Tim Burke

Saturday morning television has long been considered a cesspool spawning the idiots and criminals of the future. Now a Swarthmore history professor has filed a brief for the defense. "A lot of Saturday morning was crap," Tim Burke writes of growing up with TV cartoons in the 1970s. "But it's our crap. " Not only does he defend it, but he and his brother, Kevin, have published their defense in the St. Martin's Press paperback Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up With Cartoon Culture.

Delmar Carter made it look easy at times Friday night, when Glen Mills hosted Cumberland Valley in a nonleague football game. But the Bulls had two obstacles in their path - penalties and turnovers. Six turnovers and nine penalties for 76 yards ruined the 141-yard, one-touchdown rushing performance by Carter, as Glen Mills fell to Cumberland Valley, 21-16. The loss dropped the Bulls to 5-4 this season. Cumberland Valley improved to 4-5. The defeat was especially disappointing after Glen Mills' 18-13 victory over Cedar Cliff last week.

They were separated by two seas - one of salt water, one of red tape - and, as in any good love story, they set out to conquer those obstacles. It took almost a year, but Julie Ople was granted a limited visa, allowing her three months to come to the United States and marry Tim Burke, a Marine sergeant from Moorestown, Burlington County, who met, courted and proposed to Ople while he was stationed in the Philippines. On Oct. 26, she arrived in Southern California - two months after Burke was sent to Saudi Arabia.

The quality of the air we breathe indoors becomes even more important in the colder months, when we naturally spend more time inside. But the list of things that pollute that air is a long one, featuring such varied culprits as combustion sources (oil, gas, kerosene, coal, wood and tobacco), building materials (deteriorated insulation, damp carpet), household cleaners, even our furniture and carpets. The fault line: Problems associated with indoor air quality have increased since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when builders started adding large quantities of insulation to new houses to reduce energy costs without balancing it with adequate ventilation to exchange polluted indoor air with fresh outdoor air. Excessive moisture and high temperatures created mold issues.

When Montreal pitcher Kevin Gross takes the mound in the opener of tonight's doubleheader at Veterans Stadium, a lot of fans no doubt will reminisce about his days with the Phillies. But if he does his job right and gets the Expos into the late innings, those same fans are liable to leave talking about someone else. Someone named Dave Schmidt. Schmidt, who went 10-13 as a starter with the Orioles last season, signed with the Expos in the offseason and opened the year on the disabled list with a bad back.

Don't expect Montreal Expos lefthander Dan Schatzeder to bounce into the Phillies' improving pitching picture any time soon. "I'm surprised the information leaked so soon," Expos general manager Murray Cook said from Indianapolis, responding to published reports in Montreal and Philadelphia that the Phillies are in intense trade talks that would send unhappy utility infielder Tom Foley to Canada for the 31-year-old lefthander. "It is the Phillies who have been interested in moving Foley and who contacted us to see if we would part with a pitcher," Cook said.

It is somewhere in the athletes' guide to not making excuses. Whenever weather has an impact on an event, the losing side must say, "Both teams had to play in the same conditions. " But that changes when the weather does so as rapidly and as dramatically as it did in the Olympic men's 10-kilometer biathlon sprint yesterday. The first few competitors skied and fired rifles in a light rain, while the middle of the pack competed in stinging sleet, snow, and poor visibility. The final group had to slog through the muck and hope to qualify for the pursuit event later in the Games.

A first in the Jim Fregosi era occurred last night as the Phils' manager, 31 games into his stewardship, held a closed-door meeting with his charges. The Phils had just dropped their fourth in a row - 8-1 to Montreal at Veterans Stadium, thanks in large part to Ivan Calderon, who belted two home runs and had five RBIs - and Fregosi had a few items on his mind. Namely, hitting, pitching and baserunning. He thought they were all lousy. The defense wasn't so great, either. Phils infielders had three throwing errors.

Lefthander Steve Frey of the Montreal Expos has five saves this year - three against the Phillies, the team he rooted for as a child growing up in Warminster. "It's kind of strange the way it's turned out, but believe me, I'm trying just as hard against everybody," Frey said. It's been a strange year for Frey, 27, the pride of William Tennent High and Bucks County Community College, who appears to have settled into a major- league uniform after several seasons of jockeying between several organizations' farm systems.

They're the strange team in the strange land, losers of 22 of their last 35 games despite a starting rotation that is the envy of the league. But the Montreal Expos have been lucky enough to stay just three games out of first place in the National League East despite a month's worth of lackluster baseball. Last night, the Expos were lucky enough to defeat the Phillies, 6-5, despite blowing a three-run lead in the ninth inning. They were saved in the bottom of the ninth, when Hubie Brooks singled home Andres Galarraga with two outs to make a loser of reliever Jeff Parrett.

