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Sports
Page 3 • Monday, July 19, 1999
ajjYankees pitcher David Cone reaches perfection in pinstripes
- basic eW
NEW YORK (AP) — David Cone picked
â–  perfect day for a perfect game,
vided - : il Wit ^ Don Larsen sitting behind home
Tit docuir4 :
. ^Hlate, Cone dazzled the Montreal Expos with
. wide assortment of pitch-
e case s yesterday, throwing the
4th perfect game in mod-
i/ 1 • t rn histow to lead the
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,liree -y he only one in Series his-
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't ycats. [-,0 three-year history of interleague play.
'elaO, noi Cone got Orlando Cabrera to hit a pop-
| prosect ip for the final out. He dropped to his
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“Once we got that big lead, I really re
laxed,” said Cone, whose career almost
ended three years ago because of an
aneurysm near his right armpit. But in the
ninth, he said, he could feel his heart
“pounding through his uniform.”
“You probably have a better chance of
winning the lottery than this happening,”
he said.
Larsen was at Yankee Stadium for Yogi
Berra day and even recreated his perfect
day in 1956 by throwing out the first pitch
to Berra. Right after that pitch. Cone made
his only mistake of the day.
“I asked him if he was going to jump into
Yogi’s arms again,” Cone said. “He told me
I got it all backwards. Yogi jumped into his
arms. Mr. Yankee history got it all wrong.”
Cone did everything else right yester
day. He got through the first inning with
help of a diving catch in right field by Paul
O’Neill to rob Terry Jones of a hit.
He didn’t need any more help from his
fielders until the eighth inning. Jose Vidro
hit a hard grounder up the middle with one
out in the eighth.
Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch,
who has 16 errors this season, ran to his
right to backhand the ball, pivoted and
made a perfect throw to first baseman Tino
Martinez to get Vidro.
“As soon as he hit it, I said, ‘There it
goes,”’ Cone recalled. “When Knoblauch
made the great play, I decided there was
some kind of Yankee aura. Maybe this was
my day. Maybe there is something to this
magic.”
Cone (10-4), who got his first shutout in
exactly four years, didn’t go to a three-ball
count all day and struck out 10.
When Wells pitched his perfect game
against Minnesota on May 17, 1998, Cone
sat next to him between innings, calming
his teammate.
“I already talked to Boomer and he wel
comed me to the club,” Cone said just min
utes after the game ended. “He said he
wanted to fly down here and party with me
all night.”
In Toronto, Wells said: “He’s overcome
a lot of obstacles in his career and for him
to do it in New York, where he is well
loved, he is the man of New York City.”
Cone was given a standing ovation when
he walked to the mound in the ninth, and
the crowd of 41,930 remained on its feet.
Cone struck out Chris Widger, then re
tired pinch-hitter Ryan McGuire on a fly to
left that Ricky Ledee almost dropped.
“I really didn’t want it hit to me,”
Ledee said. “I was having a tough time
seeing the ball.”
Needing just one more out, Cabrera
worked the count to 1-1, then hit a popup
that third baseman Scott Brosius gloved in
foul territory halfway toward the plate for
the final out.
Cone immediately dropped to his knees
by the side of the mound, grabbed his head
in disbelief and saw catcher Joe Girardi
sprinting toward him. Girardi pushed cone
down and the celebration began.
“I have been under a lot of piles,” said
Girardi, who caught Dwight Gooden’s no
hitter in 1996. “I didn’t want him to be at
the bottom of that. He is more important
than I am. I wanted to protect him.”
The rest of the Yankees rushed out of
the dugout and bullpen and mobbed him.
They lifted him on their shoulders and car
ried him to the edge of the dugout as the
crowd stood and waved wildly.
Larsen watched from a luxury box be
hind the plate and applauded the latest
chapter in the Yankees’ storied history.
This was the 16th perfect game overall, in
cluding two in the 19th century.
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59
Mixed-up Mavericks
MARK MCPHERSON/The Batt,
Dallas management, coaches' player selection
leading team toward extended period of futility
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Mark
PASSWATERS
W hat is the most
fundamental dif
ference between
the Titanic and the Dallas
Mavericks? The Titanic only
sank to the bottom once;
the Mavericks do it yearly.
