Major League Baseball_
Juan ‘as in Gone’ Gonzalez missing from festivities
By Josh Dubow
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Juan Gonzalez
was a prominent topic of conver
sation Monday after he decided
he’d rather stay home than come
off the bench for the AL team.
“I think he is totally out of line
refusing to be recognized as one
of the greatest players,” said Carl
ton Fisk, an 11-time All-Star and
the AL honorary captain.
“I don’t know whether that is a
kind of attitude or selfishness on
his part, but it is. I think down
the line he may regret the deci
sion.”
Gonzalez, the reigning AL
- MVP, was angered by the high
number of votes for the Cleve
land Indians. Despite being third
^ «in the league in homers and RBIs,
he finished fifth in the voting, be
hind Ken Griffey Jr. and three In
dians.
Nevertheless, his colleagues
were confounded by the Texas
slugger’s choice.
“I think the decision he made
wasn’t a very good decision,”
said Sammy Sosa, Gonzalez’s
friend and former teammate.
“But that’s his business and there
is nothing I can do about it.”
Tony Gwynn, who has been
selected to 17 All-Star teams,
made the trip even though he is
sidelined with a calf injury.
“Juan decided he didn’t want
to be here,” Gwynn said. “That’s
his choice. They are not going to
call off the game because Juan
Gonzalez isn’t here.”
Junior and Junior
Ken Griffey Jr. was a late ar
rival for his All-Star news confer
ence. At least he had an excuse.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said right
before receiving the award for be
ing the leading vote-getter in the
AL. “My 3-year old, who just got
in, wanted me to stay in the room
and watch cartoons.”
Once Griffey arrived, much of
the talk was about his chances to
pass Hank Aaron to become base
ball’s career home rim king. Grif
fey, who doesn’t turn 30 until af
ter the season, has 379 career
homers — more than halfway to
Aaron’s record 755.
“I’ve never really thought
about it,” Griffey said. “The per
son that I wanted to beat was my
dad — over 2,000 hits, world
championships, played every
day. That’s the only person I
wanted to beat because he was
the guy I could physically touch.
“Now they’re talking about me
breaking Hank Aaron’s record,
and I just say OK. It’s an honor
that he says it and you people say
it, but I still take it one day at a
time.”
All-Star Memories
With 23 first-timers at this All
Star game, AL manager Joe Torre
reminisced about his first All
Star experience.
As a 22-year-old in 1963, Torre
was thrilled to be selected as the
third catcher, even if he spent the
entire game in the bullpen.
He finally got to play the next
year, catching Don Drysdale at
Shea Stadium in front of his
hometown. The two went over
the signs before the game for the
fastball, slider, change-up, and
even the spitter.
They agreed that the fastball
and spitter would have the same
sign, and since Torre didn’t
know which was coming, he had
frouble catching some of Drys
dale’s pitches.
“He said ‘I’ll throw it off the
fastball.’ And I said OK,” Torre
recalled. “That was the dumbest
thing I’ve ever done. In the first
inning, I went back to say hello to
Mayor Wagner (behind the plate)
about four times. We had a sign
for it after that.”
Tribal Reunion
There is a decidedly Cleveland
flavor to this year’s game. And
you can’t put all the blame on the
Jacobs Field ballot stuffers.
Former Indian Tony Fernan
dez joins six current Cleveland
players — Roberto Alomar, Ken
ny Lofton, Manny Ramirez, Jim
Thome, Charles Nagy and Omar
Vizquel on the AL squad. The NL
has six former Indians: Matt
Williams, Jay Bell, Paul Byrd,
Sean Casey, Jeromy Bumitz and
Jeff Kent.
“That’s a quality organiza
tion,” Bumitz said. “They devel
op guys and they can make
trades with their prospects. I
loved it there even though I did
n’t play. I learned a lot there and
so did a lot of other guys.”
Many of the former players
were forced out of Cleveland be
cause there was no room to push
out the All-Stars who were al
ready there.
“It was really tough with Jim
Thome ahead of me,” Casey said.
“You look at the long-term situa
tion there and you realize there
isn’t much chance. If I hadn’t got
ten the opportunity to be traded,
who knows how long I would
have waited.”
Equal Representation
At least two All-Stars agree
that baseball shouldn’t do away
with the requirement that every
team be represented at the All
Star game.
“If there wasn’t that rule, I
wouldn’t be asked that ques
tion,” Detroit’s Brad Ausmus
said. “I know it doesn’t make
everybody happy, but I don’t
know if there is a perfect sys
tem.”
Minnesota’s Ron Coomer, an
other player who wouldn’t be at
Fenway Park without that rule,
sees both sides of the issue.
“When I was a kid, I remember
waiting up all night to see the
one Cub, Steve Swisher, get his
one at-bat,” Coomer said. “I’m
glad we have the rule, but it can
keep some deserving guys out.”
Tour de France__
Armstrong riding high again after remarkable recovery
By Jocelyn Noveck
The Associated Press
METZ, France — Lance Arm
strong can’t explain it. He’s not
holding back. He just doesn’t have
an answer to the question every
one’s asking:
How can someone recover so
swiftly from an aggressive case of
testicular cancer that spread, first,
to his lungs, making him cough up
“buckets” of blood, and, then, to
his brain?
But here he is. The 27-year-old
from Austin, Texas, is riding better
than ever. And at the moment,
he’s winning the Tour de France,
the most prestigious cycling race
in the world.
“There are no secrets,” Arm
strong said Monday, sitting on the
edge of a bed in a team official’s ho
tel room. The day before, he crushed
the field in a grueling time trial to re
capture the yellow jersey and be
come a decisive favorite.
“I was sick as a kid could be. It was
one of the worst cases my doctors had
ever seen—and they were the best”
Now, Armstrong said, he feels
better than ever.
Asked if he really means it, he
leans forward for emphasis. “I can
prove it,” he says, “With my re
sults. With my training.” He can
measure it on machines.
For one thing, Armstrong is
smaller and lighter than before,
perhaps one benefit of his ordeal.
But there’s something that’s
changed him mentally, too —
some call it a calmness, a more
thoughtful attitude.
Armstrong will only say this:
“The mind is an amazing thing.”
He won the 1993 World Champi
onship, competed for the U.S.
Olympic team in 1992 and 1996 and
had signed a two-year contract with
the French team Cofidis, when he
started feeling sick in October 1996.
He felt some soreness and start
ed coughing up blood. “This was
n’t drops — this was buckets,” he
said. And then came the
headaches, the blurry vision, the
flu-like symptoms, the dizziness.
He thought he was going to die.
“I was scared when they first told
me. Of course, they told me it was
95 percent curable, but that's
when they catch it early. I knew I
had a more advanced case.”
Armstrong had surgery to re
move his right testicle and brain
lesions, then underwent three
months of chemotherapy. He was
out for the 1997 season and began
his comeback last May.
It wasn’t easy. People had for
gotten him - fans and, more
painfully, the European teams.
“I understood the thing with the
fans,” Armstrong said. “Frankly, I
don’t really like the spotlight, the
constant autographs. I prefer a qui
eter life. So that was OK. But the
thing with the teams - that was a
surprise. A total shock. And I
haven’t forgotten.
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