OCR Text |
Show I Town Race Pros invade cross-country ranks by Jeff Howrey Last Monday's town race drew another big field in excess ex-cess of 300 racers as Bill Skinner won just barely his third race in a row in the men's pro class and Adolph Imboden came out to handily win the men's vets. Skinner, who has been on a roll the last couple of months, mon-ths, barely eeked out his third win in a row, besting perennial runnerup, Victor Roy, by only seven one-hundredths one-hundredths of a second. Roy has finished second in every town race this year. While his lack of wins may be a bit frustrating pn a personal level, Roy can take heart in the fact that his consistencywhich consisten-cywhich Skinner, a streak skier, sometimes lacks has earned him enough points to hold on to first in the season standings. However, it could be anybody's game before it's over. Arch Wright, among several strong pro class local skiers, is always a threat to catch fire, even though he's had trouble cracking the top three in races so far. Jacobson a contender Karl Jacobson is also a contender to win the pro crown, depending, of course, on how well he does in the three remaining races March 7 and 21 and April 4. So far, Jacobson has hung right in their with the pack, as evidenced by his third place showing in the pros last Monday. He seems to be in top form. Along with Skinner, Skin-ner, he was the only local to make it into last Saturday's post-qualifying action when the Peugeot pro tour made a stop in Park City. Jacobson is also showing his prowess in the crosscountry cross-country competition. Jacobson is a converted alpine specialist who didn't bother to learn a telemark when he strapped on his three-pins for his entry into the cross-country battles at the beginning of the year. Before the season began, Jacobson was overheard telling veteran cross-country competitors who were dubious that before the year was half through, he would be smoking the field. Well, the season is now Jacobson's margin if victory is even more impressive. Another alpiner-come-lately to the cross-country class is last Monday's women's winner, Karri Hays. Hays is also holding her own in the women's pro alpine competition, finishing second to the ever-tough Roxanne Toly last Monday. Robbie Beck, who's always up there with the winners, finished third. Korfanta wins again In the women's vet competition, compe-tition, Karen Korfanta continued con-tinued her domination of the field, winning in a runaway. Elvia Ramos made her first entry this year into the top three, taking second place. Third went to Pam Jacob- First place went to Adolph Imboden. Bruce Morris finished second and Rolf Sandberg finished third. Other winners Scott Siemon won the men's A for the second race in a row in fine fashion. Siemon faced some tough competition in the A's, which boasts the biggest and most intense field ever. Roy Moyer, who's been at the top of the field all year, gave Siemon a run for his money Monday, finishing second. Dee Wallace took third. Quite a few of the usually solid A racers, however, performed per-formed a little shakily Monday. Mon-day. An apparent factor was the rutty course and less than satisfactory snow conditions con-ditions which had racers of 6 'As plans stand now, we're going to make the last race of the year a little more elaborate than usual. We just want to keep everybody 9s interest up. 99 halfway over. Jacobson has word. Despite system in series for telemarks, kept his the penalty the town race not executing Jacobson won last Monday's race by over half a second. Considering that the cross-country race is relatively short, run from halfway up Clementine, sen. In the men's vets competition, com-petition, season leader George Ward, who has won the last couple of races, had a very disappointing day Monday. With the field beefed up considerably (the only person missing was Stein), Ward didn't even manage to crack the top three. r J I Vs I" . ; J ft 1 all classes taking falls all day. In the women's A division, one of the best matchups of the day came during the head-to-head competition between Heidi Francis, who finished first, and Janie Hooker, who took runnerup honors. Ginny Sislane was third. In the women's B class, an initial mixup due to racers changing bibs on the mountainresulted moun-tainresulted in the wrong skier being given the trophy at Monday's awards party after the race at the Black Pearl. The actual results were Jodie Gingrass in first, Jill Davis second and Janna