John Blanchette

1. Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriquez celebrate a home run. Photo by Associated Press 2. In his first at-bat of the season, Ken Griffey Jr. hits the first of two home runs Tuesday against the New York Yankees. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. At 34, Norm Charlton has a good feel for spring training and a strong sense that he's the man the M's will call their closer in '97. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Charlton hopes hard times - personal and professional - are behind him. Photo by Associated Press 3. Center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr., left, and bullpen ace Norm Charlton have to stay on their toes if the Mariners are going to walk through the A.L. West. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Their record is mediocre and their team earned run average is horrible, but for the Seattle Mariners life is good. Consider that their major questions of this spring training are: Who's going to be the backup catcher? Who's going to be the backup infielder? Who's going to be the fifth starter? Is it prudent to keep a rookie left fielder who, until recently, has been hitting the cover off the ball? But time is getting short. The final cuts are but a week away, and in some respects the M's are no closer to the answers than they were a month ago. Manager Lou Piniella isn't tipping his hand, though his comments do allow some reading room between the lines. So let's try some handicapping: Catcher: Going into Saturday's split-squad games against Oakland and San Francisco, holdover John Marzano and newcomer Brent Mayne were in a virtual dead heat; Mayne's average was better (.381 to .300), while Marzano had more RBIs. But Piniella likes the flexibility Mayne allows as a left-handed batter. Edge to Mayne. Outfield: Jose Cruz Jr. did enough in the spring to win the job in left, but no man (or position) is an island. Here's how it works. Joey Cora can bat leadoff against right-handers, but he hit just .218 last season against lefties. Leadoff is not exactly the best spot to shield a rookie from big-league pressure; Piniella would rather hit Cruz ninth. That would leave veteran Rich Amaral as the right-handed leadoff hitter and left fielder, in a platoon with Lee Tinsley, a switch-hitter. Besides, the M's don't feel secure with Amaral, a former second baseman, as Cora's relief. Edge to Amaral/Tinsley. Infield: Roll the dice. Four backups. Three can stay. One will be Mike Blowers, who can play first and third. Brent Gates, waived by the Athletics, is a proven hitter and marginal glove at third, short and second. Andy Sheets, a shortstop by trade, has been brutal all spring - a .189 batting average and a team-high six errors. And why Dave Silvestri, a former Expo, has a roster spot is unclear, except he's hitting nearly .500 and has stolen a few bases in the minors. Odd man out: Sheets, meaning no rest for Alex Rodriguez. Fifth starter: If it's not Dennis Martinez - and he'd better find some gas, fast - it's probably Bob Wolcott. If it is Martinez, Wolcott goes to Tacoma. Salomon Torres, awful every time out, is now clinging to life in the pen. Best bet: Wolcott. Bullpen: Rusty Meacham pitched himself out of the picture Friday. Paul Menhart did it before that. Bob Wells has been horrid, but given his history with Piniella needs just one good outing to secure a spot. The same for Rafael Carmona. If you just went off the results of the spring, Norm Charlton and Bobby Ayala would be the short men, and Edwin Hurtado, Josias Manzanillo, Greg McCarthy and Tim Davis the set-up guys. But that's probably one lefty - Davis - too many. And the M's may still think Manzanillo is a mirage. Mulholland to open As we said, life is good for the M's. Elsewhere in the Cactus League, the Cubs just settled on their openingday starter. It's Terry Mulholland, signed as a free-agent after making 12 starts for Seattle last year.

After some baby steps forward the past week, the Seattle Mariners about-faced into a sizeable step backward Friday. Jeff Fassero, Rusty Meacham and Rafael Carmona got knocked around. Andy Sheets kicked it around. And the Oakland Athletics batted around and around and around in a 14-4 Cactus League pounding of the Mariners at Peoria Stadium. The good news for the Mariners? Lou Piniella wasn't around to see it.

