ST. LOUIS ROLLS PAST ATLANTA.(Sports) - The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH)

Byline: Barry Wilner Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Like a good veteran, Aeneas Williams knows how to follow instructions.

He couldn't have done a better job Monday night in sparking the St. Louis Rams' 36-0 rout of the Atlanta Falcons. Williams forced two early turnovers, Travis Fisher returned an interception 74 yards for a touchdown and Larry Little tackled T.J. Duckett in the end zone for a safety. Atlanta managed only 209 yards in St. Louis' first shutout in two years and the Rams' first home shutout since 1993, when they played in Anaheim.

'That was the emphasis tonight.' Williams said after his 52nd career pickoff, second among active players to Oakland's Rod Woodson. 'In our meetings, coach Lovie (Smith) would start yelling, interceptions, interceptions.' Even when I would go home, I'd open my refrigerator and hear coach Lovie saying, 'interceptions, interceptions,' and have to close it right away.'

The Rams closed out the Falcons right away, too.

Williams, playing safety this year for the first time after a stellar career as a cornerback, picked off Doug Johnson's ill-advised first-quarter pass in the end zone. Then he knocked the ball free from tight end Alge Crumpler and recovered the fumble in the second quarter.

Both turnovers set up long drives for points as St. Louis took a 10-0 halftime lead.

'They beat our butts,' Johnson said. 'I wouldn't want someone to take credit away from me if I whipped somebody's butt. That's probably the worst game as a team I've ever seen in my life.'

Marc Bulger threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns to Torry Holt, and Lamar Gordon had a career-high 92 yards rushing, but it was the defense that drew the most praise.

'Give credit to the defense,' said Holt, who had 161 yards on 11 receptions. 'A goose egg!'

St. Louis (3-2) won its ninth straight home game and handed the Falcons (1-5) their first shutout defeat since 1993. In a span of four plays in the third quarter, the Rams had three sacks. They never allowed Atlanta, ranked 27th in total offense, to threaten to get head coach Dan Reeves his 200th career victory.

The Falcons have lost five in a row and are in desperate need of a healthy Michael Vick. Johnson, his replacement, made several critical mistakes and the defense recorded the safety when Little nailed Duckett trying to run out of the end zone in the third quarter. It was the fourth safety the Falcons have yielded this season.

'We're just struggling right now in all areas,' Reeves said. 'I don't know that one person can make that much difference.'

Atlanta 0 0 0 0 -- 0

St. Louis 3 7 9 17 -- 36

First quarter

StL -- FG Wilkins 28, 1:17.

Second quarter

StL -- Bulger 3 run (Wilkins kick), 1:22.

Third quarter

StL -- Holt 21 pass from Bulger (Wilkins kick), 12:16.

StL -- Safety, Duckett tackled by Wistrom in end zone, 2:15.

Fourth quarter

StL -- Holt 14 pass from Bulger (Wilkins kick), 10:44.

StL -- FG Wilkins 38, 3:45.

StL -- T.Fisher 74 interception return (Wilkins kick), 1:33.

Atl StL

First downs 9 16

Total Net Yards 209 496

Rushes-yards 21-73 31-119

Passing 136 377

Punt Returns 1-11 2-21

Kickoff Returns 6-142 2-46

Interceptions Ret. 2-6 2-78

Comp-Att-Int 12-28-2 24-35-2

Sacked-Yards Lost 3-19 0-0

Punts 6-40.8 2-36.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 2-1

Penalties-Yards 3-30 6-45

Time of Possession 22:40 37:20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Atlanta, Duckett 16-50, Dunn 5-23. St. Louis, Gordon 19-92, Harris 10-23, Bulger 2-4.

PASSING -- Atlanta, D.Johnson 10-23-1-134, Dantzler 0-0-0-0, Kittner, 2-5-1-21. St. Louis, Bulger 23-34-2-352.

