Soccer all-stars to test skills in Britain - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

This won't be a typical teen-age summer for Jane Cargill ofBelmont and Shannon Murphy of Medford.

Instead of the usual part-time jobs and precollege fun-in-the-sunparties, Cargill and Murphy will be in Europe playing for theAmerican Soccer Ambassadors on a good-will tour throughout Englandand Scotland.

The two are the only Massachusetts representatives, and they arebeing rewarded for all-star seasons -- Cargill in the MiddlesexLeague and Murphy in the Greater Boston League. They will meetteammates from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, NewMexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont July 22 at LoganAirport.

They will return home Aug. 9 after games against all-star highschool and club teams, which both Cargill and Murphy expect to beconsiderably tougher than the competition they are used to playingagainst here.

'It's a great opportunity,' said Cargill, 'not only to berepresenting your country over there, but to have a chance to becoached by the Ambassadors' European pro coaching staff. And we'llhave a chance to see so many cultural things. This is something I'llremember for the rest of my life.'

Murphy called the prospect of playing soccer overseas 'achallenge I am very excited about. I think we'll be playing verytalented, very skilled teams -- teams we don't know anything about,but teams I'm sure which play at a very high level.'

In addition to the games, the young women will participate inseminars on nutrition and sports injuries.

Cargill and Murphy must foot the expenses for their 19-day trip(approximately $3,000), and they did it in different ways. Cargill'sparents were able to help considerably, while Medford residentsrallied to Murphy's cause. Once overseas, they'll be housed atuniversities in England and Scotland.

Cargill, 18, played three years of soccer at Lexington beforeher family moved to Belmont last year. When Cargill began playing atBelmont, she was reunited with coach Vekan Anserlian, for whom sheplayed for two years in the Bay State Games.

When she got her invitation to be part of the team, Cargillsays, she was honored but didn't think she'd be able to attendbecause of the cost. 'My family supported me considerably. Withouttheir help, I wouldn't be going. But they knew it was aonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity and did all that they could to help.'

For college, Cargill will attend Division 1 soccer power StonyBrook on Long Island in the fall. She had originally committed tothe University of Kentucky, but after visiting Stony Brook, she gotthe feeling she was more wanted there.

Murphy, 17, played four years at Medford under coach Al Luongoand was a Greater Boston League all-star her junior and senior years.She has been playing soccer since she was 5 and is a product of theMedford youth leagues. She is bound for Aquinas College in the fall,but will likely hook up with an independent team because there is nosoccer program at the Michigan school.

'I've never been overseas before,' said Murphy. 'I'm lookingforward to not only playing, but to seeing England and Scotland aswell. It's a chance to meet new friends and a chance to see how ourbrand of soccer here compares to what's played over there.'

The American Soccer Ambassadors, based in western Massachusetts,will be going abroad for the 10th time. The first seven were toEngland, Belgium, Germany and Holland, and the last two to England,Scotland and Ireland. ASA spokesman Jeff Lombard said that thisyear's trip is limited to England and Scotland because of the intenselevel of play found in those two areas.

LOCK MONSTERS GAIN RIVALS CLOSER TO HOME - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

The Lowell Lock Monsters of the American Hockey League will bemoved into the New England Division of the league's EasternConference for the upcoming season.

Stronger rivalries should be created within the division, whichwill include Hartford and Providence, the Calder Cup champions of thepast two seasons, Portland, Maine, Springfield and Worcester.

In their first two seasons in the AHL, the Lock Monsters competedin the Atlantic Division with Quebec, Saint John, New Brunswick, andSt. John's, Newfoundland. In the new alignment, the Atlantic will nowbe the Canadian Division and Hamilton will replace Lowell. TheWestern Conference will feature the Mid-Atlantic (Albany, Hershey,Philadelphia, Rochester, Syracuse, and Wilkes Barre/Scranton) andSouthern (Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, and Norfolk) divisions.

