8 The Daily Collegian
High-scoring
By NICK ZULOVICH
Collegian Sports Writer
HERSHEY While having a
quality defense is always impor
tant, having an explosive offense
might be the top priority in the
PNC Bank Big 33 Football Classic
at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Hershey
park Stadium.
If last year’s game in which a
total of 81 points were scored is
any indication, the teams com
piled of recent high school gradu
ates from Pennsylvania and Ohio
will need to reach paydirt early
and often.
“It’s going to be a wide-open
game,” Pennsylvania coach Jack
McCurry said. “We let the kids
call some of their own plays. And
when they call their own play, you
know the ball is going downtown.
You’ve got kids that can throw the
ball 60 or 70 yards down the field
and guys who can both run and
catch the football.”
A total of 10 Penn State recruits
were selected to play in this
year’s’Big 33 Football Classic. One
Ron Graham
Travis Blomgren
LaVar Arrington
Joe McKinney
Josh Mitchell
Jason Bisson
Tony Stewart
John Gilmore
Joe Hartings 6'-4" 250 OG St. Henry
Bob Jones 6'-4" 250 TE/DE Wadsworth
Source: Big 33
Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Jose Guillen is out at home at San Diego Padres catcher John Flaherty tags
him during the fourth inning of their game yesterday. The Padres beat the Pirates, 8-6.
Pirates drop one to hot Padres
By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer
SAN DIEGO In Tony Gwynn’s
appraisal, the San Diego Padres are
just two games away from being
back in the NL West race.
Buried in fourth place for much
of the first half and 13 games
behind San Francisco on July 6, the
defending division champion
Padres are the top team in baseball
since the All-Star break. They’ve
vaulted Colorado into third place,
and with yesterday’s 8-6 win over
Pittsburgh have won 12 of 15 since
the break.
Craig Shipley homered in the
first inning and hit a two-out, two
run single to break a tie in the sixth
for the Padres, who won their fifth
straight and pulled within seven of
the Giants.
More importantly to Gwynn, the
Padres are within two games of
.500.
“For us to get back to .500 is real
ly important,” Gwynn said. “We’ve
picked a good time to start playing
well. You can’t really say you’re in
it until you’re at .500. A lot of peo
ple will say you’re in it now; some
people are going to say you’re not
in it at all.”
recruit, Ohio’s Bob Jones from
Wadsworth High School will sit
out due to an injury.
Other major football programs
represented in the game include
Ohio State, Michigan, Syracuse
and Northwestern.
With such a collaboration of
players, various personalities are
forced to mesh, which has been
going well for the Pennsylvania
squad.
“Everyone here has got a lot of
character and it’s just accentuat
ed because it’s an all-star game,”
Pennsylvania running back/line
backer LaVar Arrington said. “It’s
a pleasant situation because
you’re competing with new team
mates. Everybody plays their part
and fills their roles. We have lead
ership on this team, too, which is a
good thing.”
Arrington is one of the players
whose role might change.
After being the main running
back at North Hills High School,
the Penn State recruit will see
quite a bit of action in the slot
position and be used in motion
240 TE/LB Penn Hills
195 QB/S Central Bucks West
228 RB/LB North Hills
240 OG/LB Mars Area
280 OT/DT Central Bucks East
300 OT/DT Upper St. Clair
235 TE/DE Allentown Central Catholic
235 TE/DE Wilson
Ht. Wt Pos.
Regardless, the Padres like the
direction they’re headed.
“We’re playing a lot better,”
Shipley said. “Everything’s going
in the same direction pitching
and hitting.”
Ken Caminiti and Shipley hit
consecutive homers in the four-run
first inning. Shipley finished 3-for
-5 with three RBIs and Caminiti,
who had a two-run homer, was 2-
for-4 with two runs scored.
It was a big game for Shipley,
who has missed 57 games because
of injuries to his left hamstring and
right hip flexor. He was making a
spot start at second in place of
Quilvio Veras, his first start since
June 6.
It was only the second time this
year that he’s had five at-bats in a
game.
“I still don’t feel 100 percent,”
Shipley said. “I think the longer
you play, especially offense, the
more you can relax up there, trying
to take it slow and see the ball. I
think that makes a huge difference
in what’s going to happen when you
swing the bat.”
