April 28, 1999
(Th* ffortlmth (flbefm r -
Commissioner
Agrees with
Anthony
Seattle Gets ack on Track
ST. PETERSBU R G , Fla. (AP)
— A healthy Jay Buhner made Tampa
Bay pay.
Buhner went 4-for-5, including a
tw o-run hom er with two outs in the
ninth inning, as the Seattle M anners
beat the Devil Rays 6-4 Sunday.
“ It’s alw ays nice to contribute.
The first couple o f w eeks 1 hav en ’t
done that m uch,” B uhner said. " It’s
nice to finally get back o ut there
w ith som e regularity.”
B uhner w as lim ited to ju st 72
gam es last year by various ailm ents.
The
seaso n
s ta rte d
w ith
arthroscopic knee surg ery in A pril
and ended w ith "T o m m y Jo h n " e l­
bow surgery in S eptem ber.
T his seaso n , B u h n e r has been
slo w ed by stre n g th -sa p p in g food
po iso n in g .
“ M y elbow is starting to feel a
little b etter, 1 d o n ’t have food p o i­
soning and all these freaky th in g s,”
B uhner said. “ T hings are starting
to w ork o u t.”
The opposite- field shot offT am pa
Bay closer Roberto H ernandez (0-1)
cam e on a 1-2 fastball.
“I threw the ball right w here I
w anted to,” Hernandez said. "H eju st
beat m e.”
S eattle hit eig h t hom ers in the
tak in g tw o o f th ree at T am pa Bay.
T he M arin ers, w ho have 32 hom e
runs th is seaso n , had six solo shots
S aturday night. In n in e gam es o ver
the p ast tw o seaso n s at T ro p ican a
F ield , the M arin ers have h o m ered
21 tim es.
T am pa B ay ’s Jo se C anseco b e­
cam e the ninth p la y er in A m erican
L eague h isto ry to hit 10 or m ore
hom e runs in A pril. H e tied the
gam e at 4 w ith his m ajo r league­
leading 10th hom er — a 443 foot
solo shot — in the fifth inning.
It w as C a n sec o ’s 4 0 7 th hom er,
ty in g him for 27th p lace on the
c a r e e r lis t w ith D u k e S n id e r.
C anseco also had an RBI double in
the third, and leads T am p a Bay
w ith 17 RBIs.
Jo se P an iag u a (2-2) w orked a
p erfect eig h th to get the w in. Jose
M esa got the final three outs for his
fifth save.
S eattle sco red single ru n s in the
o p ening tw o innings and tw ice in
the th ird to take a 4-2 lead The
runs scored on RBI singles by Edgar
M artinez, D avid Segui, D an W il­
so n and D avid Bell.
Trail Blazers Sign
Gary Grant for
Rest of Season
© T he A ssociated P ress
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The
Portland Trail Blazers signed guard
G ary Grant to a contract for the re­
m ainder o f the season.
The 6-foot-3 point guard appeared
in 22 games for Portland last season
andaveraged4.8 points, 3.8 assists and
16.3 minutes. He had been playing for
a team in Greece earlier this year.
The Blazers also placed guard
Bonzi W ells on the injured list with
asthma and have waived forward
N ikita M orgunov.
W ells ap p eared in six gam es
th is season, to talin g 19 p o in ts in
23 m inutes.
M orgunov, a free agent signed
prior to the season, did not appear in
a regular season game.
Records are Made to be roken
The NBA fined Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller $10,000 for
arguing with Portland guard Greg Anthony during Utah's win
over the Trail Blazers last Friday.
The league said Miller made "inappropriate comments”
in the fourth quarter of the game when he told Anthony, who
had just committed a hard foul on John Stockton, he was a
“cheap-shot artist.”
G REEN SB O R O , N.C. (Reuters)
- Jesper Pam evik sm ashed the tour­
nam ent record but still had to work
hard Sunday to win the $2.6 m illion
G reater G reensboro Classic.
D espite driving the ball wildly,
the 34-year-old Sw ede eked out a
tw o-under-par 70 on the Forest Oaks
course to beat persistent A m erican
Jim Furyk (69) by two strokes.
T hey w ere so far ahead o f the
rest o f the field that F uryk finished
six strokes clear o f th ird -p laced
J e ff M aggert.
“You think your first (win) is tough
but this one was alm ost tougher be­
cause I really struggled with m y driv­
ing on the w eekend,” said Pam evik,
who hit just 10 o f 28 fairw ays over
the final tw o rounds.
P am ev ik ’s 23-under-par 265 to­
tal w as six strokes b etter than the
old tournam ent record low score in
relation to par.
“1 probably hit the widest tee shot
o f my life on 14. After that I d idn’t
have a clue where the ball was going,”
said Pamevik, who collected $468,000
for his second PGA Tour win.
“ Pretty m uch every tim e I hit the
fairw ay I m ade birdie. A part from
that it w as a struggle.
“I was like Seve (Ballesteros) on his
best day. Now I know what (Jose Mana)
Olazabal means w hen he says if s pretty
nerv e-wracking on every tee . You don ’ t
know whether you’re going to hit it
straight right or straight left.”
T he S w ede’s total was also the
best num erical score by two strokes,
beating the old m ark set by G eorge
Archer, Billy C asper and Chi Chi
Rodriguez at the Sedgefield course,
one o f the ev en t’s previous venues.
P am ev ik , w ho also has w on four
tim es on the E u ro p ean to u r, b e ­
cam e the first p la y e r in n early tw o
y ears to lead alo n e after every
ro u n d on th e U .S. T our.
Unfortunately, P am evik’s perfor­
mance earned him no European Ryder
C up points, so he is probably going to
have to rely on a captain’s pick to
m ake this year’s team unless he plays
particularly well in the remaining three
majors and the few European tourna­
ments he plans to contest.
P am evik only entered at the last
m inute to keep com patriot Per-Ulrik
Johansson, who received a late invi­
tation, com pany.
He started the day with a three-
slroke lead over Furyk, and extended
the margin to five strokes after six holes.
H ow ever, Furyk picked up a shot
at each o f the next three holes to claw
the gap back to two strokes at the
turn, before holing out from o ff the
green for birdie at the 11 th to make it
ju st a one-shot difference.
Pam evik responded by chipping
in for birdie at the 12th, then also
birdied the 13th to go three ahead.
His w ayw ard drive at the 14th
led to bogey and he was in danger
o f dropping ano th er shot at the par-
5 15th, only to sink a clutch 10-
footer for par.
W hen he stiffed his approach shot
to the 16th for birdie, Pam evik was
three ahead and the tournam ent was
all but his. Even a bogey at the last
did not matter.
“ I can ’t be upset about the w ay I
played," said Furyk. “I beat the rest
o f the field by six. It was a fun day.
H e ’s an exciting player to w atch."
Pam evik w on with new caddie
Lance Ten Broeck, a former touring
professional, on the bag.
A fter th ree w eeks off, d u rin g
w hich w ife M ia is ex p ectin g th eir
th ird d au g h ter, P am ev ik p lan s to
resu m e at the TPC o f E urope in
H e id e lb e rg , G e rm a n y , sta rtin g
M ay 21.
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