Johnson third. In the men's B's, familiar faces Dan Closini, Gene Gautieri and Phil Palmer took first through third, respectively. The men's C's had a most unusual finish. A tie. Both Rob Austin and Lee Walsh closed in with best runs of 30.01 seconds. Both were awarded first-place points in the season standings. stand-ings. Trophies were awarded on the toss of a coin. Christine Heideklang won the women's C class. (For further results, see "Scoreboard.") Final race plans It's late in the season," says Skinner who, along with Tasha Beebe, Hans Jakobovitz and others at the resort, is responsible for running the race series. "We've been very gratified with the response the town races have generated this year. "I think that the reason we're getting 300 racers each time out," continues Skinner, Skin-ner, "is because we run a civilized race. We don't go out of our way to enforce rules or be real sticklers when people have good excuses ex-cuses for their screw-ups. "But we have been having a hard time getting cooperation in certain areas. Especially in terms of start times. We're having to deal with 300 racers a day. That's 600 timed runs we have to supervise in one day. It's tough under the best circumstances. circum-stances. But with people not showing up on time, it really makes it tough. People need to be there on time. We just need everybody's cooperation so we don't have to start being sticklers over the exact rules of the race." Race officials also say that bib switching is a perennial problem. As was noted previously, just such an incident in-cident resulted in women getting the wrong trophies, and in one case no trophy at all, because of record keeping confusion caused by a combination of bib-switching bib-switching and people taking runs out of turn after showing up late for their start times. Speaking of starts, race officials of-ficials note that they have had some difficulty in getting get-ting heats underway fairly without start gates. That's one of the reasons that plans now call for the last race of the year, April 4, to be run with start gates. "As plans stand now," notes Skinner, "We're going to make the last race of the year a little more elaborate than usual. We just want to keep everybody's interest up." Other plans for the final race include a two-day schedule, with cross-country competition as well as the B and C downhill class on the first day and the vets, pro and A's the following day. Additionally, if tentative plans work out, the last race day will find the crosscountry cross-country and B's and C's getting get-ting what they've always clamored for longer runs. The first days finals will all be run from the top of ' Clementine. Not to be outdone, the vets, pros and A competition will be conducted for the first time on the Ladies' Giant Slalom course. Park City's Tom Flinders goes up for a shot over the outstretched hand of a South Rich defender. High school basketball Boys face playoff for tournament spot Bartender's Cup The annual Bartender's Cup race will be held at the Park City Ski Area Wednesday, March 9. According to the race's sponsors Miller Beer promotional -osters were a little late hitting the streets this year, but the race will be held as scheduled. Racing wills tart Wednesday at 10 a.m. The race format will be dula, head-to-head runs on a giant slalom course at the resort. Registration for the race will be at the Race Department Depar-tment ticket window Tuesday, March 8 from 2 to 4 p.m. All racers have to be 21. Technically, they're supposed to be employed by the bar or restaurant sponsoring their team. Teams will be comprised of two men and one woman. The top four teams in the day's action will be given trophies during an awards ceremony at the Yarrow-Holiday Yarrow-Holiday Inn beginning at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The first place team will advance to the Bartender's Cup championship cham-pionship in Aspen March 30. by John Kinch The Park City High School basketball team managed to score only 35 points against the South Rich Trojans last Friday, losing 50-35 in their last home game of the season. Although it was low scoring, it was one of the more action-filled games for the Miners this year. However, as the Miners raced around the court, the Trojans coolly hit their outside out-side shots and free throws. In the first quarter South Rich led 10-7 with less than two minutes remaining in play, Park City was hustling, but poor shot selection and turnovers nullified their