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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-05-11, Page 19ark Somewhere By Jim Hughson. Sportscaster • The Sports Network If Abner Doubleday had known how .many pitchers it now takes to complete the game he invented, baseball would have only seven innings. Had he paid ta.watch eight Toronto and Kansas City pitchers give up 23 hits in a recent 11 - 9' marathon that took almost four hours, he'd have kept his invention to himself. The national pastime has changed considerably since Doubleday created a game with one pitcher on each team. Now every squad in a• constantly expanding league has a dozen and there just aren't enough good ones to go around. The Toronto Blue Jays know this all too well. The defending cham- pions have a lineup that hits like nine Reggie Jacksons. Unfor- tunately, on too many days, they pitch like him, too, and find them- selves with a tnediocre record looking up at their arch rivals from Boston, New York and Baltimore. The Blue. Jays have been caught short of pitching primarily because of injuries to Danny Cox and Duane Ward, key members of last year's staff. Butlike most other teams, they've fallen victim to a game that's changed in the last 15 years: Pitchers are less durable and versatile and so, when • one gets hurt, more difficult to replace. The dilemma, as with too many in baseball, can .be traced . to money. When starting pitchers began making millions of dollars, management became more careful with .. their, investments. They switched from ,four to. five man, starting staffs • to make sure their prized possessions were well rested. Then 'they limited the number of pitches to ensure no one got over- worked. Once the starter was no longer a finisher, it became important to have someone close out the game. Relievers had ,been starters. gone sour or veterans at the end of their careers but teams discovered that fresh arms in the late innings made outs almost automatic, so they developed • closers. Before long, there was a setup man to pitch the eighth inning, a closet to pitch the ninth and both made the kind of money we dream of winning in a lottery. The Blue Jays were at the head of the class. Through the late '80s they had left and right-handed setup men (David `Wells and Duane Ward) and one of the best closers in the game (Tom Henke). The price of winning champion- . ships, however, was high. Henke and Wells went the way of budget cuts' and Ward got hurt. That left the Blue Jays with starting pitchers trained to get through the seventh inning and a batch of bullpen boys who • aren't quite ready for prime time. The result is blown leads, late nights and an upset stomach for the, manager. There's little solace in misery having company but Toronto is just one oftwo dozen teams with the same problem. And the solution might be a few years away. Since teams seem unable to develop good bullpen stoppers and don't want to pay huge money if they do, perhaps it's time to condition, pitchers to toss'complete games again. Imagine that. Baseball with only two hurlers and no pitching change commercials. Maybe Abner's idea shouldn't have• been tampered with in the first place. Monday night league ends OWLING The Monday Nighi Mixed bowling league wrapped up their season recently. The season's champs were John's Jokers with 112 points and included Fred DeBoer, Eric Haldenby, Robert Jones, John Andrew, Linda Stick - lend and Tracey Norman. The Noisy Critters racked up a total of 13,376 points to take the playoff round. Team members include Eric Taylor, Tom Downey, Harold Elliott,; Terri Wall, Margaret Young and George Wall. High singles for the season and playoffs went to Gerry Vander Klippe (366) and John Van Diepen (329). Gerald Rhody rolled the high triple for the season with 821, and Eric Taylor's 844 was high triple for playoffs. In the ladies's division, Merle Rhody (289) and Tracey Norman (239) were high singles for season and playoff respectively. Shani Webb's 680 was high triple for the season,.,and Ruely .Vander Klippe's 634 took the playoffs. High average was maintained by Shirley Kennedy with 176, and Eric Haldenby with 189. Most improved bowlers were Lea - Anne Haldenby with +33 and John 'Van Diepen with +26. Low games were claimed, by Ursula Crane 56, and Joe Austin 71. Ripley Bowlers High singles and doubles to date: Al Schaus 252, 481, Donalda Pol- lard 201, 329. Games over 150: Ed Fink 163, Al Schaus 215, 163, Peg Roome 171, Donalda Pollard 164, Jim Wilkie 166. Team standings: Bluebirds 50, Robins 50, Cardinals 49, Wrens 31, Orioles 16, Larks 20. f,ucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, May 11, 1994 - Page 19 Receiving awards at the YBC wrap up last Saturday were, back, row, left to right: Jackie Hackett, Junior MI; Aaron Ritchie, Bantam MI; Wyatt Kwan, Bantam H.A.; Kristina Johnston, Junior H.A. Front row: James Mann, Pee Wee MI; Denzel