Friday, April 17, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 9
Brushback pitch incites fight
Lofton charges Johnson again
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — With one pitch already to the backstop, Randy Johnson stood on the mound and angrily motioned for Kenny Lofton to get back in the batter's box.
Whether a sane person would oblige is a discussion for another day.
Lofton simply shrugged and kept chattering away, and the Big Unit's wavy hair flared from his shoulders as he rocked into his motion again.
The Seattle Mariners may look back on what happened next as the moment their season turned.
Johnson's second buzzzball at Lofton's head set off a second altercation in Seattle's 5-3 victory against the Cleveland Indians on
Wednesday night. Johnson,
Lofton and Cleveland's Sandy Alomar were ejected, and Mariners manager Lou Piniella came close when he went after Lofton.
AL president Gene Budig will review tapes of the incidents today. Whatever he decides, it is clear Johnson's intimidating tactics woke up the snoozing Mariners — and inspired their dreadful bulpen.
"If you're going to talk trash to our team, we're going to retailate." Alex Rodriguez said after Seattle snapped a seven-game losing streak and avoided the worst start in franchise history. "Sometimes you have to stand up to the bully."
The Indians raced to Lofton's defense, and the Mariners rallied around the 6-foot-10 Johnson after consecutive pitches sailed close to the leadoff batter's head in the third inning.
"As soon as it happened, as soon as we found out he was tossed, we all said. 'This is our shining
moment," said Paul Spoljaric, who pitched 2 1-3 scoreless innings for the win
The bullpen came in 0-4
with an 8.84 ERA and had blown leads in two of Johnson's starts — including a seven-run ninth that ruined a two-hit, 15-strikeout performance in Boston.
After Johnson walked off the mound, Seattle's relievers were brilliant.
Johnson and Piniella, who had spent hours in individual meetings with his pitchers before the game, seized this chance to awaken the Mariners.
"Possibly getting the blood pressure up a little bit will bring us together." Piniella said.
The tension evoked memories of how these teams went after each other in 1995, when Cleveland defeated Seattle — and Johnson —
at the deafening Kingdome in Game 6 of the AL championship series to advance to its first World Series since 1954.
"It will be very interesting to see what happens when we come back here," Rodriguez said.
Although Johnson and Lofton are thought to be friendly away from the field, they have a testy history when standing 60 feet, 6 inches apart.
Lofton has angered the Big Unit a couple of times by trying to bunt for hits. Knee music in the next atbat.
Also, Lofton scored from second base on a passed ball on a Johnson pitch in Game 6 of that memorable ALCS. Lofton says it goes back even farther.
"He's been throwing at me since '92," said Lofton, who was in the National League with Atlanta last season. "A lot of guys laugh about it, but it's not funny."
In fact, Lofton is one of the few left-handed hitters brave enough to face Johnson. Naturally, Johnson is going to send him a message from time to time.
U.S. marathoners are running slow
The Associated Press
The rest of the world has been running past U.S. marathoners since 1983, the last time an American won in Boston.
Gone are the late 1970s and early 1980s when runners such as Bill Rodgers and Alberto Salazar could be counted on to win the Boston or New York City marathons.
Indeed, U.S. runners are facing troubled times.
"We have fewer competitive runners at every level." U.S. Olympic marathoner Peltzinger said. "We are simply developing too few marathoners."
Marathon in 2:09:35.
In 1983, 21 runners ran the 26.2-mile distance faster than two hours, 10 minutes — four of them from the United States. Last year, 52 runners worldwide broke 2:10, but only one American did — Jerry Lawson, who finished the Lasalle Banks Chicago
Greg Meyer was the last American to win the Boston Marathon (2:09); Salazar was the last American to win the New York City Marathon, in 1982 (2:09.29).
Experts cite the lack of an organized program for long-distance runners as why American marathoners cannot keep up any more. While some countries such as Japan have state-supported programs, many U.S. runners have to work full time while training.
USA 1998 indoor 3,000-metr champion Dan Browne said it would be several years before he considered running marathons.
