European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 04, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday August 4,1993 sports the stars and stripes Page 31 stardom horns for Jim Litke there is no mistaking the crack of a goofball struck dead solid perfect even Here in Chicago. Even Here a couple of dozen Par-5s from the near est country club with threadbare fairways and pock marked greens. Even with cars zooming past on one Side and rap music spilling Over from nearby picnics with housing projects visible in the distance Over one shoulder and downtown skyscrapers visible Over the other nothing else sounds like a Golf Ball about to begin a journey of 300 Yards. And so there is rapt Atten Tion All around on this warm sunday afternoon As 17-year-old phenom Tiger Woods reaches into his bag for the Metal headed Driver and his father 61-year-old Earl lifts bullhorn to his lips one More  As some 250 kids and grownups politely arranged in a semicircle for a clinic have watched Tiger curve 5-Iron shots around Trees to one target the Bend 9-Irons right and left and High and Low to an other for almost a half hour Earl has slipped in Mes sages about staying in school and off drugs. Now As they say in show business comes the pure entertain ment. The big finish. Crack i Hope nobody lives Back there. Otherwise Earl pauses pointing to a stand of Trees beyond the 250-Yard target at the Jackson Park driving Range where the first Ball disappeared they be got trouble on  crack. Crack. Crack As shot after booming shot is launched Tiger grins a teen Ager s unbroken Grin grateful for the Chanceton make mischief and a Prophet of his father in the bargain. As if on Cue the gallery murmurs oohs Andaas. But in the curious manner of Golf galleries everywhere they do so very . Crack. Crack no one needs to be told they Are seeing something commentary teen Ager Tiger Woods really cracks a Golf Ball. Special. There has never been another golfer quite like this kid. At 6 months Tiger would sit silently in a Highchair in the family garage for two hours at a time mesmerized by the sight of his father hitting balls into a net. At age 3, he broke so for nine holes and soon after became a full fledged celebrity. At age 5, Tiger was featured on thars  at age 8, he won his first Junior world championship playing inthe 10-and-Undcr division. By age 14, he Nad five age group Junior world titles. He once taped a list of Jack Nicklaus accomplishments at different Ages to his bedroom Wall and he has beat every  year at 16, he became the youngest golfer to play in a pea tour event. And Only the Day before this his sixth inner City Golf clinic in the past few months Tiger Woods had three a catch As  open Champion with birdies on the last two holes and a Par to Start a  he already  a pro s re ise Sweet swing and travel itinerary it is easy sometimes to for get that when the summer s circuit of Amateur tournaments arc finished Tiger is going Back to High school to finish his senior year. Easy for everybody else perhaps but not Earl Woods. He grew up a Black kid like Many of those looking on sunday and thought Golf was a stupid game played Only by White people at coun try  he eventually became a Fine player Earl came to the game after retiring from a 20-year Stintin the army too late to do anything with it himself. But he promised himself his son would get at the game Early in life. And while trying to keep everything in perspective Tiger s Success has become kind of platform onto which the two of them Hope to lift other aspiring Young Black golfers. Neither father nor son is entirely comfortable wit the idea of these clinics being pioneering efforts especially since former pea performers acc elder an Calvin Pectic and several other Black pros run and bankroll similar  none of the golfers Black or White who have gone before Tiger Woods have been so clearly marked for stardom a fact that is lost neither on Tiger nor the Small gathering that bestows Michael Jordan style adulation on him. It s not just about being the Best Black golfer on the tour Tiger says Between autographing the pro Grams hats and. Golf balls thrust in his direction. It about being the Best golfer on the  that sentiment is appreciated everywhere but especially Here. The associated Patti Cash talk is. Trash talk suppose just suppose that Jesse Ferguson had splashed into the tank after Ray Mercer offered him $100,000 to  Ferguson suddenly had flopped around like a hooked Trout in the late rounds of their feb. 6 heavy weight bout if whispers of a fix had surfaced if the Manhattan District attorney s office had investigated Ifa grand jury had listened to Mercer s words on the Hob videotape would t Ferguson have been indicted for having fixed a fight As the world knows Ferguson spurned Mercer Soffer and earned a unanimous decision at Madison Square  in boxing s latest sordid scenario Jesss Ferguson s Hon esty does not absolve Ray Mercer s  apologists Are trying to minimize Mercer s video taped offer As trash talk. But trash talk in boxing is Muhammad Ali telling George fore Man is that the Best you got what Mercer was saying is Cash talk. What Mercer was of Fering Ferguson is a bribe. That s against the Law. That Why Mercer has been indicted for a class d felony that could put him in jail for seven years. What comes across on the tapes said Dan Castle Man the chief of investigations for District attorney Robert m. Morge Tichau s office is a desperate Guy who knows he s m a desperate situation taking Desper ate Means to find a , with 15 knockouts in a 20-1 record had been promised $1.5 million for a heavyweight title bout with kid  Bowe that hinged on his getting by Ferguson a Journeyman with an 18-9 record. As the bout with Fer Guson developed Mercer realized he had not trained properly. He knew he was going to lose. He knew his Only Chance was a  once or twice but repeatedly to use mor word Mercer offered Ferguson $100,000 to Dave Anderson commentary take a  to someone who has heard the audio por Tion of the videotape Ferguson apparently questioned Mercer s sincerity wondering if he did accept $100,000, How and when he would be paid. Mercer invoking his Mother s Honor assured him of payment the next Day. Ferguson decided to keep punching for a unanimous10-round decision that cancelled Mercer s $1.5 million title  told his Corner about Mercer s offer but did not report it to the new York state athletic com Mission or any other governing body. Randy Gordon the commission chairman pursued it after the bout referee Wayne Kelly reported hearing rumours of Mercer s offer from an unidentified boxing Trainer no connected to either fighter. As it turned put Ferguson was chosen As Bowe next challenger. In their May 22 bout in Washington d.c., the 36-year-old Philadelphia heavyweight collected $500,000 for lasting 17 seconds into the second round. His integrity or at least his scepticism about How and when Mercer would pay the $100,000, had been rewarded five fold As for Mercer maybe he did t realize the consequences of his conversation. Maybe he believed that since Ferguson was an opponent meaning a Boxer who supposedly had Little or no Chance to win he could talk him into losing. But that s no excuse. And legally that s no  boxing the image of fixed fights has usually involved a conspiracy of gangster types corrupt managers and pliant pugilist. One of boxing s Mot celebrated fixes occurred in 1947 when Jake Lamotta lost stand ing up to Billy Fox at the Garden a fix that was an Al Zed for posterity at the Kefauver committee hear Ings on boxing in 1960."would you describe in your own words Jack Bonomi the committee counsel asked How you faked the knockout?""1 just stood helpless Lamotta answered and he was pounding away and the referee stopped the  when Joey Lamotta who acted As his brother s Man Ray Mercer takes punch in february fight against Jesse Ferguson. Mercer allegedly offered $100,000 for � dive. Ager was questioned about a $100,000 bribe from fran Kie Carbo Frank Blinky Palermo and Bill Daly for the Fox fight and various other matters he took the fifth amendment a total of 53 limes. Through the years a fix has been merely part of thenot so Sweet science s seamy history. So what if Ray Mercer offered Jesse Ferguson $100,000 to fail Down what else is new judging by Mercer s lawyers their defense will in clude the irrelevance of Mercer s past As a nine year army Veteran who earned an olympic Gold medal. The Yorkton