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Show jS The 1 XVTXl Newspaper a - mtjuju" - - 1 " The Newspaper Thursday, June 17, 1982 Page B5 by Jim Murray Muckers mauled in Boise by John Sundquist For the Park City Muckers, Muck-ers, the party is over. It is summer now, and time to go to work. This thought became evident last weekend when the Muckers lost back-to-back games in Boise on Saturday and Sunday. Sun-day. Playing the Snake River team from Boise first, the Muckers final score was 32-7. On Sunday the host Boise Motherlode turned back a late Park City surge to win 23-10. Going on tour always has its disadvantages. The home team is usually stronger, with less distance to travel. Then there are the hostile fans to contend with. The big factor which many new rugby players must learn is the social and recreational side of touring. No matter what you do the night before, it is your job to be on the field and ready to play on the day of the game. If the Muckers are to avoid a plunge into the abyss of mediocre rugby, they will have to "play with some dedication the rest of the year or it will not even be funny," said Coach Rick Phaler. On June 26, the Muckers are scheduled to play the Idaho Rep Side, composed of the top players in the state. The following week is the annual July 4 game with the Dead Goat Touring Side, guaranteed to be a tough match. After the Goat game, Park City will host Sun Valley on July 10. Sun Valley won the Ski Town Tournament two years ago and placed second last year to Aspen. The Ski Town Tournament is next on July 24 and 25 in Vail, Colorado. Planned in August is a trip to Idaho Falls to play the Zebras, who defeated Park City in May by the score of 24-3. So the Muckers schedule for the next six weeks, in the words of the coach at Aspen, "will have nary a duffer." The debacle in Boise began on Saturday at 4 p.m. Snake River is the Oregon Rugby Union champ and has won the Park City Challenge Cup three times. Park City lost to the Snakes last year in the Challenge Cup by one point, 7-6. The previous game, in 1980, the Muckers lost by two points 10-8. The Muckers beat the Snakes in Pocatello in 1979 to win the Labor Day Tournament. This game started out strong for the Muckers. The pack was moving the ball and playing tough inside the 25 yard lines. The big problem for Park City last weekend was the lack of tackling. This showed up early when the Snakes put a try on the board at the 10-minute 10-minute mark of the first half. Pat Moloney ran a set play 1 m ' lllMMWHn.,,,,. II I HI If 1 ' i J h fly , - . frh - "7u ' J - Charlie Downing claws his way over an opposing forward during lineout. ball from the Mucker 40 and kicker Randy Osier made the conversion for a 6-0 lead. Park City came back with a penalty kick by Rick Phaler from the 30 for a 6-3 score at the 15-minute mark. But Pat Moloney again scored for the Snakes when he intercepted a Park City pass in the backline and ran the ball in. The conversion was missed and the score was 10-3. Park City then moved the ball down to the Snake five yard line and put pressure on to score. The pack won the ball and Phaler passed out to center Kevin McKay who popped the ball into the try zone and got there to recover it. The conversion was wide and the score was 10-7. Snake River scored one more try before the half when 6'5" fullback Mark Hummel got the ball in the back line off a set play and thundered in from the Mucker 40. Hummel had spent three years in Australia playing rugby and is a threat with his foot as well as with his ball handling. han-dling. The halftime score was 16-7. The second half saw three tries by the Snakes, all from way out. Number eight Dave MaCenany got a pass from the scrum half and ran to the tryline in the opening moments of the half. Snake River winger Antone Gabiola went 75 yards for a try five minutes later. The last try came at the 20-minute 20-minute mark of the second half when Hummel kicked a 25-yard dropout to teammate Scott Russel who ran it down to the five and let it out to winger Stan Woodward for the score. The Sunday match with Boise was a dismal affair for the Muckers. The team suffered suf-fered injuries to the entire second row, including the jumpers in the line out plus the number eight, Tom Lauder. Add these injuries to the previous day's play and the ranks of the reserves became non-existent. Park City ended the game with three walk-ons and nobody over six feet tall. The first half scoring began with a Motherlode penalty kick from the 30 after af-ter a Park City scrum violation. Boise put a try over at the 25 minute mark of the opening half when Park City was guilty of poor tackling. The conversion was missed and the score was 7-0. Park City got on the board with a nice play from Rick Phaler and Kenny Tedford. The Muckers won a scrum-down scrum-down and Phaler elected to go weak side with fly half Tedford. The ball was passed to Tedford after Phaler had committed the Boise lock, and Tedford ran to the Motherlode 25 where he passed to fullback Joel Armstrong (a walk-on from Saturday who returned Sunday) Sun-day) and the Montana Rep Side member ran to the goal and scored. The conversion was missed by Phaler and the