Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506190024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Charlottesville hasn't had minor-league baseball in 81 years, so another two summers shouldn't seem a long wait for the likely arrival of the proposed Atlantic League.
The central Virginia city has been awarded one of six franchises in the independent league that hopes to begin play in April 1997. The other clubs, with two yet to be named, are Atlantic City and Newark, N.J., Lehigh Valley, Pa., Lowell, Mass., and Long Island, N.Y.
Before it happens, Charlottesville must build a stadium, and while investors known as the Centerfield Group Inc. are committed to the Atlantic League, it will continue to talk with the Class A Carolina and South Atlantic Leagues about expansion or franchise relocation.
Charlottesville sold itself to the fledgling independent league on a population of 400,000 within a 35-mile radius. The city hasn't had pro baseball since it played with Staunton, Clifton Forge and Covington in the Class D Virginia Mountain League in 1914, that circuit's only season.
BY THE MANUEL: Well-traveled Jeff Manto's bat is headed to Cooperstown, and the Baltimore third baseman thanks Roanoke resident Charlie Manuel for the powerful attitude that recently produced a record four homers in four consecutive at-bats.
Manto played for Manuel when the Parry McCluer High School grad and former Japanese League MVP was managing in the Cleveland system in 1990-91 at Class AAA Colorado Springs. Manuel, now the Indians' hitting instructor, sold the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder on hitting for power.
``All of the things he taught me finally began making sense,'' Manto said last week of Manuel. ``He taught me how to hit when I'm ahead in the count, when to turn on a pitch, when to go to right field. He said that it was OK to make an out as long as they're backing up and diving.''
Manuel's current pupils in Cleveland have the defense doing the same. The Tribe is hitting better than .290 as a team.
WELL-HEELED: How special was the 1994-95 sports year at North Carolina? All 13 UNC men's teams reached the postseason (12 NCAA bids and the Sun Bowl), and nine of 13 Tar Heel women's teams reached NCAA play. Six UNC teams had top 10 rankings.
GOING UP: One of the items being negotiated in the NBA labor talks is just how the league's ``soft'' salary cap will work in the future. The cap this season - 53 percent of the league's gross revenues go to the players - was $15.9 million. However, every team had a larger player payroll than that.
The Los Angeles Lakers had the top payroll ($42.07 million), but about half of that went to retirees Magic Johnson and James Worthy. You don't need to pay the biggest bucks to get results. Repeat champ Houston ranked 24th among the 27 clubs in player payroll, at $17.57 million. Only playoff non-qualifiers Washington, Milwaukee and Detroit were lower.
DAWN AGAIN: When the U.S. national women's basketball team announced it would be playing an Olympic preparation exhibition schedule against selected college teams, it figured Virginia would be one of the stops. The 11-woman U.S. team, including former UVa star Dawn Staley, will play coach Debbie Ryan's Cavaliers on Nov.7 at University Hall.
NOT SO FAST: Seems the player with the biggest contract among the Carolina Panthers has the biggest aspirations, too. Linebacker Lamar Lathon, the former Houston Oiler with a five-year, $13.5 million deal, predicts the NFL expansion Panthers will ``win nine or 10 games this year.'' And to think the training camp heat hasn't even gotten to Lathon yet.
LONG TIME: Baseball's Appalachian League begins its 67th season tonight, and it's the last year as boss for longtime Appy leader Bill Halstead of Bristol. Halstead has run the league out of his home since 1982, when only five of the current 10 teams were in the Appy League. He's the league's president, secretary and treasurer.
by CNB