Sports Heroes and Victories Reign in Spain

Has Spain become the world’s latest sporting power? A look at Sunday’s results might lead to that conclusion.

Miguel Indurain won the Tour de France for the fourth year in a row. Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario led Spain to a clean sweep of the United States in the Federation Cup tennis final at Frankfurt. Alberto Berasategui won the Mercedes Cup tennis championship. And Miguel Angel Jimenez won the Dutch Open golf tournament by two strokes.

“Today is the Spanish day, with two Miguels winning at the same time,” Jiminez said. “I don’t know him, but we are brother sportsmen.”

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Add Spain: Education Minister Gustavo Suarez Pertierra, in charge of national sports programs, said: “This exemplary effort, which produces such results, is a prime example for Spanish youth, not just so they learn more about sports, but so they learn to exert themselves.”

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Trivia time: Who won the American Professional Soccer League championship last year?

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The real reason: Steve August, traveling secretary of the Boston Red Sox, claims the Seattle Mariners’ Ken Griffey Jr. caused tiles to fall from the Kingdome’s ceiling.

“If they’d stop blowing off those fireworks up there in that Kingdome every time Ken Griffey hits a home run, maybe the ceiling tiles would stay up there,” August said.

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Had to happen: As far as the Philadelphia Phillies’ Danny Jackson is concerned, he was completely justified in hitting the San Diego Padres’ Craig Shipley in the leg with a pitch Sunday.

“He stole last night with a 7-1 lead,” Jackson said. “He knew it was wrong. He knew it was coming, and so did everyone else. The ball was down, it wasn’t at his head or his neck. I just wanted to get a point across. When you do something to embarrass another team, you have to expect something to happen.”

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No DH for Spahn: On this day in 1962, Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves set a National League record for home runs by a pitcher when he hit the 31st of his career against the New York Mets’ Craig Anderson.

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Shame on you: Losses are not taken lightly in Great Britain.

After 17-year-old Razvan Sabau of Romania upset Jeremy Bates, Britain’s No. 1 player, and then Mark Petchey to give Romania a 3-2 victory that eliminated Britain in the Davis Cup, the London Daily Express editorialized: “Britain has been shamefully shoved into the basement of world tennis by a boy barely 17 years old.”

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A violent game: The Calgary Stampeders have put Albi the horse on the injured reserve list after the two-year veteran tangled with a barbed wire fence and hurt her left fetlock earlier this week. Albi races around McMahon Stadium every time the Canadian Football League team scores a touchdown.

Rookie Rocky, a gray gelding, has been activated from the practice roster.

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No bargain bill: A rainout caused a rare day-night doubleheader between the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles today at Camden Yards. The park will be cleared between games, and separate admission will be charged.

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A little late: An American in England, after purchasing prints of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Morris, said he knew where to get Palmer’s and Nicklaus’ autographs, but asked where he could contact Morris.

Morris won the British Open four times in the 1860s.

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Trivia answer: The Colorado Foxes, 3-1, over the Los Angeles Salsa.

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Quotebook: Griffey on the Kingdome problem: “Don’t we have to play in a neutral stadium? How about Tampa? We’ll be there in ’97 anyway.”