RECEIVING -- Atlanta, Finneran 3-55, Dunn 3-18, Crumpler 2-30, McCord 1-33, Price 1-8, Duckett 1-7, Griffith 1-4. St. Louis, Holt 11-161, Bruce 4-87, Looker 4-43, Manumaleuna 3-56, Harris 1-26, Cleeland 1-4.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

TOM GANNAM/Associated Press

Wolves caught flat in Atlanta.(SPORTS) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

Byline: Steve Aschburner; Staff Writer

Atlanta, Ga. -- ATLANTA 97, WOLVES 89

The mood in the Timberwolves' locker room late Wednesday night seemed to be we had one coming, so we'll play along and find reasons why a 97-89 loss to the Atlanta Hawks might be understandable, maybe even acceptable:

- The Wolves had flown into Atlanta late, touching down at about 3 a.m. Eastern time, heads hitting pillows an hour or so after that. The Hawks, by contrast, were fresher than fresh: Off Tuesday and playing at home for the 10th time in their past 11 games.

- Several other teams had ventured into the library-like confines of Philips Arena and gotten nailed with the equivalent of hefty overdue fines (don't believe that official attendance figure).

The Spurs scored only 77 points and lost three weeks ago, the Bucks scored 83 and lost last week. Remarkably, Atlanta's record against teams .500 or better is 12-16; it is 4-18 against everybody else.

- The Hawks played harder, were quicker to the ball in the open court and off the glass, and worked defensively all game, thereby earning the victory. As Wolves guard Sam Cassell said: 'This is something unusual for our ballclub, for a team to play harder than us. But they played harder than us and they deserved to win.'

Then again, as Clint Eastwood's character says in 'Unforgiven,' deserves got nothing to do with it, kid. These were the Atlanta Hawks, a franchise that ought to be on Bud Selig's dartboard for contraction, a club whose proudest marketing boast is the lack of waiting time at its concessions stands.

Yes, bad teams occasionally beat good teams in the NBA, especially when the latter is on the road, wrapping up a back-to-back. But rarely does that happen when the better team is ahead by seven points, with seven minutes left.

That's the position the Wolves were in, up 83-76 at the end of a 17-6 run across the third and fourth quarters. All seemed well. Then it unraveled.

Said coach Flip Saunders: 'I told my guys, `No matter how tired you are, when we get in that situation, that's our bread and butter, our ability to execute down the stretch, and we didn't do it.' '

'Any time you let a team hang around,' guard Fred Hoiberg said, 'anything can happen. We got a seven-point lead and we got complacent.'

The swoon started innocently enough, with Kevin Garnett blocking a shot by Shareef Abdur-Rahim but with Cassell throwing the ball away on the fast break. Jason Terry nailed a three-pointer going the other way and, in less than five minutes, the Hawks had blown by Minnesota with a 14-3 spurt, leading 90-87 with 2:29 left.

The Wolves' three-headed monster was relatively toothless - 17-for-53, 50 points (14.5 below average) - and as they fired a few more misses, Abdur-Rahim threw down a fast-break dunk and Terry drained the backbreaker from the arc with 48.5 seconds left.

Considering Atlanta's struggles this season, this sure seemed like one the Wolves frittered away.

Garnett disagreed, vehemently. 'Nobody is toying with nobody, man. Every team in the league is good,' he said. 'Don't start putting that out that we're lollygagging. It's hard to play in the league, it's hard to be consistent. For the longest time we've been consistent... . They play really, really good at home. They put some runs together and they won the game.'

Said Saunders: 'They're no question, we made some mental mistakes and we played tired down the stretch.'

Said Cassell: 'We understand how we lost this game, why we lost this game. So it's not a big concern to us. We just got to increase our intensity and work on our execution down the stretch, and we'll be fine.

'We did so many things not to win the game.'

Steve Aschburner is at saschburner@startribune.com.

GAME RECAP

MVP

Shareef Abdur-Rahim kept the heat on Kevin Garnett, scoring 32 points and grabbing 14 rebounds with five assists in 44 minutes. Abdur-Rahim was perfect from the line (10-for-10) and scored at least 30 points for the fifth time this season.

The stat

- 50: Months since Atlanta had beat the Wolves, dating to December 1999 over eight consecutive Hawks defeats.

- 23: The Wolves' three-headed monster (Garnett, Sprewell, Cassell) got outscored 73-50 by Atlanta's Big Three (for a night) of Abdur-Rahim, Jason Terry and Stephen Jackson.

- 35: Minnesota's bench came within one point of its season scoring high (36 points at Boston Dec. 15) but squandered it, slipping to 22-6 when the reserves score 20 or more.

The streak goes on

Yanks, Cards show their muscle; Gant's 2 homers haunt Atlanta.(SPORTS) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

ST. LOUIS 3, ATLANTA 2 Starting in 1991, Atlanta played in three National League Championship Series with Ron Gant as a prominent member of the lineup. Atlanta played against Gant and Cincinnati in 1995, and it is playing against Gant and St. Louis this time.

