Section
SANDY, OREGON. THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1979
The sdnBy Post
____ _______
j
p p O T tS
and Recreation
Summer basketball
heats up in Sandy
by MARK K U IY I)
Mark Floyd photo
Mandy High ha»rrunner John Martin dive« bark to first base safely after an
attempted pirkuff play by David Douglas. Martin made It easily, but Handy lost
to the Scots by an M-2 score Monday on the Handy High field Martin had three
base on halls and two steals In the game.
Legion team faces education
It should be quite an educ ation for the
Sandy High legion baseball team this
summer
An education because Sandy has a
new coach, a lot of young players and
because two of the teams in thr league
will be in the new Timber Valley
league next year
The new coach is Curtis Heath, the
former junior varsity coach for the
Pioneer* Heath will have a lot of his JV
squad playing for him this summer and
so far their baptism into the big leagues
has been a bit rough
Sandy opened at Columbia Friday
afternoon and suffered a 9-1 lass David
Douglas came to the Sandy field
Monday and. deult the hosts an 8-2
setback Sandy managed only one hit In
each game, a fact that doesn't concern
Heath too ntfi< h — at least no yet
"The pitching that we've faced has
been exceptional," he said, "and it's
not going to get any worse
"But that's not bad," he added
quickly ‘ We've got a lot of JV kids who
aren't used to that kind of pitching and
it will help them get ready for next
year I don't think anyone in the league
next yeur will throw as hard as some of
the guys we’llface "
Heath figures that, with time, the
hitting will come around. It's the
fielding that concerns him at the
moment, as well as the pitching
"We've got the potential to play
better baseball «than the first two
games)," he said "We need to get our
pitchers on a steady rotation
"They can be representative but they
need to play steady baseball," Heath
added "And the defense needs to be
more consistent "
Sandy committed four errors against
Columbia and three against the Scots.
In both games, the miscues allowed the
opponents to keep rallies going after
Sandy had made the first two outs
Once again, Heath pointed to the
pitching and fielding
"Put those two together and Sandy
High can play some pretty good
baseball," he said. " If you have a weak
hitting club, and we've had some
troubles so far, you’ve got to play some
heads up defense to stay in the game '*
Sandy may get a bit of a preview of
next season when it plays this Friday.
West Linn comes to town and Lions will
be part of the new league next year So
will Oregon City, and a potential rivalry
is in the making — both teams are
nicknamed the Pioneers Sandy will
Heath is counting on a summer of
legion ball to help point next year's
Pioneers to a possible playoff berth
But in the meantime, he is not forsaking
a few victories along the way.
View over spring vacation."
"Winning is important — for the
morale and the program," he said, "but
if we can remain competitive this
summer, I think we'll be heading in the
right direction "
travel to Oregon City for a game June
20
"Hopefully we’ll have a new look for
next year," Heath said. "W e’ll be
having new uniforms and we'll be
traveling to play Bend and Mountain
HANDY
COLUMBIA
000 010 0—1 1 4
033 111 0—9 5 1
D AVID DOUGLAS
020 420 0 — 8 11
SANDY
100 000 1 2 1
Summer is a time when most high
school kids try to get as far away from
the confines of the school as possible.
Especially when there’s plenty of
warm, sunny days to help ease the
painful memories of education
But not all high school students have
flown the coop A couple dozen have
been hanging around the Sandy High
gym of late playing, of all things,
basketball
The summer basketball program at
Sandy is beginning to pick up steam
after the completion of baseball, track
and finals Sandy coach Dennis Warren
has rounded up a dozen or so varsity
prospects while Len Eaton is handling a
like number for the junior varsity A
handful of players w ill a lte r
nate between teams
Summer basketball is a bit different.
You play with a running clock, personal
statistics aren't kept and attendance is
a hit or miss thing So it was Thursday
when the Pioneers hosted David
Douglas in a pre-season, informal
scrimmage
For the record, the Pioneers won 53-
41 but that’s not what the coaches were
looking for, according to Warren.