efforts. ef-forts. Park City began the second quarter trailing the Trojans 14-8. The Miners were still within six points of the Trojans, 11-17 midway through the quarter. However, they were never able to get any closer. When the quarter ended they were down 27-18. In the third quarter Park City tried a sei m which Chris Cooper would feed the ball to Flinders at the post and Flinders would toss the ball back to Cooper, who then would then take the 15-foot 15-foot jumper. It was a smart play in theory, but Cooper could not hit the shot, going scoreless for the quarter. Although Cooper was having his troubles, Bill Simmons was keeping Park City in the game, hitting a jumper at the buzzer to bring the Miners within six points again, 33-26. The fourth quarter began at a fast pace with Park City out rebounding the taller Trojans. But South Rich's Tate countered with four consecutive points, making the score 37-29 with five minutes left in the game. Park City went into a full-court full-court press after Tate's second hoop as once again the Miners had to play catchup catch-up ball. Doug Vincent and Simmons added four points to the Miners' score after each stole the ball and hit a lay-up. With less than three minutes left Cooper hit a jumper to make it 39-35. But that was as close as the Miners ever came. South Rich put the game out of reach at the free throw line, scoring 11 points in the quarter, quar-ter, winning 50-35. "We played lousy," said Miner Coach Bruce Reid. "We didn't pass well and we shot poorly. The loss the South Rich gave the Miners a 2-7 region record, which was not good enough to get them in the Region 11 Tournament, without first having a playoff game with Tintic of Division 2, Region 11. The Miners will play Tintic on Friday for the eighth spot in the tournament. tour-nament. If Park City loses then the season ends there. "I don't know how we will do against Tintic. They have a 6'6" center, who is supposed sup-posed to be pretty good. We'll have to wait and see," said Reid. If the Miners win, they will probably play the number one team from Division 1, South Summit, on March 10 at a neutral site. Balloon Bouquets Only $20 for bouquet of 15. Parties & special orders available. Phone 649-3295 8 am. 12 midnight by Jim Murray MmnriPariy Dim Spowitg What? Pay him what he's worth? HE ALINE - "A 31 z-Minute Tape of Praise For Fernando Valenzuela by Dodger Manager and Dodger Vice President Sways Arbitrator into Giving Pitcher $l-Million Contract." We take you now to 1963 where team owner Moe Gull is one tne phone hotly to his manager, Tommy LaBonza. The owner is speaking er, better make that shouting as we tune in. Owner: "LaBonza, what's the matter with you? Have you lost your mind? Telling the press that our star pitcher should be arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. Did you tell the press it should be a federal offense to pass yourself off as a pitcher with his stuff? That he should be suspended for delay of game when he throws his fastball? That he would be better off to mail it? That his curveball should be named 'Twiggy' and that you can't teil his earned-run-average from the Dow Jones, and he ought to come out with a new line of shirts with a gopher on 'em?" Manager: "Well, I did say the 's' didn't belong on his fastball. And, when somebody asked me what kind of a curveball he had, I did say 'I don't know, nobody's ever caught it yet.' But, Boss, what am I supposed to say? This guy's been knocked out of the box 18 times in a row! In the first inning! He ain't got a batter out since silent movies. You don't watch his games, you listen to 'em. They sound like the siege of Warsaw. What am I supposed to say?" Owner: "You could say he's a slow developer. You could say he's another Koufax, that, one of these days, he'll make the world forget Dazzy Vance! What good is it going to do to say you've seen better arms on the Venus de Milo?" Manager: "Dazzy Vance?! Boss, this guy not only shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath with Dazzy Vance, he shouldn't even be in the same sport. As for Koufax, the only thing this guy has in common with Koufax is they're both air-breathing mammals. There, the resemblance stops. On the mound, they're not even the same species." Owner (hissing): "Don't you think I know that?! I can read statistics, can't I? Don't I have to repair centerfield seats every time he pitches? Who was it begged the umps to put in old balls every time he pitched with men on base