Inside Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Sports The New York Yankees spend the most money in Major League Baseball on salaries. And the average salary is now $1.3 million.SEE PAGE 3B Basketball signee Point guard Jeff Boschee, from Valley City N.D., signed a letter of intent to play for Kansas, Kansas coach Roy Williams said yesterday. Pro Baseball Friday November 14, 1997 Section: B Page 1 Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker won the National League Most Valuable Player Award. Walker is the first Canadien to win the award. WWW.KANSAN.COM/NEWS/SPORTS Contact the Kansan Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810 Sports Fax: (785) 864-5261 Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com Sports Forum: sptforum@kansan.com A note of thanks for kind words, hearty laughs from K-State One of the best parts of this job is the amount of mail I get. I have always loved getting mail. My mom used to tell me that I had to send mail to get mail. She lied. This week, I got lots of hate mail for which I did not send From the sane to the profane, Kansas State students told me what they thought. In some cases, it didn't take long. In others, it took much too long. Kristie Blasi editor@kansan.com Regardless, I was enlightened about my life and my university by strangers. Here's my profile from an unedited K-State point of view: The only holiday vacation you are going to have is to Caney to shovel snow. Wrong. My parents don't live in Caney anymore, so when I visit there, it is as a guest — I don't have to shovel snow. Not that, I wouldn't offer. And in addition to potential snow shoveling, I get four weeks of vacation like every one else. It's not going to snow for four weeks Note: Take a look at your offensive vs defensive touchdowns for the year. Why doesn't the defense play offense? Because that would make the offense and defense the same and that defeats your argument by definition. I give you an F!! I HAVE to get that off my transcript. Remind me to write the University Registrar. At least I didn't get an incomplete in sense of humor. - You call yourself a sports writer/editor? I call myself "I," "me" or "Kristie" depending on the situation. I read your article, and I must say that you have some points worth considering. Mom, I told you not to write! Thanks, though. Keep those cards and letters coming And I told you not to let your sons go to K-State. ■ YOUR SPENDING WAY TO MUCH TIME SAMPLING THE PRESCRIPTIONS THAT THE PHARMACY STUDENTS THROWOUT. In English, please. And it's uppercase for the first letter of the first word of a sentence and lowercase for all other letters except the first letter of proper nouns. THIS ISN'T GOING TO BE PLAYED ON THE HARDWOODS HONEY!!!! And for the last time, I was at the game! I found the stadium, paid $4 to park next to a plowed field, saw my aunt, uncle and cousins and watched the game in the nearly sound-proof, posh pressbox. Crunch Time So there I was Saturday afternoon, sitting alone in Bramlage Coliseum when I remembered this e-mail. Just in time, I was able to find KSU Stadium/Wagner Field. Remind me to write my new honey a thank you note. Just having some fun, don't take it personal! ■ KU's offense is ranked almost dead last in the NCAA standing. Thanks to all 12 Wildcat fans who sent me emails with this information after the game. You are all brilliant individuals. My postgame prediction was as accurate as yours. Not a strain of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" for me. A K-State student admitted that the songs are similar in his e-mail, which made all of the hateful mail worthwhile. Again, the overwhelming concern was that I wouldn't be able to find the venue for the game. Nope. The Kansas offense ranks last at No. 112. There is no No. 113. Finally. Oh. Wait. I went to high school with him. Remind me to write him about shoveling snow in Caney this winter. This was in the same e-mail as: "You won't be successful in life." Oh, that screams fun to me. That's not personal. Blasi is a Canoy, Kan., senior in journalism. I have no idea what this refers to, but I stopped telling my dad about such threats in kindergarten. He's still in prison from that preschool incident. "If we don't, that means our offense won't be on the field long," Harris said. "We've got to get the ball out of their hands. We've got to get them to start turning it over and start making mistakes." Kansas cornerback Jason Harris said the key to a Kansas victory was containing Williams. - Remember, the game is in our town this time. Texas is paced by running back Ricky Williams and quarterback James Brown. The Jayhawks have faced a running back named Ricky Williams before — at Texas Tech. Tech's Williams was successful against the Jayhawks, something they don't intend to have happen twice. Quarterback Zac Wegner releases a pass from the safety of the pocket. Wegner hopes to get the same protection in the game on Saturday against the University of Texas. Photo by Eric B. Howell/KANSAN By Kelly Cannon kcannon@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter "We're not going to let them get it going." Allen said. "We've got to keep them down." Kansas mixed things up a bit during the Kansas State game last weekend, playing defensive players on offense. Harris, safety Tony Blevins, linebacker Ron Warner and defensive end Hanson Caston each played some offense. Allen said it was safe to say that the Jayhawks would do the same thing against Texas. Not bad. "You see that especially on the defensive team," Allen said. "They have a relatively young football team, especially defensively." "We are in a situation where we want to use the personnel that we have," Allen said. My dad can beat up your dad. Not lost on Kansas through all the hoops is the necessity to be prepared and play good football. The Longhorns are 3-6,1-5 in the Big 12,and have watched their dreams of a bowl berth dissipate. During the preseason, Texas was picked to repeat as the Big 12 Conference's Southern Division champions. That won't happen, however. Kansas State 48, Kansas 16 The