Chicago Cubs pitchers managed to do Thursday what the rest of the Cactus League hasn't this spring: Keep Edgar Martinez hitless.

Idaho's Kathryn Gussett works her way through GU's defense and is fouled by Chelsea Clark, center. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Bates

Tight, tense and telegenic - that's the American League West race. Tight? Four games now separate Texas and Seattle after a 5-2 Mariners victory Tuesday night at the Kingdome highlighted by Terry Mulholland's five perfect innings and another big hit by Dave Hollins. Tense? The Rangers had the tying or go-ahead runs at the plate in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings and couldn't score against Mariners relievers Norm Charlton, Mike Jackson and Bobby Ayala, who got the final two outs for his third save. Telegenic? So sexy has this series become that Game 3 will be on two networks tonight at 7:35 - Prime Sports Northwest in our neighborhood, ESPN nationally. Seattle has now won six straight games - and in that stretch, the Rangers' lead has Jenny Craiged from nine games to four. The M's are now second in the wild-card standings, as well - three games behind Baltimore and a half-game ahead of Chicago, which fell to Cleveland on Tuesday. That might goose tonight's attendance past the 32,279 witnessed Seattle's latest improbable triumph. "I wouldn't call it momentum," said Mulholland, who is 5-2 since joining Seattle from Philadelphia on July 31 in a trade for minor-league infielder Desi Relaford. "We're just playing very relaxed baseball right now. "We're having fun, guys are loose. We don't really have anything to lose here and we have everything to gain. Texas is ahead of us and Baltimore's ahead of us in the wild-card race right now. We're just trying to win as many games as we can and see what happens. We don't have to look over our shoulder and see if somebody's chasing us." And make no mistake, the Rangers are definitely looking chased. Texas has lost six of its last seven games and this time took a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth - and blew it immediately. Edgar Martinez opened the Seattle rally with a one-out double and Jay Buhner followed with a routine ground ball that shortstop Kevin Elster booted. Rangers starter Ken Hill (15-10), who beat the M's 7-0 in the ALCS last year for Cleveland, then walked Mark Whiten and hit Paul Sorrento with a pitch to force in a run. Hollins, who had a two-run single to break open Monday night's game, then drilled a ground ball that Sorrento had to hurdle and plated two more runs. A sacrifice fly by Dan Wilson made it 4-2. "You want to answer if you can," said M's manager Lou Piniella of the back-at-you rally. "You want to get the momentum right back on your side - and then keep it there." The Mariners managed to do that despite some shaky moments for Charlton and Jackson - but the momentum that meant the most may have been generated at the outset by Mulholland. The 33-year-old lefthander retired the first 15 Texas batters before Mark McLemore opened the sixth with sharp single past a diving Hollins at third. A two-out triple by Darryl Hamilton off Whiten's glove in left and a single by Ivan Rodriguez snapped a string of 29 consecutive scoreless innings by Seattle pitchers. "I felt great out there," Mulholland said. "The first five innings, I basically felt like I could throw any pitch Danny put down. I was spotting the fastball, I was throwing the curve for strikes and the changeup was a very effective pitch for me." For that, he can thank Jamie Moyer - who with help from Ayala shut out the Rangers on Monday night. "It was obvious last night that the changeup was a very effective pitch for him," Mulholland said. "We worked that into the game tonight and it was a big help, particularly with their bigger hitters." The M's have now bewildered the Rangers with two lefties after the A.L. West leaders came to Seattle with the league's best record against lefthanders - 22-11. Mulholland was unfazed at being pulled by Piniella in the seventh after throwing just 75 pitches, but seemed slightly disappointed at losing his no-hitter. "I was trying," he said. "I threw a no-hitter in '90 against the Giants. It would have been nice to get a perfect game tonight and get a no-hitter and a perfect one in two different leagues, but I'm no Jim Bunning. "You can't help but think about it after you've gone out there for five innings. If you don't realize you haven't given up a hit, then you're not in the ballgame - but my job tonight was to do all I could to pick up my teammates and try to win a ballgame." Another lefthander, Sterling Hitchcock (12-8) faces Texas righthander Bobby Witt (15-10) in tonight's game, with Bob Wolcott (7-10) and Roger Pavlik (15-8) going in Thursday's matinee. Seattle is 8-3 against the Rangers this year, and has now won 18 of the last 21 games the two teams have played in the Kingdome.

