Pro Football
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Tuesday
September 2,1997
Section:
B
Page 1
The defending champion Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears 38-24 last night at Lambeau Field to conclude NFL Week One.
Pro Baseball
Pete Rose Jr. got his first Major League hit in the Cincinnati's 4-7 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
SEE PAGE 2B
Entertainment
Bob Dylan and BR5-49 were among the acts that played to crowds at Spirit Fest in Kansas City.
SEE PAGE 6B
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Major league baseball throws a wild pitch to game format
Interleague games strike out with this fan
A Labor Day tradition looked different yesterday when I tuned onto ESPN for a baseball doubleheader — interleague games.
I had nothing against interleague games when the season began, but I want to see division battles and pennant chases during September
instead of an experiment that's trying to win back fan support.
That fan support will come with high-quality baseball and exciting games, not interleague play.
Then there's talk about realignment plans. I'm
Tommy Gallagher
tgallagher@kansan.com
against plans for radical realignment, but please don't confuse me for a baseball purist.
Baseball does not need radical realignment like many "experts" across the country believe. I think the six divisions merely need to be fine-tuned into a more cohesive, structured package.
But because there's not a collective bargaining agreement or a true commissioner to overlook baseball operations, this restructuring should be tied with the financial strength of each team.
In the American League Central, the Milwaukee Brewers were 3.5 games behind division-leading Cleveland in the standings. Their financial background is similar to that of the Pirates.
Going into Labor Day, the Pittsburgh Pirates were 2.5 games behind division-leading Houston in the National League Central. The Pirates' paltry $9 million team payroll is less than the salary of 10 major league players this season.
While both teams have hovered around. 500 all season, so have the division leaders. The Pirates and Brewers are fortunate to be in such a position going into the stretch run, but good luck alone cannot help teams consistently win division titles.
The Montreal Expos have not had the same good luck that the Pirates and Brewers have had this season.
Talented teams win division titles and the World Series. That will never change. But there has to be a way for small market teams to compete against the big boys in October.
Montreal was 67-68 and 17,5 games behind the Atlanta Braves going into play yesterday. But how can the Expos even consider competing when they can't keep Moises Alou, manager Felipe Alou's son, from signing a lucrative free-agent deal with the Florida Marlins?
If there is radical realignment for next season, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Pirates might be placed in the same division as Milwaukee, Montreal, Minnesota and Kansas City.
Then again, this is baseball. Big market owners like Ted Turner of Atlanta, George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees and Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox would never allow a plan like that to pass.
Until small market teams get a fair chance to make an equitable run at the World Series, I'll just have to dream about the Pirates and Brewers making the postseason by defeating a big market team to win their division.
Anything can happen.
Gallagher is an Olathe senior in journalism.
Kansas defense gets recognition
Brown defensive player of the week
By Kelly Cannon
kcannon@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Junior Patrick Brown is the third linebacker in NCAA history to return two interceptions for touchdowns in one game.
And because of that, he was named the Big 12 Conference defensive player of the week yesterday.
"Big things happened, and Pat made the plays." Kansas football coach Terry Allen said. "Things were going to happen and it wasn't going to happen in a negative way. We had too much dominance defensively."
Brown's two returns of 51 and 23 yards contributed half of Kansas' 24 points in the shutout of Alabama-Birmingham on Thursday.
Allen recognized the importance of Brown and the defense.
"You have to give credit to the defense." Allen said. "They shut them out and stepped up to keep the shutout, which I think means a lot. One thing we asked offensively was not to turn the ball over. We stayed away from turning the ball over and we let our defense and special teams make the difference."
Throughout the preseason, Kansas offense was the source of much scrutiny. Against UAB the offense showed some of its weaknesses. Allen said.
"An offensive unit has to play as a team and play as a unit," Allen said. "Going into the game, we knew we would struggle. If one of the 11 players messes up the play doesn't work. We had five false-start penalties. If we're playing a good football team, that can't happen. We'll learn from these mistakes and not do them in the future."
Senior running back Eric Vann also noted the mistakes offensively.
"If we cut down on mistakes, we'd score two or three more times," Vann said. "We got down to the two-yard line twice and didn't get anything. Or we'd get all the way down the field and be at third-and-two and get a penalty. So little things like that—if we can eliminate them then they will be fine."
Before the game began Kansas was building excitement with fans. They completed their first walk down the hill, a new tradition for the team, about an hour before the game.
"I think we played hard, I was excited — even the walk down the hill." Allen said. "That's special, that's fun, if we can grow on that. Our players really felt it. They felt it as they got toward the bottom. As the sun sets and you see the tailgaters on Campanile hill — that's a great setting."
At the end of the game, Kansas fans chanted the Rock Chalk chant, which Allen thought was exciting.