Pittsburgh’s Jason Kendall set a
career high with four hits, includ
ing a leadoff home run in the ninth.
Kevin Young had three hits for the
ih School
Collegian Graphic/Walter Barrueto
show expected at Big 33
across Pennsylvania’s offensive
sets.
“I guess that’s where the coach
ing staff feels I can best help the
team,” he said. “I don’t if they
(Ohio) have a defensive back that
can cover me one-on-one.”
Another Penn State recruit
expected to be a prime offensive
target is tight end Tony Stewart
from Allentown Central Catholic.
Stewart said he fits in well in the
passing game and is looking to
make an impression tomorrow.
The Ohio club is not short on
talent either. Coach Vern Long
has at his disposal the Ohio High
School Player of the Year, running
back Derek Combs. Combs, head
ed to Ohio State, is expected to be
one of the main cogs in Long’s
offensive strategy.
Ohio’s offensive game plan will
also include running backs Sean
Penny and Greg Simpson, both
Ohio State recruits, and wide
receiver Chris Chambers, a future
Wisconsin Badger.
“Our strength is the depth that
we have at the skilled positions,”
Long said. “We’re in a situation
that we’ll rotate everybody in. We
have a lot of kids who can do a lot
of things well. The game will
showcase the talents these guys
have.”
Not only could both the Pennsyl
vania and Ohio offenses have the
upper hand in the Big 33 Football
Classic, but defenses are semi
handcuffed because they cannot
stunt on the defensive line or blitz
up the middle.
Both coaches said they are look
ing forward to turning their play
ers loose and finding out just what
their capabilities are in a game
situation. Each said the game
should be very entertaining for
the fans and added the key to vic
tory is simple.
“I think both teams can score
some points,” McCurry said.
“You’ve got to make big plays and
you can’t make mistakes. That’s
the key.”
Pirates, who lost their third
straight game.
San Diego starter Danny Jackson
failed to hold a 5-1 lead, and the
Pirates tied the game at 5 in the
sixth.
But Clint Sodowsky (1-2) allowed
three runs and two walks in the
sixth and the Padres swept the
three-game series.
San Diego loaded the bases in the
sixth on Wally Joyner’s leadoff
infield single and walks by Chris
Jones and Caminiti. Shipley then
hit a chopper over third baseman
Young’s head for a 7-5 lead.
“I didn’t hit it good, but I hit it in
the right place,” said Shipley, who
felt that his line out to left in the
eighth was his best at-bat of the
game.
Gwynn, who didn’t start because
of a slight hamstring injury, pinch
hit for reliever Jim Bruske (3-0)
and singled for another run.
Shipley “is an awfully good
ballplayer,” Pittsburgh manager
Gene Lamont said. “To have a guy
like that coming off the bench is a
big plus.”
Said Sodowsky: “I had one job to
do, and that was to get us into the
seventh still tied. I didn’t do it, and
no one feels worse than I do.”
Ron Graham, a member of the Big 33 Pennsylvania team, gets ready for the 40th annual Big 33 game
which takes place at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Hersheypark Stadium. Graham will be attending Penn State in
the fall.
Driver' of the sports world
Taxi
Editor's Note: This is the seventh in a
series reviewing sports movies. This is
a review of Tony Scott's The Fan.'
By J.P. GRAMLICH
Collegian Sports Writer
A long time ago, before baseball
players were making ten times the
money of the President of the Unit
ed States, before disgruntled man
agers were wagering thousands of
dollars against their own teams,
before ratings-happy television
networks were putting video cam
eras inside catchers’ masks, a story
like The Fan wasn’t even imagin
able.
But that was a long time ago. The
Fan is a movie about today.
The Fan, director Tony Scott’s
baseball-oriented touch-up of Mar
tin Scorsese’s 1976 eye-opener Taxi
Driver, is just as convincing in por
traying the collapse of a psy
chopath’s thoughts to total violence
as a result of the world he lives in
this time with a sports twist, of
course
As in Taxi Driver, we have shady
Mafioso, relentless avenger and
general tough guy Robert De Niro
in the lead role, that of troubled
knife salesman (always a good
combination) and baseball fan Gil
Renard. And just as in Taxi Driver,
De Niro gives the audience a chill
ing insight into the skewed mind of
his character. Throw in the typical
ly energized performance of sup
porting actor Wesley Snipes and
The Fan lives up to its billing as a
four-star modern morality tale.
