Tuesday, April 13, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
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Section B·Page 5
Indians drop Royals in 10 innings
Loss ends Royals' three-game streak
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — As Travis Fryman rounded the bases, his indians teammates gathered around the plate to welcome him home. A year ago, they had waited there for Jim Thome.
Fryman hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning, an extra inning to break a game tied after nine. The homer, off rookie Royals pitcher Jose Santiago, gave Cleveland its sixth straight win, 5-2, yesterday against the Kansas City Royals on opening day at Jacobs Field.
It was the second straight year the Indians had won their first home game with a three-run shot in the 10th. Last season, Thome connected off Anaheim's Troy Percival.
Enrique Wilson-hit a gametying, two-run homer in the eighth for the Indians, who for seven innings looked nothing like the team that destroyed the Minnesota Twins during the weekend.
matter I twins during the weekend.
Roberto Alomar made his home debut for the Indians, but missed a chance to end the game in the ninth when he grounded out with the bases loaded and two outs. He went 1-for-4 with a walk.
In the 10th, Thome walked with one out, and Wil Cordero followed with a single to left. Fryman, who had grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to kill a threat in the fourth, then hit the first pitch from Santiago (0-1) over the wall in right-center.
Paul Shuey (1-0) struck out four in two innings of relief to get the win for Cleveland.
Jermaine Dye homered for the Royals, who had their three-game winning streak stopped.
Wilson's two-run homer in the eighth came off Scott Service for the Indians, who after scoring 35 runs in three games over the weekend in Minnesota, were blanked over the first 6 1/3 innings by Kansas City starter Jose Rosado.
American League championship series Last October, followed a walk to Kenny Lofton by lining a 3-2 pitch from Service over the wall in right.
Wilson, best known for his mad dash around the base paths for the winning run in game two of the
It was just the third career homer for Wilson and his first batting left-handed. He was only in the lineup because starting shortstop Omar Vizquel has a sore quadriceps muscle.
Vizquel's absence deprived Indians fans of a chance to see him play alongside Roberto Alomar at home for the first time. Cleveland fans may have been grumbling when they saw the pre-game lineup card, but they weren't complaining afterward.
Johnny Damon drove in the other run for the Royals, who beat Cleveland five of six times during spring training.
Damon's RBI single in the third off Cleveland starter Dave Burba gave the Royals a 1-1 lead.
in the fourth, Dye hit a shot the opposite way to right that bounced off the foul pole for his first homer.
Burma, who struck out 10 in six innings in his first start of the sea.
son last week in Anaheim, allowed two runs and seven hits with five strikeouts in 61/3 innings.
Rosado gave up six hits,
walked two and struck out six.
Notes:
Indians reliever Mark Langton, recalled earlier in the day when Ricky Rincon went on the 15-day disabled list, pitched 1/3 innings of relief. Langston got Cleveland out of a jam in the seventh when he got the first batter he faced —
Carlos Beltran
— to hit into an
inning-ending
double play.
caster Herb Score, seriously injured in a near-fatal car accident last October, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Score said he received thousands of cards and letters from well-wishers during his recovery.
Cleveland went 5-10 in extra-
nining games last year.
Lawsuit claims rights violation
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Demonstrators at Jacobs Field last Monday burned a wooden sculpture of Chief Wahoo in a coffin, demanding that the Cleveland Indians get rid of their mascot.
About 40 people protested before the home opener against Kansas City to denounce the mascot as a racist caricature of American Indians.
against the Washington Redskins.
"Say goodbye to this big-toothed Wahoo," protester Michael Haney said as flames consumed the carving.
The demonstrators were buoyed by a new lawsuit against the city of Cleveland and several police officers, and by a federal ruling
A trademark panel revoked the Redskins' federal trademark protection, saying the NFL team's name may disparage American Indians.
As fans strolled into Jacobs Field, some protesters pounded a drum and chanted "Hey! Ho! Racist symbol's got to go" as the sculpture burned.
Others held signs, including one that read "These honor who?" and showed versions of Chief Wahoo with the faces of highly stereotyped black, Asian and Hispanic men.
