Wednesday, July 19, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 3
Students have ball in course
Baseball lore, allure taught in sport class
By Karen Lucas
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Room 252 Robinson Center looked more like a museum of baseball memorabilia than a classroom Saturday.
Among the display items were photographs, books, bats, gloves and uniforms, including a jersey and pair of pants worn in the early 1900s and the jersey of a former Kansas City Royals star — George Brett.
These collectibles served as a backdrop to Phillip Huntsinger's one-day, one-credit hour course. "Baseball: America's Pastime," which was offered for the first time this summer. About 60 students attended the course
"I really enjoyed getting ready for it," said
Huntsinger, an associate professor of health, sport and exercise sciences who played college and semi-pro baseball and has coached at various levels.
Huntsinger said he hoped students would learn to appreciate the game as earlier generations had.
He used radio and video recordings in his presentation, including part of Ken Burns' baseball documentary. He also brought in a team of guest speakers to help focus the students on different aspects of the game — technical as well as cultural.
Bobby Randall, Kansas baseball coach, taught the class how to form a line-up. Using the Royals as his model, he analyzed each position in the batting order.
Jim Lohmeyer, a student from Osage City, said he enjoyed Randall's talk.
"I learned a lot," he said. "I never would have thought about putting one of your better hitters in the No. 9 spot, but it does make sense the way he explained it."
Steve Abney, a scout for the Cleveland Indians, talked about how he recruited amateur players. He said he ranked them on a scale from 2 to 8, with 5 being average. He said one of the hardest things was having to tell players he had established a rapport
with that they didn't make the grade.
Debbie Landis, another student, gave high marks for Abnev's presentation.
"The scouting talk was interesting to me," she said. "My oldest boy would like to play in college with a scholarship."
The class learned about the literary side of baseball from Jim Carothers, professor of English, who has taught a course on baseball literature since 1974. Carothers said his passion for reading about the game began when he was young.
"I read any baseball stuff I could get my hands on," he said.
Some of the books he discussed were Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer, Jim Bouton's Ball Four and Philip Roth's The Great American Novel.
Along with participating in Saturday's 12-hour class, students must either critique a baseball film or book or keep score of a game by July 27.
The extra work doesn't bother Nick Smith, Dallas sophomore.
"I think it's pretty cool," he said. "It gives you a chance to do something outside of class."
Edited by Jim O'Malley
Programming permutations broadcast television doomsday
Associated Press
By Frazier Moore
NEW YORK — By one measure, the end of the world was foretold a year ago with the shearing of Keri Russell's mane.
While the fleeing of Felicity certainly didn't do the show's ratings any good, the impact was felt far beyond one TV series. Hair grows back. But would anything else ever be right again?
Doubtful, if you consider all the signs since then of an apocalypse just around the corner:
- The human consumption of rats. In prime time!
— Dennis Miller as an announcer for Monday Night Football.
— The Battle of Armageddon (well, kind of waged last May between media titans Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner, plunging ABC into 39 hours of darkness for more than three million cable subscribers.
Commentary
These are clearly aberrant events, proving the end is surely in sight. And for those who choose to look, here are more transfigurations:
- Cable's USA losing its punch.
For years, ratings leader USA had it all. But what really put USA over the top was its sports entertainment from World Wrestling Federation.
Now the end is in sight for USA's toprated shows. Last month, a court decision gave WWF the right to take its pugilistic fare to Viacom's TNN and MTV cable networks.
— No more Kathie Lee Gifford to kick around. She's exiting the talk show she has shared with Regis Philbin for 15 years.
As you know, her Live! reign has been a fairy tale. A melodrama. A righteous
Without The Rock, what will USA build on?
crusade. A marketing blitz. (Hmmm.
That's also a fair description of WWF
wrestling.) But who can fathom the void
she will leave by Regis' side?
— Mourning becomes *The Early Show*.
Bad enough that host Bryant Gumbel was recently caught on camera making what appeared to be a profane slur about a guest he had just interviewed.
But worse than that, the loose-lipped Gumbel shares the camera with newsreader Julie Chen, around whom (as Inside.com put it last week) "the thin membrane of journalistic legitimacy ... has officially dissolved."
Chen, of course, has expanded her informational duties beyond the CBS News-produced Early Show to serve as host, interrogator and carnival barker for the network's entertainment-reality series Big Brother.
The need to wake up the world to The Early Show was demonstrated on last Thursday's Big Brother when the 10
houseguests were overheard discussing Chen;
"I've never seen her before."
"What does she do?"
"Neither have I."
Neither have I.
What does she do. (The fallen season)
The latter season.
Fox will introduce Dark Angel, a science-fiction series set in post-apocalyptic America that follows a genetically enhanced human prototype who is chased by her military handlers.