Gil Renard is your average, run
of-the-mill loser. Through the open
ing scenes of the movie, he is in the
process of losing his job, losing his
wife and losing touch with his son
baseball serving as the lone,
vague bond between the two.
In fact, the only thing going in
Gil’s life is the dawn of the 1996
baseball season and the great
prospects of his hometown team,
the San Francisco Giants, for
which he has season tickets. The
Giants, you see, have just picked
up $4O million slugger Bobby Ray
burn (Snipes), who happens to be
Gil’s favorite player and one of the
league’s best hitters.
As Gil’s job, marriage and family
life go down the drain, Rayburn
and the Giants play superb base
ball. They play well enough to keep
Gil’s mind on the diamond and
away from the strains of his per
sonal life, which lie idly in the
background.
Until it all goes wrong.
Out of nowhere, Rayburn hits a
career slump at the plate. The
more he swings, the more he miss
es, and the media are quick to
question the worth of his $4O mil
lion salary. Although cocky team
mate Juan Primo (Benicio Del
Toro) picks up the slack for the
struggling Rayburn, Gil blames
him for attempting to be the
Giants’ big hitter when he's not
meant for the role. He also blames
Primo for single-handedly causing
Rayburn’s pathetic hitting streak.
The longer Rayburn’s paralyzing
slump continues, the more frustrat
ed Gil becomes. After all, Rayburn
is a mere extension of the person
Gil always wanted to be a suc
cessful baseball player with a lov
ing wife and child and the nation’s
captivation under his wing. When
Gil sees that things aren’t quite
perfect in his hero’s visionary
state, he understands that prob
lems are a universal epidemic. He
also understands that his are far
greater than most.
In a swirl of converging feelings
spearheaded by his unemploy
ment and by his wife’s harsh dia
tribe against him in an earlier
scene Gil punches the insane
button on his personality console.
He hunts Primo down between
games and orders him, matter-of
factly, to conform to his role on the
team and let Rayburn take charge
When Primo refuses, Gil has no
problem murdering him with a sou
venir from the hunting knife com
pany that not too long ago released
him as an employee.
To prevent The Fan from ending
well short of its climax, Gil avoids
Robert De Niro stars in the Tony Scott film The Fan. De Niro plays Gil
Renard, a baseball fan whose obsession with his favorite player, Bobby
Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) turns homicidal.
Friday, July 25, 1997
arrest for the murder of Primo.
But he doesn’t exactly tone down
his vehement behavior, either.
Proud of what he’s done and con
vinced he has ended his idol’s bat
ting slump by eliminating the com
petition, Gil begins to stalk Ray
burn in search of thanks. When
Rayburn refuses to celebrate the
death of a teammate and begins to
suspect Gil is the killer, the latter
kidnaps the former’s son out of
sheer anger.
Gil realizes his idealized image
of Rayburn as the ultimate, win-at
all-costs ball player is fictitious, as
are all his preconceptions of sports
in general.
Through a finale that has more
unexpected fireworks than a
hyped-up version of Speed, Gil pro
ceeds to take two more lives
don’t worry, the kid lives and
establishes himself as an authentic
psychopath very reminiscent of
Taxi Driver's lunatic cabby, Travis
Bickle.
The movie appropriately ends at
Candlestick Park the location
where it indirectly took place all
along. Gil is put to rest by man
hunting police forces, his demise
coming in the very stadium that
elicited his demented convictions
of sport.
While the screenplay will have
you believe The Fan is a condemna
tion of one man’s twisted beliefs, it
is indeed a condemnation of an
entire world the sports world.
Scott paints Gil Renard more as a
victim than as a culprit, the human
result of the cold-blooded, billion
dollar enterprise known as major
market sports.
Gil is the tool Scott uses to decry
the bizarre notion that being a fan
comes before the likes of being
employed, being a husband and
being a father.