2B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26. 2005
ATHLETICS CALENDAR
TODAY
Volleyball at Nebraska, 7 p.m., Lincoln, Neb.
FRIDAY
- Soccer vs. Missouri, 3 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex
- Swimming vs. Missouri, 6 p.m., Robinson Natatorium
* Cross Country. Big 12 Championships, time TBA,
Waco, Texas
Football vs. Missouri, noon, Memorial Stadium
SATURDAY
- Volleyball vs. Texas, 7 p.m., Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
- Rowing, Head of the Iowa, time TBA, Iowa City, Iowa
MLB
Former Astro concerned about lack of African-American players
HOUSTON — Joe Morgan worries about the face of baseball. Watching the World Series, the Hall of Famer is troubled by what he sees.
His old team, the Houston Astros, is down 2-0 to the Chicago White Sox, but it's not their lineup that concerns Morgan. It's their makeup.
The Astros are the first World Series team in more than a half-century with a roster that doesn't include a single black player.
"Of course I noticed it. How could you not?" Morgan said while the Astros took batting practice before the opener in Chicago. "But they're not the only ones. There are two or three teams that didn't have any African-American players this year."
Morgan said it's a predicament and a challenge for Major League Baseball. While more players from around the world are making it to the majors — Japan, Korea, for example — the number of blacks is declining.
"It's a daunting task to get African-American kids into baseball, and I don't see the trend changing," he said.
Candice Rukes/KANSAN
The last World Series team without a black player was the 1953 New York Yankees. It wasn't until 1955 — eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 — that Elston Howard became the first black in Yankee pinstripes.
Black players accounted for just about 9 percent of big league rosters this season.
"We know that we have work to do," Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday. "We'll continue to intensify our efforts. I'm very aware, I'm extremely sensitive about it, and I feel badly about it. But we need to get to work to change things."
The Associated Press
TALK TO US
Tell us your news. Contact Kelli Robinett or Eric Sorrentino at 864-4854 or sports@kansan.com
Friendships run deep
CROSS COUNTRY
Team bonds fuel runners during season
Overland Park sophomore Connie Abbott (left) and Emporia senior Dena Seibel warm up before cross country practice. Both girls say they not only consider each other teammates, but family as well. Seibel said that when she was a freshman the seniors were welcoming to her that and she has done the same for the freshman this year.
BY ANTONIO MENDOZA
amendoza@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
As the cross country season comes to an end, the women's team has done more than develop as student athletes — players have also developed friendships that will last long after college.
The women in cross country have represented the University of Kansas in four races this season, but it is what the team did outside the course and outside of practice that defined it. For this team, friendship brings the team closer for a stronger bond than what an ordinary team could have.
"A couple of my best friends are on the team," sophomore Connie Abbott said. "We usually meet up, like we go to the football games together because we sit in the same section."
Not only do some team members socialize as friends after cross country practices and events, but some even live together in the "track house."
"It's a lot of fun, kind of like our own little sorority," junior Dena Seibel said. "There is always someone there — people to talk to and
nior Angela Pichardo and junior Christine Lathrop are the two other cross country runners who live there. The remaining four are on the track and field
"B because a team is doing better doesn't necessarily make them better friends.I think they were good friends, and they are running better."
hang out together. We just had dinner all together tonight so it was nice."
Seibel said there were seven people, including herself, who lived together in the house. Se-
team.
Stanley Redwine Cross country coach
"The friendships they have because we have very few freshman, they've always been," Kansas cross country coach Stanley Redwine said. "Because a team is doing better doesn't necesarily make them better friends. I think they were good at running
friends, and they are better."
Both Abbott and Pichardo said it helped to have friends who were on the team because it provided support if a fellow
"Some teams I feel that are not really close and not good friends are kind of out there against each other and competing against each other," Abbott said. "And our team is out there working together and going for the same goal."
runner didn't perform well in a meet.
One of the reasons why the entire team is close is because people look out for one another. Seibel said if she were to sleep in for a practice, there would always be someone there to wake her up so she would not be late.
Seibel also said there was one thing that she would like to do this season that she has not been able to yet.
"Last year we always had spaghetti dinner before cross country meets and had everyone over to our house," she said. "That was the fun time just to kind of bond and kind of relax before the meet and get ready for it."
Edited by Alison Peterson
Big 12 Conference honors freshman for recent performance in goal
The Big 12 Conference honored KU goalkeeper Julie Hanley for the first time in her career, this week.
The Indianapolis freshman was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week yesterday for the week of Oct.16 to Oct.22.
In the last three weeks, Hanley started in goal in all of Kansas' last six matches and has accumulated a 6-1-0 record in her first collegiate season.
Hanley played a vital role in Kansas defeating Texas for the first time in the program's history, on Sunday. Kansas soccer coach Mark Francis credited her five saves in the match, including a diving second-half grab, as being critical in the victory.
With the lowest goals-against average on the team as of late, Hanley is averaging .82 goals-against per game, entering the final week of the regular season. She has allowed six goals and saved 34 in 2005.
Hanley is likely to start in goal against Missouri on Friday to wrap up the regular season. Alison Burrow
NFL
Wellington Mara, Giants co-owner for more than 50 years, dies at 89
So does every owner, executive and player.
So does every owner, executive and player. Mara, who joined the NewYork Giants as a ballboy the day his father purchased the team 80 years ago and became co-owner as a teenager, was the face of his team for more than a half century.
NEWYORK - Every NFL fan owes a huge debt to Wellington Mara, who died Tuesday at 89.
But he also was the patriarch of the NFL, a man who was willing for more than 40 years to split the millions in television revenues he could have made in the nation's largest market with the Green Bays and Pittsburghs of the league.
"He shaped nearly every rule and philosophy we have in our league today," said Ernie Accorsi, the Giants general manager. "Most of all, he was the moral conscience of the National Football League. He now joins the pantheon of incredible men who made this league what it has become."
It put the NFL at the top of America's sports hierarchy.
Said commissioner Paul Tagliabue: "Wellington Mara represented the heart and soul of the National Football League. He was a man of deep conviction who stood as a beacon of integrity."
The Associated Press
Attention Victims of the Boardwalk Apartment Fire
Our law firm is currently investigating potential legal claims against the owners of the Boardwalk Apartment complex as a result of the recent fire. If you or any of your family members suffered physical injury or death as a result of this horrible fire, and you need legal representation, please call our office for a free consultation. We also welcome calls from potential co-counsel attorneys who are likewise investigating such claims on behalf of clients.
Law Firm of Hunter & Nantz, LLC Kansas City, Missouri
W
(816) 421-1377 Andrew Nantz, Attorney at Law
R
H
CONTROL
Extra
CONT
CALL (816) 421-1377 for Free Legal Consultation
( )
---