Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansas Ultimate Frisbee teams qualified for nationals.
College Basketball
SEE PAGE 3B
Kareem Rush decides to play basketball at Missouri instead of following his brother to UCLA.
SEE PAGE 4B
Wednesday
May 5, 1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Pro Baseball
Page 1
Sammy Sosa connected for two home runs yesterday as the Cubs defeated the Rockies.
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
SEE PAGE 8B
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Commentary
Friends' ridicule of pro wrestling leads to critique of sport's virtues
Last week, I did a column for my people. But this week my column is dedicated to the ladies.
Why? Because we're talking about professional wrestling this week. The best soap opera on television.
A couple of weeks ago, my roommate Matt, cooked up a Monday-night Mexican feast to celebrate my birthday. We, of course, invited our lady neighbors, and just about any other of our fairer-sex friends we could think of. We figured, with a combination of dazzling cooking from Matt and my world-
famous pina coladas, the ladies would be impressed.
But then, being the Romeos that we are not, we slipped up. Dinner was served, and we turned the TV to Raw is War, our wrestling program of choice.
Immediately, we were mocked.
Jones is an Mulvane junior in magazine journalism.
"You guys watch
Seth Jones
sports@vansan.com
this stuff?" my friend Erin asked. "I'm embarrassed for you."
Not only is Erin as about as smart of a person I know, but she is also a sports nut, and here she was ridiculing the evening's "sport" of choice.
I may be stereotyping, but it seems to me that most women can't accept wrestling.
So then it got me thinking. Can I defend this program? Can I actually stand up for "The Undertaker," a seven-foot monster who acts like he's possessed? Can I stand up for "The Big Show" Paul Wight, former Wichita State basketball center turned wrestling giant?
I was talking to my good friend T.J., and he was telling me how he and his roommates waited in line for several hours to get nosebled tickets to "Over the Edge," a pay-per-view wrestling event that will be broadcast live from Kemper Arena on May 23.
Now, T.J. is another one of these highly intelligent people, and he can't wait to scream his lungs out while watching "The Rock" flip "Mankind" into the third-row of seats at Kemper.
My roommate Jeff told me that his little brother and his friends were considering skipping high school graduation so they could go to the "sporting" event.
Then Jeff started talking about how it he were world wrestling champion, he'd wear the belt around his waist rather than carrying it out to the ring because, darn it, it looks more tough.
Finally, I decided I couldn't defend professional wrestling because it needs no defense. It's just dumb fun, just like almost everything else on television. The guys get it.
Sure, it's fake. But every main event match provides the drama of a championship boxing match. And when you see "Mankind" get thrown off the top of a two-story steel cage, you've got to say "Oooh." You can't fake that.
Sure, at times it is dumb. Not every second of wrestling programming can involve award-winning writing.
So let us have our Royal Rumbles, our Wrestlemania 32. It's called sports entertainment. And you know what else? I'd wear the belt around my waist, too.
And we haven't said a darn thing about Tae-Bo vet. have we?
And ladies, we didn't say anything when Marlena was possessed by the devil on *Days of Our Lives*. Or when Katie kidnapped Dawn and changed her appearance so she looked like Katie so she could marry Victor. Or whatever crazy plot came up. We let it slide.
Home isn't always sweet
Tennis players lack support from students, University
By Dave Koehn sports@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
It all came down to this.
With the other six matches completed in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, the fate of the Kansas men's team team fell squarely onto the shoulders of sophomore Micah Zemer. Twenty-third-ranked Texas A&M was supposed to dispose of a young Kansas tennis team with relative ease. After all, the Aggies were playing in their own backyard in front of nearly 500 screaming fans.
However, in this case, the jeers and profanities from the A&M faithful only inspired Zomer. Fighting off three match points in the third and deciding set, Zomer upset the Aggies in a tiebreaker, proving home court advantage isn't everything in the world of college tennis.
Luis Uribe played his fourth and final season at Kansas this year. Fighting injuries, Uribe played in the No.1 spot on the men's team for most of the season and was ranked as high as No. 9 in the country. At times, Uribe said, he felt under-appreciated.
Abaroa was ranked as high as eighth in the nation in singles and No. 6 in doubles during his four-year stint at Kansas. He is currently playing tennis and touring the world on the men's professional tour.
Many critics cite Kansas' poor tennis facilities as a prime example of the lack of respect that tennis receives at the University.
Abaroa also said the University had been fortunate to recruit high-quality players, considering the poor tennis facilities.
"We were Big Eight champions three years in a row and still we had no facilities" said Enrique Abaroa, a two-time All-American tennis player at Kansas. "Having a facility draws attention and creates interest from people throughout campus."
In fact, many Kansas players don't see much advantage in playing at home at all. Despite producing All-Americans and winning conference championships on a regular basis, the Kansas tennis program has existed outside the spotlight. During the past 10 years, Kansas has produced 12 different All-American tennis players. In that same time span, the men's and women's teams have combined to win eight conference championships. These aren't bad numbers for those who think that Kansas' only claim to fame is its basketball tradition.
"We had some of the best junior players in the world," Abaroa said. "It's amazing that we came here after we saw the facilities on our recruiting trips."
“Tennis has always been one of the top sports here,” Uribe said. “I don't know if tennis is treated the way it should be. Sometimes people walk by us during our matches on the rec courts, and they don't
even realize we're the tennis team."
At the same time, Uribe said he could understand the University's predicament.
"We don't make money for the school, so it's obvious that they're not going to spend as much money on us," he said.