"Our emphasis is on personal im
provement as well as looking at dif
ferent offenses and the development of
the team outlook," Warren said "We
played a pretty decent game (against
David Douglas) though they were
without a few players Of course, we
were missing a couple of good players,
too
"Summer basketball is like that,"
Warren shrugged. “There’s always a
kid going to camp, or working or going
someplace with his parents."
Warren has several players returning
this summer from varsity ball, in
cluding a whole slew of forward-center
types who are in the S-foot-3 range
Heading the list is Mike Riley, the
Pioneers' leading scorer and a second-
team all-leaguer. Others in the same
Heath hopes team will make the breaks
by MARK FLOYD
Curtis Heath is an interesting
character
Taking over the reigns of a Iosina
baseball team may not be the most
enviable task in the world, but Heath
views it as a challenge.
Heath was named to the head
coaching position of the Sandy High
baseball team, succeeding Glenn
Smith who retired at the end of the
spring The majority of next year's
team is already under the tutelage of
Heath, who also inherited the job of
coaching Sandy's legion baseball
team
Heath had been Sandy High's junior
varsity coach. Prior to that, he
coached at the Class A level at Bonaza
High School from 1970-75. While at
Bonanza, Heath took over a less-than-
impressive program and guided the
team to success, although it took a
couple of years.
"We started with a lot of fresh
men." he said, "and those first coqyle
of years... "
"But by the time they got to be
juniors and seniors, we had a team,"
he added "We were 31-5 those two
years and we made it to the state
championship game, losing to Regis
7-5
" I think I know the ingredients to a
winning program and I ’d like to get
back into a playoff situation," Heath
said
Don't expect success too soon, but
Heath already has his team doing
some slightly unorthodox things Like
trying to steal third base three times
in one game.
"You'v e got to test the other team ,"
he said " I like to create situations
where we create breaks, not wait for
them.
" I like double steals, and hitting and
running." he continued. "You’ve got
to create opportunities to get runners
in scoring position."
Health pointed to the game against
D avid Douglas Monday as an
example
"John Martin was our leadoff batter
and he didn't get a hit,"Heath said.
"But he got on base three times on
walks. The first time he scored, and
the second time he stole second base
and was in scoring position
"You've got to get those front men
on base,” he emphasized. "With the
power coming up, you’re going to get
people across home pla te."
Heath acknowledges that he is a
goal-oriented person as well as an
optimistic one But he also feels that
goals should be kept somewhat in
perspective. Therefore, he isn’t
predicting that Sandy will take the
state in baseball next season Making
the league playoffs may be a more
reasonable target
But you have to believe that Heath
is looking toward a state title
somewhere down the road—it ’s in his
blood As a high-schooler at Madison,
Heath played on two state cham
pionship teams Ther. there was the
team he coached at Bonanza In
between, he took a break from
baseball to play basketball for Por
tland State University.
Heath feels that Sandy has the
potential to become a very good team,
especially if the pitching staff
develops some consistency.
"We have five pitchers right now
who, on any given day, can be very
competitive on the mound," Heath
said " I don’t know of any other team
in the league next year that will have
that kind of s ta ff"
"But our defense needs to be more
consistent," he added, looking over
the scorebook of the first two games.
" If you have a weak-hitting club, and
we only got two hits in our first two
games, you have to play some heads-
up defense to stay in the game."
Seven errors in two games is not
exactly heads-up defense and two
Sandy losses show the tragic results.
But Heath has a young team to work
with and it’s just a matter of time
before the errors began to take a
backseat to the hits.
And when that time comes, look for
Heath and the Pioneers to be on the
way to one of their goals—like the
league playoffs.
size category include Paul Daugerty,
Lee Godfrey and Tom Curtis Curtis has
been on a weight program for track and
has developed into a much stronger
player since winter while Daugherty
has greatly increased his spring while
working out as a triple jumper on the
track team
Rick Martin leads the guard can
didates, along with Rick Fry, Scott
Wemnger, and Ken Reick They may
also see action at small forward Up
from last winter’s junior varsity team
are Doug Turin, Rob Brauer and Ray
Lowe
Among those seeing action on both
teams will be Mike Spradling, Bernie
Kennebeck, Jeff Yoder, Bob Nippert
and Mitch Paola Nippert and Paola are
both freshmen.
