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Show The Summer Chronicle - Page Seven Wednesday, August 12. 1992 Spoirtts Mfiws BY TY BRONICEL Chronicle Assistant Sports Editor Hall-of-Fa- rarpfip. m home run leader became known as Hammerin' Hank thanks to his prodigious and , powerful blasts. These days, legendary baseball player Henry Aaron is going to bat for other reasons, as he tries to drive home major points to . America's youth. As the most famous active participant for the nationwide Big BrothersBig Sisters program, Aaron is helping underprivileged or troubled children to realize their hopes and dreams and to believe in themselves regardless of hardships any they might experience. "It's a great program any way " p you look at it," said the Aaron Tuesday afternoon from a local Arby's Restaurant. "It's great for the kids and it's great for me because I love spending time with them" "That's what Big BrothersBig Sisters is all about, giving some of your own time to befriend a little brother or little sister," said Aaron, who currently serves as senior vice president for his former team, the Atlanta Braves. Aaron told the young audience tov to youth n i king is a hit with kids Home-ru- n Dunne his baseball's all-ti- foiroitlhieirlly 3 M. . chairman of the Arby'sHank Aaron Scholarship Fund which provides college scholarships to thinks 9 2 h. t deserving Little Brothers and Little Sisters. Aaron S today's multimillionaire athletes' biggest concern is "money" and wishes more of them would spend time working with worthy causes.' "We try to "get all kinds of I i players involved whether it's baseball or not with Big BrothersBig Sisters program," that they "are the ones that are going to shape this country," and related a story about his experience as a Big Brother helping his Little Brother escape from the troubling and tempting said Aaron, who also donates time to the Georgia chapter of Leukemia and Sickle Cell Foundation. "Because, after all, most kids love sports. And it would be nice for them to sit with a kid at a baseball game in the afternoon. That's one of the greatest things in the world," Aaron said. world of drugs to become a part of the BBBS program. With Aaron's help, more than $6 million dollars has been raised. Aaron also serves as honorary Aaron wanted V his lasting impression to be his views on the definition of a hero. "I think too often in this country we get caught up in heroes," Aaron said. "Too many times we say, 'Oh look at that football player or basketball player or boxer. He's a hero.' "None of these athletes, not even Henry Aaron, can be considered a 'mi's hero," Aaron said. "Their hero should be their mother or father or schoolteacher." When talk switched to' his e run career, illustrious Aaron credited his "dedication" and "hard work" for helping him obtain the things he wanted. "It's kind of like if you had the choice of riding in a Volkswagon or riding in a Mercedes, which would you chose," Aaron joked. "I wanted to drive a Mercedes." When asked whether he thinks his record will ever be broken a player would need to average 38 home runs per year for 20 straight seasons to do it Aaron said, "I 755-hom- CHRONOE PHOTOSoot Sme CHRONICLE PHOTOSco all-tim- . Hammerin' Hank Aaron talks to the media Tuesday at a local Arby's Restaurant. Aaron was in Salt Lake giving a motivational talk to area youngsters as part of his participation in the nationwide Big BrotherBig Sister program. 9-- think someday it will, but right now Mets prove free agency not always "stole" WW division titles, a pennant and a . Imelda Marcos buys shoes. Over the Harrelson's first full season (well, almost) as the team's manager. Other than Howard Johnson, who led the league in home runs and RBIs, their offense was. . .well, offensive. Finishing second to last in the league in batting with a team average of .244, the Mets were looking a lot like the Yankees and there wasn't much relief in sight , off-seaso-n, than they were in 1991, they're worse. . :' .500 mark. Their team batting average is a low in both leagues, hovering around the .233 mark. The Mets your pitching. - ' The Mets finished 7 games under .500 in '91. Entering Tuesday night's games, the Mets have lost 7. in a row and are 9 games under the two-tim- American League's representative two After spending some $40 million not on free agents in the only are the Mets not any better had recurring shoulder problems and Sid Fernandez has weighed, enough to be mistaken for the Mets' fourth and fifth starting pitchers. So Harazin unloaded Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith e Miller for Cy Young winner Bret Saberhagen. There's Enter Al Harazin. The first thing consecutive years? OK, he'll work. manager and current executive Frank Robinson said, "The only question left about, the National League East in 1992 is who will Finish second." One thing is for sure it won't be the Mets. baseman