Last week, Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine was talking about Gant's presence as an opponent and said: 'Ronnie is a winner. Everybody who played with him here knows that. We keep running into him. You've got to wonder when you're going to get burned.'

Answer: Saturday.

Gant hit two home runs and drove in all three against Glavine, giving St. Louis a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 lead in this championship series.

'You come into a series and Ronnie is a player you don't want to let beat you,' Glavine said. 'He beat me and he beat us. I made two bad mistakes today and they were both to Ronnie. If it was another hitter, it might have been different.'

Gant had 36 home runs and 117 RBI for Atlanta in 1993. He had agreed in January 1994 to a one-year, $5 million contract.

One week later, Gant fractured his leg dirt-biking. Atlanta released him in spring training rather than pay the contract for a player who would miss the season.

Until Saturday, Atlanta did not have much reason to regret the decision. It won its first World Series in 1995. On the way, Atlanta won four straight against Cincinnati in the NLCS. Gant had three singles and one RBI.

'I wanted to hurt the Braves in that series,' Gant said. 'The problem was I wanted to hurt 'em too much. I took out the tapes of my at-bats in that series before we started playing this time. I wasn't patient. They kept pitching me outside and I was pulling off the ball.'

Saturday, Gant demonstrated remarkable patience in the bottom of the first inning, with his team down 1-0. Royce Clayton singled. There was an out. Gant stood in.

On a 1-1 pitch from Glavine, umpire Bob Davidson put Gant in the hole by calling a strike on a pitch that was 8 inches off the outside corner.

'Eight inches? You said that, not me,' said Gant, smiling. 'I did know Glavine was going to go back out there.'

Gant took two pitches off the corner. For some reason, Davidson called both of those non-strikes balls, something that Glavine is not used to from a plate umpire. That made it a full count.

'We threw two horrible change-ups,' Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. 'Ronnie hit 'em both.'

The first home run landed in the Cardinals' left field bullpen. How did Gant lay off those two outside pitches, either of which many NL umpires will give Glavine?

'I'm prepared to hit the pitch away in this series,' Gant said. 'I closed my stance a couple of weeks ago. That puts me closer to the plate. I have better plate coverage. I thought those pitches were outside Tom's normal zone.'

The second 'horrible change-up' to which Cox referred was so bad that it was actually a fat fastball, according to Glavine. 'I had him set up for an inside fastball on 1-2,' Glavine said. 'I decided to go away once more. Instead, the ball stayed down the middle.'

Then, the ball stayed high and fast, until it landed 420 feet away in center field.

That made it 3-1, a lead that became very shaky in the Atlanta eighth. Chipper Jones and Fred McGriff, the remaining thunder in Atlanta's lineup, singled. That was it for Donovan Osborne.

Mark Petkovsek arrived and Javier Lopez singled to third. 'Gary Gaetti made a super play to knock that ball down,' Cox said. 'Javy hit a bullet.'

Gaetti's knockdown loaded the bases with no outs. 'Right there, you're thinking, `Get out of this with one and you've done OK,' ' Petkovsek said.

Jermaine Dye hit a sacrifice fly. Terry Pendleton showed up as a pinch hitter and hit a soft liner to second.

Jeff Blauser - a shell of a once-solid hitter - struck out. Petkovsek got the Cardinals to the ninth with a 3-2 lead.

Lefty Rick Honeycutt, the oldest Cardinal at 42 years, 3 months, threw one pitch to retire Ryan Klesko. Righty Dennis Eckersley, the second-oldest member of these Graybirds, threw four pitches to retire Marquis Grissom and Mark Lemke.

BRAVES TUCKER OUT SAN DIEGO THREE-RUN HR OFF PADRE ACE BROWN LIFTS ATLANTA.(Sports) - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Michael Tucker and the Atlanta Braves did what they had to do to stay alive in the NL Championship Series, staging a stunning comeback against no less than Kevin Brown.

With the Padres just five outs away from reaching the World Series for the first time in 14 years, manager Bruce Bochy's strategy to bring on Braves-killer Brown blew up when Tucker hit a go-ahead, three-run homer that sent Atlanta to a 7-6 victory last night in Game 5.

