WHO TO CALL:
Sporis Editor
Andrew McCredie

985-2131 (147)

“BIATHLON... North Van's

Claire Poliquin. won the
women’s Zone 5 biathlon at
the Seymour Demonstration

Forest on Jan, 14.

Bue to unseasonably §
mild temperatures, snow {7

conditions at both
$ Hollyburn Ridge and Ski

Hemlock were unsuitable §
for racing so competitors
donned their running shoes §

{ and raingear with their rifles
for the

Seymour #

Demonstration Forest event. ¢

SNOWBOARDING... Two

North ‘Shore snowboarders
have been selected to répre-
-sent Canada at the upcom-
‘ing. .:-Junior World
|. Championships in Japan,

Seventecn-year-old

; Maelle Ricker, of. West:

SNOWBOARD SENSA.
Ti | Masile Ricker.

Vancouve ‘ and 15-year-old

’ Island,’ qualified for the elite:

six-member: co-éd team. at

the recent Western Canadian.
~ Halfpipe event in Kelowna. |

With | ithe. inclusion ° of

are ‘an: important. testing

ground” for the Canadian.

team.
Thirty. nations. will be

sending over 400 shredders

’ to Japan in March.

SOFTBALL SIGNUP... |

Boys. born between 1977
: and 1989 can register for the
i North . Shore Softball
‘ Association’s 1996 season

at. Lynn Valley “Mall this ;

i weekend.

A ‘booth will be set up ©

inside the mall on Saturday,

sepa eencmee

ie Pach ree

Jan; 27 from 10 am. to 4

p.m; and on Sunday, Jan. 28
from noon to 4 p.m.
. For more

information }

call Jack Hubbard at 987-

7529,

West }

Michelle
age 11, and

Vancouver's
Appleton,

: Tsawwassen’s
: Zima, 13, teamed up recent-
, ly to win the girls’ under-14

‘“ doubles title at People’s

Court in Coquitlam,

The victory marked the
third straight tournament
tide for the talented duo.

Michaela 3

yProgressiv

AIN’T PROGRESS wonder-
ful? Ninety-five years down
the road, major league base-
bail has decided to include
inter-league games in its
schedule.

Where have the game's big
thinkers been since 1901, the year
the American League was invented
as a partner to the established
National League. Actually, has it
ever had any big thinkers?

Baseball has to be a great game,
just to survive the people who run
it. Now, after this great lurch for-
ward, maybe it will be inspired to
dabbie in the technology the Fox
Network pioneered in last
Saturday’s NHL all-star game.

The rockets’ red glare as home-
run balls clear the distant fences.
Fireball pitching an actual reality on
the home TV set. A 90-mile-an-

. hour fastball used to be called a

blue streak. No longer. It will have

 to-be a red streak.

Remember when former
Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley

’ — he who brought colorful double

knits and white shoes to the game
as traditionalists shuddered — tried
to introduce orange baseballs?

Much more visible, he ciaimed.
He had the color experts on his

' side. Blaze orange is the most visi-

ble of all colors. That’s why traffic
cops wear those blaze orange vests

_ when they're out there on rainy .

nights untangling snarled traffic.
Poor Charlie. He couldn’t land a

f . single vote, except his own. White '
= along with black — is the least
“visible color of them all. Actually,
. white and black ave non-colors.

That's why they're the hardest to
see. The U.S Air Force didn’t paint
those Stealth bombers black for no

good reason,

Spectator

Now that baseball has finaily .
admitted p-r-o-g-r-e-s-s is not the
ultimate dirty word, maybe it can
get on with hiring a commissioner,
settling its labor problems and
introducing the orange ball.

Did you ever attend those
spring-time major league exhibition
games at the B.C. Place dome?
How did you do, trying to track
outfield flies climbing towards the .
white ceiling? Had the balls been

" orange, no problem.

Tennis got the message years
ago. The yellow tennis ball now is
standard equipment. Orange golf

balls have been available for quite a

few years, too. Not only easier to.
track, but easier to spot when sliced
into the jungle.

Why don’t the pros use them on
the PGA tour? Good question. I
don’t have the answer. They’d cer-
tainly be more visible to the specta-
tors’ eyes, both on the course and
on the screen. If only Fox technolo-
gy would be compacted inside that

ditapled cover. Just imagine. A 250-.

yard red streak for the home view-
Back to hockey. Will the elec-

(Tics a > TUNE-UP SPECIALISTS.
B.C.A.A.- A.R.A. - APPROVE

AirCare - Gov. Certified #50222

TUNE-UPS ~

|. OUR 37TH YEAR
176 PEMBERTON AVE. N.VAN.

FUEL SYSTEMS = ELECTRICAL

* CONSULTATION
3078S

TALKING “ff

mene.

SATURDAY, JAHUARY.27, 1996
Sheraton Inn Guildford
15269 - 104th Avenue, Surrey
(Qpposite Flag Motors)

The Soccerfest '96 Agenda Includes:
Western Canada’s Largest Soccer Tradeshow

Fifty-plus exhibitors/!
fo

4:00pm/Free Admission

tronic puck help the game’s U.S.

TV ratings? At least it can’t hurt,

mostly because the ratings never

got above ground zero in all past
attempts.

Fox has nothing to lose, except
$400 every time the puck goes over
the glass and into the crowd. That's
how much each of those gimmicked
pucks costs, Remarkably, only four
of them went into the stands
Saturday night..

In any event, they’ re not about to
become the game's regular equip-
ment, But hockey could do its fans,
especially the ones paying the
heavy tariffs in what are
euphemisticelly labeled the chcap
seats, a favor by experimenting with
colored pucks, ~

Remember the old line about
Renry Ford and his Model Ts?‘He
said the customers‘could have them
in any color they

Does it make sense?

liked — as long as.

ve puck tali«:

you can get Fords in all sorts of col-
ors. But not heckey pucks. -
Why don’t the mental giants

. who mun the game give blaze orange’

a chance? Or lemon yellow? . .

They'd be giving their goalies
break, too. Have you noticed how. i
many black road regimentals NHL
teams are wearing these days? a
Canucks, for one.-Black-clad

_ defenders backing in on Kirk. 7 7

McLean or Corey Hirsch as they try :
to sec little black pucks ‘coming off
stick blades swathed in black tape.
Of course: not.
Meanwhile, your agent wonders

. what improvements Fox has in:

mind for its electronically enhanced
puck: How about buiit-i
could give us a.coupte of bars of

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. as
_ the a out of enh high to

they didn’t mind black. These days. bu

To give your child
an edge on life cali