UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, August 19, 1996
118
Strug seeks normalcy at UCLA, coaching women's gymnastics
The Associated Press
Good luck.
LOS ANGELES — Kerri Strug says she's looking forward to being a normal college student.
Strug, whose final vault with an injured left ankle in the women's gymnastics team competition was one of the most dramatic moments in the Atlanta Olympics, said she has enrolled at UCLA and will be a volunteer assistant coach for the women's gymnastics team.
"I'll be able to travel with the team, practice with them," Strug said in her first Los Angeles news conference. "it's been a lifelong dream to attend UCLA. Hopefully, I'll be able to give some help and advice to the other girls."
Strug, 18, decided to turn professional after endorsement offers began arriving.
days through Thursdays, taking freshman English, psychology and music.
"That's just to start off with while I have this crazy schedule," she said. "We'll go from there. I've been looking forward to being a college student for some time now. I'm looking forward to meeting people, exploring other areas of life."
Strug, whose family lives in Tucson, Ariz., said she might join a sorority and is looking forward to being able to hang out, go to parties, do the normal things and study, too.
"I've been so focused, in a little box, sort of," she said. "I love being near the beach. This school is great academically. I feel that once I get situated here, I'm just like anyone else."
That's unlikely to be the case for some time, if ever.
"The schedule has been pretty freetic." she admitted.
How many people have been to the White House, and on television shows hosted by Rosie O'Donnell
and Jay Leno? Or spent time chatting with Jason Priestly after having a role in an upcoming episode of *Beverly Hills 90210*?
And those around her say it couldn't be happening to a more deserving person.
Strug has.
"I can't tell you how thrilled the gymnastics world is that Kerri is finally getting the recognition she has worked so hard for," UCLA women's gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos said. "She has turned down hundreds of thousands of dollars for years, years.
"She went from that level to this level with the vault," Kondos added, moving her hand from waist level to over her head for emphasis. "She is no longer a little pixie, she's a young lady."
"I am thrilled, UCLA is thrilled, to have Kerri become a part of our program. Her role on the team, I think, is something we're going to have a lot of fun with."
Melanie Strug said her daughter
has never been a problem.
"She really is the nicest young lady, just a model kid," she said. "She's just the same Kerri. She has no idea of the impact she's had on the American people. I don't think she'll ever change in a negative way. I just really think she's grounded."
Kondos admitted she was disappointed Strug decided to give up her eligibility.
"I think I'd be lying to say I'm not disappointed," Kondos said. "We finished second (in the NCAA championships) last year. Having Kerri Strug on our team? Wow.
"But do I think she made the right decision? Absolutely," she said.
Renowned sports agent Leigh Steinberg has been hired to represent Strug.
"We've been very happy. The phone's being ringing off the hook," Steinberg said. "There are some great opportunities in the areas of books, movies, a number of commercial endorsements that will come over time."
Baseball owners find league homes for Diamondbacks and Devil Rays
Interleague play aided by placement
The Associated Press
While it's not official yet, it appears the Arizona Diamondbacks will be assigned to the National League and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will be put in the American League when owners meet next month.
When the expansion teams were approved on March 9, 1995, owners said the league assignments would be made by January 1997. The meetings on Sept. 10-12 in Seattle are the last that owners have scheduled for this year.
Diamondbacks head Jerry Colangelo has lobbied repeatedly to get into the NL, where his team would have Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego in the same time zone for most of the season, with Colorado just one time zone away. At the last four owners' meetings, he attended the NL sessions but not those for the AL.
AL owners want Tampa Bay so they don't cede all of Florida to the NL.
Interleague play, pending final approval from the players' association, begins next season with East and Central teams playing 15 games against the other league and West teams playing 16.
Putting Arizona in the NL and Tampa Bay in the AL would create 15-team leagues which, in turn, would help facilitate the scheduling of interleague games.
TURNAROUND TIGERS. It's hard to tell how far they'll go in the future, but the Detroit Tigers sure have come a long way since one of the worst starts in baseball history.
The Tigers were 13-42 on June 7 and drawing comparisons to the 1962 Mets, whose 40-120 record was the poorest ever. After that, though, the Tigers went 29-28 — mostly against contending teams — as general manager Randy Smith reshaped the roster, bringing in the likes of Brad Ausmus, Andujar Cedeno, Damion Easley and Ruben Sierra.
The biggest deal was the swap that sent Cecil Fielder to the Yankees for Sierra and a promising minor league pitcher. Tigers manager Buddy Bell said he's noticed a difference in his team since the Fielder trade.
"We hated to lose him, but I think the guys said to themselves, "This is up to us now." Bell said. "And with all the trade talk over, they seemed to relax."
No telling, however, how far the Tigers' pitching will carry them, although Smith is trying. He's already added relievers Gregg Olson, John Cummings and Joey Eisen and starter Todd Van Poppel during the season.
THE NUMBERS GAME: The Cincinnati Reds have retired just two numbers — No. 5 for Johnny Bench and No. 1 for Fred Hutchinson — but John Allen wants to add to that total.
Allen, the managing executive of the Reds, wants to assemble a group to decide whether more numbers should be honored.
"My theory is that you put together
this panel of representative people," Allen said. "Then, with class and style, you set up standards and a methodology for doing those things, then you give it the class and style the city of Cincinnati deserves and the fans deserve."
