Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Philadelphia 76ers upset the Orlando Magic yesterday in the first game of their best-of-five playoff series.
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Basketball
Ryan Robertson and T.J. Pugh were two of seven NCAA Division I men's basketball players to earn NCAA Graduate Scholarships.
Monday
May 10, 1999
Section:
A
Page 7
College Track
The Kansas men's and women's track teams combined for nine titles at the Iowa Invitations, their best performance of the outdoor season.
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Commentary
Pete Rose not worthy of invitation
You're stuck with me for another year, so this isn't one of those teary-eyed goodbye columns. This is about class, about morals and about holding people to such standards.
My dad and I went to a Kansas City Royals game last week — they actually won — and I couldn't help noticing the "Cooperstown Countdown" in the left field bullpen, telling the 15,000 or so in attendance that 83 days remained before George Brett's induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
This got me thinking about baseball's history and why Pete Rose should not join Brett, Ernie Banks and Lou Gehrig in shar
ing the sport's highest honor. Let me explain.
Mr. Detine explain.
With Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount also
accepting enshrement, Brett will be part
of quite possibly the greatest ever class of
inductees.
Ryan was the epitome of a hard-working, lead-by-example player. He never whined, never held out for a fatter contract and performed with *r*
Sam Mellinger sports@kansan.com
level of efficiency and consistency unmatched in sports for over two decades.
He came up with nothing more than ripped mesh and a disappointed look.
I've always thought of Brett and Yount as two of a kind, even before the Miller Lite commercial. They came into the majors at roughly the same time, stayed with one small-market team their entire careers and played like they loved the game.
Partly because I share the same birthday as Brett, I spent almost every May 15 as a kid at Kauffman Stadium. Once, Brett hit a foul ball straight for my seat along the first baseline. My dad sprung to his feet, ripped the mesh Royals hat off my head, reached over the wall and tried to grab the best birthday present I ever could have hoped for.
I took the episode in stride and forgot about it until a large, first-class, manila envelope with a Royals logo arrived at my house addressed for "Mr. Samuel Mellinger." My dad and I have the same first name, so I didn't get too excited until my mom told me to check it out.
I ripped it open and found a letter on Royals stationery from some official-sounding employee. Behind the letter was a 5x7 picture of George Brett, kneeling in front of the giant scoreboard at Kauffman Stadium. Over the bottom half of the picture were the words: "Sam — Happy Birthday, George Brett."
I still have that picture.
Several years later, I was jealous of a friend who went to a baseball card show where Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, was signing autographs. I begged my dad to take me, but had no luck.
But I was able to send a Topsps card of Rose sliding safely into third base with hopes of getting it back with a signature, so all was not lost.
When my friend returned with a blank card, he simply said, "You had to pay 50 bucks just to get in line. I didn't get one either."
What I didn't understand at the time was that Rose basically was doing anything he could for money after various scandals dirtied his name.
The rap sheet includes prison time for tax evasion and a lifetime suspension from baseball for alleged sports gambling, including bets not only on baseball, but also on games involving the team he was managing.
Mellinger is an Lawrence junior in journalism.
Thousands of fans bought tickets for supposedly fixed games involving Rose. Such compromising of baseball's integrity is justified reason for Rose's eternal ban and is something that even 4,256 base hits do nothing to overshadow.
Rose's accomplishments are justifiably recognized in Cooperstown with various memorabilia, but putting his bronze plaque next to the likes of Brett, Ryan and Yount would be an absolute injustice.
Nakia Sanford waits for WNBA
Center planning to finish school
Nakia Sanford gave her mom Jackie the mother's day gift she truly wanted.
She will be staying at the University of Kansas to finish her degree.
The fist-pumping, glaring-one-minute-grinning-the-next center, whom coach Marian Washington and nearly every Kansas player described as the emotional leader of this year's Jayhawks, is starting a new chapter in her life. But not exactly the one she had envisioned.
Santord, who was not selected in the four-round WNBA draft, was scheduled to leave today for a tryout with the WNBA's expansion Minnesota Lynx and then the Detroit Shock. She learned from her agent yesterday that neither will be holding tryouts this season.
The European basketball season extends from August through April, and many of the teams make roster changes in December.
After the fallout of the American Basketball League, Sanford knew that making a WNBA roster would be difficult but was looking forward to showcasing her skills in a preseason workout.
1 figured all the ABL players would make it tough to get drafted," she said. "I really wasn't that disappointed about it."
"I'm the first person in my family to even go to college," she said. "I just didn't want to come back to get my degree. It's very important that I finish."
"They send home a lot of the American players who don't work out," Sanford said. "Hopefully I can put up some good numbers and get picked up by a WNBA team next year."
