International Baseball

TOKYO (AP) While Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa slug it out for the National League home run title and a potential place in the major-league record books, another intriguing homer drama is unfolding in Japan.
Kintetsu outfielder Tuffy Rhodes connected for a two-run homer in Sunday’s 10-9 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters at Tokyo Dome, giving the former member of the Boston Red Sox his 49th homer of the season, six shy of the Japanese record of 55 set by the legendary Sadaharu Oh in 1964.
With Sunday’s victory, the Buffaloes moved into first place in the Pacific League standings, a half game up on the defending champion Daiei Hawks with 22 games left in the season.
“I’m trying not to think of the record,” Rhodes said after Sunday’s win. “We’re looking to win a championship and right now that’s all I’m focusing on.”
The last time a foreign player came this close to breaking Oh’s record was in 1985 when Randy Bass of the Hanshin Tigers hit 54.
As he approached Oh’s record, Bass saw fewer and fewer pitches near the strike zone and eventually took to holding his bat upside down in protest of what many considered a conspiracy to keep an American from breaking Oh’s mark.
While his numbers are up in every offensive category this season, Rhodes said he hasn’t changed anything compared to past seasons and is just trying to be more patient at the plate.
“I’m just trying to swing at pitches in the strike zone,”said Rhodes. “I’ve been getting some good pitches to hit and it helps when you have good hitters behind you.”
Rhodes bats third in the Kintetsu lineup and is followed by Norihiro Nakamura, who has 38 homers and a .333 average, and Koichi Isobe, who is having a breakout season with 13 homers and a .323 average.
Playing in his sixth season with the Buffaloes, Rhodes is the elder statesman among Japan’s foreign players. Before this season, his best year was 1999 when he hit 40 homers.
The 33-year-old native of Cincinnati, Ohio, signed with the Buffaloes in 1996 after a brief stint with the Red Sox in 1995. He started his major league career with the Houston Astros in 1990 before moving to the Chicago Cubs in 1993.
But not to be forgotten in this equation is Alex Cabrera of the third-place Seibu Lions.
Cabrera, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks, has 44 homers heading into Sunday night’s game with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
The 29-year-old Venezuelan, playing in his first season in Japan after appearing in 31 games last year for Arizona when he connected for five homers, is well within Oh’s mark and has a tendency to hit his homers in bunches.
The Buffaloes take on the Lions in a three-game series beginning Monday at Seibu Dome before facing the Hawks in a crucial weekend series at Osaka Dome.
With the pennant and the home run title on the line, it should be a September to remember in Japan’s Pacific League.

National Football League

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Arthur N. Diemer, regarded as the NFL Buffalo Bills’ first season-ticket holder, died on Saturday after a lengthy illness at Batavia’s United Memorial Medical Center. He was 81.
The Buffalo native, called “Archie’” by his friends, was the first in line when the then-American Football League Bills began selling tickets in 1960, and had held them ever since.
In 1999, Diemer was honored for his loyalty in a special ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, where the Bills presented him a plaque, leather jacket and a No. 40 jersey, representing his 40 years as a fan.
Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Diemer attended last month’s two Bills preseason games, and remained a member of the Bills Boosters and Monday Quarterback Club.
“I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t celebrate,” Diemer once told The Buffalo News. “I like football.”
In 1981, Diemer retired after 42 years as a cost accountant for Bennett Manufacturing.
He is survived by his wife Katherine, four children, six grandchildren and a great-grandson.
A memorial mass will be held Wednesday at Sacred Heart Church in Buffalo. Burial will be in Sacred Heart Cemetery.

Summer Olympic Games

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) It’s bring-your-own beer for a German athletic organization that will pour 2,000 gallons of stiff brew at the Ice House during the Winter Olympics.
In an unusual arrangement with Utah regulators, Landes Sport Bund Thuringen was issued six, 72-hour permits to run a public beer garden over the 17 days of the February games, plus an extra day.
“Very few sponsors, or Olympic committees, or representatives of countries, have indicated any interest in selling and being open to the public,” said Earl Dorius, licensing chief for the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
The agency controls the sale and distribution of all alcohol in Utah and outside of state liquor stores limits the alcohol content of beer to 3.2 percent, barely half the usual strength. The German import won’t have to comply.
Switzerland is the only other country among 82 at the games that has sought a permit for a public beer garden. The permit allows alcohol consumption at unlicensed locations for special events.
Some nations have applied for alcohol permits to run private hospitality suites for invited guests only.
A private German club will take over the Park City Racquet Club, and sponsors of German sports federations ordered 14,040 pint-sized bottles of a German pilsner and a lager for the occasion. Germans can’t import their own country’s beer. They have to order it through Utah’s alcohol board, which marks up U.S. distributors’ prices by 78.6 percent, a tax that earns the state cash and pays for school lunches.
The Germans will pour a black brew known as Kostritzer Schwartzbier at the Ice House beer garden, which will double as a meeting hall for German journalists and remain open 16 hours a day.
Food will be served, but visitors won’t have to order a plate of food before they can get a beer, one of the rules that apply to Utah restaurants.
Professional Soccer