Many of the fans wore the Wahoo logo on jackets and sweatshirts, and a few fans booed the demonstrators.
No one was arrested, unlike previous demonstrations that prompted the new lawsuit.
Five protesters who were arrested last year sued the city
and police officers on Friday, contending their civil rights were violated.
Their claim involves protests dating to 1997. During the World Series that year, three people
another effigy and were arrested.
They were jailed for about a day
and released without being
charged.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction preventing the city from interfering or arresting protesters outside Jacobs Field.
"If you can burn a flag, you can burn a bawoo," said Terry Gilbert, a lawyer for the protesters.
A police spokesman referred questions to city officials, who had no immediate comment. The Cleveland Indians, who are not named as defendants, declined to comment.
Charlene Teters, a plaintiff in the Cleveland lawsuit and vice president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, senses progress.
"The average person has an awareness of this issue they didn't have before," she said.
Teters, who campaigns against Indian mascots throughout the country, said other communities that had Indian logos for sports teams generally regarded Cleveland's as the most derogatory.
"They say to us 'At least we don't have that little red Sambo like they do in Cleveland,'" she said.
Ohio State, Kentucky top Preseason NIT list
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Ohio State, which capped one of college basketball's best turnarounds last season by reaching the Final Four, and Kentucky, which fell one win shy of a fourth straight Final Four appearance, led the field for 1999 Preseason NIT, which was announced yesterday.
Arizona, which won the Presseason NIT in 1990 and 1995, is among seven teams in the field of 16 that played in the NCAA tournament last season.
Ohio State was 8-22 in 1997-98 and reached the Final Four last season, losing to eventual champion Connecticut in the semifinals. Kentucky, which won the national title in 1996 and 1998, lost to Michigan State in the Midwest Regional final.
The other teams that played in the
NCAA tournament and will be in the 15th Preseason NIT are Maryland, Utah, New Mexico State, Pennsylvania, Siena and Arkansas State.
The rest of the field includes Notre Dame, Kansas State, Fordham, Tulane, San Francisco, Davidson and Hofstad.
Five of the teams in the field were ranked in the top 14 teams in the final AP poll of the season: No.5 Maryland, No. 6 Utah, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 13 Arizona and No. 14 Ohio State.
The Presseason NIT opening-round games will be held on campus sites on Nov. 15 and 16, white second-round games will be held on campus sites from Nov. 17-19. The semifinals and finals will be at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 24 and 26.
Bracketing for the Presseason NIT has not been announced.
Corked-bat caper solved pitcher admits to switch
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — After all these years, Jason Grisley has confessed: He was the culprit in the Albert Belle Corked Bat Caper.
Grimsley, then playing for Cleveland and now pitching for the New York Yankees, has admitted he crawled through the bowels of Comiskey Park in 1984 to replace the illegal Belle bat that was being held in the umpires' room.
Grismlies came clean in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times, solving one of baseball's ongoing mysteries.
Good news for Grimsley, too: No disciplinary action is expected.
The whole episode began in the first inning of a Cleveland-Chicago game on July 15, 1994, when White Sox manager Gene Lamont was tipped off that Belle had a corked bat.
Lamont challenged the use of the bat and umpire Dave Phillips took it and put it in his locker. The Indians panicked, knowing the bat was
indeed corked.
The Times reported that Grimsley took a cork-free bat belonging to Paul Sorrento because all of Belle's bats were corked.
With the help of an unidentified Indians' employee, he navigated his way to the spot. Crawling on his belly, a flashlight in his mouth, he finally found it, dropped down on a refrigerator and swiped the bat from Phillips' locker.
After the game, the unipres immediately suspected foul play — the bat, after all, bore Sorrento's name. Finally, the Indians were told that if they supplied Belle's bat there would be no punishment for the switch. Belle received a 10-game suspension that was reduced to seven games on appeal.
Which leaves only one question:
Why, after all these years, did Grimsle-
decide to speak up?
"I was asked whether I would tell the story if there would be no repercussions," Grimsley said. "I figured it was about time."
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