Sports
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, October 17, 1989
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Improved 'Hawks face 2nd-half climb
By Gene King
By Gene King
Kansan sportswriter
Midway through the Kansas football season, the team has shown signs of improvement.
"It is obvious we have improved," said Chip Budde, junior center. "Last year we were 0-6 at this time."
The Jayhawks - 2-4 with five games
in the regular season, doubled last
season, victory lollipop
In addition to Kansas' better record, the offense has also improved.
Kansas took a break from competition Saturday because the team played during Labor Day weekend. The Jayhawks will return to action this weekend against No. 3-ranked Colorado.
In the first six games, the Jayhawks have eclipsed last season's total of 1,652 yards. Kansas has gained 2,147 yards, averaging more than 357 yards a game. Last year, the Jayhawks averaged about 275 yards a game.
With the return of running back Tony Sands, last year's leading rusher, the rushing game has also improved. Through six games last year, the Jayhawks ran for 648 yards, averaging a little more than 100 yards a game.
On the ground this season, Kansas has averaged more than 140 yards, with the backfield gaining a total of 843 yards.
"If you exclude the Baylor game, our offense has done well the whole season," tight end John Baker said.
Quarterback Kelly Donoho has led the offense on 16 touchdown drives. Last year at mid-season, he had thrown for 1,038 yards, coming within 25 of quarterback Chip Hearsey and back-up quarterback Chip Hearsey have combined for 1,304 yards.
Kansas has gained 495 more yards this season than in the first six games last year.
"I look at the fact that we could have won four games this season," Baker said.
Budde said the team realistically could be 4-2.
"Considering that only nine points
is the difference between winning two games and four games," Budde said, "I would say we have improved."
Kansas lost to Iowa State by four points and to Louisville University by five.
Last year on defense, Kansas gave up 5,760 yards in total offense, with opponents gaining 3,002 yards in the first six games.
Although this year's defense is on track to allow, more than 5,000 yards again, it has improved.
Kansas has allowed its opponents 2,755 yards, averaging 458 yards a game.
If you exclude the Baylor game, our offense has done well the whole season.'
— John Baker Kansas tight end
"Being so young last year hurt us," Budde said. "This year we are a year older, and the experience has definitely helped."
"The continuity you gain from playing together helps. A year under Coach Mason and learning his system also has helped."
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Coach Mason said that he recognized the improvements but that there was still room for more.
"We're not to the point that I thought we would be by this time," Mason said before the Jayhawks' game against Iowa State.
Budde also said there was room for improvement.
"We are now starting to learn what Coach is doing," he said. "We are getting to know each other on the field."
With five contests remaining, including games with Colorado and No. 4-ranked Nebraska, the Jay-Z road to improvement may be bumpy.
E. Joseph Zurga/KANSAN
KU football cards are being used as a promotion.
KU athletes star on cards
By Paula Parrish Kansan sportswriter
Collecting Kansas football cards hasn't quite picked up, but Mike Reid thinks that it will.
"I thought it was a good opportunity to promote the football team," Reid said.
"With football, it will take a little while," said Reid, manager of the Kansas Union Bookstore. "It's a lot of people will just have to used to."
Reid, an avid sports card collector since childhood, initiated the idea of putting Kansas football players on cards. He said that cards depict football players have been made for other universities, including Maryland and Washington.
He began the project in the spring and saw its realization when 25,000 cards were given out at the Louisville game as a promotion.
The cards then went on sale at home football games and are now on sale at the KU Bookstores and the UA Bookstores. Nostalgia Shop on 31st Street
"It's something at the concession stands for the young kids who come up and want to buy some or less than a dollar." Reid said.
Plans for cards depicting the men's basketball and baseball teams are in the works, with a
scheduled release date of Dec. 1
"We're going to try to use action photos as much as possible, which wasn't possible for the football cards because they were taken before football season started," Reid said.
The cards were given out in packs containing five cards. Reid said basketball and baseball cards would probably be sold in complete sets only.
There are 40 cards in the football set. Fifteen are planned for the basketball team and 40 for the baseball team.
