Wayne writes:
>   But I write this to interject that Justin has not decided whether he
>   will play hockey next season for the Black Bears.  He had earlier
>   decided to concentrate on baseball and skip hockey.  But the Bangor
>   Daily News today reported that Justin expects to return to school
>   this Fall and may play hockey.  We'll see.  :-)
 
That would be interesting.  Some may not know that the NC$$ allows you to
be a professional in one sport while retaining eligibility in another,
which would make it ok for Tomberlin to do this.  In fact, it was suggested
that for Southern Methodist to have avoided the death penalty they received
in football in the mid-80s for paying players, they could have turned their
football team into a professional soccer (or whatever) team for the
summertime. :-)  (That was a loophole that may no longer exist.)
 
Anyway, although there are some examples of athletes in other sports
playing college in one sport and pro in another (Deion Sanders was one), I
do not recall there being a hockey player who did this.  I am sure that
with all the losses Maine will undergo this year, they will welcome the
return of Tomberlin if he chooses to do so.  Regardless, I wish him luck in
baseball.  One question: I wonder if turning pro in baseball makes him
ineligible to receive scholarship money in any sport at all, even though he
retains eligibility in hockey.  This may not be a factor for him, though.
My friend who is currently in AAA with the A's had a clause put in his
contract for Oakland to pay the cost of him finishing his degree at UMass
when he turned pro after his junior year in 1988, and that allowed him to
finish up for free.  That seems to be a common occurrence.
 
BTW, I am still trying to verify a couple of things: one, the situation
with regards to HE's use of the shootout this coming season, and two,
Jayson's note on Merrimack appearing in the 1994 RPI Invitational.  I also
should have the latest HE release faxed to me within a day or two, and it
contains a tentative HE composite, so watch for that sometime soon.
 
Oh and yes, I did know that "The Cardinal" as refers to Stanford means
the color. :-)  It just seems that choosing a cardinal as the mascot would
make sense.  More sense than a tree, anyway.  Maybe a cardinal in a tree?
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
alternate address days: [log in to unmask]             *HMN*  11/13/93
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)