Section B · Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 24, 1997
Marlins hang on for win, take 3-2 lead to Florida
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Thanks to their lucky charity Orel Hershiser, the Florida Marlins are just one win away from their first World Series title.
Moises Alou shook Orel and the Indians with another three-run homer, and rookie Livan Hernandez and the Marlins held off Cleveland 8-7 last night to give Florida a 3-2 edge.
The 22-year-old Hernandez, boosted by some Cuban food sent earlier in the day from Miami by singer Gloria Estefan, allowed seven hits and left in the ninth inning. Reliever Robn Nee gave up David Justice's two-run single and Jim Thome's RBI-single before finishing for his save second.
Hernandez defeated the 39-year-old Hershiser for the second time in the Series and improved to 4-0 in the postseason.
The Marlins now head home with a chance to become the youngest expansion team to win the World Series.
Game 6 is set for tomorrow night in the warmth of Pro Player Stadium. Chad Ogea will pitch against Florida's Kevin Brown in a rematch of Game 2, which won by the Indians.
The never-say-quit Indians tried to rally in the ninth. Bob Roberts reached base when first base umpine Ken Kaiser did not see Hernandez tagging the bag while covering on a grounder and Omar
Vizquel singled. that knocked out Hernandez after 142 pitches.
A sellout crowd of 44,888 appeared ready to cheer the Indians within one victory of their first championship since 1948. That was until Alou, who hit a three-run homer off Hershiser in a Game 1 win, struck again for a two-out shot in the sixth that made it 6-4 and silenced Jacobs Field.
Nen, who struggled in a 14-11 victory in Game 3, gave up the hits to Justice and Thome before Sandy Alomar, who had homered and driven in four runs, flied out.
Alou was not done after his third homer of the Series. He singled and scored in the eighth and got his fourth RBI of the night and ninth in five games with another single in the ninth.
The Indians and their fans now must hope they can win Games 6 and 7 on the road, a feat that no team has accomplished since Pittsburgh did it at Baltimore in 1979.
World Series
Saturday Florida 7, Cleveland 4
Sunday Cleveland 6, Florida 1
Thursday
Wednesday Cleveland 10, Florida 3
Tuesday
Florida 14, Cleveland 11
Thursday Florida 8, Cleveland 7, Florida leads series 3-2
Tomorrow
Tomorrow Cleveland at Florida, 7 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday
Sunday
Cleveland at Florida, 6:35 p.m.
if necessary (NBC)
1997 Gold Gloves List
American League
P — Mike Mussina, Baltimore
C — Ivan Rodriguez, Texas
1B — Rafael Palmeiro, Baltimore
2B — Chuck Knoblauch, Min-
nesota
SS — Omar Vizuel, Cleveland
3B — Matt Williams, Cleveland
OF — Jim Edmonds, Anaheim;
Bernie Williams, New York Yankees;
Ken Griffith, Seattle.
Methodist Ledge
P — Greg Maddox, Atlanta
C — Charles Johnson, Florida
1B — J.T. Snow, San Francisco
2B — Craig Biggio, Houston
SS — Rey Ordonez, New York
Keep your eyes on the Suns
3B — Ken Caminiti, San Diego
OF — Barry Bonds, San Francisco;
Ralu Mondesi, Los Angeles; Larry
Walker, Colorado.
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
In the prediction business, nobody remembers if you were right.
Here are five predictions for the 1997-98 NBA season. Don't bet money on them, just enjoy:
1. The Chicago Bulls will not win the championship.
Scottie Pippen is out, recuperating from foot surgery, Toni Kukoc is troubled by foot pain, Dennis Rodman is already upset, and an atmosphere of self-loathing and mistrust pervades the front office.
The guess here is that the Bulls will lose in the finals in Game 6 or 7 at Utah, Seattle or Los Angeles.
2. The Boston Celtics will not match last season's record of 15 victories.
Last year's Celtics were abysmal, but at least they had a few decent players in Rick Fox, David Wesley and Eric Williams. Those three are
gone and inferior players have replaced them. Rick Pitino's magic won't work immediately. If Boston wins 24 games, he deserves Coach of the Year.
3. The Phoenix
Suns will be the
surprise of the
West.
You could see this coming at
the end of last season when Phoenix very nearly eliminated Seattle in the first round of the playoffs with Danny Ainge's "small-ball" lineup of four guards. The Suns have added Antonio McDyess at power forward and Ainge and has been using a three-point guard alignment of Jason
Kidd, Kevin Johnson and Steve Nash on the floor at the same time.
4. The Minnesota Timberwolves will revert to form and show that last year's success was an aberration.
Yes, they gave Kevin Garnett a $126 million contract. Yes, they have Stephon Marbury, and Tom Gugliotta. But they no longer have center Dean Garrett, whose sudden rise last season coincided with Minnesota's late-season push to .500. With Stanley Roberts and rookie Paul Grant in the middle, the Wolves won't match last season's 40 victories.
5. The New York Knicks will start slow, stay slow and bow out for a fourth straight year without getting past the second round of the playoffs.
The team has been dreadful in preseason, looking older and slower than ever. Look for this year's Stupid Knick Trick to be 12 losses to sub-500 teams.
Bulls keep Rodman for one more year
The Associated Press
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Never the retiring type, the Worm is sticking around for one more season.
Dennis Rodman signed a one-
After contemplating
retirement, the 36-year-old forward decided to help the Bulls go for their third-straight NBA title, which would be the team's sixth in eight years.
"The players and the people of Chicago, they gave me a lot, so I figured I might as well come back and give them one more year," said Rodman, who has led the league in rebounding — and suspensions — the past six seasons.
He agreed to the contract two weeks ago but delayed signing until yesterday. Why?
"Just to make sure in my mind that my interest was still there," he said. "You've been in this league so long and you've done so much, you've got to find some motivation to keep you going."
"I've just got to go out there, get on the court, get around the guys, get around the atmosphere, get my feel for the game again. Once I get on the floor, I'm not going to give less than 100 percent."
Though Rodman will accompany the team to Chapel Hill, N.C., for tonight's exhibition game against Philadelphia, he
said he probably won't play. He might play tomorrow in the pre-season finale at home against Sacramento or wait until the regular-season opener Oct. 31 at Boston.
Either way, coach Phil Jackson and several teammates were glad to have Rodman back — as long as he was in the right frame of mind.
"We need Dennis' fire. We need the desire, intensity, fullout play," Jackson said. "The big thing is that Dennis has got to want to have to play. He's going to have to feel that this is his business and it's what he wants to do more than anything else, for us to be successful."
Said Toni Kukoc: "I like Dennis. I think he puts fun into basketball and he can help this team."
Last weekend, Rodman said he was unhappy with terms of the contract, which reportedly had a base salary of $4.5 million with incentives that could push it past last year's $2 million deal. But Rodman and his agent, Dwight Manley, now say that the deal is fine.
That's a good thing, because everyone remembers how petulantly Rodman behaved when he was unsatisfied with his contract while he was with San Antonio before the 1995 trade that brought him to Chicago.
"Once he steps on the basketball court, all I ask is that he's focused and that he has channeled his thought process to us being successful," Michael Jordan said.
Rodman insisted that there will be no repeat of the Spurs situation.
"It can't be no San Antonio," he said. "This is the greatest situation in life for any athlete, you come to Chicago, play for
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