1. Coach Dennis Erickson looks downcast. Photo by Associated Press 2. Seattle running back Lamar Smith (36) finds himself sandwiched between teammates as he crosses the Kansas City goal for a Seahawks touchdown. Photo by Associated Press

John Stockton and the Dream Team have enough punch to finish off Yugoslavia for the gold medal at the Olympics. Photo by Associated Press

Dan O'Brien stands above Frank Busemann - for now. Photo by Associated Press

It's one thing that American boxers are enraged over the judging at the Olympic Games. But the sport took another turn for the weird Friday when a veteran referee and judge resigned to protest the "gross incompetence" of the men he works with. Bill Waeckerle, who has refereed international bouts for 15 years, submitted his letter of resignation to amateur boxing's world governing body, in the wake of a controversial decision that cost Floyd Mayweather of the U.S. a chance at a gold medal. "I refuse to be part of an organization that continues to conduct its officiating in this manner," Waeckerle's letter ended. Mayweather lost 10-9 to Bulgaria's Serafim Todorov in the featherweight semifinals, a decision bitterly protested by the U.S. team, which feels the computer scoring system operated by five judges has jobbed them on several occasions during the Games. In fact, only one American - light middleweight David Reid - has a shot at gold. Favored light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver was upset Friday, badly outpointed in the third round and apparently shorted of points in the second. Waeckerle, however, said his dismay wasn't simply homerism. "This affects all the boxers in the tournament," said Waeckerle, who was the lone U.S. judge in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. "These young men have put in years to get to this moment, and many of them are becoming the victims of incompentence." U.S. boxing coach Al Mitchell feels the problems have impacted his team disproportionately. "They don't trust the scoring anymore," he said, "and so they're trying to go for knockouts. That's the only way I feel comfortable, too, but that's not supposed to be amateur boxing." Computer scoring was supposed to reform the judging problems that plagued boxing at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 - the most egregious being the decision that cost Roy Jones a gold medal. But though it's a computer tallying the points, it's still human beings awarding them. "The (computer) system is good - it can analyze everything a judge does," said Waeckerle, from Rapid City, S.D. "Everytime he pushes a button, you can compare it to the videotape and absolutely without doubt tell who is competent and who is not. They've had the system for years, and yet they still fail to deal with the officials in a one-on-one way. "I'm not the best judge or referee in the world, but I consider myself accurate. I've had two decisions here where I was on the short end. If you went back and got those tapes, there's no question in my mind I had the right boxer but he did not win." He didn't work the Todorov-Mayweather bout, but was irate, calling it "the blatant example of incompetent officiating. "The referee cautioned the Bulgarian boxer at least five times for slapping without a warning (automatic deduction of a point) and even worse . . . the judges were counting them as scoring blows." Even worse, the referee raised Mayweather's hand as the victor.

O'Brien bids farewell to the haunting memories of 1992. Photo by Associated Press

