Wednesday, April 8, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 5
Lipinski glides into professional arena
The Associated Press
Tara Lipinski captivated the Olympics with her gold medal win. Now the Winter Games no longer figure into her future, a decision that ends her budding rivalry with Michelle Kwan.
Lipinski said yesterday she was entering the professional ranks of figure skating. She wants to train less so she can spend more time with her family.
Lipinski will make her professional debut on April 24 at "Skate, Rattle n' Roll," a made-for-television event in Charleston, S.C.
That show is not sanctioned, and once the 15-year-old champion skates there she can forget going to Salt Lake City in 2002 to defend the title she won in Nagano, Japan.
The reinstement window that applied to ineligible skaters before the 1994 Olympics and allowed such champions as Brian Boitano,
Viktor Petrenko, Katarina Witt and Yekaterina Gordeeva and Sergel Grinkov to return to the Lillehammer Games, no longer exists.
Tonight in Baltimore, Lipinski begins the Champions On Ice tour featuring Olympic, world and national medal winners.
"I would love to go to the 2002 Olympics and try to win another gold." Lipinski said on NBC's "Today" show. She added she would feel "almost a little greedy in doing that, especially to my parents, who have given up so much."
Richard Callaghan, Lipinski's coach, said he was surprised at the timing of the decision to turn pro, but he understood it.
"I'm sorry to see her leave the eligible ranks," Callaghan said. "She did a lot for women's skating. It would be nice to see her do more."
Skating Club.
Lipinski trained with Callaghan at the Detroit
"Now I'll have four day weekends and be able to be with my family because they mean
NAGANO
so much to me," she said. "I don't want to be 21 and not know my dad."
After she skipped last week's world championships in Minneapolis, it became clear that Lipinski and her advisers felt there was little to gain by remaining an Olympic-eligible skater.
"I've accomplished my dream," she said. "I think I need to give something back to them, so we can be a family again and really have that connection."
"I realized after Nagano how important it is to me to be with my mom and dad and be all together and have fun and go out to dinner and
really be a family again. I owe that to my parents and myself."
Several agents estimated Lipinski could earn between $13 million and $15 million in endorsements after winning the Olympics.
But there will be no more Olympic showdowns with Kwan, the 17-year-old who won a second world title last Saturday. They met three times this season, with Kwan winning at the U.S. championships and at Skate America. However, Lipinski won the biggest prize at the Olympics, where Kwan was
Lipinski leaves eligible skating with a remarkable record. She became the youngest U.S. and world champion last year and then was the youngest individual Olympic gold medalist in history at Nagano.
She is the best technical skater among the women, and her artistry has improved significantly in the last two years.
In 1997, Lipinski dithered Kwan as U.S., world and Champions Series champion.
second.
Champions Series champion.
Lipinski's jump to the pros further depletes the Olympic-eligible ranks.
Although five-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge said he would not jeopardize his eligibility by appearing in nonsanctioned events, he won't skate at nationals and worlds for the next few years.
Philippe Kindlier, the hugely popular bronze medalist at Nagano, has turned pro, as have Lug Chin, like Kindler a double-Olympic bronze medalist, and two-time Olympic dance champions Pasha Grishuk and Yevgeny Platov — she is pursuing a film career, too. Several other Olympic medalists, including men's champion Ilya Kulik and pairs winners Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, also are considering leaving.
Detroit Tigers overcome five-game losing streak
Team's loss stretch ends with victory against Tampa Bay
The Associated Press
DETROIT — Todd Jones was a man on a mission. He had hockey tickets, and he did not want to be late.
Jones, Detroit's save leader with a career-high 31 last season, earned his first save of 1998 with a perfect ninth inning yesterday as the Tigers beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3-1 in their home opener.
Jones said Mike Iitch, who owns the Tigers and the NHL's Red Wings, gave him the tickets.
The win, sparked by the hitting of Brian Hunter and some aggressive base-running by Luis Gonzalez, ended a five-game losing streak, which matched the Tigers' longest of 1997.
"I had felt absolutely useless until today," Jones said. "I mean, I want to go out and contribute. Plus, I've got third-row tickets at the hockey game."
"If I'd blown it, I don't know,
maybe he'd come and snatch back the tickets," Jones said with a laugh.
But it was no laughing matter for the Devil Rays, 4-2 through their first six games and trying to become just the third expansion team to start 5-2. Tampa Bay stranded 13 runners, including eight by Bubba Trammell.
"Both teams left runners on base," said Tampa Bay's Kevin Stocker, who had a triple and two singles from the ninth slot. "But we had the opportunities, and that's what you need is opportunities. We're going to win a lot of games if we keep getting those opportunities."
Trammell, who played for Detroit in the Tigers' 1997 home opener, struck out for Tampa Bay in the first and third and left the bases loaded each time. He fanned for the second out with runners at first and second in the seventh.
"The only thing that struck me about the change of uniforms was how I hit in this ballpark," Trammell said. "It didn't change anything. Last year, I think. I hit about .140 here and .280 on the road."
Two pitches before his final
whiff. Trammell hit a long ball into the second deck in left field
— but it hooked foul by no more than two feet. A homer at that point would have given the Devil Rays a 4-3 lead.
"You know, Bubba about killed us," Detroit manager Buddy Bell said. "You still have to make pitches to him. But we don't have any idea how to pitch to Bubba. I don't think anybody does."
Trammell was in the lineup because Rich Butler developed a groin infection.
