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BASEBALL
Appier wants retirement over minors
Kansas City Royals pitcher Kevin Appier throws against the Seattle Mariners during spring training in Surprise, Ariz. Appier said yesterday that he wouldn't accept a minor league assignment with the Royals and would retire unless another team picked him up. Appier, the Royals' all-time strikeout leader, pitched five shutout innings Monday in a Royals' minor league game.
Orlin Wagner/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Faced with an assignment to Triple-A, Kansas City Royals pitcher Kevin Appier said yesterday he will retire unless another team calls with an offer to pitch in the big leagues, a prospect he concedes is unlikely.
"It's not like I wasn't prepared for this to happen," Appier said. "I have not been pitching in the big leagues for a while, unfortunately. I gave it a long, long chance to come back to get back in the big leagues and it hasn't worked out."
Appier, a 37-year-old right-hander, is the Royals' career strikeout leader and would end his 15-year career in the majors with a record of 169-137 and a 3.74 ERA. A first-round pick of the Royals in 1987, Appier spent most of his career with the Royals. He was traded to Oakland in 1999 and pitched with the New York Mets and Anaheim Angels.
"He's one of the best pitchers in
best pitchers in Royals history."
Royals history," said George Brett. Kapsas City's, only Euler.
With the Royals in 1993, Appier went 18-8 with an American League-leading 2.56 ERA. He was selected to the 1995 AL All-Star team, pitched in the 2000 playoffs with the Athletics and was a member of the 2002 Angels club that won the World Series.
"I got a (World Series) ring," Appier said. "That whole season was a highlight. With the Athletics, making the playoffs was cool, but it got cut short. Just the whole postseasons were a highlight."
He returned to the Royals in
2003 after the Angels released him, but underwent surgery that September to repair a flexor tendon tear in his right elbow. He attempted to come back last season, but was 0-1 in two starts before returning to the disabled list on April 24 for the remainder of the season.
He was 0-1 with an 8.71 ERA in five spring outings, giving up 12 hits in 10 1/3 innings with seven walks and nine strikeouts. On Monday, Appier threw five shutout innings, allowing three hits, in a minor league game.
"I did really good results wise, but it wasn't impressive," Appier said. "It's not high enough potential to warrant going to the minors and the uncertainty."
Appier said if another club calls in the next couple of days with a major league job, he would change his mind, but admitted that wasn't likely.
"I could pitch in the big leagues with this stuff, but it's not worth it to go down and hope somebody would want me," Appier said.
BASEBALL
Scandal doesn't diminish value of mementos
BY BETSY TAYLOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS — When a grounds crew worker at Busch Stadium caught Mark McGwire's home run ball in the magical 1998 season — the 62nd homer that broke Roger Maris' record — he immediately turned it over to Big Mac and didn't make a dime for it.
When a Washington University employee dove for McGwire's last home run that season — No. 70 — he auctioned it off for about $3 million.
Both men say they have no regrets about those drastically different decisions, even as the retired slugger is enmeshed in baseball's steroids controversy after refusing to directly answer many questions during his congressional testimony earlier this month.
"I said it that night, but I'd rather have a million experiences than a million dollars," said Tim Forneris, now 28, still a member of the grounds crew at Busch Stadium and also a full-time lawyer — a state public defender.
Forneris was peering out from above the left-field wall with others on the grounds crew on Sept. 8, 1998, when McGwire hit what would be his shortest homer of the year — a smash right down the line that cleared the fence but didn't reach the stands — landing instead in the bowels of the stadium. Forneris quickly tracked it down.
At a postgame ceremony,
Forneris presented McGwire
with the ball. "Mr. McGwire, I
think I have something that
belongs to you," he said.
BASEBALL
Philip Ozersky, now 32,
snagged home run ball 70 when
it flew into the box where he
was watching the game with coworkers. Unlike Forneris, he decided to keep it.
For that act, Forneris received letters from throughout the world — some were simply addressed, "Tim, Busch Stadium." And his act of kindness was not unrewarded.
Ozersky received about $2.7 million after auctioning it off in
He made television appearances, received a donated minivan from Chrysler, went to Disney World and was asked by a woman coordinating his visit if he wanted to meet the president. "I thought she meant Michael Eisner. She said, 'No, President Clinton.'"
Tim Forneris
Grounds crew member
at Busch Stadium
"I said it that night, I'd rather have a million experiences than a million dollars."
1999. He bought three homes, two of which his parents use. He said he had donated about a quarter-million dollars to two cancer-fighting charities and the Cardinals' community foundation.
"I obviously profited by it, but it not only affected my life, it affected a lot of people in positive ways," said Ozersky, who was then and is now a research programmer for the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University.
The steroids issue aside, both Forneris and Ozersky said there was something electric about the home-run chase between Sammy Sosa and McGwire, and they remained appreciative.
