HISTORIC MARK - Post-Tribune (IN)

PHOTO (Color) Mark McGwire

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.

The man with the red goatee and the Popeye biceps made athletic and American history Tuesday with one swing of a wooden club, smacking a baseball 341 feet into the night and breaking a revered record a generation old.

In a nation that forever demands bigger, more, better, faster, Mark David McGwire is now a name - and an event - to be remembered.

With his 62nd home run of 1998, a stinging line drive that broke Roger Maris' 37-year record (which broke Babe Ruth's mark), the 34-year-old McGwire became the 6-4, 250-pound engine that could.

The flashbulbs of a thousand cameras exploded from the Busch Stadium stands, forming a hometown light show as he circled the bases triumphantly for his shortest home run of the year.

'A shot into the corner! It might make it! There it is - 62, folks!' Mike Shannon, Maris' friend, said on KMOX-AM. 'And we have a new home run champion - a new Sultan of Swat!'

McGwire's 449th career homer came in his second at-bat of the night.

'The legend of Mark McGwire continues,' the scoreboard flashed. Security guards high-fived each other as they chased down the smattering of jubilant fans who rushed the field.

Across the stadium, from the most expensive boxes to the hot-dog vendors in the outfield, they all said it: The national pastime, an odd game in which the object is to get back to where you started, is a contender once again.

'Now there's a reason to come back to baseball,' said Sherry Irby, a pharmacist from Florence, Ala., who drove all night with her husband and two young sons to see a McGwire at-bat. They set up shop on cardboard mats in the outfield standing-room-only section.

'Good role models are few and far between for kids,' said her husband, Ken. 'The country's been kind of in the doldrums with the Lewinsky thing. We needed something to cheer.'

And cheer they did, for days: St. Louis fans, opposing teams' fans, people who aren't fans at all, entranced with the excitement of the record. They cheered from the bars of St. Louis to the McGwire-mad left-field stands of Busch Stadium and beyond.

The home-run race being run by McGwire and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa, who has a healthy 58, has heralded a resurgence of the nation's pastime, scorned by many since its players went on strike in 1994.

'Baseball sort of lost its way. Mark McGwire is doing a great job for the game,' said Bob Edmiston, 87, who has been attending Cardinals games since 1920. He came to the stadium in a McGwire jersey and scarlet shorts.

Milestones are especially crucial in baseball, a game of statistics with fans who care that so-and-so bats .306 against left-handed pitchers named Frank on partly cloudy Tuesdays in May.

'There's something in the pursuit of records that only baseball can deliver,' said Bud Selig, the game's commissioner.

Behind it all has been McGwire, the aw-shucks California giant who makes $9.5 million a year and has consistently tried to deflect the attention toward baseball itself.

He can't, of course; in a world of 64-ounce Big Gulps, Wal-Mart Supercenters and McDonald's super-size fries, McGwire is bigger-more-faster incarnate.

'He's really the home-run hitter of our era,' said Roger Maris Jr., who should know.

Other famous home runs have transcended baseball: Bobby Thomson's, off Ralph Branca, that won the Giants the 1951 pennant; Bill Mazeroski's World Series-winner in 1960; and, of course, Babe Ruth's legendary called shot in the 1932 World Series, in which it's said he pointed his bat into the stands and put the ball right there.

Beyond being the national pastime, baseball - deservedly or not - crosses over into the fabric of American culture more than most sports, becoming the repository of many an American's metaphors of innocence and timelessness. You don't hear football players talking about 'Canton' with the reverence of Cooperstown. And where's the Hockey Hall of Fame, anyway?

'Baseball is associated with legend - both sport and American culture,' says Bill McGill, co-editor of Spitball, a literary baseball magazine.

It has been a legendary few days in St. Louis, one of the oldest of baseball towns.

Thousands draw breath en masse each time McGwire connects. Batting practice turns into a fireworks show. Random fans catch home-run balls and hold news conferences for the national media minutes later.

Citius, Altius, Fortius. (Olympic Museum opens in Lausanne, Switzerland) - The Economist (US)

UNTIL now the sports hall of fame has remained a peculiarly American institution even when copied abroad. But it will acquire a European accent when the Olympic Museum--'the world's most comprehensive repository of written, graphic and visual information related to the Olympic Games'--opens in Lausanne in Switzerland on June 23rd.

