Ulat ne Or(L m IacL eEnDtlhis sport. Rafter, I am disheut-ened to kncnv nw ttd Rosehad been lyurg all along whenhe so fervently insisted upon hisirurocence.

I'11 freety admit that I wasone of those who, deep down,really wanted to believe thatRose was irmocent, and thatMajor League Baseball hadbeen trying to railroad himbecause current CommissionerBud Selig had a personal beefwith the guy.

Rose had pulled offthe moth-er of all bluffs there. And hehad a kind of likeable pokerface to go along with it. I guess

he finally came to terms withthe fact that he held a losinghand, and decided to fold.

Although it makes me mad as

heck, I'm glad he did.Now we can get on with the

business of determining hisplace in the game.

If the decision were left up towe the fans, I'd probably vote todeny Rose the pleasure, sincehe showed how much resPect hehad for his fans by convincinglylying to them.

But it is Major LeagueBaseball that will ultimatelydecide Rose's fate. And person-ally, I don't beljeve that organi-zation is qualified to rendersuch a judgement.

Let me tell you why.Baseball has waflled on at

least two previous cases deserv-ing of a lifetime ban.

One is retired Major Leaguepitcher Steve Howe, who acfual-ly received a lifetime ban, briefas it was.

Howe, in fact, had beenslapped with seven separatedrug-related suspensionsthroughout his Major Leaguecareer and was banished fromball clubs l1 times for violatingleague drug use and abuse poli-cles.

But his exile lasted a merefive months, from June toNovember 1992, after thenMLB Commissioner FayVincent apparently saw fit tolift the ban and allow the drugabuser back in the game.Apparently, Howeb lawyer con-vinced the league that thecocaine he snorted helped theguy deal with his diagrrosedAttention Deficit Disorder(ADD).

Maybe Vincent was justanother gullible bleeding heartwho believed in giving a guyone more chance, say best ofnine out of 10? Either that ormental health lobbyists paid theleague handsomely to recognizeADD as a serious illness. Mypersonal favorite excuse is thatVincent and the rest of MajorLeague Baseball did not want toopen a can of worms with theknowledge that drug use was

Please see Roser Page A9

J

By Brett FisherFernley outscored the host

Wolverines, 12-6, down thestretch to post a 47-33 Northern34' girls basketball win SaturdaY

at Truckee High School and com-plete a two-game sweeP of theleague's lake teams this Pastweekend.

Lysana Davis paced the LadYVaqueros with 14 Points, includ-ing 6-for-10 from the free-throu.line. Walita Querta followed with13 and Becky Murphy added 10points in the victory.

As a unit, Fernley shot about 66percent from the foul line, con-verting 18-of-30. Querta shot 7-for-10 on her freebies and MurPh.vwas 4-for-8 at the charity stripe'

The Lady Vaqueros held a slim,one-point, 18-17, lead at halftime.Then they produced a 16-Pointeffort in the third quarter to net a

seven-point, 34-27, advantageheading into the decisive finalperiod ofplay.

"We started offreal slow," FHShead coach Ralph Dunn said. "In

Brett Fisher/Leader-Couriel

SHE'S GOT THE TOUCHFernley's Becky MurPhY, leftfloats the ball toward the bas'ket against North Thhoe lasFriday night at FernleY HigtSchool.

Lady Nighthawks cutting turnoversLovelock jumped out to a 13-

lead at the end of the oPeninperiod and outscored the LadNighthawks, 40-6, after threquarters.

Silver Stage posted just fou

points at halftime and added onltwo points in the third quarter.

Yvonne Huttman accounted fc

more than half of the LadNighthawks' total with six Point:She scored all ofher points on twthree-point field goals.

The Lady Nighthawks PlaYehost to Battle Mountain lar

Please see Cutting, Page AS

Mustangs run away from Silver StageBy Brett Fisher

In spite of a 16-Point effort bY

Siiver Stage in the fourth quarter,host Pershing County handed theNighthawks a 68-47 Northern 2Aboys basketball defeat last Fridaynight in Lovelock.

After being held to eight Pointsin the second quarter, theNighthawks scored 26 points inthesecond half. But the host Mustangscontinued to build on their lead

By Brett FisherGradual reductions in turnovers

has been at least one Positive forthe Silver Stage girls varsity bas-ketball team to take awaY fromtheir last few contests, in sPite ofhaving yet won a game.

"They're hapPy that theY gottheir turnovers down," SSHS headcoach Allison Budingame said."That's something we've beenworking on."

With 34 turnovers againstLovelock last Friday night and 30

versus Battle Mountain at homeSaturday, the Lady Nighthawks

every quarter. They outscored thelocals, 16-8, to iead by nine points,3A-21, at halftime. Silver Stagefailed by just one point, 14-13, atthe end ofthe opening period.

Lovelock, though, would go onto score 19 points in each of thelast two quarters for the win.

Wyly Sandidge paced SilverStage with 15 points, includingseven field goals. TeammateAnthony Jefferis bucketed 13

have cut their turnovers down bY

about a quarter from two weeksago, Burlingame said.

Silver Stage had committedabout 45 turnovers in a game priorto /hese last two, she said.

What has hurt more recentlYhave been two scoreless first quar-ters, which led to a pair ofNorthern 2A league losses thispast weekend.

Silver Stage was unable to geton the scoreboard in the first quar-ter against Pershing CountY,which led to a 47-11 setback tothe host Mustangs last FridaY.

points. He nailed two of his teamltriage of three-point baskets. MikrShinn added the other and finisherwith five points for thr

Nighthawks.Silver Stage shot better than 5(

percent from the foul line, converting 6-of-11 freebies.

The Nighthawks were scheduler

to have played host to Virginia Cityesterday. On Friday, they travel ti

West Wendover.