6B • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10,2002
Former Braves settles in with Mets
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Tom Glavine quickly noticed the difference between being with the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets.
"I've had a few people already come up to me on the street and it's been positive. That's a lot different than it usually is." Glavine said yesterday during his first trip to New York since signing the $35 million, three-year contract.
Instead of being the enemy for crushing the Mets' hopes each year, Glavine is being counted on by New York fans to reverse two years of disappointment.
A group of fans waited in the cold outside Shea Stadium to greet Glavine and his family as they arrived for the news conference announcing the deal.
Glavine then put on a Mets jersey, with his usual No.47,and the transformation was complete: His 16-year run in Atlanta was over.
"It probably will be strange until I start pitching here." Glavine said. "Great players change teams. I told myself when Wayne Gretzky got traded that it can happen to anyone."
The 36-year-old Glavine never really thought he would leave Atlanta, where he won two Cy Young Awards, posted five 20-win seasons and helped lead the Braves to
11 straight division titles.
Eight of those titles came after the Braves moved to the NL East — with the Mets finishing second four times. Glavine was 16-7 against the Mets and also pitched seven scoreless innings to beat New York in Game 3 of the 1999 NL championship series.
I'm hoping my string of NL division titles continues next year," he said. "I'm joining a quality team. If I thought the team didn't have a chance to win, I wouldn't have come."
Glavine repeatedly stressed how committed the Wilpons are to winning after two disappointing seasons.
"We had an aberrational year last year," Fred Wilpon said. "We had good players who didn't play well and we think they will next year. We established that we needed a No. 1 pitcher, and Tom Glavine was the best one on the market-place."
The Mets have been seeking that since Mike Hampton left after the 2000 season. New York struggled the next season to an 82-80 record and dropped even further last season despite the addition of big-name players such as Roberto Alomar and Mo Vaughn.
The Mets stumbled to a 75-86 lastplace finish, leaving them 261/2 games behind the Braves and costing manager Bobby
"Great players change teams. I told myself when Wayne Gretzky got traded that it can happen to anyone."
Tom Glavine New York Mets' Pitcher
Tom Glavine
Valentine his job.
"It's easy to look at the New York Mets and look at last year's club and say, 'What are you thinking? Why are you going there?'" Glavine said. "The flip side is if you look at the talent on the field, what's the chance those guys won't be successful again?"
Glavine has been one of the most consistent pitchers in the game over the past decade, never missing a start because of injury in his career. Phillips said Glavine's physical yesterday showed he was in perfect health and had the body of a younger pitcher.
Glavine was 18-11 with a 2.96 ERA this year, although he went just 7-7 with a 3.93 ERA after the All-Star break. He is 242-143 with a 3.37 ERA lifetime.
"He's a winner. He's a bulldog. He's a workhorse," GM Steve Phillips said. "He's the entire package. He meets everything were trying to acquire in a front-line pitcher."
A READER'S REQUEST
Pros CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Alonzo Jamison - Kansas Forward, 1990-92
In three years as a Jayhawk, Jamison left his mark. He ranks fourth on the school's all-time list with a 58.0 career field goal percentage. In 1991, Jamison was a part of the Jayhawks' Final Four run, leading the team in rebounds, steals and blocked shots.
Chronister
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Where the system faltered this season was the other top three bowls. The Rose Bowl, which featured the Big 10 and Pac-10 champions before the implementation of the BCS, was outdollarled by the Orange Bowl for Iowa, co-champion of the Big 10 with Ohio State, and Southern California, co-champion of the Pac-10 with Washington State.
Both bowls wanted Southern Cal but Orange Bowl officials got their wish because their game features a larger monetary payoff to the teams, which is the tiebreaker in such situations.
Say hello to big-bucks college
In 1993, Jamison was released during training camp by both the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers. He then played professionally in Sweden and France, but quit basketball after rupturing his Achilles upon returning home.
He moved onto restaurant managing and then banking. He is now working with Commercial Lending as the business development manager.
— Edited by Melissa Shuman
athletics, say goodbye to the maintenance of the bowl system.
Rose Bowl officials still have Pac-10 co-champion Washington State and Big 12 champion Oklahoma, but those teams are paltry compensation for the destruction of tradition. If BCS officials are so worried about enhancing a bowl system which has supplied critical support to college football for almost half a century, they should make sure they stick as closely as possible to those 50 years of tradition instead of perpetuating the idea of college athletics as a business, not a sport.
Chronister is a Lawrence senior in journalism. He is the Kansan sports editor.
Miami, Ohio State: BCS battle of two undefeated teams
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Before the season, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel took his staff on a road trip to watch other teams' spring workouts. One of the stops was Miami.
Why there, Tressel was asked.
"They're Miami. They're the national champions," he said.
Miami is a 13-point favorite,
but that doesn't bother Tressel.
Now Ohio State will get another look at the Hurricanes in the Jan. 3 Fiesta Bowl. And this time, Tressel hopes the Buckeyes come away with that coveted title.
"I don't think we get too involved in the broad type of things, like who's the underdog or who's not," Tressel said. "I think our guys are just excited to have a chance to play in the Fiesta Bowl and to play against the national champions."
The game matches two undefeated teams who used similar weapons but different routes to the same destination.
Top-ranked Miami (12-0)
seeking to become the first
repeat champion since Nebraska in 1994-95, scored sometimes at will, averaging 41.9 points. But it also gave up more points (18 per game) than it might have liked.
No. 2 Ohio State (13-0), going for its first championship since 1968, played defense more diligently, allowing just 12.2 points per game. It also scored less, averaging 29.
Saturday's Fiesta Bowl-trip clincher, a 56-45 shootout against Virginia Tech stretched Miami's winning streak to 34
straight, sixth longest in NCAA Division I A history.
Miami never scored fewer than 26 points in a game and pounded most opponents. Still, there were close calls. A missed field-goal attempt by Florida State saved that victory for the Hurricanes. They trailed hapless Rutgers in the fourth quarter before recovering. Pitt had a chance to tie the Canes on the game's final play.
Ohio State had its own narrow games, beating Purdue 10-6, Penn State 13-7, Wisconsin 19-1
14, and Michigan 14-9.
Miami coach Larry Coker spent two seasons as an assistant to Ohio State head coach John Cooper in 1993-94. He served as an assistant at Miami before taking over the head coaching position two years ago — and hasn't lost.
"I have great memories of Columbus, Ohio, and the Ohio State University." Coker said. "It was just a great experience for my wife and myself. We loved every moment of it. It's very intense. Football is very important to
Ohio State: the intensity of the season, the rivalries and the tradition."
Tressel was a candidate for the Miami job there were reports at the time that he was offered it and turned it down when current Cleveland Brown coach Butch Davis was hired to take over the program in 1995.
Tressel denied that he was offered the job. He said he interviewed for it, but said the timing wasn't right for all the parties involved.