Sophomore women's tennis player Monika Sekulov echoed Uribe's sentiments.
"A lot of people don't know about our matches as much as the football and basketball games," she said.
Sekulov said the team lost out on its home-court edge from the lack of support at the University.
"If we had more people at our matches, it would make it harder for our opponents," she said. "When we go to other schools, it makes a huge difference to play in front of their home crowds."
The women's team finished the year ranked No. 17 in the nation and is currently ranked third in the Big 12, so a lack of success doesn't appear to be the major obstacle the tennis program faces in gaining a stronger local following.
Are people uninterested in the game of tennis as a whole, or are they turned off by the infrastructure that is college tennis? The answer seems to be a little of both.
Those who follow the sport think there are numerous aspects of college tennis today that seem to turn the typical sports fan off.
Kansas men's tennis coach Mark Riley said he thought the length of the typical college dual meet was one of the primary reasons for the lack of interest in college tennis today.
"Right now, college tennis matches take about four hours to play," he said. "We have to come up with a format where college matches only take two hours to play. Your typical sports fan loses interest in that amount of time."
See TENNIS on page 3B
Luis Uribe
Men's tennis player
"We don't make money for the school, so it's obvious that they're not going to spend as much money on us."
The reality of playing in the NFL is slowly settling in for former Kansas offensive lineman Justin Glasgow. After signing with the Miami Dolphins as a free agent April 18, Glasgow attended the team's minicamp the next weekend at the Dolphins' practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He recently spoke with Kansan's Mike Harrity about everything from his new coach's hairdo to being teammates with future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino. The following is from the interview:
Glasgow discusses minicamp experiences
To realize you're actually with the Dolphins, playing professional football with the big boys — the whole experience is surreal.
That night, I met Coach (Jimmy) Johnson and all the staff. That was kind of weird, though. Because seeing him on TV, I just expected him bigger. But he's actually not that big. He's kind of a smaller guy. But his hair was very in place. I don't think that stuff moves. He basically just said, "We're going to have fun this year," and was upbeat about everything.
When I first got there, they picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the hotel. Our hotel was right off the golf course where Caddyshack was filmed, and I'm a big fan of the movie, so that was cool.
What's so amazing about it all is that the first day, I sit down at my locker, and I'm just kind of looking around, and I look right across from me and — bang — Dan Marino's locker is right there. This is a guy I've been watching all my life, and for as long as I can remember, it's been Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins. And then you realize that guy right there is making $7 million.
The next morning we had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and had to be at the facility by 6 a.m. We went over there that morning, and they just do a battery of physicals, everything you can imagine. They want to know every injury you've had since you were in first grade. And then they took an X-ray of it. Didn't matter how long ago it was, they X-rayed it. I was in the X-ray room for at least 40 minutes.
Dan Marino is a class act. He could walk in, and it's just kind of expected for him to not even talk to rookies. But he was awesome. That first day, he talked to us and asked how things were going. He's a class act.
See GLASGOW on page 3B
Relentless rain hinders baseball, softball games
Although the rain had stopped by the 3 p.m. softball game time against Wichita State, a tarp remained on Jayhawk Field, and the stands were empty. The Jayhawks are trying to schedule a make-up game with a Division I opponent. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
By Chris Wristen
wristen@ukans.edu
Kansas sportwriter
Hoglund Ballpark and Jayhawk Field were quiet yesterday, except for the quiet patter of raindrops on the tarp covering the field.
An abundance of rain, which began Monday night and continued throughout yesterday, made field conditions unplayable. As a result, both the baseball game against Washburn and softball game against Wichita State were canceled yesterday.
The weather has made playing tough for both teams.
"It's been very frustrating." said softball coach Tracy Bunge. "The weather these past few weeks has not been very conducive to playing baseball and softball."
This marked the fourth time this season the softball team has had a doubleheader rained out. And this one won't be rescheduled.
"We were hoping to get in a couple of good games before the conference tournament," Bunge said. "Now we're trying to find some other Division I teams to pick up a game or two this week. So far we've been unsuccessful."
If the Jayhawks can't find any opponents to play, they will have to wait until the conference tournament begins May 12 to play again. This doesn't please Bunge.
"It's not going to help us," she said. "No coach likes to go two weeks in between games. It doesn't help at staying sharp on the field. It's not the ideal situation for our team to be in."
The weather also poses some problems for the baseball team. The Jayhawks' game against Washburn will not be rescheduled. now, the team will have to wait until it plays Oral Roberts at 7 p.m.
tomorrow at home to try to break a seven-
game losing streak.
However, Bunge said she saw two potential benefits of the cancellation. First, junior pitcher Sarah Workman will be able to rest her sore arm. Second, it will give the players an opportunity to focus more on their studies before finals, which fall right in the middle of the conference tournament.
The team also will have to wait for the chance to earn Coach Bobby Randall his 400th win as a coach, which would make him only the fifth active coach in the Big 12 Conference to accomplish the feat.
Field maintenance also was made difficult from the rain. Both teams have tarps to cover the infield, but other problems persisted.
"If any amount of moisture on the field starts to puddle up, we have to get the paddles off to make it safe to play," said Mike Stockton, manager of the baseball grounds crew.
The softball team is responsible for its own maintenance and encounters problems of its own.
"It really makes life difficult when it rains like this," Bunge said. "We tarped the field Sunday and possibly could have played, but we've also got holes in the tarp, which lets water through, so we need a new tarp next year."
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Edited by Sarah Hale