SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 8, 1992
7
Kansas football wins games, fans
By Anne Grego
Kansan staff writer
Kansas football season-ticket sales are up in part because of last year's 6-5 season, said Sherry Benda of the ticket office.
When the football team wins, so does the ticket office.
Kansas expects season-ticket sales to increase by 1,000 tickets this year, said Susan Wachter, assistant athletic director. Last year's season-ticket sales totaled 15,448.
Though sales are up from 1991, Diana Miller, Kansas ticket manager, said Kansas would like to do better.
After the Jayhawks went 1-10 in 1988, Coach Glen Mason's first season at Kansas, season-ticket sales fell from 16,329 to 14,404 in 1989. Memorial Stadium' capacity is 50,250.
"The program is getting strong, and interest is building." Benda said.
Last season marked the Jayhawks first winning season since 1981. Miller said she expected sales to increase again next year if the team continued to win this season.
K-State has taken more than 900 new orders for season tickets compared with this time-1st year, said Carol Adolph, ticket manager.
Last year K-State sold around 12,000 season tickets. KSU Stadium seats 42,000 people.
Kansas State is also winning at the ticket window.
Adolph said she was hoping to sell 15,000 season tickets including the student tickets with the team coming off a 7-4 season.
Adolph is giving all the credit to winning. Last year was the Wildcats' first winning season since 1982.
Missouri also credits winning, or its lack of winning, for its poor season-ticket sales this year. The Tigers lost their last five games and finished the 1991 season 3-7-1.
"Ending with a five-game losing streak, we are starting with a low," said Mike Burke, assistant ticket manager.
Missouri's ticket sales are down by approximately 1,000 tickets, Burke said.
Ticket sales follow team record
Burke said Missouri hoped to sell around 20,000 tickets, including the student tickets, compared with the 22,000 it sold last year. Faurot Field seats 62,000.
The Kansas football team's record has been improving over the last five years, and season-ticket sales have been steadily following suit. Following an improving season, season-ticket sales tend to grow as well. After a losing season, sales tend to slide.
"Winning is the name of the game," said Rose Marie Carneffix, ticket manager at Oklahoma State.
Ticket sales have dropped off over the past two years because of Oklahoma State's performance. The Cowboys' record was 0-10-1 in 1991 and 4-7 in 1990.
"We are trying to stay even," Carne-
faxed of this year's sales.
To combat sagging sales, Oklahoma State has developed new ticket promotions, Carnefix said. One program for families allows two adults and three children to attend four games for $90. A mini-season ticket for three of the home games also is available.
"We need to win." Carnefix said.
Colorado keeps the value of a win
nine season and at a bow game
But all the promotion packages do not make up for a bad season.
"We are essentially sold out," said Jon Burianek, Colorado's assistant athletic director.
Burianek said ticket sales for individual games was also strong, with only a few tickets left for most games.
A crowded stadium at Colorado may please Burianek, but Kansas offensive tackle Keith Loneker does not care for large crowds on the road.
Loneker said the noise, especially when Kansas was close to scoring, made it hard to hear the quarterback call plays. However, Loneker said the improved Jayhawks will attract larger crowds at home games this fall.
Source: Kansas Athletic Department, Big Eight Record Book
Sean Tevis / KANSAN
Daron J. Bennett / KANSAN
Matt Queen, Wichita graduate student, tries to bump the volleyball over the net as Twy Wheeler, Topeka graduate student defends a corner of the court. Queen, Wheeler and six other law students played on the sand court behind Robinson Center yesterday. The students play every Tuesday and Thursday.
Order to realign upsets affected baseball teams
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are heading for the NL West next season, while the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will shift to the East by order of commissioner Fay Vincent.
Vincent decided on Monday to use his power under the Major League Agreement to act "in the best interests of baseball" to force the realignment over the objection of the Cubs.
The move, which drew immediate criticism from NL President Bill White, the Cubs, Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, is not the first time the commissioner unilaterally acted against the wishes of some of the clubs that elected him. In 1976, commissioner Bowie Kuhn passed an NL expansion plan that never came into being and blocked the planned sale of Vida Blue, Rolly Fingers and Joe Rudi by the Oakland Athletics.
"There is no question that the commissioner's powers under the Major League Agreement are broad enough to permit me to act in these areas." Vincent said.
But White and the Reds criticized the move, while the Cubs and Dodgers hunted of a lawsuit.
Under theNL constitution, a 75-percent voteis required for realignment, which needs the approval of all clubs involved in switching divisions. On March 4, clubs voted 10-2 in favor, with the Cubs and New York Mets opposed. Chicago did not want additional games with late starting times on WGN-TV, the superstation owned by the Tribune Co., which also owns the team.
"Iam very disappointed with the commissioner's extraordinary decision to override the National League constitution." White said in a statement "By this act, the commissioner has jeopardized our sporting wealth and national governance," he governed the National League for decades. Although we worked to attain realignment, we did so within the guidelines of the constitution."
Heads up
"We believe the commission's decision is wrong, bad for baseball and especially bad for baseball fans here in the Chicago area. We are presently considering alternatives available to us," the Cubs said in a statement.
"The Dodgers believe that the commissioner had exceeded his authority under the Major League Agreement by attempting to revoke
The Dodgers, who favored realignment, were no happier.
what is, in effect, a business decision made by the National League clubs in accordance with the National League constitution," owner Peter O'Malley said.
"Even though the Dodgers voted in favor of realignment and have traditionally been supportive of the office of the commissioner, the Dodgers do not concur with the commissioner's decision in this instance because it undermines the National League constitution. This decision could establish a dangerous precedent for the future of both the National and American Leagues."