With an abundance of players at the
forward-post position Warren is looking
at revamping the offense to take ad
vantage of the inside game.
“We re going to look at different
screening situations offensively," he
said "Basically, we re going to be
more layup oriented—we're going to
the inside game.
"We took the ball inside for some
easy hoops on back cuts against David
Douglas," Warren said "But we need
to improve some of our defensive
qualities individually "
They had better improve in a hurry
because there are several good teams
in the summer league And with them
are several faces the Pioneers haven't
seen, players from different leagues
who could offer a challenge to the
Pioneer defense, especially since zone
defenses are outlawed in the league
Parkrose and Central Catholic are
two of the bigger names while others
include Barlow, Marshall, Gresham,
Centennial, Columbia, Lincoln, and
Reynolds, as well as David Douglas and
Sandy.
"It's going to be an interesting
league," Warren said. " It gives our
kids a chance to play against some top-
rate talent like Byron Howell of Central
Catholic.
“There will be a lot of good black
players we’U face and that’s something
we don't see too much of in our les^ie, *
Warren added
The Pioneers will be fielding a
largely senior team and the develop
ment of a new offense may take some
time; often new strategies are not
easily learned after three years of
something else.
But that's what summer basketball is
all about—working on improvement
and trying new things.
"We realize that kids have a whole lot
to do in the summer," Warren said,
"and it ’s not our idea to take the
summer away from them."
"Summer basketball is not man
datory but we want to offer the kids an
opportunity to play and a lot of them
take advantage of it," Warren added.
"And we’re starting to get some
pretty good crows at some of the
games," Warren said. "There’s more
and more of an interest in following
summer basketball. It's not always
nice to sit in a hot gym to watch but the
setup at Columbia is pretty nice."
All summer league games are played
at Columbia High School in Troutdale.
League play will begin tonight when
Sandy takes on David Douglas in the
small gym at 6 p.m.
The emperor returns home but not for long
"David, get rid of the bloody ball! Don’t stand
there!"
"Kareem! Where’s Kareem! Oh, look there’s six
men on him! Madden, call the bloody foul!"
Far atop the sea of faces at the "Fabulous Forum,"
high above the action under the flag, it was the return
of a native, the restoration of a Tudor Napoleon had
escaped Elba The long exile was over After 2 4 years,
Jack Kent Cooke was back In charge
In the heyday of his sports empire before a bitter
divorce and a retreat to Las Vegas, Jack Kent Cooke
ran a sports empire second to none in history He
owned a National Hockey League team, a National
Basketball Association team, and 85 percent of a
National Football League team, the Washington
Redskins Plus one of the prestigious auditoriums of
the world, the Forum
This was no dilettante owner Jack Kent Cooke was
not a dilettante anything He was at courtside, at
nnkside, or on the 50 yard line repeatedly, usually in
the company of invited film or TV stars He spent his
time bellowing explicit instructions to his team on the
floor
They would all hotly deny it, but they played better in
those days
lack Kent Cooke has always been an impatient man,
a man in a hurry, a damn thetorpedos aggressor It
was a quality that first attracted him to Roy Thomson,
a twinkly eyed man on the move himself, who parlayed
a heavily mortgaged backwoods radio station into a
broadcasting and publishing empire which saw him
end up in the peerage, lx>rd Thomson of Fleet, before
his own subscription expired
Cooke rode almost as far as Fleet Street with
Thomson, but Jack was always an extravagant ad-
When the L A Coliseum Commission reneged on
building him a fancy room for V IP entertaining, and
the Sports Arena hedged on prime dates for his hockey
franchise. Cooke threatened to build his own arena
Everyone laughed and said what a card he was. They
were still laughing when Cooke pulled it off. Cooke
financed his arena the same way the Dodgers' Walter
O’Malley did — by selling the TV and broadcast rights
to oil companies on an if-come basis The new
American out Americaned the Americans
by J IM M URRAY
mirer of the American way of doing business He loved
the rough and tumble south of the border He always
wanted to play with the big boys there
So he moved to the U.S. and, characteristically, he
couldn't wait to become a citizen He got Congress to
make him one
He always hankered to own his own newspaper or
major league sports team, and, when the Inkers came
on the market, he paid 85,175,000 in cash for them
without blinking an eye. He also bought radio stations,
cable TV systems, finally, the Redskins, and the ex
pansion hockey franchise, the Kings
They used to say of Cooke in Canada that he sold
!
