Wednesday, September 17, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 5
New hockey All-Star game to aim at international goal
The Associated Press
VANCOUVER, British Columbia The NHL wants its next All-Star game to be an international hit.
The All-Star format is being drastically altered to feature the best North American players against the elite from Europe and the former Soviet Union on Jan. 18.
And with the Winter Olympics less than four weeks later, there is an intriguing possibility the usual softly played game could turn into a more physical contest.
"I'd love to see more hitting in the All-Star game," Pat Quinn, general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, said. "My idea of great hockey has contact in it.
"I want to know the players are competitive in a physical sense as well as the skilled, pretty sense. It's my hope this game will be like that."
The NHL and the NHL Players Association have billed the 1998 All-Star weekend as an international showdown because 20 percent of NHL players come from outside Canada and the United States.
"There will be
There will be players from 10 countries on the All-Star ballot," said Steve Solomon, NHL vice-president. "Hockey is the most international of all sports, and we're going to take advantage of it."
After the new-look All-Star game in Vancouver, NHL players will appear in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time, starting Feb. 13 in Nagano, Japan.
The starting lineups for the World and North American AllStar teams again will be determined by fan balloting from Oct. 15 to Dec. 15, including overseas voting by Internet.
"The use of NHL and NHLPA Web sites gives us international reach in balloting," Solomon said. "There
will be opportunity to vote from anywhere in the world.
NHL general managers will select the remaining players on each team from a selected pool of 102 players on the All-Star ballot.
"I think any time you can line up an American or Canadian boy against someone from overseas, there will be a physical element involved," Quinn said.
Coaches for the All-Star game will be named from the first-place teams Dec. 15 in the Eastern and Western Conferences of the NHL.
It's unlikely all 26 NHL teams will be represented in the same fashion as recent All-Star games. There are at least two players from each team on the All-Star ballot.
The skills competition on the eve of the All-Star game also will match the World Team against the North Americans.
Solomon said the new format was adopted on a one-year basis and will be reviewed later for possible continuance.
des pite being only one game better than .500, led Pittsburgh (72-78) by 3 1/2 games in the race to the pennan
FIRST OFFICIAL MEETING OF THE
How bad is the so-so Central? The Astros likely will advance into the playoffs, yet they trail
The Cardinals can be saved only by a comeback rivaling that of 1964, when they won the pennant after trailing by 61/2 games with 10 days to play.
The Houston Astros (75-74).
The teams begin a two-game series today in Three Rivers Stadium. St. Louis and Cincinnati were each six games back.
Laughingly called the NL Comedy Central, it is the only division where .500 is good enough for first place; where a big winning streak is two games; where the contending — or is it pretending? — Pirates may finish without a single player hitting 20 home runs or driving in 75 runs.
Of course, the eventual NL Central winner can take solace in this: The Mets went on to surprise the Cincinnati Reds in the NL playoffs and take World Series champion Oakland to seven games.
sound familiar? - the below. 500 Pirates (80-82) on the final day of the season.
Now, if somebody would just win the division that nobody wants.
Florida by 111/2 games in the wild-card race. If they were in the NL East, the Braves would lead them by 17 games.
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION
PITTSBURGH — Casey Stengel once said of the comically awful 1962 New York Mets, "Can't anybody here play this game?"
Imagine what Stengel would say of the 1997 NL Central race baseball's version of a futility stakes. Maybe, "Can't anybody here win this thing?"
Houston, Pittsburgh battle for best of worst in baseball
By Alan Robinson The Associated Press
The 1973 Mets won the NE LAST with an 82-79 record, holding off
TONIGHT AT 8:00 OREAD ROOM IN THE KANSAS UNION EVERYONE WELCOME!
The Astros are threatening to finish with the worst record of any champion since division play began in 1969.
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