"If the program this year is successful, we may expand to other sports," he said.
Bills hand Rams first loss,23-20
The Associated Press
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y — Frank Reich's 8-yard touchdown pass to Andre Reid with 16 seconds remaining last night gave the Buffalo Bills a 23-20 victory against the Los Angeles Rams, who came into the game as the NFL's only unbeaten team.
Reich, making his first NFL start, had thrown a 1-yard touchdown pass to Thurman Thomas putting Buffalo and 23 seconds remaining in the game.
But Reich and the Bills drove 64 yards in seven plays, all in the air, and capped the drive with the pass to Reed, who was hit as he made the catch at the goal line.
The victory put Buffalo at 4-2, one game ahead of Indianapolis and Miami in the AFC East. The Rams, 5-1, fell into a first-place tie with San Francisco in the NFC West.
The touchdown pass to Thomas came at the end of an 87-yard, 10-play drive that was Buffalo's only sustained offensive movement of the game.
Thomas fumbled on the Los Angeles 22-yard line, and Michael Stewart recovered for the Rams.
Everett then hit Anderson, streaking down the middle behind the Bills' Mark Kelso, who could only grab at his jersey briefly before he got loose for the winning score.
Reich, who had no completion longer than 13 yards in the first 51 minutes, finished with 21 completions in 37 attempts for 214 yards. Thomas had 24 carries for 105 yards.
Everett, harried for most of the game, was 15-for-36 for 219 yards and was sacked twice by Bruce Smith.
Manager tries to wake up sleeping Giants
SAN FRANCISCO — While the Giants pondered health and survival in the World Series, the Athletics faced less weighty concerns yesterday.
The Associated Press
Oakland's primary topics yesterday were the oft wild winds at the Giants' Candlestick Park, lineup changes at catcher and possibly shortstop, and how to hit the pitching of Don Robinson, the Giants' starter in Game 3 tonight.
"I don't think that in this part of the season the wind here is that bad," said Rickey Henderson.
None of the A's regulars have extensive experience with Candlestick's swirling gusta. Most have played there only in the Bay Area. He was a regular spring training in early April. Dave Henderson played for the Giants in September 1987 but was used mostly as a pinch hitter.
So why shouldn't the Oakland Athletics think windy Candlestick Park will be the place they breeze in the World Series?
SAN FRANCISCO — Will Clark is sick, the San Francisco hitters are in a fog and the Giants are about to face a longtime nemesis.
Of the 39 teams that took a 2-1 lead, 29 went on to win. It happened the last two years, and Oakland is hoping Game 3 will be a win. Game 3 drew against Don Robinson.
"We might shake up the lineup or do something," San Francisco manager Roger Craig said during yesterday's off-day workout. "We need to get more offense somehow."
The last time a team started the game was as feebly as San Fran-cisco was 1965.
That year, Philadelphia's "Whiz Kids" scored only one run in two games, just like these Giants. Those Philies just eventuall did a little better, but still got swept by the New York Yankees.
The Giants, who were second in the National League in runs and home runs, are batting .145 in the series so far. They were shot out a league low six times this season but got blanked in the opener by Dave Stewart and then managed five hits in a 5-1 loss in Game 2.
Clark and Kevin Mitchell have combined for five of the Giants' hits but are 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Together, they batted .343 in the same situation this year.
Clark did not practice yesterday, hoping to get healthy.
"It a little bit of everything," he said. "It started out as tonsillitis and got worse."
Mitchell planned to relax yesterday by seeing a horror movie, one of the "Halloween" genre, with his cousin. Three days after Friday the 13th, maybe that's what he and the rest of the black-and-orange clad Giants need.
"I could watch them all night," he said.
mates "are thinking too much."
As for the Giants' horror show at the plate, Mitchell said his team
"Our guys are a little tight. You can see the way everybody is just sitting there, and I am sitting there," said For a lot of the time it's their first time here. They've got
a lot of veteran guys, and that's why they're winning."
