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7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
[HURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2002]
COMMENTARY
Ryan Malashock rmalashock@kansan.com
Major League teams need a pay cut
Opening Day was a joyous day Monday, like it always is for me.
But it was a different type of joy. Much different from the joy I experienced as a kid. Every team had a shot then. Every team showed promise. Pennant races weren't always between the same teams. Parity ruled the game. The game was about the smell of the outfield grass, cracker jacks and "Take Me Out to the Ball game."
Now, it's a joke. The game, as we know it today, is a farce. Opening Day is still joyous, but only because I love the game. The average fan has grown tired of the real driving force behind Major League Baseball — money.
SARA SHEPHERD/KANSAN
Baseball, which operates without a salary cap, makes me sick to my stomach.
The NFL and NBA can succeed with a salary cap. They can operate on an equal playing field, but not Major League Baseball. Not the money-hungry Major Leagues. Not the George Steinbrenners of the game. Not the fat-cat owners of large-market teams, who believe that because they have the most money, they're entitled to championships and superstars. This game shouldn't cater to the rich. It should be pure, like our fathers and grandfathers knew the game.
The problem with Major League Baseball is purely financial, and the game must change. The average payroll for a Major League Baseball team in 2001 was just under $73 million. That number will rise by several million dollars this year. Yet, the discrepancy between the large-market teams, such as the New York Yankees, and the small-market teams, such as the Minnesota Twins, is mind-boggling. Last season, the Yankees paid their players more than $109 million, while the Twins paid their players $24 million.
Now ... well you get the point. This column has turned into a rant. Obviously, I'm upset with Major League Baseball. But I'm still going to watch, I still love the game.
Winning a World Championship used to be about building foundations in the minor leagues. It used to be about a General Manager balancing the team's finances and outsmarting his counterparts.
The Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, New York Metz, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants should play in their own nine-team league. It could be called the WHMBL: The We Have Money Baseball League. Because that's what it takes to win these days.
That means that almost three-fourths of Major League Baseball teams don't even need to play the season out. There is no reason to play. For teams like my beloved Kansas City Royals, the season was over before it started. For small-market, moneydeprived teams like the Royals, the season is a formality.
This is downright pitiful. Even more pitiful is the fact that nine teams can say that they're contenders for the World Series right now. No more.
Those teams feel like I would, as a journalism major, taking an astrophysics class. Whether I showed up or not, I would get an E.Well, whether these teams try or not, they have no chance.
But for many other baseball fans, their patience is running thin. Their love for the game dissolves as the greed increases.
Kansas graduate assistant and defensive coach John Papuchis riffes a pass to sophomore running back Dan Coke during the Jayhawks' second spring practice on a field near the Anschutz Sports Pavilion. Papuchis is one of 14 new assistant coaches hired by new head coach Mark Mangino during the offseason
Malashock is a Omaha, Neb., junior in journalism.
Spring practice met with high intensity
By Brent Wasko Kansan sportswriter
New Kansas head football coach Mark Mangino was expected to add intensity to the team.
If yesterday's spring practice was any indication, Mangino is well on his way to accomplishing that goal.
Unlike past years, when practices were a more subdued affair, Mangino and his new coaching staff grabbed players' jerseys, got into their faces and relentlessly tried to show them how they could improve. The assistant coaches yelled forcefully at players throughout the 2 1/2-hour-long practice and could be heard from across the street from the field near Anschutz Sports Pavilion.
Senior linebacker Leo Etienne said he liked the energy the Jayhawks were showing this spring.
"There is some high intensity out there. Guys are flying around." Etienne said. "You talk to the players and everybody says they're excited about KU football right now."
While Etienne said he didn't mind the added ferocity exhibited by the coaching staff, he didn't know how much of a difference it would make next season.
"Every team has coaches that will get in players' faces," he said. "I can't say that they need that. It's truly up to the player on whether they need that."
Players spent yesterday's practice working through repetition drills and learning the new offensive and defensive systems.
Quarterback Bill Whittemore, a junior college transfer from Fort Scott, said most of the players, including himself, weren't struggling with Mangino's style of play.
"It's a whole new system, but it's something that I've seen before," Whitemore said. "I like the stuff that we run."
The Iajhawks will practice every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday until the spring football game
on April 26 at Memorial Stadium
Notes
Senior fullback Mitchell Scott and senior offensive lineman Jawad Pearson are sitting out the season for medical reasons.
Scott is suffering from chronic knee problems. He played in nine games last season, catching three passes for a total of 21 yards and had no carries.
Pearson has a thyroid problem. He did not see action last season.
Redshirt-sophomore defensive back Leo Bookman said he planned to participate in the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium on April 17-20.
