Sports Update
Hawaii will pay to keep Pro Bowl
Gov. Ben Cayetano and National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue will sign a contract Thursday to keep the Pro Bowl in Hawaii through the start of the next century.The four-year deal that was agreed upon in negotiations last summer, was described Friday afternoon by Pro Bowl operations director Bill McConnell.
The state will pay the NFL an additional $700,000 in a renegotiated deal for next week's game. That brings the total cost to $2.5 million.
The game will be played at Aloha Stadium through the year 2000. The NFL has an option to put the game in another city -- presumably Orlando, Fla. -- in 2001. The game would return to Hawaii in 2002.
McConnell and City Councilman Mufi Hannemann, who is chairman of the state's Pro Bowl host committee and point man in negotiations with the NFL, said, however, that they are still talking and could amend the contract to guarantee Hawaii four straight years.
The game generates an estimated $80 million for the state. It has been played here since 1980, but the state has only had to start paying to keep it here since 1994.
Rainbows trample Cal State Sacramento, 15-5
Dusty Bergman experienced his share of frustration in 1997, his freshman season with the University of Hawaii baseball team. But last night was different.The one word UH head coach Les Murakami, pitching coach Carl Furutani and batterymate Lars Hansen used last night to describe Bergman's second start this season was command.
Bergman had command of his pitches, meaning he kept the ball down in the strike zone.
Cal State Sacramento starter Joshua Schuler exhibited the same command until tiring in the fifth inning. The Rainbows turned six walks from three pitchers and key hits by Hansen, Matt Wheeler and Michael Dartt into 10 runs en route to a 15-5 victory at Rainbow Stadium before 1,023 fans.
Tanuvasa sets sights on Brett Favre
Maa Tanuvasa's final pregame gesture of the 1997-98 season Sunday will be to give his coach, Mike Shanahan, and Denver Broncos team owner Pat Bowlen, ti leaf leis.''My wife's cousin brought them,'' said the 6-foot-2, 277-pound starting right tackle from Mililani. ''I don't even know if they'll wear 'em but I'm going to give them as a sign of good luck.''
Realizing that the Broncos defense will have to get to Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre early and often, Tanuvasa said he hopes he can get his share of one-on-one situations while the offensive line keys on All-Pro veterans Alfred Williams and Neil Smith.
''If they leave me to that, then I just have to execute on my behalf and wreak havoc on Favre or whoever has the ball,'' he said.
Tanuvasa will be taking on the three inside linemen: 6-3, 295-pound center Frank Winters, 6-4, 305-pound guard Aaron Taylor and 6-4, 295-pound guard Adam Timmerman.
''I'll be playing against each one of them at different times of the game,'' he said. ''They play real well together, double-team a lot. I just have to use my quickness and stay lower than the other guy and stay under his pads. I've always been the smaller guy on the defensive line so they don't intimidate me.''
Tanuvasa said it's important to knock down Favre in the first quarter but he doesn't have any illusions that it will make the MVP signal caller any less effective.
''A lot of guys have done that in the beginning and it doesn't seem to rattle him,'' said Tanuvasa, who had 8.5 sacks in the league season and one in the playoffs.