Eddie Murray for another $7 million over two years. Well, there's your offense. ', Now the Mets needed stability at pitching where Dwight Gooden has since '84, and it was Buddy Series dealing, former Baltimore Orioles " Darryl Strawberry for the first time the World winter, Harazin signed the Pirates' Ott Bobby Bonilla for about $6 Chronicle a year million Writer Sports over 5. years. then picked up veteran first Ah, but that was only one season. The Mets were without for After Harazin and the Mets finished their wheeling and Matt currently have Entering the 1991 season the approximately $60 million dollars Johnson, Bonilla, Murray) that Saberhagen. Gooden just returned from the DL and will probably be back there again before too long. Whereas most people thought free agency was going to kill the on the Disabled List, including Magadan, Johnson, Bonilla and Mets had a lineup (Vince Coleman, Willie Randolph, Dave Magadan, appeared to rival any in the league, and a pitching staff that had three Cy Young awards between two players (Gooden and Saberhagen) and another great young pitcher in . UTES OPEN FALL DRILLS: Ron McBride's Runnin' Utes' football team hurting the n smaller market teams (i.e., Atlanta, and began preparing Monday for the upcomihg season with the squad's Pittsburgh) it actually seems to be large-markteams more. The Yankees signed the second-moattractive free agent over the winter, getting Danny Tartabull from the Royals for $5 strikeout title two years running. In the preseason, most thought the Mets would at least contend for the division title while others even predicted a World Series. started buying like players fool-pro- of also won the National League 20-wi- It's just as hard finding a real hero like Hank Aaron. don't see anyone out there." Minnesota, a Torborg, Harazin I not only had season of his own, but has David Cone, who has under-contra- ct World Series Championship. 1991 was a different story. The Mets finished in fifth place with a 77-8- 4 record, a healthy 20 12 games behind Pittsburgh, and were being compared to the Mets of the early 1960s, who were famous for losing more than 100 games in a season. Harazin needed to do was hire a manager to replace Buddy Harrelson. How' about Jeff Torborg, whose overachieving Chicago White Sox had finished second place in a division that featured the he the After Between the years of 1986 and 1990 the New York Mets never finished worse than second in the National League's East Division and, during that span, claimed two freshmen reporting for action. The rest of the team will begin practicing Saturday. After a few days of workouts on et st . Sine e The legendary Hank Aaron, baseball's home run leader, throws out the first pitch at Derks Field Tuesday evening prior to the Salt Lake Trappers' 0 victory. campus, the team will make its million a year. Tartabull is batting .243 with 14 homers, and the Yankees are currently 10 games under .500, good enough to be one game ahead of the perennial last-pla- annual voyage to Price for the y (Aug. Camp Carbon. Utah will open the that, Following season .Sept. 5 on the road against 10-da- 20-2- Nebraska. ce Cleveland Indians. The GIANTS MAY NOT BE GONE JUST YET: San Francisco supervisor Boston Red Sox signed free agent pitcher Frank Viola for another $5 million a year, and Viola has responded with a 10-- 7 record. The Red Sox are 13 games behind division- - leading Toronto. I don't even have the heart to talk about the Los Angeles Dodgers and Darryl Strawberry. What I'm trying to say is this: If baseball is going to continue with its wide-ope- n market, it needs to adopt a salary'cap system, much like the NBA. Not because the huge market teams from New York and Los Angeles are signing free-age- Angela Alioto Monday said she's prepared to offer the San Francisco Giants a $200 million ballpark proposal to keep the team from moving to Florida. Alioto said a consortium of unions agreed to finance a new downtown ballpark from their pension funds, including the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry union, Local 38, electricians and carpenters. Alioto declined to elaborate, saying she would announce further details Thursday. nt all the stars and dominating, but because they are signing them all and still ending up in last place. . Hopefully, the entire league will learn from teams like Minnesota, Atlanta and Baltimore, who generally remain loyal to their farm system, rather than shell out millions of dollars for players who just aren't worth it. 9) . WILL MAGIC REAPPEAR?: Magic Johnson said Monday he feels healthy after helping the United States win the gold medal at the Olympics but that he and his wife have yet to decide if he'll return to the Los Angeles Lakers. "What's going to happen is my and I are going to sit down, talk about it and see," he said on "The wife Arsenio Hall Show." "It all depends on if I feel like coming back. |