halftime score was 7-4. The second half was a long one with players leaving the field on a regular basis. Park City closed the gap to 13-10 when another walk-on, Pat Moloney of Snake River. teamed up with Park City center Mark Uriarte for a forty yard scoring play. But the winning try by Boise came at the 30-minute mark with the Muckers down on their own five. "I thought if I could break through one player I was open all the way," said center cen-ter Kevin McKay. But when McKay had gotten only a few yards after starting in the try zone, he was stripped of the ball and a Boise player landed on it. This made the score 17-10 and put the game pioto by John Sundquist out of reach. "If I had to narrow it down to four things which told the tale," reflected Phaler on Monday, "it would be the injuries, in-juries, misunderstanding of touring by some of the new and old players, lack of conditioning, con-ditioning, and very poor tackling on our part. "We did most things right ; we had a head of steam. But we have to get the most out of these games. The score is insignificant. We play real games from here on in." Twilight run draws a crowd More than 800 runners are expected in town Saturday for the seventh annual Park City Twilight Run. According to race organizer Doug Beck, 816 competitors com-petitors submitted entry forms before the June 13 deadline, the largest field in four years. He said there were 686 runners a year ago. The race is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Park City High School. The four-mile course will wind through Park Meadows and then return to the high school. Beck said about $3,000 worth of prizes would be awarded to the top runners, with trophies going to the top overall male and female competitors. Among the entrants are many of the top distance runners in Utah. However, Beck said that the defending defend-ing champions, Demetrio Cabanillas and Monica Starrett, are not entered in this year's event. Following the race, a party sponsored by Lite Beer will be held for all participants at the Park City Ski Area plaza from 8 p.m. until midnight. Henry Aaron's mistake: he made it look easy Watching Henry Aaron play baseball is lme watching Crosby sing, (cq), Barrymore act, a lion eat, or Cagney going to the chair. The effort was not discernible. He seemed born to do it. When the fly ball came down, Henry was there. When the curve hung, Henry was there. Henry never pounced on a pitch. He didn't mug the ball, he just met it. There was no strain on the audience whatsoever. what-soever. Nor the performer. Henry came to bat like a guy who had just been awakened from a sound sleep. Henry never worked up a sweat. He just sort of floated into the history books. It may have been a mistake. You know it is in show business. When a juggling act comes out with a set of plates spinning on a reed, it is a good idea to drop a couple of them early in the act before the smash finale where you keep a hundred of them spinning in the air at once. You let the customers know how tough it is. An aerialist always contrives a few near misses before he brings off the triple somersault. somer-sault. The tenor works the audience as he builds up to the high C. Henry looked like a guy eating an apple out there. He considered it sissy to let his hat fall off, his pants get dirty. He stole bases standing stan-ding up. Henry broke the home run record without trying. Most of his 755 home runs were as big a surprise to him as they were to the pitcher. He was just trying to hit the ball someplace. Henry never wanted to be a slugger, just a hitter. Henry Aaron hit more home runs than any other player in baseball. He batted in more runs. He got more hits than any other player in baseball except Ty Cobb. He got more hits than Pete Rose and this will come as a surprise sur-prise to a lot of casual fans. They are led to believe Pete Rose is in pursuit only of Ty Cobb for the all-time hit record. Pete is in pursuit of Henry Aaron who, as of this writing, still has over 50 more lifetime hits. It's not conceivable, but it is possible Pete won't make it. What makes Henry Aaron so overlooked? How can a guy who hit 755 home runs not go in the language like Barney Oldfield, Arthur Duffy or Babe Ruth? Why do you still hear of some young phenom that "He's a regular Babe Ruth?" Why not "a regular Henry Aaron?" Some people think it's prejudice. Ruth was white. So is Rose. It's more likely Image. Everyone knows what a home run champion looks like: A raucous old party with a face like a pizza, a belly like a department store Santa Claus, wrists like wagon tongues, and a lusty appetite ap-petite for life and the limelight. Not this neat, quiet, graceful, polite man who does what he does at the unhurried pace of a muddy river, who is as taken for granted as a light switch. Should Henry have busted up a few bar mirrors? Should he have missed the team bus, jumped the club a few times? Called the owner names? Got the manager fired? Went around yelling (justifiably) "I am the greatest!" Probably. Should he have played in New York or Los Angeles? It would have helped decidedly. Should he have been able at the drop of a question to recite all his accomplishments in a litany