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Show Park City by Jim Murray Mlmurraiy m pnrl More than any other pitcher, Wilhelm spelled relief ) fl )( J I vTi H,. X J - - - v J Page Bl Thursday, January 20, 1983 J v : ; ' V v x'. ' S V v --v - i V 1 Vims' 4 , , , ,4 " '" , ?. . . LjtitiJWillliWuW ? photo by John Kmch "Thanks. I needed that!" North Summit defender Scott Skinner catches a knee in the chest as Park City's Chris Cooper charges to the basket. But Skinner got the last laugh. He scored the winning basket as the Braves edged the Miners, 67-65. So close, yet ... Miners lose a heartbr eaker by John Kinch It was so close that the Park City Miners could see it, smell it, and touch it. But when they tried to grab it, victory slipped once again from their grasp. The Miners came up one basket short against the North Summit Braves, losing los-ing 67-65 in the final seconds of the game last Friday in Park City. It was the Miners' best game all year, according to ' Park City Coach Bruce Reid. They and the Braves fought an exciting, emotional seesaw see-saw battle, but in the end the Braves had the little extra it took to win the game. In the first quarter Park City jumped out to an 11-5 lead with a succession of fast-break baskets. "We have been working hard for ihe last two weeks on our fast breaks," said Reid, "and it paid off." A Chris Cooper tip-in, ending the first quarter, , brought the Park City bench to its feet, as the crowd wildy cheered. The tempo of the game was set. But in the second quarter Park City lost some of its composure, slipping into old bad habits with erratic passes and poor shot selection. selec-tion. The Miners found themselves down 21-19 midway mid-way through the quarter. But they came back. Led by guard Doug Vincent, who electrified the crowd all night with his driving layups and top-of-the-key jumpers, Park City tied North Summit 25-25 a few minutes later. Bill Simmons, Cooper, and Vincent all were hot, giving the Miners an eight-point lead, 39-31, to take with them to the locker room. In the third quarter the Miners picked up where they left off before the half. With hustling and good shot selection selec-tion they kept the lead, ending the third quarter six up on the Braves. 51-45. If Park City could have held onto that lead for the next eight minutes, they would have had their second region victory. With 3:30 remaining in the game, Reid sent in guards Matt Mapstone, Bill Simm-mons, Simm-mons, and Doug Vincent to control the ball and protect Park City's slim lead. However, How-ever, Park City's four corner stall offense backfired when Vincent traveled, giving the Braves the ball with 2 : 35 left. After the ball changed hands twice North Summit tied the score 63-63. Park City regained the lead with less than two minutes left. Then, with the noise from the Park City and North Summit crowds escalating, the Braves tied the game again, 65 all. Thanks to a three second violation on Park City, the Braves got the ball back with less than one minute left. They stalled the ball until there was seven seconds left and then failed a time out. When play resumed, Scott Skinner in-bounded the ball then ran around behind the Park City defenders and received a back door pass from teammate ,Ryan Richins for what looked like an easy lay-up. But Miner Pete Gilvarry was able to slap the ball away, committing commit-ting a foul. Skinner pumped in his two fred throws. It was 67-65 North Summit, with three seconds left. A desperation inbounds pass, by Vincent slipped through the hands of Kerry Kusiak at mid-court as time ran out on the Miners. The Miners' collapse in the final minutes of the game did not please Reid, who said that in his six years of coaching, Park City has always been successful with the spread (four-corner) offense. of-fense. But he added that overall he was very pleased with the team's performance. "The hardest thing to deal with was that we played so well, but we didn't win." Several Miners played well, but Vincent had to be the surprise of the night with 14 points. Cooper once again hit the 20-point mark and Simmons did well, scoring 11. Reid expected to do well against the 3-4 Braves, especially after coming off the Manila win and a "super" week of practice, as he put it. He felt that Park City's shot selection and ball movement were particularly good. However, he said that tho 1-6 Miners still need to work on rebounds, the spread offense, and free throws. The Miners made just half of their freebies. These aspects of the game will be practiced this week in preparation for the Miners' contest against the South Rich Trojans in Randolph on Friday. South Rich has the same record as