It is somewhere in the athletes' guide to not making excuses. Whenever weather has an impact on an event, the losing side must say, "Both teams had to play in the same conditions. " But that changes when the weather does so as rapidly and as dramatically as it did in the Olympic men's 10-kilometer biathlon sprint yesterday. The first few competitors skied and fired rifles in a light rain, while the middle of the pack competed in stinging sleet, snow, and poor visibility. The final group had to slog through the muck and hope to qualify for the pursuit event later in the Games.

The quality of the air we breathe indoors becomes even more important in the colder months, when we naturally spend more time inside. But the list of things that pollute that air is a long one, featuring such varied culprits as combustion sources (oil, gas, kerosene, coal, wood and tobacco), building materials (deteriorated insulation, damp carpet), household cleaners, even our furniture and carpets. The fault line: Problems associated with indoor air quality have increased since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when builders started adding large quantities of insulation to new houses to reduce energy costs without balancing it with adequate ventilation to exchange polluted indoor air with fresh outdoor air. Excessive moisture and high temperatures created mold issues.

Saturday morning television has long been considered a cesspool spawning the idiots and criminals of the future. Now a Swarthmore history professor has filed a brief for the defense. "A lot of Saturday morning was crap," Tim Burke writes of growing up with TV cartoons in the 1970s. "But it's our crap. " Not only does he defend it, but he and his brother, Kevin, have published their defense in the St. Martin's Press paperback Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up With Cartoon Culture.

Delmar Carter made it look easy at times Friday night, when Glen Mills hosted Cumberland Valley in a nonleague football game. But the Bulls had two obstacles in their path - penalties and turnovers. Six turnovers and nine penalties for 76 yards ruined the 141-yard, one-touchdown rushing performance by Carter, as Glen Mills fell to Cumberland Valley, 21-16. The loss dropped the Bulls to 5-4 this season. Cumberland Valley improved to 4-5. The defeat was especially disappointing after Glen Mills' 18-13 victory over Cedar Cliff last week.

A first in the Jim Fregosi era occurred last night as the Phils' manager, 31 games into his stewardship, held a closed-door meeting with his charges. The Phils had just dropped their fourth in a row - 8-1 to Montreal at Veterans Stadium, thanks in large part to Ivan Calderon, who belted two home runs and had five RBIs - and Fregosi had a few items on his mind. Namely, hitting, pitching and baserunning. He thought they were all lousy. The defense wasn't so great, either. Phils infielders had three throwing errors.

He was thousands of miles away, at a Marine base in the sands of Saudi Arabia, waiting on a deadline for war. She, having come from the Philippines to California to marry him, faced a deadline of her own: In two weeks, if still unmarried, her visa would expire, requiring her to return. Yesterday, Tim Burke and Julie Ople, whose wedding plans were torn apart by the Persian Gulf crisis, were joined together with help from a small town in Montana. Burke, a Marine sergeant from Moorestown, N.J., listened on the telephone as his best friend and roommate, Philip Simpson, stood in for him and exchanged vows with Ople in an awkward yet tearful ceremony held in the lobby of a local radio station.

They were separated by two seas - one of salt water, one of red tape - and, as in any good love story, they set out to conquer those obstacles. It took almost a year, but Julie Ople was granted a limited visa, allowing her three months to come to the United States and marry Tim Burke, a Marine sergeant from Moorestown, Burlington County, who met, courted and proposed to Ople while he was stationed in the Philippines. On Oct. 26, she arrived in Southern California - two months after Burke was sent to Saudi Arabia.

Lefthander Steve Frey of the Montreal Expos has five saves this year - three against the Phillies, the team he rooted for as a child growing up in Warminster. "It's kind of strange the way it's turned out, but believe me, I'm trying just as hard against everybody," Frey said. It's been a strange year for Frey, 27, the pride of William Tennent High and Bucks County Community College, who appears to have settled into a major- league uniform after several seasons of jockeying between several organizations' farm systems.

As he waited to begin eight games on the road with a doubleheader last night at the Vet, Montreal Expos manager Buck Rodgers talked like a man who didn't want to jinx himself. "With our ball club," he said while watching batting practice, "we just go from series to series, and we never make any plans beyond the next one. " If there had been one National League East team predicted in spring training to be almost as weak as the Phillies, it was the Expos. The National League's international representative finished the 1989 season with a 20-37 swoon that left it in fourth place in the East Division.

When Montreal pitcher Kevin Gross takes the mound in the opener of tonight's doubleheader at Veterans Stadium, a lot of fans no doubt will reminisce about his days with the Phillies. But if he does his job right and gets the Expos into the late innings, those same fans are liable to leave talking about someone else. Someone named Dave Schmidt. Schmidt, who went 10-13 as a starter with the Orioles last season, signed with the Expos in the offseason and opened the year on the disabled list with a bad back.