12 - Wednesday, April 26, 1995 — North Shore News WHO TO CALL: Sports Editor Andrew McCredie 925-2131 (147) ve oot Teaes anne Tare ae BASKETBALL... Windsor Dukes - senior guard) J.R. Payne — has signed to attend Saint Mary’s College in California on a full basket- ball scholarship. The © six-foot North Vancouver student averaged 21.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and {3 assists per game last year in feading the. Dukes’ senior team to a perfect 13- 0 regular season and to a second place. finish at the provincial double-A cham- pionships. spectator JUST IN case you were won- dering — and just in case creative talent. The price the game is paying? That's wrong. ft should be the price the customers are puying, There's a strange dicholomy at work here. The game is about enter- tainment, but it’s also about win- ning. As far as coaches are con- cerned, winning is all-important, If they don’t win, they lose their jobs. If the only way they can win is to reduce the game to sleep-inducing rubble, so be it. The big news this mini-season is the neutral zone trap — that figurative bog between the bluc lines -~ where the creative process so often drowas and shinny prevails; where obstruction by fair means or foul also prevails; where the yawning in the stands is stifled only by the occasional bout of fisticuffs. There are possible cures. Start calling all the uncalled holding penalties. Extra penalty boxes might be iieeded until the players got used to the idea, Eliminate the centre red- line and allow passing from the end bourds up to the opposing blue fine. This would spread out the muggers. Or, best of all, add 10 feet to the width of the rink to give the talented guys more breathing room, But what team owner would ever vote to remove the front row of high priced seats? Nothing will change, largely because the NHL will expand by at least four cities before the century is oul (never underestimate the impor- tance of selling new franchises. at $75 million a pop) and, with the real ttlent spread more thinly than it is now, the truth of the old motto — if you can't create, you must destroy —— will be even more evident. Which brings us back to the Flyers, your agent’s best bet to win the Stanley Cup. It's based on another old saying, namely:-a good big man will beal a good little man every time, Make: that three good big men, Eric Lindros at 230 pounds and John LeClair and Mikael Renberg at 220 make up the best forward line in hockey this year, With their size, See Flyer page U6 a you have an investment in the office playoff pool — you should know that Reems Tokers. Sots REARS BOE Sete CALIFORNIA BOUND: Windsor’s J.R. Payne . “Em looking for J.R. to make an inmediate impact on our program,” said Saint ’ Mary’s head: coach ‘Ferri | Rubenstein of the highly- touted Canadian high : school senior. “She will see considerable playing time at the point guard position in @ her freshman year." ; In her final season as a » Duke, Payne was: named MVP of the North Shore league (for the second year i in @ sow), and was selected » to the B.C. double-A All- Star team. Over the past two seasons, Payne has been ‘@ named either MVP or tour-, = nament all-star in every tournament played. Joining Payne at the Division 1 school will be Oak Bay day as Payne. Saint Mary’s College is located in Moraga, California. VOLLEYBALL... With Windsor 1 star forward’ | Krista Hall, who signed a f letter-of-intent on the same. = Philadelphia Flyers will be crowned Stanley Cup cham- pions about two months hence. In this cra of hockey’s holding pattern — that's holding as in clutch, grab, clasp, grapple. embrace, grip and, occasionally, throttle — the Flyers are the NHL's best equipped group to fight through this morass and score the needed goals, A wise old kraut named Goethe once said the Srish will always bring down a noble stag. The way hockey is played at the alleged top level these days, he could have said the same thing about the NHL. Professional sport is the jock- strap division of show business. Show business is ail about creating stars and showing them off to the best advantage. It comes under the general which is what pro sport is all about in these rumbustious, over-hyped times. ; Pro basketball features its scor- ing stars and gives them every pos- sible edge. No zone defences to impede them. And no referee blows the whistle when Michael Jordan travels a fittle — which he does quite often — as he drives to the basket. Pro football keeps devising — not always successfully — rule ‘changes designed to preserve the health and well-being of the quarter- back. The quarterback is the. game’s featured player. The ticket seller. Basebail has known since Babe Ruth was a young man that the guys who hit the ball out of the park sell tickets. Pitching may be the. key to winning championships, but: the long bali is what the fans come to see. From the rabbit. ball to the des- heading of marketing, . (Like my poetry? Get great prices on Goodlyear's during our Rain Days promotion.) 1. Lube, of change and oil filter 2. Topping up of all fluids, including Crake, windshield, antifreeze, differen T58SR12" $29.99 18/713” SH99 15SSR13 + 34.99 185/70R14 56.99 § Sarikor sovings cn 15” je _«EDLPriw Sus —EDL Price TSAORNE 99.99 TXOHRIS 140.95 UTDAS/7SRIS 176.95 205/8R16 139.95 2. Beit tightening as required, 4. 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