European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. December 28,1989 the stars and stripes Page 19 sports Calendar i for dec. 28-Jan. 3 unless otherwise dated basketball Frankfurt invitational men s and women s tournaments continue on thursday Friday and saturday at the Gibbs and Eschborn gyms in Frank Furt. Twenty one  and air Force teams including 13 women s entries arc competing in the double elimination invitational. No admission is being charged a either site. Men s games thursday Are scheduled for 2 . And 6 . At Eschborn and at 2 . At Gibbs. On Friday the two men s games will be at noon and 4 . Both at Gibbs. Saturday s men s championship game will tip off at i . At Gibbs with the if no Cussary on the same court at 5 . Seven women s games Are scheduled for thursday 10 . Noon 4 . And 6 . Al Gibbs. And it ., noon and 4 . At Eschborn. On Friday the Only two women s games will be played at Gibbs. At 2 . And 6 . The women s championship will also be on the Gibbs court at 11 . Saturday with the if no Cussary game set for 3 . At Gibbs. Men s teams arc Baum older Frankfurt. Giessen. Heilbronn Wiesbaden wild Flucken Wil Ryburg and . Women s entrants arc bad Krecu Nach. Baum older Darmstadt Frankfurt. Main?., Mann Heim Nord Rutchland Parma sons Rhein main Stutt Gart Sangdahl Cox Wiesbaden and Wurzburg. Rubin main s 13th annual Christmas tournament which also opened on tuesday continue through saturday s championship game. Three air Force base teams and five Community level  squads Are entered in the five Day double elimination tourney at the Rhein main gym. Defending Champion Lindsey of Wiesbaden. Spang Dahlum and Rhein main Are the Continental sports conference entries while Darmstadt Hanau. Heidel Berg Mannheim and Schweinfurt represent usar eur. Three games arc scheduled for thursday at 3. 5 Anil 7 . On Friday tournament game times arc set for 4p.m. And 7 a. The championship Tipoff will be at i . Saturday followed by the if necessary contest. No admission will be charged. The four major military basketball leagues in Germany and the Netherlands Safe s Continental sports conference and Usa eur s 2lst Talcom. V corps and Vii corps arc Idle again this  resumes action on Jan. 5. V corps on Jan. It. Vii corps on Jan. 21 and 21 St Talcom on feb. 2. The German Bunde Sliga s first division has six games scheduled for saturday night with Bamburg. Ber Lin and Ulm among the Sites. Bamburg hosts Goldstan Slagen at 6 ., Charlottenburg of Berlin entertains ludwigs Burg at 7 30 . And dim meets Lancen at7 30 . In the two other games. Lev Crusen plays at i860 Slagen at 7 ., and Nav Ruih is at Cologne at7 30 . Berlin new year s run on monday is the highlight of the weekend. It will be a run of around 6.5 kilo me ters starting at 2  on West Berlin s Strassl pcs 17juni. The route will be Over several East Berlin streets finishing at the Start Point. There is no pc registration and no entry fee for this historic event the first Berlin Border crossing race in 40 years. Also scheduled in Berlin Are two  new year s eve runs on sunday in East Berlin s Plain Torwald at 10 . And at the thu fils Borg in the West Berlin at 2 . Plus the 19th an Nual Neujahr Slauf at 11 . Monday in East Berlin s vol spark Friedric Shain. Ski jumping hockey the armed forces ice hockey club af1hc will close put its 1989 sch Dulc with two Home games at Owci Bruckn this weekend. Of Iii. A american Ca Nadian team is scheduled to play a Rheinland pal league game against he German Ludw in Shafon club saturday and an exhibition match against the Wilbur Glades on sunday. Both games Start at 2 . Distance running Berlin is also one open City now for running events. Four Are scheduled Lor new year s weekend two Starling in the West sector two in the East. The first annual Himml Lac Elinvr  a Tiik annual four Hills tournament bringing together the Best ski jumpers from Europe North America and Japan opens saturday at Oberst Dorf West Germany at i . And continues on monday new years Day. On Ciar Misch s olympic ski stadium also Al i . Both events will be televised by West German net works starting at 12 55 . Adf on saturday. Ard on . The four Hills tourney All world cup competitions winds up thursday and saturday of next week at Innsbruck and Bischof Shoffn. Austria. At each of the four events two jumps will be held with inc top 50 out of around 100 entries from the first heat qualifying for inc second. Horse racing Dortmund and Neuss arc the Only two West German tracks operating Over the new year s week end. Dortmund has a saturday program and Neuss will have sunday racing