9A
Quick Looks
Wednesday December 1,1999
KANSAS FOOTBALL
Redshirt still hospitalized from weekend accident
Adrian Jones, a redshirt freshman football player, remained in serious condition yesterday after suffering head trauma in a car accident Sunday afternoon on the Kansas Turnpike near Emporia.
Jones was returning to Lawrence from his Dallas home when the left rear tire on
the Honda he was driving blew out. The car swered off the road and rolled once, landing on its wheels.
Jones and another Kansas football
player, redshirt freshman Derick Mills of Dallas, were thrown from the car. Jones suffered severe head trauma and other lacerations. He was taken by helicopter to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. He was upgraded from critical to serious conditon Monday morning.
Mills and the other passenger Christopher L. Jones, a 26-year-old Dallas resident, suffered no major injuries and were treated at an Emporia hospital Sunday.
Mike Miller
BASEBALL
Owners OK Expos' sale, merger of Yankees, Nets
IRVING, Texas — The proposed merger of the New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets and the sale of the
Nets and the sale of the
Montreal Expos unanimously were approved yesterday by baseball owners
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner decided to merge his aap's business opera
tions with the Nets last February after breaking off sale talks with Cablevision Systems Corp. While the merger has been approved by the NBA,
baseball owners had not considered it until now.
By merging, the Yankees and the Nets create an entity with year-round programming, allowing them to either create a new regional sports channel in New York or to negotiate With The Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting about forming a new regional sports channel. The teams also have thought about issuing stock to the public.
The sale of the Expos to a group headed by New York art dealer Jeffrey Loria had been in the works since last winter, tied to a proposal to construct a new baseball-only ballpark in downtown Montreal.
FOOTBALL
Chiefs cornerback selected defensive player of week
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Comerback Cris Dishman, who almost was wanked early in
Sunday's Kansas City Oakland game, has been chosen AFC defensive player of the week,
coach Gunther Cunningham said.
"You don't get to be the player of the week just by showing up," Cunningham said.
The 34-year-old Dishman, who has had his ups and downs this season, got burned for 31 yards on a play by Tim Brown. But by the end of the game, he had scored two touchdowns. He intercepted a Rich Gannon pass and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown, giving the Chiefs a 20-13 lead in the third quarter.
In the fourth period he scooped up Derrick Walker's fumble and sped 40 yards into the end zone, tying the score at 34-34 before Pete Stoyanovich won it for Kansas City with a 44-yard last-second field goal.
ing yesterday from surgery to remove a cancerous spot on his left shin.
HOCKEY
Hockey Hall of Famer recovers after surgery
The Hockey Hall of Famer had surgery at Toledo Hospital.
"He went through the surgery extremely well," said Colleen Grubb, a representative of the hospital. "His prognosis is excellent."
DETROIT — Gordie Howe was recuperat-
Patients who have the surgery typically have a 10-day recuperation period. Howe was released Monday. His phone number is unlisted, and he could not be reached for comment.
Howe began a 25-year career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1963. After a brief retirement, he joined the Houston Aeros of the now-defunct World Hockey Association, playing with sons Mark and Marty. He finished his career in the NHL in 1980 with the Hartford Whalers.
Howe scored 801 goals and had 1,049 assists in 1,767 NHL regular-season games. He led the Red Wings to four Stanley Cup championships.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Former Spartan coach takes Louisiana State post
BATON ROUGE, La. — Nick Saban was hired as Louisiana State University's foot ball coach yesterday, leaving a Michigan State team he led to a 9-2 record to become one of the nation's highest-paid coaches.
He signed a five-year contract for about $1.2 million annually. The only college football coaches to earn more are Florida's Steve Spurrier and Florida State's Bobby Bowden.
Saban succeeds Gerry DiNardo and joins a school that has long football tradition but a record of two straight losing seasons.
He guided No. 10 Michigan State to a second-place finish in the Big Ten. It is unclear if he will coach the Spartans in the Citrus Bowl. He said that would be an administrative decision.
At least one Spartan player does not expect Saban to coach at the Jan. 1 bowl game.
"I got the feeling that he wasn't going to be around for it," linebacker Josh
California All-American loses battle with cancer
Thornill said after meeting with the coach earlier today in East Lansing, Mich.
CARMICHAEL, Calif. — Rod Franz, the only three-time football All-American at California, died after a nine-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.
Franz, who died Saturday, was an All-American guard from 1947-1949, played in two Rose Bowls and was chosen to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1977.
Franz rejected offers to turn pro and became a coach. He coached at Mount Diablo High School from 1951-54 and at California Riverside in 1955. He was an assistant at his alma mater from 1956-1957.
Franz retired after a career as a lobbyist for the East Bay Municipal Utility District.
here was nobody like you," he said.
Erickson could be irritated, "his determination are indefinable."
Franz is survived by Lois Franz, his wife of 50 years, seven children and 14 grand children.
Army, Navy get ready to fight for bragging rights
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Life after football at the Naval Academy usually means a military obligation, and then a job. For every Roger Staubach and Napoleon McCallum, there are hundreds of Navy players who never get a whiff of the NFL.
But the Midshipman receive one final opportunity to create a lasting football memory in their version of the Super Bowl the Army Navy plays
— the Army-Navy game.
Navy (4-7) didn't get a bowl bid. Matt O'Donnell, a senior wide receiver on an option team that specializes in running the ball, doesn't have an NFL future.
When he walks off the field Saturday, his playing days will be finished.
