Jason Wallace is a graduate of Bethel High School in Hampton, Va., as is Tennessee’s Todd Kelly, a sophomore defensive end for the Volunteers.
Wallace, a senior who also returns punts for the Cavaliers, said he and Kelly spoke extensively while they were home for Christmas.
“We wished each other our best game ever,” Wallace said. “No matter the outcome, we hope the other does well.”
Tennessee cornerbacks Jeremy Lincoln and J.J. McCleskey become the latest defenders to try to contain Herman Moore, Virginia’s 6-foot-5 All-American wide receiver and three-time ACC high-jump champion. “He’s a concern to us, as he probably has been to every secondary they’ve played this year,” Lincoln said. “He’s tall, rangy and can jump. I may need a stepladder. I’m just 5-11 and J.J.'s not real tall either. Maybe we can put J.J. on my back and together we can play one corner to cover him.”
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da58f2bf47921b2959862dff87019420
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5666-story.html
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BOWL UPDATE : ORANGE : Injuries Annoying but Not Significant
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BOWL UPDATE : ORANGE : Injuries Annoying but Not Significant
Injuries posed more of an annoyance than a significant hardship to both Notre Dame and Colorado heading into Tuesday night’s Orange Bowl.
Irish Coach Lou Holtz said nose tackle Chris Zorich “is no more than 75%" because of a dislocated kneecap he suffered Oct. 27. “Watching him on film, he definitely favors the leg,” Holtz said Sunday.
Linebacker Donn Grimm, who has shared time this season with Demetrius DuBose, has a hip pointer. “I don’t expect him to play much, if at all,” Holtz said.
Colorado linebacker Terry Johnson, who has alternated as a starter this season with Chad Brown, is questionable because of a pulled hamstring, although he appeared improved Sunday.
Wide receiver Mike Pritchard, wearing a light cast to protect a broken bone in his left hand, fell on the hand during Saturday’s workout but reported no ill effects. Pritchard has been able to catch the ball with surprising proficiency.
Holtz, asked if he planned any new wrinkles for the bowl game, said: “If we did have new wrinkles, in all honesty would you expect me to share them with you? You’re more naive than my wife.”
Colorado expects little trouble adjusting to the loss of backup defensive back Eric Hamilton, sent home shortly after he arrived in Miami when Coach Bill McCartney became aware of the player’s Nov. 30 arrest for driving under the influence. Hamilton, a sophomore, was Colorado’s nickel back and a standout special-teams player. Defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz said sophomore Dwayne Davis would take Hamilton’s place. “When we go to the nickel, we’ll put (strong safety) Tim James up in the underneath zone and bring Davis in to play the deep zone,” Hankwitz said.
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fbf16eed979ced13d5caba61f1b94fc2
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5667-story.html
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BOWL UPDATE : COTTON : Bad Weather Expected to Clear
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BOWL UPDATE : COTTON : Bad Weather Expected to Clear
Freezing rain, sleet and snow hit the Cotton Bowl Sunday, but forecasters said the weather will clear and temperatures will be in the mid-40s for New Year’s Day, when No. 3-ranked Texas and No. 4-ranked Miami meet.
Texas freshman running back Butch Hadnot has been cleared to play despite suffering a broken finger on Nov. 24 against Baylor. Hadnot missed the season-ending 28-27 victory over Texas A&M.; A splint on the finger will come off for the game.
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ff40ed709d63884e95d8b2cf4a52c5f3
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5668-story.html
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BETTING WITH JANICE : SANTA ANITA SHOWDOWN
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BETTING WITH JANICE : SANTA ANITA SHOWDOWN
Because My Song For You finished in a dead heat for second Sunday, my profit for the day was only $5.00. For today, I will wager $20 to win and place on Alabamian in the fourth race.
Janice’s Sun. Bankroll: $2,042.50* Sunday’s Profit: $5.00 Current Bankroll: $2,047.50
Bob Mieszerski lost $40 when Chief Sassafras, the first half of his win parlay finished second in the second race. Bob’s bet today is a $10 exacta box, Queen Nambi-Flora Lady-Ma Kelly in the fifth race.
Bob’s Sun. Bankroll: $2,044 Sunday’s Loss: $40 Current Bankroll: $2,004
Both started with $2,000 bankrolls.
* Adjusted total.
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3964eabe7fe26d2ddd2bda7b0f1f157c
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5745-story.html
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The Worst of the Worst : Few Could Live Up to Area’s Great Expectations
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The Worst of the Worst : Few Could Live Up to Area’s Great Expectations
1990 was the worst year in the history of Orange County sports.
No ifs, ands, buts, substitutions or other nominees accepted.
Don’t give us 1966. Sure, that’s when the Angels moved to Anaheim Stadium. There was still some darned good high school football played around here, mister.
Don’t give us 1982. The Rams were 2-7 disasters that year, but the Angels saved their greatest playoff choke until 1986.
Don’t give us 1987. The Rams may have lost nine games and Eric Dickerson and the Angels may have tied for last, but the Cal State Fullerton football team and the UC Irvine basketball team didn’t go months without winning a game.
Unfortunately, someone had to give us 1990. We can’t give it back. This was the year somebody in operations decided to give Atlanta and Cleveland a break and bust some chops out West for a change. So Atlanta got the Olympics, Cleveland got Sandy Alomar, Jr. . . . and Orange County got the shaft.
Being bad is bad enough. But most years, you learn this about your teams well in advance, so you have time to prepare and maybe buy some good books. Not this one. The Rams and the Angels promised their fans the moon--there would be Super Bowls, there would be Mark Langston no-hitters--only to run them through the worst kind of imaginable hell on earth.
The Rams were going to win it all. Sports Illustrated said so. In January, the Rams eclipsed everyone this side of San Francisco and would have cold-cocked Denver in Super XXIV if given the chance. By September, odds were that San Francisco would finally get bored and the Rams, with Jim Everett beating clocks and Curt Warner turning his back, couldn’t help but break through.
The Angels weren’t necessarily going to win it all, but they were damn well going to match Oakland arm-for-arm. You have Dave Stewart, we have Mark Langston, thanks to 16 more of Gene Autry’s millions. You have Bob Welch, we have Chuck Finley. You have Mike Moore, we have Bert Blyleven. With a little more offensive pop, who knows?--and on May 11, the Angels landed Dave Winfield.
A big deal?
Big deal.
The Angels couldn’t even stay in the race long enough to greet Winfield in fifth place. After 30 games, they were tied for last--11-19, 12 games out. This included three victories in their first four games, including Langston’s brazen debut: A combined no-hitter with Mike Witt. Afterward, Autry said he hoped Langston could do it two or three more times.
Did Langston ever win again? The mind goes numb trying to recall. A trip through the record book shows he finished 10-17, but that was after he had sunk to 5-15. So at least Langston made good use of garbage time. This year, the Angels had five months of it. Their final numbers: 80-82, fourth place, 23 games behind Oakland.
The Rams needed two whole months to tank their season. Their opener, a 36-24 thumping by the Anthony Dilweg-led Green Bay Packers, was seen as either a skittish aberration or an omen for trouble. It proved to be the latter--and so much more.
The Ram defense, 21st in the league in 1989 and 28th against the pass, was worse than anyone could have imagined. In one abominable five-game stretch, from Sept. 23 through Oct. 29, the Rams allowed 27 points to Philadelphia, 34 to Cincinnati, 38 to Chicago, 24 to Atlanta and 41 to Pittsburgh. Twenty-four to Atlanta? Not bad, thought Coach John Robinson, who handed out game balls to his six defensive coaches after that one.
Before you could add up the missed tackles, the Rams were 3-7 and their playoff hopes gone. So, too, was Warner, old Seattle Slow, released after the ninth game, after averaging 2.8 yards per carry. His job was handed to Cleveland Gary, who dropped that and just about everything else, fumbling 11 times--or until Robinson couldn’t take it anymore. Tonight, the Rams are 5-10 and will close their season in New Orleans with Marcus Dupree at tailback.
At our local institutions of higher learning, athletic achievement was decidedly lowbrow. Cal State Fullerton lost 11 consecutive football games, a school record. UC Irvine lost 15 consecutive basketball games, a school record. The Titans went 0-for-October and 0-for-November and finished 1-11. The Anteaters went 0-for-January, went winless from Dec. 16 to Feb. 17 and finished 5-23.
And Irvine keeps talking about adding football.
Disappointment didn’t stop there. At Fullerton, John Sneed’s basketball team returned Cedric Ceballos and three other starters from a stunningly good 16-13 season and proceeded to slog through a 13-16 reversal, including a stunningly bad 18-point loss at Irvine. Larry Cochell’s baseball team managed a pleasant surprise by reaching the College World Series, then blew it all in an 0-2 sweep out of Omaha. The Titans lost, 14-4, to Oklahoma State and 8-7 to The Citadel.
The Citadel?
At Irvine, the women’s basketball team (1-27) was even worse than the men’s. Trevor Kronemann, the heavyweight champion of Big West men’s tennis, couldn’t get out of the first round of the NCAA singles tournament. The Anteaters did win an NCAA title in sailing, but they always do that. When it came to any sport played on land, Irvine, generally, found itself at sea.
Bright spots, bright spots. We keep thumbing through old newspapers, searching in vain.
Go to the community colleges. Rancho Santiago won a state championship in men’s basketball. Golden West won state championships in women’s basketball, men’s swimming, women’s volleyball and water polo. Orange Coast won a state championship in women’s swimming.
Go to the high schools. Mater Dei and Servite won state basketball titles. Capistrano Valley, Esperanza and Sunny Hills won Southern Section football titles.
Go to the Little Leaguers. A group of junior high school kids from Cypress won 17 consecutive games and reached the semifinals of the Little League World Series.
And, of course, go to the Placentia Perennials, Janet Evans and Michael Chang, still in their teens and still collecting hardware. This year, Evans won the Sullivan Award; Chang, the Davis Cup.
In other words, you had to go with youth. The younger, the better. Unspoiled by expectation, they merely delivered.
Thus, a slogan for 1990: Don’t trust anyone over 20.
Anybody else, they’ll only break your hearts.
The Spy 100. The Fortune 500. And, now, the Orange County 20.
The people, places and things that did the most to shape this sports year into what it truly became--an utter disappointment.
1. The Rams. No. 1 in your county, No. 1 in the world. First, the defense gave up too many points, then the offense gave up. The courageous play that carried them through 1989 surfaced only once in 1990--the goal line stand against Houston. They choked against Cincinnati, they choked against Dallas and, in the one game they had to win, at home against New Orleans, they outgained the Saints, 444-218, and lost, 24-20. They never should have left Berlin.
2. Mark Langston. Sixteen million gets you what, five victories through mid-August? And now the Angels are talking $12 million for Gary (.229) Gaetti.
3. Jim Everett. If Everett stepped up to the challenge in 1989, he took two steps back in ’90. Where was he during overtime against Cincinnati? In the clutch against Dallas and New Orleans? On any play at any time in Atlanta? Put it another way: Would Joe Montana have allowed this season to happen in San Francisco?
4. Curt Warner. He was going to be another Charles White, another Greg Bell--resurrected in Anaheim. He ended up joining Bert Jones, Joe Namath and Steve Bartkowski--a starter in the Rams’ Too Late For Prime Time All-Time Backfield.
5. Cleveland Gary. Eleven not-so-funny things happened on the way to a 1,000-yard season. Sadder still was the sight of Gary, post-benching, getting in his few carries a game and wrapping both arms around the football as if it was filled with plutonium. Come back next year, Cleveland, all is forgiven.
6. Bert Blyleven. You had a feeling it was a coming. At 39, he wasn’t going to toss up another 17-5. But 8-7, 5.24 earned-run average and no starts after Aug. 10 because of a bum shoulder? Anyone ever win Comeback of the Year twice in three years?
7. Devon White. Do we even have to get into it?
8. The Angels. Thirty years of pennant-less baseball and proud of it. They went from 91 victories to 80, were non-factors from May on, and the best thing they did all season was extend Doug Rader’s contract through 1992. Originally, the Angels offered one year but Rader held out for two. It’s his life.
9. Fullerton football. This was supposed to be a rebuilding season, but no one ordered a wrecking ball. The Titans got lost somewhere on the way to Mississippi State--their trip to Starkville was a 17-hour nightmare of cancelled flights and missed connections--and they never made it back. Trivia note: The only opponent Fullerton beat was Division II Sonoma State, 38-24, in the opener. Not-so-trivial note: The Titans were ranked No. 105 going into their season finale against No. 106 New Mexico State. There is no No. 107. Fullerton lost, 43-9.
10. Irvine basketball. In the post-season review handed out by the Irvine sports information department, it reads: “UCI endured a 5-23 season, the worst record in the 25-year history of the program, but did win three of its last six games to finish the year on a fairly upbeat note.” It’s those first 22 games that kill you.
11. Georgia Frontiere/John Shaw. Their fiscal policy finally crippled their team. Too many unhappy players holding out of training camp. Too many useful Plan B free agents going to teams willing to pay for them. The No. 20 payroll in a 28-team league. And Robinson is to blame for 5-10?
12. John Robinson. He didn’t help, either. His choice of veteran tailbacks--Warner over Bell--eventually left him with no experienced hand when Gary’s began to quiver. His retooled defense never should have made it out of the shed. He played it too safe against Cincinnati--settling for a field goal near the end of regulation, punting on fourth and inches in overtime--when a victory might have turned around the season. He’s a good coach who didn’t deserve last month’s round of Job Jeopardy, but this is one year to leave off the resume.
13. Mike Port. Waited too long to trade for a hitter. Waited too long to trade for Winfield. Waited too long to trade away White. By year’s end, another wait was over--he had a new boss, CEO Richard Brown.
14. Bret Johnson. The Rivalry Doesn’t Continue. Bret broke up the Johnson-Marinovich wars before their time by balking at his benching by Terry Donahue and bailing to Michigan State. For this, Johnson incurred the wrath of a good many sportswriters-- Brat Johnson became the new handle--but Johnson saw something they obviously hadn’t: Tommy Maddox.
15. Todd Marinovich. Stay in class, Todd. Stay in school. Marinovich also lost his job as quarterback at USC, if temporarily, but his relationship with Coach Larry Smith remains Fight On. Heaven help him if the Patriots come calling next. Working for Victor Kiam is no way to waste your youth.
16. Fullerton basketball. Cedric Ceballos could always play--check out a Phoenix Suns game lately?--and Mark Hill could always shoot and the rest of the pack had helped win 16 games in 1989. So what went wrong? Sneed advances the Too Many Guns, Single Bullet Theory--and he might have a point. At the outset of 1990-91, without Ceballos and Hill, a more balanced Titan attack is 7-2. We find out more this weekend in Las Vegas.
17. Disneyland Pigskin Classic. Nothing wrong with the teams (Colorado and Tennessee) or the game (a thrilling 31-31 tie), just the impression it made locally (a measly crowd of 33,000). Game officials blamed fan apathy, fans blamed lousy over-the-counter seat selection. Maybe we can get it together by next August?
18. Anaheim Arena. They broke ground and announced they planned to open for business in March, ’93, promising NBA and NHL tenants. How? The NBA recently added four expansion teams and the Clippers aren’t going anywhere. Anaheim’s pitch at last month’s NHL expansion meetings fell on deaf ears; the bids for 1992-93 went to Ottawa and Tampa. And now, the low-level talk is that any Anaheim bid is doomed as long as it’s linked to Jerry Buss, whose laissez faire operation of the Kings never thrilled the lords of hockey. MISL, anyone?
19. “The Infield Of The ‘90s.” Mark McLemore couldn’t cut it at second base, either in Anaheim or Cleveland. Third baseman Jack Howell is out of a job any day now. Shortstop Dick Schofield can only anchor the disabled list. And now we hear Wally Joyner is on the trading block. Say it ain’t so, Joe.
20. Newport Beach Dukes. They played Team Tennis this summer. Anybody notice?
This just in: The Freedom Bowl was exciting.
A reason to keep on living, I say.
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53f2ea6f5f8adb22de79bf23f31725a4
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5747-story.html
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1990 Orange County High School Champions
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1990 Orange County High School Champions
WINTER
BOYS’ BASKETBALL
5-A Division: Mater Dei
3-AA Division: Estancia
State Division 1: Mater Dei
State Division 3: Servite (lost to Estancia in Section 3-AA final)
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
4-A Division: La Quinta
3-AA Division: Brea-Olinda
3-A Division: Costa Mesa
BOYS’ SOCCER
3-A Division: El Toro
2-A Division: Laguna Hills
GIRLS’ SOCCER
4-A Division: El Toro
3-A Division: Mater Dei
WRESTLING
4-A Division: Canyon
SPRING
BASEBALL
5-A Division: Marina
BOYS’ SWIMMING
4-A Division: Capistrano Valley
2-A Division: Laguna Hills
GIRLS’ SWIMMING
4-A Division: Mission Viejo
3-A Division: Los Alamitos
2-A Division: Mater Dei
GOLF
Estancia
SOFTBALL
5-A Division: Marina
3-A Division: El Toro
BOYS’ TRACK AND FIELD
3-A Division: Esperanza
BADMINTON
4-A Division: Buena Park
FALL
FOOTBALL
Division II: Capistrano Valley
Division III: Esperanza
Division VI: Sunny Hills
Division IX: Whittier Christian
GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL
5-A Division: Corona del Mar
3-A Division: La Habra
State Division 1: Corona del Mar
State Division 2: La Habra
GIRLS’ TENNIS
2-A Division: Sunny Hills
BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
1-AA Division: Saddleback
2-A Division: La Habra
GIRLS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
2-AA Division: Canyon
3-AA Division: Foothill
WATER POLO
4-A Division: El Toro
Southern Section champions except where noted
Source: Southern Section office
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2e26d398087c2a78ed2c8cbc6b718cd5
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5786-story.html
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NAMES IN THE GAMES : Musburger Homesick for NFL
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NAMES IN THE GAMES : Musburger Homesick for NFL
Life after football for Brent Musburger has been a series of Sundays spent strolling art museums and hiking mountains--in other words, hell for a sports reporter who loves the gridiron.
“While I enjoyed being with my wife, I couldn’t get the NFL out of my system,” Musburger says in next week’s TV Guide. “This was the first season I didn’t have an NFL game or show since I covered the Chicago Bears in 1963 as a newspaperman. It was so much a part of my life for so long.”
Musburger will be reunited with the NFL next week during the playoffs when he participates in ABC’s pregame show and then joins Dick Vermeil for play-by-play.
Notre Dame nose tackle Chris Zorich is glad to say goodby to 1990. Zorich was named a first-team All-American for the second consecutive year. He won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s best lineman or linebacker. As a captain, he helped lead the Fighting Irish to a 9-2 record and an Orange Bowl berth against top-ranked Colorado on Tuesday night.
Not good enough, Zorich said.
“I think I’ve had a horrible senior season,” he said with a grimace. “There are goals that I didn’t attain. When you have goals that aren’t reached, you have dreams that are unfulfilled.”
What were Zorich’s goals?
“I wanted to make every tackle,” he said.
Former England soccer Coach Bobby Robson, goalkeeper Peter Shilton and Formula One auto racing driver Nigel Mansell were among the leading sports figures named today by Queen Elizabeth II in her new year’s honors list.
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8ff8aa5251065c0dc89ff0aae48b1942
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5788-story.html
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THE SIDELINES : 3rd Match for Hearns, Leonard
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THE SIDELINES : 3rd Match for Hearns, Leonard
Longtime boxing rivals Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard say they will fight a third time.
“The rematch is imminent,” Hearns told The Detroit News in a story in today’s editions. “It must happen. I can’t go on to the next fight until this one has been resolved.”
Leonard agreed.
“We’ve spoken at length about it together and we both can’t get any farther in our careers without it,” he said from Tampa, Fla., where he is training for a Feb. 9 title fight against World Boxing Council super welterweight champion Terry Norris.
Leonard, 34, and Hearns, 32, fought to a draw in June, 1989, although many believed Hearns should have won the decision. Leonard stopped Detroit’s “Hitman” in the 14th round of their first fight in September, 1981.
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9db168a805eed57cf4f427f6e00bd52b
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5789-story.html
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THE SIDELINES : Ditka to Stick With Tomczak
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THE SIDELINES : Ditka to Stick With Tomczak
After a day of thinking it over, Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka says he’ll stick with quarterback Mike Tomczak in the first weekend of the playoffs.
After the Bears’ 21-10 loss Saturday to the Kansas City Chiefs, Ditka said he might start backup Peter Tom Willis, rather than Tomczak, next week.
But in an interview with Chicago station WBBM-TV Sunday night, Ditka said he was “pretty sure” he wouldn’t yank Tomczak for the inexperienced rookie.
“I really believe in Mike,” Ditka said. “It’s easy to point the finger and criticize. But I think he will really go out there and do his best for us.”
Tomczak completed only five of 23 passes for 85 yards in Saturday’s game.
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e968cd3a8137242f1dabe334dc40ed97
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5790-story.html
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THE SIDELINES : Spartak Moscow Wins Spengler
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THE SIDELINES : Spartak Moscow Wins Spengler
Gherman Volgin triggered a four-goal second period as Spartak Moscow downed Team Canada 8-3 today to win the Spengler Hockey cup tournament.
It was the fifth victory in 10 years for the Soviets at this tournament.
Sergei Bushmelev put Spartak ahead to stay in the 13th minute of an even first period.
Scores by Volgin, Alexei Tkachuk, Sergei Fokin and Volgin again made it 5-0 at the end of the second period, and Tkachuk raised the runaway to 6-0 in the first minute of the third period.
The Canadians had upset Spartak 3-2 in the tournament opener last Wednesday. That was the only loss for the Soviet team (4-1). Team Canada finished at 3-2.
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08e28e56166952981e0f54a6c020184b
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5791-story.html
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UNLV Still on Top, UCLA Still No. 10 in College Basketball Poll
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UNLV Still on Top, UCLA Still No. 10 in College Basketball Poll
With UNLV holding the top spot for the seventh consecutive week, the top 11 teams in the college basketball poll remained unchanged today. UCLA retains its No. 10 ranking.
The Runnin’ Rebels (6-0) received 62 of 63 first-place votes and 1,574 points in the nationwide voting of sportswriters and broadcasters to easily outdistance Arkansas (10-1), which had 1,465 points.
Syracuse (12-0) received the other first-place vote and had 1,428 points, 32 more than Arizona (10-1). Indiana (12-1) was fifth with 1,262 points and was followed in the Top Ten by Ohio State, North Carolina, Duke, St. John’s and UCLA.
The Buckeyes (10-0) held sixth with 1,251 points, 59 more than North Carolina (9-1). Duke (9-2) had 1,146 points, while St. John’s (9-0) had 1,031 and the Bruins (10-1) had 991.
Of the Top Ten teams, only one had a victory closer than 10 points last week, and that was Ohio State’s 82-80 win over Mississippi State on Friday night, the Bulldogs’ first loss of the season.
Pittsburgh (11-2) again led the Second Ten with 908 points, but voting took place before the Panthers were upset by Hawaii in the championship game of the Rainbow Classic at Honolulu on Sunday.
Pittsburgh was followed by Connecticut, Oklahoma, Louisiana State, Georgetown, Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Virginia, Nebraska and South Carolina.
The last five spots went to Southern Mississippi, Iowa, New Mexico State, Georgia Tech and Michigan State.
THE TOP 25
The top 25 teams in the AP college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses and records through Dec. 30. 1. UNLV (62): 6-0 2. Arkansas: 10-1 3. Syracuse (1): 12-0 4. Arizona: 10-1 5. Indiana: 12-1 6. Ohio State: 10-0 7. North Carolina: 9-1 8. Duke: 9-2 9. St. John’s: 9-0 10. UCLA: 10-1 11. Pittsburgh: 11-2 12. Connecticut: 8-1 13. Oklahoma: 10-2 14. LSU: 7-2 15. Georgetown: 7-2 16. Kentucky: 8-2 17. E. Tennessee St.: 9-1 18. Virginia: 7-2 19. Nebraska: 12-1 20. South Carolina: 9-2 21. Southern Miss.: 5-1 22. Iowa: 11-1 23. N. Mexico State: 8-1 24. Georgia Tech: 7-3 25. Michigan State: 7-3
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d356b7879c8fa62c7a1863d0e607ad3e
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5792-story.html
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Hawaii Upsets Pitt, 84-82, to Win the Rainbow Classic
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Hawaii Upsets Pitt, 84-82, to Win the Rainbow Classic
Troy Bowe’s free throw with 1:28 to play snapped an 82-82 tie as Hawaii stunned No. 11 Pittsburgh, 84-82, Sunday to win the Rainbow Classic for the first time in 17 years.