The Cubs and the Cardinals have been in the East since the league split into divisions prior to the 1969 season. Chicago and St. Louis insisted on the placement before they voted in favor of expansion from 10 to 12 teams. Realignment became an issue with the 1993 expansion to Miami and Denver.
Vincent, who at the same time declined to change the formula for spitting gate receipts in the NL, said in a telephone news conference that there had been four or five clubs in favor of realignment at the league level but opposed to his taking action.
Last month, Vincent fended off a power grab by some owners on the Player Relations Committee. He was criticized by some owners for his decisions on splitting expansion revenue and handling the George Steinbrenner litigation, and he said he was prepared for further grinding.
"I don't know whether there will be a lawsuit," he said. "I think one is possible."
Fred Kuhlmann, Cardinals vice chairperson,
also criticized Vincent's decision.
"I would rather have seen it done by the National League as such, rather than by dictate of the commissioner," he said. "I think we will suffer some from the fact that we're losing our traditional rivalries, and also we'll probably suffer somewhat financially from the change in time scheduling."
"We believe realignment has long been overdue and will certainly benefit all the teams and their fans," said Stan Kasten, the Braves' president in a statement.
The Braves and the two expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies, both were pleased.
Katy Feeney, NLrepresentative, said Vincent's decision would further delay a draft schedule for 1993.
Royals players strike out in '92's first half
After starting the season 1-16, the Kansas City Royals have gone 33-32. Though a notable improvement, the team still entered this week 10 games under .500 and 13
1/2 games out of first place.
The team has more than lived up to its pathetic slogan: "Royals baseball, it's here."
David Mitchell Contributing Editor
What else can you say about a team that is 34-48? Not much
Not much.
These kinds of results would land most managers in the unemployment line. But not Hal McRae. The Royals skipped not only has avoided getting canned but also was honored with a spot on the American League's All-Star coaching staff.
National League fans, place your bets.
Don't get me wrong, the team has improved drastically. Unfortunately, it still has a lot of room for improvement. By the time the All-Star break rolls around next week, the team may have progressed from totally pathetic to mildly entertaining.
George Brett's quest for career hit 3,000 will generate excitement all season long. The future Hall of Famer rapped out number 2,900 in June, and has raised his average to 265.
Unfortunately for fans who would like to see more than an aging superstar, the team's pitching staff is strictly a two-man show. Kevin Appier is 9-3, and Mark Gabs is 7-6. No other member of the 12-man staff has reached the five-victory plateau.
Multi-millionaire Mark Davis notched victory No. 1 just three months into the season. Sunday night Davis surrendered nine hits and nine runs in three innings. The former Cy Young award winner is 1-3 with a 7.18 ERA. Davis has been unreliable in short relief, long relief and as a starter.
Meanwhile, former Royals pitchers in the majors have compiled a better record than their former club.
David Cone is 7-4 with a 2.65 ERA and leads the National League with 136 strikeouts. Kansas City traded Cone to the Mets for catcher Ed Hearn. Hearn has since retired from the game.
Scott Bankhead is 8-2 with a 2.19 ERA for first place Cincinnati. In exchange for Bankhead, the Royals received Danny Tartabull, who left Kansas City for New York.
Charlie Leibrandt, who was given up for dead after an arm injury, has been resurrected in Atlanta. The lefty is 7-3. In return for Leibrandt, the Royals received Gerald Perry, who now warms the bench for St. Louis.
Ironically, the Royals gambled away their pitching staff without the promise of prize prospects in their minor league system.
David Howard started the 1992 season as shortstop for Kansas City. Though Howard is on the All-Star ballot with the rest of the opening day starters, he has been in the minors for a month. The over-heralized wonder kid is batting. 059 in 51 at bats at Omaha.
Though All-Star rules require that each major league team be represented by at least one player, it is a safe bet that there will be more ex-Royals than Royals at the All-Star game.
While the top stars of the game gather in San Diego July 14, the Royals deservedly will be stuck at home.
Royals baseball — it's here
David Mitchell is a DeSoto senior majoring in journalism
Former Kansas basketball player Alonzo Jamison will be going to the Denver Nuggets' rookie camp July 17 and 18, the Nuggets said. Jamison is one of 16 players whom the Nuggets have invited to the camp, said Jay Clark, Nuggets media relations director.
that his agent had been approached by other teams but that he was only concerned with making the Nuggets.
Jamison said he did not know what to expect at the camp because it was his first. He said
SPORTS BRIEFS
Of the 16 players invited to Denver, only two or three will be invited back to the Nuggets' try-out camp, Clark said. Players will not be signed with the team until then.
A University of Kansas student was treated and released at a Kansas City, Mo., hospital after being struck by lightning during a cricket game between the Kansas Cricket Club and the West Indian Association Cricket Club from Kansas City Sunday at Swope Park.
Lightning struck 11 people, including one Kansas City, Mo., man who was pronounced dead upon arrival at Research Medical
Center in Kansas City. Everyone within 30 feet of the midfield in the cricket field was knocked over when the lightning bolt struck about 3:15 p.m.
Biren Kadakia, Olathe graduate student, was one of three people sent to the hospital.
"I don't remember anything." Kadakia said. "I woke up, and someone was giving me oxygen inside an ambulance."
The No. 1 seeded team of Sachs and Keith Evans, of Cordova, Tenn., curtailed the Mainline
■ On the same day Andre Agassi won his first Wimbledon title, Doug Sachs captured his first United States Tennis Association title at the Mainline Tennis Classic. In Sunday's final at the Allen Field House courts, Sachs, of Caves Creek, Ariz., beat Roland Torrentquist, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
doubles championship, defeating David Blair and Mark Merklein, 6-4, 6-1. Sachs collected $1,375 for his singles victory and shared $800 with Evans.
The USTA professional circuit is known for launching the careers of young players. Agassi was runner-up in two 1986 USTA tournaments.