'This is a great day for our franchise and for our fans,' saidLowell executive vice president and general manager Tom Rowe. 'Ourattendance has made significant increases and with more home datesagainst other New England teams, we feel that our fans will betreated to new intense rivalries on a season-long basis.'

Molloy wins award from ECAC peers Jack Molloy of Bedford,assistant athletic director for sports information and promotions atBrandeis University, has been awarded the Irving Marsh Award by hiscolleagues in the Eastern College Athletic Conference's SportsInformation Directors Association.

The award is presented to a conference sports information directordeemed to have contributed the most to the profession during hiscareer. It was presented for the first time in 1966 and renamed in1977 to honor Irving T. Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder anddirector who retired in 1973.

Molloy joined the Brandeis staff in 1985 and has organizednumerous championship events at the ECAC and NCAA levels. He alsoinitiated and has directed the Brandeis Hall of Fame dinner. Heserved on the ECAC-SIDA board in 1993 and for 14 years has beendirector of public relations for the New England IntercollegiateBaseball Association.

Molloy worked in media relations at the 1999 NCAA Division 1 men'sbasketball tournament at the FleetCenter and last year worked atMajor League Baseball's All-Star game at Fenway Park. He is a 1982graduate of St. Anselm College and began his sports informationcareer as an intern at Dartmouth the same year.

PGA event to help youngsters' teeth More than 100underprivileged Boston-area children will receive free dentaltreatment valued at more than $40,000 in conjunction with the SeniorPGA Tour's FleetBoston Classic, which will be held Aug. 21-27 atNashawtuc Country Club in Concord.

Christina's Smile/Children's Dental Clinic, a traveling 48-foottrailer housing three fully equipped dental clinics, will visit theFaneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston on Aug. 21-23 from 8 a.mto 5 p.m. It will be administered by area volunteer dentists andtheir assistants. Services will range from routine cleanings andfluoride treatments to sealants, restorations, crowns, andextractions. Community organizations will choose the children to betreated.

The program was established in 1989 by Dr. Richard R. Garza, ofAustin, Texas, in memory of his daughter, Christina, who died shortlyafter birth. He developed a relationship with the Senior PGA Tour andits charitable causes and this year expects to conduct 23 dentalclinics at various Senior Tour stops across the country.

The dental project is supported by the FleetBoston Classic, whichhas donated more than $2.1 million to nonprofit causes over the past19 years. Among the Senior Tour players serving on the advisoryboard of the dental project are Jim Albus, Jim Colbert, Jim Dent,Dale Douglass, Al Geiberger, Bob Murphy, Larry Nelson, Chi ChiRodriguez and Dave Stockton.

Here and there Elaine Carr Schwager of Medford has been namedassociate director of athletics and softball coach at SuffolkUniversity. Athletic director at Mount St. Joseph Academy inBrighton, Schwager has coached the Croatian National Team for thepast two summers. She also served as an assistant coach at BostonUniversity and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Dave Foley of Medford was honored as most valuable player on thehockey team and Shannon Feehan of Littleton was named MVP of thesoftball team at Nichols College in Dudley. Other area athleteshonored at the school were Kelly Nangle of Lowell, most improved onthe women's basketball team; Jennifer Solomon of Methuen, rookie ofthe year in softball; and Dave Carr of Acton, most improved inlacrosse.

A squad from Tufts University placed among the top club teams inthe country at the recent Intercollegiate Horse Show AssociationNational Championships, held in Conyers, Ga. Sophomore Hally Phillipsof Charlotte, Vt., won the Cacchione Cup, the most prestigiousindividual award in the competition.

The baseball field at Andover High has been renamed Peter AumaisPark in memory of a former team captain who, along with hisgirlfriend, Ann Wobesky, died in an automobile accident in October1976. A horseshoe-shaped granite and brick monument near the third-base dugout reads: 'In memory of our 1976 baseball captain, PeterAumais. His love for baseball, his teammates, family and friends willkeep him forever young.'