Bowe hit another free throw with six seconds left to close out the scoring. Pittsburgh’s Brian Shorter tried to get off a 15-foot jumper as time expired, but Tim Shepherd stripped the ball from him.
Ray Reed scored 24 of his 35 points in the second half to lead Hawaii (8-3).
It’s the first Rainbow Classic title for Hawaii since they beat Purdue in 1973.
Asked if the win was his biggest since taking over as Hawaii coach in 1987, Riley Wallace responded: “How about life? Beating Pitt, ranked 11th in the country, nothing compares to this.”
Pitt Coach Paul Evans was angry with the officials, who called 27 fouls on his team.
Evans, however, admitted that Reed and his team’s 17 turnovers played more a factor in the outcome than the officiating did.
“Reed was tough to stop, and when we did they got the offensive rebounds,” Evans said. “Turnovers also hurt us. It will be interesting to see how we react after this loss.”
Reed scored seven points during a 9-0 Hawaii run that erased a 54-49 Pittsburgh lead.
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e224bf9235bdc4305651e74b4fd77d4f
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5794-story.html
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Cavaliers Sign James to a 10-Day Contract
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Cavaliers Sign James to a 10-Day Contract
The Cleveland Cavaliers signed forward Henry James to a 10-day contract today.
The 6-9 James fills a roster spot vacated when guard Mike Woodson was released last week.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers said the cast may be taken off the sprained left foot of forward John Williams on Wednesday.
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558137d3197660919cb865e130c1557e
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5796-story.html
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THE SIDELINES : Wrestler’s Heft Behind Pigeons
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THE SIDELINES : Wrestler’s Heft Behind Pigeons
A masked professional wrestler who calls himself “Super Ecologist” has begun a fight for the imperiled pigeons of the Hermosillo cathedral, the government’s Notimex news agency reported.
The agency said Sunday the wrestler, who refuses to give his actual name, is staging a sit-in before the cathedral to demand the removal of Father Julio Cesar Castillo, who has been poisoning pigeons in the church.
Notimex said he vowed to carry his protest to Pope John Paul II if the church takes no action.
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54a5984d046b14d82fbc31fbf8d1a063
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5797-story.html
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THE SIDELINES : Schedule Set for NFL Playoffs
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THE SIDELINES : Schedule Set for NFL Playoffs
A pair of wild-card doubleheaders, with two of the games involving division champions, open the NFL playoffs Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s first game has Philadelphia (10-6) hosting Washington (10-6) in the opening game of the NFC playoffs, starting at 9:30 a.m. PST. In Saturday’s other game, Kansas City (11-5) is at Miami (12-4) in a matchup of AFC wild-card teams at 1 p.m.
On Sunday, the early game will have Houston (9-7), an AFC wild-card team, playing at Cincinnati (9-7), champions of the Central Division, at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday’s second game will be played at Chicago, where the NFC Central champion Bears (11-5) face either New Orleans or Dallas. It will be the Saints if they beat the Rams in the final regular season game tonight. Otherwise, the spot goes to Dallas.
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6b6562a1b3d4e065df5f9bde7e9716e0
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5798-story.html
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Yankees Land A’s Sanderson for $4 Million : Baseball: The pitcher had agreed to salary arbitration with Oakland. His agent says he would have been happy to stay with the AL champions.
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Yankees Land A’s Sanderson for $4 Million : Baseball: The pitcher had agreed to salary arbitration with Oakland. His agent says he would have been happy to stay with the AL champions.
The Oakland Athletics traded Scott Sanderson to New York today after the pitcher agreed to a two-year contract with the Yankees worth more than $4 million.
Sanderson, a 34-year-old right-hander, became a free agent after the season and surprised the A’s on Dec. 19 when he agreed to salary arbitration, which is the equivalent of re-signing.
Oakland did not want to keep him, so it gave Sanderson a chance to work out a deal with the Yankees, who are desperate for starting pitchers. It is not known who the Yankees were trading to the A’s.
Sanderson was 17-11 last season with a 3.88 ERA. He is 115-100 in his career.
“Scott would have been perfectly happy to stay in Oakland and is disappointed he won’t be,” said Richard Moss, the pitcher’s agent. "(Oakland General Manager) Sandy Alderson had a theory that the batting order is so good that any pitcher can come in and win 17 games.”
Sanderson joins a staff that has a possible rotation of Pascual Perez (1-2 in 1990), Tim Leary (9-19) and Andy Hawkins (5-12). The Yankees still are trying to re-sign Mike Witt (5-9) and Dave LaPoint (7-10), who are new-look free agents, and thus free to sign with any team through Jan. 29. Witt has been talking with Toronto.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5799-story.html
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SANTA ANITA : A Pair of Rivals Will Square Off on New Year’s
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SANTA ANITA : A Pair of Rivals Will Square Off on New Year’s
Cuddles, winner of the Hollywood Starlet in November, and Ifyoucouldseemenow, who beat her a race earlier in the Moccasin Stakes, will face each other on New Year’s Day in the Pasadena Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
A field of six 3-year-old fillies is entered in the 6-furlong race.
Overbrook Farm’s Cuddles has won three of five lifetime starts, including the Junior Miss at Del Mar. She was second in the Moccasin on Nov. 10, before redeeming herself in the Starlet and increasing her bankroll to $332,325.
Jan, Mace and Samantha Siegel’s Ifyoucouldseemenow can match Cuddles’ three-for-five record, if not her earnings, and was the upset winner the only time they met in the Moccasin. That was the last start for Ifyoucouldseemenow. In her previous effort, she won an allowance race at Oak Tree.
With six starters, the Pasadena will offer a purse of $105,250.
including $25,000 from the Breeders’ Cup Fund. If the winner is Breeders’ Cup eligible, she will earn $60,250.
The full field, in post position order, includes Ifyoucouldseemenow, 118; Lee Azucar, 114; Mobile Phone, 114; Brazen, 118; Cuddles, 121, and Classical Design, 114.
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52a1e96c392a586412bca2c8b490e9fc
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5802-story.html
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SHORT TAKES : McFerrin in 24-Hour Songfest
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SHORT TAKES : McFerrin in 24-Hour Songfest
Vocalist Bobby McFerrin lined up hundreds of people to hum and sing through a 24-hour event billed as “Singing for Your Life.”
McFerrin, whose songs include “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” kicked things off Sunday night at Grace Cathedral.
McFerrin, winner of nine Grammy Awards, lined up about 300 singers, including members of his all-vocal ensemble, “Voicestra,” to participate for several hours each, said Lauren Artress, canon pastor at the Episcopalian cathedral.
McFerrin, who lives in San Francisco, said he hoped to show how music could help people deal with everyday problems.
“I’ve become very fascinated with religious and spiritual significance of music in Third World countries, where everything is celebrated and honored,” he said.
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fc89c5bc99ae861db028fb1b234c9dea
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5803-story.html
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A Crazy Eight Is Too Much for One TV Screen : College football: The overabundance of bowl games on New Year’s Day makes it impossible to watch them all. Who came up with this system?
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A Crazy Eight Is Too Much for One TV Screen : College football: The overabundance of bowl games on New Year’s Day makes it impossible to watch them all. Who came up with this system?
Inspecting the bowl football program on New Year’s Day, you have a vision of herring in a net, flopping over one another.
The current lineup embraces eight games, running from 8:30 in the morning (PST) until roughly 8:30 at night.
You are surprised the genii of college football have stopped at eight games. Between midnight and 8 a.m., they could book two more.
And, of course, they could squeeze in another in prime time.
Right now, they have arranged so many games Jan. 1 that an overlap occurs. For instance, the Citrus Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Hall of Fame Bowl poach on each other’s telecast.
And all three arrive on the air at some time during the second half of the Gator Bowl.
The Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl overlap, same as the Fiesta Bowl and the Rose Bowl. And all are coming off a previous day of activity featuring the John Hancock Bowl and the Domino’s Pizza Copper Bowl.
A confused viewer of those two could leave his set believing he will be insured in 30 minutes, or the policy is free.
You are a tolerant individual. You are patient and understanding, the milk of human kindness flowing by the liter through every vein.
You are not aiming to rock the vessel. All you are trying to comprehend is whether college football has gone foaming-at-the-mouth mad.
One isn’t supposed to be dealing here with dummies. This is our highest intellectual order, the teachers of our young.
And they allow a circumstance on New Year’s Day calling for eight televised bowl games?
If smart guys permit this excess, what would imbeciles do?
So what has all this done to that spectacle billing itself as “the Granddaddy of ‘Em All,” the Rose Bowl?
What it has done is reduce the Rose Bowl to selling nothing but age--a game beginning in 1902 and continuing to the present, with intermittent stoppages.
After the 1902 game, for instance, it stopped until 1916, substituting that well-known ghetto sport, polo. It also tried chariot races.
And then the Rose Bowl ground to a halt in Pasadena in 1942 when the game was shifted to Durham, N.C. It was a war year, and Pasadena feared an air attack by the Japanese.
What an insult to the Luftwaffe to OK the game on the East Coast.
Although it was once the premier postseason game, the Rose Bowl has suffered serious slippage, not at the box office, but in the television ratings and in general prestige.
And the ultimate contempt has been the willingness of other bowls to go head-and-head with it on TV.
Offering Washington and Iowa this time, the Rose Bowl needn’t necessarily apologize. Washington, on a good day, can knock off any amateur team in the hemisphere.
And Iowa is better than average.
But it has become increasingly rare that connoisseurs about the land judge the Rose Bowl as an event of major national impact. It is more a parochial little war between the Pacific 10 and the Big Ten, pretty much like Eton and Harrow.
Since the Rose Bowl still dredges more money from television than any other bowl game--that could be a fleeting condition--it behooves the promoters each year to capture participants of muscle, teams with substantial followings.
Those teams preferred are USC, UCLA, Michigan and Ohio State.
Washington and Iowa are rated fair. What ABC lives in fear of is, say, Oregon State vs. Indiana.
Bucking seven other games New Year’s Day, with such a matchup the network starts looking for a bridge.
One is available in Pasadena, making the Rose Bowl a game of convenience, if nothing else.
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c352f62867dd69b704710a6a0ea95f7d
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5805-story.html
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SHORT TAKES : Martin Sheen Spawns News
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SHORT TAKES : Martin Sheen Spawns News
Actor Martin Sheen knows how to get his name in a newspaper. Just show up in a newsroom with a camera.
Sheen filmed scenes at The Dallas Morning News on Thursday for his new movie, “Touch and Die.”
In the film, Sheen plays a reporter in Europe who discovers stolen plutonium is being sold to finance a presidential campaign in the United States.
Sheen, the father of actors Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, is known for his activism on behalf of environmental causes and the homeless.
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7da5fb33b3183f11c769cfd1de75a64c
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5807-story.html
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Authors Say Elvis Died of an Allergic Reaction to Codeine
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Authors Say Elvis Died of an Allergic Reaction to Codeine
It promises to be the last word on the death of Elvis.
After more than 20 books written since Elvis Presley was found sprawled on the bathroom floor at his Graceland mansion in 1977, dead at age 42, the latest offers conclusions that any Elvis fan would love.
The death of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, it says, was not the result of suicide or a drug overdose, even though Presley was addicted to a variety of medications, including uppers, downers and painkillers.
In “The Death of Elvis: What Really Happened,” the authors claim that while he may have been excessive, compulsive, drug-abusive and probably neurotic, Presley was not suicidal.
His death was an accident, the authors say, a case of medical mistaken identity.
“Elvis was the victim of his own persona--so caught up with the image of (being) a young, virile, gyrating entertainer,” said James Cole, one of the authors.
“He got sort of frozen in time. He was getting older, gray, beginning to paunch out--never able to mature beyond that excessive celebrity that we got to know in the 1950s.”
While loyal followers refuse to believe anything that could tarnish his image, occasional “Elvis sightings” in shopping malls in the Midwest and tabloid declarations of newly discovered “Elvis love children” feed the nation’s appetite for Elvis mania.
No less than 22 books have been written since Aug. 16, 1977, when a terrifically bloated Elvis was found, pajama bottoms around his knees, face down on a bathroom carpet. He had been dead for hours.
A web of lost, omitted or ignored autopsy and pathology test results did nothing but muddy the waters surrounding the death. Theories included suicide, accidental drug overdose, heart disease, cancer--even exploded arteries due to chronic constipation.
Cole, who wrote the book with Charles Thompson II, says these theories are pure bunk.
“We’re trying to tell the truth about Elvis. We were not going into this to try to besmirch or defend, but try to tell the truth about what killed him.
“It’s a free speech issue. We feel the story has been suppressed,” Cole said from his real-estate office in Memphis, not far from Presley’s home, Graceland.
Of all the memoirs of the man who so changed the face of popular music--by bodyguards, maids, admirers and even his wife--none has thoroughly investigated data which indicate that Elvis’ death was an accident, Cole said.
He and Thompson maintain that the crazy theories were a result of records suppressed by officials, beginning with the local medical examiner, who felt it was his duty to protect the privacy, interests and sentiments of the deceased.
Cole said that Elvis, while a drug abuser who took thousands of pills and injections each year to ease myriad physical and mental ills, was not suicidal.
What he did have, however, and what led ultimately to his demise, was an allergy to codeine, Cole said. The allergy was severe enough that, in combination with other drugs in his system, it could have been fatal.
“We discovered this. The pathologist (investigating the death) didn’t know this,” Cole said.
“Elvis Presley would not have knowingly taken codeine. He made a mistake.”
According to toxicological reports, at the time of death Presley had in his body 10 times the normal therapeutic dose of codeine, an amount which alone could have caused serious harm.
Villains in the Elvis saga include his personal physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos, the dentist who prescribed the codeine, personal assistants and friends who indulged his insatiable appetite for drugs, and his family and himself.
One of the book’s shortcomings may be that, as in an Agatha Christie mystery where clues are disclosed at the end to solve the case, information is introduced late in the book.
In the final chapter Elvis is portrayed as a victim--of age, drug addiction, public image and the press. It was no secret that the Elvis image was ferociously protected.
The authors admit Elvis was no genius and not very introspective.
“When realities didn’t suit him, he popped pills to change them,” they wrote.
Yet, they write, the realities remained and each year Elvis became fatter, more undisciplined, and more dependent on the thousands of pills and injections he took.
According to Larry Hutchinson, a criminal investigator involved in the case of official misconduct lodged against Presley’s doctor, “This shows you what occurs when fame and money enter into the picture.
“In my mind Elvis had a very bad, a tremendous drug problem, and it resulted in his death.
“And that problem overshadowed all the good things that he did for the city of Memphis and overshadowed his great talent and entertaining ability.”
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81a2ad9553fd6832e29a190adbf94024
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5808-story.html
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Artist Bringing Lively Colors to Eastern Bridges : Art: Spans crossing Interstate 83 to get vibrant greens, yellows, oranges and foil appliques.
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Artist Bringing Lively Colors to Eastern Bridges : Art: Spans crossing Interstate 83 to get vibrant greens, yellows, oranges and foil appliques.
For Stan Edmister, bridges are a canvas. Where an engineer sees a mass of concrete and steel, he sees a potential masterpiece.
“If paint is going to be put on a bridge to sustain its life, why should it be brown or gray or pastel green, when it could be a lively combination of colors?” the 51-year-old artist asks.
Two years ago, Edmister won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to design a color scheme for the Guilford Avenue bridge in Baltimore. The result was so pleasing, one NEA official said, that Edmister was awarded a second $10,000 grant to select colors for 15 other bridges that cross Interstate 83.
As the bridges are rehabilitated, they will be painted according to Edmister’s design.
Jeff Soule, special project manager at the NEA in Washington, said the award committee hopes that Edmister’s work will spur other cities to treat their public works as art.
“We felt it would be a national model in improving the appearance of ordinary structural elements in the urban environment. It is a very, very pragmatic application of art. It elevates public works and at the same time, it makes art accessible,” Soule said.
He’s uncomfortable with muted hues that allow behemoths to settle anonymously into the background. So he experiments with vibrant greens, yellows, oranges and foil appliques that change color.
He selects colors to highlight the design of a bridge and its setting, he says.
He wants to treat the bridges over Interstate 83 as a continuum--related, yet each with its own temperament.
“Driving under and through the city, there is a series of tunnel arches or bridge covers that sets up a natural rhythm. There should be some sort of color theme uniting them, but there should not be a bland blanket similarity from one to another,” he said.
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a38926a24b50163ea5644dfb27fea7f1
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5810-story.html
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SHORT TAKES : Rebellious Black Priest to Wed
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SHORT TAKES : Rebellious Black Priest to Wed
The Rev. George Stallings Jr., a former Roman Catholic priest who was excommunicated after forming a church for disenchanted black Catholics, says he’s getting married next year.
Stallings announced his engagement to Houston attorney Candace Mosly, 29, at an inaugural banquet Friday for the New Orleans chapter of his Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation.
“He said he’s wanted to get married and have children for a long time,” said William Marshall, Stallings’ spokesman.
Mosly is a prosecutor in the Houston district attorney’s office.
Last year, Stallings, then a priest in Washington, accused the church of racism and formed his own congregation. He was excommunicated earlier this year.
Stallings said his church allows optional celibacy for priests and the ordination of women.
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165d2510351278d47c97727c3b737686
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5811-story.html
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SHORT TAKES : Ajaye Hits, Quits ‘Living Color’
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SHORT TAKES : Ajaye Hits, Quits ‘Living Color’
Comedian-writer Franklyn Ajaye says “In Living Color” glorifies ghetto life and that’s one of the reasons he’s leaving the hit television show.
“I have no desire to be hip to the latest black slang and do the stereotypical hip thing,” Ajaye says in TV Guide. He says he left Fox Television’s show by mutual agreement.
“This whole street, urban rap needs to be pulled back some. The ghetto is being glorified, and there’s nothing good about a ghetto except getting the hell out of one.”
The comedy show features skits about two “homeboy” thieves who speak in street slang.
“Being black and speaking properly are not mutually exclusive. . . . Nelson Mandela speaks beautifully. Should Mandela put his hat on backward and say, ‘Yo homey, this is Nelson. Yo, Winnie, yo, this is def’?”
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0c05c5163de6268cd7a51d9e5d020a35
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-sp-5812-story.html
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SHORT TAKES : Tammy Sees Country’s Rebirth
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SHORT TAKES : Tammy Sees Country’s Rebirth
Tammy Wynette says a new generation of performers has helped popularize country music all over again.
“The abundance of great new talent . . . is changing the demographics of the listening and buying audience,” she said in comments published in the Country Music Assn.'s “Close-Up” magazine.
“Because of their impact, the audiences are younger and the consumer dollars at both the record and concert levels have greatly increased,” she said in the publication’s January issue.
She cited Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Joe Diffie, Randy Travis, Ricky Van Shelton, Clint Black, Patty Loveless and Garth Brooks as among those making an impact.
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f1fb3cb684a22a3a4766d05f1f46fca1
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5590-story.html
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Remember, You Read It Here (If Predictions Prove True)
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Remember, You Read It Here (If Predictions Prove True)
This being the last day of the century’s ninth decade, I imagine the supermarket tabloids will be full of the usual psychics’ predictions for the new year and the final decade.
I usually point out at this time of year that none of the psychics’ predictions for the year just ending has come true; but that game tends to become monotonous.
No one else ever seems to remember the predictions. Why do the psychics go on making them? Because there is always the chance of an accidental hit, or a near miss, in which case the psychic will remind us of his or her prediction. That will not only bring him or her fame and glory, but convince the public once again that there must be something in it, thus perpetuating the fraud.
I have decided to make some predictions myself. What can I lose? If none of them comes true, nobody will remember that I made them. If one does, I’ll remind you.
First, though, I’m going to make a prediction that you will remember, because it’s New Year’s Day. I predict that Washington will defeat Iowa in the Rose Bowl, 24-10.
If I’m wrong on that one, you may disregard my others.
I will also make another prediction that will be proved right or wrong in January. The Los Angeles Raiders will win the Super Bowl. (San Francisco shocks football fans by losing in the playoffs.)
While we’re on sports, I predict that the Dodgers will win the pennant and the World Series in 1991. If I can’t be right, at least I can root for the home team.
In tennis, I predict that Pete Sampras will become the world’s No. 1 tennis player. Even if he doesn’t make it he will be No. 1 in our hearts for his donation of $250,000 (from his winnings of $2 million in the Grand Slam Cup) to a cerebral palsy foundation.
Mike Tyson will not regain his world championship.
In the arts, I predict that a Van Gogh will sell for $50 million, only to be proved a fake. I predict that Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet” will win an Oscar as best picture, which of course will bring on “Hamlet II.” (I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve read the play. It’s sort of a psychological thriller. Anyway, psychic predictions are not based on critical judgment, but on psychic vibrations.)
In local politics, I predict that Gloria Molina will be elected supervisor in the first district. Molina lives two doors from me, and that ought to count for something. (She hasn’t borrowed any sugar yet, but she gave me some good advice. I told her that we were thinking of remodeling. She had been remodeling for a year. I drove by her house one day and saw her sitting disconsolately in the front yard on a stack of cement sacks. She shouted at me, “Don’t do it!” So I know she has good judgment.)
I predict that California’s new Gov. Pete Wilson will be so encumbered by leftover problems that he will wish Dianne Feinstein had won the election. (If Pete founders, don’t blame me. I was so disenchanted by the gubernatorial television campaigns that I voted for Munoz, the Peace and Freedom candidate.) On the world scene, I don’t like to throw my weight one way or the other in a predicament that seems so exquisitely balanced, but I predict that President Bush will find some way out of his awful dilemma, and that we will not go into a land war in the Middle East.
If we do go to war, I predict that we’ll wish we hadn’t.
In the affairs of celebrities, a field that offers easy pickings for the professional psychics, I predict that Prince Rainer will marry Madonna. That would put some pizazz in the old principality. I realize that this prediction is outrageous, but think of the prestige it will bring me if it comes true.
I predict that Elizabeth Taylor will have an affair with Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. It will turn out to be nothing but a promotional gimmick for her perfume, Passion. Queen Elizabeth’s only public comment will be, “We are not amused.”
I predict that Steve Martin, encouraged by Mel Gibson’s success as Hamlet, will play Marc Antony in a comedy version of “Julius Caesar,” and that Dolly Parton will play Desdemona (opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger) in “Othello.” I predict further (this is for 1992) that Martin, Parton and Schwarzenegger will all win Oscars, which, of course, will bring on “Julius Caesar II” and “Othello II.”
I predict that our house remodeling, which began in June, will be finished by the Fourth of July. My wife is more optimistic. She says it will be finished by Super Bowl Sunday, in which case I hope to have some friends over to watch the Raiders win.
Finally, one sure thing: I predict that Elvis will be seen no more.
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2c2d12e3eef3e32bf97c30cdcfe08a97
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5591-story.html
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Designs in the Desert: There’s a Persian...
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Designs in the Desert: There’s a Persian...
Designs in the Desert: There’s a Persian Gulf influence on the annual best-dressed list from the Fashion Foundation of America. Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, who wears the long, flowing djellaba , made the list as well as U.S. Persian Gulf troop commander Lt. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, usually decked out in camouflage togs. The survey of custom tailors and designers also listed Secretary of State James Baker and Connecticut Gov.-elect Lowell Weicker Jr.
