MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2003
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5B
Baseball players return, get ready for upcoming season challenges
By Mike Norris
mnorris@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
The 2002 season was a historical one for the Jayhawk baseball team. First-year coach Ritch Price led the team to its third-best season ever, with 35 wins and its first trip to the Big 12 Tournament.
But while the team exceeded public expectations, it didn't come as a shock to senior first baseman Ryan Baty.
baseball player asked, "We knew we were good," Baty said. "We had a great ball club, and we are going to be better."
One reason could be Baty himself and outfielder Matt Tribble, who will both be back for their senior seasons. Both were expected to be taken in this summer's Major League Draft but instead will be suiting up in Crimson and blue this spring. The Colorado Rockies called Baty and asked if he would sign if they took him in the 12th round.
Jayhawk stand-outs Ryan Baty and teammate Travis Metcalf both turned down Major League offers to return to the University of Kansas this fall. First baseman Baty, pictured, was an All-Star in the Cape Cod League during the summer and set the University record last year for most base hits with 97.
"Before the draft I thought I might go somewhere between the sixth and the 10th (rounds)," he said. "I decided if it was after (the 10th round), I wouldn't sign, no matter what."
Tribble, who was taken in the 15th round out of high school, was told by the Chicago White Sox he was in their plans. However, they didn't select him, and now he returns to Lawrence.
Tribble was disappointed. "I was ready to go; I wanted to
sign." he said.
sign, he said.
But now Tribble turns his focus back to the Jayhawks and isn't thinking about the draft until next year.
year. "It's taken some time to put the hard feelings aside," he said. "But we're all pretty excited. The team's going to be great, and our goal is to go the (College) World Series."
Series.
When Price first heard the news that Tribble and Baty would be back this year, he couldn't believe it. "In college baseball the hardest thing to deal with is the draft. I expected to lose both," he said.
said.
He also almost lost sophomore third baseman Travis Metcalf, who was taken in the 38th round by the Minnesota Twins. But he turned them down and returns after 11 home run, 44 RBI campaign in 2002.
ng in 2002. Tribble, Metcalf and Baty hit 44 percent of the team's home runs last season, and the pitching staff returns players who won 22 of the team's 35 games last year.
team 135 gameday The Jayhawks also welcome 11 newcomers to the team, 10 of which have played baseball at the junior college level.
junior college he thought they had Price said he thought they had a top 25 recruiting class that would help fill the vacancies and make a top 25 team.
This year Price knows more of what to expect from the rest of the Big 12, and has had a year to learn about his players.
"You never know when you take over, the mental make-up of
the players," he said. "After having a chance to work one year, we'll be ready to take on the Big 12."
training on October 11th, in preparation for the start of the season next spring.
The team starts its off-season
— Edited by Abby Sidesinner
Owners still waiting on Expos decision
BOSTON — Two months to go in the season and baseball owners still don't know what to do with the Montreal Expos.
At their meeting Wednesday, owners remained hopeful that they can make progress on the Expos by Labor Day.
The Associated Press
"The longer we go, the harder it becomes," said Bob DuPuy, baseball's president and chief operating officer said after the first of two days of meetings. "But we have not given up the idea of a permanent solution for next year."
After the meetings were done for the day, DuPuy stumbled on the stairs at the Ritz Carlton Hotel
and wrenched his right knee. He stayed on the stairs for several minutes, grimacing in pain, before he was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
Elizabeth A Hospice
DuPuy did not address the Pete Rose situation. A day earlier,
DuPuy strongly denied an Internet report that an agreement had been reached to let Rose back into
baseball.
The Expos were purchased by the other 29 teams as they struggle to stay afloat in Montreal. They played 22 games in Puerto Rico this year, and San Juan has offered to host all of the team's 81 home games next year. A group in Monterrey, Mexico, also put in a bid to hold the game.
Police: Williams note may be fake
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — Investigators are examining whether a note stating baseball slugger Ted Williams wanted to be frozen after his death was forged, and if so, whether a crime was committed, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
The grease-stained note is signed by Williams, his son, John Henry Williams, and his daughter, Claudia Williams. Its origin is being examined by the State Attorney's Office that covers Citrus County, where Williams lived, said Ric Ridgway, chief assistant state attorney in Ocala.
His office will decide whether to do nothing or pursue a full criminal investigation.
The inquiry is the result of a criminal complaint made last year by the husband of Williams' eldest daughter and renewed after Sports Illustrated reported new details on the state of Williams' body.
"I'm trying to clarify what the allegation was, if the note was signed the way the note was presented it was signed, and how the note was used," Ridgway said.
way said.
Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell challenged the decision to send her father's body to an Arizona cryonics company where it was frozen after his July 5, 2002 death, claiming the slugger's 1996 will made clear he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered off the Florida coast.
After running out of money to pay her legal bills, she dropped the challenge in December and reached a settlement with her siblings.
Her husband, Mark Ferrell,
said Wednesday that affidavits
have been presented to investigators from two of Ted
Williams' caretakers who claim
Claudia Williams wasn't at the
hospital on Nov. 2, 2000, the
day the note is dated, and that
"I'm trying to clarify what the allegation was, if the note was signed the way the note was presented ... and how the note was used."
Ric Ridgway
Ocala chief assistant state attorney
she didn't know her father was hospitalized until a couple of days later.
days later.
"I think the witnesses we have and the documentation we have can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt ... that the note is a complete fraud," Ferrell said.
rilgsaid. Ridgway said even if it's determined the note was forged, it doesn't necessarily mean a crime was committed since the law is very specific about what documents must be forged for the act to be criminal.
John Henry Williams' attorney has said his client left the note for an extended period of time in some files in his car trunk, where it was stained by oil or grease. Neither he nor his attorney, Eric Abel, returned phone messages Wednesday.
Claudia Williams has an unlisted number and could not be reached for comment.
Sports Illustrated reported this week that Ted Williams was decapitated by surgeons at the cryonics company where his body is suspended in liquid nitrogen, and several samples of his DNA are missing.
The magazine's report, appearing in the issue that hit newsstands Wednesday, is based on internal documents, e-mails, photographs and tape recordings supplied by a former employee of Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
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