Cycling The Olympic spirit is not supposed to be about the winning, but the taking part. Say this, then, about Greg Randolph: He's got spirit, yes he do. The McCall, Idaho, native and former University of Idaho student competes today in the 1996 Olympic Games with absolutely no notion of victory. Indeed, even if he rides a dream race in men's road cycling, he won't medal. Randolph is the member of the supporting cast for American ace Lance Armstrong - and the word is "support" and not "supplant." If an American is going to medal, it'll be Armstrong and not Randolph or anyone else on the U.S. team - even Steve Hegg, himself an Olympic gold medalist. "In this situation, team success supercedes any other personal interest," said Randolph. "A realistic view of success is a win for the team." Randolph, Hegg, Frankie Andreu and George Hincapie will try to abet Armstrong's efforts - pacing, blocking, controlling the pack of riders in the 137-mile event in hopes of springing their man free near the end. "Without us, Lance isn't going to do it," said Randolph. "It's like the lineman who blocks for the guy who scores the winning touchdown. You have to have those people. It's just in cycling, you don't have to fill that role every weekend." But if Armstrong wins the race, he'll have a gold medal - not his blockers. "A team medal in the road race is certainly an interesting concept," mused Hegg. In any case, Randolph calls the Olympics "a momentous occasion. It's a dram for every kid and sends chills up my neck just to think that I'm here." Especially since he only started competitive cycling three years ago "to stay in shape." Two classmates at UI, Paul Stimac and Phil Martin - who worked with Randolph in a campus kitchen - introduced him to the sport. He recalls "getting pushed home by these guys" his first couple of times out, to winning races within a month or two. "I think they were calling me 'meal ticket' after about three weeks," Randolph said. After transferring to the University of Oregon, Randolph was the top amateur in the Fresca National Championships in 1995 - then gave up school to go fulltime on the roads this year, riding for Motorola. His top finishes included eighth in the Olympic trials, second at the Concord Time Trial and second in the Zurbruggen Cup in Germany. His hometown has produced "eight or nine Olympians," but to his knowledge he's the first to make the summer Games. "It's been amazing their reaction," he said. "I was back for two weeks in June and they were just ecstatic. I never would have suspected it would be that big of a deal."

Newport's Karen Kraft, left, and Teammate Missy Schwen celebrate silver-medal finish in the women's coxless pairs rowing Saturday. Photo by Associated Press

Normally, the crowning of the world's fastest human is arguably the biggest story of any Olympic Games. And if he breaks the world record in the process - as Donovan Bailey did - the argument ends. Saturday, however, was a tragically abnormal day by any Olympic standard. Athletes woke up to the horrific news that a pipe bomb had been detonated in Centennial Olympic Park in the early hours of the morning, leading to two deaths and injuring 111 people - the first act of Olympic-associated terrorism since 11 Israelis were murdered by the pro-Palestinian Black September group during the 1972 Games in Munich. Hours after the explosion, the International Olympic Committee declared that the Games would continue without interruption. But it was a numb - if near-capacity - crowd which filed into Olympic Stadium for the second day of track and field, submitting to increased security measures and observing a moment of silence for the victims of the bombing. The athletes were a little numb, too. "It's difficult to accomplish your goals and someone's trying to destroy not only what you're trying to do, but the Olympic spirit in general," said Gail Devers of the United States, who won her second straight gold medal in the women's 100-meter dash. "To me, that's what the bomb stood for - trying to destroy the Olympic spirit." And the athletes who competed at virtually every venue Saturday agreed that a postponement or cancellation of the Games would do nothing to rebuild that spirit. "I felt we couldn't give in to the idiot who did that," said Gwen Torrence, who won a bronze in front of a hometown crowd. "And to see the people who came out to see me perform as well as the seven other girls, my heart just broke." The two sessions of track and field drew more than 140,000 spectators to the new stadium and provided stark contrasts. Not only did spectators for the morning session arrive with the bombing story still developing, they watched two-time gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee - perhaps the sport's most admired athlete - withdraw from the heptathlon after aggravating a pulled hamstring in the first event. The evening session, however, produced some dazzling theater. Bailey, a Jamaican-born Canadian, shaved .01 from the men's 100-meter record with his 9.84-second clocking in a race that saw the Americans shut out of medals and defending Olympic champ Linford Christie of Great Britain disqualified for two false starts. Devers won the closest women's 100 in Olympic history, closer even than her .01 win in 1992. She and silver medalist Merlene Ottey of Jamaica were both timed in 10.94, but Devers was judged the winner on a finish photo. Ottey's Jamaican team promptly filed a protest asking that the photo be re-read. And U.S. triple jumper Kenny Harrison set an Olympic record while besting Britain's Jonathan Edwards, the only man to jump farther than 60 feet. And yet their thoughts were never far from the events at Centennial Park. "It's a time for me to be joyous over what I did," Devers said, "but it's also a time for sadness. I want to extend my sympathy to the victims of the bomb and their families and let them know that they're definitely in my prayers." Torrence was doubly disturbed, what with the bombing happening in her hometown. "My mother was questionable about coming tonight," Torrence revealed, "and I told her if she wasn't comfortable, don't come. She's 67 and everything worries her and bothers her. But when she did come out, I was even more happy. "I'm glad I could get on the podium for the people who died. My heart goes out to their families." Bailey, however, "didn't learn about this until this morning. "The Olympics is one of the only times that everyone from everywhere can come and relax and peacefully compete against each other," he said. "And I think it's pathetic that some idiots are trying to screw it up for everybody."