"I want to see how fast I can get before seeing how far I can go," he said.
Other explanations include: the increase of endurance events such as the triathlon; poor training techniques by U.S. runners; and fewer
role models such as Rodgers, who has won Boston and New York eight times.
Many coaches, race directors and athletes want a national program that can help U.S. long-distance runners compete with the world's best. What is needed, they said, is a program that attracts athletes while they are teen-agers and supports runners once they leave college.
"The way I always felt, if I was going against a guy who was going to work a 40-hour week, I was going to beat them," he said.
Marathon boosters said the United States does not need to regain the dominant position it had 15 or 20 years ago. The emergence of several top Kenyan runners, who have used high-altitude training to achieve phenomenal success, is enough to curtail dreams of U.S. dominance.
which Browne can attest. The 23-year-old runner is in the World Class Athlete Program run by the U.S. Army. As part of his five-year commitment to the army, Browne is now based in Fort Carson, Colo., training for the 2004 Sydney Olympics.
But having an established program would certainly help, a point to
USA Track & Field CEO Craig Masback agreed some kind of program is necessary.
Camp, who oversees the program,
said, "You don't have to do a full-time
job and train in between."
"I think it's the USATF's responsibility to identify our outstanding future marathoners in high school and provide opportunities as they progress through college." Masback said.
Masback cites the U.S. decathlon program, which received sponsorship from Visa starting in 1989-90. The result: Dave Johnson and Dan O'Brien, both of whom became world-class decathletes.
Struggling fighter climbs the ladder ready to do battle
PHILADELPHIA — A battered Meldrick Taylor struggled off the canvas just seconds before the final bell in his championship fight with Julio Cesar Chavez. Asked twice by the referee if he could continue, he gave no response.
The Associated Press
The lapse cost him more than a fight he had dominated and could have won. It became a defining moment for Taylor and sent his career into a tailspin.
The millions he had earned after winning a gold medal as a featherweight at the 1984 Olympics soon were gone—and so was the glory. He lost other fights he could have won, became a preacher in a religious sect and was charged with insurance fraud.
Now, eight years after that first fight with Chavez, Taylor's making another comeback — but this time it is different. At 31, he just wants to make an honest buck.
"I've got to make a living," said Taylor, who has a bout in Atlantic City, N.J. on May 16.
Taylor, a Philadelphia,
started making a living with his
hands at an early age. He started
boxing when he was eight,
became a millionaire in his
teens, and started wearing fine
clothes and driving a Mercedes
soon after.
Four years after winning his gold medal, Taylor won the IBF junior welterweight title. He had not lost a fight when he arrived for his bout on March 17, 1990, against Cavez, then 68-0.
In a battle of two fighters in their prime, he dominated for 11 rounds. But the Mexican champion pummeled Taylor in the
final round and stunned him with a devastating right hook. Referee Richard Steele, in one of the more controversial decisions in modern boxing, called the fight with just two seconds left.
Taylor went on to win the WBA welterweight belt in 1991, but the Chavez fight had taken its toll. Taylor lost two straight bouts in 1992, then dropped the rematch against his nemesis in 1994. His chance to erase his greatest loss gone, he never was the same in the ring.
"I was reckless," Taylor said. "I was never involved with drugs or nothing, but it was a very high-profile life. Partying every day, going out with women."
Taylor invested in food carts, but workers stole the profits. He opened a hair salon, but that folded.
"His heart's too big and he had the bad fortune to trust the wrong people," said Wendell Keene, a friend Taylor calls his godfather. "Some people have taken him good. And he's made some mistakes. He was like a kid on a merry-go-round. You don't take time to sit back and evaluate things."
When he was champion, Taylor would sometimes hand friends $5.000.
Even with creditors at his door, changing his spending habits has proven difficult: Taylor still rents a white, stretch Lincoln Town Car with a driver to get to the gym.
Losing the second Chavez fight left him poorer and seemed to change him in other ways. He became a little more humble. He found stability in a fringe religion. Boxing was not a road to fame and riches. It became just a job.
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