THURSDAY JAN. 25, >979

THE HERALD PAGE 21

SPORTS FILE

by Steve K. Welz. SPORTSWHIRLED—Unlike the NHL where some players are grossly overrated by the press, the WHA is usually ignored when it comes to espousing their superstars. For the past few years. Quebec Nordiques forward Real Cloutier has been burning rival goaltenders To the tune of 50 goals and some 120 points a year. The 22-year-old lamplighter has been wooed by the NHL repeatedly, but Real is quite comfortable in La Belle Province' where he is regarded as the 'franchise'. . . Seventeen-year-old ‘wunderkind’ Wayne Gretsky is averaging a point a game 'with the Edmonton Oilers... In 1978. 'The Meadowlands.’ America’s newest race track, averaged 17.820 people per meet which led all North American harness tracks by a wide margin... The American League will open it's season on April 4th with the Seattle Mariners hosting the California Angels in the palatial Kingdome. In 1979. 756 night games will be played, which is all-time American League high... Who’s the best shortstop in baseball? According.to league statistics, the Philadelphia Phillies' Larry Bowa is the finest defensive shortstop ever to play the game. He has a career fielding average of .981 based on 122 errors committed in 1,355 games. Believe or not, the nine-year veteran has only won the Golden Glove’ award twice (1972 and ’78)... I SPORTS SPECIAL—Lindsay Nelson. veteran baseball and football announcer extraordinare, has left the New York Mets organization (after serving them since the team entered the league in 1962. Nelson, who along with Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner (legendary Pittsburgh slugger) formed the National Leagues' most cohesive broadcasting unit, will be sorely missed by his legion of fans who were accustomed to seeing the flamboyant Announcer in a loud colored jacket and listening to its anecdotes about Casey Stengel. Nelson will continue to broadcast CBS-TV football games. As for his replacement, former Yankee and Met player Ron Swoboda has already expressed his desire to do play-by-play, but his chastising of the present Mets hierarchy will not endear him to owner Lorinda De Roulet, Veteran play-by-play announcer Marv Albert, already a very busy man with NBC-TV and local Knicks and Rangers games, might be interested in the job. Mel Allen, who lives in nearby Connecticut, may also be interested if the money Is right... SPORTS QUEST—Q. I heard a rumol that the NASL Houston Hurricane also owns the MISL Summit. Is this true? —C.Y. San Antonio. Tex. A. According to Summit director Burrell Cohen, the Summit and Hurricane are two separate entities, but the Hurricane lends some of their players to the Summit during the winter months.

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Sports Profile By Bill Sherman Bernie "Basketball" McCracken has been coaching Basketball at Wildwood High School since 1960 and has had a state championship team. Not from an athletic family, although he has a younger brother in sports, Bemie was born and raised in Latrobe, Pa., where he went to high! school and attended Indiana State College in Pa. There he was on the varsity baseball and basketball teams for 3 years. After college he taught for 2 years in Berlin, Pa. and was Asst. Coach of football and basketball. He then spent one year at Woodrow Wilson High in Levittown, Pa., where he was head coach of baseball and Asst. Coach of basketball. He came to Wildwood in 1968 as Assistant Coach of Football and Basketball and in 1963 was made Head Coach of Basketball. In his first year as coach he had a State Championship Basketball Team in the season of‘1963-64. Outside of school he plays golf and goes skiining. He and his wife Kathy (Myers), whom he married in Latrobe, run a

motel, The Sea Edge in No. Wildwood. He has two daughters, Beth, age 21, who works in a business office, and Laurie, a sophomore at Glassboro, and a son Bucky, 17, a mainstay of the Wildwood High Basketball Team; He also plays on the golf team. A member of the Warrior 50, Wildwood's Booster Club, Bemie is active in other school programs. He has coached a long list of outstanding basketball players at Wildwood who have gone on to make a name for themselves. Among them are: Harry Snyder, Drexel; Bruce De Haven, Albright; Joe Wright, Service Ball; Bob Levin, Curry College; Jim Waicus, Campbell College; Harry Hayward, U. of Mich.; Mike Gaines, Delaware State; Chick Ludman, Augusta (Ga.) College and Chuck James; and last year’s stars Guy Cottman and Bud Ostrander. Chuck James was the first Wildwood plyer to score 1,000 points in his career, then Harry Hayward, broke James’ record, and now Mike Gaines holds the high-scoring record. Bemie rates Hayward, Waicus, Gaines and Chick Ludman, now coach at Middle Township High School as the greatest players to come under his coaching. Not bad!

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