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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Thursday, June 18, 1998

Player scores success in tournaments


Pecos Seventh Grader Trent Graham has scored great success
in tennis tournaments in the past month.

In May, he won the 12's singles title at Odessa Country Club
and consolation title at the 12's Challenger Major Zone in
Dallas where 12 and under from all over the state compete
for ranking.

This month, he won the 12's singles title at the Odessa
Highway 80 tournament and most recently, moved up an age
category to win the 14's single title at the Monahans Black
gold tournament.

He is the son of Randy and Leslie Graham.

All-stars team competing in Midland


Pecos girls softball all-star teams will be competing in a
tournament this weekend in Midland at the MUGS (Midland
United Girls Softball) complex near Midland Angels stadium,
just off of Wall Street.

The two team,s 12 and under and 16 and under will play six
games Friday and Saturday to determine their seeding and
then will compete in a double elimination tournament
starting at 5 p.m. Saturday

The younger girls start play at 2:20 tomorrow at Field six
against Midland Renegades and will play again at 3:30.

The older girls play San Antonio Royals at 3:30 on Field
seven.

Clubs could make all the difference


By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - On the eve of the 98th U.S. Open,
Justin Leonard wondered if the USGA's answer to equipment
concerns would be to make players carry only nine clubs and
walk barefoot.

That won't be the case today at The Olympic Club, but
Leonard and the rest of the field would do well to
concentrate on just a couple of clubs that could decide this
championship.

A 3-wood or low iron will come in handy off the tee,
anything to keep the ball out of the 5-inch rough that
frames the tight fairways.

The wedge is a must, if only to get the ball back into play
if it does roll through the slanted fairways into the thick
stuff.

``You just stick the long wedge behind it and hit it as hard
as you can,'' said England's Lee Westwood.

Keep the wedge handy. It'll be needed again to get it close
enough to the hole to save par. And as is the case in any
tournament, a trusty putter is always key.

``There's not a lot of places to make birdies out there,''
said David Duval. ``You're going to stick one close every
now and then, but I would say you're going to have to make
at least one 25-footer for birdie every day.''

That's the challenge facing defending champion Ernie Els,
Tiger Woods and Leonard, along with Generation Next players
trying to win their first major - Duval, Jim Furyk and Phil
Mickelson.

But perhaps youth will take a back seat this year. After
Woods, Els and Leonard won the first three majors last year,
Mark O'Meara won his first major at Augusta National in
April.

And a month later, 48-year-old Tom Watson showed he still
has plenty of game to contend by winning at Colonial. Watson
finished a stroke behind Scott Simpson the last time the
U.S. Open came to Olympic, and knows as well as anyone what
it will take this week.

``Keep it in play,'' he said.

Olympic is straightforward, even though nearly every fairway
bends around the cypresses and Monterrey pines, dips into
valleys or climbs toward sloped greens that are guarded by
fluffy sand bunkers.

``You cannot go out there and not perform at a reasonably
high level and expect good results,'' O'Meara said.

And it doesn't take long for Olympic to take its toll.

The first hole looks simple enough, a 533-yard par 5 that
played as the easiest hole the last time the U.S. Open came
to Olympic. And No. 7 measures only 288 yards, leaving
players only a sand wedge unless they want to risk going for
the green off the tee.

The five holes in between comprise one of the toughest
stretches in championship golf. The Open won't be won on
those holes, but it certainly can be lost there.

``You start out and you play the first hole well,'' said
Duval. ``Say you make 4. Well, you make any mistakes in the
next five holes, you're standing on the seventh tee at 2- or
3-over par.

``And there is not a whole lot of places to make those shots
up.''

That's the nature of a U.S. Open course. The USGA has long
said its goal is not to embarrass the world's greatest
players, only identify them.

But they don't identify with this kind of rough any other
time through the course of the year.

Miss the fairway and the only option is usually slamming a
wedge through the rough to get the ball back into the
fairway.

``I can't hit more than a sand wedge,'' said Tom Lehman, who
has played in the final pairing the last three U.S. Opens.
``I don't think it's possible unless you get lucky - I mean
really, really, really lucky - to get the ball to the green
from the rough.''

Miss the green and it gets even worse.

During a practice round earlier this week, Woods dropped his
ball in the rough no more than 2 feet off the green, aiming
for a mark on the green about 15 feet away.

He whiffed the first shot. His second attempt moved the ball
about 18 inches. Woods kept trying, letting out a grunt on
his fifth try.

Olympic figures to produce that kind of emotion.

Bud Selig accepts job


By RONALD BLUM
AP Sports Writer
Acting commissioner Bud Selig has decided to accept the job
on a permanent basis and intends to call an owners meeting
in the next few weeks for a formal vote, a baseball source
said today.

Selig made the decision after a group of owners approached
him during last week's meetings in Seattle, according to a
member of the ruling executive council who spoke on the
condition he not be identified.

``It's just a matter now of the timing,'' the council member
said.

Selig, 63, has been interim commissioner for six years.

Colorado Rockies chairman Jerry McMorris, appointed in
January 1997 as head of a search committee, had become
frustrated at the widespread view in baseball that Selig
would accept the job in the end if the search was fruitless.

The council member said that while Selig made the decision
after a group of owners approached him, it had been evident
for some time that he would eventually accept the position
on a permanent basis.

The New York Times, quoting unidentified sources, reported
today that Selig would take the commissioner's job on a
permanent basis. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, however,
reported that Selig had not agreed to take the job on a
permanent basis despite pressure by other owners.