NOTEBOOK - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

The Lowell Spinners will be in junior welterweight Micky Ward'scorner Saturday night. When he fights Arturo Gatti in HBO's MainEvent at Mohegan Sun, Ward will wear specially designed trunksfeaturing the Spinners logo on the left side and 'Lowell Spinners' onthe back. Replicas of the trunks will be made for sale to fans, withWard and the Spinners donating proceeds to Kids in DisabilitiesSports. 'Ward is the type of boxer in the ring and outside the ringthe Spinners love to be associated with,' said Spinners generalmanager Shawn Smith. 'The fact he is from Lowell makes it that muchbetter.'

Checking in on some NorthWest athletes at Bentley:

Senior rightfielder Steve Vickers of Andover was ranked 17th indoubles in the most recent NCAA statistics with 13 in 30 games for a0.43 average.

Freshman Kurt Flionis of Woburn had rounds of 80-78-79-237 tofinish seventh in the recent NCAA Division 2 Regionals at RiverGreens Golf Club in West Lafayette, Ohio. That lifted Bentley to afourth-place finish among 36 teams.

Senior All-America midfielder Scott Yavarow of Billerica toppedthe 200-point plateau in a recent lacrosse game against St.Michael's. He's the third player in school history to reach themilestone.

Winchester's Alison Popp wrapped up a fine tennis career at Loyola(Baltimore) College. She ranked in the top 10 in both singles anddoubles victories. Popp, a former Globe All-Scholastic, had careerrecords of 53-15 in singles and 38-12 in doubles. Loyola, which haswon 80 of 93 regular season matches in the past four years, recentlywon its fourth straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Popp wasnamed to the 2002 MAAC All-Academic team.

If you thought there was no difference in run production betweenwood and aluminum bats, try digesting these figures. On a recentafternoon in the Greater Boston League, which uses wood and numbersArlington and Medford among its members, 10 runs were scored in twogames. On the same afternoon in the Cape Ann League, which usesaluminum and has North Reading and North Andover as members, 61 runswere scored in two games.

Sophomore Jess Trombly of Nashua won both the 100-meter hurdlesand the long jump and placed third in the 400 to help Tufts finishsecond in the women's New England Small College Athletic ConferenceTrack & Field Championships at Bates. Also pitching in was juniorcocaptain Myriam Claudio of Woburn, who was second in the 100 meters.

Michael Daley of Woburn, Jeffrey Douglas of Chelmsford, PeterDoyle and Michael Shannon, both of Belmont Hill, John Kazanovicz ofReading, Matthew McPherson of Burlington, and T. J. Porter ofLexington are among 22 of the best and brightest players who will behonored by the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National FootballFoundation and Hall of Fame at its annual Scholar-Athlete Awarddinner tomorrow at Lantana's in Randolph.

What to watch

Today: Merrimack College in North Andover plays in and hosts theNCAA Regional Softball Tournament, which wraps up at noon. The winnerearns a trip to the Division 2 World Series in Salem, Va.

UNRIVALED MATCHUP Nationalistic emotion stirred when Ireland, Italy meet - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

At 471 West Broadway in South Boston, the Black Thorn bar got alast-minute overhaul this week: new paneling, new wiring, four newtelevision screens. Across the street at 472 West Broadway,Ottavio's Barber Shop got its first-ever cable TV hookup Tuesday,just in time for the World Cup.

Outside, the owners of the Irish pub and the Italian barber shopwere chatting about soccer, as they have done for years. Thisafternoon, when Ireland plays Italy at Giants Stadium, their longtimefriendship will be put on hold.

'It's the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals and theStanley Cup rolled into one,' said Black Thorn owner Chris Barrett,who emigrated from Galway City in 1963.

'It's the game of a lifetime,' said his friend Ottavio LoGrasso,who came to Southie from Sicily in 1962.

There is a century-long history of tensions between Irish andItalians in Boston, a history of street fights, mob wars and nastytribal politics. But the tensions have eased in recent years,diluted by intermarriage, flight to the suburbs and common politicalinterests.

