Section B·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, February 11, 2000
Team wants second big win in Texas
By Amanda Kashube
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
For the second straight year, the Kansas baseball team will try to mess with the state of Texas in its season opener.
Last year, the 'Hawks were triumphant: They routed the University of Texas-Arlington 10-3. Tomorrow, they will try to do the same to the University of Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners (1-0) in the first game of their three-game series.
Coach Bobby Randall said he was looking forward to seeing his team in action.
"Every game is important, every game is critical," he said. "We want to come out and establish a good brand of baseball - pitch good ball, play well and win."
The Jayhawks return eight position players and nine pitchers to their squad, compared to the seven starters the Roadrunners return.
Senior designated hitter Shane Wedd said the 'Hawks had the experience to improve last season's 14-40 record.
"We have even talent across the table," he said. "Every series is big for us; we need to play hard to win."
However, Randall said his team might be at a slight disadvantage.
"UT-San Antonio has already played; they already got the first game jitters out of the way," he said. "They've also had three times more outside days than we have. But we expected that."
The Roadrunners shut out Texas A&M 4-0 on Tuesday, breaking a streak of 209 straight games in which the Aggies scored. This will be the first meeting
between Kansas and UT-San Antonio.
Randall said his team had improved in two aspects of the game — on the mound and behind the plate.
Series starters — juniors Pete Smart and Brandon O'Neal and senior Rusty Philbrick — have been working all winter on their pitching mechanics, hoping to improve on the team's 7.57 ERA.
"I've been working on throwing low in the zone and throwing a lot of strikes," said Smart, who will start tomorrow's game.
The Jayhawks also have added two new catchers to their lineup — junior college transfer Brenton Del Chiaro and sophomore transfer Matt Oakes — in an effort to shut down their opponents' base-stalting opportunities. Last season, Kansas' rivals enjoyed a 93 percent stolen base success rate, but Del Chiaro said he would change that.
"I was recruited for my arm, and I'm ready to throw a lot of runners out," he said. "Beating the schools in Texas is key — we want to show them what we're made of."
The Jayhawks will open their 2000 campaign tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Roadrunner Field and will play a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 11 a.m.
before she'll birthday singing it.
"We're going to sneak up on a lot of people," Del Chiaro said. "We're the next Cinderella story."
CINCINNATI — Junior has come home.
The Associated Press
Following three months of deadlocked trade talks, the Cincinnati Reds reunited Ken Griffey Jr. with his father and hometown yesterday in a trade that sent four players to the Seattle Mariners.
Griffey agreed to a nine-year contract worth $116.5 million, the richest package in baseball history.
In Cincinnati before the news conference, euphoric fans honked horns on the streets and revealed in the team's most celebrated trade since Pete Rose returned as player-manager in 1984.
Pete Rose's name as far as Cincinnati, " coach Ron Oester said. "That's the magnitude he's at for Cincinnati fans."
"His name comes up like
Griffey, 30, is considered a threat to break Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755. He already has hit 388 and was voted onto baseball's All-Century team last fall.
Cincinnati is the only place the 10-time All-Star center fielder wanted to play.
Pitcher Brett Tomko and outfielder Mike Cameron were sent to Seattle in the trade, along with minor leaguers infielder Antonio Perez and right-hander pitcher Jake Mever.
The Mariners had little hope of keeping him after this season — Griffey limited his choice to only Cincinnati, where his father, Ken Sr., used to play.
Ken Sr. is now the Reds' bench coach and a candidate to succeed Jack McKeon as manager.
Griffey turned down an eight-year, $148 million contract extension last summer with the Mariners, and trade talks with the Reds heated up during meetings in December.
On Tuesday, it appeared the Seattle-Cincinnati deal wouldn't happen — the Reds didn't think they could afford him.
Assured that Griffey would accept less to play in his hometown, the Reds went ahead and completed the five-
player trade on Wednesday night.
Griffey is a lifetime. 299 hitter with 1,152 RBI in 11 seasons, all in Seattle. He has won 10 straight Gold Gloves. No word on if Griffey will wear his No. 24.
The acquisition gives the Reds, who lost a wild-card playoff to the Mets last season, a fearsome lineup — he will be surrounded by Barry Larkin, Sean Casey and Dante Bichette.
The deal brings together the game's top sluggers in the same division. With Mark McGwire in St. Louis and Sammy Sosa playing for the Cubs, the NL Central might take a new name — Home Run Central.
Griffey eighth All-Century player to be traded
The Associated Press
If they could trade Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby, and they could trade Lefty Grove and Mark McGwire, then they could trade Ken Griffey Jr.
And they just did.
and they just said Griffey became the centerpiece of baseball's biggest trade in years yesterday when he was swapped by the Seattle Mariners to the Cincinnati Reds in a deal he forced.
Like most big deals these days, money played a significant part in the exchange.
Ruth lasted longer than the show, and the Red Sox have reretreated the deal since.
Of the 30 players on the All-Century team selected last summer, Griffie is the eighth to be traded. And some of the others were exchanged more than once.
Hornsby, who batted above 400 three times, was traded three times — once for fellow Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch, and for a variety of anonymous players such as Socks Sebold and Percy Jones.
Ruth was the first money player — traded by Boston owner Harry Frazee to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $300,000 loan, much of which Frazee invested in the Broadway production of No, No, Nanette.
Two current players from the All-Century team also have been traded — slugger Mark McGwire by Oakland to St. Louis, where he hit a record 70 home runs two years ago; and five-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens from Toronto to the New York Yankees, where he helped win a World Series last season.
Lefty Grove was coming off a league-leading 24-win season in 1933 when he was traded by the Philadelphia Athletics to Boston by owner Connie Mack, who got $125,000 as part of the deal. Grove would spend eight years with the Red Sox and reach 300 wins for his career.
Even Cy Young, who won a record 511 games, was traded by Boston to Cleveland in 1909.
Tom Seaver was a part of the New York Mets pitching staff for 10 seasons and was a pennant winner in 1969 and 1973.
In 1977 he was in the middle of a messy contract squabble and was traded to the Reds for four players. He helped them to the National League West title two years later and pitched his only no-hitter with the Reds.
Frank Robinson was one of the National League's top sluggers with the Cincinnati. He won the MVP award in 1961 when the Reds won the pennant.
For every KU Men's Basketball win for the previous Saturday or Sunday game, use the margin of victory for discounts on Tip Off Tuesday as follows:
1 - 10 points = 10% Off
11-15 points
= 15% Off
16 - 20 points
21-25 points
= 20% Off
= 25% Off
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