Game 6 is tomorrow afternoon in Atlanta. The Padres still lead the series, 3-2.

Bochy's move looked good in the seventh, when Brown came on with a 4-2 lead, a runner on and no outs and retired the side. But now, after Brown faltered in just the third relief appearance of his career, the strategy will be heavily questioned.

Tucker's homer highlighted a five-run rally in the eighth that made it 7-4. Tucker drove in Atlanta's first five runs.

``It's a tough one, no question about it,'' Bochy said. ``We said before the game if we had a two-run lead, we'd use Brownie. He had three days' rest.

``We had our best out there, but it didn't work out. Now we just have to go back to Atlanta.''

Pinch-hitter Greg Myers hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Braves reliever Kerry Ligtenberg, and then Atlanta manager Bobby Cox made his own unusual move - bringing in four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux from the bullpen.

Maddux, who had not relieved since 1987, got three outs for the first save of his big league career.

Maddux struck out pinch-hitter Greg Vaughn, playing for the first time since straining his left quadriceps in Game 1, and retired Quilvio Veras on a grounder. After Steve Finley drew a rare walk from Maddux, the Atlanta ace got Tony Gwynn on a game-ending grounder.

Brown, who had been 6-0 with a 1.85 ERA in his past eight starts against Atlanta, was the loser. John Rocker won in relief.

The Braves still might have to beat Brown, who pitched a shutout in Game 2, one more time in this series. He had been scheduled to pitch Game 6 tomorrow against Tom Glavine, but Bochy said he probably will use Sterling Hitchcock instead. Brown would be ready for Game 7 against Maddux, if necessary.

Either way, Atlanta already has made history. No team that trailed a seven-game series 3-0 had ever come back to win two games.

Brown didn't look nearly as sharp as he did when he won 3-0 on a three-hitter Thursday night in Atlanta. He walked Ryan Klesko leading off the eighth and Javy Lopez reached on an infield single. With one out, Tucker lined a 3-2 pitch over the right-field fence to give Atlanta a 5-4 lead.

With the crowd of 58,988 sitting stunned, Tucker, who finished with five RBIs, pumped his fist as he rounded first and looked at the spot where the ball landed, as if amazed he really did it against Brown.

``It was a tough one,'' Tucker said. ``I got a couple of tough strikes, fouled a couple off. Then I remembered something my father told me: `You can't swing hard and hope to hit it hard.' I just got it nice and easy and got it out of the ballpark.''

The Braves added two more runs off reliever Donne Wall, keyed by Tony Graffanino's double.

Tucker was booed when he came to bat in the ninth.

The Padres were nine outs from clinching the pennant Sunday night when Atlanta rallied for six runs, capped by Andres Galarraga's grand slam in the seventh, to win 8-3.

Ken Caminiti and John Vander Wal hit clutch two-out, two-run homers off John Smoltz, whose 11 postseason wins are the most ever. Caminiti's homer came in the first inning for a 2-0 lead and Vander Wal's in the sixth for a 4-2 lead.

Smoltz came in 3-0 with two no-decisions in five postseason starts when Atlanta faced elimination this decade. He beat Chicago in the division series for his 11th postseason victory, the most ever.

Vander Wal, acquired late in the season mainly because he hits Braves pitchers so well, broke a 2-2 tie when he homered to left on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth.

Vander Wal, hitting .438 lifetime against Smoltz, made his second start in place of Vaughn, San Diego's 50-homer man.

Tucker singled in the Braves' first two runs, in the fourth and sixth innings, both off starter Andy Ashby.

Ashby allowed four straight one-out singles in the fourth, including Tucker's to cut San Diego's lead to 2-1. With runners on first and third and Smoltz bunting, the Padres pitched out on a squeeze play and got Andruw Jones in a rundown, with Ashby tagging him out at the plate.

Watch out, NL: Lofton adds needed zip to `boring' Atlanta.(SPORTS) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

We grimaced at the Florida Marlins' and Chicago White Sox's make-players-rich-quick, get-good-fast schemes. We nodded at the Baltimore Orioles' savvy improvements. We expressed awe over the potential in Los Angeles and Seattle, and intrigue at John Hart's machinations in Cleveland. We wondered whether the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees could repeat improbable seasons.

And we got bored with Atlanta.

Atlanta - the team that's always in contention, that's always winning 3-2, that's almost always losing the World Series. Atlanta - constant as the daily newspaper, exciting as a Bud Selig news conference.