Justify Your Fame: The year ended on a sour note in Italy for singer Madonna and Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona. They are among the least-loved people of 1990 in a Rome newspaper poll. Maradona is considered temperamental by some, and Madonna’s erotic antics may have offended others in the land of her forebears. George Bush and Saddam Hussein also made the list. The unkindest cut: The paper ran a cartoon of the poll winners cavorting in Hades, presumably to one of Madonna’s songs.
Street of Fame: Author Alice Walker has been honored in her hometown of Eatonton, Ga., with a street named after her. A monument on the courthouse square and a historical trail of sites in Walker’s life may not be far behind. Some say the recognition of the Pulitzer Prize winner is overdue. “I think the Chamber of Commerce should have done this by now,” said Robert Walker, the author’s brother. “She put Eatonton on the map.”
Short List: Practicing safe sex was dropped from the New Year’s resolutions list of the American Institute for Preventive Medicine, but not because the health statistics have improved. It’s just that the institute wanted to make room for new ideas, institute head Don Powell said Friday in Detroit. Number 1 on the list for a longer life is to avoid “psychosclerosis"--a hardening of the attitudes. “That’s not to say safe sex isn’t a critical issue . . . but the mental health issues take precedent,” Powell said.
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3a4920093de31e633c31f3a011696258
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5606-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Environment: There will be no Earth Day in 1991, says Chris Desser. ‘Our time is better spent working on the issues.’
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Environment: There will be no Earth Day in 1991, says Chris Desser. ‘Our time is better spent working on the issues.’
Chris Desser is still explaining to people that there isn’t going to be another Earth Day extravaganza, at least not in 1991.
“It was never our intent to establish an annual holiday,” she says. “The idea was to launch a decade of environmental activism.”
Desser, 36, is winding down her job as executive director of Earth Day 90, the April 22 global binge of tree-plantings, recycling rallies, rain-forest pageants, nature walks, TV specials, trash-ins, teach-ins and assorted other earth-friendly activities.
But there is no official encore in 1991, she says.
“The intent from the start was to focus public attention on the problems we are facing as a planet,” says Desser. “It was to be a massive education effort that would culminate on April 22 and galvanize a whole generation of environmental activists.”
The 1990 event, which marked the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Day, was organized out of national headquarters in Palo Alto with 15 regional offices, a staff of 80 and thousands of volunteers.
Earth Day 90 left a string of impressive statistics: An estimated 200 million participants in 140 countries. In the United States, campus coordinators in 130 areas overseeing activities at more than 2,000 colleges. Environmental lesson plans distributed to 120,000 K-12 schools. More than 100 cities enrolled in a project to develop local environmental planning ordinances.
And such a tidal wave of media attention that purists hinted that media hype was overshadowing the real needs of a deteriorating planet. Still, Desser thinks the massive effort made its point: “I am pleased with the Earth Day job. Not that we took care of all the issues by any means, but I think it made a big dent in peoples’ consciousnesses.”
The timing was right, she says. “We didn’t do it alone--we stood on the shoulders of a whole bunch of environmental groups who have been there for a long, long time, but we went beyond that. For many people Earth Day 90 now is the single event they will be able to point to when they talking about waking up to the environmental crisis. And the things people tell me about how it affected kids are spine-chilling: Suddenly environmental consciousness is a part of their lives.”
In summary, she says, “We really wanted to change the way people think. I think we got a lot of things started.”
Her board of directors, mostly people involved in heavy-hitting environmental projects, have gone back to their work.
Desser has moved the office to San Francisco and, with one assistant, Blaine Townsend, is dealing with the other inheritance of Earth Day--a substantial debt. Earth Day sponsors raised about $2.2 million toward the $3-million cost. The debt is being retired mainly through art sales, she says: “Artists Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha had created Earth Day lithographs which were produced in a limited edition.” For the last eight months she has been selling the lithographs, often to Earth Day creditors “who have been able to develop an interest in art.”
The winding-down process is frustrating in many ways, she says, because the office still gets thousands of letters and doesn’t have the resources to respond. Teachers across the country want copies of the Earth Day environmental lesson plan; many correspondents just want generic environmental information.
And she gets lots of calls asking “Why don’t you organize another Earth Day?”
Desser, a San Francisco lawyer who had been focusing on land-use issues on the city attorney’s staff, won’t return to that job, but will concentrate on full-time environmental work.
“I couldn’t go back to doing anything else,” she says. “These issues have become too important to me.”
She is considering several options, but organizing a 1991 Earth Day is not among them.
“If it’s an annual holiday, the issues become trivialized and the advertising benefits become emphasized,” she says.
“Most holidays are looking back, but we had one that was looking ahead. Now our time is better spent working on the issues themselves.”
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c71a62134cac56dab0a0294d5a6c7529
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5607-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Runaways: After year of tumult, stability is returning to Covenant House.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Runaways: After year of tumult, stability is returning to Covenant House.
The mood at Covenant House on Sunset Boulevard seems light and fluid:
Staff wander around, joking with clients. There’s a tender farewell and lots of “good lucks” for a 20-year-old man, addicted to heroin since age 9, who is leaving after four weeks for a residential treatment program. Several young people are in quiet counseling sessions. And inside the newly opened clinic, nurse Eileen Kelly examines a young woman from Sacramento who had arrived at the shelter the night before.
Gone are the pictures of Father Bruce Ritter, posed with prominent people; likewise, the framed press clippings and proclamations. In their place, colorful posters bear messages such as “It’s OK to Be You.”
The past 12 months have been tumultuous for Covenant House, the nation’s largest shelter program for street children, which opened its Los Angeles branch with a 20-bed shelter and outreach program in 1989. Covenant House had become synonymous with Ritter, the Franciscan priest who founded it 20 years ago in New York City and expanded it to 14 other cities. He was its charismatic leader and extraordinary fund-raiser, and became a much-recognized and honored public figure.
Late last year, allegations of sexual misconduct with young men surfaced against Ritter, followed by questions of financial impropriety and mismanagement. The Franciscans ordered Ritter, who has not been charged with any crime, to resign from Covenant House last February and return to the order; he has been in seclusion since then. An investigation, commissioned by the Covenant House board and released in August, concluded that Ritter had engaged in sexual misconduct.
The scandalous atmosphere surrounding Ritter’s downfall and removal from Covenant House threatened to bring down the program as well.
But Robert McGrath, senior vice president for communications, says the national fund-raising picture has changed from bleak to encouraging. (Projections necessitated a $12.5-million cut from an $87-million national budget; Los Angeles contributions fell about 20% in 1990.)
Sister Mary Rose McGeady became president and chief executive director in September and morale is said to be high. The recent naming of Fred Ali, who served three years as Covenant’s director in Alaska, as executive director of the Los Angeles program is viewed as a message of stability.
That stability has not come easily. Program changes have been implemented and strict policies instituted regarding relations between staff and clients. Ritter’s trademark policy--"We never turn a kid away"--has been retained, but staff members describe a more serious and comprehensive approach to working with clients.
“What we’ve seen during this shakeout period over the past 12 months is we’re getting to know who our clients are and what services are available to connect them with,” Ali said recently by telephone from Alaska. “We’re much more stable in the residential area. We have good tight case management. We have a tighter staff/kids ratio.”
Brother Robert McCarthy, director of residential services, says Covenant House has plans for a permanent facility with a 60-bed shelter, and is interested in developing special programs for residential drug treatment and another for mothers and babies.
But as Covenant House develops better systems and networks, reduced funding threatens its expansion plans. Help available to street children, both locally and nationwide, has dwindled. Needs have grown.
Meanwhile, Covenant’s blue vans continue its outreach program here, cruising Hollywood streets from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. and passing out bologna sandwiches, hot chocolate, Covenant House business cards and offers of help. On any given night, about 60% of the shelter’s residents are not from Los Angeles.
These are not runaways “who had a fight about using the family car,” says McCarthy.
Ali says the problems and numbers are worsening: “We see an increasing number of kids with real mental health (problems). They need a long-term therapeutic environment. Substance abuse runs the gamut. With crack addiction, it’s worse every time I come to Los Angeles.
“There are not enough resources to help the 18-to-20-year-olds. Homelessness is just staggering, and violence seems to be increasing on the streets. The needs of these kids are just phenomenal.”
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f25f0de0b0cf1daf9f070c45f9e12c5f
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5608-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Homeless: Offers of help pour in for women who fall on hard times.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Homeless: Offers of help pour in for women who fall on hard times.
It has been a month since “Living in the Shadows” ran in the View section on Dec. 2, but Marjorie Bard is still receiving calls and letters about the story. Some who contact her simply want to share their own tales of how they slipped from middle-class luxury to living in their cars. Others call to offer housing, employment, medical, dental, legal or financial aid.
“My answering machine is groaning from the overload, and I have filled six legal pads with names of wonderful, caring individuals who say they want to help,” says Bard, whose phone number is listed.
The article, about capable, educated women who fell on such hard times that they became homeless, spurred offers of help from men as well as women.
Typical of the calls was one from a Beverly Hills physician, who needed a receptionist and said he’d consider hiring one of the women. Another call came from a Woodland Hills woman who offered to share her “huge, almost empty house” with a woman--or a succession of women--who are temporarily without homes.
But putting would-be helpers together with those who need help is not an easy task, Bard says. “The irony is that most of the homeless women are non-smokers, most of those offering shelter are heavy smokers. The non-smokers refuse to live in a smokers’ house.”
What’s more, Bard says, the homeless women are unwilling to move from areas with which they are familiar. Offers of shelter from places like San Bernardino, or the far reaches of the San Fernando Valley have so far been refused. Bard says the homeless women feel “connected” to the Westside neighborhoods where they used to have homes, where they now sleep in their cars, and where they hope to re-establish themselves with jobs and apartments as soon as possible.
Bard is neither surprised nor daunted by any of this. Since the article appeared, she says, she has been contacted by women in enough different parts of Los Angeles that she can finally start a volunteer network of people who will help others in their own neighborhoods.
In fact, within a week after the article ran, she was contacted by women in Brentwood, Woodland Hills, Palos Verdes, Reseda, San Bernardino and San Diego who want to be part of such a plan.
Specifics of how the network would function are not complete, Bard says, but she thinks the “grand plan” she’s had in mind for years may finally come about in 1991.
On the glitzy side, Bard says more than 30 film producers submitted contracts to her within four days after the story appeared. She believes her tale of homeless middle-class women may be turned into a TV film.
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db06f6a9072196fbc6971f766d685b62
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5610-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Youth: An East L.A. priest ‘bombards’ gang members with love, but isn’t sure he can take many more funerals.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Youth: An East L.A. priest ‘bombards’ gang members with love, but isn’t sure he can take many more funerals.
As 1990 was coming to a close, Father Gregory Boyle did some grim mathematics.
In his first four years at Dolores Mission Catholic Church in East Los Angeles, three gang members in his neighborhood were killed. This year, his fifth, the tally was 12, with three dead in a single week.
Working in one of the city’s smallest and most dangerous parishes, the 36-year-old Jesuit priest has aroused opposition from the police and the community because of his strategy of “bombarding” gang members with unconditional love.
Boyle has won the affection and respect of gang members, who call him by the handle “G-Dog.” He pedals his bicycle nightly through the nearby projects, welcomes gang members to the church and encourages them to attend an alternative school on church property.
On a recent Saturday, Boyle had yet to remove a funeral sticker from his car when he was alerted of another gang killing. Earlier in the week, two gang members had been fatally shot during a car chase with police. Now, a third teen-ager was hit by rival gang gunfire--five bullets in the chest--as he sat on the front porch of his house.
“It’s hard,” Boyle says. “I’m tired of burying my friends. I don’t know how much more of it I can do.”
His frustration is a reflection of the deep sense of despair among some gang members. Hearing gunfire on a recent night, Boyle jumped on his bike and rushed to where the shots had been fired. There, gang members were arming for a counterattack. Trying to calm them down, the priest addressed the leader: “Now, come on, go home.” The teen-ager replied, “You know, G, I don’t have anything to live for.”
“I thought it just extraordinary that that was the first thing he had to say to me,” Boyle says.
Still, there have been bright spots in the year. Parishioners seem more accepting of the gang members, and the Dolores Mission’s alternative school has doubled its enrollment in the past year. In January, the school will move to larger digs in a nearby warehouse; the church is still trying to raise $250,000 to fund the program.
Meanwhile, the “Jobs for the Future” project, supported by private contributions, put 50 gang members to work in the neighborhood last summer. “You carry on,” Boyle says. “I plead the faith because I believe in education and jobs and accepting love. Whether that has immediate results that are evident is not my concern. I believe there is no other strategy better than (love).”
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f9d62bb3e9fd0feac2de99b4704fa6b3
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5612-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Media: Some say the practice of ‘outing’ may have benefited gay rights.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Media: Some say the practice of ‘outing’ may have benefited gay rights.
Outing, the phenomenon of exposing allegedly gay, lesbian or bisexual personalities--usually through the media--continued to flourish throughout 1990, chiefly in the gay press and supermarket tabloids.
Increasing numbers of reportedly gay actors, politicians, entertainment moguls, professional athletes and rock musicians were named in these publications, and occasionally in mainstream media articles as well.
The debate over whether the practice is a form of psychological terrorism or a powerful, political tool also raged on. But by year’s end, some outing proponents and opponents alike said the controversy may have benefited the gay rights movement.
“Outing brought a whole new level of cutting-edge honesty. Anyone who is helping (allegedly homosexual) celebrities hide is now seen as old-fashioned,” says Michaelangelo Signorile, a gay gossip columnist for New York-based Outweek magazine. Earlier this year, Signorile’s reporting on the alleged bisexual pursuits of the late Malcolm Forbes brought outing to the attention of many mainstream media organizations.
“Obviously, we’ve seen the tabloids take to (outing) in a big way,” adds Signorile, whose publication continues to label or imply that various personalities are gay or lesbian. “The mainstream media, I think, came down against it for a lot of moral reasons, but in practice, I’ve seen them change. For instance, I’ve seen a lot of the (mainstream) gossip columnists not writing about (gay) people as if they’re heterosexual any more. They’re not sheltering them. And I’ve seen more stars asked if they’re gay in interviews in mainstream publications.”
Robert Bray, an outing opponent who serves as the public information director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, still believes in his organization’s position that gays and lesbians should not be forced from the closet. But he says the outing debate had some positive side effects.
“The debate this caused in the mainstream media was unprecedented,” he says. “If there’s a silver lining to the whole controversy, it’s that the media reported about the closet to a mass audience, that many gays live in shame in the closet and how pervasive and contemptuous the stigma is.
“The real debate that outing caused was in newsrooms around the country as reporters weighed the need for unbiased, accurate reporting with the sensitive subject of a person’s private life.”
One gay-oriented publication, not particularly known for outing under its previous editor, expects to become far more aggressive in reporting on homosexuals in the closet. “We’re in favor of outing,” reports Richard Rouilard, who earlier this year became the editor in chief of the Advocate, a biweekly gay and lesbian magazine based in Los Angeles.
“We’re working on outing stories on right-wing politicians and Vatican officials. But they’re investigative pieces. We don’t do lists (of alleged gays and lesbians). These stories are going to be properly sourced.”
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e641caa6e1e04b67c0033c6801130a41
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5613-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Revolt: The man who sparked the Romanian revolution last Christmas is still engaged in the struggle for freedom.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Revolt: The man who sparked the Romanian revolution last Christmas is still engaged in the struggle for freedom.
In 1989 Laszlo Tokes was lifted from obscurity to history. The hand of fate was active again this year, but the consequences were crueler--personally and politically.
Two brothers of the Reformed Church pastor and revolutionary were the targets of apparent assassination attempts.
Tokes himself--an ethnic Hungarian credited with sparking the Romanian revolution late last year--was severely injured in a car accident in Hungary in August, four months after a swing through the United States and Canada that included Los Angeles.
And in early December, Tokes cut short his convalescence at a Budapest hospital to return to Romania to campaign against charges that he had engaged in “anti-state and anti-nation activities.”
While Tokes had been a target in the press for months, his foes increased their tempo on Dec. 5 when a key figure in the ruling National Salvation Front publicly called for his arrest and trial. In a statement, Tokes denied any seditious activities against the front, which has ruled the country since the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s Communist regime during the Christmas season of 1989.
Shortly after Tokes’ return to Romania, dissatisfaction with the country’s new government peaked in observances of the revolution’s first anniversary that were also protests of the new regime. Demonstrations and strikes marked the level of disenchantment, particularly in Timisoara, the Transylvanian city where the revolt began. At an ecumenical church service there, Tokes called for “a second revolution--a revolution of human rights, of dignity, but without bloodshed.”
Ironically, Tokes’ current problems are an extension of the controversy that embroiled him under Ceausescu, whose government attempted to suppress the culture of Romania’s 2.3 million ethnic Hungarians. Then, the outspoken Tokes was the target of an intimidation campaign because of his defense of the Hungarian minority and more general criticisms of the government.
His pulpit protests rallied his parishioners and other residents of Timisoara to his defense. When the government ordered internal exile for Tokes, broad-based demonstrations supporting him flamed into a rebellion that spread to Bucharest. Within little more than a week, Ceausescu was overthrown, tried and shot.
In his latest clash with authority, Tokes, 38, charged that Romanian newspapers portrayed him as “a traitor, an anti-Romanian chauvinist, Transylvanian irredentist, CIA spy, an agent of the Hungarian or the former Romanian secret service, thereby inciting hatred not only against my person but generally against the Hungarian minority . . . . “
He added, “As a committed advocate of peaceful social changes, national cohesion and reconciliation of ethnic minorities, I repeatedly and firmly raise my voice against the destructive, inciting, divisive, destabilizing attempts of provocation that endanger the Romanian national democratic progress and the success of national reconciliation.”
Yet despite the broken pelvis that confined him to a hospital bed and the political battles that now engage him, Tokes had a few good moments in 1990.
On May 8 he was elevated to bishop of the Reformed Church in Oradea, Romania, a diocese with 500,000 people. Tokes used the ordination ceremony to call for his church to remain politically active in post-Communist Romania. Also in May, Tokes was awarded a Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms prize for his role in the overthrow of Romania’s totalitarian state. Another recipient of the prize was Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel.
Although foul play is not suspected in Tokes’ accident, attempted assassinations were made against his two brothers, according to press reports. In June, Jozsef Tokes was pushed off the road by another car while traveling in Transylvania. In May, Andras Tokes escaped attackers armed with knives, apparently members of the nationalist Vatra Romanesca (Romanian Hearth) organization.
In the still murky and violent world of Romanian politics, Tokes must have round-the-clock protection, says Emese Latkoczy, a director of the New York-based Hungarian Human Rights Foundation which sponsored Tokes’ tour of North America.
Latkoczy, who visited Tokes in September, adds, “The secret police are as active as ever . . . . Certainly Tokes has bodyguards which are his own. They’re not state-provided.”
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cb79f15392bba7c59cef2ca916820030
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5614-story.html
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Economy: Six months later, Terry Ballard is still looking for work.
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Fast Forward : Catching Up With 1990’s Newsmakers : Economy: Six months later, Terry Ballard is still looking for work.
Back in August, a good three months before Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan finally made it official, Terry Ballard of Cypress pretty much knew the economy was heading downhill.
In June, she had been laid off from a $45,000-a-year job as a facilities engineer for Douglas Aircraft Co., one of the estimated 8,000 Douglas workers who had been or were going to be laid off this year.
When she was interviewed in August, Ballard, who turns 53 today, was feeling down but hopeful. She and her husband, Marvin, a Douglas engineer whose job does not appear to be in jeopardy, had a healthy savings account and felt they could adjust their standard of living until Ballard found work. They didn’t think it would take longer than a few weeks.
It’s been six months now and she is still job hunting. There’s a fatigue in her voice that wasn’t there last summer:
“We are probably pulling from our savings in terms of maintaining some rental properties that we have. I guess we still have the attitude that two weeks from now I’ll have a job. But it’s been six months, and you finally realize it’s not going to turn around in two weeks. With the economy going down, you kind of realize, too, that you aren’t the only one down here.”
Ballard still scours the classifieds and attends job fairs.
“You reach out to anyone you can think of,” she said. “You find yourself telling people in the supermarket that you’re out of a job and looking. It’s frustrating.”
The Ballards have tried to keep a lid on expenses, but are still eating in restaurants. “We might go to less expensive places, but we still go out to dinner. Maybe we’re keeping our head in the sand, but I guess we feel that this is our social level and these are the things we like to do.”
The hardest part about not having a regular schedule, said Ballard, is getting motivated.
“I find myself not functioning, not making things happen around the house, such as wallpapering the bathroom,” she said. “I am the type of person who is better organized if I have something to do.”
And, the insensitivity of well-meaning friends and relatives can compound the misery of job hunting, she said.
“Everyone says, ‘You must enjoy this--being home, being a lady of leisure.’ Well, that really wore off after two months--sleeping late, doing my own gardening. And everybody looks at the multitude of jobs in the classifieds, but they don’t realize that the job that looks so terrific in the paper is in Santa Monica and you’d be driving two hours each way or have to take a 50% cut in the salary you used to make.”
After the holidays, Ballard figures she’ll have to lower her sights: “I think I would accept even less salary, maybe even a less senior position, or drive a little farther than I’d like. Or maybe I’m not supposed to be working that job (facilities engineer). Maybe I should go to work selling blouses.
“Some of my job skills are unusual for women, and then I wonder if I’m not getting the jobs because I’m a woman. Then I look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Well, you really look like a real estate lady, maybe you should do that . . . . ‘ “
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fb590020a59f099a8d40b2d4113cde0f
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-31-vw-5754-story.html
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Chinese-American Debutante Ball Wins Attention From TV
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Chinese-American Debutante Ball Wins Attention From TV
Talk about hitting the social jackpot. Not only did Saturday’s Winter Blossom Ball make the big time--it marked the country’s first ever Chinese-American debutante ball--it made prime time.
Boyd Matson, correspondent for NBC’s “Real Life With Jane Pauley” television show, was on hand, interviewing and overseeing the filming of the debs as they made their formal bow to society in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel.
The tall and suave Matson, an NBC correspondent since 1974, flew in from New York with producer Betsy Kavetas on Friday so they could rise early on Saturday to shoot the debs as they were made up, had portraits taken, rehearsed and stole their parents’ breath away when--in flowing white gowns--they swept through an archway smothered with flowers and twinkle lights.
Kavetas got the idea for what is to become the deb documentary after seeing a September article about the upcoming ball in the View section of The Times: More than 20 Chinese-American women were going to make their debuts to benefit the Asian American Senior Citizens Service Center in Santa Ana.
“I was visiting a girlfriend in Malibu--that’s how I happened to see it,” said Kavetas, one of 10 field producers for the television show. “When I got back, I told Jane about it and she loved the idea. We’d been looking to do a story on debs, but this was going to be much more interesting than doing one in New York or Philadelphia.”
The event would be delightfully ironic, thought Matson, who occasionally shares the interview spotlight with Pauley.
“The debs’ parents are very proud of the fact that they’ve come to America and made it,” Matson said. “So they’ve taken on a Western tradition to push something they want . . . (their daughters) to meet some nice Asian boys.” And, Matson added, “The philanthropic approach gives their community the chance to take care of its elders, a Chinese tradition they’re afraid they’ll lose by becoming Americanized.”
Debutante Carolyn Mar of Irvine agreed that the ball was about more than the chance to meet Chinese-American boys (all of the debs’ escorts were Chinese-American). It was about borrowing an American tradition to instill Chinese values.
“That’s what this whole thing is really for,” said Mar, 20, a Brown University senior, who made her debut with her sister Christine Mar, 17.
“On one hand, " she said, “it might be seen only as an assimilation of American culture. But, we’re really doing something very Asian, taking care of the elderly--putting them first. It’s a unique collision of two cultures and the ball puts them together in a very beautiful light.”
Christine Mar listened carefully as her older sister spoke. “How eloquent ,” she said in a teasing tone. “Seriously,” she added with a giggle, “what Carolyn said is true.”
Were the sisters nervous about making their debuts in front of 400 guests and rolling TV cameras? “Not really,” said Christine, a senior at University High School. “All my friends are going to be up there with me.”