In much the same way as its American precursors, the museum will celebrate the achievements of its sports stars with film shows, interactive videos and blown-up photographs. The victors' vices will be dealt with sotto voce. The museum is no keener to shout about the chemically enhanced performances of past medal winners than the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, is to advertise that some of its inductees, most notably Ilie Nastase, are best remembered for their unsporting behavior.

The Olympic Museum will also follow the lead of American halls of fame in putting on display the sort of memorabilia that excites children of all ages: the postage stamps issued by Haiti in 1940 bearing the effigy of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern games; the shoes Carl Lewis wore when he won the 200 metre gold medal in the summer games in Los Angeles in 1984; the crash helmet that protected Jean-Claude Killy's head in the winter games in Grenoble in 1968; and so on.

There is, however, one big difference between this institution and all-American halls of fame. The Olympic Museum seeks seriously (ie, not in a kitsch way) to celebrate the link between sport and the creative arts--a link which dates back beyond the Ancient Greek sculptures of god-like young athletes throwing the discus, the javelin and themselves into the air. The art in its permanent collection ranges from an Ancient Greek vase (circa 320 BC) and an Etruscan torch (circa 6th century BC) to a 1921 sculpture by Antoine Bourdelle called 'Heracles as Archer', a Faberge trophy presented by Tsar Nicholas II to the winner of the decathlon in Stockholm in 1912, and an untitled 1992 abstract painting by Antoni Tapies of what could be a skier.

The art on display is not confined to sporting subjects. The museum engaged in a subtle form of extortion in inviting the cities which are competing to stage the games in 2000 to 'select their most prized and valuable works of art' to go on display in Lausanne this summer. It was an invitation that none of the six rival cities--Beijing, Berlin, Brasilia, Istanbul, Manchester or Sydney--dared decline. The resulting treasure trove includes paintings by Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Dix, J.M.W. Turner, Francis Bacon, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Streeton.

There is no compelling reason for all-American halls of fame to pay any heed to what the Olympic Museum has done on the arts. They have already found a formula that is so successful that stars in several sports in America see their election to a hall of fame as the ultimate accolade, the pinnacle of a sporting career.

One case in point is the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, with its life-sized, action blow-ups of 'Hall of Famers' in a modern three-storey building. Another is the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, where all five members of the class of 1991 were, according to Insider, the in-house journal, 'awed by the tremendous honour--official recognition that they were among the very best their sport had produced--that was being bestowed upon them.' All five spoke about their families but none so sentimentally as Earl Campbell, a football superstar of the 1980s. 'Now my daddy, B.C. Campbell, is up there in heaven telling his buddies what a great son he has,' said Earl.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, is even more famous. It aroused truly national, not merely sporting, controversy when it excluded Pete Rose, the man with more hits than anybody else in history, from the Cooperstown gallery because he bet on the outcome of games when he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

However, much can be learnt from the Olympic Museum by halls of fame which aim to become famous not just in America but worldwide. One such is Newport's International Tennis Hall of Fame. Whatever their nationality, the winners of this year's singles titles at Wimbledon can look forward eventually to becoming 'inductees'. But they will have to be patient. Players are not eligible for 'enshrinement' until they have been out of the rankings (ie, off the men's and women's professional tours) for at least five years. So not until they start losing sets to rabbits are the current crop of champions likely to see their photographs mounted alongside those of Lew Hoad, Evonne Goolagong, Tony Trabert, Helen Wills Moody and other famous has-beens in the Hall of Fame.

'Who cares?' and 'So what?' is the common reaction of foreigners when they are told by their American friends about the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Americans find this couldn't-care-less attitude baffling but if the word international in the institution's title is to mean anything a way will have to be found to overcome the indifference of foreigners.

OFFBEAT PAPER FEELS FALLOUT FROM NEGATIVE-PRESS DISTRESS - Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)

The Repository has returned its press credentials for the 1995Canton-Akron Indians season after being told the passes werecontingent on the types of stories it would run, the Canton, Ohio,newspaper said Monday.

The credentials give reporters access to the press box and otherareas that allow them to cover the games.

'At the point a negative article about the franchise appearsanywhere in your paper, your credentials will be revoked and you willbe asked to purchase a ticket and cover the games from outside thepress box,' Indians general manager Jeff Auman said in a letter toThe Repository's sports editor, Bob Stewart.

Stewart said he told the Double-A Eastern League affiliate ofthe Cleveland Indians that the conditions were unacceptable.