Bookman wanted to run in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. He won the 200-meter Big 12 title last year and is an All-American in that event.
Spring football practices don't wrap up until April 26, which could cause a conflict with Bookman's track aspirations. He said he wasn't excited about talking to Mangino about the situation.
"I don't know how that's going to go, but I'm going to try. I'm going to wait a few days and try to mix it in a conversation," he joked.
Contact Wasko at bwasko@kansan.com. This story was edited by Andy Gassaway.
Kansas' bats let loose in fifth beat Washburn in scoring frenzy
Senior catcher Leah Tabb lunges back and beats the out. The Jayhawks defeated the Ichabods, 9-2, Wednesday at Jayhawk Field.
LINDSEYKILIANY/KANSAN
By Ali Brox Kansan sportswriter
Kansas softball coach Tracy Bunge's advice to relax at the plate finally sunk in with her players before they batted in the bottom of the fifth inning yesterday against Washburn.
The Jayhawks exploded for eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings for a 9-2 victory at Jayhawk Field, and improved their record to 20-15.
"Mel really got things going," Bunge said. "That ball was laced into left center. We needed somebody to step up and start us and Mel did, but Megan really came through with a big clutch hit there and had a huge day for us."
The offensive onslaught started with a line to left field by sophomore outfielder Mel Wallach and continued with some timely hitting by senior third baseman Megan Urquhart.
Wallach finished 1-for-3
from the plate and scored two runs, and Urquhart was 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs. The hot bats were something Kansas needed after managing only three runs in three games last weekend.
"We just needed to relax and offensively take some deep breaths," Bunge said. "And I think they finally did that."
While the Jayhawks' bats
finally woke up in the fifth inning, freshmen pitcher Serena Settlemier's performance was strong enough that Kansas would have needed to score just three runs.
Settlemier replaced senior Kelly Campbell in the fourth inning and faced 12 batters, retiring them all.
"Serena is a tough pitcher to face for the first time
because she has such a different motion," Bunge said. "She has done the best job of any of our staff of coming in the relief role. I feel very comfortable with her in that role."
Settlemier said she approached the mound the same way whether she was starting a game or pitching in relief.
"Once I stepped on the
Track team turns its eyes toward Texas
By Matt Norton
Kansan sportswriter
There's a saying that "everything is bigger in Texas."
The Kansas track and field team will observe this first hand this weekend at the 75th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas.
More than 20,000 people are expected to pack Mike A. Myers Stadium to watch the nation's best high school, college and professional track athletes compete.
Junior Shameika McField said the opportunity to compete in front of so many people would be a unique experience for track athletes used to running in front of crowds of a few dozen, like Kansas' last meet at Southern Illinois.
"The intensity level is definitely higher," she said. "People really want to get out there and run. It's like a 'show what I can do' meet."
"The whole atmosphere of the whole town is electric," Wamble said. "There's so much going on, it's easy to get distracted. But I feel like if you don't run fast at Texas, I don't know where you can run fast."
Senior Jabari Wamble said this meet is one-of-a-kind. The city of Austin and the University of Texas turn their eyes toward this meet every year on the first week of April.
McField will run in the 4x100, 4x400 and sprint medley relays for the layhawks.
They also want to prove that their sixth-place finish at the Big 12 Conference indoor meet was just a step up on the conference ladder, she said.
If the team qualifies for the finals in the 4x100 and 4x400, McField could race five times in two days. She said she hoped the Jayhawks could prove that they could run well in the sprint events, which were usually dominated by southern teams.
"We have a lot to prove." McField said. "Like last year at conference, when we were standing on the podium for the 4-by-4, and it was all Texas teams and us. Everybody was like, 'Well, how did Kansas get up here?'
Sophomore Crysta Redwine said that even though some of the southern schools had competed at more outdoor meets than his Jayhawks this season, the team was excited to perform well this weekend.
"We're going to go down there and show that Kansas is here, and that we're established and back in action," Redwine said.
Wamble, a four-time all-conference winner at 400 meters, will step down and run his first individual 100-meter race as a collegian in addition to a leg on the distance medley relay.
Wamble said the speed of the 100 will help his longer sprinting, which has been focused primarily on strength and endurance so far this season.
Wamble knows the event isn't his best, but is looking forward to incorporating the speed work into his specialty, the 400.
"It's going to be a training device, but I know how I am when I get into the blocks and its time to go," Wamble said. "My mission is to do the best that I can."
Kansas should be in contention to win the distance medley relay, as Wamble joins fellow All-Americans Brian Blachly and Charlie Gruber from the distance medley team that finished sixth in the 2001 NCAA indoor championships. Freshman Brandon Hodges, one of the fastest high school 800 meter runners in the country last year, will complete the team.
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