Archer, Smurf, H.A.; Greg Beyersbergen, Smurf MI; and Jennifer Beyersbergen Pee Wee H.A. and bowler of the year. (Pat Livingston photo) Those YBC bowlers were honored for their performance during the year. From the left, back . row, Jeff Weber, .Bantam H.S.; Patrick Ritchie, Junior H.T.; Jamie Aubie, Junior H.S. Front row, Brent deBruyn, Smurf H.S.; Amber Ritchie, Pee Wee H.S. Absent: Anson Ritchie, Pee Wee H.D. and Russ Mann, Bantam H.D. (Pat Livingston photo) . Many activities keep LCPS students occupied LCPS is very proud of Rachael. Bushell who won the. intermediate division of the Bruce County Public Speaking competition on Apr. 16. Rachael was selected from a group of, students who represent the top Grade 7 and 8 speakers in all of Bruce County. Rachael has received this prestigious award on two oc- casions. She will present her win- ning speech at a county council meeting as well as the 25th. anniver- sary of the Bruce County Board of Education in Elmwood on May 11.. Congratulations on . your fine achievement, Rachael! Electives Our fifth elective program was ' held on Apr. 22. New sessions included Helping the Blind, Plan- ning a Party, T-shirt decorating and Building a Bird House. We would like to thank community helpers Doreen Mali, Jennifer Pidgeon, Del Burkhart, Kim Ozorio, Don Cameron, Gord Cayley, Laura Steffler, Reta Davis, Kay Remus; Earl Farrell, the Lucknow Bowling • Lanes, Barb Bushell, Chrissie Con- ley, Robert Hamilton, Debbie Cur- rie, Crystal Elliott, Chris Massena, Karen Stanley, Marg Medley, and Greg Fowler and Shannon of the CMB for their contributions to the successful elective program. Earth Week Earth week seemed like an ap- propriate time for the 13 members of the World Watchers used a film, a display, plus the overhead to introduce this challenging Environ- mental Program entitled, Learners in Action. Each division in the school received the workshop. The World Watchers explained that the goal of the program is for the entire student body to work together and try to achieve 100 Environmental projects. If this goal is ac- complished, the school will receive a huge banner stating that LCPS is a "Green School." The . World Watchers have completed the 20 projects for the Bronze Certificate. Now, they are asking for the school's help to receive the silver, gold and finally the ultimate "Green Banner.." Students showed' enthusiasm for Learners in Action and are looking forward to the challenge of reaching the goal of 100 projects. The World. Watchers also provided an oppor- tunity for students to collect houselcague points by presenting trivia question relating to the Earth week theme. Each day' during mor- ning announcements, a question was asked and if the proper response was given, each person received five houseleague points. A special thank you to Amy Blake, Marlene Johnston, Jessica Steffler, Andrew Grist, Mandy Havens, Erin Eadie., Michelle Mitchler, ,Joapne Harris, Margo Abbott, Jaime Pritchard, Lindsay Raymond, Sam Mayer and Valerie Weber. - Walkerton Music Festivtd Mrs. de Boer would like to com- mend the following people who represented our school so well at the Music festival, held in Walker- ton. Congratulations to Margo Ab- bott, Heather Lougheed, and Rachael Bushell who received first place and to Amy Blake and Melin- da Donnan who received a second place prize. Thank you for doing such a fine job! BasketBall Tournament The girls' and boys' basketball teams recently competed in a regional basketball tournament and although they did not win the pen- LCPS INSIDER nant, they were' competitive and enjoyed some victories. Members of the boys' team were: Andrew Grist, Daryl Aitchison, Tom Symes, Sean Lougheed, Cam Moffat, Conor ,McDonagh and'Clint•Gunter. Mem- bers of the girls' team were: Andrea Hiller, Melanie Nicholson, Kristi Cranston, Come Kranenburg, Sherri McCracken, Jackie Freeman, Paula Kwan, Jayme Sutherland, Alicia de Boer, Came Moffat and Natalie Tormey. Music Night LCPS was busy "Readin", `Ritin' and Rockin " on May 4 as the' Grade 7 and 8 students presented their spring musical. The. school band performed for the audience as 'everyone waited for the show to begin.. Then, the students enter- Mined a packed auditorium with their singing, dancing, and acting as they told tales of their everyday school life... The evening was a resounding success and the students had much of which to be proud. i Theatre Performance On May 5 the Erewhon Theatre came to visit: They acted out the play "The Lion, The Witch and the • Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. Their presentation was quite amazing as i the audience was asked to make the sound effects and was allowed to try on costumes following the play. Their performance was enjoyed by everyone. The studious students In LCPS's Readin', Rhin' and Rockin' musical, presented last week, are Devon MacDonald and Trevor Askes. (Marg Burkhart photo) •