Sanford became Kansas' fourth all-time leading rebounder this season with 832 career boards. She averaged 9.8 points per game during her senior campaign, leaving her just 31 points short of becoming only the fourteenth Jayhawk to total 1,000 points for the women's
Nakia Sanford
Only 12 college players were selected in a field of 50 filled with ex-ABL and foreign players. Even Big 12 Conference Player of the Year Angie Braziel had to wait until the fourth round where she was selected by the Charlotte Sting as the 45th overall pick.
So Sanford has decided to follow in the footsteps of former Jayhawks Lynette Woodard, Jerod Haase and a slew of others and take her game to Europe. She said her agent, Kansas City lawyer Brenda Watkins, would be setting up a tryout with a European professional team this summer. Then, after graduating in December with a degree in broadcast sales and management, she hopes to join a team at midseason in Europe.
women's basketball player
team.
"I'm the first person in my family to even go to college, I just didn't want to come back to get my degree. It's very important that I finish."
"I'm going to miss everything about KU," she said of her December departure. "But it's time for me to move on and try something new."
Location is the only part of Sanford's game that will change. She has no intention of abandoning the emotional game that has carried her this far.
"When I can't do that anymore, there's no sense in playing," she said. "It's who I am, and that's the way I play."
— Kansan staff report by Matt James Edited by Devin Borschke
Kansas forward Nakia Sanford looks up at the scoreboard during a game against Purdue. Sanford decided to finish her degree in Broadcast Sales and Management in December. Photo by Auqustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Big 12 sold on senior Sell
By Amanda Kaschube
sports@kanan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Despite losing in the first round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, several women's tennis team players received awards for
Sell: Named Big 12 player of the year Friday.
Senior Kris
Sell was named
Big 12 player of
the year Friday.
Sell, No. 30
nationally, also
was named to the
all-conference team in singles and doubles.
their play during the regular season.
Sell compiled rnday.
a 28-14 overall
singles record, including a 5-3
conference mark
"Kris has the weapons to beat anyone in the country," she said. "She's had a tough, competitive season."
Coach Jenny Garrity said Sell played well all season long.
Freshman Cheryl Malliach,
Sell's doubles partner in No.1
doubles, said Sell helped her
adjust to college tennis.
"We just really work well together," she said. "She helped me get through the tough matches."
Earlier in the season, Sell was
named the first women's tennis conference player for the 1999 season. She also qualified for the Rolex National Indoors Tournament, where she defeated three higher ranked players.
Sell said she had adjusted to playing ranked players.
In doubles, Sell and Malliah, ranked No. 49 nationally, posted a 14-19 record overall. The duo's biggest win came against Mississippi's Celeste Fry and Mariana Eberle, who were ranked No. 9 at the time, at the National Indoor Championship.
"In the beginning I was very intimidated to play higher ranked players because I was not ranked before," she said.
"Kris has waited a long time to be one of the top 50 players in the country," Garrity said. "She started at No. 87, so this shows that the hard work has paid off."
Two other singles players were also honored last week. Junior Brooke Chiller and Malliahaw were named individual singles conference champions at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively.
Chiller posted a 6-2 conference mark. At one point, Chiller had won eight of her last nine matches during the last month of play.
Garrity said Chiller had played well all year.
"She really improved a lot mentally and with her tennis skills," she said. "I'm so happy for her."
KANSAS TENNIS
Chiller also was named individual champion her freshman year at No.3 position.
Mallaiah posted a 7-1 mark at the No. 3 spot in conference play. Her only loss came to Martin Hautov of Oklahoma State, a defeat she revenued in the Jayhawks loss at the Big 12 Tournament.
Garrity said Mallaiah had had a great rookie season.
"She played very maturely and didn't let rankings get in the way of her tennis," she said.
Garrity was honored last week when she was named Big 12 tricoach of the year along with Oklahoma's Mark Johnson and Texas' Jeff Moore.
Last year, Garrity was named Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year at North Carolina State.
Kansas will be back in action on Saturday against New Mexico in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.
Edited by Jon Campbell
Randall gets 400th against Oral Roberts
Kansan sportswriter
By Matt Talfi sports@kansa
By Matt Tait
Through 13 seasons of coaching, Bobby Randall had compiled 388 victories. In this, his 14th season, however, it took him 52 games to reach number 400, but he finally got it Sunday with a win against Oral Robert's.
The win makes Randall just the fifth active Big 12 conference coach to achieve the milestone.
It was his 11th try since reaching number 399.
The 400th win, while not altogether easing the pain of a season of losses, does provide the Jayhawks with some relief and, more importantly, came against a team that had compiled 39 wins and was ranked in the Top 30 all season long.
Sunday's finale of four straight games with the Golden Eagles, came one day after Kansas set a new school record for losses in a season. At 12-40, the 'Hawks have lost more than any other team in Kansas history, breaking the mark of 39 set by the 1987 squad.
Despite setting that record, the Jayhawks have played better baseball lately, but just could not catch a break.
"The whole year we've got something going early, but then we can't produce in the later innings," second baseman Brandon O'Neal said. "That's been our season."
See BASEBALL on page 9A