Section B · Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 24, 1998
Cardinal player back on track
Jordan returns after recovery from injuries
The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — Brian Jordan, a crossover success story who began his professional career in the NFL, relied on a track man to get back to the major leagues.
Jordan, who missed most of last season with wrist and back injuries, is back to being a catalyst with the St. Louis Cardinals. In the team's 13-7 start he was batting .288 with two home runs and 13 RBIs and making aggressive plays in the field.
"He didn't play much last year and
"So, yes, it looks like he's back."
he's going to need some time to get his timing back," general manager Walt Jocketty said. "But he's played great defense and made some outstanding throws.
Jordan says he ows it all to Bobby Kersee, the track trainer and husband of Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The two worked out all winter, and Kersee has continued to work with Jordan during the season.
"I'm heading in the right direction, and Bobby is staying on my butt, so it's going to happen," Jordan said. "That was the best thing that could have happened to me, meeting Bobby and working with him all winter."
Two years ago, Kersee helped St. Louis Blues goalie Grant Fuhr come back from a career-threatening
knee injury and return to iron man status.
"I knew all about the story," Jordan said. "When he strapped me
out like a pretzel and as I was screaming, he said "This is what I did for Grant."
Fuhr sympathizes with Jordan.
"He knows the suffering that can happen," Fuhr said. "But it's worth it."
Just like Führ did, Jordan dreads Kersez's efforts.
"At that particular moment, I'll still be crying about how much pain I'm in," Jordan said. "But in the long run I feel great running and it really loosens me up."
Jordan got his sprinter's speed
back by running with another Olympian, Gall Devers, in the offseason.
In 1986, when the Cardinals ended up one game short of the World Series, Jordan was the team's best player with a seemingly endless supply of clutch hits and acrobatic defensive plays in right field. He batted .304 with 17 homers and 110 RBIs.
Jordan is not over the back pain vet.
"I'm waking up now and feeling a lot of pain," he said. "But it's going to start healing, which is important."
Last year, he had nothing but trouble that began in spring training when he hurt his back. The injury was not correctly diagnosed as a bulging disc until August when he went on the disabled list for the third time—this time for good.
His wrist is not 100 percent, either. But both are close enough that Jordan has been able to hit his first two homers since 1996.
World Cup teams tweak rosters
Injuries, poor play motivate coaches
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland — Gabriel Batisuta is likely to be top scorer at the World Cup.
图
Who thinks so?
Gabriel Batistuta.
"My big ambition is to be the top scorer there, the Argentine striker said yesterday after helping his team to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ireland at Dublin's Lansdowne Road.
"Ihad the same hope in the United States four years ago, but we went out of the tournament too early," Batistua said.
"Now I think we have a better chance this time."
TOKYO — Romario reveals all.
The Brazilian soccer star, who guided his nation to a record fourth World Cup title four years ago, has shed his shirt and shorts for a television advertisement in Japan.
With the World Cup this summer,
Sumitomo Rubber Industries chose
the Brazilian star to boost its
international image. Last year, their
featured Chicago Bulls forward
Dennis Rodman bouncing a tire.
In this year's ad, which is only being shown in Japan, Romario turns from a skeleton into a running figure who briefly appears nude.
Romario, who was paid $770,000 for the ad, actually wore swimming trunks for the commercial, said Hiroshi Watanabe, company spokesman.
pool midfielder Jamie Redknapp might make it to the World Cup.
After the young star injured his knee in a collision with
LIVERPOOL, England — Liver-
Coventry's Dion Dublin in a league game last weekend, England coach Glenn Hoddle said Redknapp would miss the rest of the season and be unavailable for the June 10-July 12 World Cup.
Liverpool manager Roy Evans was less pessimistic.
"Jamie is improving all the time," Evans said yesterday. "It's a minor strain of the lateral ligament."
"When people say he's out for the season it sounds very dramatic, but the season only has three weeks to
go, and we still have high hopes of Jamie taking part in our last games."
in the Derby. The first was Secretariat in 1973.
ROME — His nickname is if"Uncle," and he's certainly old enough to be one to most of Italy's national team players.
Glusepe Bergomi, a member of Italy's 1982 champions but away from the team since 1991, could be a surprise roster addition for the World Cup, Italian newspapers reported yesterday.
With central back Ciro Ferrara out of the tournament with a broken leg and the defense showing signs of weakness, coach Cesare Maldini may add the 34-year-old Bergomi as a reserve. His experience and steady play would help settle a unit that features two starters in their early 20s, Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta.
Unbeaten colts to race in Derby
The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There will be something new in this year's Kentucky Derby, but once the gate opens the race should be like it is almost every year — a heart-pounding charge in which talent often needs the strong support of luck.
The cast for the 124th Derby on May 2 is a rich mix of speed horses, middle-of-the-pack horses and stretch runners.
Indian Charlie and Event of the Year each are undefeated in four starts.
Among the cast in what is a 17-horse field are two unbeaten colts and a Horse of the Year.