LONDON (AP) British soccer commentator Brian Moore, who spent nearly 40 years as a sports broadcaster, died after a short illness. He was 69.
Moore died Saturday at his home in Kent, southern England, hours before England’s 5-1 win over Germany in Munich.
“We’ve had some great commentators in this game, but I think he was the daddy of them all,” said former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson, who worked alongside Moore in the broadcasting booth.
Moore began his career as a print journalist, working for World Sports before joining the Exchange Telegraph and The Times newspapers. He joined British Broadcasting Corp. radio in 1961 and commentated on England’s only World Cup victory, in 1966.
Moore joined ITV in 1968 and was the television station’s “voice of football” for 31 years until his retirement after the World Cup in France in1998.
He made a comeback on Sky Sports in 1999 with a series of 20 interviews with soccer players.
Moore had heart surgery in 1987 and 1995 for blocked arteries.
Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler, who worked alongside Moore for 17 years, described him as a role model.
“He had a tremendous sense of occasion, because behind the words he had a tremendous journalistic brain,” Tyler said.
“He knew a story, how best to put it across – and apart from his commentaries we shouldn’t forget that he was a very talented presenter. He was a tremendous role model.”
Moore is survived by his wife, Betty, and two sons.
Professional Golf Association
MUNICH, Germany (AP) John Daly shot a 6-under-par 66 Sunday to win the BMW International Open by one stroke for his first victory since the 1995 British Open.
Daly finished with a tournament-record 27-under 261 to edge third-round leader Padraig Harrington of Ireland.
Harrington had a chance to win but his second shot at the final hole went into the water and he closed with a 68. Daly birdied the 18th.
Daly’s 261 matched the European tour record set by Jerry Anderson of Canada at the 1984 European Masters.
The victory marks a big step for Daly in his latest attempt to put behind a troubled past marked by drinking and erratic behavior.
“I just want to thank everybody around the world who’s been rooting for me because it has been a long time, a long six years,” Daly said. “This trophy belongs to all of them as well.”
In discussing his comeback, the two-time major champion said this summer that a first-place finish “would be the greatest win ever. Not too many people would have made it this far.”
After his weight ballooned to 260 pounds last year-he blames that on antidepressants people around him thought he should try -Daly dropped 30 pounds in a month and shed another 20 since.
In July, Daly tied for third at the Scottish Open-his best finish since winning the ’95 British Open at St. Andrews.
At the BMW, Daly put together rounds of 63-64-68-66. His first round included an ace with a 9-iron at the 153-yard 12th hole.
The victory vindicated Daly’s decision in 1999-”probably my worst year”-to stick with golf.
“I had to decide whether I wanted to try to move forward or look for something else,” he said. “I wanted to play golf and the other problem was that there was nothing else I could do. Golf has been my life since I was four.”
Daly said it took him two weeks in 1991 to realize he had won the U.S. PGA title, the event that vaulted him to fame.
“Then I won some other events from 1992 to 1994 but I was all over the place,” he said. “It was very emotional to win the British Open in 1995.”
Through those years he has battled alcoholism, binge eating and gambling. This summer, he got married for the fourth time.
“I have a great wife, a great family and friends I trust with my life,” he said. “But this one I did by myself.”
Daly has also become a more even-tempered player.
“I don’t get as down on myself as I used to,” he said. “This has been my most consistent year and even when I have a bogey or a bad hole I come right back with a birdie.”
Harrington was gratified to see Daly winning again.
“Apart from the fact that it’s me who’s second,” he said. “We played tremendous golf. He basically did everything he’s known for, when he won his two majors. He drove it superbly.”
Thomas Levet of France shot a 68 and was third at 268.

Popularity: unranked [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2001 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.