“Well, it’s pretty exciting,” conceded Carolyn, an English major. “I had no idea it was going to be such a media event.”
Festivities began at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception and silent auction, which included artworks by March Fong Eu, California secretary of state. After their presentation, the debutantes joined their families for a sit-down dinner of sorrel bisque en croute, filet of beef Bordelaise and a potato basket brimming with shrimp and scallops.
Daniel Shen, founding chairman of the Asian American Senior Citizens Service Center, welcomed guests, who sat at tables with mirrored pedestal vases containing daisies, carnations and tuber roses.
“About a year ago,” Shen announced, “a group of us thought how wonderful it could be to do something for the Asian senior citizens of Orange County. The need for a facility was obvious. Tonight, we raise funds for a dream. A dream we can make true for our senior citizens.”
Also making their debuts were Grace Chang, Pei-Lin Chen, Stacie Cheng, Rosalie Chin, Tammy Chin, Alice Hsu, Corinna Kao, Sansan Kwan, Annie Lai, Cindy Lee, Gigi Lee, Joni Lee, Kristine Lee, Lily Lee, Marian Lee, Michelle Li, Emily Liu, Christine Sun and Bernice Wu.
Among special guests were ball chairwoman Ruth Ding (who estimated proceeds from the $100-per-person event at about $100,000); ball co-chairwomen Mary Hsu and Sarah Mar; Nelson Mar, president of the senior center; Thomas Yuen of AST Research Inc.; John Chang of British Petroleum Chemicals Inc.; 1984 Olympic Team figure skater Tiffany Chin; Michael Chang, winner of the 1989 French Open tennis tourney; March Fong Eu and her son, Matt Fong, and Beaulah Ku, executive director of the Assn. of Asian Pacific American Artists.
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f8a84e27c83b4c5da1e0eb7dbd1d24a2
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-06-fi-10874-story.html
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Harsh Penalties Lurk Behind 2-Tier Annuities
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Harsh Penalties Lurk Behind 2-Tier Annuities
Q: What are the differences between one-tier and two-tier tax-deferred annuities? I am getting conflicting opinions. My friend says the two-tier annuity I bought is a rip-off and I should sell it immediately, even if I have to take a loss. My salesman says my two-tier annuity offers me a higher rate of return. Whom should I believe? --N. P. W.
A: Both your friend and your salesman. Both are telling a version of the truth.
Many financial planners believe that your friend’s assessment is essentially correct: Two-tier annuities can be consumer rip-offs, and, possibly, you were unwise to purchase one. (Whether you should get out of your contract now, however, is another question which we’ll deal with later.) But none of this means that what your salesman said is wrong. He told you the truth--or at least a portion of it. Two-tier annuities usually offer a higher interest rate than single-tier plans. But they also offer a second interest rate--and that one is usually lower than those for single-tier plans.
So what are these two types of plans, and why are they different?
First, remember that an annuity is a financial contract that pays its beneficiary--usually upon retirement--either in monthly, annual or lump-sum installments. Upon their purchase, annuities earn interest, and, when added to your principal payment, form the basis of what you are repaid over the life of the contract.
Interest rates vary from one annuity to another. They also vary depending on the type of payment you elect to receive: a single lump sum or monthly installments. The difference between single- and dual-tier annuity plans comes down to the interest rates each plan offers for the different methods of payment.
A single-tier annuity offers just one interest-rate formula. Your money will earn at this rate regardless of whether you withdraw it as a single lump sum at the end of the contract or in periodic payments. If you don’t know how you will want to take your money when you buy your contract or you change your mind after a few years--as happens with many consumers--it doesn’t matter. You are not penalized. But this single rate is usually lower than the higher of the two rates offered in the two-tier plans.
The latter offer one rate for contract holders who want to withdraw their funds in a single sum at the contract’s expiration, and another for those who want to take their money monthly. The rate is lower for those who elect the lump-sum distribution, usually by at least two percentage points. Depending on the contract, most lump-sum rates are significantly lower than rates of single-tier plans. Consumers who elect the installment plan when they purchase the contract and later change their minds are penalized. Their funds are assigned the lower of the two rates.
Why should there be this disparity?
Insurance companies offering these contracts argue that they should reward policyholders who stay with them, rather than taking their money and running the day the contract expires.
In reality, however, insurance companies make more money on installment payment contracts, since many become null and void upon the death of the primary or joint beneficiary. Whatever isn’t disbursed is kept by the insurance company. Of course, they want to sell the installment plan program, so they offer a sweetener: higher interest rates.
Further--and this you must know--insurance salesmen usually earn higher commissions for selling two-tier contracts than they do for single-tier plans. So, as you might expect, insurance salesmen are given to singing their praises and glossing over their defects.
Now we return to your dilemma: Should you sell your contract? Have a qualified accountant or financial planner assess your contract, the penalties you face for breaking it and your likely alternative investment strategies. If you are planning to take installment payments when the annuity matures and live long enough to get all that is due you, then perhaps this contract was not an unwise investment.
Upon researching your two-tier contract, however, you may discover that its current interest rate is lower than the introductory one. This happens with many annuity contracts. With a single-tier annuity, you could withdraw your money and look for an alternative investment with only minimal penalties. With a two-tier contract, you face a double penalty: a reassignment to the lower lump-sum interest rate, plus the early withdrawal penalty.
Losing Out With a Second Trust Deed
Q: A few years ago, I purchased a second trust deed as an investment. The borrower later filed for bankruptcy and I lost my entire investment. If the borrower is now solvent, is there anything I can do to recover my loss? --E. L. T .
A: Probably not. According to our legal experts, if the borrower’s property was foreclosed on, the lien extinguished and the borrower’s debt discharged, you are out of luck. Of course, you should check the terms of the bankruptcy disposition to be certain, but if the borrower’s legal and financial obligations have been dismissed through the bankruptcy procedure, then you no longer have any claim on the assets of the borrower.
Carla Lazzareschi cannot answer mail individually but will respond in this column to financial questions of general interest. Please do not telephone. Write to Money Talk, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053.
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90401bb9f32b067f3e41e0d5ab6b47a3
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-13-ca-155-story.html
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In Search of . . . Yvonne De Carlo
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In Search of . . . Yvonne De Carlo
She’s known to TV audiences as Lily Munster in TV’s campy “The Munsters,” but by the time she took that role Yvonne De Carlo had already been in roughly 100 feature films, including many during the ‘40s and ‘50s in which she starred.
Sicilian on her mother’s side, Scotch-English on her father’s, De Carlo was often cast as the exotic siren. Of her first starring role in “Salome, Where She Danced” (1945), she laughs, “I came through these beaded curtains, wearing a Japanese kimono and Japanese headpiece, and then performed a Siamese dance. Nobody seemed to know quite why.”
For her latest role, she goes comedic--and Italian--as Sylvester Stallone’s Aunt Rosa in the gangster comedy, “Oscar.” Directed by John Landis, it’s due this spring from Touchstone. “Mine is a small part--but funny,” she says, explaining that her character will witness Kirk Douglas extracting a deathbed promise from gangster son Stallone that he’ll go straight.
Born in Vancouver 66 years ago, De Carlo was a teen-ager when her mother brought her to Hollywood. From 1942 to 1944 she played bit parts. Then came “Salome,” and leading-lady status.
Today, some of her films have taken on a camp quality--such as “Hurricane Smith” (1952), in which she’s a half-Tahitian princess who entices lusty South Seas pirate John Ireland. Or “The Desert Hawk” (1950), an Arabian nights saga. But she held her own against some of Hollywood’s top leading men--including Clark Gable, who literally buys her in “Band of Angels” (1957) when it’s discovered that her Southern belle character has black ancestors.
She moved into TV and movie character parts in the ‘60s, made her Broadway debut in “Follies” in 1971. In years since, she’s kept busy, including many low-budget horror titles--"I seem to get killed a lot"--and touring stage productions.
“It’s all been very exciting,” says De Carlo, now divorced and a resident of the Santa Ynez Valley. “I’ve loved it all.”
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95b720929de8894ca777cb661836e62e
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-13-mn-412-story.html
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Text of Bush’s Letter to Saddam Hussein
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Text of Bush’s Letter to Saddam Hussein
Following is the text of the letter that President Bush wrote to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Jan. 5.
The letter was refused Wednesday by Iraq’s Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz when Secretary of State James A. Baker III tried to get him to deliver it. Aziz said it contained language inappropriate for correspondence between two heads of state.
The White House initially refused to release it, but handed out this text Saturday, saying that many segments of it had been quoted by news organizations:
Mr. President:
We stand today at the brink of war between Iraq and the world. This is a war that began with your invasion of Kuwait; this is a war that can be ended only by Iraq’s full and unconditional compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 678.
I am writing you now, directly, because what is at stake demands that no opportunity be lost to avoid what would be a certain calamity for the people of Iraq. I am writing, as well, because it is said by some that you do not understand just how isolated Iraq is and what Iraq faces as a result.
I am not in a position to judge whether this impression is correct; what I can do, though, is try in this letter to reinforce what Secretary of State Baker told your foreign minister and eliminate any uncertainty or ambiguity that might exist in your mind about where we stand and what we are prepared to do.
The international community is united in its call for Iraq to leave all of Kuwait without condition and without further delay. This is not simply the policy of the United States; it is the position of the world community as expressed in no less than 12 Security Council resolutions.
We prefer a peaceful outcome. However, anything less than full compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 678 and its predecessors is unacceptable.
There can be no reward for aggression. Nor will there be any negotiation. Principle cannot be compromised. However, by its full compliance, Iraq will gain the opportunity to rejoin the international community.
More immediately, the Iraqi military establishment will escape destruction. But unless you withdraw from Kuwait completely and without condition, you will lose more than Kuwait.
What is at issue here is not the future of Kuwait--it will be free, its government will be restored--but rather the future of Iraq. This choice is yours to make.
The United States will not be separated from its coalition partners. Twelve Security Council resolutions, 28 countries providing military units to enforce them, more than 100 governments complying with sanctions--all highlight the fact that it is not Iraq against the United States, but Iraq against the world.
That most Arab and Muslim countries are arrayed against you as well should reinforce what I am saying. Iraq cannot and will not be able to hold on to Kuwait or exact a price for leaving.
You may be tempted to find solace in the diversity of opinion that is American democracy. You should resist any such temptation. Diversity ought not to be confused with division. Nor should you underestimate, as others have before you, America’s will.
Iraq is already feeling the effects of the sanctions mandated by the United Nations. Should war come, it will be a far greater tragedy for you and your country.
Let me state, too, that the United States will not tolerate the use of chemical or biological weapons or the destruction of Kuwait’s oil fields and installations. Further, you will be held directly responsible for terrorist actions against any member of the coalition.
The American people would demand the strongest possible response. You and your country will pay a terrible price if you order unconscionable acts of this sort.
I write this letter not to threaten, but to inform. I do so with no sense of satisfaction, for the people of the United States have no quarrel with the people of Iraq.
Mr. President, U.N. Security Council Resolution 678 establishes the period before Jan. 15 of this year as a ‘pause of goodwill’ so that this crisis may end without further violence.
Whether this pause is used as intended, or merely becomes a prelude to further violence, is in your hands, and yours alone. I hope you weigh your choice carefully and choose wisely, for much will depend upon it.
George Bush
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e7c485112cfa9d4d4bcf99e6a93325bd
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-13-sp-434-story.html
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A Troubled Life, a Lonely Death : Former Padre Star Alan Wiggins Is Remembered by Friends Who Lost Touch With Him After Drugs Ruined Promising Career
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A Troubled Life, a Lonely Death : Former Padre Star Alan Wiggins Is Remembered by Friends Who Lost Touch With Him After Drugs Ruined Promising Career
The three sat together in pews at Calvary C.M.E. Methodist Church in Pasadena Friday during the funeral service, trying to comfort one another and erase feelings of guilt created by their friend’s death.
These were three of Alan Wiggins’ closest friends growing up in Pasadena, staying together from Little League to Elliott Junior High to the Senior Babe Ruth League to being teammates at Muir High.
There was Warren Hollier, a 6-foot-6 pitcher and the star of the group, who eventually earned a baseball scholarship to Oral Roberts. There was Lyle Brackenridge, the shortstop, who went to Cal. There was Wayne Stone, the right fielder, who also wound up at Oral Roberts.
They were all close, all sharing the same dream. They were inseparable, playing ball at Brookside Park across from the Rose Bowl in the mornings. Their diamond was nothing more than a sandlot. They would rake an infield, build a pitching mound, and while playing the field, pulled their hats on tightly to prevent them from falling into the stickers.
“We’d sit around and talk about pro ball, what was going to happen, how we’d do,” Hollier said. “Alan and I were best friends. Neither of us had a dad, or much money, and we figured sports was our way out.
“Alan probably had less than any of us, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. I remember once when he didn’t have any shoes to wear, so he wore these white Converse high-tops, and he didn’t care who laughed at him.”
What did matter was that Wiggins could out-run anyone in his bare feet. He knew he was going to play ball. He just knew it. All you had to do was ask him.
“Alan knew he had superior talent,” Stone said. “I remember one day I was working, and he said to me, ‘You know something, I’ll never have to work a day in my life,’ and he kind of laughed.
“You know something, he never did.”
Said Donald Wiggins, Alan’s 35-year-old brother: “I remember those guys would actually sit around and practice signing autographs. That’s why when you look at his signature, it’s so good. He had been practicing.”
When Wiggins made it to the big leagues with the Padres to stay in 1982, the four of them would get together every time Wiggins came into town. Each of the four players was drafted, but with the exception of Wiggins, none advanced past double-A. He was living out all their fantasies.
“When we saw him, we’d always pick his brain, wanting to know how he made it,” Stone said. “He’d tell us we all could make it, you know, making us feel good.
But the visits became more infrequent each year, and when he was released by the Baltimore Orioles after the 1987 season, the gang never again got together, or even talked by telephone.
They never had a chance to say goodby.
Wiggins, 32, died Jan. 6 of complications caused by AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, according to one of his doctors. Wiggins had been suffering from complications caused by AIDS for three years, said the doctor, who declined to be identified.
Wiggins’ family and the Cedars-Sinai Hospital staff decline to publicly acknowledge the cause of death, but one family member, and several friends of Wiggins, confirmed that Wiggins died from complications caused by AIDS.
“He has had some health problems for some time, he knew what was happening,” said Dr. James McGee, Wiggins’ psychiatrist in Baltimore. “The last few times I talked to him, about four months ago, were not fun, happy conversations. He was not in good shape, and wasn’t optimistic.
“Things were not going well for him.”
Wiggins, who had been hospitalized on several occasions, was admitted into the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai at 12:20 a.m. Nov. 29. The admissions report said Wiggins was “coughing, had breathing difficulty, and a clear indication of pneumonia.”
He drifted in and out of consciousness during his stay, and 37 days later, he was dead.
“It’s so tough when you see someone going through the pain he was going through,” said Donald Wiggins, “and not being able to do anything about it. We always hung onto that hope. We kept praying God would perform a miracle.
“We held out hope right to the end.”
The man who was the catalyst on the San Diego Padres’ 1984 National League championship team weighed less than 75 pounds at the time of death.
“I feel like basically he died alone,” Hollier said. “We all cared about him greatly, but I think he felt embarrassed about what happened, and he shut us out. I mean as close as we were, none of us even knew he was sick. Can you believe it?
“I’ve shed a lot of tears over this, and I don’t want to place blame on myself or Lyle or Wayne, but we feel bad because we were not persistent enough. We used to say all the time, we need to go down there (to San Diego), grab the brother, pull him aside, and straighten him out. But we lost contact.
“He always felt embarrassed about the problems he had. He probably just needed someone to say, ‘It’s OK. I don’t want to put any guilt on myself, but I wish I had been there for him, and given him encouragement.
“It’s really a shame. There’s so much I wanted to tell him. There’s so much I wanted to thank him for what he did.
“Most of all, I just wanted to tell him that I love him.”
Steve Garvey was the only member of the 1984 Padre World Series team that attended the services. Lee Lacy was the only Oriole player who arrived. In all, there were only five former teammates who paid their respects to Wiggins.
“Some friends, huh?,” said Tony Attanasio, Wiggins’ agent and confidant. “I remember when he was with the Padres, and was in Minnesota (in drug rehabilitation). He’d call me and say, ‘Here’s my number, tell the guys to call me.’ I’d go to the ballpark, give out the number to a few guys, and you know what? Not once did anyone call.
“That’s what makes me sick now, seeing these guys come out in the paper like they’re his friends, and they’re not even at the funeral. His friends were at the service. The rest is pseudo, and that bothers me a lot.”
Wiggins always was different, friends and family say. He was an introvert and trusted few people.
“If you didn’t know him, you might get the wrong picture of him,” Stone said. “People didn’t have the right perception. We’d see things in the paper about him, and say, ‘Come on, that’s not the Alan we know. “
Said Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn: “To not like Alan Wiggins, is to not know Alan Wiggins.”
In Baltimore, they gave everyone on the team an IQ test. Wiggins scored the highest. The only one in uniform who was higher was Manager Earl Weaver.
“You know,” McGee said, “he could have avoided the bad press. If he told people his life story, people would back off. But he didn’t think it was their business.
“He was a guy who had a lot of pride, and that was both an asset, and a liability, in a lot of ways.”
Said Donald: “He was so very honest, and very direct. I may not have liked some of the things he was saying, but at least you knew where you stood.
“It may have gotten him into trouble at times, but that’s Tony.”
Wiggins, who was called Tony by his family and Alan by his friends, acknowledged that he sometimes would be stubborn intentionally, simply to see the reaction of his teammates. And always, always, he would love a debate. There was no teammate he enjoyed more than pitcher Eric Show, who belongs to the John Birch Society. They would scream at one another for 20 minutes, and teammates would prepare to step in for a fight, but then it would stop, and Wiggins would congratulate Show for a nice round of discussion.
“It was like point-counterpoint, Wiggs just loved that,” Gwynn said. “I mean, Wiggs would say, ‘What do you like better, Coke or Pepsi?’ He could care less. He just wanted an answer. And as soon as you said one thing, he’d take the other side, and make you argue about it.
“But he’d respect you for putting up an argument.”
There were others who simply couldn’t figure him out. His Oriole teammates never did, or perhaps never bothered. And there were occasional spats in the Padre clubhouse.
“I think Alan was confused,” former Padre Tim Flannery said, “even his best friends never knew him. I don’t know if he was searching, had a chip on his shoulder, or what it was. I don’t agree with a lot of things he did, and I didn’t like him much, to be honest with you, but we were on the same ballclub, and respected one another.
“People who don’t play professional sports say you should know everything about a guy, but we didn’t know him. Who did? Maybe he didn’t want to play anymore. Maybe he didn’t want success. I don’t know, I’ve got more questions than anyone else.
“I’ve got a picture on the wall I keep staring at. It’s me and Wiggins hugging each other after scoring the winning run against the Cubs in the ’84 playoffs.
“One day my son’s going to ask me, ‘Who’s that hugging you, Daddy?’ and I’m going to have to tell him.
“And that bothers me.
“That bothers me a lot.”
There are no direct, simple reasons why Wiggins became an addict, and allowed drugs to ruin his life, but McGee said: “I think they were a number of very significant traumas in his personal life that very few people know about. It was one of issues where he was depressed or preoccupied, and it was perceived as arrogance or aloofness.
“At the time, he was carrying the weight of the world on his two shoulders, and no one knew.”
There were marital problems between Wiggins and his wife, Angie, but when friends suggested divorce, Wiggins would glare at them. He was raised without a father, and wanted to make sure his kids had both parents.
There was the everyday pressure of trying to succeed in the role of a public figure, when he so badly wanted to remain private.
And there was his mother, Karla Wiggins. It was her illness, friends say, that might have triggered Alan’s dependency, although Donald Wiggins scoffs at the notion.
It was about in 1983, Wiggins’ friends say, when Karla Wiggins was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease. It left Alan devastated. Some say he never recovered.
“When his mom kind of lost it, that’s when he started to lose it,” Gwynn said. “His mom was so proud of his accomplishments. She was kind of like his life support system. That started his whole slide.”
Said Hollier: “I hate to say it, but it was like that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I remember seeing her, and she was so proud. Alan had made it. But she wasn’t herself anymore.
“Now, Alan couldn’t buy her a big beautiful house like he planned, or a nice car, because what was she going to do with it with Alzheimer’s disease?”
There were early signs of problems in Wiggins’ career after he was selected in the first round of the 1977 draft by the Angels. Midway through the season, he had a fight with one of his coaches, and was released in June.
The incident didn’t deter the Dodgers from selecting him in the first round of the free-agent draft in January of 1978. He kept improving, and stole a minor league record 120 bases in 1980.
The Dodgers, however, curiously left him unprotected after that season, and the Padres snatched him up.
The reason for the Dodgers’ decision was simple.
“It was known in our organization that he had a problem in the Dodger organization,” said Dick Williams, who then managed the Padres. “They didn’t want a part of it.”
The Dodgers won’t confirm any drug involvement, but Padre officials say it simply involved an arrest for possession of marijuana.
Wiggins was arrested again for possession of marijuana in 1981, but the Padres shrugged it off.
“We didn’t think it was anything problematic thing,” said Tom Romenesko, then-Padre farm director. “We just thought it was a social thing. I grew up in Wisconsin. You think I don’t drink beer? He was caught by the police, so we just hid it.”
But it happened again, this time in San Diego on the night of July 21, 1982. Wiggins was arrested for possession of a gram of cocaine.
This time, he was sent to a drug rehabilitation clinic in Orange County. He stayed 30 days, was reinstated, and then went right back into the lineup.
“I remember after that happened,” Gwynn said, “he sat by me and started telling me about the rehab centers. It was like he was laughing about it. He was saying how they don’t faze him, and told me, ‘You can’t rehab a guy in 28 days, you just can’t do it.’
“When he said that, I knew, sooner or later, he’d relapse.”
If Wiggins returned soon to drugs, he did a wonderful acting job. He was selected as the Padres’ most valuable player for the 1983 season, batting .276 with a club-record 66 stolen bases. The next season, he would establish himself as one of the finest players in the league.
“If not for Alan Wiggins,” Williams said, “we don’t win the championship. It’s that simple. He was our catalyst. He was our most valuable player. My God, could he play!”
The Padres experimented before the 1984 season by moving Wiggins to second base, and by the time the season ended, Wiggins had scored 106 runs, stole 70 bases, and the Padres had a National League pennant.
The Padres, wanting to make sure that Wiggins was going to be with them for a long time, signed him to a four-year, $2.8-million contract. No one even blinked. He was part of the future.
Until April 25, 1985.
“I’ll never forget that day as long as I live,” Flannery said. “I’m taking infield, and Dick Williams comes to me about 25 minutes before game time and said, ‘Get ready, because you’re going to be playing tonight. And you’re going to be playing a long time because the other guy'--that’s what he called him--'didn’t show up.
“That’s the last time most of us ever saw him.”
Wiggins never arrived, and after the Padres called the police, he emerged the next day, and was in a rehabilitation center by the weekend.
This time, the Padres ended their leniency. Padre owner Joan Kroc said that Wiggins wasn’t coming back, and there was nothing Wiggins or Attanasio could do to persuade her otherwise.
“It still bothers me to this day,” Attanasio said. “The problem in San Diego should have been taken care of from the start. It was not a matter of baseball. It was a matter of life. A human being was in trouble.
“They didn’t even listen. I said, ‘What if the doctor says he not only can play, but must play to preserve his life?’
“Do you know what (Kroc’s) response was: " . . . him.’ I said, ‘What did you say? She gave me the same response.”
Ballard Smith, then-Padre president, said: “We knew after that happened, he’d never play for us again. While some people looked at what we did was somewhat cruel, every doctor I’ve talked to in the field told that me that the last thing drug addicts will do is hold onto their job. If you force them to live up to their responsibilities, you can be a catalyst. We had to do what we thought was right.”
