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> - . • .•y vW.vssai • • ; Playoffs continue in Rec League By Herald News Service McHENRY - The McHenry De­ partment of Parks & Recreation be­ gan its 12" Softball League playoffs Sunday. In the first round of games at Petersen Park, Carey Electric topped Cullom Knoll II 9-7, Old Bridge III doubled West End Pub 12-6, Lake Geneva Lanes edged Cul­ lom Knoll III 5-1, Greg's Never Inn II beat Back Door Tavern 11-6, Tay­ lor Made Golf bashed Old Bridge III 22-10 and Market Place Coin Wash cashed in Lake Geneva Lanes 19-3. In first round contests at Knox Park, God Squad ripped Lakes Cab- MCHS scrimmage set By Herald sports staff McHENRY - McHenry High School will hold its annual Scrim­ mage Introduction Night Friday, Aug. 23 at McCracken Field, head football coach Joe Schlender has announced. The Introduction Night is spon­ sored by the Warrior Boosters, its purpose being to introduce the War­ rior gridders and prepare for the season opener. The freshmen squad will kick things off at 6 p.m., with the sopho­ mores to follow at 7 p.m. and the varsity at 8. All parents, students and fans are welcome. A $1 admission fee will be assessed. The high school admission policy will be in effect. No student below high school age will be admit­ ted without a parent or a high school age brother or sister. The Warriors will open their 1985 season on Friday, Aug. 30 at McCracken Field against Riverside- Brookfield. That will be a triple- header, with the freshmen Warriors kicking things off at 4 p.m. levision 22-5, Bjorkman's Ace Hard­ ware edged River Shannon Maraud­ ers 5-4, Bimbo's-Christopher's Men's Wear brushed past Four Sea­ sons Tree Experts 7-6, Busy Bee- RSAC crushed Jaycees 16-1, His & Her Hair Hut topped BJorkman's Ace Hardware 8-5 and John's Sport Stop stymied Bimbo's-Christopher's The league's second round of play began Tuesday, and survivors in­ cluded Sentry-Old Bridge, which edged Carey Electric 8-7; Greg's Never Inn II, which stopped Bim­ bo's 6-1; Bob's Barrel Inn, which nipped God Squad 2-1; and Busy Bee-RSAC, which blanked The Landscapes, 7-0. The semifinals and finals will be played Friday night, all at Knox Park. The championship affair will be played at 8:45 p.m. Johnsburg 'Soap Bowl' Friday night By Herald sports staff JOHNSBURG - Hie Annual Soap Bowl at Johnsburg High School will be held Friday night. The Soap Bowl is the season- opening intrasquad scrimmage for the Skyhawk football teams on all three levels. Admission is a bar of soap. All students, fans and parents are welcome. The freshmen will kick things off at 5 p.m., with the sopho­ mores to follow at 5:20, ana the varsity winding things up, from 5:40 to 6:15. Johnsburg will open its 1985 season on Friday, Aug. 30 at Richmond-Burton. Hall of Famer Brock to speak at banquet Locker Rumors ... His & Her Hair Hut of Wonder Lake was congratulated by its coach for a fine season, full of fun and fine play. It was... rewarding. Hair Hut finished just one game behind QED in the Sunday 12" League, and also was 11-3 and in second place in the Tuesday Night Knox Park Division of the Parks & Rec 12" Softball League. ...Despite a popular Crystal Lake rumor, Chicago White Sox super- pudge Carlton Fisk, does not reside in Crystal Lake. Sorry 'bout that. By Herald News Service Former St. Louis Cardinal star outfielder and recent inducteie to the baseball Hall of Fame, Lou Brock, will appear Sunday at the John Ev­ ans Inn, Crystal Lake. Brock, 46, who holds the record for the most career stolen bases, will be speaking on behalf of a ban­ quet for the Continental Little League. - Brock, to a certain extent, will be returning to the area that first gave him a Major League break as a Chicago Cub. In 1962, Brock was traded to the Cardinals in what has become known as one of the all-time worst trades in baseball history. Brock was traded for former 20-game win­ ner, Cardinal Ernie Broglio, who has since not met print in the record books. In the meantime, Brock played the rest of his career, more than 17- years with the Cards. He was in­ ducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, N.Y., July 28. Brock is also one of 15 players to make the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He set a record of 118 stolen bases in 1974, which has since been broke by Rickey Hender­ son. His total