Among the numbers that would certainly be considered — Pete Rose's No. 14, Joe Morgan's No. 8, Tony Perez's No. 24 and Ted Kuszewski's No. 18.
Bruske, 31, has spent nine years in the minors with three different systems.
IT'S IN THE CARDS: In the last year, relief pitcher Jim Bruske has been back-and-forth between the minors and the Los Angeles Dodgers three times. When he was sent down to Triple-A Albuquerque again last week, he left with two hopes — that he would get a callup in September, and that he would someday get his own baseball card.
"Ijust want one so my kid can see I wasn't lying when he grows up." Bruske said. "All I want is one card."
Dodgers teammates Mike Piazza
"I think it's about time that baseball recognized the contributions of a Jim Bruske. Having not done so already has been an egregious error." Piazza said.
and Eric Karros said they would help.
"There are guys who haven't even been in the big leagues yet and they have cards. My offseason mission is to make sure Jim Bruske gets on a 1997 baseball card," Karros said.
ON DECK: For the first time ever, a specially made baseball honoring a former player will be used in a big league game. It will be on Aug. 25 at Yankee Stadium, the day the Yankees dedicate a monument to Mickey Mantle. Rawlings is making a ball that will be stitched in Yankees blue (instead of the usual red), feature a Mantle logo and bear a facsimile autograph of the Hall of Famer. Copies of the commemorative ball are on sale for collectors by Rawlings. Last season, the company made a special, orange-stitched ball for the games in which Cal Ripken tied and broke Lou Gehrig's record.
But events like last Saturday's enshrinement ceremony will help, said Bernie Kish, the hall's executive director. Payton, Bradshaw and 12 other former players and coaches were inducted in a ceremony televised by ESPN.
The group was the hall's first class from smaller schools — Division I-AA, II and III, as well as the NAIA.
The Olympics didn't help fund-raising efforts either, Casciola said. Companies that might have been willing to put money toward the hall were already committed to the Atlanta Games.
"It it just doesn't happen overnight." Kish said. "I think it's going to take a couple of years, but I think it's going to be tremendously successful."
Visitors said it was even better than they'd expected and promised to come back. A marketing group estimated the hall would have 160,000 visitors its first year. Fund-raisers promised the hall would be paid for with millions in corporate sponsorships.
"I know people are questioning the attendance figures and the corporate sponsors. But it's too soon to question that," he said. "We're not at all discouraged about anything. We think we've got a great facility, and now it's our job to let more people know about it."
Other halls of fame experienced similar problems when they first opened. Cascicia said.
But reality set in shortly after the kickoff celebration ended. As
Praise and predictions for the hall were heady when it opened last August with the enshrinement of a class that included Jim Brown. The second class was enshrined Aug 11 at the hall, with Walter Payton and Terry Bradshaw being the biggest of the 14 names.
"I liked it, very neat. It's set up real nice," Fisher said after his first visit. "I would definitely comeback."
The hall features plaques of players and coaches, and a computer that gives information and video clips of hall members. Interactive displays let people test their throwing and kicking ability, and a film gave visitors the feel of being at a college football game.
Despite those facts, organizers are calling the College Football Hall of Fame's first year a success. As proof, they point to people like Norman Fisher.
SOUTH BEND, IND. — It los money, attendance figures were lower than expected and the corporate sponsors never materialized.
College Football Hall of Fame expects growth
The Associated Press
Frank Robinson, Willie Keeler.
Rogers Hornsby. Al Simmons.
The problems were not wholly unexpected, said Bob Casciola, executive director of the National Football Foundation, which sponsors the hall.
of this week, about 115,000 people had visited the hall, and organizers were still waiting for the corporate donations to roll in.
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The names seem to click by almost as fast as the hits these days.
Molitor poised to join elite 3,000-hit club
before the end of the season, barring injury, Paul Molitor also will pass Sam Crawford, Sam Rice and Cap Anson and become the 20th member of baseball's exclusive 3.000-hit club.
Molitor, who will turn 40 on Thursday, entered last Friday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays needing 46 hits over his final 42 games to reach 3,000. He has followed his worst season — .270 with Toronto in 1995 — with one of his best.
"In a lot of ways, it doesn't seem real," Molitor said. "It's like the hitting streak (39 games in 1987). You go back and watch the tapes of it and it's almost like you're watching a story about someone else."
That's heady company for Molitr, who returned home to play his 19th season for the Minnesota Twins this year. It has become an unforgettable summer.
As the hits piled up, Molitor allowed himself to believe 3,000 was reachable this season. He called a news conference last Friday to announce the Twins would auction off the balls from hits 2,961 to 2,990 to benefit charity, similar to what the Twins did as Dave Winfield closed in on 3,000 in 1993.
He is all too aware of how quickly injuries can spoil a season, and was hesitant when the Twins came to him about a month ago to talk about ways to capitalize on the excitement his pursuit of 3,000 would generate.
major league lead in hits (165) and multi-hit games (55).
Maybe that's why Molitor has been so reluctant to talk about his pursuit of one of the game's treasured milestones. He entered the season needing 211 hits to get 3,000, and figured it would have to wait until 1997.
Perhaps his most impressive statistic is that he is the only Twin, and of only 12 players in the majors, to play every game this season, remarkable for a player who has been so brittle throughout his career.