Thomas Menino became the first Italian-American mayor of Bostonlast year, winning almost every city precinct (including all seven inpredominantly Irish Charlestown) against an Irish-American opponent.Ray Flynn, Boston's last Irish mayor, is now in Rome as the Americanambassador to the Vatican. Even in the 1970s, activists like PixiePalladino of East Boston and Louise Day Hicks of South Boston stoodside by side, representing communities united against busing.

Today, in Italian cafes along Hanover Street in the North End andin Irish pubs throughout the city, this detente will dissolve for anafternoon. Soccer stirs deep emotions in these game-day gatheringplaces, especially among immigrants who see the sport as a remnant ofthe old country, an emblem of a prized national heritage they fear isreceding with time and distance.

Joe Pagliuca and his brother Freddie came to the North End fromNaples in 1974. At the time, they did not even know what an Americanfootball looked like.

'In the old country, soccer was all we knew,' said Joe Pagliuca,30, who owns Pagliuca's Italian Ristorante on Parmenter Street. 'TheAmericans don't care about soccer. They don't know what's what orwho's who. But the Italians, the real Italians, we understand.'

In the North End, which was an Irish enclave before Italianimmigrants began flooding into Boston toward the end of the 19thcentury, soccer culture revolves around Hanover Street haunts likeCaffe Paradiso, Caffe Graffiti and Caffe dello Sport, where Italianleague games can be seen live via satellite year round.

Angelo Cattaneo, the owner of Caffe dello Sport, said he wasinstalling a new large-screen TV for the World Cup, along with fivesmall screens. 'Soccer is the main discussion we have here,' saidCattaneo, 63. 'Besides women, that is.'

Italy is a three-time World Cup champion, featuring EuropeanFootballer of the Year Roberto Baggio. Ireland is clearly theunderdog, making only its second World Cup appearance. But theItalian immigrants talking soccer last week at Caffe Paradiso werefar from overconfident.

'I'm very, very nervous,' said Manfredi Grassi of Cambridge, whoplayed soccer with a club team called the Boston Italia after heemigrated from Avelino in 1952. 'This Ireland, they're all big boys,very fit for the game. That Baggio, he's getting old. I don't knowwhat's going to happen.'

There are still 264,000 Italians and 409,000 people of Irishheritage living in the Boston metropolitan area. Some Italiansremain in the North End and East Boston, but many have moved north tocommunities like Chelsea, Medford, Saugus and Lynnfield after ageneration or two in Boston. Similarly, many of the area's second-and third-generation Irish have moved south from city neighborhoodslike South Boston and Dorchester to suburbs like Quincy, Weymouth andBraintree.

As hyphenated Americans have assimilated into mainstream culture,some have lost interest in the national sport of their ancestralhome.

Antonella DeMarco, 21, of Medford, is a waitress at CaffeGraffiti. Every night, she watches old Italian immigrants jabberabout soccer, waving their hands in the air for emphasis. But shehas no interest in the game herself.

'The old guys can't stop talking about the World Cup, but I don'treally care about it,' she said. 'I guess I'll end up watchingbecause I work here, but it doesn't mean much to me.'

Among the Irish, soccer fever is also more pronounced amongimmigrants. At the Triple O's pub in Southie, where World Cuppromotional material is plastered all over the walls, bartenderStephen Fitzpatrick said Ireland-Italy has not been a big topic ofdiscussion.

'Where are they playing that game, anyway?' he asked.

At the Black Thorn, which caters to an immigrant clientele,everyone knows where the game is being played, and many plan to bethere. Chris Barrett will fly down to New Jersey for the game today,along with much of his family from Ireland. His co-owner istraveling with the Irish team.

'It's religion to the Irish,' said his brother Michael Barrett,who will stay behind to watch the bar. 'If they win, we drink tocelebrate. If they lose, we drink to drown our sorrows.'

The rivalry between Irish and Italians in Boston will only add tothe excitement here, according to the fans.