Clark promised he would be in the lineup for Game 3. So might Pat Sheridan, just 12-for-67 lifetime in the postseason, in place of Candy Maldonado in right field.
Maldonado, given a start in the first two games on a hunch by Craig, is 0-for-7, as are Robby Thompson
"A lot of people don't like playing there, but I've done well," Welch said.
and Ernest Riles.
Whether Oakland's great pitching continues to shut down San Francisco's good hitting will depend on Welch.
Welch was 19-4 lifetime against the Giants when he pitched for Los Angeles, and was 6-0 at Candlestick Park in 13 starts.
Welch went 17-8 this season. Despite a history of bad starts in the postseason, he won his only playoff start against Toronto.
Robinson, 12-11, has not started since Sept. 25 because of a sore right knee. He pitched only 1 2-3 innings in the playoffs.
"I hate to say it, but his knee could go out on him at any time," Craig said. "I don't think it will, but I'm not going to go by what he tells me because he'll lie."
If the Giants enjoy any advantage, it's that Oakland will not have the designated hitter. Dave Parker had a home run and RBI double in the first
"This is pretty much my last game in the Series," Parker said, confident as usual, after Game 2.
Robinson is a .253 litter hitter and the only active pitcher ever to draw an intentional walk. Once, in the Florida instructional league, he won the triple crown even as a pitcher.
two games, while Riles did nothing.
Robinson has 11 lifetime home runs and hit three homers in 81 at-bats this season; Oakland's Carney Lansford, who hit .336 this year, hit only two home runs in 551 at-bats.
"He could be the DH himself," Craig said of Robinson. "That's one of the reasons I wanted him to pitch."
Welch is a .196 lifetime hitter. He has not batted in the regular-season game since 1987.
Leading NHL scorer goes for 52nd record
The Associated Press
American League pitchers are 1-for-84 in the World Series since the DH was first tried in 1976. None of them have gotten a hit since Tim Stoddard had an infield single in 1979, and they are 0-for-38 the 1980s.
EDMONTON, Alberta — Wayne Gretzky holds 51 NHL records. There's at least one more to go.
"He could get another one thousand points." Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington said after Grekibsy broke Bordie Howe's record for leading Los Angeles to a movie-script 5-4 victory overaint Edmonton.
Gretzky, who became hockey's all-time leading scorer Sunday night, still trails three people on the all-time goals list. It's only a matter of time until the Great One gets that record, too.
To celebrate his coronation, he put in the game-winner, too, with 1:38 lea.
Gretzky broke the record against his former team in the building where he led them to four Stanley Cun titles in nine seasons.
He didn't do it with any old assist.
He did it with a goal. Not just a goal,
a game-tying goal with $3 seconds
remaining in regulation.
"If there is a hockey god," Pocklington said, "he was smiling on Wayne tonight."
"We came from an expansion organization that went on to win four Stanley Cups," said Mark Messner, who oversaw Christy as the Eskimo captain. "He had a big part of it. No one here is ever going to forget it or him."
"I said, 'To tie it, get one point so the Edmonton fans can share it with
the l.A. fans," said Gretzky's wife, actress Janet Jones. "He said, 'Janet, if I got one point tonight, it means I didn't play that well."
It was an emotional night, not only because of where Gretkay was going, but because of where he was doing it. Outside crowd in the Northlands Coliseum came throughout the third period, wanting to see the historic point.
The goals record is the only one that eludes him. He's in fourth place, trailing Howe (801), Marcel Dionne (731) and Espinozo (717). Howe doesn't mind losing his records to Gretzky.
"I think because of our friendship he felt bad breaking it." Howe said. "He's going to keep his job. He can't go the whole season without scoring any points."
Gretzky has played 780 games and gotten three points 58 times, four points 52 times, two points 58 times. He has 642 career goals and an all-time lead of 1,210 assists.
KANSAS FOOTBALL: Kansas coach Glen Mason said yesterday that his game plan would not change Saturday, even though Colorado starting tailback Eric Bieniemy will be on the sidelines with an injury.