like Pete Rose and keep reminding the media of where he was on the ladder to immortality? Assuredly. One incidence suffices suf-fices an explanation. When Henry Aaron was within a few hits of the all-time National League record (held then by Stan Musial), he inadvisedly switched to the American League for the end of his career and, when he passed Musial, he did so with hits made in the American League. Ergo, he was not, and never would be, the "National League" hit champion. Pete Rose made no such mistake when he switched franchises. He didn't switch swit-ch leagues. Henry explained to me the other day at lunch that had anyone called his attention atten-tion to his position, Henry might not have changed leagues. Henry unwisely slid himself him-self into a permanent runner-up position. I can personally attest to the invisibility of Henry Aaron. Once, I went down to a locker room in his heyday and, in the course of interviewing, I asked the question, "Henry, when do you think you will get No. 3,000 (base hit)?" Henry looked at me strangely. "Jim, I got that two years ago. I've got 3,400," he told me. The point is, no one would ever make that mistake with Pete Rose. Pete Rose doesn't let you stay 400 hits behind him. When Henry Aaron went into the Hall of Fame, a lot of people thought it should be by acclamation. He played more games, had more at-bats, more total bases than anyone else and is second in hits and runs only to one player. But nobody's gone in the Hall of Fame unanimously. The Baseball Writers of America are a hanging jury. Why else would Cobb and Ruth not be unanimous? Why else would Joe DiMaggio not go in even on me first ballot? Henry Aaron got the highest percentage of votes cast of anyone ever elected to the Hall 406 out of a possibly 415. But two voters left him completely off a list of 10 eligibles! (Cobb got 222 of 226 in his year. Ruth got 215 out of 226. ) But, the fact remains, "Oh Henry" is a candybar named after the writer, not the outfielder. Is it because he had the audacity to break Babe Ruth's record and a lot of old-timers' old-timers' hearts? Possibly. Because Roger Maris, who broke Ruth's single-season homer record can't get any more votes than a banjo-hitting outfielder. Maris got 69 out of 415 in the last Hall of Fame balloting. I bring all this up because Henry was in L.A. promoting the Crackerjack Old Timers Baseball Classic, a five-inning journey into nostalgia to be played in Washington, D.C. on July 19. Henry's in it because the proceeds go to indigent or down-on-their-luck old-time ballplayers who have hit life's slump. Henry is not bitter, but he wonders what he has to do to make prospects be described as "another Henry Aaron" instead of "another Babe Ruth," or "a regular Ty Cobb." Usually, when you say a player "is his own worst enemy," you mean he dissipates, makes trouble, does all the wrong things off the field, and sometimes on. Henry may be his own worst enemy precisely because he doesn't, because he always did the right things. Or, people think he did what he did with no real help from Henry Aaron. It was just there. Henry merely brought it to the ballpark. One anecdote gives the lie to this: Henry Aaron reveals that, for the last seven years out of his career, he needed glasses to read. Henry got a lot of hits because he studied pitchers the way historians study dead kings. Henry got a lot of help from Henry Aaron. Henry also went home every winter with a stock of a dozen or so bats which he rubbed laboriously with broken Coke bottles all winter win-ter long to harden them. He never took more than three bats on a roadtrip because he wanted the ones in his rack to be as letter-perfect letter-perfect as Jack Nicklaus wants his wedges. Henry Aaron was not lucky, he was prepared. So, maybe no one says "He's a regular Henry Aaron" because that's not an easy thing to be. All you have to do is show up for 22 years on time and ready to play in 3,298 games, stay in superb condition, get almost as many base hits as Ty Cobb and more than six times as many home runs, get your name in the papers only for game-winning hits or catcnes, and to have an enemy in the game and volunteer for the things like the Cracker-jack Cracker-jack charities. Obviously, the reason "another Henry Aaron" may not be loosely tossed around is because it puts too much pressure on a boy. (c) 1982, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Open Thursday thru Saturday DUSTY RIDER Thursday, Friday & Saturday Coming COMMANDER COD? July 1st and 2nd Tickets available at the Cowboy Bar liquor store, Cosmic Aeroplane and Wagstalf Music. Happy Thursday Happy Hour prices all night Cover Vz price for locals Free cover for ladies PARK CITY (cl mm1 Now Available for Private Parties, Banquets and Luncheons iY j P The Emporium, Hwy. 248 E. Mjjr j Park City, Utah 84060 649-2320 Wfer I -V) VN 1 20 OFF Sea Marine J A Wet Suits I Vi day lesson and rental 1 $30 applicable to purchase price. 2 half-day rentals ij A M Happy Hour 5:00 to 7:00 Dancing begins at 9:00 Unquestionably the finest western fare and entertainment in Park City Top of Main Street For dinner reservations and information please call 649-4146 y km 9 , : 'W"""iMmBESS?"'T |