like a guy using a cut-ball over water in golf? I'm no dummy, you dummy! But how do we sell tickets if you keep knocking the product? You got to tell people that bunch of clowns I signed are all on their way to the Hall of Fame. Cross your fingers if you want. Go to confession. But we got to make a buck, we've got to make people think they're looking at the 1927 Yankees on a run of hard luck. This is a business, LaBonza! Shape up! This is not 'To Tell the Truth,' this is not an integrity contest. Who are we going to sell all those hot dogs and bobblehead dolls to if you keep coming up with honest answers? an-swers? I can get lots of guys to tell the truth. But this is Show Biz, Babe. You think those magicians really cut girls in half? It's all illusion, you goof. Tell 'em you're sure this guy will break all Nolan Ryan's records before he's through. Never mind that you mean for bases on balls. I got seats to fill, TV contracts to sign. Get with it, dummy." We dissolve now to the year 1983. Same cast of characters. The owner is, if anything, even madder as he gets on the phone. Owner: "Now, you've done it, chump! What do you mean getting on the air and telling the world that 'A player like this comes along once in a lifetime'? What are you trying to do? Ruin me? Can't you tell the people this is the luckiest bum you ever saw in your life? That, if it weren't for a fast outfield, out-field, he'd be back in Albuquerque trying to stop the bleeding? What is it with you and that G.M. of mine? Do you want to go back to scouting for a living? Maybe your family will let you wait on the table or stuff the ravioli for them." Manager: "But, Boss, this guy just threw three no-hitters! In a row! He hasn't given up an earned-run since Mother's Day! What am I supposed to say? That he can't cure colds? That he reads with his lips?" Owner: "You can tell'em he's too fat. Or too young. Or too anything! Unless you want to be working for him some day! Tell me, do you have any idea how much this young man is going to be asking for if you keep saying he puts you in mind of Koufax or Grover Cleveland Alexander? If you keep telling the world how lucky we are to have him? His agent makes more money than you do? Keep it up and I'll be lucky to have him as a partner." part-ner." Manager: "Boss, what do you want me to do? This guy's our stopper, our pennant insurance! in-surance! Without him, there's no way we're going to win the pennant." Owner (pensive): "Pennant? Pennant? Who wants to win the pennant? That's another thing I been meaning to talk to you about, LaBonza. Do you realize what winning the pennant would do to our payroll? I've traded away half a team already to guard against it. Now your job is to mismanage what's left. As usual. And stop priasing those guys to the skies. Point out the league isn't what it used to be. That baseball isn't what it used to be. Wonder out loud how good this guy would be if he had to get the ball past Willie Mays or Henry Aaron. Babe Rugh. Say a guy should have to pay to pitch against the San Diego Padres. Say a guy should blush to make more money than DiMaggio. Especially this guy." Manager: "But, Boss, what about tickets? Customers?" Owner: "Tickets? Oh, sure. I been meaning to speak to you about that, too. They keep pointing out how many extra we sell on the night this guy pitches. I was wondering, could we keep it a secret what night he pitches? pit-ches? Where he is in the rotation? Jerk him around in it? Warm people over the air the parking lot's full that night? I'm talking survival sur-vival here, baby." Manager: "Well, Boss, there's one thing you could do." Owner: "What's that?" Manager: "You could sell it to Hollywood as a horror movie. 'The Creature That Ate Baseball.'" (c) 1983, Los Angeles Times Park City Soupe Company open daily -catering private parties - take-out 442 Main St., Park City (801)649-7687 Ken Ashburner, Owner Now Serving: Spaghetti and Tamale Dinners Hours: Monday -Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. NEW SERIES WASATCH SKI TOURING MAPS Showing 6 ski areas and 200 sq. mile back country slopes on a 4 color map. Orthophoto, topo, and oblique panorama photos. MAP 1: Mill Cr.. Lower Big Cottonwood Canyons, Park City and ParkWest. MAP 2: Lone Peak Wilderness. Alta. Brighton. Snowbird and Solitude. V Get it from outfitters or Mail Order 1 map, $6.50 (specify 1 or 2), 2 maps, $1 0.50 Send check to: ALPENTECH, 2871 S. 2870 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84109 J |