The Orioles settled on an agreement in which the Padres would be obligated to pay part of the contract if Wiggins had a relapse, and then traded them pitchers Roy L. Jackson and Rich Caldell.
The Padres never were the same again.
Nor was Wiggins.
Angie Wiggins, Alan’s wife of nine years, stood in front of the congregation at the funeral service and asked if Lee Lacy, Alan’s former teammate in Baltimore, was in attendance. Lacy slowly raised his hand.
“Alan loved Lee Lacy,” Angie Wiggins said. “I believe Lee Lacy’s not in Baltimore today because he stuck up for Alan. They were dogging him with the Orioles, and Lee Lacy stuck by him where a lot of the others wouldn’t.”
Angie would have continued, but her brother, Darrell, firmly squeezed her elbow. This was not the time for bitterness.
Wiggins spent 2 1/2 seasons with the Orioles. He was ostracized by the fans, and, more painfully, by his teammates during his stay.
“It was abysmal,” Attanasio said. “Players would stand in an area, Alan would walk over, and guys would (disperse), and leave Alan standing alone. He’d walk over to another group, and they’d leave.
“When he was on the road, he was alone. When he was at home, he was alone. It manifested itself into a lot of disappointment, and a lot of misunderstanding.
“The guys didn’t even know he was married. They didn’t know he had kids. And they didn’t care.
“He was unmercifully depressed. They turned their backs and pushed him aside in San Diego, and now, he was going to Baltimore, replacing Rich Dauer, who was one of the close-knit guys on the team.
“They’re thinking, here comes this black militant kid, and he’s trying to to take one of our guys’ place. They never forgave him for that, and he was ostracized.”
Wiggins belonged to a clique of one. The end was near Aug. 5, 1987, when he wound up fighting Jim Dwyer by the batting cage. Before he knew it, Wiggins was engaged in a scuffle with Manager Cal Ripken Sr.
By the end of the month, he was suspended by Peter Ueberroth, then-Commissioner, for failing a drug test. On Sept. 29, 1987, Wiggins was released by the Orioles and out of baseball.
Wiggins began studying the real-estate market when he returned to San Diego. He frequently visited the library, studied zoning laws, and even talked about a possible baseball comeback. Mostly, he spent his free time fishing and playing an occasional round of golf.
He began losing weight, but he rarely weighed more than 160 pounds during his playing days, so few people noticed. He began preparing for his children’s financial future. He purchased a home in Rancho Penasquitos for $414,000 in June of 1988 and sold it for $657,500 last July. He double-checked on his $150,000 life insurance policy with the players’ association. He spent time with Attanasio, making the proper arrangements for his deferred salary, which was to be $100,000 a year for the next seven years, followed by a lump sum of $1 million.
“He loved his children so much,” Attanasio said, “he was going to make sure they would always be taken care of.”
His visits to friend became less and less frequent in the last year, until he almost was in seclusion. He still would make visits to see his family, but the telephone calls to even his closest friends began to stop.
He was with the family in May when his farther, Albert, died of cancer. It was a devastating loss to Alan, said his brother, Donald. Alan Wiggins and his father had become closer in recent years and Alan frequently would take his kids to see him.
Knowing that he was close to death, Wiggins put his Poway home on the market and moved to Pasadena. He usually stayed with friends, until he could no longer survive on his own, and it was his brother Kenneth who had him admitted to the emergency room that night in November.
Wiggins lapsed in and out of consciousness throughout the final seven weeks of his life. He kept fighting, trying so hard to beat the disease, but the infection was relentless.
“He kept fighting,” Kenneth said. “He never gave up.”
It was Angie, and her mother, Anna Woods, who last saw Alan alive. They visited him in the hospital that night, and Angie tried to soothe him, rubbing lotion on his shoulders. Still, the pain was unbearable.
Two hours later, after Angie returned to her home with the children, her mother telephoned. Alan had died.
Expect for a small group, most of Alan’s friends didn’t find out until they heard the news late Monday night. Questions immediately arose. Some remain unanswered.
“I think everybody’s asking themselves, ‘Why,’ ” Hollier said, “and what could could have done to help. I’m still trying to figure out why this happened.”
Wiggins is buried on a hillside at Rose Hills Memorial Park.
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17f50f0d94ebafe704ef1492fb21a7bf
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-16-mn-346-story.html
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Bush to Free El Salvador Military Aid
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Bush to Free El Salvador Military Aid
President Bush told Congress on Tuesday that he has decided to free $42.5 million in military aid for the government of El Salvador, saying Salvadoran rebels are committing human rights abuses and grabbing weapons.
But Bush said he would hold up dispensing the money for 60 days to coincide with elections in March for the Salvadoran National Assembly. This will give peace negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations “every chance to work,” Bush said.
He said he might “release military assistance sooner than 60 days in case of a compelling security need.”
The President’s decision was communicated to Congress as part of a status report on El Salvador’s peace process and its investigation of the November, 1989, murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teen-age daughter.
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79639295ee8b2503b5b6206695e313ad
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-20-me-849-story.html
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1 Man Killed, 1 Badly Wounded in Separate Drive-By Shootings
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1 Man Killed, 1 Badly Wounded in Separate Drive-By Shootings
A Lynwood man was shot to death as he stood in his doorway, and a San Pedro man was critically wounded in unrelated drive-by attacks that were blamed on gang members, police said Saturday.
Donald Sarpy, 41, was shot once in the upper chest Friday night as he stepped out of his Lynwood home to call in his 15-year-old son from the front yard, sheriff’s deputies said.
Neither his son nor the several friends standing with him were injured. Although the three occupants of the car yelled gang slogans before one passenger leaned out and fired a handgun, authorities did not know if Sarpy’s son or his friends were gang members, said Deputy Britta Rodela.
Sarpy was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where he died about three hours later. No arrests were made.
In San Pedro, Chris Solario was shot twice as he stood in front of a residence on 1st Street early Saturday morning, Los Angeles police said.
Solario, 23, was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, where he was listed in extremely serious condition, said Sgt. Jim O’Connor.
The assailants, who were driving a large, dark-colored car, sped off.
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a6a2cf649acc11e8795331e43570c44a
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-23-mn-786-story.html
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Americans Willing to Pay for Bit of Security : Consumers: Sales of gas masks and other protective items increase since start of war. ‘It’s been total insanity,’ says one merchant.
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Americans Willing to Pay for Bit of Security : Consumers: Sales of gas masks and other protective items increase since start of war. ‘It’s been total insanity,’ says one merchant.
It’s a long way from Tel Aviv to the Pacific Palisades, but Beth Weitz figures it can’t hurt to be prepared. So when her teen-age son asked her for a gas mask on Tuesday, she marched straight to a military supply store--and bought four.
“If it makes us feel a little more secure, it’s worth it,” said Weitz. “It’s a traumatic time for all of is. And if we don’t need them, well, I can use them for planters. A little ivy growing out of the noses--hey, it might look OK!”
From the Big Apple to Los Angeles, the hottest selling item these days is something its purchasers hope they never have to use--gas masks.
“The phone is ringing off the hook and every third call is for a gas mask,” said Ben Susman, owner of the Van Nuys Army & Navy store on Tuesday. “We had about 200 of them but they’re all sold out--which is amazing, because they were made in Israel and the instructions are in Hebrew. I doubt many people will be able to translate.”
Spy Tech, a Manhattan firm that seems to have a near monopoly on the protective devices in New York City, says it can hardly keep up with the orders from customers fearful that Iraqi terrorists may soon strike there.
“We’re selling dozens of them at a time to everybody from corporations to the little old lady buying it for herself and her grandchildren,” Spy Tech President Ed Sklar said. “We sold about 4,200 just yesterday alone. Since the outbreak of hostilities, we’ve sold about 8,000.”
Last Friday, the day after Iraq first attacked Israel with Scud missiles, the company sold 1,000, he said.
“It’s been total insanity,” Sklar said. “We even have orders pending from other parts of the world that are astronomical. I’ll believe them when I see their letters of credit.”
Dan Sonenfeld, general manager of California Surplus Mart in Los Angeles, said gas mask sales have been “quite brisk” since the invasion of Kuwait Aug. 2. At first, he said, the buyers were Middle Eastern immigrants buying them for relatives back home.
But when the bombs started to fly, he and others said, the market came home.
“We had one woman in here the other day who wanted a gas mask for her dog,” said a salesman at The Surplus Store in West Los Angeles.
The masks are Israeli surplus and sell for $20-$40 each. Made of rubber with a screw-on metal filter canister, they are identical to the masks supplied by the Israeli government to their citizens, merchants said.
Southern California merchants said that, for the most part, they have tried to discourage anxious customers.
“We don’t sell them, and when people ask for them, we strongly recommend that they put the idea out of their minds,” said Marguerite Morgan, co-owner of an Encinitas supply store called Be Prepared!
“The gas masks on sale in this country can actually be dangerous. People who don’t know how to use them can end up suffocating.”
In New York, however, Sklar has been advertising the masks in the New York Times. “Gas Masks--Survival in the ‘90s!” the ads say. “Call or Visit Our Showroom . . .”
Sklar rejects notions that he is capitalizing on ungrounded fears.
“I think people who buy them are being very prudent,” he said. “I anticipate a terrorist attack. Most other people do as well. We’re dealing with a man who is a mastermind of propaganda and has a training school for terrorism in Baghdad.”
The masks are not the only item in demand in the wake of the Persian Gulf crisis. Emergency rations of ready-to-eat food, jugs of water and American flags are selling out, merchants say.
At the Survival Center in Ravenna, Ohio, owner Dick Mamkamyer reports that bomb shelter accessories have picked up nicely on his toll-free mail-order line.
“The phone lines have been lit up ever since August when the troops first went in. And it’s been real hectic lately,” said Mamkamyer, whose outlet is about 40 miles southeast of Cleveland. Sklar’s Spy Tech, on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building, also stocks chemical suits at $200 apiece, protective hoods at $15 each and a $15 decontamination kit with materials to neutralize chemicals that get on skin, clothing or equipment.
“We’ve sold over 200 of the chemical suits over the last couple of weeks,” Sklar said.
Bulletproof items, such as the $550 “Miracle” T-shirt that is designed to stop a .357-caliber slug, also are beginning to sell to New Yorkers panicky over the possibility of a terrorist attack, he said.
Richard Renda, 37, a Manhattan sound engineer and public relations specialist, is typical of the customers who have visited Spy Tech’s offices in recent days. He purchased three masks, two chemical suits and six extra filter canisters.
“I want to have a chance to get out of the city alive if something happens,” he said. “I hope I never have to use it, but you never know.”
Renda said that he plans to keep the gear on the couch in the living room of his Upper East Side apartment. When he is out of the apartment, he said, he will take one of the masks with him.
Renda said that he searched all over town for masks for weeks to no avail until he learned about Spy Tech earlier this week.
He is philosophical about the more than $600 he spent. “If you don’t use them, fine,” he said. “Twenty years down the line, hand them to your kids and say: ‘This is what 1991 was all about.”’
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3c8177982408d34ea470327829aabfc8
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-25-mn-773-story.html
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$825,000 Proposed for Union Activist Injured by Police
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$825,000 Proposed for Union Activist Injured by Police
Dolores Huerta, the labor leader critically injured by baton-swinging police officers during a 1988 protest, will receive $825,000 if a record settlement is approved by city officials.
The San Francisco Police Commission’s settlement offer would be the largest police misconduct settlement ever in the city, if approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Art Agnos.
Huerta, a 61-year-old United Farm Workers vice president, joined six others in filing a $24-million civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco after they were injured during the protest. The proposed settlement would affect only Huerta’s claim.
The case stems from a rally outside a San Francisco hotel, where Huerta joined others to protest then-Vice President George Bush’s opposition to the UFW’s grape boycott.
Huerta, about five feet tall and 100 pounds, was caught in a crowd as a line of officers advanced, thrusting batons to clear the crowd. She suffered six broken ribs, a pulverized spleen and required more than a dozen blood transfusions.
The lawsuit alleged that the city has “tolerated and permitted a pattern of abuse by the San Francisco police, and has failed to discipline the officers involved or provide appropriate training or supervision.”
Since then, the police force has changed its rules regarding police discipline and crowd control methods.
The Huerta case prompted three internal police investigations, three criminal grand jury inquiries, three supervisors’ hearings and three probes by the Office of Citizen Complaints, the city’s civilian police watchdog group.
Two shake-ups of police brass also resulted.
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ab44064c9dff4f3e12dca7d5ed8dcf29
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-26-mn-704-story.html
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Largest Cities Reflect Shift to West, 1990 Census Finds : Population: Los Angeles beats out Chicago as No. 2 in U.S. California lists 18 of 29 places reaching 100,000.
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Largest Cities Reflect Shift to West, 1990 Census Finds : Population: Los Angeles beats out Chicago as No. 2 in U.S. California lists 18 of 29 places reaching 100,000.
Six of the nation’s 10 largest cities are now west of the Mississippi River, and most of the 29 cities to reach a population of 100,000 in the last decade are California suburbs, according to final 1990 census data released Friday.
With the news that the country’s westward shift has enlarged the suburbs and shuffled the roster of major cities, the Census Bureau also confirmed for the first time that Los Angeles--up half a million people since 1980, to nearly 3.5 million--is the nation’s second-largest city.
Chicago, which had been No. 2, was among several cities in the East and Midwest to slip in population. Chicago dropped below 3 million people for the first time since the 1930 census, and in the past 40 years it has lost 837,000 people--23% of its populace.
New York, meanwhile, remained No. 1 and grew by a quarter-million people to 7.3 million, reversing a decline that began in the 1970s.
The trend toward population loss plagued many older cities in the East and Midwest in the 1980s, but not in California and the rest of the Sun Belt West.
Houston edged past Philadelphia to become the fourth-largest city. San Diego jumped to sixth place in this census, ahead of Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio. Baltimore, which had been in 10th place, slipped off the list.
Friday’s figures are the last in a series of three initial reports on the 1990 census. Details on ethnic minorities, education and other facets of the population will come later. The populations of the states were announced earlier and they showed that California would gain seven seats in Congress, which would make it the first state to have more than 50 elected representatives.
The figures released this week normally would have been considered final, but this year’s results await a ruling on lawsuits filed by a number of large cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The suits allege that the Census Bureau fails to count many individuals, especially the poor and members of minority groups who may be wary of participating in government surveys.
Critics have urged the Department of Commerce, which oversees the census, to make statistical adjustments to compensate for errors in the count. Yet some demographers doubt that such adjustments would make the census more accurate.
In Friday’s numbers, the fastest-growing American city of 100,000 or more is Mesa, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix that swelled by 89% in the 1980s. In California, 42 smaller towns and cities saw faster growth in the decade, and 18 places here crossed the 100,000 threshold to rank as medium-sized American cities.
At the end of the decade, 195 American cities were home to more than 100,000 people, a list that now includes suburbs such as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Santa Rosa that may not be familiar names outside California.
Most of the new cities do not resemble the traditional cities of the past. There is usually no Main Street, but almost invariably a freeway at the heart of the city. Sometimes there are no department stores or shopping malls, and often no ethnic minority neighborhoods.
Some of the cities are so new that they were not incorporated before the 1980 census.
Santa Clarita, one of the new 100,000-person cities, was a collection of unconnected subdivisions in the canyons north of Los Angeles in the last census. Moreno Valley, another example, was a mostly empty piece of desert east of Riverside.
These suburbs had the most spectacular population rise, but the census figures show that growth in California in the 1980s was a widespread phenomenon, altering the inland deserts and Sierra foothills along with the San Joaquin Valley and the older cities.
Every county in the state gained population in the 1980s. Riverside County, which grew by 76%, was the fastest-growing, followed by its Inland Empire neighbor, San Bernardino County, which grew by 58%.
The next 15 counties in growth ranking were north of the Tehachapi Mountains that commonly divide Southern California from the rest of the state. Amador County, in the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento, was the fastest-growing Northern California county.
The state has eight counties with a population of more than 1 million, compared to five counties in the last census. Southern California has five: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside.
Also, nearly all of the 456 cities in California grew in some measure during the 1980s. Three dozen of them more than doubled in size, led by Temecula and Palmdale.
The new data also confirms that San Jose, once a farming outpost, has surpassed San Francisco to become the largest city in Northern California and the third most populous in the state, behind Los Angeles and San Diego.
Only 38 cities in California lost population, and most were either small and isolated communities--such as Point Arena and Trinidad on the North Coast--or pockets of affluence where the population is older and fewer children are being born. Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes Estates and San Marino are examples of affluent cities in which the population dropped. Berkeley and Santa Monica were the largest cities to experience drops in population.
The pattern of suburban sprawl and of small towns and nondescript suburbs exploding into full-fledged cities--which have come to characterize California--is also evident in other parts of the country.
Four of the new mid-sized cities are in Texas. Laredo, on the Mexico border, reflects the huge influx of Latino immigrants into the United States during the past decade. Two others, Mesquite and Plano, are suburbs of Dallas. The fourth is Abilene.
Two of the new mid-sized cities--Scottsdale and Glendale--are suburbs of Phoenix. Two other new members of the 100,000-plus club are state capitals: Salem, Ore., and Tallahassee, Fla. Overland Park, Kan., is a suburb of Kansas City.
Lowell, Mass., which until World War II was a thriving industrial metropolis with a population well above 100,000, had slowly declined over the decades. But it has experienced a recent resurgence thanks to a thriving new high-tech computer industry and has gone over 100,000 again.
Prosperity brought about by computer business has had similar effects on other parts of the country. For instance, Durham, N.C., where there is a growing computer-research industry, has grown by more than 35% in the past decade, and neighboring Raleigh has grown by nearly 39%.
Most cities and towns that grew rapidly in the last decade are in thriving industrial areas, or are near large cities, or have liberal annexation laws that allow them to expand their boundaries as their populations grow, said Richard Forstall, chief of the Census Bureau’s population distribution branch.
“These have been characteristics of California and the West. They have certainly not been characteristic of the Northeast,” Forstall said.
Since 1980, five cities fell from the 100,000-population list. Roanoke, Va., and Columbia, S.C., both had declining populations, but only within the city limits, not in adjoining suburbs. Youngstown, Ohio, and Pueblo, Colo., have been plagued by dying steel industries. “And Davenport (Iowa) has had a little mixture of everything,” Forstall said.
Even in cities that experienced tremendous growth, there was sharp criticism of this week’s figures.
“We still believe many residents were not counted,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradly said in a statement. “This undercount could mean the loss of millions of state and federal dollars needed to adequately provide services to those most in need. Ironically, these are some of the same people most likely to have been missed in the census count.”
New York officials were pleased that the city’s count did not fall as short as they feared. New York’s gain of 3.5% was higher than in early projections, and reversed a loss of more than 800,000 in the previous decade.
Detroit also got relatively good news from the census this week. The city has lost 14.6% of its population, less than first believed, and thus will not drop below 1 million and lose various forms of federal assistance.
Nonetheless, officials from these cities, along with many others around the country, continued this week to criticize the 1990 census for missing too many of the country’s residents. Overall, the bureau found that there were 248.7 million living in the United States at the end of 1990. Last October, the bureau had projected it would find 253 million, a gap of 4.7 million.
There were 226.5 million people counted in the 1980 census.
AMERICA’S 10 LARGEST CITIES
1990 Percentage 1980 Rank City 1980 1990 Change Rank 1 New York 7,071,639 7,322,564 3.5 1 2 Los Angeles 2,968,528 3,485,398 17.4 3 3 Chicago 3,005,072 2,783,726 -7.4 2 4 Houston 1,595,138 1,639,553 2.2 5 5 Philadelphia 1,688,210 1,585,577 -6.1 4 6 San Diego 875,538 1,110,549 26.8 8 7 Detroit 1,203,368 1,027,974 -14.6 6 8 Dallas 904,599 1,006,877 11.3 7 9 Phoenix 789,704 983,403 24.5 9 10 San Antonio 783,940 935,933 19.1 11
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Times director of computer analysis Richard O’Reilly contributed to this story.
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b22d894202c492f19aed96719570cd00
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-26-mn-709-story.html
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Patriots Shoot Down 6 of 7 Scuds Over Israel : Iraqi attacks: Israel holds off on any retaliation. Saudis suffer their first fatality from missiles.
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Patriots Shoot Down 6 of 7 Scuds Over Israel : Iraqi attacks: Israel holds off on any retaliation. Saudis suffer their first fatality from missiles.
Iraq fired a rain of seven Scud missiles into Israel on Friday, and one crashed into a house in Tel Aviv, killing a neighbor next door. But Israel refrained from retaliating, despite complaints that allied Scud-killing in Iraq has been too slow.
A barrage of Patriot interceptors blew apart the other six Iraqi Scuds in the air, scattering debris over greater Tel Aviv and near Haifa. Shutters shattered, windows broke and shingles fell on city streets. None of the Scuds carried poison gas. But 66 Israelis were injured, authorities said--most of them slightly.
At about the same time, Iraq fired another four Scuds into Saudi Arabia. One destroyed a wing of a building near downtown Riyadh. Witnesses said the missile hit with a bright orange flash. One person was killed and another 30 were injured, Interior Ministry officials said. The death was Saudi Arabia’s first Scud fatality.
Two of the other three missiles fired into Saudi Arabia were destroyed by Patriots. One exploded in the air over Riyadh. The other was intercepted over the Dammam-Dhahran area on the Persian Gulf coast. The fourth missile also was aimed at the Dammam-Dhahran area, but witnesses said it apparently went astray.
As the missiles flew, round-the-clock assaults by allied warplanes “hit heavily” at Iraq’s defensive line in Kuwait, allied military officials said. Maj. Gen. Robert B. Johnston, chief of staff of the U.S. Central Command, cited evidence that the bombing is affecting Iraqi supply lines.
He said allied forces had taken prisoners and encountered defectors who were eating one meal a day and were covered with lice.
There were these additional developments:
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said in Washington that he would not be surprised to learn that President Saddam Hussein’s troops had suffered as many as 10,000 casualties, “given the effort we have mounted against his (Republican) Guard.”
Hussein had his top air force and air-defense commanders shot because of heavy losses, Soviet Defense Ministry sources told an independent Moscow news agency. The Iraqi Embassy in Moscow denied the report. Soviet and U.S. defense officials said they could neither confirm nor deny it.
President Bush told reporters at the White House that he would not alter his activities to avoid terrorist threats. He said he would deliver his State of the Union address next Tuesday as scheduled. The President said: “I am not going to be held a captive in the White House by Saddam Hussein.”
The Scud attack on Israel, the heaviest since last Friday, came only hours after disclosure that Germany had offered to provide Israel with more Patriot interceptors. David Levy, the Israeli foreign minister, would not say whether Israel would accept them. To man the Patriots, Israel also would have to import crews.
Inviting German troops to Israeli soil in order to operate the missiles presents an emotional problem because survivors of the Holocaust, the Nazi slaughter of millions of Jews, might not welcome a German troop presence.
The Scud attack also came as the United States was rushing more Patriots to Israel. The Israeli army said the U.S. missiles would be operational “in a short time.”
The Israeli army would not say how many Patriots it had received.
The Bush Administration has pressured Israel to stay out of the war for fear that an attack on Iraq by the Jewish state would undermine Washington’s anti-Iraq alliance with Arab states. But restraint was eating into Israeli patience. Four Israeli deaths so far have been linked to Iraqi Scud attacks. Almost 200 Israelis, mostly in Tel Aviv, have been injured.
Iraq has launched 20 missiles into Israel’s populous coastal region--nine of them since the United States sent in an initial complement of Patriots. The Patriots have knocked down seven of those nine before they could strike.
While they acknowledged the value of the Patriots, Israeli military men mounted complaints that the U.S. Air Force was not destroying Scud launchers on the ground in Iraq quickly enough. In apparent answer to those complaints, Dan Shomron, the Israeli army chief of staff, cautioned: “Anyone who thinks that Israel would do a quick job and finish it (the threat of the Iraqi Scuds) is mistaken.”
Despite the new Scud attacks, Shomron said, the situation does not warrant immediate retaliation.