"It's your last bullet," he said yesterday. "Your one last chance to show what you have as a football player. This last game, against Army, it's one that will stick in my mind forever."
such great significance. I talked to people on my summer (military) cruises who still remember the scores and where they were when they watched the games," he said."
BOXING
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Boxer Stephan Johnson, who remains in a coma from injuries sustained in the ring, has contracted pneumonia, his manager said yesterday.
Boxer gets pneumonia, remains hospitalized
Johnson, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., remains in critical condition at Atlantic City Medical Center, where he was taken after being knocked out by Paul Vaden in a USBA junior middleweight fight Nov. 20. He has yet to regain consciousness.
"It's really special when a game has
He has pneumonia and has battled a fever that reached 104 degrees at one time, manager Kenneth Woods said. Doctors planned to perform a tracheotomy to help Johnson breathe, Woods said. The hospital is refusing to release any information about his condition, at the request of his mother.
Johnson was knocked out in the 10th round of a scheduled 12-round fight, which was on the undercard of the Michael Grant-Andrew Golota heavyweight match.
He suffered a subdural hematoma and swelling of the brain.
The Associated Press
Sports Calendar
Woman's basketball game vs. Loyola Marymount at 7:05 p.m.
Swimming meet vs. Iowa @ Iowa City, Iowa—all day Women's basketball game vs. UC - Santa Barbara or BYU@ 7:05 p.m.
NFL star switches plea in drug charges
The Associated Press
CLEARWATER, Fla. Lawrence Taylor chose not to fight cocaine charges yesterday after contending earlier he had been set up by a police informer.
The NFL great entered a no contest plea to buying crack cocaine, possession of crack cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
His lawyer had earlier asked the judge to dismiss the charges, insisting the Hall of Fame linebacker was entrapped by police. Angelo Ferlita said police used an informant to set up Taylor, preying on the retired football star because of his history of drug abuse.
Asked why he changed his plea from innocent, the 40-year-old Taylor said as he left the courthouse, "I'm not answering nothing."
Circuit Judge Lauren Laughlin withheld a finding of guilt and said she was prepared to sentence him to 18 months of probation. That would mean he would have no criminal record in this case if he successfully completes probation.
She set sentencing for Feb. 1 and ordered Taylor to pay about $1,250 in court costs plus the
cost of the police investigation.
Ferlita said it wasn't easy to get Taylor to switch his plea, calling the former player a competitor.
"It's kind of tough to swallow that pill, but now he's in a situation where he can move on with his life," Ferlita said, noting Taylor's appearance in the film On Any Given Sunday with Al Pacino, due for release Christmas Day.
The plea came during a pretrial hearing. Police informant Clemente Brown took the stand and said Taylor approached him to buy drugs.
Ferlita did not dispute that. However, he tried to portray Brown as a cocaine addict who hoped to score more drugs from Taylor. And when he didn't, he went to police and offered to set up the ex-player.
Taylor, of Saddle River, N.J., was charged in October 1998.
Taylor was arrested on similar charges two years ago in South Carolina. He enrolled in a program that enabled him to clear the charges from his record by completing 60 hours of community service and submitting to
"We feel that the conduct of the police was so egregious that the court needs to dismiss this case," Ferlita said.
drug counseling and random drug testing.
Taylor, who helped the New York Giants win two Super Bowls during a 13-year career, also underwent rehabilitation for a cocaine problem in 1985. He was suspended by the NFL two years later for violating the league's substance abuse policy.
The informant who helped police make the arrest said in a deposition that Taylor approached him when he was in town for a charity golf tournament.
Brown said the relationship started when Taylor introduced himself and asked if Brown could help find crack.
Brown informed police, who later listened in as he called Taylor at his hotel on Oct. 18, 1998, to set up the deal.
Taylor was nervous because police had stopped him earlier in the day and at first he put Brown off. Several hours later, an uninvited Brown knocked at Taylor's door with an undercover police officer posing as his wife.
After a discussion, Taylor held up a $50 bill, and the officer provided the crack. Taylor was then arrested.
The Associated Press
Baseball umpires vote 57-35 to form new union
NEW YORK - Richie Phillips' 21-year reign as head of the baseball umpires ended yesterday when his union's members voted to form a separate union.
In a mail vote conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, 57 umpires voted to form a new union, 35 voted to retain the existing union, and one vote was voided because the umpire signed the secret ballot.
Under federal law, a majority determined the result of the election.
The NLRB will certify the election as official in seven days unless an objection is filed.
In the weeks leading up to the election, most American League umpires appeared to support the dissidents, headed by AL umps Joe Brinkman, John Hirschbeck and Dave Phillips — who is not related to Richie Phillips.
Most National League umpires backed Richie Phillips and union president Jerry
Crawford, who sat with his elbows on the table as the votes were counted.
A large number of AL umpires broke with Phillips' strategy of mass resignations in July, causing it to collapse. Twenty-two umpires lost their jobs when owners hired 25 new umpits from the minor leagues.
The union filed a grievance to regain the jobs of the 22, and arbitrator Alan Symonette rejected the owners' motion to dismiss the case, which is scheduled for argument Dec. 13-16.
Phillips led umpires through a seven-week strike in 1979, a four-game strike during the 1984 postseason and a strike of several hours that caused many to miss 1991 season openers. In addition, umpires were locked out for the first eight days of the 1995 season.
When Phillips took control, rookie umpires made $17,500 and the most senior veterans got $40,000. This year, they made a minimum of $95,000 and a high of $282,500, including postseason bonuses they all received.