Bienliemy, who will be replaced by J. J. Flannigan, fractured his leg when third-ranked Colorado played Iowa State last weekend.
"They will run the same offense with Flamigan, although Flamlian is a little faster than Bieniemy," Mason said.
Kansas outside linebacker Robert Mitchell will not play during Dursey's game in Boulder during the injury-referenced during Thursdays practice.
"We didn't think it was anything, but it swelled up, and he'll be out this week." Mason said.
"I think it's good we get out here and practice for these conditions," Mason said. "The ball was wet, and it was windy, so we worked with the elements a little bit."
The Jayhawks practiced for almost three hours yesterday at Memorial Stadium in 40-degree temperatures and wind.
NEBCHEL WALKER: The royal treatment Hermeschal Walker has been getting since he left Dallas may seem include a house that once belonged to a well-known former
Sport briefs
Viking, Walker's agent said.
viking, walker's agent said.
Pittsburgh attorney Ralph Cindrich has confirmed that the Minnesota Vikings' new running back and North Carolina Cindrick said the Vikings arranged for Walker to live in a house comparable to the one he would leave behind.
"he has to be happy with the home," Cindrick said. "I guess Mike Lynn has already shown him or talked about Ahmad Rashad's home." Lynn is Minnesota's general manager.
Rashad was a wide receiver with the Vikings from 1976-82 and is now a broadcaster with NBC.
Against Green Bay on Sunday, he ran for 148 yards on 13 carries, caught a pass for seven yards and returned a two kickoffs for 40 yards.
Vikings fans may fully approve of the hefty expenditures if Walker keeps performing as he did in his debut.
DRIVER DIESE: Race car driver Scott Lieber died Sunday night in Braselton, Ga., of injuries he received in a crash during Saturday's Sports Car Club of America race at Road Atlanta.
After the crash, Liebier's Martini MK 3 car became airborne, rolled several times and came to rest unawake about 100 yards away.
Lieber, 28, of Manhattan,
splummed into the rear of Jim
Bruck's car during the first lap of
the National Championship Valvoline
Roffins.
He died of a severe head injury, which officials at Northeast Georgia Medical Center said was an edema, or accumulation of fluid, near his brain.
Wayne Cerbo of Towaco, N.J., won the Formula Atlantic race.
Formula Atlantic racing cars such as the one Liebler was driving are open-wheeled, open-cockpit vehicles. Liebler had raced since 1979, moving up to the Formula Atlantic division in 1983.
FERRY FALTERS: It's starting to get embarrassing for Danny Ferry and Brian Shaw.
The U.S. stars played their worst games of the Italian basketball season as their team, Messaggio straight game in Nantes, Italy.
Messaggio's fans were hoping the highly-touted and high-paid Ferry and Shaw would bring them a league title. The team lost 93-85 Sunday night to previously winless Paint Napoli.
Kansas tennis player, Eveline Hamers, won the singles championship of the Hoosier Converse Classic in Bloomington, Ind., on Sunday.
After winning its opener, Messaggero dropped three close games to the league's top teams. But Sunday's decisive loss to one of the league's weakest clubs hurt the most.
Tennis player wins singles
By a Kansan reporter
Hamers defeated Candy Kopetski of Indiana, 6-2, 6-4 in the championship.
She said that the victory gave her the confidence she needed to be mentally well-prepared going into the Riviera All-American Championships in Los Angeles. The tournament is scheduled for Oct. 26-29.
Hamers, a Meersees, Netherlands,
sophomore, won three singles matches to reach the final. In the
second round, Melissa Harris of Notre Dame 6-8, 7-4.
She said that in the third match Deborah Edeman of Indiana caused her some trouble, although Hamers defeated her 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
"At the final I did not have any problems." she said.
Other Kansas players competing in the singles competition of the tournament, Page Goins, Laura Hagemann, Susan Noftager, Becky DeSalme, Anna Banjakul and Stacy Stoin, all lost in the first round.
In double bracket No. 2, Hagemann and Renee Raychaudhuri finished fourth in the tournament.
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