"That was a frustrating game, for the players and for me," said Devil Rush manager Larry Rothschild. "In the first six games, we were getting those runs in. Today, we didn't."
Bryce Florie (1-0), the third of five Tigers pitchers, pitched two scoreless innings, and Doug Broca held Tampa Bay to one hit during 11/3 innings before turning it to Jones.
Detroit scored three runs off Rolando Arrojo (1-1), a Cuban defector making his second major league start. Arrojo, who beat the Tigers last week for the Devil Rays' first win, gave up eight hits and two walks in 5/2 3
Roberts' RBI grounder, Detroit made it 2-0 in the fourth when Luis Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Raul Casanova. Gonzalez, scoring from second, made a slide to beat a plate to the plate by right fielder Dave Martinez.
Hunter tripled leading off the third and scored on bip
Stocker scored on an RBI single by Wade Boggs as the Devil Rays closed to 2-1 in the fifth. Hunter had a run-scoring single in sixth.
"We were aggressive," Hunter said. "We got on base, and we did what we were supposed to do."
retreat to first base.
"That was a great play," said Tony Clark, who stretched to take the throw. "The ball ran on him a little, but there was no question Bobby could get him. Not with the arm he's got."
Detroit was also aggressive on defense. Right fielder Bobby Higginson, who led the majors with 20 outfield assists in 1997, made a running catch to snag a liner off Miguel Cairo's bat for the second out in the eight. Then he whirled and made a long throw across his body to double off Quinton McCracken before he could
Tigers' starter Brian Moehler gave up one run, six hits and three walks in 41/3 innings.
Notes: Rothschild said he was giving his players today off. The Devil Rays had stopped in North Carolina for an exhibition with the Durham Bulls on Monday. ... Boggs broke out of a 1-for-13 slump with his 3-for-3 effort. ... Fred McGriff had his season-opening six-game hit streak snapped. ... The Tigers called the home opener their first sellout since April 11, 1994. There were 45,768 tickets sold for the park, where official capacity is listed as 46,945. The 1994 date also was a home opener. ... First-pitch temperatures, tracked by the Tigers' public relations department since 1934, have ranged from a low of 34 in 1996 to a high of 80 in 1960. Yesterday's was 53 degrees. ... It was the first road game for the Devil Rays. The 12 previous expansion teams went 5-7 in their road openers.
Cuban baseball players released after defection
NASSAU, Bahamas — Cuban baseball defector Jorge Luis Toca, held for more than two weeks in a detention center in the Bahamas, was on his way to Japan yesterday after accepting an offer of asylum.
The 23-year-old first baseman left Nassau with his wife, Miyo Tora Gomez, a Japanese immigrant. They were in Tokyo today after stops in London and Amsterdam, said Vernon Burrows, the Bahamas' deputy immigration director.
Meanwhile, two other baseball players who defected from Cuba's national team last year were headed yesterday to American minor league teams.
Toca, three other Cuban players, a coach and four acquaintances fled Cuba by boat March 20. They were rescued by a Bahamian fisherman and were detained in Nassau while sports agents tried to get visas from a third country.
The other eight Cubans, all of whom remained in custody, signed an agreement Monday with the Florida-based sports agency KDN Sports Inc. to represent them in visa discussions with the Costa Rican government, Burrows said.
Costa Rica told Bahamian officials last week that three agents had applied for visas on behalf of the players. Burrows said. The Costa Ricans insisted they would not issue visas until someone produced a signed document showing they represented the players.
The players are catcher Angel Lopez, 25, second baseman Jorge Diaz, 23, and Michael Jova, a 17-year-old shortstop from Cuba's junior Olympic team. The group also includes Orlando Chinea, 41, a pitching coach.
All were banned from Cuban baseball last year because Cuban officials suspected they were planning to defect.
With them were Ernesto Perez Toma, 28, Giovani Pena Gonzalez, age unknown, Pedro Ferrer Chacon, 30, and Jose Roche, 27.
The Bahamas refused to grant political asylum to the group last week. The government said interviewers from the U.N. High Commission on Refugees did not believe that the group had been victims of political persecution in Cuba.
More than 130 other Cuban refugees are in custody at the detention camp in the Bahamas, which has an agreement with Cuba to repatriate refugees.
Meanwhile, two other Cuban defectors were involved with major league teams: center fielder Osmani Santana, 22, who signed with Cleveland, and catcher Francisco Santiesteban, 41, who will join the Seattle team.
The Indians said yesterday that Santana was scheduled to report Sunday and would play for Class A in Kinston, N.C. He abandoned his team in Mission last October.
Santiesteban, who defected in November when the Cuban team was touring Colombia, was headed yesterday for Peoria, Ariz., the Mariners said. Seattle has a rookie league team in Peoria, but the Mariners said he would be assigned to Double-A Orlando, Fla., in the Southern League.
KU PRE-DENTAL CLUB
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OFFICIAL GRADUATION REGALIA
Attention Graduates and Faculty!
Graduation regalia is now available at the KU Bookstore.
When to pick up regalia: Rentals will be available to pick up May 14, 15,16 and 17 until commencement.
Where: The Kansas Union, level 2
When: Bachelor and master candidates purchase your regalia in the store anytime until commencement. Doctoral and law candidates, and faculty members rent your regalia by April 20. Late fees apply on orders placed after this date.
How to Rent: Come to the clothing department of the store to place orders in person. Call 864-4640 to order by phone with a credit card.
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