After this year’s NBA
draft, it looks like S.S.
Maverick, under the fear
less leadership of Don Nel
son, has gotten a head start on the rest of the
league on its trip to the basement.
Even a passing NBA observer would take a
look at what Dallas did in the 1999 NBA entry
draft and have a desire to walk up to Dallas
management and quote Monty Python:“You’re
a looney! ”
What insanity has Coach/G.M. Nelson
brought upon those long suffering Mavericks
fans (if there are any) this time? The names
Leon Smith and Wang Zhi-Zhi not only sum
up this year’s draft for the Mavericks but can
also be used as an illustration of what the
team has been doing since Nelson, and his
son Donnie, took over the team.
Smith was taken by the Mavericks with the
29th pick in the draft after making a trade with
the San Antonio Spurs to move up to get him.
Smith was labeled by draft experts from vari
ous media outlets as “nowhere near ready”
and as someone who “won’t contribute for
years — if ever. ”
The Mavericks, who did not have a first-
round pick, probably could have gotten Smith
with either of their two second-round picks,
considering that Smith was not expected to
even be drafted. Now, Smith, an 18-year-old,
is guaranteed to garner at least $2 million from
the Mavericks over the next three years just for
being picked in the first round.
Why did the Mavericks trade up to pick
him? Because they were bored, seriously.
Donnie Nelson has been quoted as saying that
the management (in other words, he and his
father) were tired of waiting around and
wanted to do something.
Now that they have Smith, what do the
Mavs want to do with him? Send him to Eu
rope, of course. There, he can work on some
fundamentals, like dribbling and shooting. Dal
las has selected a player in the first round who
cannot do the most basic thing in basketball.
But it gets worse. Wang Zhi-Zhi, at 7 feet,
255 pounds, was their second-round pick. Zhi-
Zhi plays for a Chinese Army team, and there
is no guarantee that the Mavericks can even
obtain his services. Even if they do, he will join
a growing group of players on the Dallas roster
that have foreign passports and cannot pass.
This past season, the Portland Trail Blazers
made big news by being able to put out two
entirely different squads on the court due to
their depth. Now Dallas can do the same, with
their “really tall” lineup and their “interna
tional” lineup. With Wang, Chris Antsey,
Shawn Bradley, Bruno Sundov and Dirk Now-
itzki, the Mavs can put a team on the floor
that are all over 7 feet. Also, they are so slow
that they could not cover Dunkin’ Donuts
much less Tim Duncan.
Or, Nelson could pull Bradley and put in
Steve Nash to play point guard, to show Dal
las’ international talent (or lack thereof). With
an Australian, Croatian, German, Canadian
and now a Chinese, the Mavericks are well on
their way to being the UN’s favorite team as
well as the NBA’s worst. Nelson is to be com
mended for scouring the world for talent, but
should also be reminded that the best players
on earth are still American.
While stockpiling a team that has become
an announcer’s nightmare. Nelson has passed
up some quality players in the draft. Last year,
the Mavs took Nowitzki, whom Nelson would
like to make a “point forward,” and traded
their first round pick this year to Phoenix for
Nash, who promptly flopped. As a result, the
Mavs missed out on picking someone like Ja
son Williams, who may be the best point
guard in basketball for the next 10 years, or
Paul Pierce, an explosive scorer. With such ad
ventures in drafting, as well as almost all of
Dallas’ players of quality being free agents
(with the exception of Michael Finley, the one
true star on the team), the future looks very
bleak for the Mavericks.
As for this year’s first round stud, Leon
Smith: he may not be as lacking in brainpower
as his SAT scores indicate.
In his very first practice as a Maverick,
Smith got mad and stormed out of the gym.
Keep walking, Leon. Save yourself the pain of
many future losses.
Mark Passwaters is an electrical
engineering graduate student
Lawrie 2nd Scotsman
to win British Open
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP) — The most stunning collapse
in golf gave way to the greatest comeback in the history of ma
jor championships.