'We don't base our coverage on whether or not the boss likesit,' he said.

The newspaper said it was prepared to pay admission at ThurmanMunson Memorial Stadium and cover the games from the stands if theclub does not change its position.

The newspaper said team owner Mike Agganis apparently wasconcerned about recent stories on the team. One was a Novemberarticle about corporate sponsors that were considering thecancellation of their advertising with the club because of Agganis'decision to move the team to Akron for the 1997 season.

Navratilova dodges the Bullets: Martina Navratilova has decidednot to try out for the Colorado Silver Bullets, officials of theAtlanta-based women's professional baseball team said.

The team opened its training camp Tuesday in Fort Myers, Fla.,with 51 candidates.

The Silver Bullets had been going to give Navratilova a privatetryout at a field in Palm Springs, but she called it off.

'It was handled through her publicist and the Coors people,'said Silver Bullets publicist Debra Larson. 'We never talked toMartina directly. The word we got was that she was irritated by thepublicity and the fact that the story leaked out about her wanting totry out.'

Street of dreams: It's Rebecca Lobo Way now.

Southwick, Mass., selectmen voted unanimously to rename thehalf-mile entrance road to the Southwick-Tolland Regional High Schoolin honor of the 1991 graduate and honor student, who led theUniversity of Connecticut to an undefeated season and the women'sNCAA basketball championship.

'It's not Rebecca Lobo Street,' said Paul Salzer, chairman ofthe selectmen. 'It is indicative of a way to get ahead in education,in athletics. It's Rebecca Lobo Way.'

AROUND BASEBALL - The Washington Post

SABO TO CHISOX: 3B Chris Sabo got some surprising news when thetelephone woke him up yesterday: His agent told him he was wanted bythe White Sox, who train in Sarasota, Fla., where Sabo lives. Out ofwork as a free agent, Sabo wasn't about to be picky, so he agreed toa $550,000, one-year contract to be the Chicago's designated hitter.He can earn another $550,000 in performance bonuses.

'To be honest with you, I didn't have much of a choice. I wantedto go back to the National League but it didn't work out,' said Sabo,who arrived at the White Sox spring training complex to take battingpractice less than an hour after agreeing to terms. 'I would havepreferred to sign to play in the field. My role is a DH and I will domy best to adjust to that role. I'll probably have less chance ofgetting hurt.'

Sabo -- who played with the Orioles last season -- was not theWhite Sox's first choice either. They were interested in 1B MarkGrace before he re-signed with the Cubs and they talked with freeagents John Kruk and Mickey Tettleton about batting cleanup behind 1BFrank Thomas.

Chicago is trying to replace DH Julio Franco, who hit .319 with 20homers and 98 RBI last season before signing with a team in Japan.

Sabo was unhappy last season, his only one with the Orioles, afterhe was hurt early in the season and lost the starting third base jobto Leo Gomez. DARWIN TO JAYS: The Blue Jays completed theirstarting rotation, signing RHP Danny Darwin to a $300,000, one-yearcontract. Darwin, 39, a veteran of 15 full seasons in the majors, was7-5 with a 6.30 ERA in 75 2/3 innings with the Red Sox last season.The Blue Jays' rotation is expected to consist of RHP David Cone --acquired in a trade with the Royals last week -- RHP Pat Hentgen, RHPJuan Guzman, LHP Al Leiter and Darwin. INDIANS ADD RELIEVER: TheIndians bolstered their bullpen by signing LHP Paul Assenmacher to a$700,000, one-year contract. Assenmacher can earn an additional$200,000 in performance bonuses. He spent the 1994 season with theWhite Sox, going 1-2 with one save and a 3.55 ERA. HIGUERA SIGNS:LHP Teddy Higuera and the Padres agreed to a minor league contractand the pitcher was invited to spring training as a non-rosterplayer. Higuera, 36, will get a $75,000 signing bonus and a $200,000salary if he makes the team. He also could earn an additional$300,000 in performance bonuses based on innings pitched. MOORE TOREDS: The Reds obtained RHP Marcus Moore from the Rockies in a tradethat sent minor league IF Chris Sexton to Colorado. Moore was 4-2with a 6.45 ERA in 56 relief appearances with the Rockies the pasttwo seasons. M. MADDUX TO PIRATES: RHP Mike Maddux, brother of two-time defending NL Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux of the Braves,signed a minor league contract with the Pirates and will get theopportunity to make Pittsburgh's opening day roster as a middlereliever. Maddux was 2-1 with a 5.11 ERA in 27 games last season withthe Mets. CANTON BACKS OFF: The Canton-Akron Indians have backedoff a threat to withdraw The Repository's press credentials if thenewspaper published negative stories about the team. The newspaperhad told the Indians, the Class AA Eastern League affiliate of theCleveland Indians, that it would not accept limits on its coverageand would buy grandstand seats for its reporters if necessary tocover the games.