You may find even more vivid revelations in the new ABC sitcom *The Trouble With Normal*. It mines the bottomless pit of comedy about paranoid schizophrenics.
A publicity campaign for the ABC sitcom The Norm Show calls for equipping public urinals with the voice of series star Macdonald.
Forcible exposure to Norm's wise cracks while you try to relieve yourself? Even for viewers who tune out the apocalypse, this is a doomsday scenario.
Seldom seen sights preserved in Dyche
By Stephanie Tweito
Special to the Kansan
Most students likely don't realize it, but they routinely pass by a 65-foot long sea lizard, a famous dead horse and live venomous snakes — all on their way to class.
These creatures are in the Natural History Museum, located in Dyche Hall next to the Kansas Union.
A 65 feet-long Mossasaur hangs from the ceiling over the entryway to the museum.
The Mosasaur bones were discovered in 1911 by a KU researcher in Sharon Springs, Wolvington said. Once past the hanging Mosasaur, visitors are surrounded by the museum's panorama of North America. It is a display of various animals, plants and natural environments — from the Arctic Circle to the tropics.
The panorama is a taxidermy display behind glass that reaches the length of the museum and extends three stories high.
The Mosasaur, which is the largest one ever found, lived in western Kansas between 65 and 90 million years ago, during the Crustaceous period when an ocean covered Kansas, said Jason Wolvington, visitor services coordinator.
The display features dozens of animals, including Arctic walruses and seals, western moose and bison, and tropical spider monkeys. The display also features numerous plants from all different regions and is the largest diorama display of its type.
Wolvington said most of the animals in the display were collected by L.L. Dyche, the first curator of the Natural History Museum. Dyche collected and displayed the animals in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair.
"It was a hit at the fair because back then, people didn't travel as much and had never seen all the animals." Wolvington said.
The building that holds the museum is named after Dyche and was specifically constructed to house his panorama. Wolvington said.
Dyche is also responsible for another of the museum's big attractions, a famous horse named Comanche.
Comanche is remembered for being the lone survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn.
The 1876 battle, also known as Custer's Last Stand, claimed countless Native Americans, Gen. George Custer and all of his men.
Comanche is often mistaken as Custer's horse from the famous Sioux tribe battle, Wolvington said.
Wolvington said that although Comanche was not Custer's horse, he was a horse in Custer's Calvary.
"When the reinforcements made it to Little Big Horn, the only thing left standing was Comanche." Wolvington said. "When they found him, they treated him like a hero, feeding him the best oats and hay that money could buy."
The rumor is that after Comanche died in Fort Riley in 1891, Dyche did taxidermy work on him and when Fort Riley refused to pay its bill, Dyche kept the horse.
Wolvington said many people also come to look at the live Bee Tree.
"It is an actual honeycomb bee hive. There are thousands of bees in there," he said.
The Bee Tree is a six-foot tree cast that hosts the hive inside of it. Attached to the tree is a clear plastic tube that allows the bees to fly in and out of a sixth floor window in the museum.
"This allows the bees to go outside, find their food—nectar and pollen from flowers—and bring it back to the hive." Wolvington said.
Inside the hive is a "live from the hive" video camera that shows the inner workings of the hive on a TV near the Bee Tree.
Just past the bees, are 17 live snakes, all native to Kansas.
"They are also an opportunity for people to learn about the snakes. They hear about venomous snakes and now they can see what they look like and know to avoid them if they see them," he said.
The Natural History Museum is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free for KU students.
- Edited by Phil Cauton
Hot Summer Savings at Art Cornerstone SIDEWALK SALE BAZAAR
Thursday, July 20 Thru Sunday. July 23
Thursday, July 20 Thru Sunday, July 23 Textbook Overstock All-You-Can-Carry in your two hands $9.99 Paperbacks only 97 cents Great deals on close-out art supplies and Much, Much More!
925 Iowa • 843-4750
Mon. - Thurs. 10-8 • Fri. 10-6
Sat. 10-6 • Sun. 10-5
ART CORNERSTONE
ART CORNERSTONE
925 IOWA
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
66044
Phone: (785) 843-4750
Get FREE Checking at Empris
UNLIMITED CHECK WRITING
Designed for people who want
VISA CHECK CARD
Use it like a check for purchases, or get cash it's good wherever VISA is accepted.
No MONTHLY MAINTENANCE
✓ No MONTHLY MAINTENANCE
✓ FREE ATM
At 18 Emprise ATM locations statewide.
24-hour telephone banking - Access your Emprise Bank accounts any time, conveniently and privately, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all from any touch-tone phone.
EMRISE BANK
4351 Iowa • Lawrence • 785-749-0800
23rd & Haskell • Lawrence • 785-838-2000
MEMBER EDIC
EMPRISE BANK
HASKELL & KU STUDENTS:
Get your first order of checks for FREE!
with this coupon.
with this coupon.