Paul Lawrie, 10 strokes behind when the final round began
yesterday, became the first Scotsman to win the British Open
in his native land in 68 years — but only after a three-way play
off caused by Jean Van de Velde’s triple bogey on the 72nd hole.
Lawrie won the four-hole playoff over Van de Velde and
Justin Leonard, making birdies on the last two holes to win the
claret jug before a delirious, shell-shocked gallery at Carnoustie
Golf Links.
“I thought no way,” Lawrie said when asked if he ever imag
ined a playoff. “Incredible.”
The biggest comeback in a major until yesterday was Jack
ie Burke Jr., who was eight strokes behind amateur Ken Ven
turi in the 1956 Masters.
Van de Velde was no amateur. The 33-year-old Frenchman
just played like one on the final hole when he tried to be a hero
and lost a chance to be a champion. He bounced balls in the
rough, off the grandstand, in the water of Barry’s Burn and in
the bunker.
It all added up to a 7 when all he needed was a 6.
“Maybe next time I’ll hit the wedge,” he said. “And maybe
you will all forgive me.”
Van de Velde made a gallant bid in the playoff, but Lawrie
matched his birdie on the tough 17th hole and ended 90 min
utes of unimaginable drama with an approach into 3 feet on
No. 18. He became the first Scottish-born player to win an Open
in Scotland since Tommy Armour at Carnoustie in 1931.
“To birdie the last two holes in a playoff is such a fairy sto
ry,” Lawrie said.
As for Van de Velde, he was the first player to lose a five-
stroke lead in the final round of an Open since Jose Jurado, also
in 1931.
Leonard, who won the 1997 British Open at Royal Troon
with a five-stroke comeback, almost matched that feat. But he
made bogey from the watery burn on the 72nd hole for bogey,
and again in the playoff.
Lawrie played the playoff holes — Nos. 15-18 — in par. He
closed with a 4-under 67, tied for the best score of the tourna
ment on the toughest links golf course in the world.
That put him at 290, the first time over-par has won an Open
in 14 years. Leonard had a 72, while Van de Veit staggered home
to a 77.
Not since John Daly won the PGA Championship in 1991
had a player come out of nowhere to win a major champi
onship. Lawrie has won twice on the European tour, including
the Qatar Masters, but he was a mere 159th in the world rank
ings. Daly was 168th when he won at Crooked Stick.
“Obviously, 10 shots back ... I didn’t think I had a chance,”
Lawrie said. “But you know, strange things happen, especial
ly around here.”
Lawrie also became the first qualifier to win the Open since
it started giving exemptions in 1963. Before that, everyone —
even Ben Hogan — had to qualify.
Lawrie is an exception to the established champions
Carnoustie has produced — Armour, Henry Cotton, Hogan,
Gary Player and Tom Watson.
Holding the claret jug as darkness and rain fell around the
18th green, Lawrie, who grew up about an hour’s drive from
Carnoustie, thanked his wife and “everyone who knows me —
which is a lot of you now.”
Everyone is more likely to remember Van de Velde, a charming
man who carelessly tossed away his chance for fame. The only
Frenchman to win the British Open was Amaud Massy in 1907.
“There are worse things in life,” Van de Velde said. “Some
terrible things are happening to other people. This is only a
golf tournament. Yes, I blew it on 18. All it proves is I was
capable of being three ahead of the best players in the world
on 18.”
Van de Velde gave the French a dubious piece of golf histo
ry. No one will ever forget who was behind the greatest col
lapse in the game, maybe in all of sports.
1999 British Open
Final Scores
Paul Lawrie*, $577,500 73-74-76-67 — 290
Justin Leonard, $305,250 73-74-71-72 — 290
Jean Van de Velde, $305,250 7&68-70-77 — 290
Angel Cabrera, $165,000 75-69-77-70 — 291
Craig Parry, $165,000 76-75-67-73 — 291
Greg Norman, $115,000 76-70-75-72 — 293
Tiger Woods, $82,500 74-72-74-74 — 294
Davis Love, III, $82,500 74-74-77-69 — 294
David Frost, $82,500 80-69-71-74 — 294
*won in playoff