Wednesday, February 24, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 5
McGwire appears on sitcom
'Big Mac' joins Mad About You cast in episode
The Associated Press
JOURITER, Fla. - The reviews are in: Mark McGwire can act, too.
"He might be the next John Wayne," St. Louis Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said yesterday, a day after the 70-homer man made his debut on the sitcom, Mad About You. "I think if he wanted to, he'd be pretty good at it."
Manager Tony La Russa said McGwire's guest appearance was almost as good as one of his home runs.
"Whoever coached him for that appearance, we ought to hire." La Russa said. "He was outstanding—surprisingly. I was really impressed. I didn't expect him to be anywhere near that good."
Of course, not everyone was that complimentary. After all, McGwire played himself.
"He shouldn't quit his day job," pitching coach Dave Duncan joked.
Landing in bed on screen with Helen Hunt was one of the highlights of McGwire's hectic off season. He didn't appear until late in the half-hour show and didn't have a lot of lines but pulled off his role without a hitch in one of those mistaken identity, wrong-room routines.
His best line came at the end
when he and Hunt were at the
break fast table on the morning after. Paul Reiser walked in wearing a Cardinals uniform, continuing the role reversal theme.
" Y o u remember, they're going to be throwing you junk
McGwire; Appeared as himself on a Mad TV about Yourpisode.
all year long," McGwire said.
"So just wait for your pitch."
Then he gave Hunt a quick kiss. Leaving character and returning to McGwire the baseball player, he raised an arm in triumph as if he'd just taken someone deen.
"I think it would be tough to be an actor all the time," pitcher
"Whoever coached him for that appearance, we ought to hire. He was outstanding — surprisingly."
Alan Benes said, "He was probably more nervous doing that than anytime in his life. That's probably a lot harder than facing a pitcher."
McGwire's only misstep Monday came when he missed a team party and screening at a local restaurant. McGwire apparently forgot about the back entrance the Cardinals had waiting for him and tried to go in the front door. When he saw TV cameras and fans waiting, he turned around.
"The notoriety he has gained, people want a piece of him," Jocketty said. "You'd be surprised at the unbelievable requests we get, from media and fans. They don't understand."
The Cardinals are taking steps to protect McGwire as much as possible. Though he showed up at camp Monday — two days ahead of schedule — he's not
Tony La Russa
St. Louis Cardinals Manager
speaking with reporters until after full-squad workouts start today. His interview time throughout spring and the season will be regulated.
"We'll make time to talk the first few days," La Russa said. "There are certain things he doesn't want to talk about after that point, like 'How'd it feel to hit 70?' If somebody tries to push him on it, they're not going to be very happy because he's just not going to talk about it."
McGwire took some batting practice in an indoor cage Monday. Yesterday he muscled up outside with 11 home runs in two batting practice turns, signed several autographs and then called it a day.
"Did you expect differently?" pitcher Matt Morris said. "Eleven homers, that's weak for him, isn't it?"
Daughter of legend plans to enter boxing
Muhammad Ali gives 21-year-old Laila tips, blessing
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — She has yet to throw a professional punch. She doesn't have a promoter. She has no proven skills.
And yet, she is drawing attention in the fledgling world of women's boxing because of her last name: Ali.
Laila Ali, the second-youngest of Muhammad Ali's nine children and his youngest daughter, is working out daily and might be ready for her first professional fight this summer.
The 21-year-old approached her father late last month to inform him she planned to follow in his foot steps.
That's probably something Ali might have said before he began his brilliant career as Cassius Clay in the late 1950s.
"Well, Daddy," she said, according to The New York Times, "I want to tell you I'm going into professional boxing, and I love you, and I want your support, and I want to tell you that even if I don't have your support, I'm going to do it anyway."
The 57-year-old former heavyweight champion who is weakened by Parkinson's disease, at least in part because of boxing, told his daughter he didn't want her to get hurt.
"Daddy, I'm not going to get hurt," she replied. "I'm going to be fighting women, not men. And I have your genetics."
So far, the 5-foot-10, 160-pounder only has sparred with her trainer, Kevin Morgan.
"She's very much like her dad. She's aggressive, very sure of herself, very confident," Norma Lynn
Cutter, Laila's publicist, told The Associated Press yesterday. "She also has an offbeat sense of humor like her father."
"She's extremely charming, and if I had to use one word, I'd say 'focused' or 'determined,' one word or the other."
Cutler said Laila probably would fight for the first time in August and was getting tips from her famed father.
"She won't tell anyone, including me, what they are," Cutler said. "She says, 'When I have the greatest boxer of all time as my mentor, why would I want to share the secrets he's given me?'"
Cutler said she has known Laila for about three years.
"She was working in the beauty industry, and I happened to use her services," Cutler said. "She believes she's going to be a champion and change the face of female boxing.
"For one thing, she is extremely beautiful, not that there aren't beautiful boxers."
Laila never saw her father box in person and told the Times she had few memories of living with him. But by boxing, she thinks he will gain a greater appreciation for her as his child.
"He's naturally going to see himself in me," said Laila, who with her sister, Hana, grew up in Malibu with her mother, Veronica, who was Ali's third wife. "But for the first time, I think he actually can see that 'this is my child.'"
"Don't read anything into that," Lomnie Ali said. "This is something Laila wants to do. It has nothing to do with Muhammad."
Lonnie Ali, Ali's current wife, told the Times her husband had no comment on Laila's career choice.
"He told me that it was a dirty business," she said. "He let me know it's a hard business, and he let me know that he supported me."
Laila said that while her father was alarmed about her direction, he was still on her side.
Soccer player's father reunited with family following kidnapping
Alvaro Campos escapes captivity after several days
The Associated Press
ACAPULCO, Mexico — The father of Mexico's star soccer goalkeeper Jorge Campos was safe and at home yesterday, six days after being kidnapped.
Mexican television stations broke into regular programming to report the news to a country seemingly grown numb to repeated waves of kidnappings.
Jorge Campos, the most popular athlete in Mexico, left his team in Mexico City and flew to this Pacific resort to meet his father. The player spoke briefly outside the family home, saying only that his father was well and that he did not think a ransom had been paid.
Alvaro Campos, 66, walked up to a police checkpoint outside Acapulco at 8:20 a.m., identified himself and asked for help. He was whisked to the Acapulco federal police office, where he met his family and was taken home.
Police sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the elder Campos sprained his left ankle when he tumbled down an embankment last Thursday trying to flee his captors.
Police doctors said he appeared tired but otherwise in good shape. The sources said he was not blindfolded during captivity and generally
was treated well.
Investigators suspect that Alvaro Campos was held captive at the town of Tixtlancingo, high in the Sierra Madre Mountains, according to the police sources.
The place is a known stronghold of the Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra, an activist group linked to the Popular Revolutionary Army guerrilla organization.
The Campos family supports the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, and Alvaro Campos spoke out several times in favor of its candidate Rene Juarez Cisneros, who was elected governor of Guerrero state this month.
As many as eight heavily armed men seized Alvaro Campos shortly before 2 p.m. on Feb. 17 at a sports field named for his son in a suburb of Acapulco.
Jorge Campos is famous for flamboyant play as a goalkeeper for Mexico's national team, appearing in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups. He has played the last three years for professional teams in the United States and Mexico, including the reigning Major League Soccer champion Chicago Fire.
Mexico has been plagued by hundreds of kidnappings every year for at least the past five years. Ransoms have ranged from hundreds to tens of millions of dollars.
Relatives of victims rarely complain to police, fearing current or former officers may be among the abductors and would pass word to the kidnappers.
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