Holh with noon starts. Billy Martin was a tortured Genius  Day Billy Martin died in a one vehicle Accident on Christmas afternoon. Nobody who was around him for 15 or 25 years could have expected him to have passed away peacefully in a nursing Home. He was not that kind of Guy. He was almost any other kind of Guy. If there was going to be a bar and a Brawl in town there was every Chance he would be in both of them. Even at 61. He was a tragic kind of Genius in his business. He was Jekyll and Hyde. He was charming Al one moment and venomous at the next zoologists will Tell you that snakes arc indeed charming. He was a tortured Genius driven like Avan Gogh and Billy Martin would have Cut off his car too if he thought it would have made his Yankee Cap More fitting. Many others have worn that uniform and that designation Yankee with More Grace and dignity but none of them Ever wore it with More of his  was part of his tragedy. I disliked him and distrusted him and i Don t see How anybody who was around him for 15 or 25 years could have fell otherwise about him. I can t mourn for him. 1 can t say he was a Good person. Bui i Ean resp Cal what that monogrammed by and the pinstripes meant to him. He wanted it burned Inlo his flesh so it could never be removed not by George slain Brenner or George Weiss or anybody. I suppose he wanted to be Casey Stengel whose record of 10 championships in 12 years will not be matched. Martin played for Stengel in Oakland and Stengel brought him to the  loved the scrap in Young Martin and Martin wept when Weiss took him from Stengel and traded him. Martin was involved in the Brawl at the Copacabana. Mickey Mantle and while fora were involved too but they were too Good As baseball players to be banished a punishment. Billy Martin was Noi that Good and that was pail of his tragedy too. He wanted to be that Good. In the Lime after he left the Yankees he was hit on the head by a pitch an found himself flinching at the plate. So he put on his Woolen warm up jacket in comme Tai Hatting practice and insisted that the Pitcher throw inside to him. Knock him Down to that Martin would be forced to learn to stand in again. He could be belligerent while drunk. He was belligerent while sober Loo. Hews always the Little Man who was going to show the world he was As Tough As the big Guys. It got in the Way of his Man aging. It got in the Way of his life. The classic example was not with the Yankees but with inc a s. He taught them to play Bill Ball. They wheeled and chipped and he whined Lor every thing and he got them to a filled bail Park and to the playoffs in 1981. He was Home in Oakland and he revealed in it. He told of How he used to steal fruit from the immigrant greengrocers and How they d run out onto the Street and shout after him. And then when he had made a few dollars he went Back and gave them the Money for the stolen fruit and More. It was a Story you could believe. It was Billy at his Best. It always rankled him thai inc Posi Tion by position comparisons of the Yankees and dodgers always said big Edge to the dodgers Al second base. He conceded thai Robinson was belter butanol All that much better. And Martin was a Good world series player. All of that Martin lore flowed freely in Oakland. The new owners had no Back ground in baseball. They made Martin his own general manager. He always struggled for supremacy Over his own general manager from Calvin Griffith to gab Paul to Lou Pinilla and now he could t coexist with himself. It was t too Long afterwards Hal Martin was ejected from the first game of a Dpi bleh Cadar and his coaches found him drunk in his office a bottle of Vodka on his desk and the treasured photographs of Martin and Sinatra of Martin and Stengel and the rest smashed. Martin s hands were bloody. And then the a s had no Choice but to remove him from his contract for life. Martin managed five times for Slein Brenner and was fired five times which could happen to anybody. He was a Brilliant Field tactician. He was a Slep ahead of the Field. He took a Job and Billy Martin objects to Terr Cooney s Call by kicking dirt on the Umpire in 1975. Brought teams to new Heights almost immediately. And almost As quickly he lost his players. He told them one thing and did another. When Yogi Berra managed. Mar tin undercut his Best Friend Tosic inbred nor. And so it went. And in the summer of 1978, when the champions were coming apart and he was not a healer but a divisive Force he sat in the Yankees clubhouse shrivelled and pathetic. The Only thing he wan cd was to be a Yankee and he was losing Hal