“And as far as we can discern, the (allied) goals are not just to remove the Iraqi army from Kuwait . . . (but) are to destroy the Iraqi war machine--which from our point of view is of supreme importance in the long term.”
Tel Aviv Damage
As he spoke, witnesses in the middle-class Tel Aviv neighborhood struck by the latest Iraqi attack said one house took the hit directly. It was flattened into a pile of concrete, they said, and clothing, closets and furniture were blasted into the yard. They said that trees were toppled and scorched and windows broken for blocks around.
The death occurred not in that house, where occupants hid in a specially made shelter, the witnesses said, but in a house next door, where an entire wall collapsed, exposing both the ground and upper floor.
“Papa, Papa!” a woman yelled as she approached the partially demolished house.
As she came upon a group of television cameraman shooting pictures, she cried, “Get away! This is my house. I don’t want anyone walking through it.”
On the other side of the flattened structure, Shimon Zagorsky surveyed the wreckage of a home he had just renovated.
“We never thought the missiles would get this close,” he said.
Windows were blown out of his house, and furniture was in a jumble, but Zagorsky, his wife, two daughters and their husbands survived. They were inside a ground-floor shelter protected by a steel door.
“I guess I will have to patch the house together and wait for the Americans to hit (the Iraqis) harder,” he said.
Like many of the newly homeless, Zagorsky said he would go live with relatives.
It was the second week in a row, several Israelis noted, that President Saddam Hussein had chosen to target them on the Jewish Sabbath.
Attack on Riyadh
In the two attacks on Saudi Arabia, the missiles aimed at Riyadh fell within four hours of the assault on Tel Aviv. Those aimed at Dammam-Dhahran came early today. All carried conventional warheads.
Of the two aimed at Riyadh, one snaked through the sky pursued by a Patriot until the Scud smashed into a six-story government building. An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the person who died in the attack was a Saudi man. The ministry official offered no identification.
But he said the 30 injured included 19 Saudis and 11 foreigners: five Egyptians, two Jordanians, one Sudanese woman and three people from Bangladesh.
Several journalists at the scene of the missile strike had film and videotape confiscated.
French television crews scuffled with police. Witnesses said at least two TV crews and a handful of others were detained.
The Scud that hit Riyadh was the 10th launched against the city since Monday.
The U.S. military command said before the new attacks against Saudi Arabia that Iraq had fired 35 of its long-range Scud missiles since the war began--22 into Saudi Arabia and 13 at targets in Israel.
Iraqi Casualties
On the ground, U.S. military officials said, Iraq appeared to be showing signs of damage and casualties.
Defense Secretary Cheney, in his broadcast interview Friday, declared that “I wouldn’t be surprised” if the Iraqis had suffered 10,000 bombing casualties, as some unconfirmed reports have suggested. But he declined to estimate how long the war will last.
Some estimates have ranged up to a year, but Cheney said: “I am inclined to think it will be shorter rather than longer.”
Cheney said the allied coalition against Iraq will not be provoked into a premature ground attack, even though “we are perfectly prepared (to take) ground action.”
It would be foolish, the defense secretary said, “to embark on that course sooner than we have to.”
Baghdad Radio, meanwhile, claimed that Iraq had shot down 14 more allied aircraft. But military commanders said no jets were lost Friday.
So far the allies have reported 22 planes lost--18 in combat--with 26 persons missing in action, including 13 Americans, 10 Britons, two Italians and one Kuwaiti.
The Pentagon has confirmed 43 Iraqi aircraft lost.
Executions in Iraq?
Whatever Iraqi casualties might be, the independent Soviet news agency Interfax reported that they were too heavy for Hussein--and that he had ordered the execution two or three days ago of the commanders of his Iraqi air force and antiaircraft defense system.
Interfax attributed the information to a high-ranking Soviet Defense Ministry official.
It said that Iraq had 100 Scud missile installations--and had suffered the loss of 26 of them.
The report put Iraq’s aircraft losses at about 300 out of an air force of about 750.
There was no independent confirmation of such losses, but an Interfax editor stood by the report. He said the agency had confirmation of the executions “from several sources,” but he did not identify them.
Because it was Iraq’s largest supplier of weapons before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Soviet Union has had access in the past to information about Iraq that has not been generally available. And it still has a functioning embassy in Baghdad.
Asked about the reported executions, Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon that he did not know about them.
But, Kelly added, “He (Hussein) does have a fairly dramatic zero-defect program.”
Bush on Terrorism
At his White House meeting with reporters, Bush said his refusal to change his activities in the face of terrorism should be seen as an example.
“We’re going about our business, and the world goes on,” the President said.
Recalling that he had been asked several days back about whether the Super Bowl football game should be played Sunday, he said: “One, the war is a serious business and the nation is focused on it. But two, life goes on. . . .
“The boys and men and women in the gulf--they want to see this game go on, and they’re going to get great instant replays over there. . . .
“We are not going to screech everything to a halt in terms of our domestic agenda; we’re not going to screech everything to a halt in terms of the recreational activities--and I cite the Super Bowl. And I am not going to screech my life to a halt out of some fear about Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “And I think that’s a good, clear signal for all Americans to send halfway around the world.”
As for the security concerns of assembling the leadership of the nation--the President, the vice president, the Cabinet, the House of Representatives and the Senate in one place at the same time for his State of the Union speech at the Capitol--Bush said:
“I will have total confidence in the security apparatus in this country.”
Filling the War Chest
As the war ground through the second day of its second week, the exiled government of Kuwait announced that it will contribute $13.5 billion during the first three months of this year to help pay for it.
With Secretary of State James A. Baker III at his side, Sheik Saud Nasir al Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, said in Washington that the Kuwaiti cash represents “a small and insignificant contribution” by comparison to the potential contribution in American blood.
At an estimated $500 million a day, the war is expected to cost the allies just under $45 billion by the end of March.
Coupled with Japan’s pledge of $9 billion, announced Thursday, the Kuwaiti money brings to $22.5 billion the total pledged so far for January, February and March--already enough to cover about half of the cost of the allied military operation.
In Bonn, German officials said their contribution so far had risen from $2.2 billion to $3.5 billion in recent weeks. The increase includes $165 million in immediate humanitarian aid pledged to Israel early this week by Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Williams reported from Tel Aviv and Kennedy from Riyadh. Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Melissa Healy and Norman Kempster in Washington and Tyler Marshall in Bonn contributed to this story.
ISRAEL UNDER FIRE
One person was killed and about 60 injured as Iraq fired seven more Scud missiles into Israel in the fifth such attack in eight days.
The Scuds, armed with conventional warheads, were hit or damaged by the U.S. Patriot defense system, but one made it through to Tel Aviv.
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6eaa5f639695f42b0e6a924678634481
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-28-me-3-story.html
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Israel’s Gas-Mask Distribution Problem
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Israel’s Gas-Mask Distribution Problem
Iraq’s unprovoked attacks on Israel have so far involved Scud missiles armed with conventional high-explosive warheads. But neither the Israeli government nor anyone else familiar with Saddam Hussein’s contempt for civilized norms of behavior is ruling out the possibility of attacks with chemical weapons. It may be that the only thing that has prevented him from using such weapons so far is the lack of a feasible delivery system. Most Western experts think that Iraq doesn’t yet have the technology for putting warheads armed with poison gas or nerve agents aboard Scuds. It can carry such weapons on its bombers, but Israel’s formidable air force and anti-aircraft missile defenses can probably easily handle that threat.
Beginning several weeks ago, the Israeli government prudently began distributing gas-mask kits to its populace. But not all who live under Jerusalem’s authority have received these kits. More than 1 million Arab residents of the occupied territories are still without them. Recently Israel’s supreme court ordered expedited distribution of free gas-mask kits to the Palestinians. Was the earlier failure to make that distribution evidence of callous official disregard for Palestinian safety, as some have been quick to charge? The issue is by no means that simple.
Gas-mask distribution throughout Israel was calculated according to estimates--based in part on Saddam Hussein’s own prewar threats--of where the threat to the population was greatest. First call was given to the Tel Aviv-Haifa coastal area, with its heavy and largely Jewish population density, as well as to Jerusalem, the second-largest city. Smaller urban areas were next given priority, followed by rural areas in Israel proper and finally the occupied territories. Experience has shown the soundness of this ranking. It is Israel’s citizens who are most at threat from Iraq’s outlawed weapons, not the Palestinians in the West Bank, who are Saddam’s partisans.
Israel manufactures gas-mask kits, but demand has outrun supply. Kits are being imported, but with every member of the armed forces assigned to the anti-Iraq coalition requiring a kit as well as millions of civilians in Saudi Arabia, manufacturing capacity has been strained. There have been reports, for example, that the Saudis have withheld the kits from those Arab workers in the country who are not Saudi citizens.
Nonetheless, as Israel’s supreme court has recognized, the government has a responsibility to the Arabs living under its authority. Efforts should be stepped up to buy and distribute gas-mask kits to this population. Perhaps the Arab oil producing states that used to contribute so generously to the Palestine Liberation Organization, now Iraq’s ally, will want to help pay for that effort.
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6081395b46a8ae4e5804118e1054999d
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-03-mn-851-story.html
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A Few Tricks of the Trade Help Teachers Sell Physics : Education: Professor’s light-hearted stunts help explain scientific principles.
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A Few Tricks of the Trade Help Teachers Sell Physics : Education: Professor’s light-hearted stunts help explain scientific principles.
Wearing a hat that says “Physics Coach,” Bob Ehrlich hammers a stake against his chest, spins a hula hoop, and blows a quarter into a cup, all to show that, gee whiz, physics can be fun.
Ehrlich is a physics professor at George Mason University and author of “Turning the World Inside Out and 174 Other Simple Physics Demonstrations.” He taught a class to 15 high school physics teachers recently to show them easy and inexpensive ways to make physics easy to learn.
Hammering the steel stake against his chest without flinching demonstrates the relationship between mass and inertia. “This gets across the concept of mass,” Ehrlich said. “The bigger something’s mass is, the more it resists.”
Ehrlich puts steel weights on two opposite points on a hula hoop to show that when an object is rotated, its resistance to having its motion change depends on both its mass and how far from the rotation axis the mass is located. When he holds the hula hoop so that the weights are under his hand at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, the hoop rotates easily from side to side. When he holds it so that the weights are at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, the hula hoop is hard to move.
He said he can win bar bets by blowing over a quarter and getting it to jump into a cup. The high speed air flow over the quarter creates a partial vacuum and sucks the quarter into the air stream.
But Ehrlich isn’t doing tricks just for fun. He said the same effect accounts for lift on an airplane wing.
“You can show these as a ‘gee whiz’ kind of thing to get people interested in physics or as a result of mathematical calculations,” Ehrlich said. For example, a student could do a calculation to show how fast someone would have to blow to make the quarter jump in the cup, he said.
“This is the kind of thing teachers like to use to help illustrate principles of physics in their classes,” he said.
“I can essentially develop things a company would sell for $500 or $1,000" and “show a teacher how to make it for a couple of dollars,” he said.
William Entley, a physics teacher at James Madison High School in Vienna, Va., has used several of the demonstrations with his students.
Judy Ng, another James Madison physics teacher, took Ehrlich’s course last summer.
“Half the session, we the teachers acted like students. We actually did the experiments. On top of that, we had a chance to talk. We were able to exchange ideas,” she said.
Ng and Entley originally were chemistry teachers. Ehrlich said that was one reason for his seminars--to help teachers who may have studied different subjects in college.
“There is very definitely a shortage of qualified physics teachers,” he said. “Whatever students graduate with a degree in physics, almost all of them find they can do better getting a job in industry rather than teaching.”
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4a4a6a6b1d6691ba636e206411df4b9d
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-03-mn-917-story.html
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American Support Grows for Use of Nuclear Arms : Weapons: Heavy U.S. losses could boost pressure on Bush. Opponents warn of a wide backlash.
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American Support Grows for Use of Nuclear Arms : Weapons: Heavy U.S. losses could boost pressure on Bush. Opponents warn of a wide backlash.
Should the United States use nuclear weapons in the Persian Gulf War?
Although the Bush Administration says it has no plans to do so, the possibility remains very real for many Americans.
New Gallup polls last week found 45% of Americans would favor the use of nuclear weapons “if it might save the lives of U.S. troops.” Three weeks earlier, before the war began, only about half that proportion--24%--favored using nuclear weapons. About 72% were opposed.
The message is clear: If American losses were to mount into the thousands, and Iraq were to use chemical or nuclear weapons, President Bush would come under pressure to drop a nuclear bomb on Baghdad--or use smaller, tactical nuclear weapons--to save lives and shorten the war.
Increasing numbers of conservatives have been pushing that approach.
Former Texas Gov. John B. Connally, who fears that U.S. casualties in the Persian Gulf eventually could top 50,000, believes the United States should use nuclear weapons to shorten the war. “That’s a cruel thing to say, but that’s the most merciful thing to say,” he said.
And Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, an infantry veteran of three wars, recommended similar action in a recent article in Army Magazine.
“Tactical nuclear weapons--short-range, low-yield weapons--have a battlefield utility unmatched by any other form of firepower,” he wrote. “Employment is not an automatic trigger for an international nuclear holocaust.”
To some, a bold and decisive move is tempting. Advocates cite the 1945 decision of then-President Harry S. Truman to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saving hundreds of thousands of American lives that probably would have been lost had Japan been invaded. Japan surrendered four days after the first atomic explosion.
And for years--indeed, virtually throughout the Cold War--the United States was prepared to use nuclear weapons against Soviet troops if Moscow launched an attack against Western Europe. So, some reason, why not against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a Middle East desert if the war drags out?
But opponents of using nuclear weapons argue that the issue is far more complex.
If Washington were to use nuclear weapons in the Gulf, they argue, it would shatter the nuclear taboo that has existed since the A-bombs were dropped on Japan--and most likely spark a worldwide backlash that could make the United States a global villain for generations to come.
Countries that already have nuclear weapons would place those weapons on higher alert status, increasing the risk of accidental use and heightening the danger that their deliberate use would be easier in times of crisis.
The U.S. action also might start a global nuclear-arms race as smaller nations undertook crash efforts to build--or steal--nuclear weapons as protection, accelerating nuclear proliferation and substantially increasing the danger of nuclear conflicts among have-not nations.
“The enormous political costs--domestic and international--would far exceed the benefits,” said Harvard University professor Joseph Nye Jr., an expert on international relations and science.
Bruce Blair, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C, agreed. “The loss to our long-term security would vastly outweigh the short-term gain,” he said.
There are practical as well as academic reasons against U.S. use of nuclear weapons in the Persian Gulf.
Since 1978, it has been U.S. policy not to use nuclear weapons against any country that does not have them and has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to prevent the spread of the weapons. Since Iraq is such a country, it technically is off limits.
Iraq’s nuclear reactor has enough enriched uranium fuel to fashion a crude nuclear device in about six months. Hussein has threatened to use nuclear as well as chemical weapons against Israel.
Former President Jimmy Carter told an Emory University audience last week that “it would be one of the most stupid things that anyone ever did: to drop one atomic bomb--and not have any more--on a country like Israel that has 85 atomic weapons, or on the United States, which has 8,000 (tactical) atomic weapons.”
Israel is believed to have enough material to fabricate about 100 nuclear weapons within days.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, in a television interview Saturday, said Hussein may have been deterred from launching chemical weapons toward Israel by the possibility that Israel would retaliate with “unconventional weapons.”
“I assume he knows that if he were to resort to chemical weapons,” Cheney said, “that would be an escalation to weapons of mass destruction and that the possibility would then exist, certainly with respect to the Israelis, for example, that they might retaliate with unconventional weapons as well.”
Although Cheney did not specify nuclear weapons, that was his clear implication. “I have no idea” whether Israel would use tactical nuclear weapons, Cheney continued. “That’s a decision that the Israelis would have to make, but I would think that he (Hussein) has to be cautious in terms of how he proceeds in his attacks against Israel.”
Cheney was later asked whether the United States would use nuclear weapons in the war against Iraq.
“We don’t rule options in or out. . . . We’ve got a wide spectrum of capabilities. The President decides how we respond to various and sundry events, and we don’t speculate.”
Although U.S. forces have no nuclear weapons in Saudi Arabia, the United States has about 1,000 nuclear bombs and warheads in the region, according to Greenpeace. Most of them are aboard ships, but an estimated 300 bombs and artillery shells are stored in Turkey.
Vice President Dan Quayle, interviewed by CNN, said Saturday he could not imagine that President Bush would order the use of chemical or nuclear weapons against Iraq “under any circumstance,” even in response to Iraq’s use of unconventional weapons.
“You never rule any options out,” Quayle said. “But I can’t imagine (Bush) doing it. . . . “
Asked to explain why the U.S. use of chemical or nuclear weapons is so implausible, Quayle responded: “political cost, moral cost and the fact that you have the conventional superiority and the conventional capability to do the job.”
In an earlier statement, however, Cheney struck a slightly harder note, warning that “were Saddam Hussein foolish enough to use weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. response would be absolutely overwhelming and it would be devastating.”
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. forces in Operation Desert Storm, was even more blunt: “If Saddam Hussein chooses to use weapons of mass destruction, then the rules of this campaign will probably change--and I think that’s as it should be,” he said last week.
There are several ways in which the United States might use nuclear weapons:
* It could detonate a nuclear weapon as a warning if Iraq used chemical weapons. Such a move would signal U.S. willingness to escalate the conflict radically unless such attacks stopped. Allied war plans in Europe in recent years have called for such a nuclear “demonstration” blast if a Soviet conventional invasion threatened to overwhelm NATO defenses, or if the Soviets used chemical or nuclear weapons.
* Washington could launch a strategic nuclear strike on Baghdad designed to wipe out Saddam Hussein and his aides in an effort to end the war more quickly and decimate the country’s ability to continue the war.
U.S. forces could use tactical nuclear bombs and artillery on key Iraqi ground targets, such as division headquarters and troop concentrations. At least 100 such targets have been identified, U.S. officials say.
However, critics contend that such actions would be out of proportion to the danger posed by the use of chemical weapons by Iraq. U.S. troops using protective gear would be only marginally affected by poison gas attacks, according to Harvard’s Nye.
And opponents argue that a strategic nuclear strike on Baghdad might not end the war but probably would split the coalition, driving out the Arab members and sparking fierce terrorist attacks.
As for targeting Iraqi military headquarters and troop concentrations, University of Maryland Prof. Catherine M. Kelleher, a specialist in deployment of tactical weapons, doubts the value of using nuclear weapons even in the sparsely populated desert.
To Kelleher and some other analysts, the day of the tactical nuclear weapon is virtually over. Most are being withdrawn from Europe, both because of the Soviet pullout and because after 35 years of debate, they are seen as virtually useless.
“The ‘culture’ is different now,” Kelleher said. “Their symbolic value against the Soviets has gone,” and many military strategists believe that nuclear weapons “would end up hurting your own forces more than conventional munitions,” she said.
“Unless you go to a neutron weapon, you can’t do much to limit the secondary effects of radiation and fallout, which makes it unsafe for your own troops,” she added.
“It’s like poison gas--you can’t control the way the wind will blow it. That’s why chemical weapons aren’t useful--not because of big moral reasons.”
Indeed, even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been backing away from the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
“If we’ve arrived at this point for Europe, why would using nuclear weapons be justifiable in the Persian Gulf?” Kelleher asked. “Is there to be one rule for the Western world and one for the Third World?
“I don’t think President Bush will want to begin his ‘new world order’ by using nuclear weapons for the first time since Hiroshima on Arabs,” she said.
Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists like Greenpeace’s William M. Arkin want the Administration to declare publicly now that it will not use nuclear weapons in the Persian Gulf so that Saddam Hussein cannot argue that he is being threatened by them.
But the Administration maintains that an unequivocal statement would diminish the deterrent effect of the weapons’ presence.
“We have never forsworn nuclear use in the past,” one official explained, “and if we did so now, we’d lock ourselves into making the same statement in every future crisis.”
Times staff writers Melissa Healy and John Broder contributed to this article.
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c6ad5876fdbe9e75d18ed58e9af35883
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-05-mn-564-story.html
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Refugees From Iraq Describe Hellish Scenes
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Refugees From Iraq Describe Hellish Scenes
The massive allied bombardment of the Iraqi city of Basra has demolished every communications center in that strategic southern city, all major oil refineries, most government buildings, some civilian neighborhoods and hundreds of ammunition depots and food warehouses, according to eyewitnesses.
The result: a hellish nightmare of fires and smoke so dense that the witnesses say the sun hasn’t been clearly visible for several days at a time.
In the besieged capital of Baghdad, witnesses say, air strikes continue to hit military targets, often for the second and third time, smashing key installations, destroying warehouses full of everything from medicine to the machinery of war--but also leveling some entire city blocks in civilian neighborhoods.
The result: bomb craters the size of football fields and an untold number of casualties.
Throughout war-torn Iraq, there is little water to drink, no civilian communications, intermittent power only from portable generators and a transportation network that has been chopped to bits by air attacks on bridges, highways and virtually every airfield. For drinking, residents are collecting rainwater from ponds and bomb craters and filtering it through shreds of cloth.
These are the images of the human and structural damage inflicted by the most massive aerial bombardment of a nation since the U.S. carpet-bombing raids on North Vietnam more than two decades ago. They are based on interviews with dozens of impartial eyewitnesses who have fled to Jordan from Basra, Baghdad and Kuwait during the last week.
These accounts, backed by hours of videotape footage carried from Baghdad to Amman, confirm Iraqi claims that the allied bombing has taken a heavy toll on civilian neighborhoods in Iraq’s major towns and cities.
But equally, the witnesses confirm what Iraq’s government censors refuse to show or permit to be reported by the two dozen Western journalists remaining in Baghdad: that virtually every key military site in and around the Iraqi capital has been leveled.
Iraq has claimed fewer than 350 civilian dead and 400 injured. There is no credible number available but, with the allies putting the number of aerial missions at more than 44,000, even some allied speculation has put the toll higher.
In the videotapes are dozens of images of civilian casualties: limbs protruding from piles of residential rubble, dolls strewn atop twisted furniture in what clearly were once homes; bloodied civilians with shrapnel wounds being rushed into hospital emergency rooms; blanket-covered corpses on sidewalks; crumpled swing sets in battered playgrounds.
What the videotapes and eyewitnesses cannot specify is how all the casualties that these images suggest were caused: by allied ordnance, or “smart” weapons knocked off-target by Iraqi antiaircraft fire, or even shrapnel from that fire. Allied military spokesmen say repeatedly that they do not target civilian structures, but they also say they do not doubt that there have been civilian casualties.
Typical of the eyewitness accounts of the devastation of Basra, the main supply and command center for an estimated Iraqi 220,000 ground troops in occupied Kuwait, is that of Anil Kumar Bansal, an Indian civil engineer who fled the war-ravaged city four days ago.
Before he left, Bansal recalled, allied forces bombed the city for more than a week, the raids coming every 15 minutes, around the clock.
“I have seen so many bombs dropping with my own eyes,” he said. “Stones and smoke were going up like the blasting of a volcano. They have totally demolished communications centers, all refineries, all important buildings. They’re now attacking mainly sheds, big warehouse sheds, some with food grains, some ammunition. Ammunition, I know, because continuously for two hours after the bombs, small explosions are going on.
“Now, Basra is fully under clouds of smoke. Since the last three or four days, we have not seen sunshine, no sunshine there, only clouds of smoke and, all around, refineries are on fire.”
Bansal and other Asian refugees fleeing the embattled city, among them more than 150 contract workers from the North Indian state of Punjab who were living in a construction camp in Basra, said they saw extensive bombing of civilian as well as military areas of the city.
“I have seen with my eyes at least 25 dead bodies,” Bansal said. “After bombing, they were moving this debris with shovels. . . . . While (doing so), they see dead bodies--some legs, some heads. They remove those things.”
The witnesses say, however, that there are warehouses situated in heavily populated residential districts and note that the Iraqis have not separated military and civilian warehouses. And most of them expressed the judgment that allied air power cannot destroy Iraq’s military supply lines without cutting supplies to civilians as well.