They hoped to see history at those games, but it was something else "to see it fall in my hands," Ozersky said.
Forneris said a cloud of suspicion remained over baseball and over McGwire since the congressional hearings. But he recalled speaking with McGwire at the ballpark and through e-mail and called him a great guy.
Forneris said he was trying to separate the steroids debate from the unbelievable experience he had. "I think I almost have to put it in its own little time capsule," he said.
McGwire donated the ball Formeris caught to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and Forneris believes that's the right place for it.
As for whether McGwire belongs in the Hall if he took steroids, Forneris would say only, "I don't have a vote."
Ozersky said he was having a hard time sorting out the truth since the steroids scandal erupted.
"I think this era will be remembered as the steroids era," he said.
Ozersky met McGwire briefly, at a charity auction when the player signed a caricature of himself for Ozersky: "To Philip, Great Catch. Mark McGwire 70."
Ozersky feels lucky that "the
perfect confluence of events allowed the baseball to bring such a fortune.
There was no such luck for Todd McFarlane, the comic book icon who bought Ozersky's ball. He estimated he'd spent about $4 million on his baseball collection, which includes 10 home runs balls from the McGwire-Sosa 1998 race. But McFarlane remains pleased with his acquisitions, which he has displayed frequently.
McFarlane said he had no plans to sell his collection and didn't get caught up in its current monetary value, which already had taken a dive when Barry Bonds hit 73 homers in 2001 to break McGwire's record.
McFarlane owns Bonds' No. 73 ball as well, which he bought for $450,000.
McFarlane said the only regret he felt was that some fans wouldn't be able to look at footage from the 1998 season without "a little tick in the backs of their minds." He said, "We won't be able to look at it with the same innocence."
He also wondered why McGwire said he had not used steroids prior to the hearings, but then refused to answer the question in Washington.
Royals send three to minor leagues
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Ken Harvey, the Kansas City Royals' lone selection to the 2004 All-Star game, was among three players optioned yesterday to Triple-A Omaha.
Harvey led the AL in batting early last season and was hitting .350 on June 23, but hit only .219 after that to finish the year at .287.
He hit .238 in 17 spring training games and struck out 10 times in 42 at-bats.
Instead, the Royals will keep left-handed rookie Calvin Pickering, who hit 35 homers at Omaha and seven in 122 big-league at-bats.
"Harvey has been swinging at a lot of bad pitches," manager Tony Pena said. "Harvey has not been swinging the bat well. He had a very tough time the second half of last season, and we see the same thing in spring training."
Pena also said that two rookies, third baseman Mark Teahen and second baseman Ruben Gotay, would start the season opener April 4 at Detroit.
The Royals also optioned left-hander Jimmy Gobble, who was 9-8 with a 5.35 ERA last season, and right-hander Kyle Snyder, a 1999 first-round pick who spent last season on the disabled list after shoulder surgery, to Omaha.
Pena said Snyder, who has been a starter in the minors, will be used out of the bullpen in Omaha. He was 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA in eight relief appearances.
With Gobble and Snyder going back to the minors, the Royals will keep rookie right-hander Denny Bautista as the fifth starter and right-hander Mike Wood as a long reliever.
The Royals also assigned outfielder Aaron Guiel, right-handed pitcher Kevin Appier and infielder Chris Clapinski to the minor league camp. All were non-roster invites, although Guiel was the team's opening day left fielder in 2004.
Appier said he would retire rather than go to Omaha if he did not land a big-league job in the next couple of days.
Clapanski hurt his elbow and will need surgery; he will miss the season.
Pena said Emil Brown, who was hitting .409 with four home runs and 16 RBIs in 22 games going into yesterday's game, would make the club as an extra outfielder.
The Associated Press
Free Golf Clinic! Friday, April 1st 1:00-4:00P.M.
The University of Kansas
Learn tips on the physical mechanics of golfing Open to students, faculty and staff. Come to the Physical Therapy Dept. (2nd floor) at Watkins Memorial Health Center. (Please wear golf attire.) Call 864-9592 for more information or to make an appointment Appointments preferred - allow 30-45 minutes.
Student Health Services
imagination place
The 1st Annual Imagination & Place Business Environmental Award
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!
DEADLINE: April 1, 2005
Nominate and Recognize your favorite local business who you believe has made a demonstrable and positive impact on our local, regional and/or global environment!
Deadline for nominations: April 1, 2005.
Self-nominations accepted.
Award presented with reception following;
EARTH DAY, April 22, 2005 at the Lawrence Arts Center. TBA
Nomination Forms available at:
- Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire, or
- www.LawrenceRecycles.org
Mail or Deliver to:
Lawrence Arts Center 940 New Hampshire Lawrence, KS 66044
Contact: Rick Mitchell, Gallery Director, Lawrence Arts Center 785.843.2787 or email: lac gallery@sunflower.com
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