Favorite Trick, who won the honor as a 2-year-old, will be only the second Horse of the Year to run
"It's still luck," said Bob Baffert, trainer of Indian Charlie and Real
The new wrinkle will be the postposition draw, which will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN.
In previous years, the number drawn for a horse specified the post position. This year, however, if a horse draws No. 3, it means his connections will have the third pick as to what post position they want.
Quiet of the Santa Anita Derby
"I don't think it matters," Nick Zito said. Zita trains in Blue Grass Stakes winner Halory Hunter, whose principal owner is Rick Pitino, coach of the NBA Boston Celtics.
While there will be several proven 3-year-olds in the field, there also will be the usual suspects who make the Derby both interesting and crowded.
For instance, there is National alore, believed to be history's richest maiden. The colt, bred, owned and trained by Cho Myung-Kwan, a native of South Korea, is winless in 15 career starts, but he has earned $283,767. Most of the money was earned with third-place finishes in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the Hollywood Futurity.
whose owners, Madeline Paulson and Jenny Craig, want a Derby horse. Paulson is the wife of Allen Paulson, who raced the great Cigar.
Then there is Rock and Roll,
Favorite Trick's winning streak was snapped at nine in his second start this year when he finished third, a neck behind Victory Gallop, in the Arkansas Derby. The loss, however, has not made anybody consider Favorite Trick for the Kentucky Derby on a track where he won three times last year.
Rock and Roll is trained by Bill Mott, trainer of Favorite Trick. Mott also trained Cigar, who is retired.
The upset earned Victory Gallop a trip to Kentucky. Irish-bred Hanuman Highway, second in the Arkansas Derby, also is being pointed to the Kentucky Derby.
Through sprains, twists and spasms, Iron Man plays on
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE — Every now and then Cal Ripken feels a twinge in his lower back, a reminder that he's a mere mortal and not really an Iron Man.
Not literally, anyway.
Ripken's uncanny threshold for pain is not the only reason he hasn't missed a game for the Baltimore Orioles since May 29, 1982. His tireless work ethic and unwavering consistency have made it easy for the eight managers he's played for to write his name on the lineup card every day.
Ripken, who is expected to make his 2,500th consecutive start tomorrow night, isn't impervious to pain. During his incredible streak he has endured a sprained left ankle, a twisted right ankle, a twisted right knee and severe lower back spasms.
It's been more than 21/2 years since Ripken passed Lou Gehrig's seemingly unbreakable major league record of 2,130 consecutive games. When he takes the field at third base tomorrow night against the Oakland Athletics, Ripken's 2,500-game run will be larger than the next 22 current streaks combined.
"Twenty-five hundred? It's a round number, and I'm proud of it," Ripken said. "I'm proud I can still go out and play every day. The toughest thing is to keep a fresh approach."
Ripken, 37, knows there soon will be a day when he will have to fight to hold onto the starting job. That, and the Orioles' quest to get into the World Series for the first time since 1983, keep him motivated.
"When I'm sweating on the field and think I really don't have to work that hard, I start to think that my career will be over before I know it and how good I'm going to feel when we have success," he said. "The rewards keep me running hard."
There was a time last summer when Ripken wasn't certain he could walk, let alone run. A herniated disk in his back was pressing against a nerve that runs down his left leg, and doctors prescribed six to eight weeks of rest.
Ripken immediately rejected the advice, although he almost removed himself from a game in Oakland on Aug. 2. He stuck it out, then singled in his next atbat and homered the next day.
"That was the hardest injury of my whole career," Ripken said. "The dilemma had nothing to do with the streak. We were in first
"When I'm sweating on the field and think I really don't have to work that hard, I start to think that my career will be over before I know it and how good I'm going to feel when we have success."
Cal Ripken Baltimore Orioles' third baseman
place and headed for the playoffs — a situation every baseball player wants to be in — so I decided I had to play through the pain."
Although he sometimes ached so much he couldn't sit down in the dugout, Ripken made it through the season. He then spurned off-season surgery, instead working diligently to strengthen his back. The regimen continued this spring, when he hoisted a medicine ball thousands of times before during
"I wish I could put a camera on Cal from the time he walks into the ballpark to the time
and after exhibition games.
he leaves," Orioles manager Ray Miller said. "I'd show it to a minor league player and say, 'If you want to be a great player like a Lou Gehrig or a Babe Ruth, just do this every day.' His work ethic is just phenomenal."
Ripken was hitting .289 with 13 RBIs in 20 games through yesterday, but as soon as he slips into a slump, detractors of the streak will insist that he voluntarily sit himself down.
"Early on in the streak, the criticism kind of bothered me. Maybe it was immaturity on my part," Ripken said. "I thought it was so unfair. Now that I've dealt with it for a number of years, it doesn't make me angry. It just makes me focus."
The criticism is easier to deal with than back spasms. Ripken was prepared to sit out a game in July last summer before Brady Anderson, his closest friend on the team, begged him to at least test the back in warm-ups before deciding.
Ripken played the entire game
Kipken played the entire game: "Talk about a guy who can grind it out," Anderson said. "He told me afterwards, 'Maybe I thought I really was the Iron Man.'"
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