>from: http://www.sunspot.net/sports/news/SPT_AAA_03D_882354632_12.shtml > >Thunder signs 7-time All-Pro G. Gait > >By Steven Kivinski >BALTIMORE SUN >CONTRIBUTING WRITER > >The bona fide star that Thunder coach John Tucker lamented that his team >painfully lacked last season has finally arrived. > >Gary Gait, perhaps the sport's greatest offensive player, made it >official yesterday by signing with the Thunder. > >He will be in uniform when Baltimore opens its inaugural National >Lacrosse League season against the Syracuse Smash and his twin brother, >Paul, on Jan. 3 at Baltimore Arena. > >"I think this is really the missing piece of the puzzle,"said Tucker. >Gary can do things that no one else can do. He is the Michael Jordan of >our sport. > >Gait, who co-starred with Paul during three national championship >seasons at Syracuse, has dominated the defunct Major Indoor Lacrosse >League throughout the 1990s, earning first-team All-Pro honors the last >seven years and claiming the league's MVP award the last three. > >Gait is the MILL's all-time points leader with 369. > >Last season, Gait, 30, led the league in scoring with 40 goals and 32 >assists and shared the top goal-scoring honors with his brother. His 32 >assists eclipsed the team record of 24, set by Tucker in 1989. > >"He's one of those few guys who alone is worth the price of admission", >said Tucker, whose team was last in the league in 1997 at 2-8. "Adding >him makes us a legitimate contender." > >Originally Published on 12/17/97
Dec. 11, 1997) -- Rochester Knighthawks star forward Chris Driscoll undergoes surgery for a broken bone in his left foot tomorrow and could be lost to the team until February. "It's like a bad dream," Driscoll said last night from his home in Guelph, Ontario. "One second I was turning to run up the floor, and the next I was in pain." Driscoll, the lacrosse Knighthawks' leading scorer now that Paul Gait has departed to play for Syracuse, was involved in the non-contact play during the K-Hawks' intrasquad scrimmage and skills competition at the War Memorial Tuesday night. "Nothing popped or snapped," he said. "It was more like a charley horse. I felt a pain in my foot as I turned and it got worse. "I was really scared. It's the first bone I've ever broken." The Knighthawks' fourth season opens Jan. 3. Driscoll, 26, is expected to be out between six and eight weeks, which would include five games in January. His surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning by Dr. Rob Bernstein at Strong Memorial Hospital. "The doctor told us it's a bone (fifth metatarsal) that doesn't get a lot of blood to it," said team spokesman Peter Mancuso, "so it takes a lot of time to heal." Driscoll, the Major Indoor Lacrosse League's fifth-leading scorer last year, is a primary set-up man for the Knighthawks and one of only six who have been with the team since its first game in 1994. A five-year pro, he had 24 goals and 25 assists in 10 games last season. "I was really looking forward to this year," Driscoll said. "I can't believe this happened without contact. At least I could have hit somebody. "Hopefully, I'll heal quickly. My family seems to be quick healers, and I'm going to drink lots of milk, so we'll see." From the D & C paper
NLL INFO
National Lacrosse League players have returned to practice, and are close to signing a collective bargaining agreement with managment, according to members of the players union who talked to fans in the Buffalo, NY area on Tuesday, 12-2-97. The Buffalo Bandits held their usual Tuesday practice at Sportsplex in North Tonawanda, in suburban Buffalo. They told members of the Buffalo Bandits Booster Club that the collective bargaining agreement had not yet been signed, but was "about 95 percent" done. The language of the contract still has to be worked out, and players are demanding a definite date for the All-Star game. A possible date of Sunday, February 8 at Marine Midland Arena has been metioned, but the players want something definite befor they will sign. It is true the players had been striking practice over the one year of suspension of the Boston franchise. According to the players version of events, the League had promised to go all out to find new owners to keep Boston in the game this season. The players themselves found a new owner who was willing to operate under the conditions the League had set. The players say they informed the League of the potential new owner, but the League did nothing to reach an agreement with him, and that's when the players struck practice. When the Fleet Center, where the Boston Blazers would have played their home games, had to pull out due to a lack of definite dates, the players felt their was nothing more could do, and went back to practice. The negotiations were apparently bitter at times, with repeated threats by the League to close down. The three former MILL owners are now involved with the NLL. Some players believe they were telling the new owners that the players are NOT tough negotiatiors. On the positive side, the players see a potential for real growth with the new owenrship. Ottowa and Montreal want a team, and a franchise in Florida for 1999 is a strong possibility. The Florida owner (name not known) is said to have lots of $$$. Their are allways at least two sides to every disagreement, and what I have posted here is from the players point of view. Information on this matter from either side has been difficult to come by.