Asked how long the residents of Basra can hold out against such bombardment, Bansal concluded: "(The) maximum they can withstand it is for three or four days, because whatever foodstuffs they are having, it will be finished in three to four days.
“Almost 50% of people inside Basra city have run away for safer places,” he said.
Others, he added, had come to him begging for food.
“Many young people came and asked for one small bit of of bread. They were totally hungry for the last two days--no food, no water, nothing. People are drinking this worst water they have ever drunk. They’re collecting rainwater from ponds and filtering it with cloth.”
Mukesh Kumar, 26, who left Basra independently of Bansal and arrived a day earlier at the Jordanian border, also reported that the “water supply and electricity are closed, finished.”
“They’re bombing in the city, every night and every day. The situation is very bad. The main targets are the refinery and communications, but there’s too much damage,” Kumar said. “It is very frightening. The roads and highways are also destroyed. Bridges are gone. It’s time to go.”
Other Indians who left Basra during the past week echoed those words.
A. K. Nayak, a native of New Delhi who was working on construction of a “palace” for Saddam Hussein on the banks of Basra’s Shaat al Arab waterway for the past year, said he left because there was no food to be found in the city.
Nayak said his group of 27 Indian builders had hid in basements, living in “complete terror” for days under the massive bombardments and missile assaults.
“The situation is very bad. The war is very bad in Basra,” he said. “The bombing never stops. You can see nothing outside. Only clouds, dust from the bombs, and fire everywhere. It is inside city, outside city, everywhere. It is no place to live. It is a place only to die.”
Still, despite all this, witnesses say the Iraqis in Basra continue to be steadfast, at least on the surface.
“Whatever it is, they’ll bear it,” he said. “They always say just two words--'Fine’ and ‘No problem.’ ”
Similarly, in Baghdad, which has been hit far less massively than Basra, most civilians appear to be coping with the almost unimaginable hardships. As they often did before this war, many Iraqis are recounting with pride how they survived eight years of death and shortages during their country’s 1980-88 war with Iran.
“We had a long experience in our war with Persia, and every person is not afraid from bombing,” said one unidentified doctor in a videotape recorded in Baghdad on Friday. “We say to Bush, we are here. And, if you want to take Kuwait, kill us.”
Clearly, though, the level of destruction is worlds beyond anything Baghdad experienced during the Iran-Iraq War, which touched the Iraqi cities only during occasional long-range missile exchanges between Tehran and Baghdad.
Murali Dharan, an engineer from southern India who had worked for Iraq’s Ministry of Planning for the past year, said he decided to leave for home when the air raids knocked out every means of civilian survival.
“No food,” he said of conditions in Baghdad. “No power, no gas, no taxi, no shop, no telephone, no nothing.
“This is my first and last time to live in the Arabic Gulf. Time to go home.”
The growing evidence of civilian destruction also is taking its toll on the political level throughout the region, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hassan warned Sunday. Each day that the bombardment continues, America’s image and that of its allies is declining throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds, he said.
“There’s a picture of the United States sadly reducing a Third World country, in the name of what? In the name of restoration of Kuwait?” the prince said during an interview Sunday with CBS-TV in Amman.
“It is only natural,” he added, “that after two weeks of massive bombardment of Iraq, bombardment that even the United States would find difficulty in sustaining, the people’s emotions are very clearly expressed not only in Jordan but throughout the Arab world and Islamic world.”
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6d649567125aec7b8fe46709bace0ce2
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-14-mn-1811-story.html
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U.S. Embassy in Bonn Is Sprayed With Bullets by Left-Wing Group : Terrorism: Shots fired across Rhine cause no injuries. A letter links the attack to the war.
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U.S. Embassy in Bonn Is Sprayed With Bullets by Left-Wing Group : Terrorism: Shots fired across Rhine cause no injuries. A letter links the attack to the war.
Left-wing terrorists firing across the Rhine River sprayed the U.S. Embassy with bullets Wednesday night, causing minor damage and no injuries, authorities said.
The Red Army Faction claimed responsibility for the attack and linked it to the Persian Gulf War in a letter found in a plastic bag near a house across the river from the embassy, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
No arrests were made.
Embassy spokesman Neal Walsh confirmed that there were “some bullet holes” and possibly some broken windows in the chancellery building of the waterfront embassy.
German authorities said at least 15 shots hit the embassy and that 60 spent 9-millimeter bullet casings were uncovered near the spot where the letter claiming responsibility was found.
The contents of the letter were not made public, but the prosecutor’s office said it was considered authentic.
Walsh said the embassy had not received any direct threats before the incident but that the diplomats had taken “stringent” security precautions since the onset of the Middle East conflict.
He said damage was on the side of the building “away from” the offices of U.S. Ambassador Vernon A. Walters.
An embassy operator who answered the telephone there an hour after the attack said: “We’re just sitting here in the dark. We’re not allowed to turn any lights on. I’m just glad I’m a smoker so at least I can see by my cigarette.”
Walsh declined to say for security reasons how many people were inside the embassy when the shots rang out. German police blocked off the streets leading up to the compound and stood guard through the snowy night.
Jody Goodman, an American attorney who lives along the river about a mile from the embassy, was feeding her 2-week-old daughter, Julia, when she heard what sounded like a burst of machine-gun fire.
“I thought, ‘What is this? We’re not in a war zone,’ ” she said. “It didn’t really register.”
Ambassador Walters issued a statement saying, “We will not in any way let this disturb the operations of the embassy.”
Chancellor Helmut Kohl telephoned Walters to express regret over the attack, the latest in a 20-year series of terrorist bombings and assassinations by the Red Army guerrillas.
The embassy attack came after a Jordan-based Palestinian fundamentalist group threatened to attack German targets in retaliation for German support of the Gulf War.
The remarks by Sheik Assad Tamimi, leader of the Islamic Jihad-Beit, were published Wednesday by the news magazine Stern.
“The German pilots in Turkey are a target for us, and our holy war will not stop at the borders of Germany,” he was quoted as saying.
“At the moment, our plans are directed at a target in Frankfurt. Of course, I cannot give you details, but I can assure you--perhaps you will hear tomorrow in the morning news how successful our people have been there.”
Frankfurt, in addition to having one of the world’s busiest international airports, has a large American military community, including U.S. military hospitals treating American soldiers wounded in the Gulf.
The last major attack by the Red Army Faction was last July, when a sophisticated remote-control bomb destroyed the car of one of Germany’s top terrorism experts. The intended victim escaped with scratches.
The Red Army Faction waged an assassination and bombing campaign against leading capitalists and Western military targets in the 1970s and early ‘80s, but many of its leaders were arrested.
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5fdc3340b318b80c974484820dfdd6ea
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-14-nc-1556-story.html
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Litterbug! : Answers to Some Trashy Questions About Freeway Littering
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Litterbug! : Answers to Some Trashy Questions About Freeway Littering
North County is a leader in the roadside rubble that is mounting in San Diego. Following are some questions put to the California Department of Transportation about the trash problem and how it’s being tackled.
Which freeway is the trashiest?
“Interstate 5 is far and away our leader in litter, and we’re not entirely sure why,” said Tom Nipper, a spokesman for Caltrans in San Diego. “Most of it is because of the population density in North County, but Interstate 8 has the most volume as far as traffic is concerned, and it is fourth on our list in the amount of litter we collect there. It’s a quarter of what we find on I-5.”
What is the fine for littering? Are litterbugs ever caught?
The fine for littering can be as high as $1,000. In recent years, however, courts have been lax with litterers and usually let them go with a warning.
“It’s very discouraging to us (at Caltrans) considering the amount of money we spend each year to pick up the litter,” Nipper said. “There have been fines levied, but the last I heard from the California Highway Patrol, the trend has been toward being very lenient.”
One recourse motorists have is to call a litter hot line operated by I Love a Clean San Diego. If a motorist sees somebody tossing trash from their car, they can call a toll-free number and report the make and license plate number of the car.
I Love a Clean San Diego will use the information to obtain the name of the car’s owner through the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV will then send a trash bag and a letter to the person, basically stating, “We know who you are, we saw what you did and please control yourself.” The toll-free number to report litterers is 1-800-237-2583.
Who are the freeway litterbugs?
Litterers are not confined to any particular sex, race or social stature. No matter where they are coming from or where they are going, people from all walks of life are leaving a liberal trail of trash, Nipper said.
How much trash was collected last year from North County freeways?
Thumbing through his “Year in Litter Review,” a recently released report with all kinds of trashy statistics, Nipper found that 12,630 cubic yards of litter were removed from North County freeways in 1990. That translates into 88,410 of those orange plastic bags you see piled along the freeway shoulders.
To form a clearer picture, envision the 50 miles these bags can cover if they are lined up side by side, said Nipper. Starting at the Clairemont Drive off-ramp on I-5, the bags would reach the Orange County border.
Who picks up North County’s freeway litter and how much does it cost each year?
About 13,000 people supplied by the San Diego County Probation Department collected trash along North County freeways last year. This work force, made up of people performing community service to fulfill the terms of their probation. Caltrans supplies 15 paid crew supervisors.
Despite the mostly unpaid work force, the cost of collecting, hauling and dumping last year’s trash was $670,000. This covered I-15, I-5 and California 163 (all north of downtown San Diego) and I-805 and California 52, 76 and 78.
What are some of the most bizarre things found on North County freeways?
In the bizarre category, it would be hard to top the pinball machine that was found in the middle of traffic on California 78 in Vista. Of course, if you go back a few years, the memory of the life-size papier-mache rhinoceros propped along a North County roadside also lingers.
Caltrans workers pick up about 50 mattresses a month, countless shovels, ladders, pieces of wood, tree limbs and an occasional disconcerting spill of nails.
Last year, as part of a public awareness campaign, Caltrans furnished a house and garage solely with items they collected.
“We decorated an entire house with things taken simply off the freeway,” Nipper said. “We put posters on the walls, clothes in the closets; we had skateboards, TVs, beds in all the bedrooms, couches in the living room, and in the kitchen a stove, a refrigerator and a hot water heater.”
The garage was outfitted with a washer and dryer, an array of bicycles, lawn mowers and a motorcycle. Parked in the driveway were the remains of an abandoned, burned car found near Bonsall.
“People think it’s funny when they see all these things, and it is funny until you are doing 55 m.p.h. on the freeway and you see a pinball machine in front of you,” Nipper said. “It’s not funny then.”
How do you prevent accidental littering?
One way to avoid accidental littering is to secure what you’re hauling with recycled fishnet. These sturdy nylon nets, thrown over a large load, provide better security than plain rope and eliminate the possibility of your trash or valuables becoming airborne.
Home Depot sells the nets at cost, and a portion of the income is given to I Love a Clean San Diego.
Besides not littering, what can the average person do?
In October, 1989, Caltrans started a program called Adopt-a-Highway. Since then, about 100 groups in the county have signed up and are shouldering the responsibility of keeping different stretches of highway clean.
Any group without political affiliation can adopt a two-mile section of highway. They are responsible for picking up litter as often as necessary to keep their sectors trash-free--usually about four times a year, Nipper said.
Caltrans gives the volunteer groups a safety talk and outfits them with goggles, gloves, hard hats, trash bags, neon vests and long-pole trash pickers. Volunteers are allowed to work only on the right-hand shoulder of the freeway.
Anyone interested in the Adopt-a-Highway program can call Jim Noel at CalTrans, 688-3367.
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19e3a8d601960d1e84c7959fcdf2cc1b
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-me-1259-story.html
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Airing His Ideas : Howard Foote Once Took a Marine Jet for a Joy Ride, but What He’s Attempting Now Is No Flight of Fancy
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Airing His Ideas : Howard Foote Once Took a Marine Jet for a Joy Ride, but What He’s Attempting Now Is No Flight of Fancy
Days after an aerial embolism from a high-altitude glider flight ruined his boyhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot, Lance Cpl. Howard A. Foote Jr. of Los Alamitos flew into Marine Corps history and the end of his military career.
Under cover of darkness five years ago, the 20-year-old aviation mechanic stole an A-4M Skyhawk from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and put the aging fighter-bomber through a series of high-speed maneuvers over the black waters of the Pacific.
The unauthorized hop by a young enlisted man without formal flight training captured the public’s attention, stunned the Marine Corps all the way to the commandant’s office and pointed out security flaws at the base.
But his dismissal and near court-martial have not grounded the once impetuous Foote’s resolve. The same skill, ambition and audacity he put into the flight of the Skyhawk has now gone into an attempt to develop the world’s first microwave-powered aircraft, the X-21.
If it is built, Foote, 25, says he plans to break a world altitude record of 85,000 feet set by Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird, a matte black dagger with titanium skin capable of going three times the speed of sound.
“It’s not just all money,” said Foote of San Diego, whose vocabulary is filled with technical jargon about flight parameters, thermodynamics and gigahertz. “I really want to see what I can get done.”
With $10,000 in savings and the help of a former Marine Corps bomber pilot, Foote established Flight Dynamics Design and Development Corp. in Palm Springs and attracted the attention of several companies, including Arco, which has offered to provide expensive microwave transmitters.
They will be used to power a relatively inexpensive manned or unmanned aircraft capable of staying aloft for days at altitudes above 70,000 feet. In effect, the plane would be a poor man’s satellite, useful for a host of surveillance and scientific research missions.
On the drawing board, the X-21 has a glider-style airframe of carbon fiber and Kevlar powered by two 35-horsepower motors mounted in pods, one under each wing. Plans call for microwave-receiving antennas to be embedded in the wings to receive a beam from a transmitter on the ground.
To keep the cockpit from turning into a microwave oven, considerable shielding would be installed to protect the pilot during manned flights.
Foote, who is the project engineer and test pilot, says that suitable engines and a state of the art airframe built by a Canadian concern have been found. More work needs to be done on a set of special propellers capable of providing enough power in the thin air found at high altitude. Test flights are at least a year away.
“The idea has potential,” said Prof. James DeLaurier of the Institute for Aerospace Studies at the University of Toronto, which has worked on the concept of microwave-powered flight for almost 10 years. “The technology for high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft is finally coming together today.”
All that is needed are a couple of diesel generators on the ground, a lightweight airframe and high-quality motors. Theoretically, an unmanned microwave aircraft can stay aloft as long as the electric bill is paid, DeLaurier said.
The Institute for Aerospace Studies already has built an experimental model called the SHARP with a 15-foot wing span that has flown successfully. Further research to perfect automatic controls for long duration flights is under way using a larger plane with a conventional internal-combustion engine.
Foote’s design, however, would be the first full-size microwave aircraft in the world and, if feasible, would be cheaper to operate than satellites or other conventionally powered designs used as high-altitude instrument platforms.
“I don’t doubt the fact that Howard is involved in something like this,” said Bradley N. Garber, an Irvine attorney and former Marine Corps defense lawyer who represented Foote after he stole the Skyhawk. “It’s up his avenue of taking a risk and his desire to keep learning about flight.”
Before entering the Marines in 1984, Foote was a record-holding glider pilot as a teen-ager. His soaring continued in the corps until February, 1986, when he suffered an aerial embolism, a form of the bends, while attempting to set an altitude record.
His undoing in the military began a few days after a flight surgeon declared him medically unfit for flight school because of the embolism, which has the potential to recur. With his boyhood dreams ruined, he donned a pressure suit at 2 a.m. on the Fourth of July, climbed aboard the Skyhawk and fired it up.
Foote, who had received about 100 hours of training in a simulator on the ground, took off on an unlighted runway. Forty minutes later he returned from a jaunt to San Clemente Island. Cockpit instruments showed that he executed several high-speed maneuvers.
“He had some fun up there,” a major testified during the young man’s disciplinary hearings.
Foote, who had became a protege of Brig. Gen. William A. Bloomer, a commander at El Toro, faced a court-martial on charges of misappropriating an airplane and a truck, disobeying regulations and hazarding a vessel. If convicted on those charges, he could have faced nine years at hard labor and a dishonorable discharge. Hazarding a vessel, a centuries-old maritime law, carried the death penalty.
But given an otherwise spotless record and a devotion to aviation, the Marine Corps dropped the case against Foote on the condition he apologize for the incident and be given a general discharge under less than honorable conditions.
“This was an unusual case in which a Marine with a tremendous amount of skill and great potential did a very stupid thing which could have result in a tragic loss of life,” said then-Brig. Gen. D.E.P. Miller, the base commander, at the conclusion of the matter.
“I just wanted to fly it one time,” Foote recalled. “I didn’t want to become a line officer. I had joined up to fly. I think I’ll be a lot more productive now that I am out of the service.”
Once discharged from the Marine Corps, Foote attended Embry Riddle Aeronautic University in Florida and applied to the Israeli Air Force, an effort he subsequently abandoned because of the difficulty getting in.
He also turned his attention to developing a turbocharging system for a high-altitude internal-combustion engine--an idea frustrated when Boeing developed a workable design and put it in a plane called the Condor that reached 70,000 feet.
“I was really angry when the Condor went up. I thought I didn’t have a future,” Foote said. “But I wanted to beat ‘em. ‘I am going to go microwave,’ I thought. No one at the time was really considering it.”
Michael W. Brace, director of engineering for Flight Dynamics, said the X-21 should be capable of reaching altitudes of more than 90,000 feet, where temperatures drop to 60 degrees below zero and the air pressure is a thousandth of what it is on Earth. The conditions are very demanding on plane and pilot.
“On paper it works, but the proof is in the pudding,” said Brace, a former Marine captain who flew A-6 Intruders. “We need to bolt it together and park it at that altitude. If you can get one operational, the world will beat a path to your door.”
Whether the finished version ever becomes airborne depends, of course, on money. About $8 million is needed to build the first plane, but Foote says investors have been hesitant to take a risk on something new despite a potential market for the plane.
NASA too is skeptical, although it needs high-altitude aircraft for ozone-depletion research, air pollution studies and other projects that require air sampling and readings over a 24-hour period.
“If Foote’s aircraft can stay up a lot longer, it would be very valuable for some science applications,” said Steven S. Wegener, an NASA manager whose duties include helping to develop high-altitude research aircraft. “But his plane has to be over a microwave dish, which severely constrains it. I don’t see much promise in it right now.”
Wegener, who works at NASA-Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, questioned whether available electric motors are capable of operating for long periods at high altitude. He also said clouds might interfere with microwave transmission, and the safety of using a concentrated beam has not been established.
Foote and his supporters dismiss Wegener, saying the range of the aircraft is about 650 miles from the transmitter. It can go farther if the ground station is mobile or a series of transmitters are used to hand the plane off to each other. They contend it is especially useful if launched from a ship.
As far as equipment is concerned, Foote says he has secured most of what he needs to put “the bird” in the air, and DeLaurier admits that cloud cover can absorb some energy but that it is not significant enough to affect performance.
“NASA doesn’t know anything about it,” Foote said. “It is hard to break them into a new idea. We need to overcome that train of thought.”
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a59bab77fa300ea8d2e25fc26ea7b738
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-mn-1211-story.html
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‘Love Boat’ of the Gulf Offers Respite From War : Stress: The Cunard Princess, a British luxury ship chartered by the Pentagon, provides a 3-day rest and recreation spot for U.S. troops.
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‘Love Boat’ of the Gulf Offers Respite From War : Stress: The Cunard Princess, a British luxury ship chartered by the Pentagon, provides a 3-day rest and recreation spot for U.S. troops.
Under a white and red banner, which read “Welcome Aboard Desert Shield Troops,” a female soldier jogged past in form-fitting Lycra shorts and a T-shirt emblazoned with a distinctly unmilitary message: “Dare to Bare.”
“This is our love boat, our recreation ship,” said a Marine guard toting an M-16 rifle, about the only person in sight wearing a uniform.
The ship in question is no ordinary naval vessel, of course, but the Cunard Princess, a British luxury liner that has been chartered by the Pentagon as a rest and recreation spot for U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm.
Men and women serving in Saudi Arabia are occasionally given three days off for a break aboard the Princess, the only place in the conservative Gulf where “R & R” tours are now scheduled.
A Western official in the region said the idea behind the Princess was to “reduce the security threat and save costs.”
For security reasons, the soldiers and sailors are confined aboard the Princess when it is in port. Apart from that, and warnings to avoid outrageous or violent behavior, they are free to do what they like. There are no uniforms, no salutes and no military discipline on board.
“We’re all civilians right now--at least we’re pretending to be,” said Mark Cardosi, a 20-year-old soldier from Farmington, N.H. “There is absolutely no military atmosphere, though you know everybody else is a soldier.”
For many, the main attraction of their three-day visit to the Princess is the bar. Unlike Saudi Arabia, where many soldiers have been stuck since Iraq invaded Kuwait last August, alcohol flows freely aboard the ship.
“It’s wonderful--that first beer in five months was a cold one,” said Jeffrey Freddie, 24, of Houston. “I’m afraid I had a hard time waking up this morning after what I drank last night.”
As Freddie noted, for many of the young enlisted men aboard, the visit to the Princess is the first chance in their lives when they can drink legally because the drinking age back home is 21. No age limit is enforced aboard the ship, and many of the soldiers and Marines are still in their teens.
After five months in the Saudi desert, another major attraction of the ship is merely the freedom to socialize freely with the opposite sex, even if the encounters are, by necessity, brief. In the cynical humor of the military, Saudi women, who are swathed in black from head to toe and are inaccessible for even an innocent conversation, have been reduced to “BMOs"--Black Moving Objects.
But aboard the Princess, “I haven’t had to buy a drink yet,” beamed one enlisted woman, a 24-year-old named Gina, referring to the attentions of the men aboard. She estimated that about 5% of the passengers were women.
One soldier said a good percentage of the troops aboard the ship had made a prearranged rendezvous with women soldiers that they had met on duty back in Saudi Arabia.
Once on board, although allocation of cabin space is segregated by sexes, the barriers are not enforced.
A soldier named Jaye mentioned that he had not been to sleep the night before. Asked what he had been doing, he replied: “That’s confidential.” After five months of hard duty in Saudi Arabia, he said, “I’m cooling off.”
Although the soldiers would have preferred to have been flown to a country such as Thailand, which is considerably more liberal than the Gulf countries, “This is all they could provide,” Jaye said. He added that everybody was operating on the hope that the war in the Gulf would be so short that longer leaves would not be practical.
Because military discipline is not enforced, touchy subjects like fraternization between enlisted ranks and officers are not the kinds of problems that they might be on a military facility.
“Nobody asks who is an officer and who is an enlisted man,” Freddie said. “They don’t want to know.”
The Princess has two floor shows, one from Las Vegas and one involving bands from Britain and Argentina. There is also a discotheque and a video room where movies are shown, as well as a swimming pool and racquetball courts.
Apart from the entertainment, many of the soldiers said they were pleased just to be able to sleep in proper beds and to eat food that was not prepared by the military. “I actually had a bottle of white wine with dinner last night,” declared one soldier triumphantly.
Many referred to the frenetic pace aboard the ship because the soldiers have only a short break after five months of service “in country.”
“We try to pack it in for three days, do everything in just three days,” Cardosi said. “I only slept for three hours last night. I don’t want to waste my time sleeping. I can do that when I get back.”
Not everyone agrees--one woman soldier said she had turned in at 11 o’clock on her first night aboard, to read a good book.
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69e1e3acb3ab16693cf20bb663844ee6
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-21-ca-2124-story.html
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Reggae’s Maxi Priest Wins Mainstream Favor : Pop music: The British singer adds an R&B; flavor to the Jamaican sound. He and his band play San Diego and Long Beach this weekend.
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Reggae’s Maxi Priest Wins Mainstream Favor : Pop music: The British singer adds an R&B; flavor to the Jamaican sound. He and his band play San Diego and Long Beach this weekend.
“From day one, I’ve made it clear I’m doing music for everybody,” declared British reggae singer Maxi Priest. “It wasn’t an intentional thing that I was going to bring all these different styles of music together for commercial success . . . or any success at all. It has just been a natural growth.
“I see it as very healthy--whereas we (in reggae) used to always sing about bringing people together before, the music has taken it in action and brought all these different people together.”