Park City in Region 11, 1-2. But playing the Trojans in Randolph is a little different from playing them in Park City. "Both South and North Rich fans are rabid," said Reid. "I would be much more comfortable playing North or South Summit away than the Riches." Hoyt Wilhelm didn't look like a mapr league ballplayer. Hoyt Wilhelm looked as if he had been put together by someone who had lost the instructions. First of all, as someone said, Hoyt Wiihelr.i looked as if his head had been screwed on sideways. It gave him perpetually the look ot a guy who was cocking his head to overhear something said in the next booth. Then, there was that minor league ballplayer who once observed that Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckleball didn't move that much. What happened was that someone went out to centerfield and juggled the fenc es and the scenery when he pitched. Hoyt didn't talk much, and he smiled even less. He never looked pained, exactly, just remote. When he dispatched the hitter, it looked as if it hurt him more than it did tnem Hoyt didn't exactly have an apologetic air about him, just a kind of a resigned reaction of a guy who mans the electric chair at Slug Sing. His attitude seemed to be, well, it s a living. Hoyt Wilhelm pitched in more rnaior league games than any pitcher who e-.er lived. The legendary Cy Young didn't come within a hundred of him. Which is astonishing. Because, it took Hoyt Wilhelm 10 years to even get to the big leagues He won 107 games down there, which may be a record. He spent three years in World War II, getting wounded in Germany in the process, and when he finally made the big leagues in 1952, a decade after he signed his first contract, he was almost 30 years old, and no one could predict he would appear in 1,070 major league games in the next 21 years. He even pitched a no-hitter in 1958, against the New York Yankees no less, and that was an era when the Yankees were still the Yankees Mantle, Berra, Bauer, Skowron. Howard, the world champs that year. You not only couldn't hit Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckleball, you couldn't even catch it. .Most of the past-ball records set in this century were set by receivers trying to hang onto Ho t Wilhelm's ball in the face of the rhii(;:ir:g backdrop scenery. In 1965, J.C. Martin, a pretty fair receiver for the Chicago U !:i?e Sox, set a modern record of 33 passed b.;'N for the season. Guess who was pitching for Chicago that year? In ':';o. Gus Triandos and Joe Ginsberg set .cm ' u ii tied the major league record for i;.n-1 passed balls in an inning (three) in the s.iiiir month (May). Guess who was piteii.iii, Bob Uecker, the humorist receiver re-ceiver wasn't being entirely funny when he ; 'he best way to catch Wilhelm's L' u; ku ball was "to wait till it stops rolling a:i v k it up." In the 1961 All-Star Game at ( j:. Iiestu k Park, Yogi Berra, the catcher of m-oi'l. disappeared from the dugout in the f the ninth inning when Hoyt ra.ne out of the bullpen in relief for ernan League. Yep. His replace--t'ti Howard, came up with a passed tile ha i ):!,! ie!i' cat. nuc ever the k 1; w wi.li: ttiih' U. 'lin n wr ( hanged the dimensions of the i-r'.s initt for Hoyt. The so-called "Pizza wa invented, a 41-inch pie with thing on it It was briefly used to slow i.ii k1' : dewn on its way to the backstop : .Her outlawed, and a reasonably :;: -e :.tcher agreed upon, but it is still 'w. s monument to the grand old game. :ielm won more eames in relief (123) 'ha:; any pitcher who ever lived, and he appeared in more games in relief, 1,018. K"llie Fingers has more "saves," but that's because the art of the "save" wasn't categorized till Hoyt Wilhelm was in his dotage. ii.'t Wilhelm pitched in the majors till he Bur Hoyt Wilhelm apparently has no chance of getting in baseball's Hall of Fame. The electorate must be waiting for him to change water into wine or multiply loaves or ualk the waves. If the best player in history at v hat he does can't make it, neither should Babe Ruth 1983 Los Angeles Times The Stein Eriksen Lodge incites you to enjoy Cocktaih, Mors Voeures and rte "Piano by the incomparable Qabrielle Stubbs The charming Troll Hjlier. I.eungt is a niu.st tor apres ski. Stop in for a drink and iivt pijrn 'vrore or after dinner at one i t our !av rest juranls. Hear Gabrielle Stubbs Wednesday thru SurJjv. 7.00 p.m. to closing. i I So. ..ski in, drive up tundv!;. or call the Lod'.e for eiiid jM.-Mn. course) r vhu;:ii' schedule. Mm 5f Stein Eriksi n lodge Located ust west el s a:-, in I Vei Valley Wtl. Now featuring sales on suedes and selected sportswear Located in the Park City Village Daily 10 a.m. -6pm. 649-3279 17 |