Charles Barkley gets physical with Gintara Einikis, left, Afterward, an assistant for Lithuania called the Dream Team vulnerable. Photo by Associated Press

An injured Kerri Strug is carried by her coach, Bela Karolyi, during the awards ceremony in women's team gymnastics. Photo by Associated Press

She was always the understudy to America's sweetheart. Kerri Strug trained in the shadow of each of them - Kim Zmeskal, Shannon Miller, most recently Dominique Moceanu. Now the shadow has been cast by Strug after a dramatic - almost melodramatic - performance Tuesday night at the 1996 Olympic Games. And nailing down the gold medal for the United States in women's team gymnastics under the duress of a severe injury was the kind of achievement that her coach, Bela Karolyi, never imagined. "It is something I had not seen from Kerri very often," he said, "but something that has come with age - a toughness, a determination." America's newest gymnastics household name stands 4-foot-9 and weighs 80 pounds and will take a competitive step backward this fall: She's enrolling at UCLA and will compete on the collegiate level. "It's something I've always wanted to do ever since I started in gymnastics," said Strug, who is from Tucson, Ariz. "My first coach was the coach at the University of Arizona and education has always come first in our house." But gymnastics was never far behind. Strug became a Karolyi protege early on and made the 1992 Olympic team at the age of 14. But failing to make the finals in all-around was a profound disappointment. After that, she changed gyms and had to sit out the 1993 season because of a ripped stomach muscle. Eventually, she returned to Karolyi's tutelage. And when she won the American Cup earlier this year in Fort Worth, Karolyi sensed "a different Kerri, someone who could do it on her own, who wouldn't settle for a second or third." In the Olympic compulsory, she was strategically placed to lead off in two events and finish the other two - and, of course, was the final U.S. gymnast up in the deciding vault competition in Tuesday's optionals. The question is, should she have been allowed to take her second attempt after injuring herself on the first? "That's a once-in-a-lifetime situation," said Karolyi. "It is the greatest sense of responsibility, with the gold medal for your team on the line. I would not be the one to tell her not to do it." Said Strug, "I've been in so much pain before, one last vault, I can deal with it, I guess. I at least had to try. It would have been hard on me to know I didn't at least try."

Utah Jazz star John Stockton's sister Stacy was among the many Spokane residents watching the playoffs at local watering holes. Please see story, Page A7. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Sam Perkins has his way against Utah inside and out, lighting up Greg Foster and the Jazz with a team-high 20 points in Seattle's victory. Photo by Associated Press

Stockton

John Stockton feels the squeeze early in Saturday's opener. With help from friends like Detlef Schrempf, Gary Payton (20) dominated Stockton in the battle of point guards. Photo by Associated Press

Stockton had front-row seat for Gary Payton Show. Photo by Associated Press (Photo appeared in Idaho & Regional editions only)