In the past, the clash was a bitter one, involving constantfisticuffs as well as epic political battles like the 1952congressional race between Tip O'Neill and Michael LoPresti, in whichboth candidates fielded straw candidates with ethnic surnames to drawaway votes from their opponent. In recent years, there have beenethnic overtones to political squabbles between Frank Bellotti andBilly Bulger, between Dapper O'Neil and Rosaria Salerno.

But for the most part, the rivalry has become a friendly one,personified by an Italian mayor whose staff recently told adelegation from Northern Ireland to call him O'Menin. Thetraditionally insular ethnic enclaves have been mixed by integrationand white flight.

At Sports Magic in the North End, Ted Pasto is doing a briskbusiness selling Italy T-shirts, caps, pins and flags. Butparaphernalia from Ireland is running a close second in sales, wellahead of the United States, a distant fourth behind Greece.

'Everybody expects to see Italy, Italy, Italy, but we get a lot ofIrish customers,' he said. 'There's a rivalry there, but there'salso a connection, you know?

In 1990, Ottavio LoGrasso left his wife and children in Southieand flew to Italy for the World Cup. This year, he will watch on hisbarber shop's new cable system, which he plans to disconnect the daythe tournament ends. He is a devoted fan, dedicated to the Italianteam for life.

But times have changed. And LoGrasso had some kind words for theopposition, too.

MONBOUQUETTE, STANLEY HONORED HALL INDUCTEES LIKE PRESENT TEAM - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

Pitchers Bill Monbouquette and Bob Stanley were named yesterday asthe newest selections to the Red Sox Hall of Fame, and both said theyliked the Sox' chances in the postseason.

'We used to have a lot of power and no speed,' said Stanley, whospent the summer as pitching coach for the Mets' Double A team inBinghamton, N.Y. 'This team has some power and more speed. They'rebetter off because of that. We always had a hard time on the road.We'd go to Kansas City and get killed.

'I think they have a great chance this season. They'd probably fitright into the National League, which will probably help them if theyget to the World Series.'

Monbouquette, a special assignment scout for the Toronto BlueJays, was even more emphatic when asked whether the Sox have a chanceto do well in the playoffs.

'Damn right they have,' Monbouquette said. 'More so than probablyin a long time because of the type of players they've got here. Theymight be throwbacks, the way they get on each other.'

Stanley pitched for the Red Sox from 1977-89, winning 115 gameswith a club-record 132 saves. Stanley is the team's all-time leaderin appearances (637) and relief wins (85).

'If you're around 13 years, you're going to pitch,' said Stanley,a resident of Wenham. 'I'm very proud of that. It's probably a recordthat will stay for a long time. When I die, my kids will be able tosay, `Dad's still on top' in that category.'

Monbouquette, a Medford native who lives in New Boston, N.H., won96 games for some lousy Sox teams from 1958-65. He was a 20-gamewinner in 1963, pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the White Sox in1962, and struck out 17 against the Washington Senators in 1961.

The last out of his no-hitter, Monbouquette said, was Hall ofFamer Luis Aparicio. He got two quick strikes on Aparicio, then threwa slider away on which Aparicio checked his swing. The plate umpire,Bill McKinley, called it a ball.

'Somebody shouted out from the stands, `They shot the wrongMcKinley,' ' Monbouquette said. 'I remember thinking, `Oh, geez.' '

Aparicio swung and missed at the next pitch.

Secret surgery?

According to this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, RogerClemens underwent surgery early in his Red Sox career to repair apartial tear of his rotator cuff, an operation that was not disclosedby the club. Ian Thomsen writes that orthopedic surgeon James Andrewsmentioned that in Sept. 1985, when Clemens was 23, the team reportedClemens underwent an arthroscopic procedure to repair a small flaptear in his shoulder. What the club didn't say, according to Andrews,who performed the procedure, was that Clemens also had a partial tearof the rotator cuff.

Clemens won his first 14 decisions the next season en route to a24-4 record in 1986, when he won both the American League Cy Youngand Most Valuable Player awards.