Those perceptions usually proved true in the past. They have become outdated. This year's team in Atlanta has added the exciting dimension of speed to a lineup that previously played station-to-station baseball.

Kenny Lofton, once one of the most disruptive players in the American League, has been a hit in the NL, too. Now, Atlanta has complemented baseball's best rotation with an aggressive offense. The result: 19 victories in April, the most ever by a major league team.

That record is due partly to the ever-expanding schedule. Then again, nobody else broke it this April.

Six clubs previously had won 18 games in April. Two - the '89 Oakland A's and the '84 Detroit Tigers - went on to win the World Series. (The other teams that won 18 games were the '87 Brewers, '81 A's, '71 Giants and '73 Giants.)

'I think everyone is a little surprised at how good we've done,' third baseman Chipper Jones said. 'But deep down, we've just stuck to the formula - pitching, defense, a little more team speed.'

Since moving from Milwaukee in 1966, Atlanta has had better months only six times. The 1995 world champions posted a 20-victory July. All other Atlanta 20-plus-victory months (1966, '69, '91, '92 and '93) have come in September.

'In spring training, they made some trades,' first baseman Fred McGriff said of team management. 'It was important for us to get off to a good start. If we got off to a bad start, guys were going to start having some doubts.'

Atlanta, rather than standing pat with a championship-caliber club, aggressively pursued improvements that could bring it a second World Series title. General manager John Schuerholz dealt outfielders Marquis Grissom and David Justice for Lofton and lefthanded reliever Alan Embree. Although Justice entered this weekend hitting .402 with nine homers, Lofton's brilliance probably will continue to give Atlanta the advantage in the deal.

Schuerholz also dealt promising outfielder Jermaine Dye to Kansas City for outfielder Michael Tucker and infielder Keith Lockhart, addressing a prime need - quality depth.

Rarely do deals pay off so quickly. Atlanta lost its first two games, then went 19-4 the rest of the month, outscoring opponents 140-73 during that stretch. In fact, only twice during the run did Atlanta have to come back in the final three innings to win.

'I think it's great,' manager Bobby Cox said. 'Really, every game you lose in April, you got to win two to make it up. I've always said that ever since I started managing.'

(Author's note: This is the longest string of uninterrupted paragraphs lauding Atlanta to avoid mentioning baseball's best pitcher, Greg Maddux, or baseball's most consistent lefthander, Tom Glavine. OK, Maddux has an ERA of 1.13, Glavine is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.64, and Denny Neagle is 4-0 with a 4.15 ERA.)

Key comeback

The Rangers went 14-10 in April without Juan Gonzalez, last year's AL MVP. But he'll help.

Without Gonzalez, the Rangers ranked among the league's bottom three in runs, slugging percentage, batting average and on-base percentage.

Gonzalez missed 85 games because of injuries in 1995-96. The Rangers averaged 5.22 runs a game without him. In Gonzalez's 189 starts during that span, the club averaged 6.18 runs a game. This year's club has averaged 4.52 runs a game.

Gonzalez does make that much of a difference, which makes the Rangers feel they're in a good position, being within a game or two of the Seattle Mariners.

'They've got Junior [Griffey], and we don't have Juan,' first baseman Will Clark said. 'They're a half-game ahead of us. I'll take that.'

Death march

The White Sox have a $55 million payroll and the worst record in the American league. That's why rumors are swirling that manager Terry Bevington could be fired soon.

'I've done a lot of evaluating,' GM Ron Schueler said. 'It's time we go out and get some wins.'

While blaming the players more than Bevington, Schueler didn't downplay the possibility that Bevington's job is on the line. '[The blame] is always put on the manager,' he said. 'It should be put on me as much as Bevington. You never hear of any players getting fired.'

Schueler blamed the players for not always hustling. Asked if he put a time frame on his evaluation of Bevington, Schueler replied, 'I don't think you can put number on it. If you are running balls out and hustling, good things will happen.'

Said Bevington: 'I learned a long time ago in this game you might as well take the blame, because you're going to get it anyway.'

No respect

The San Francisco Giants finished April with a surprising 17-7 record, yet the team's flagship TV station, KTVU, chose to reduce Tuesday's game against St. Louis to a small box in the righthand corner of the screen when it ran long and conflicted with the movie 'Mask.'