Jayhawks will take on the Texas Longhorns tomorrow. A victory would render Kansas bowleligible. A loss would leave the Jayhawks with a 5-6 record — respectable, considering their offense — but not bowl-bound. Defensive end Dewey Houston said the Jayhawks would have more emotion going into the game. A trip to Austin, Texas — with bowl dreams hanging in the balance — is on the minds of Kansas football players. If the Jayhawks beat Texas tomorrow, they go to a bowl game. But a loss means it's all over. "There are some good backs that we have had success against — (Oklahoma's De'Mond) Parker and (Nebraska's Ahman) Green." Allen said. Allen said the Jayhawks had contained some of the conference's better rushers. "We have more motive," Houston said. "I know their seniors. This will be their last game at Texas, and I'm going to make sure our players know that. Despite what the record looks like and how they've looked this season, we know they're going to come on all cylinders, and we have to be ready." Allen said injuries hurt Texas this year and could be partly responsible for its dismal record. Kansas football coach Terry Allen said he wasn't underestimating Texas. Women seek rebound from exhibition loss Regular season begins; team looks to recover from first-game 'jitters' By Penny Walker sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter The Kansas women's basketball team begins its regular season Sunday against Creighton with its feathers considerably ruffled from this week's exhibition loss. On Tuesday, the Jayhawks fell to the McDonald's Victorian All-Stars 79-56, and the loss was disheartening for the team. "We didn't play very hard," said forward Jaclyn Johnson, who scored 10 points and got three rebounds. "We can't depend on our coaches to fire us up. We have to fire ourselves up." Creighton's strength on Sunday is likely to be forward Carrie Welle, who led the Lady Jays against the Nebraska All-Stars with 30 points and nine rebounds. Creighton goes match with a 1-1 exhibition record. The Lady Jays defeated Lithuania 88-69 but lost to the Nebraska All-Stars 78-65. Guard/forward Suzi Raymant led into Sunday's the Jayhawks in scoring Tuesday against the Victorian All-Stars with 13 points. Kansas coach Marian Washington said she was disappointed with Tuesday's game but attributed some of the mistakes to first-game jitters. "You'd always like to have a couple warm-up games before you have to start the regular season, no question about it," she said. "But I'm certainly happy that we'll at least have (Creighton) before we have to go to Penn State." Kansas, ranked No. 24 by The Associated Press, has beaten Creighton the last four times the teams have met. Guard/forward Lynn Pride, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds against the Victorian All-Stars, said that the team would have to run through its offenses and get back in transition in preparation for the game against Creighton. "We just need to attack, things like that," Pride said. "We really haven't worked on it in practice because we weren't really in that situation. But now we know what to do and what to expect." Kansas defeated Creighton last year 88-70. Two Lady Jays, Welle and Kristi McCullough, scored 21 points each, and McCullough pulled down eight rebounds. Two KU starters, forward/center Nakia Sanford and center Koya Scott fouled out Tuesday, creating more depth problems for the inexperienced Jayhawks. Although Washington acknowledged that the team has a long way to go, she remained positive about its potential. "I think this group is going to really get stronger over time," she said. "We're just going to have to take this one game at a time." Kansas women's basketball signees Kansas senior guard Billy Thomas drives behind the back of a Pella Windows AAU defender. Thomas and the Jayhawks will face Santa Clara tonight in Allen Field House at 7:05. Photo by Steve Pruca/KANSAN 'Hawks season to tip off with Santa Clara rematch Associate sports editor By Tommy Gallagher - Dalchon Brown, center, Green Run High School in Virginia Beach, Va. - Katie Hannon, guard, Gates/Chili High School in Rochester, N.Y. - Selena Scott, point guard, St. Michael's Academy in Austin, Texas. When the No. 2 Kansas men's basketball team starts the regular season against Santa Clara at 7:06 tonight in Allen Field House, the Jayhawks hope to look sharp. This is the second consecutive season Kansas has opened the regular season against the Broncos. The Jayhawks defeated Santa Clara 76-64 last year in San Jose, Calif. Coast Roy Williams said he was worried about the game given the team's poor sec- AXU on Monday night. against Pella Windows the team valuable time at the Maui Invitational. "The only one who why we won that game is because we were the most gifted team." Williams said, "I wasn't that we played better. It wan't that we coached better. Guard Ryan Robertson said he remembered playing poorly a year ago, which cost "They really out hustled us. They were much more aggressive than we were. If we were to play (tonight) like we did the second half of Monday's exhibition game, we're going to lose," he said. "Coach Williams was on us after that game and that cost us in Maui," Robertson said. "We didn't get out to enjoy the beach as much as we would have liked." Center Eric Chenowith and guard Kenny Gregory will see valuable minutes coming off the bench. Chenowith will spell center T.J. Pugh and Gregory will substitute in for guard Billy Thomas. The transfers,guard Jelani Janisse and forward Lester Earl,will be less significant factors tonight. Janisse has been recovering from an ankle injury that required surgery Sept. 2. He is listed as questionable. Earl can practice but cannot play for Kansas until its Dec. 20 game against Texas Christian. Santa Clara has an inexperienced team—11 players are either freshmen or sophomores. The team has two seniors and one junior, and the Broncos return just six letter winners from last season. Forward Todd Wuschnig is the Broncos' top returning player. He averaged 7.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season.