"It's very special here," Allen said. "It's nice to see the people, and I want to compliment the people that came out beforehand with the walk down the hill. But most of all thanks to the students up there, seeing them wave the wheat for the first time. I even got to hear the Rock Chalk Jayhawk at the end of the game. I've got it down now, so we got to sing it with our football team, and hopefully we can do that on many more occasions."
Kansas freshman running back Jess Holland's appeal for eligibility was denied Friday by the NCAA subcommittee for initial eligibility.
"I'm obviously very disappointed for Jess," Allen said. "We were looking forward to working with him as part of our program."
Allen said he was unsure of Holland's plans about college or continuing his football career.
Senior safety Tony Blevins givs University of Alabama-Birmingham senior back Carl Sanders. The Jayhawks won the game 24-0 Thursday night. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
Enrique Abaroa, men's tennis No. 1 singles player, returns a volley during one of last year's matches. The men's tennis team began practice yesterday at Robinson Center's tennis courts.
See story page 48. File photo by Geoff Kerman/KANSAN
Raising a racquet
Volleyball team foiled in season's first effort
By Matt Garnder
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas volleyball team started the 1997 season playing hard but fell short of a tournament win at the Taco Bell Invitational in Reno, Nev.
After losing its opening match to the University of Oregon, Kansas battled back to defeat the University of Nevada-Reno before losing to the University of Nevada-Los Vegas in its final match.
The Jayhawks and Oregon played five games in their Fridy night match. Kansas lost the first two games, 15-11 and 16-14, but rebounded to win the
Rohde: Had season high 60 assists against Nevada-Reno
next two, 15-10 and 15-11. Oregon prevailed in the final game. 15-12.
"I was really proud of our team," head coach Karen Schonewise said. "They really battled back after being down early. We fought so hard in the fifth game. It was really exciting to watch."
Senior right-side hitter Kendra Kahler tied a career high with 20 kills in the match. A kill is a bit that leads to a point.
Four others hit more than 10 kills: Mary Beth Albrecht had 16, Moira Donovan had 14, Anne Kreimer had 13 and Amanda
Reves had 12 for the Jayhawks.
Down 0-1, Kansas went into Saturday's match against the Wolfpack of Nevada-Reno ready to fix Friday night's errors.
Kansas won the first two games, 15-8, 15-12 before losing games three and four, 8-15, 15-17 to force a fifth game. The Jayhawks won the deciding game, 15-8.
Junior setter Laura Rohde recorded a season-high 60 assists, 20 digs, four block assists and five kills. Donovan recorded 18 kills and 10 digs against Nevada-Reno.
"Statistically we did a good job in the second match," Schonewise said. "I was really proud of our effort. We showed a lot of character in overcoming the short break between the two matches."
After only a 40-minute break between matches, Kansas took the court for its final match against UNLV. The Jayhawks lost to the eventual tournament champion Runn'i Rebels in four sets. 15-11, 15-11, 9-15, 8-9.
Although Schonewise would have liked to have won the season-opening tournament, she was pleased with what she had seen.
"This was a great start for our season," Schonewai said. "Obviously we are disappointed we didn't win but we went out and fought hard and played at a high level of intensity. This is a totally different team from a year ago."
Schonewise said she hoped the Jayhawks would improve next weekend in Evanston, Ill., at the Northwestern Tournament.
There, the Jayhawks will face Virginia Tech, Northwestern, and the fourth-ranked team in the nation. Florida.
Women's soccer scores first victories this weekend
By Harley V. Ratliff sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
Heading into the season opener, Kansas women's soccer head coach Dan Magner still had some lingering questions about his squad.
After this weekend,however he might have a few more answers.
Behind goals from Jenny Wallace and Jackie Dowell, the Jayhawks captured two road
victories against Illinois State and Eastern Illinois. The two wins put Kansas' record at 2-0 and marked Magner's first two victories as Kansas' coach.
Kansas opened the season last Friday in Normal, Ill., against the Illinois State Redbirds. With the score tied at 0-0, midfielder Wallace — one of three starting freshman — netted her first collegiate goal by beating Illinois State goalkeeper Becky Feldmann.
The Jayhawk defense, anchored by goalkeeper Jen Fecke, posted its second shutout of the weekend by blanking the Panthers. 1-0.
Kansas continued to play well on defense Sunday against Eastern Illinois in Charleston, Ill.
Kansas' lone goal came with
Wallace's unassisted goal came at the 34:39 mark of the game and proved to be the difference as the Jayhawks held on for a 1-0 victory.
1
three minutes left in the second overtime period when Dowell launched a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal.
Dowell, one of the two co-captains, had been an uncertainty heading into the weekend. She injured her lower back earlier in the week and was unsure how much she was going to be able to play.
Kansas will play host next week to Big 12 rivals Texas A&M and Texas. The Texas A&M game Friday is the Jayhawks home opener.
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