Section B·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, May 6, 1999
Players miss homebound flight to Cuba after U.S. game
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE — A Cuban pitching coach walked into police headquarters after wandering the streets of Baltimore for eight hours and said he wanted to remain in the United States.
Rigoberto Herrera requested asylum around 10 a.m. Tuesday, some 10 hours after the Cubans beat the Orioles 12-6. He arrived at a downtown Baltimore police station hours after his countrymen hastily boarded a plane for Havana.
Police spokesman Robert Weinhold said the lieutenant on duty understood, through an interpreter, that Herrera was requesting asylum and immediately notified Immigration and Naturalization Service officials.
Herrera is now in the custody of the INS.
Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., a foe of Fidel Castro's regime, said the man's full name was Rigoberto Herrera Betancourt.
Six other Cubans who missed the flight home Tuesday did so accidentally and will be allowed to return home without U.S. intervention, the Justice Department said.
Menendez said two other Cubans may also have asked for asylum, but the Justice Department officials, asking not to be identified, said they were not aware of any such request.
Ben Ferro the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Maryland district director, told The (Baltimore) Sun that other Cubans may be missing from the delegation.
The official Cuban government list of the delegation that traveled to Baltimore included Rigoberto Betancourt. The government news agency said he was a 54-year-old retired pitcher.
Betancourt played Cuban baseball between 1965 and 1975 and was known for an excellent curve ball. He was part of the national team three times: during the Central American-Caribbean games in Puerto Rico in 1966, in the Pan American games in Winnipeg in 1967, and during a tour of Mexico.
Most recently he worked as a pitching trainer in a Havana province. He was known as "El Pequeño Gigante del Box," or the Little Big Man in the Box.
Cuban officials denied that any members of the delegation defected, but said six Cubans overslent and missed the plane.
"We have no defectors," the spokesman for the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Luis Fernandez, told The Associated Press.
In an interview with The (Baltimore) Sun, Fernandez likened their experience to the movie "Home Alone," in which a young boy is accidentally left at home when his family leaves on a vacation.
He said the six were planning to catch another flight home either Tuesday or today.
In Washington, a senior administration official said the government was making arrangements to talk to the six — despite the Justice Department conclusion — to learn whether they want to return voluntarily.
The INS would not comment on possible defections or say if the agency had been contacted by the six.
More than 300 Cubans were part of the delegation that attended Monday night's game. Besides players, the delegation included journalists, retired ballplayers, ordinary citizens, members of youth groups and outstanding students.
Teams to help counsel summer camp
While most members of the Kansas men's and women's swimming and diving team will spend the summer training at home with their club teams, some others will be doing something a little different.
By Emily Hughey sports@kanson.com
Kansas sportwriter
They're going to be counselors.
During a long speech welcoming the players in Havana, Castro criticized defections in general but said nothing about anyone staying behind.
The game was a rematch after the Orioles defeated the Cubans in Havana 3-2 on March 28, when the Orioles became the first major league team in 40 years to play in Cuba.
About 10 Kansas swimmers will be counselors to kids at the Jayhawk Training Camp, a week-long swim camp run by coach Gary Kempf.
The camp, which Kempf started 10 years ago, is designed for swimmers ages 8 to 17 and will take place in
Kempf said that he didn't know how many counselors there would be because the number of counselors usually depended on the number of campers enrolled. Right now, he said that about 160 have been accepted and that between 20 and 50 will be turned away.
two-week-long sessions.
He said he has chosen the Kansas swimmers he thinks will do the best job.
"I want kids that I think will be good role models," Kempf said. "This is one of the biggest weeks of their lives to get to work with swimmers from the University of Kansas."
group made up a skit to perform for the rest of the group.
This summer, juniors Ryan Lee and Jen Fox will return for their second and third year at the camp, respectively. Both said they liked working at the camp, which takes place in Emporia, because they love kids.
"It was a great time, a fun time with the kids," Lee said.
He said that the best part about the camp was the last night, when each
"Last year, I had them dance to that one song by Mase and we did 'Puff Gary and the Family,' " Lee said.
"It was really funny," she said.
Fox laughed when she recalled Lee's skit.
Kempf said that the light atmosphere of the camp and the presence of the kids was refreshing for him after a long season.
"It's fun to be with the kids who are really having a good time," Kempf said.
— Edited by Liz Wristen
Police investigating NFL agent's actions
Black loses clients, says case mishandled
The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two weeks ago, Columbia-based agent Tank Black celebrated a record day at the NFL draft by having five of his clients selected in the first round.
He has lost several of those clients.
Four former University of Florida players, including first-round
Second-round picks Johnny Rutledge and Mike Peterson also fired Black. All four players signed with agent Leigh Steinberg.
Black said he doesn't blame the players for leaving after the way they've been treated in the investigation. He has hired an attorney and will try to recover lost income; agents receive a maximum 3 percent of a player's contract.
"Normally, when players leave,
it's something that the agent has done wrong to either the player or
the family or not made good on
something," Black told The
(Columbia) State for a story in
yesterday's editions. "None of that's
happened here. None of it.
"It's the environment that's been created (by the investigation) that has caused these players to leave."