PARENTS, INSTRUCTORS CONFIDENT IN SAFETY OF MARTIAL ARTS - Post-Tribune (IN)

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.

The recent death of a Massillon boy during a martial arts tournament in Indiana has not changed the opinions of those who contend the sport is safe if practiced properly.

Arthur Battin, 14, of Massillon, died during a tournament May 3. The cause of death remains undetermined, but he collapsed during a sparring session after taking a punch to the chest.

Those involved in the sport say the death was a fluke, and studios continue to teach children how to punch, kick and block as well as how to control those skills during sparring sessions so no one gets hurt.

'Overall, I think that martial arts, if done correctly, is a very safe sport,' Dr. Kevin Dieter of Canton, who practices family medicine in Waynesburg, told The Repository for a recent story. 'I actually was more concerned about my son playing football.'

The martial arts are big in Dieter's family. Dieter's wife and 8- and 11-year-old sons hold black belts.

They also are students at the Center for the Martial Arts of North Canton, where Arthur was a student.

Since Jan. 1, 1993, there have been three other deaths and more than 3,900 injuries of people practicing martial arts, according to an analysis of a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission database of emergency room records.

Steve Marcelli, of Marcelli's Tae Kwon Do Academy in Canton Township, said he and his instructors are keenly attentive to safety. They work to know the abilities and limits of each student - and insist on protective gear.

'She gets hurt more at home - there's the bicycle, the trampoline, she broke her arm on the swing set,' said Marsha Stryffeler of Homeworth, whose 12-year-old daughter Marisa has learned tae kwon do.

'I think it's more safe here because it's more controlled. Everybody knows their limits and they're taught their limits.'

Experts say before enrolling their children in a martial arts class parents should visit a class to see how well the instructors work with students. They also should ask whether protective gear is required, how long the instructors have been teaching and whether contact sparring is mandated.

Iowa St. player is charged - Charleston Daily Mail

AMES, Iowa - An Iowa State basketball player was charged withpublic intoxication and simple assault after police were called to afast-food restaurant.

Travis Spivey, 20, is a sophomore transfer from Georgia Tech whois sitting out this season.

Police were called to a Hardee's restaurant in downtown Amesshortly before 2:30 a.m. Thursday.Hardee's district manager Bill Gilbert said Spivey and four othermen were being disorderly at the restaurant. An employee asked themto leave, but only three did.Only Spivey's name is listed on police reports.Spivey, of Myrtle Beach, S.C.. was a starting point guard atGeorgia Tech last season.---=INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indianapolis Colts activated wide receiverKaipo McGuire from the practice squad for Sunday's game with theCarolina Panthers, team spokesman Bob Lamey said Friday.McGuire will fill one of the roster spots vacated by linebackerAndre Royal and defensive end Kendel Shello, who were placed oninjured reserve Thursday.---=CANTON, Ohio (AP) - Bob Stewart, who has worked at The Repositorysince 1957 and served as sports editor since 1970, said he willretire Dec. 31.Stewart, 63, began his career as the Massillon bureau chief andalso covered city hall and political beats. He announced hisretirement on Thursday.'Canton McKinley won back-to-back state championships in 1955 and1956, the two years before I started at The Rep,' Stewart said. 'Nowthat they've done it again, it's time for me to retire.'Stewart is a former vice president of Ohio Associated Press SportsWriters and a member of Associated Press Sports Editors. He wasinducted into the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association Hall of Famein 1996.Stewart is also a member of the Baseball Writers Association ofAmerica, Pro Football Writers, Basketball Writers Association,International Network of Golf, Golf Writers Association of America,Football Writers Association of America, and Society for AmericanBaseball Research.AP-ES-12-26-98 0313EST

Hog heaven Devoted fans flood into Ohio to celebrate greats.(Sports) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

CANTON, Ohio

Show me someone who doubts the Washington Redskins are the most valuable NFL franchise, and I'll show you someone who wasn't at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

It was as if there was a checkpoint on the road in: Show your ticket and your Redskins jersey, T-shirt or visor for admission.