of 938 steals surpassed the old record, which was held by Ty Cobb for more than 40 years. Brock is also one of 16 players to collect more than 3*000 hits in his lifetime. Things change, but somehow still manage to say the same Are we supposed to be shocked and surprised at the 'news' that there are baseball players snort­ ing cocaine? Sorry, I didn't know. It does sort of make one won­ der how ancient baseball studs like Lou Gehrig or Cy Young would react to seeing the names of standout players of today mentioned in the same breath with slimy drug dealers. But, really, only the method by which baseball players mess themselves up has changed. We've heard the stories of Babe Ruth's drinking binges, and also of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 when White Sox players were nailed for fixing games, a prob­ lem which rocked the sport. In 1968, Denny McLain won 31 games and became a baseball legend. Then, he gambled his life away, and became another num­ ber .with a striped shirt -- look­ ing out from the inside of a pris­ on cell. Chris Juzwik Herald spofts writer Olympic athletes undergo tests of every size, shape and instru­ ment not to find out how much granola they have in their sys­ tems, but rather to check if all the muscles they have are work­ out-induced or steroid-induced. This 'latest' athletic problem isn't anything new, unfortunate­ ly. It's just different. Hey, this isn't a revelation. It's old news. Old as in 'baseball players do drugs? And, . <?' It's hard to downplay the fact that the role of professional ath­ letes as heroesTs quickly slip­ ping down the tube. But when Joe Shorstop signs his first pro contract, he doesn't sign on to be anybody's idol. He signs to play baseball. Whether or not he chooses to do that with a coke spoon up his nose is entirely up to him. And there's nothing Joe Aver­ age can do about it. Except stay home from the ballpark. And you know what? That won't faze Joe Shortstop a whole lot. This whole scenario reminds me of a story. When I was a tyke of 8-or-so years old, I saw an exhibition football game between the Detroit Lions and the Oak­ land Raiders. As I peeked down the tunnel leading to the players' lockerroom just prior to the start of the second half, I saw some­ thing that I suppose I'll never forget. There, in that tunnel, was Lions placekicker Errol Mann, a player whom I admired, smok­ ing a cigarette. Athletes smoke cigarettes? During a game? I was stunned. No big deal now, but it made quite an impression on a 4-foot-5 sports fan. It's difficult to justify the use of drugs in any walk of life, par­ ticularly those in which the per­ formers have lives envied by many of us 'normal' folk. As we dream what it would be like to play centerfield in a World Se­ ries game, Willie Wilson breathes a substance through his nose, and then goes out and lives that dream. This can't be avoided, because people are people. Willie Wilson may not like the fact that I wear a pink shirt. But that doesn't mean I should stop doing it. Baseball's role in drug abuse is another important factor. How will 'SuperCommissioner' Peter Ueberrroth handle this? Will it be enough for him to pull up his tie, talk out of the side of his mouth in that nutty way of his, and say everything's gonna be all right? Probably not. If you owned a baseball team, odds are you'd keep a known drug user on your team if it meant winning the pennant against finishing second. As long as he's doing his job, you, as the owner, have to do yOurs. And that is to win baseball games. Hey, the world isn't always a fun place to live in. Things nap- pen that we don't like. But. all one can do is grit.your teeth and handle it. What else is there? 'Look ma, no skis!' CL youth barefoots way to national tournament Crystal Lake's Tim Ryan shows off the form that will be sending him to the National Bare- Herald photo by Eddy Mootville foot Water Skiing Tournament in Tampa, Fla. this weekend. By Phil English Herald sports writer CRYSTAL LAKE -- For Crystal* Lake's Tim Ryan, this was the sum­ mer to end all summers. And the best part is, summer's not over yet. Ryan is heading into the national eye quicker than he ever anticipat­ ed. And once more, he never antici­ pated having this much fun getting there. It started as anVCident. Ryan, a competitive wate^sfier TOr more than three years, grew tired of