encyclopedias to guys who couldn't read and soap to
guys who didn't have running water But Cooke likes to
say he’s dealing in the oldest American commodity of
all — faith
He would really rather be Alistair Cooke than Jack
Kent. An omnivorous reader, he originally set out to be
a man for all seasons, and not just sports He led a
band, became an expert at bridge, played the clarinet,
composed music, kept books and sold time.
He bankrolled the historic first Ali-Frazier fight in
1971 His next trip to New York was less triumphal He
rushed there to save his cable-TV business from the
brink of bankruptcy, thanks to an executive accused at
bribery and double-entry bookkeeping O p e ra tic out
of a hotel room on the scene, Cooke restored the firm
and saved the stock, which had plunged from 45 down
to 1 4 in the crisis
Can he restore the Kings and Lakers, franchises
teetering on the brink of boring everyone to death, or,
worse, go to other forms of entertainment?
In Cooke’s absence, his empire became a
democracy, with all that is attendant on that — work
men who give a day's work for a day's pay, and no
more, even when a day's pay is one eightieth of
8750.000 Guys who go home early. Guys playing out
their option because they think nobody cares Or they
can’t get an answer.
If you could run a business by phone, every corporate
executive in the country would be doing it from the
Bahamas, or a pool in the south of France all year long
Cooke didn’t exactly sit up in Las Vegas and let his hair
and fingernails grow, but, in his absence, the Lakers
became a demoralized franchise, and the Kings looked
like a bunch of guys out on the rink at Rockefeller
Plaza on Saturday afternoon Their idea of a back-
check is one you give a guy and ask him to hold it for a
week till you can get to the bank.
Is the return permanent and a restoration of lost
glory? Or will it just be another 100 days of Bonaparte?
Will it be "Long Live the Emperor!" or just Waterloo!
A lot of people think Cocke not only can’t run his
team by phone, he can’t run it from up there in the
second balcony, either He should be back down on the
floor where he can see what's wrong and do something
about it.
Is he fixing to leave all the turmoil and retire to his
reading and gardening*’ Jack Kent Cooke smiles.
"Some people get tired early," he observes "Never
been my trouble." Is he cloyed with sports? He shakes
his head " I’ve got a lot of little boy in me. I root. I get
hung up on winning Keeps you young.”
NFL commissioner Pet Rozelle handed him an easy
out, ordering divestiture of his other franchises in
order to stay in the NFL. Will he take it? Cooke looks
dangerous " I can’t comment on that. There's some
litigation by people who own soccer and tennis fran
chises, in sports that need them, as well as in the NFL.
It's a question of constitutionality." Is the Constitution
the last refuge of scoundrels? "Not at a ll," protests
Cooke " It ’s the first refuge of the innocent, the per
secuted ”
(C) 1979, Los Angeles Times
Jim Murray is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Editor's note: This column, part of the best at
Murray series, was written some time ago before he
underwent eye surgery Jack Kent Cooke announced
Tuesday he plans to seU the Lakers, the Kir«s and The
Forum to a Los Angeles businessman. M ir r a y ’s
regular column Is expected to resume in a few weeks.