4B • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 23,2002
Angels' rookie to start on birthday
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO—John Lackey can give himself the best birthday present of all—a World Series victory.
The Anaheim Angels' rookie right-hander will start Game 4 against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night—his 24th birthday.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool." Lackey said Tuesday. "I was born during the World Series. It's something I've been doing on my birthday for a lot of years, watching the World Series. It's pretty cool that I'm actually in it and I'm going to get an opportunity to be playing in it."
Lackey has seen some memorable games on his birthday, including Joe Carter's Series-winning homer for Toronto in 1993 and the Yankees' comeback from a six-run deficit to win Game 4 in 1996 against Atlanta.
"I'm a huge baseball fan so I've seen them all pretty much," Lackey said. "I haven't ever missed one."
Lackey seems more poised than most young pitchers. He made his major league debut in June and was an instant hit, going 9-4 with a 3.66 ERA and winning the wild-card clinching game
against Texas.
He's been even tougher in the postseason, going 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA in 12 1-3 innings out of the bulpen and as a starter. He pitched seven scoreless innings to win Game 4 of the ALCS against Minnesota.
"There's a lot that goes into John Lackey's success," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "First and foremost, he has an outstanding arm. He's got very good command of three pitches. Whatever start he's taken in our organization, he showed the same great makeup on the mound, his ability to get over rough spots in a game."
Lackey also offers another key trait that makes him a good pick to pitch Game 4 at Pacific Bell Park, where pitchers have to hit.
Lackey is probably the most accomplished hitter among the Angels, batting .428 with 15 homers and 81 RBIs for Grayson County College. He even hit a game-winning homer in the Junior College World Series.
"He's going to influence the game a lot more by going out there and making pitches than anything he does at the plate." Scioscia said. "I don't care how good a hitter the pitcher is."
Lackey also has another
He got that out of the way in Game 2, when he pitched 2 1-3 innings in relief of an ineffective Kevin Appier. Lackey allowed two runs, but he doesn't expect the outing to hinder his performance Wednesday because he was supposed to throw in the bullpen Sunday anyway.
advantage. He won't have the nerves of making his Series debut.
He also doesn't think it will be difficult to face the same team twice in four days.
"I got a little feel of them, the way they're setting up in the box and how I might go after them," Lackey said. "They saw what I've got. It works both ways."
Kirk Rueter will start for the Giants. He hasn't faced the Angels since the 2001 season, when he allowed one run in seven innings of a win at home.
"They have a great lineup," he said. "I think you have to worry up and down the lineup. There's not an easy out. So you have to concentrate out there and make your pitches to everybody."
After getting hammered in Game 2 of the division series against Atlanta, Rueter got the win in NLCS opener against St. Louis and pitched six scoreless innings in the Game 5 clincher.
Cleveland's Thome wins Clemente award
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO—Cleveland first baseman Jim Thome won the Roberto Clemente Award for his community service and found out the Indians will offer him a new contract next week.
Inome, the team's top hitter, is eligible to become a free agent following the World Series. Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said he will make the offer Oct. 31 when he meets with Thome's agent, Pat Rooney, in Cleveland.
Cleveland is expected to offer a four- to six-year deal.
Thome, the Indians' career home run leader, hit 52 homers last season. He batted .304 and led the American League in walks and slugging percentage.
He became the second Indians player to win the Clemente Award, given annually to the player who combines outstanding playing ability with work in the community.
Roberto Clement, I heard about a tremendous ballplayer," Thome said yesterday. "It wasn't until I was nominated for this award that I realized what a tremendous human being he was."
"As a kid, when I heard about
Thome said his wife, Andrea, told him that he was jittery preparing to receive the award from commissioner Bud Selig.
"You weren't this nervous playing in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series," Thome remembered her telling him.
John Hancock, which sponsors the award, will donate $30,000 in Thome's name to Roberto Clemente Sports City, a sports and education center in Puerto Rico, and $25,000 to the Steve Palermo Chapter of the National Paralysis Center in Leawood in the name of Thome's nephew, Brandon Thome.
Brandon, 16, broke his neck while diving into a swimming pool this summer and remains paralyzed from the waist down. Thome paid for all the upgrades
to Brandon's house to make it handicap accessible, Indians spokesman Bart Swain said.
Thome has spent his entire 13-career with the Indians. His community work includes serving as honorary co-chairman of the United Way Softball Slam, which raised almost $200,000, and holding charity events at the children's hospital in his hometown of Peoria, Ill., over the past six years.
For the past five years, he and his wife have delivered toys to youth groups that serve disadvantaged kids.
Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling received the 2001 Clemente Award, and Cleveland's Andre Thornton was given it in 1979.
Sprewell to play for Knicks despite Monday's bizarre incident
The award began in 1971 and was renamed three years later for Clemente, who died in a plane crash while delivering supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. Recipients have to exemplify sportsmanship, community involvement and value to their teams.
The Associated Press
NEW YORK—Latrell Sprewell will "absolutely" play for the New York Knicks this season, despite a strained relationship that took an ugly turn with a series of bizarre events Monday.
"Certainly yesterday was a New York moment." general manager Scott Layden said before last night's exhibition game against Utah at Madison Square Garden.
When asked whether Sprewell would play again for New York this season, Layden responded, "Oh, absolutely."
Even jaded Big Apple fans
were surprised by Monday's weirdness.
First, Sprewell's agent said at a Manhattan hotel that a $40 million lawsuit had been filed against The New York Post for its account of how Sprewell broke his right pinkle.
Sprewell ripped Layden and executive Steve Mills, who earlier this month fined the player $250.000 for not promptly reporting the injury. Sprewell argued that his banishment from the team was unfair and possibly a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.
A few hours after his impromptu news conference, the
Knicks suspended Sprewell for last night's game - costing him another $137,500 in salary - for obeying the team during his rehabilitation.
Aside from announcing that a surgically inserted pin had been removed from Sprewell's right pinkie yesterday, Layden had little new to offer. He refused to respond to Sprewell's caustic remarks, and he didn't say when his star might rejoin the team.
Sprewell said Monday he could be playing a week into the regular season, which begins Oct. 30 at Detroit. A team spokesman said yesterday Sprewell will begin physical therapy to restore full
movement in his right hand, and he'll be evaluated in another week.
Chaney and the rest of the Knicks want him back badly.
"We all want him back so we can win some games," Chaney said. "We realize that with him out, it hurts our chances for winning."
Sprewell has angered the Knicks before, but the team usually looks the other way. The Knicks fined him $125,000 for missing a shootaround in Miami in April, but Sprewell convinced them to rescind all but $2,500 of it.
But the team laid down the law
when Sprewell reported for camp with a broken finger, without having told the team previously. He claims he slipped and fell on his yacht. The Post, quoting anonymous sources, reported that Sprewell threw a punch at someone on the boat and hit a wall instead.
Sprewell said Monday that he and the Knicks could work out their differences, but "I don't know if that's what they really want, because they keep trying to push me further away."
The Knicks suspended Sprewell for last night's game, in part, because he cut off the splint cast on his finger. Sprewell said
he's a week ahead of schedule in his recovery.
Chaney said Sprewell is "the one guy I know who can put this behind him."
"I can't speak for him or speak for how he thinks," Chaney said. "All I know is that I've worked with him, and I expect him, when he walks on the court, to be a team player and concentrate on winning."
Sprewell was suspended for the final 68 games of the 1997-98 season by the NBA after choking Golden State coach PJ. Carlesimo. The suspension cost Sprewell $6.4 million in salary.
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