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Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PITCHING DUO THRIVES AFTER CHANGING ROLES
Brett Bollman and Brett Bochy contribute to midweek success. BASEBALL 16B
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2009
SENIOR GOLFER FINISHES TOP 10
WWW.KANSAN.COM
team takes seventh at Big 12 Tournament. MEN'S GOLF 13B
PAGE 1B
Pitcher spurs Twins for Hawks
Lee Ridenhour, freshman pitcher and Lenexa freshman, turned down a chance to play for the Minnesota Twins in order to play for Kansas. He says he has no regrets about it. Ryan McCuinney/KANSAN
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Coach made all the difference in Lee Ridenhour's choice
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
It was Sunday morning, and freshman Lee Ridenhour was sick. Hed spent the last two days trying to rest and get over a case of food poisoning that had been haunting him, but he was still sick.
That didn't stop him.
Ridenhour went out at afternoon and silenced the second-highest scoring offense in the Big 12 for five innings before the sickness finally got the better of him.
"That just shows how tough a kid he is," pitching coach Ryan Graves said. "He's a real competitor. He wanted to go out there and do it, got us through the fifth and gave us a chance to win. It worked out great."
That was two weeks ago against Oklahoma State, but Ridenhour's path to Kansas started a long time before then. The freshman, before he was a freshman, faced a difficult decision: to become a jayhawk or a farmhand of the Minnesota Twins.
"I was actually pitching when I got drafted," Ridenhour said. "So I was like, 'Dad, here's my phone in case, you know, if they call.' It was unreal. All my life, growing up, playing baseball, that's what I wanted to do was go play baseball."
"Man, it was really tempting," Ridenhour said. "Just the idea of just playing baseball and not school — but then I'd never really been away from home. What would I do? I'd get up and go from 8 to 2, but then what would I do?"
It wasn't the last time the Twins dialed that number. From June through August, Minnesota was making a push for Ridenhour to sign with its organization, offering the 18-year-old from Shawnee Mission West a $150,000 signing bonus and a full scholarship.
So he asked around. He talked to his personal pitching coach, who had been drafted several times and told Ridenhour to make the leap, take a shot at the pros. He asked Kevin Seitzer, who spent 12 years in the majors after starring at Eastern Illinois University and now runs a training facility in the Kansas City area. Seitzer advised caution, telling him to take the safe road and head to school.
"I talked to as many people as I could," Ridenhour said. "People that had gone to college; my pitching coach; Kevin Seitzer, who I played with from, like, third grade to eighth grade. It just came down to, we charted out for me, what's
going to have more positives. What's going to be better for me in the long run?"
He talked to his parents, too, of course, and they were split on the idea, just like his coaches.
"My mom really wanted me to go to school," Ridenhour said. "Then my dad was more, like, he wanted me to do what I wanted
Ridenhour understood that he had a little maturing to do. That's why he kept talking to Kansas, where he committed to play long before the draft, and to Graves.
to do. I think right now, talking to them, everyone is really glad that I went to school."
"That's always the risk you take to get the quality arms," Graves
said about Ridenhour going pro.
"But especially with him being a Kansas kid, it's a risk you're willing to take. You know, the draft is just really difficult to predict."
Graves stuck to it, not knowing if things would work out the way he hoped, and went to games Ridenhour was pitching, kept working the phones, talking to
him and his family. Ridenhour noticed.
"Honestly, I never really thought I was going to come to KU," he said. "Then Coach Graves was out to see almost all my starts in high school and throughout the summer. Even when the draft came
SEE RIDENHOUR ON PAGE 4B
Kansas seniors and Bunge play last home game
SOFTBALL
Today's doubleheader against Texas A&M is a poignant one. Coach Tracy Bunge and five of her seniors (Dougie McCaulley, Val Chapple, Stevie Cristozo, Val George and Elle Pottrorf) will play their final games at Arrocha Ballpark, two make up games originally scheduled for March 28 and 29. The series not only marks the last two home games of the 2009 regular season, but also the end of an era.
tpowers@kansan.com
"Coach Bunge has been like a mother to all of us during our careers here at KU," senior pitcher Val George said. "For the last 13
BY TOM POWERS
COMMENTARY
In order to get a couple of emotionally charged victories, the Jayhawks will have to carry over some momentum from their last two series. Over the last two series, Kansas belted 10 home runs on its way to 25 earned runs in a two game split with Baylor and a two game sweep of Wichita State.
years she has devoted herself completely to the Kansas softball program, with the goal of producing teams the University can be proud of. She is a tremendous person who has been such a huge part of Kansas Softball for so long."
"We played really well in the split with Baylor and against Wichita State," Bunge said. "Confidence wise
Kansas vs. Texas A&M Arrocha Ballpark
TODAY
Game 1: 11:15 a.m.
Game 2: 1:15 p.m.
Admission is free for students with a valid KUID.
we are in a really good spot, we've got a lot of bounce in our step. We've got to keep this momentum
Weston White/KANSAN
SEE SOFTBALL ON PAGE 4B
Senior outfielder Dougie McCauley high-fives freshman pitcher Sarah Blair during the lahayws' April 25 game against Bavior.
Swine flu not the only cause for absence of fans in stands
Last Sunday, as the swine flu spread, a Mexican professional soccer game was contested in an empty Estadio Azteca
- Latin America largest stadium.
While this rare scene of hundreds of thousands of unoccupied seats was prompted by the threat of lethal influenza, my mind drifted to a daydream with more plastic than flesh in the stands of our nation's state of the art dios.
The H1N1 virus arrives at a curious time. In this 21st century a greed-borne illness has afflicted professional sports franchises, sometimes creeping to the "amateur level." There's never a bad time to be a fan, but the swine like to make it close.
When we elect to take in a game at a local sports bar or in our homes, we are not driven away from the stadium by the play on the field, but instead by the field itself. Free parking, cheap beer and crystal-clear Hi-Def take precedence over paying to park and paying even more to wait in line at the toilets.
For the first time since I've had a breath in my body, my dad has relinquished the Chiefs season tickets he's held since 1980, when $15 would get you close enough to get mud on you.
I rang him the other night to discuss this and what the future may hold. We used to arrive plenty early to cook homemade chili before freezing our butts off inside Arrowhead Stadium for a few hours and went home happier because of it. Now, he — like a growing number of fans — simply can't afford to pay the annual $1,600 for a pair of tickets to an event that gouges you into oblivion before you leave your car.
The Chiefs used to have a waiting list for season tickets like several other NFL clubs. It was like the mafia: Death was usually the only way out. But as prices rose in concert with poor play, 12-hour wallet-decimating excursions began losing their luster. And most of us won't be there to inherit what for many had become a family tradition. Hell, if my dad can't afford it, how can I?
One needs only to look to the recent mega-stadiums popping up for evidence that sports executives are catching on to this. Sure, they may promote nostalgia, innovation or some combination of both but the proliferation of luxury boxes and privileged seating suggests otherwise. Our shiny new stadiums are beginning to replace the Marriott as the destination for corporate conventions. Pro sports execs know who their new target audience is.
"It costs way too much for food and beer," he told me. "And it's better on TV"
I guess the sad thing is we may not really care all that much. Since it's cheaper and easier to get together with friends, crack open a beer that doesn't cost $9 and watch every game in HD we may not mind seeing more suits than painted bellies so long as the game's still on. Or, like Mexico, we may watch with no crowd at all.
Edited by Heather Melanson