``There's always been a great deal of speculation on this
matter but at this point in time I can assure you there is
nothing definitive,'' Selig told the Milwaukee paper.

The Times said the announcement could be made by the
All-Star Game, scheduled July 7. One owner, the newspaper
said, predicted the announcement would be made in 2-4 weeks.

Election requires a 75 percent vote of baseball's 30 owners
and, according to the Times, Selig has the backing. Only a
few owners oppose Selig, notably Jerry Reinsdorf of the
Chicago White Sox and The Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago
Cubs.

Rich Levin, a spokesman for baseball, told USA Today that
Selig ``has accepted nothing. There are no meetings
scheduled.''

Baseball has been without a commissioner since Fay Vincent
was forced out of office by the owners on Sept. 7, 1992.
Selig was named chairman of the executive council two days
later.

The Times said Selig would likely put his share of the
Brewers into a trust. Selig's daughter runs the day-to-day
operation of the club.

World Cup rumbles off field


By ROBERT MILLWARD
AP Sports Writer
PARIS (AP) - Somehow the soccer seems just a sideshow.

The World Cup rumbles on with so much going on off the field
- ticket fraud arrests, violent fans in court, the threat of
political demonstrations, quarrels between players and one
even kicked off his squad.

Oh, and Austria tied 1-1 with Chile and Italy downed
Cameroon 3-0 Wednesday.

With his team almost certainly tumbling out of the World
Cup, Austrian substitute Ivica Vastic fired an injury-time
goal against Chile after Marcelo Salas got his third of the
championship.

Christian Vieri tied Salas atop the scorers list with two
late strikes after Luigi Di Biagio headed in the first goal
as the Italians went to the top of Group B, where the other
three games have been draws. They also welcomed back
Alessandro Del Piero after a month-long absence for a thigh
injury.

``Everything went well, and we showed we have top
strikers,'' Italian coach Cesare Maldini said. ``It was a
win for the whole team.''

Today games feature host France against Saudi Arabia at
Saint-Denis and Denmark against South Africa in Toulouse.

Before Wednesday's games kicked off, police sources
announced the first arrests in an international scandal that
left thousands of fans without paid-for World Cup tickets.

French authorities arrested three people, including a
consultant for a subsidiary of FIFA's exclusive marketing
partner, ISL. A large amount of cash and about 100 Cup
tickets were found and more arrests were expected.

The fallout continued from the fan violence involving
England and Tunisian fans in Marseille three days ago.

More than 100 people remained jailed, some having received
sentences of at least two months and others kept behind bars
until the World Cup ends July 12. Another English fan was
detained in Montpellier.

In Marseille, authorities planned increased security for
Saturday's match between the Netherlands and South Korea.
Some 2,000 regular police will be on weekend duty, along
with some 200 Anti-Criminal Brigade forces patrolling the
city center. Riot police also will be posted about town.

But under pressure from cafe owners, authorities relented
today on a weekend alcohol ban in Marseille and agreed to
allow drinks to be sold until midnight.

The political significance of Sunday's United States-Iran
game at Lyon now has two angles.

The Iranian government remains upset with the broadcast of a
U.S. film, ``Not Without My Daughter,'' which paints an
unflattering picture of Islamic Iran. It considered pulling
Iran from the championship, but then decided against it.

Then it was the turn of Iranian exile groups to threaten
unspecified demonstrations against the Tehran government at
Sunday's game.

The Patrick Kluivert-Lorenzo Staelens dispute, which started
with the Dutchman's expulsion from the Netherlands-Belgium
game, took a new twist.

Kluivert, sent off for elbowing the Belgian defender in the
chest, reportedly explained their exchange of words during
the 0-0 tie at Saint-Denis.

``Staelens called me a rapist,'' Kluivert told the Algemeen
Dagblad for Wednesday's edition. ``I heard this and I could
no longer control myself.''

Kluivert was accused, but never charged, last June in a case
involving an alleged gang rape in Amsterdam.

While Kluivert was serving a two-match suspension for his
expulsion, Colombia's Faustino Asprilla would take no
further part in the championship after mouthing off about
his coach.

The feisty forward was upset at being replaced late in
Monday's 1-0 loss to Romania. So he voiced his dismay on the
radio and was told by coach Hernan Dario Gomez not to come
back.

``There is a limit for everything, and this time he went
over the limit,'' said Gomez, who was pressured by the
president of Colombia to reconsider, but, backed by his
soccer federation, he stood firm.

For the second game in a row, the Austrians scored an
injury-time tying goal. Against Cameroon it was Tony
Polster, this time it was Vastic.

Midfielder Heimo Pfeifenberger admitted his team was ``lucky
... to get another point.''

``Now we have to win against Italy,'' he said.

The Chileans, who were unlucky to concede a late Roberto
Baggio penalty kick after leading 2-1, were sickened by
another late equalizer.

``I do not know what to say, why we have to suffer through
things like this,'' said Chilean coach Nelson Acosta.

``We really should have six points, but there are only
two,'' striker Ivan Zamorano said. ``We are disappointed
over the late tie, but we now have to concentrate on
Cameroon. We will give our all and show everyone that we are
great fighters.''

At Montpellier, Vieri got two goals in the last 15 minutes.

Cameroon lost Raymond Kalla Nkongo for a controversial red
card for a cleats-first, two-footed slide into Di Biagio for
the fourth expulsion of the World Cup in the 20th game.

``We had a very bad start tonight,'' coach Claude Leroy
said. ``We tried to play well, but we didn't have many
opportunities having only 10 players on the pitch.''



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