Cher beat out Barry Bonds.

Giants officials were livid, yet despite more than 100 calls of complaint, station managers were unapologetic, saying the movie had three times the ratings of the ballgame.

What's even worse for the Giants - KTVU is a part owner of the team.

Watch your back

After his two homers Wednesday, Oakland slugger Mark McGwire had hit 65 homers during a 162-game span.

Not only that, he became the first player to hit a shot off the scoreboard at Cleveland's Jacobs Field - a blast many players present said was the longest they had ever seen.

'If that hadn't hit the scoreboard,' said catcher Sandy Alomar, 'it would have gone around the world and hit me in the back of the head.'

1/3

The quote

'Deion Sanders has been consistent ... and Marty (Brennaman) and Joe (Nuxhall) have done a consistent job, as they have done year after year in the radio booth.'

BONE OF CONTENTION FOR FRUSTRATED DOGS; SYRACUSE'S PLAYOFF HOPES CONTINUE TO FADE FOLLOWING A 1-1 TIE WITH ATLANTA.(Sports) - The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)

Byline: Nolan Weidner Staff writer

The match was a draw, but the Syracuse Salty Dogs took Wednesday's 1-1 tie with the Atlanta Silverbacks like a loss.

'We had a win, and we lost it,' said midfielder Jack Jewsbury, who scored the lone goal for the Salty Dogs on a warm night at Liverpool High School stadium. The Dogs are now 8-9-3 with their playoff hopes fading fast.

Jewsbury's first-half goal, from 22 yards out off an assist from Ryan Mack, was one of a handful of great scoring chances the Dogs had in the first 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the score in the 31st minute was the only one that found the back of the Silverbacks' net.

Atlanta, now 3-13-5, came into town with the second-worst mark in A-League soccer. But the Silverbacks survived Syracuse's first-half domination and put together enough offense to generate the tying goal in the 66th minute.

Shaker Asad scored on a one-touch volley from about 12 yards out.

The teams played two 10-minute overtime periods without scoring after the 90 minutes of regulation.

'It should have been 3-0 at the half,' said a disappointed Salty Dogs coach Laurie Calloway. 'It's a game we should have won.'

The Syracuse defense had a different look, as the Salty Dogs were without regular starters Bennito Kemble and Judah Cooks. Kemble, the team captain, is out with a leg injury, while Cooks was released by Syracuse on Wednesday.

With Kemble and Cooks out, the Salty Dogs went with Rene Rivas and Pablo Gentile inside and Mike Kirmse and Lars Lyssand on the outside.

Team officials and Calloway were brief in their comments about Cooks, who played in 16 of the Dogs' 19 games before Wednesday. Calloway said the defender was released because of personal issues, and a concern over team chemistry. He said Cooks didn't fit into the team's future plans.

Syracuse came out hot, and midfielder Noah Delgado nearly scored in the game's sixth minute when his shot, off a rebound of an Adauto Neto shot, beat Atlanta goalkeeper Bryheem Hancock and struck the crossbar.

After Jewsbury put Syracuse ahead, Neto nearly made it 2-0 in the 40th minute with a nice juke move past an Atlanta defender and a little touch shot from 10 yards that struck the left goalpost. Several minutes later, Neto broke into the Atlanta end again and made a crisp crossing pass to Jewsbury, whose blast from about 20 yards out was stopped on a nice save by Hancock.

The Salty Dogs kept pressing the attack in the second 45 minutes, but Atlanta seemed to find its legs a little.

After Asad beat Dogs goalkeeper Paul Nagy, the Silverbacks created several more chances to score, mostly on counter-attacks, but Nagy came up with several big saves of his own to preserve the draw.

'My team did well in the second half,' said Atlanta coach Jacenir Silva, whose team endured a four-hour delay at the Atlanta airport Wednesday on its way to Syracuse. 'That's a good game. We needed this.'

Calloway was as downcast as Silva was upbeat.

'The chances we squandered,' he said. 'We didn't create a lot in the second half. None of my subs came in and made a real difference, except Ryan Hall.'

Calloway brought speedy forward Machel Millwood, midfielders Tony Medina and Shawn Tsakiris, and forward Chay Bardales into the match during the second half, but they failed to generate the same kind of chances the Salty Dogs had in the first.

'They bunkered in really well and just picked their spots,' Bardales said of Atlanta's play in the second half. 'It was a little frustrating.'