Priest, who appears with his seven-piece band at Bob Marley Day concerts at Golden Hall in San Diego on Friday and the Long Beach Arena Saturday and Sunday, has done his share in expanding the American audience for reggae. Three years ago, his version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World” cracked the pop Top 10, and his gold “Bonafide” album on Charisma spawned a No. 1 pop hit in “Close To You” last summer.
That mainstream acceptance is rare for a reggae-based artist here, but Priest’s “new vogue reggae” may signal a new turn for the Jamaican-born style. British reggae artists often had a slicker, more sophisticated sound than their Jamaican counterparts and Priest melds contemporary R&B; elements and production techniques into his mix.
Those touches and a focus on love songs forced Priest--interviewed by phone from Honolulu--to weather some criticism from reggae purists early in his career. But his music still largely springs from reggae rhythms. His hybrid sound makes him a contemporary of such urban British artists as Soul II Soul, whose Jazzie B and Nellie Hooper produced two songs for “Bonafide.”
“I was strictly into a reggae environment with the open mind of someone who wanted to be in the music business and be a vocalist,” said Priest of his early days. “I used to sit in my room and listen keenly to everything that came on the radio. I listened to a wide range of music--the Beatles, Motown, gospel music, jazz--because I love all different styles of singing.”
Priest entered the pop world through the informal, grass-roots channels of the late ‘70s British reggae scene. He started by working for several years on a sound system--the mobile deejay systems that have been a cornerstone of both British and Jamaican reggae.
“I used to build (speaker) cabinet boxes and I moved up and started to play the records, just rapping or deejaying over the B-sides,” said Priest. “Gradually, I just started to sing around the sound system and the people started to encourage me.”
But the sound system experience offered Priest, whose given name is Max Elliott, something beyond learning the ropes. The particular system he was associated with--Saxon International--was so popular it was regularly hired in major urban centers throughout England.
“We were one of six sound systems that had live performances, so everybody around the country wanted to hear and see it,” Priest explained. “Our tapes would be sent to Jamaica and America so people knew about me from listening to those cassette tapes, even before I had the record out.”
That record was his first single, “Hey Little Girl.” When it shot to No. 8 in the British reggae charts in 1983, Priest began his singing career in earnest. Virgin Records released his first album, “You’re Safe,” in 1985. He was a major British reggae star when his third album--"Maxi"--was released in 1988. Import demand spurred by the success of “Wild World” forced its release in the United States.
For “Bonafide,” Priest worked with producers ranging from the Soul II Soul connection to Jamaican dance-hall king Gussie Clarke and the Geoffrey Chung/Sly Dunbar/Handel Tucker team. But the album avoids the scattershot syndrome that often afflicts projects with multiple producers.
“I bring in the producers for their expertise,” Priest explained. “I have to have a certain amount of my own input, to know that it is part of me and not somebody else’s production totally.”
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518e01c297bc248f69436b3268383ec3
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-22-ca-1491-story.html
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MOVIE REVIEW : A Tumultuous Egyptian Autobiography
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MOVIE REVIEW : A Tumultuous Egyptian Autobiography
Youssef Chahine’s sprawling, impassioned autobiographical “Egyptian Trilogy” (Nuart) confirms once and for all its maker’s status as a world-class writer-director whose work in America has heretofore been seen only at film festivals and archives despite garnering international prizes over the last four decades.
A born screen storyteller, Chahine is a highly accessible, emotion-charged filmmaker given to bravura flourishes. If his ego is vast, he has a talent to match it and is harder on himself than anyone else.
As confessional cinema, Chahine’s trilogy brings to mind the autobiographical films of Federico Fellini, the director in the West whom Chahine most resembles in style as well as concerns. “Alexandria . . . Why?” (1978), “Egyptian Story” (1982) and “Alexandria Again and Forever” (1990) unfold over a tumultuous half-century as a great arc, charting Chahine’s youthful dreams, midlife crisis and a mature sense of self-acceptance and reconciliation.
When we first meet his alter ego Yehia (Naglaa Fathi) in 1942, he is in an Alexandria prep school his refined but impoverished family can ill-afford. He is a handsome dreamer, loving Hollywood, and pining to be both Gene Kelly and Laurence Olivier. Why, of all places, did he have to be born in Alexandria, he wonders in frustration.
In all three films, Chahine depicts Yehia as continually needing to break out of his self-absorption, yet Chahine himself paradoxically is acutely aware of the world around him--what is happening in the lives of Yehia’s family and friends as well as his country. There is in “Alexandria . . . Why?,” for example, a poignant secondary story about his gay uncle and his love for a young British soldier.
By the time of “Egyptian Story,” set in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Yehia (now played by Nour El Sherif) is emerging as a top director in his own country but hungering for international recognition as intensely as he craved going to Pasadena. When the now silver-haired, hard-driving, chain-smoking Yehia requires open-heart surgery, Chahine envisions his alter ego’s heart chamber as a courtroom in which Yehia the child is metaphorically put on trial for clogging the arteries of Yehia the man.
“Egyptian Story” is at times hard-going, with Yehia thrashing about in his struggle to grow up at last. Interestingly--and appropriately--Yehia views his parents, especially his mother, in three dimensions in contrast to their idealized personae in the first film.
With the reflective “Alexandria Again and Forever” Chahine, who has just turned 65, now plays Yehia, a small, wiry man of much volatility and charm. Joining a film industry strike against repressive government measures, he meets a beautiful and talented young actress who forces him to look at himself in a final act of self-acceptance, relinquishing his obsessive need to fulfill his youthful acting dreams through an unhappy protege. Chahine’s vital, reflective and absorbing saga (Times-rated Mature for adult themes, complex style) comes full circle as he imagines filming a spectacle about Alexander the Great, accepting that his destiny has always been and always will be connected with his birthplace: Alexandria.
“Alexandria . . . Why” and “Egyptian Story” screen today and Saturday only; “Alexandria Again and Forever” screens Sunday through Thursday.
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9ef9eaf9c0d2477ebfc69e5a83ecab23
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-24-tv-2335-story.html
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How Hollywood Dealt with Great Depression
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How Hollywood Dealt with Great Depression
Hollywood responded to the Great Depression almost immediately after the crash of 1929. The films produced were either “social conscious” dramas that reflected the plight of the farmers and white-collar workers who suddenly found themselves in a bread line, screwball comedies or escapist musicals.
Though the Depression ended nearly 50 years ago, Hollywood always has retained its fascination with this bleak era of American history.
Several quintessential Depression films are available on video:
* Produced in 1940, The Grapes of Wrath ($19.98, Key Video) is considered the finest film made about the Great Depression. Based on John Steinbeck’s landmark novel, the drama chronicles the migration of the Okies (farmers and workers from Oklahoma), driven from their homes by the ravages of the Dust Bowl, to California.
Adapted for the screen by Nunnally Johnson, the film won director John Ford an Oscar. The performances also are first-rate, especially Henry Fonda’s. He received an Oscar nomination for his memorable Tom Joad, an ex-con who is head of the family, and Oscar-winner Jane Darwell as his beloved Ma Joad.
* My Man Godfrey (public domain) is the flip side of “Grapes of Wrath” and one of the best screwball comedies ever made. William Powell and Carole Lombard--who were married from 1931 to 1933--star in this 1936 comedy about a wealthy young woman who is asked to find a “forgotten man"--a term for the unemployed--for a scavenger hunt. She discovers one named Godfrey living in a shanty area in New York City. He charms the family into hiring him as their butler and teaches them all that money isn’t everything.
* In Gold Diggers of 1933 ($29.95, MGM/UA Home Video), Joan Blondell performs the evocative “Forgotten Man” number which illustrates the plight of the World War I veteran during the Depression.
“Forgotten Man” is the one dark, stark moment in the rollicking, fast-paced musical about several struggling performers who put on a Broadway show. The cast includes Ruby Keeler, the very acerbic Aline MacMahon, Dick Powell, Warren William and Ginger Rogers performing “We’re in the Money” in pig-Latin. Busby Berkeley staged the garish, outlandish dance numbers.
* It would be stretching the truth to say that 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer ($19.98, Playhouse Video) is a good movie. In fact, it’s pretty awful. But this musical made Shirley Temple a star.
Warner Baxter stars as a big producer who is made Secretary of Amusement by President Roosevelt to help the country get over the Depression. Temple and James Dunnperform “Baby Take a Bow.”
* With the outbreak of World War II in Europe, several European directors fled to America. One of those was France’s great Jean Renoir. His best American film is 1945’s The Southerner (public domain) based on George Sessions Perry’s novel “Hold Autumn in Your Hand.”
Zachary Scott, Betty Field, Beluah Bondi and J. Carroll Naish star in this lyrical drama about a poor Southern family fighting the odds while trying to make their farm succeed.
* King Vidor’s 1934 drama Our Daily Bread ($59.98, Nelson Entertainment) deals with a young couple who inherit a broken-down farm and struggle to make it work. The film’s highlight is the irrigation sequence finale. Tom Keene and Karen Morley, who was later blacklisted, star.
* In Frank Capra’s endearing, Oscar-winning 1936 comedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town ($19.95, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video), Gary Cooper is perfection as a naive, small-town poet and tuba player who finds himself inheriting $20 million. When he decides to give all his money away to the poor and homeless, his greedy relatives put him on trial for his sanity.
* In 1937’s Dead End ($14.98, Nelson Entertainment), gangsters and slum kids live on a New York City river street next to a block of ritzy apartments.
Lillian Hellman adapted Sidney Kingsley’s hit Broadway play; William Wyler directed. Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, Humphrey Bogart and Claire Trevor star. The film introduced audiences to the Dead End Kids, who made several movies and later evolved into the Bowery Boys.
* There are several Depression-era movies not yet available on tape, but definitely worth catching on TV.
James Cagney and Loretta Young play a struggling young couple in the 1932 melodrama Taxi; Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy are memorable in Frank Borzage’s 1933 drama A Man’s Castle; Walter Huston is a big city banker in Frank Capra’s 1932 drama American Madness; three friends can’t find work so they ride the rails and panhandle and steal in director William Wellman’s 1933 drama Wild Boys of the Road.
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d9919a346a17c28e7db8c39c7f8df352
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-25-mn-1565-story.html
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Webb Pierce; Top-Selling Country Singer
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Webb Pierce; Top-Selling Country Singer
Webb Pierce, one of the most successful country singers of all time, whose nasal tenor voice became known to millions of fans in the 1950s, died Sunday in Nashville.
Cash Box magazine rated him the No. 1 male country artist from 1952 to 1956 and again in 1961-63 because of such enduring hits as “In the Jailhouse Now.”
Max Powell, a family spokesman, said Pierce had been in and out of hospitals since last March with pancreatic cancer.
He died at 65 at his home in Nashville after having part of his colon removed in 1984 and undergoing open heart surgery in 1987.
Last year Pierce--ranked No. 7 in the recent book “Top Country Singles: 1944-1988"--was a finalist for the Country Music Hall of Fame but lost out to Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Until his health began to fail, Pierce could be seen tooling around Nashville in a car decorated with 1,000 silver dollars or swimming in his $75,000 guitar-shaped pool.
Besides “In the Jailhouse Now” in 1955, his other hit records included “Wondering,” “Love Love Love,” “I Don’t Care,” “Teen-age Boogie,” “Honky Tonk Song,” “Tupelo County Jail” and “Bye Bye Love,” later a hit by the Everly Brothers.
Born and raised in Louisiana, he became a popular figure in his home state through appearances on a Monroe radio station. In the early 1950s he joined the “Louisiana Hayride” show, appearing with such future country stars as Floyd Cramer, Faron Young and Jimmy Day. In 1952 he recorded his first hit, “Back Street Affair,” followed the next year by “It’s Been So Long” and “There Stands the Glass.”
In 1953 he was named the No. 1 folk singer by Ranch and Farm magazine and given a similar honor by the Juke Box Operators association.
He moved to Nashville and became a regular on the “Grand Ole Opry” while continuing to crank out such recording successes as “Slowly,” “You’re Not Mine Anymore” and “Sparkling Brown Eyes.”
He toured the United States and Canada and was a featured singer and guitarist on Red Foley’s “Jubilee U.S.A.”
Pierce’s Decca albums often reached gold and through the 1960s his collections sometimes surpassed the sales of his singles. One exception was “Luziana” in 1968.
But his recording career quickly peaked and his last hits, “Merry-Go-Round World” and “Road Show,” came in the early 1970s.
“I always tried to sing what the people wanted and give them an emotional outlet,” Pierce said in a 1978 interview. “I was different; everyone else sang on an even keel and I sang way up there on a high pitch.
“John Denver copied my style to the T,” he said. “When his first record came out, everybody told me they liked ‘my’ record. He sounds just like me.”
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b203e123f098a95122b8a3b6fbf6001d
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-26-mn-2158-story.html
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John Daly; Hosted TV’s ‘What’s My Line?’
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John Daly; Hosted TV’s ‘What’s My Line?’
John Daly, former war correspondent, network executive, government official and popular host of the game show “What’s My Line?” was found dead at his home here Monday, his longtime assistant said.
Daly, who turned 77 Wednesday, suffered from emphysema, but, “I believe death was due to cardiac arrest,” said his assistant, Lila Bader, in a telephone interview from Daly’s office in New York City.
Bader said she spoke with Daly by telephone Sunday, “and he was going to do his taxes” Monday.
Daly, a native of South Africa, came to the United States as a boy. He studied at Boston College and was a scheduler for the Washington D. C. transit company when he joined CBS in 1937.
After covering the White House and World War II in Europe and the Middle East, Daly moved to ABC in 1949. From 1953 to 1960 he was vice president in charge of the network’s news operation.
For 17 years he was also moderator of the Sunday night television institution, “What’s My Line?” in which a panel of regulars--including columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, publisher Bennett Cerf, actress Arlene Francis and comedian Henry Morgan--tried to guess the sometimes wacky, often bizarre occupations of guests introduced by Daly with the signature phrase, “Would you enter and sign in please?”
“What’s My Line?” ran on CBS from 1950 through 1967, making it the longest-running game show in the history of prime-time network television. It ran for a few years after 1967 under another moderator in syndication.
After leaving ABC in 1960, Bader said, Daly was asked to head the news operations of NBC, but was prevented by his contract with ABC, which prohibited him from working for a competing network.
In 1967-68, Daly served as director of the Voice of America.
In recent years, he narrated the “Modern Maturity” series on educational television.
“He was the most intelligent man I ever knew,” Bader said.
Bader said Daly was “a hard-news man” who had become dismayed by recent trends in journalism.
“He couldn’t accept what he saw happening in local news--all the laughter,” she said. “But he would never write about it.”
Daly is survived by his wife, a daughter of former Chief Justice Earl Warren, and six children, three from a previous marriage.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
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71c34d71547c67e9936b03ebefd2ae52
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-27-vw-1991-story.html
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Last Among Finishers, but First in Their Own Hearts
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Last Among Finishers, but First in Their Own Hearts
On the 11th day of its attempt to complete the Raid Gauloises endurance race, the team that includes Times news editor Jon D. Markman finally reaches the last stage: the ride-and-run. Team members seem destined not to make a gallant dash on brilliant steeds to the finish line, instead becoming the reluctantly cruel Khans of three doddering beasts.
At 4:20 a.m. on Dec. 11, I shook out our food bag: Two packs of instant coffee, one tea bag, three dirty lumps of sugar, half a bag of powdered milk. That was it. We drank a communal cup of tea, filched some fresh water from the hermit doctor and aimed at the foggy dawn.
Not fooling around this time, we immediately soaked our last fresh socks when we had to cross a wide river a few minutes later. That’s a lot to bear at 5 a.m. on an empty stomach, and I felt enraged--cheated out of the modest pleasure of dry feet.
As we sloshed forward in a foul mood, the sun burned down like the jets of a gas stove. We slowed to smear sunscreen over the mosquito repellent and antiseptic we wore, then regretted it--for it’s an expeditionary soup that occasionally simmers over in the heat, dripping down your forehead and stinging your eyes.
The sun seared the sky to such a brightness that distances became difficult to judge. At 8 o’clock we crossed the rusted remains of a crashed airliner. Five hours later, I turned around to see the metal skeleton so clearly that it appeared to be a 20-minute hike away. Super-clear air, something exotic to a Los Angeles native, smoothes the creases of space. The ambiguity of distance weighed sorely on competitors’ resolution. How much farther? How much farther? Who can tell?
At least the sand before us provided some distraction. It was deep enough to retain footprints, and a set of giant ones held us in thrall: There appeared to be four 7-inch-long paws and perhaps behind them a tail. Theories developed: A giant iguana? A crocodile? After two hours, we saw the answer disappear into the jungle just past a lonely Raid staffer’s tent.
“Puma,” said Laurent Gunio coolly when we reached his solitary post next to the last shark estuary. “ Ooh la la. A big one.” He stretched his arms out. “How do you say? Long-wise. Tch.”
Gunio donated a box of granola to us, and we devoured it like locusts with our pouch of powdered milk in a tin bowl. Even the most meager amount of food gave us a big boost of energy now, and we pushed on to reach the start of the ride-and-run by noon: a seaside stable and store on the edge of a dusty village called Carate. We could have felt sorry for ourselves, pulling in last and 2 1/2 days past our expectations, except for one unexpected pleasure: Just as we walked up, the Chrono Cats trotted out. We had caught them again.
Dearly wishing to distance themselves from us forever, their Costa Rican guide gave us a pained look and viciously kicked his horse into a gallop. Yet somehow I figured we’d see them again soon.
We had just 30 miles to go now: The map dot at Puerto Jimenez, the final checkpoint, gleamed before our eyes like a black pearl. But we couldn’t leave until 1:30. Tide tables showed that an estuary an hour’s ride away wouldn’t be low enough to cross on horseback until nearly 3.
While we stretched out on the store’s sunny patio, stable hands slowly assembled our motley band of three small, middle-aged, cloudy-eyed horses: the last of the last. One of the Raid’s singular logistic achievements had been to find and saddle 120 horses in this remote outpost, where no stable had ever housed more than 10 at a time. Equestrian honcho Ron Vega, I later found out, spent nine months negotiating with farmers in a 60-mile radius for the use of their finest steeds for a five-day span. He paid the farmers $30 a day and vowed only not to kill the animals.
The horses’ survival was by no means guaranteed, however, to the shock of many competitors--and one nearly drowned during a top-10 team’s race to the finish.
Still, wranglers instructed us to beat the horses unmercifully in the event that they wouldn’t move. No soft click of the tongue, kick of the boot and “Giddyap!” would do, they said in Spanish. These horses responded only to brutality.
And so we plodded off--the reluctantly cruel Khans of three doddering beasts--after tying all the backpacks to the animals. We drew straws to decide who would ride and who would run. The losers had to ride, but only with the promise that we would switch off every two hours.
Raid rules required horseback riders to keep the runners within sight at all times. In reality, it was the runners who had to slow down. The horses shied away from the sound of the surf, veering into the jungle’s thorny brush and threatening to smash our heads on the low-hanging branches. Only murderous kicks to the flanks would steer them back to a timid course on the sand.
As the hours marched toward night we could find no sign of a path that would take us north into the jungle toward Puerto Jimenez, and our condition deteriorated: Mike’s stomach cramps grew sharper, and as badly as Catherine’s knee ached, she actually felt worse on a horse. Riding the fastest horse at the time, I passed Mike and he called out: “Run that damn horse up ahead and see if you can find the way!” And so I took off, the golden sun bearing straight for the sea behind me.
I rode fast until the others were out of sight, passing a woman who said the road I wanted lay one kilometer ahead next to a finca that had two cottages. After more than three desperate kilometers, I finally heard voices and saw one little bungalow, then another. And then I caught a glint of flashlight. It could only be the Chrono Cats.
I found Gavin, the New Zealander who was the Chrono Cats’ lead guide, sternly instructing two teammates on how to ride through the jungle at night. They were standing on a muddy road wide enough for a four-wheel-drive vehicle, the biggest path I had seen for days, and their faces looked slack and empty. Aziz Ojjeh, the immense and strong Chrono Cat leader, had already gone way ahead on foot. With loud “Gee-ya!” from Gavin, the stragglers turned uphill after seeing me and disappeared without another word.
Stars popped out over the surf. Assisted by the finca ‘s watchman, who had materialized from the palms, I turned back to find my team. My horse felt slick with sweat now after her long day’s run, so we were walking when Kaz suddenly splashed up through the surf, his voice full of curses.
“You idiot!” he screamed. “Where have you been? Why are you walking? The path is back there two miles! Everyone is furious! You have the fastest horse--what’s taken you so long?”
I wanted to kill him, but there was a witness. I had finally grown weary of his arrogance--for days he’d been saying that Japanese skin was better, Japanese were better at riding horses and making cameras and finding their way. The seams of civility were ripping.
“I found the damned path,” I yelled back, “and it’s up ahead a mile! This watchman says the road you found stops after 300 yards. Where the hell have you guys been?”
The watchman stared at us dumbfounded, and after a few seconds even Kaz and I realized the pointlessness of our fury, though we wouldn’t talk again for hours.
Soon the others walked up. I talked things over with Eric, and we all decided to follow the watchman to the big road north--acknowledging that on this occasion, as on many others, our map might be outdated.
The rest of the night, and race, passed like a fitful dream. Up the jungle mud road to an even bigger mud road, then hours more tramping through streams and fields--arguing every so often over whether the horses were too tired to be ridden. We laughed to think of the way we were supposed to end the race: a gallant dash on brilliant steeds to the finish line.
Instead, Kaz and I trailed far behind as our nags poked along. All but sleeping as we rode to the rhythm of frogs’ alto singing and fireflies’ blue dancing, we finally imagined that we had missed a turn and were lost. We whistled hard and got no response. Still bitterly angry at each other, we could at least agree that we should bivouac and wait for morning before going on. We tied our horses to a tree and curled up in survival blankets under a steady midnight drizzle.
Kaz fell asleep in seconds, but I wrestled with the concept. And then I heard a thump-thump-slither-thump--the noise you never want to hear. I bolted up straight, pointed my headlamp south and found myself staring into what appeared in the dim light to be the eerie red eyes of a crocodile. It had sneaked up from a small river a dozen feet from our bivouac, presumably to check on the possibility of a midnight snack.
At the same time, I heard a car coming and saw headlights angling toward us from beyond the next hill. Choosing quickly between being munched or crunched, I woke Kaz and rushed toward the headlights, waving my arms and yelling an SOS in Spanish.
The car bounced crazily over the foot-deep ruts of that awful road and leaped straight at our encampment. It swerved at the last moment, and with the headlights’ glare averted I could finally see it was our assistance jeep--with Eric in the passenger seat.
“If you run us down, we can’t win!” I called out, surprised but delighted to see them. “Where the hell are we?”
“Oh, about three kilometers from the finish--what are you doing here?” Eric said back, laughing.
Kaz and I had ended up like that Bahlsen team of canoeists--without knowing it, we had ridden straight and true but quit just short of the checkpoint. Puerto Jimenez lay just over the next two hills.
And so it ended after 11 days, not with a whimper or bang but with a last solitary trot into a deserted town on a beaten-down horse well past 4 a.m. Kaz and I met up with the others just past a ghostly, illuminated gasoline station named La Bomba, where the driver of a tanker truck had gone to sleep with a Lou Rawls tape blaring out his window, splitting the serenity of the jungle night with the surreal sound of a Las Vegas lounge show.
Dim street lamps lit our pitiful but triumphant march down the final straightaway--past shuttered shops, a weedy airfield and an old cemetery. At the end, where the final checkpoint lay hard by the beach, TV camera lights dazzled our tired eyes and the Raid staff greeted us with kisses, hugs and intangible but unspeakably sweet garlands of congratulation.
The next day we would climb aboard a tattered Guatemalan paratroop plane and parachute into rice fields 100 miles north outside the beach resort of Quepos. Thirty-four teams had preceded us onto those sloppy, pungent furrows. We were last, yes, even behind the Chrono Cats. But by our own standards, perhaps we had won.
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