The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, September 22, 1998 - 19 t Large... Port Perry's Todd Healey takes a | look at today's world of sports Sosa snubbed by Baseball OK class, today's lesson is baseball's version of the American-Manifest Destiny philosophy. If you were absent when manifest destiny was discussed, it is, in a nutshell, the inherent beljef by Americans that the U.S.A. should rule the world. "If it didn't happen in the States, it didn't happen," says Uncle Sam. The last two great home-run seasons of '61 and now '98 have both been rife with the media's spin- doctoring concerning the importance of the athletes involved and biased in their reporting of the events in an effort to glorify one man's Achicyenients over anothers. Sadly, Sammy Sosa and Roger Maris share more than a place in baseball's record books. They were both the victims of circumstance, the "wrong" guy doing the right things as far as the American media, and therefore the American public, was concerned. Maris was shunned for many reasons, which are deemed to be ridiculous in today's light. First, he was not considered to be a "true" Yankee, in that he was traded to New York by Kansas City, and he had never previously hit even 40 homers in a season, let alone 60, and was branded a flash in the pan, a Johnny-came-lately who didn't warrant respect. He was also overtaking an immortal Yank, the Babe, who by the way, was also not a true Yankee, having been sold to New York from Boston by the owner of the Red Sox in 1919 to finance the Broadway pro- duction of No, No Nanette. And finally, Maris had the nerve to overshadow the popular Yankee of the era, Mickey Mantle, who gave chase to Maris during the dog days of August in '61 before faltering at the wire to end the season with 54 dingers. Mantle was the "All-American" boy, the media favorite and Maris, a shy reluctant star, took the fan's wrath. And now along comes Sammy Sosa, much like Maris, wallowing in the spotlight of McGwire, deserving so much more attention and respect. He is not the golden boy, the guy the media has chosen to carry the torch and this, like Maris and Mantle, has nothing to do with race. In terms of marketability, it is simply that the media and the baseball establish- ment have collectively made up their minds to ride their big red horse come hell or high water. Where were the media when Sammy belted num- bers 61 and 62? Was ESPN there, eschewing prime- time broadcasting to call the event? Was Joe Buck interviewing Sosa on a live national feed after the game, fawning over him, saying "gimme a hug, you big lug?" Was the Maris family herded into the sta- dium and propped awkwardly before the cameras, like deer caught in headlights? Were the balls used in Sosa's game enhanced with computer chips to authenticate the "real" ball? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding no. And why? Because in the grand scheme of things, as far as the establishment is concerned, Sosa is simply a catalyst for McGwire to play off of, a perfect Shakespearian fool. Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, tries to shrug off the suggestion that Sosa has been treated unduly by baseball and the media by saying that "we couldn't follow two men all over the country." Lame Bud, very lame. Yes, you could follow two men and should have, and since one man, McGwire, didn't need to be followed anymore, your excuse makes even less sense. In many ways, the home run chase of '98 has served to heal the Maris injustices by bringing to the collective American consciousness how badly he Turn to Page 21 NEW SEASON, NEW HOPE: The 1998 Junior C CHRIS HALL / PORT PERRY STAR and white are looking for better things this year hockey season is just around the corner for the Port Perry MaJacks and with it comes new players and a new coach. After a disappointing 1996 season and an average year in 1997, the green when the season opens in just over a week. The local squad is getting in some practice, as they took on the Little Britain Merchants Sunday night, which resulted in a 7-5 loss for the club. Open season for the MoJacks Port set to kick off their 27th campaign By John B. McClelland Port Perry Star The real hockey season is about to get underway for the Port Perry Modacks. Training camp and the pre-season games are over. The next time the ModJacks take to the ice to face an opponent it will be for keeps with any points counting in the standings of the Central Junior C Hockey League. And that next time is this coming Sunday afternoon (Sept. 27) at the Scugog Arena when the MoJacks will host the Georgina Ice for the home opener at 3 p.m. The team wrapped a six game pre-season schedule Sunday night at the Scugog Arena, falling 7-5 to the Little Britain Merchants. It was a game the MoJacks probably could have won were it not for a disastrous few minutes at the start of the third period when everyone in green and white just seemed to stop skating. The result was four straight Merchant goals to overcome a 4-3 Port Perry lead and vault into a com- fortable 7-4 lead of their own. The MoJacks managed to net one more late in the frame to make it 7-5 but they were not able to get back into the game. The Merchants just seemed to have Port Perry's number. This was their second pre-season victory over the MoJacks. And last year, the Merchants won all 10 match-ups, including four in the first round of the playoffs. Head coach Tom Thornbury used the six pre-season games to take a long, hard look at the players who came out to camp, and after Sunday night's game, he had to make those always difficult last few cuts to round out his roster. Turn to Page 21 « Monsma opens with a bang in SHL Week Two By Dean Van Camp Special to The Star Monsma Electric 4 Ball/Callery 2 Monsma Electric started off week two of the SHI, with a bang. Big Jack Monsma opened up the scoring with assists from Brian Till and Rick Campbell. Two peri- ods later, Mike McQuade sniped Monsma' second goal from Jim Duncan and Brian Till. Brad Meekin then brought the score up to 3-0 with an assist awarded to Dave Cini. But Ball/Callery was not left out. They scored two goals in 26 seconds from Paul Stanley and Rick Penstone. Assists went to Terry Flieler and Paul Stanley. Despite Ball/Callery's last second Turn to Page 21