Instead of three points for a win, Syracuse and Atlanta each get one for the draw. That, Calloway said, is no good when your team is chasing four teams in front in the Northeast Division standings.

'It's two points lost, not a one-point gain,' he said.

The Salty Dogs are back at Liverpool on Friday night against divisional rival Pittsburgh. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Syracuse 1, Atlanta 1

Atlanta*****0-1-0-0 - 1

Syracuse 1-0-0-0 - 1

Bitter rivals - budding foes; Upstart Marlins trying to buy their way past mighty Atlanta.(SPORTS) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

Atlanta pulled itself up by the bootstraps, building itself arm-by-arm and bat-by-bat during the torturous 1980s to become the team of the '90s.

Atlanta is baseball's version of old money, the tradition-rich family in the neighborhood mansion. The Florida Marlins are the lottery winners who move in next door, the people who put curb-feelers on their pink Cadillac and beer signs in their gabled windows.

Atlanta earned its success. The Marlins are trying to buy theirs.

In this battle of old money vs. nouveau riche, this battle of Ted Turner's long-lived superstation vs. Wayne Huizenga's fast-rising Blockbuster empire, baseball lifer Jim Leyland finds himself in a unique position. The former manager of the lowly and low-paid Pirates will manage a $50-million team and pursue a $60 million team.

Leyland, one of Florida's many notable offseason additions, refuses to proclaim his team the equal of defending National League champion Atlanta, even if Marlins owner Huizenga spent $95 million on free agents this winter.

'They're still the Braves,' Leyland said. 'They're the ones with the tradition. They're the ones who have won all these games in the '90s, who have all the Cy Youngs. I hope we'll be a good team, but they've already proved themselves.'

The Marlins created a rivalry this winter, hiring Leyland and signing outfielders Bobby Bonilla, Moises Alou, Jim Eisenreich, John Cangelosi and pitcher Alex Fernandez.

How close did they come to worrying haughty Atlanta? The team decided early in the offseason not to trade first baseman Fred McGriff to the Marlins, fearing that McGriff would hurt them in the National League East race.

This spring, the Marlins looked like the best team in baseball even sweeping three games from Atlanta. They might have grabbed Atlanta's ' attention, but they have yet to earn its respect.

'The hardest thing for them will be living up to those expectations,' Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine said. 'They look like a very good club, but you still have to something on the field. We snuck up on people in '91 [to win the pennant]. Florida won't be able to do that.'

Said Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones: 'On paper, yeah, they stack up well. But nothing's won on paper. . . . I think everybody realizes that if you want to be the National League representative in the World Series, you have to go through Atlanta eventually.'

Marlins slugger Gary Sheffield, whom Leyland calls the best righthanded hitter in the league, understands Atlanta's arrogance. 'They don't respect us,' he said. 'They don't have to respect us; they're the champs, and they know it. They're a little bit cocky over there, but they have a right to be. We have to earn their respect this season.'

Atlanta's top three starters - Greg Maddux, Glavine and John Smoltz - have combined to win the past six Cy Young Awards. Fourth starter Denny Neagle was the Pirates' ace before being traded to Atlanta. Closer Mark Wohlers is one of the most dominant in the majors.

Florida counters with Fernandez, Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, but will round out the rotation with Pat Rapp and Tony Saunders. Rob Nen is an outstanding closer. But can Bonilla play third base? Can free agents quickly mesh with one another? Is Florida as good on grass as on paper?

'I think the Atlanta guys fed off each other,' Leiter said of Atlanta's rotation. 'There's something to be said for positive vibes and energy when KB [Brown] goes out and throws a gem, then I come back and throw a gem, then Alex is going to bed thinking, I want to [match that] tomorrow.

'I can see it all coming together. We've got a nice mix of players, from veteran guys, to guys just establishing themselves, to the rookies. We've got that balance. You can feel it. It's a feeling that you can win, and you can have fun doing it.'

Leyland left Pittsburgh, a town and a team he loved, to give himself a chance to win again. The last time he was in the playoffs, in 1991, Atlanta upset his Pirates of Bonilla and Barry Bonds. Now he's chasing Atlanta again.

'I don't have any burning desire to beat Atlanta more than anybody else,' Leyland said. 'We only play Atlanta so many games. We've got to win enough games to get where we want to be, it doesn't matter who's in the way.