Keeping priorities

Author John Feinstein ('Season on the Brink,' 'A Good WalkSpoiled') was among the members of the national media in town for theRyder Cup who spent the evening at Fenway Park. Feinstein recounted astory about the Jewish Red Sox fan who went to his rabbi before RoshHashanah and said, 'Rabbi, I have a problem. I know it's RoshHashanah, but it's Yankees-Red Sox and Pedro is pitching.'

Rabbi: 'It's not such a problem. It's for nights like this thatGod invented VCRs.'

Sox fan: 'So, I can tape the Rosh Hashanah services?'

Delgado is done

IS SPRING TRAINING TOO LONG? IN FAMILIAR RITUALS OF PRESEASON, TRANQUILITY SHOVES ASIDE REALITY.(Sports) - Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

Byline: Jack Etkin Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Reality has yet to intrude in spring training, elbowing aside hope in a crush of blown saves and fizzled rallies. Even teams with no chance of contending can legitimately wonder in the Florida and Arizona sun how high is up while pondering improvement.

Spring training dates from the 1880s, when a few clubs began seeking a midwinter escape to warmer weather for preseason conditioning. The National League's Boston Beaneaters went to New Orleans in 1884. Cap Anson took his Chicago Colts to Hot Springs, Ark., in 1886, the same year Harry Wright, who managed the Philadelphia Phillies, found a haven for his players in Charleston, S.C.

It wasn't until 1914 that more than two teams trained in Florida. That year, Connie Mack, owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, returned to Jacksonville, where his team had spent the spring of 1903. And both St. Louis teams traveled to Florida, the Cardinals working out in St. Augustine and the Browns in St. Petersburg. However, both St. Louis teams left Florida for Texas in 1915.

The 1920s land boom in Florida established spring training in the state. Besides the St. Louis teams and the Athletics, the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Reds and Senators took up long-term residency in Florida that went uninterrupted until World War II.

Datelines such as Bear Mountain, N.Y.; French Lick, Ind.; Cairo, Ill.; Wallingford, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; Lakewood, N.J.; College Park, Md., and Medford, Mass., appeared on spring-training stories from 1943 to 1945 because of wartime travel restrictions. Teams were forced to train closer to home, halting their barnstorming tours as they came north by train to start the season.

Barnstorming flourished because of Babe Ruth, whose impact on spring training was enormous. Longer exhibition schedules developed, along with increased media coverage, because Ruth was such an unprecedented attraction with the Yankees. After he hit a season-record 60 homers in 1927, the Yankees drew 270,000 to their exhibition games the following spring, enabling owner Col. Jacob Ruppert to clear an astounding profit of $60,000.

Arizona didn't get in on the spring action until after World War II. The Detroit Tigers ventured to Phoenix in 1929, but it was 18 years before a team returned to Arizona. Bill Veeck, who bought the Cleveland Indians in 1946, had a ranch in Tucson, where the Indians began training in 1947 and stayed until they left for Florida and were replaced by the Rockies in 1993.

That was the spring both Roberto Mejia and Jason Bates were impressive in big-league camp for the Rockies before opening the season at Class AAA Colorado Springs. Young players competing with a nothing-to-lose enthusiasm against experienced major leaguers are a spring joy. In sobering contrast, though, is the plight of an aging veteran like Harold Reynolds trying unsuccessfully to make the Rockies last year. Limitless opportunity, an indulgence of youth, is replaced by a do-it-now imperative for the older player.

There is an unmistakable tranquility to spring training that simply can't be found during the regular season when most of the games are at night and winning does matter. Spring training is hearing a metronomic whack . . . whack . . . whack at 7:30 a.m. when the outfield grass still is damp with dew. It's the sound of hard contact from a batting cage, the diamond equivalent of songbirds heralding another morning.

Spring training actually unfolds in three acts. Pitchers and catchers report first in mid-February, along with position players recovering from injuries. The full squad reports less than a week later. The drills are beginning to drag when the tempo quickens at the beginning of March and the exhibition games begin.

These games produce scorecards cluttered beyond belief but do little to foreshadow the regular season. Roger Angell of The New Yorker wrote ``spring baseball is all surmise.'' It still is, 28 years after he made that observation.