The weekend's events - including tonight's Redskins-Colts exhibition - already had a vintage Redskins flavor with receiver Art Monk, cornerback Darrell Green and former assistant coach Emmitt Thomas among the six new inductees.

The burgundy-and-gold ocean suddenly flooding this pocket of Ohio made that flavor overpowering.

On Saturday afternoon, Redskins fans populated the long waiting lines that snaked into the Hall, a ticketed luncheon and the induction at Fawcett Stadium next door.

They jockeyed elbow to hip, herds of them, through the Hall's corridors and display areas, erupting now and again in a 'Hail to the Redskins' bellow.

Later, they turned the 31/2-hour evening ceremony into an open-air Skins fest, a Woodstock, a miniature Fed-Ex Field brimming with some 17,000 people - about 95 percent of them besotted faithful.

Pat and Ray Waters came from Chesapeake , drawn by a familial force.

Pat Waters promised her late father she'd come if Monk, their favorite player, ever got into Canton. And as she promised, she wore the white Art Monk jersey she'd once given her dad, who then gave it back to her before he died 13 years ago.

'This means a lot to me because of my dad,' said Pat Waters, 55, who hopes to snare Monk's autograph today and to tell him her story.

'He's why I'm a Redskins fan. Everything we've done this weekend - this, the parade this morning - I feel like he's smiling down.'

Carl and Mattie McNeil, who came from Virginia Beach, were smiling Saturday. Finally.

They were ready seven years ago when Monk - their favorite, too - was first rejected for induction. Every year Monk waited, they waited. When his name was called in February, the McNeils knew where they had to be the first weekend in August.

'This is a dream come true for me,' said Carl McNeil, 65, a retired Hampton Roads Transit driver. 'And for Art Monk to go in with a teammate like Darrell Green, that's really special.

'Looking around, you would think only Redskins are going into the Hall of Fame. That's a testament to Art Monk and Darrell Green.'

True, Fred Dean (Chargers, 49ers), Gary Zimmerman (Vikings, Broncos) and Andre Tippett (Patriots) also went in. In the context of the day, however, their honor was but a ripple in a lake.

It was the ex-Redskins who rattled the place. Coach Joe Gibbs' appearance on stage drew a standing ovation.

Monk, the great, understated receiver who closed the show, drew two minutes of applause before he spoke, the acknowledgement of the long, frustrating wait for his introduction.

Before him, the always loquacious Green tested the goodwill from his 20-year career by rambling 25 minutes, thanking pretty much everybody he's ever known. At the end, Green proclaimed himself ideally suited for life as a Hall of Famer, on religious grounds.

'I belong here. I bee-long here,' Green said, his voice rising. 'Because I know what to do with God's fame ... with God's visibility, with God's influence. To Jesus be the glory!'

Jason and Kathryn Foster drove from the Whaleyville section of Suffolk to feel the power.

No big deal there; Jason Foster, 34, last year flew home from a work assignment in Hawaii on a Friday to attend the Redskins Beach Blitz in Virginia Beach. He was back at work in Hawaii on Monday morning.

Nine hours to Canton is a jog around the block.

Matthew Gavin totally understands. The Old Dominion senior from Arlington turns 21 in three weeks. His aunt and fellow Redskins nut, Ann Marie Moses, paid for his trip, obviously figuring which would be more memorable: a Best Buy card or this.

'This is huge,' Gavin said. 'Darrell Green was my favorite player growing up. It's awesome. And I've never seen so many Redskins fans other than at a game.'

Carl and Mattie McNeil, to name two, plan to be back in a year.

Their personal friend, Norfolk native Bruce Smith, the NFL's all-time sack leader, is eligible for induction into the Hall next August.

Smith is also a former Redskin, but he spent 15 of his 19 seasons with the Buffalo Bills.

Those fans have an impressive act to follow.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com

CAPTION(S):

Mark Duncan | the associated press

Former Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, left, uncovers his Hall of Fame bronze bust Saturday with help from his son Jared. Mark Duncan | the associated press

Former Washington Redskins wide receiver Art Monk speaks at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday. Scott Heckel | The repository | the associated press

Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs welcomes Art Monk and Darrell Green at the enshrinees dinner Friday in Canton, Ohio. Kiichiro Sato | the associated press