the same old sport, the same old com- e t i t i o n , t h e s a m e . .everything. About the only thing he really enjoyed was getting on the lake and goofing around. As a result of his goofs, Ryan will spend this weekend, Aug. 22-26, par­ ticipating in the National Barefoot Water Skiing Tournament in Tam-« pa, Fla. There will be over 20 skiers vying for the same spot Ryan hopes to grab. The best part of the whole sum­ mer, according to R?an, is how un­ expectedly his fortunes have changed. "I used to ski three-event, which was slalom, trick and jumping for about three years," Ryan said with­ out any regret. "Then I just kind of got bored with it. I used to barefoot as a hobby, you know, just screwing around, and then I went to a bare­ foot water skiing school." Ryan's intent was just to learn some new tricks, to have even fun in between the routine of daHy practice. The barefoot skiing camp was just over the Wisconsin border, and also featured the 1964 world bare­ foot champion, Mike Scipel. Ryan was impressed, as was Scipel. The champ suggested that Ryan head into a the Wisconsin State Barefoot Tournament to work out the kinks and get some experience. Ryan, in return, didn't hesitate a second "I didn't think I'd do well at all in Wisconsin," he said. "And when things started to go the right way for me, I knew right away this is what I wanted to do." "I'm expecting to get at least third in the nationals," he added matter-of-factly. "At the Wisconsin tourney, there were a lot of people there that were at nationals the year before. I ended up beating the guy that took third overall last year." Ryan took second in the tourna­ ment overall. The accident couldn't have come sooner. In a week's time, he had polished his act up enough to defeat 'Barefooting, you're going at such a high Speed, you could really rip out your legs. Litem the fast lane.' the best skiers in the Midwest for the title. That was in late July. Since then, Ryan has been dedi­ cated to practicing a sport he finds relatively new, and a lot more fun than he's ever had before. "I ski about two hours a day -- hard skiing," Ryan said. "I might average three hours on the water, but it's two straight hours of hard skiing "When I skied before, I'd only go out and work hard about a week before a tournament, and then most of the time I'd just screw around. Barefooting is a lot more serious." "I probably wanted to stay with barefoot because its more of a thrill and more competition. And barefoot competitors seem to be friendlier. "It's a totally different feeling," he said. "It's more or less like fly­ ing in an airplane." The change from skiing to "fly­ ing" was a big one for Ryan, but it came at a good time, and he has definitely made the mostof it. "I started doing three-rounds about three years ago and started to get up in the competition," he said. "After awhile, I decided that at the age I'm at, I could never get the national recognition I wanted". The time seemed perfect for fate to take a turn for the 16-year-old Crystal Lake Central senior, and help him plan for a change of venue. "Barefoot is just more special­ ized. Jumping and barefoot are also the most dangerous. Barefooting, you're going at such a high speed, you could really rip out your legs. Life in the fast lane." Other than having fun, Ryan finds barefooting a challenge that he could never seem to find from tradi­ tional skiing. "You have to have the need to barefoot. There are a lot of people that will go skiing on the weekend, kick off their skis for about 200 feet and go, 'wow, I'm barefooting,'" he said. "For this, you can't just be the average weekend sklier. "Like with hockey, you don't have to do it all the time to be in a hockey dub." In Wisconsin, the payoff was a trophy. At nationals, the payoff is much bigger. If Ryan does well, there is a good chance that he will pick up corpo­ rate sponsorship from a wet suit company, which means less money problems and a couple free T-shirts. "The sport is expensive," he said glumly. "You pay about $10-20 a day just on gas for the boat. Other than that, with ropes, wet suits and other things, you spend about $3-500 a summer." ' To relieve part of the money pres­ sure, Ryan teaches water skiing over the summer. The ultimate summer job, right? "Oh, yeah, I've had a great sum-; mer. The best one yet." Thursday, August 22,1985 I (