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ALL-STAR GAME IS REVENGE OF `BOTTOM FEEDERS'.(SPORTS) - Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)

Byline: MATT McHALE Baseball

It is a beautiful thing to watch Juan Gonzalez go deep, Tony Gwynn turn on a fastball, Greg Maddux paint the corner.

But there might be something even better in Tuesday night's All-Star Game at Fenway Park. Some of our baseball gods will seem, well, a little more like you or me.

Sixteen members of the National League team and seven of the American League are first-timers to the game, a roster of stories filled with as much failure as success. For every Randy Johnson, there is Philadelphia's Paul Byrd, who was out of work 11 months ago after his release from the Atlanta Braves.

Or Ron Coomer, who spent eight years in the minors - including some time with the Dodgers - before making it with the Minnesota Twins.

Or Jeff Zimmerman, the hard-throwing reliever for the Texas Rangers. Last month at Dodger Stadium, former Dodger Mike Morgan was talking about Zimmerman and said, ``You know he learned his slider in France.'' If that doesn't bring a puzzled look, think of the 29 GMs who threw away his resume when the unemployed Zimmerman faxed it to every big-league club a few years back.

Now those players will share their dreams on a national stage.

Byrd's big break came last August, when his name crossed the waiver wire and caught the eye of Phillies general manager Ed Wade. His trip to Triple-A was detoured when Matt Beech's season ended with an elbow injury. Next thing Byrd knew, he was in Philadelphia for a start against the Houston Astros and the overpowering Johnson.

Byrd handed Johnson his only National League loss last season and won five of his eight starts with the Phillies.

And now? Byrd was 11-4 with a 3.72 ERA going into Saturday's start against Baltimore.

``I want to thank Christ for guiding my path,'' said Byrd, a deeply religious man who considered the ministry as a career alternative a few years ago. ``I also want to thank my wife, the U-Haul queen of America when I was in the minor leagues.''

Coomer never thought much about the All-Star Game playing in towns like Modesto, Medford, Ore., Madison, Wis., and Huntsville, Ala. In 1994, he batted .338 for the Dodgers' Triple-A team in Albuquerque, but was traded to the Twins the next year.

Although the Twins are in last place in the AL Central, somebody had to represent the team. And even though Coomer's stats (.284 average, 10 homers, 33 RBI) aren't eye popping, the Twins are sending somebody special.

''It's a remarkable story and a tribute to his perseverance,'' said seven-time all-star Paul Molitor, a teammate of Coomer's in Minnesota for three seasons and still a good friend. ``He spent a long time in the minors, and he's a guy who never quits. I don't think he takes one minute in uniform for granted.

``I know when he walks into that locker room on Monday, he's going to have a feeling like he's never had before.''

At least Coomer was drafted out of college, even if it was in the 14th round (1987) by the A's, who released three years later.

Zimmerman, a Canadian, was undrafted out of Texas Christian in 1993. Through a connection with the Canadian national team, he pitched for Montpelier in the South of France, but somehow his story wasn't optioned at the Cannes Film Festival.

``The competition wasn't very good, but I knew I could develop some pitches without worrying about getting beaten up,'' Zimmerman said. ``I threw a lot of sliders over there and it paid off.''

But as late as 1997, he still was pitching in the independent Northern League. Then he fired off 30 resumes. Only the Rangers responded. His signing bonus was a ticket to spring training.

He was one of the last cuts this spring but was called up one week into the season when the Rangers went to a seven-man bullpen. He heads to Boston with an 8-0 record.

``I can't comprehend it. I'm a middle reliever,'' Zimmerman said. ``We're supposed to be the bottom feeders of baseball.''

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PHOTO THREE FOR 3000: THE WEEK IN REVIEW

(1) Cal Ripken Jr. - 2,949

9 hits, .314 avg.

(2) Wade Boggs - 2,979

7 hits, .302 avg.

(3) Tony Gwynn - 2,982