According to the players association, Black has been under investigation since Jan. 29. He was accused of having a runner try to bribe an Louisiana State University assistant football coach to help him land defensive tackle Anthony McFarland.
But until April 14, the week of the draft, neither Black nor any of the players were questioned.
On April 14, Black said the players were told they had to testify the next day. He said several were pulled over by police to be subpoenaed.
They were subpoenaed again after the draft for further questioning.
"That would shake anybody," Black said. "Because of the way this investigation has been handled, I don't blame the players (for leaving). They've been misled into thinking things that aren't true. They've been intimidated in some ways."
Louisiana Tech wide receiver Troy Edwards, 13th pick of the draft by Pittsburgh; Tennessee linebacker Al Wilson, first-round pick of the Denver Broncos; and Clemson cornerback Antuan Edwards, first-round pick by Green Bay, remained with Black.
"If I were a young player, I wouldn't want to go through all of that. I'm a very unfair situation. I'm a good person and a good agent, and my record proves that."
But Edwards, recovering from toe surgery, said he has concerns.
"It's been in the back of my head." Edwards said. "He's got some issues that haven't been resolved. Until they get resolved, I'm going to stay with him."
Black founded Professional Management Inc., in 1988 and made former South Carolina and Green Bay Packers wide receiver Sterling Sharpe his first client. Before the Florida players left, he represented seven of the top 46 players selected in the April 17-18 draft.
Among his other clients are Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor, Packers wide receiver Robert Brooks and Toronto Raptors guard Vince Carter, a leading candidate for NBA rookie of the year.
This is the first time Black has been accused of wrongdoing.
Upshaw said the association is investigating other agents and reports of their delivering illegal checks to coaches and personalized cars to players after bowl games.
Black said he has never made an illegal payment to anybody and said the allegations are "sour grapes from other agents." "What makes the agent business such a poor business is people jump on any bandwagon to bring somebody down," Black said.
The players association, according to executive director Gene Upshaw, expects the results of its investigation to be announced soon.
Penguins player provides inspiration, leadership in first-round playoff series
The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Is Jaromir Jagr emerging from Mario Lemieux's shadow?
Capping a courageous playoff performance in which he served as both the Pittsburgh Penguins' inspirational and on ice leader, Jagr had a hand in three goals in a 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils in the seventh game of their first-round playoff series Tuesday night.
"People judge you by how you play in the playoffs, not the regular season," Jagr said. "If you can do something to help the team win and become the leader that takes them to the Cup, that's how people are going to judge you."
Jagr's performance helped advance the eighth-seeded Penguins to a second-round Eastern Conference series against fourth-seeded Toronto, starting tomorrow. Sixth-seeded Boston begins play against seventh-seeded Buffalo today in the other semifinal in what is now a wide-open bracket with the elimination of the top three seeds, New Jersey, Ottawa and Carolina, respectively.
Detroit begins its second-round series at Colorado today.
series at Colorado today.
Jagr has long been one of the NHL's top scorers, leading the league three of the last five years.
"He is so huge," Penguins coach Kevin Constantine said. "Without him, we are eliminated."
Despite being constantly hit, Jagr was just as good in Game 7 in sending the Devils to their third straight early plavoff exit.
Jagr also had a lot of help from Alexei Kovalev and Martin Strika this series.
Kovalde had four goals, including one late in the second period that put Pittsburgh ahead for good. Straka set up the first two goals and scored on the back of Jagr's breakaway shot with 5:30 to play. German Titov and Jan Hrdina also scored in game 7.
"He (Jagr) draws the attention of the best defensive players on the other team." Constantine said. "It makes more room for a Kovalev or guys on different lines."
The Penguins also played very smart against New Jersey, a team that beat them four of five games in the regular season. They used a two-man forecheck
all series, bottling the Devils in their own end.
"They didn't make any mistakes," said Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, who faced just 13 shots in Game 7, although most were good scoring chances. "I don't think we had one breakaway in seven games."
While this series will best be remembered for Jagr's return, it's also going to go down as another playoff embarrassment for the Devils, now 2-5 in the seventh game.
As the conference's top seed the past three seasons, they were ousted in the second round two years ago by the New York Rangers and in the first last year by Ottawa, another eighth seed.
"We iust didn't get it done, all of us,"
defenseman Ken Daneyko said. "I don't think there is any worse feeling. We've been here before, but we expected so much more than last year."
Jason Arnott and Dave Andrechuk scored for New Jersey, which seemed better prepared for the playoffs this year, playing a more aggressive system under Robbie Ftorek. He got the job after Jacques Lemaire resigned after last year's playoffs.
However, the Devils were again awful in the postseason.
"Right now this seems worse than any situation we've been in and that includes last year," defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "I was excited about this group of guys going into the playoffs. But it's not surprising why we are where we are. We didn't play 60 minutes."
The Penguins took the lead for good on goals in a span of 2:39 late in the second period.
Jagr intercepted a pass by Scott Stevens in the closing seconds and gave a great give-and-go play with 17 seconds left in the period.
Dave Andreychuk gave the Devils some hope by putting in a rebound to cut the lead to 3-2.
Minutes later, a bad line change and an errant pass by Bobby Carpenter set up a two-man rush. The play stopped Jagr, and a rebound was put up to the bench to celebrate the 4-2 advantage.
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