CLEVELAND GOcSN'T ROCK FOR RUTLEDGE Lynx Racing Team's David Rutledge completed 22 of 32 laps Sunday at the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland. the sixth race of the 12-stop Toyota Atlantic series. Rutledge. a West Vancouverite, started sixth but finished 19th. Rutledge is fitth in overall points standings vith 60 and hopes for a better result July 16 at the Molson Indy in Toronto. Se t N. Van umpires keep a family tradition alive FOR the Ribalkin clan of North Vancouver, umpiring is a family affair. John Ribalkin and daughter Tonya have over 40 years of behind-the-plate experience between them. The elder Ribatkin is the district umpiring chief for Softball B.C.’s Zone 4, which includes Deep Cove, Pemberton and Sunshine Coast. John and Tonya umpired exhibition games together last week at the Canada Cup International -Women’s Fastpitch tournament at-Surrey’s Softball City. ‘ Tonya will stay on at the event, which con- cludes July 9, as one of two official umpize crew liaisons. It’s the start ofa big summer for Tonya. She was recently named the B.C. umpiring repre- sentative for at the Midget A girls Fastpitch Championship in Brandon, Man. August 6-13. While she’s never umped at the national level before, she did platework for a western championship event in Prince George, Sask. two years ago. :*f'm looking forward to the nationals,” she said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity.” Tonya, 22, just arrived home with a bache- ‘lor's degree in history from Saint Francis Xavier University. . : She’s been umpiring since she was 13 and gave up trying to play the game: - $1 couldn’ pay because I sucked,” she laughed, “so I had to choose something else.” Her dad then suggested she head behind the plate. She didn’t exactly see herself as fitting the ~- mold of the stereotypical umpire, though. “My dad said “Why don’: you umpire?’ and ~ Ltold hinn that only fac old men umpire.” She stops suddenly, realizing that her dad is also an ump. ' “He’s not fat,” she adds, quickly. * . Tonya didn’t. take to umpiring right away, ‘though. She said she had trouble with the barbs - thrown at her by the often-unforgiving crowd. - “Being young I took it personally,” she said. “But I love it now. People ask me what I love about it and it’s hard to say. I guess I just have ‘a general love of the game.” Will ANOTHER Canadian Football League season . has come upon us this week:and it would be She claims it’s never been a chore to stay impartial on the field. “When the ball comes down the plate it’s either a ball or a strike. You call it the way you see it. You don’t notice the team that’s up to bat or the team that’s pitching.” There are five levels of umpires in Softball Canada. Tonya is currently a level three and plans to keep training and working for her level four. john said he caught the umpiring bug from his dad, Ray, who used to call strikes and balls at tilts in a southern Ontario, post-war league. John owes a debt to the sport — if it weren’t for softball, his parents might never have met. It was during a game in 1948 when Ray, playing first basc, missed an errant throw from the shortstop and the ball struck John’s moth- er. Ray passed away in 1976 at the age of 48, but last year John took his mother back to the same ballpark where his folks met and umpired a game there. “It was really something for both me and my mother,” Iohn said. John is facing a depleted roster of umps this year in Zone 4. Last year he had 133 names on the list, but this season it’s been whittled down to less than a hundred. He says the pressure applied by vocal fans and coaches is likely the major contributing fac- tor. “There’s a lor of attrition caused by coach and/or parental harassment. Thaz’s what hap-- pens every year.” “When you're working the plate, those par- ents are only 15 fect away yelling at you. It's a little bit different from being on a soccer field. You're fixed and an casy target.” Despite the heckles and catealls that can accompany the job, Tonya said she'll keep umpiring games because she loves the job and the camaraderie of the umpiring crew. But she doesn’t expect to make a career of it. “The only way to make a living. being an umpire is to be in the major leagues. Those of us that are out there, we just do it for the fun of it. “The money’s 2 bonus.” team in the nation’s commu- nications and advertising capital will be a cause of much pain, and no laughter, . in the rest of the financially strapped league. ~~. Whatever, the CFI. will” “find a way. to. survive: Rumours of its impendir “¢losute have Been an‘annual event for the past quarter “Yes, it would be nice. - And it'could happen, because the talent at coach Greg Mohns’ command is, by all accounts; as good as any in the league. But the brutal fact is football is a game named quarterback, and the Lions will only go as far as Damon Allen’s arm will take them. So, if you're a Lions’ fan, be sure to spend some part of your make praying that the he’s 36 - stays healthy for the entire journey. Backup quarter- backs with little or no pro experience can’t take anyone ~to the promised land on the last Sunday of November. and if you’re a CEL fan. in general, you’d better hope that Toronto Argonauts, the team voted by most - observers to be the leaguc laughing stock this season, - don’t meet that exp@ctation. As we all know, Toronto “is the. centre of the Canadian : century. But it has never come to pass, despite sliding attendance numbers every- where in the league, espe- cially in Toronto and Vanceuver. A new generation of foot- ball fan seems to prefer the televised and greatly hyped NFL product over the Canadian game, which it regards as bush. Maybe it is, but in the view of your crotchety old critic, our -more\free-form brand 5 is” ‘only. five years to wear off. Wednesday, July 5, 2000 —- North Shore News —- 35 SAVE $10 ON 9-1-7 RELAY Register early for the 9-1-1 Relay and save $10. Entry fees through July 14 are $25 (adults), $10 (youths) and S27 (corporate teams). The Lions Gate Hospital Foundation’s 8th annual fundraiser is Sept. 17 at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver. Since 1993, the relay has raised $810.000. Call 984-3782 or go to for info. TONYA (left) and John Ribalkin of Northi Vancouver umpired together ‘last week! |. during pre-tournament games at the 2000 Canada Cup. international Women’s : dom of conservative perfec- -tion, which seems to be:the- goal of most NFL teams... An additional burden for heir. domed 5 * mole But the novelty needed 3 pi Staton Until David Braley — the auto parts manufacturer from Hamilton — rescued the team three years ago from yet another bout with bankruptcy, stability and the Lions were total strangers. What the deme has - proven is that a roof really: isn’t necessary for an autumn game played mostly in the summer. Indeed, it’s a liability. Three-quarters of, dchedal _ will be played, as in years ~ pretty discouraging for play- , of our professional sports f "Fastpitch event in Surrey’s Softball City. ‘the roof ‘fall in on Leos this season? - franchises (the Lions, : Eighcy:Sixers, Canucks,: Grizzlies and Canadians) be owned by non-residents? _ Hardly, Ifthe Lions had an. “sopen-air playpen.wwith real grass and real.mud, would announced gathering hey put: thore? ‘backsides on 11,000 (in reality, it was the seats on nice summer closer to 8. O00)58 lastex: 04 evenings? Praébably/ bur net * week’s pre-season game many more. Braley’s other against Calgury, has to be Vancouver venture, the soc- cer Eighty-Sixers, are proof of that. They only half-fill Swangard Stadium. The Lions have been in business — and sometimes almost, out of business — for 46 years. Will they make it to 50? Only if Braley’s Pock- . etbook holds out: Even though he lives .2,500 miies from here, Old Crotchety thinks the guy’s a contender for Vancouver’s Good Citizen of the Yea Award. No? ~ gone by, on nights when people would much rather be outdvors. Bur even on one of the warmest, sunniest days of: the year so far, an OF ers and management alike. Given affordable ticket prices, 2 rarity in pro sport’ these days, one would think . that in a population arca of two million, novice that num- ber might just wander in by accident. But they didn’r,, « which merely confirms Oid Crotchety’s long-held view that Vancouver isn’t much of a spectator sport city. If it were, would all five