Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, August 26, 1999
ATLANTA — The Cincinnati Reds came to Atlanta as one of the NL's hottest teams. They aren't anymore.
Braves complete sweep of Reds
The Associated Press
Andruw Jones hit a three-run homer and Tom Glavine pitched seven strong innings as the Braves continued to dominate the Reds, completing a three-game sweep with a 5-2 victory yesterday.
record again
Cincinnati during
the last three seasons,
including
six straight victories this year.
Overall, the
The surprising Reds had won nine straight series before they arrived at Turner Field.
Atlanta has a staggering 22-4
Mike Cameron led off the game with his 17th homer, but that was one of the few highlights for the Reds. Glavine (11-9) allowed just five hits — all singles — before Mike Remlinger and John Rocker each pitched a scoreless inning. Rocker earned his 28th save.
Braves have won seven in a row — their longest streak of the season.
After Cameron's homer, the Braves wasted no time erasing their deficit against former teammate Denny Neagle (3-5). Gerald Williams led off the bottom of the first with a double and Bret Boone reached on an infield single.
Nagle had a chance to get out of the inning when he retired the Braves' two most dangerous hitters. Chipper Jones popped to shortstop and Brian Jordan grounded out, forcing Williams to hold at third.
Outfieldter Greg Vaughn had time to drift slowly back to the wall and make a leap for the ball, but it landed just beyond his sleeve.
After the Reds cut the deficit to 3-2 on Dmitri Young's sacrifice fly in the sixth, the Braves added two more runs in their half to knock out Neagle. Andruw Jones doubled, Jose Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly and Eddie Perez capped the inning with an RBI single.
But Andruw Jones followed with a towering drive that hit the top of the left-field wall and bounced over for his 24th homer.
Neagle surrendered five hits
and all five runs in 5 1/3 innings. He retired 12 of 13 hitters in between the scoring frames.
The Braves, who have baseball's best record (80-49) despite an epidemic of injuries,began the day with a 11/2-game lead over New York in the NL Central. The Mets were playing yesterday night against Houston, which had a 11/2-game lead over the Reds in the Central Division.
For the first time, the Reds went winless in Atlanta during a season series. They scored only 12 runs and 25 hits (through seventh inning) in their six losses at Turner Field.
The teams will meet again next week in a three-game series at Cinergy Field.
Notes: The Braves are 17-6 in August, even though they have trailed in all but two games. ... Greg Maddux will miss his next scheduled start for Atlanta — tomorrow night at St. Louis — to give his injured right wrist more time to heal. He expects to pitch again Tuesday at Cincinnati. ... The Reds have lost eight straight series in Atlanta, their last victory coming in May 1995 when they took two of three at Fulton County Stadium. ... Until this season's 0-6 performance, Cincinnati's worst record in Atlanta was a 1-8 mark in 1992.
Mac, Sosa find 1999 chase less exciting
By Jim Litke AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO—In case you hadn't noticed, much of the joy and most of the exhilaration of the original is missing from Home Run Derby. The Sequel. On that subject. Sammy Sosa is very direct.
“It's not like last year, because we were in the middle of a race and Mark and I were chasing a record that had stood for 37 years. The team is not playing the way it did last year. But because the direction the team goes is not good,” he said, “doesn't mean I have to go there, too.”
Mark McGwite, Sosa's partner in the baseball-saving business, knows the feeling.
He hit No. 51 Tuesday night in Montreal to draw even in the home-run race and get back on schedule with his blistering crowd of last year. And while that pleased the crowd of 17,142 — nearly double the Expos' average of 9,595 at Olympic Stadium — it was small consolation for McGwire.
Told he had matched Lou Gehrig's record of 489 home runs by a first baseman (McGwire has hit 15 additional home runs while playing other positions) the red-headed slugger was in no mood to reflect, not after the Cardinals blew a lead and got beat 8-4.
"I don't even know who's next and I don't really care," McGwire said. "It has no bearing on what I do that day. I'm paid to play the game, I'm not paid to look at history. That's the way I look at things."
Last season, Sosa set a major league record by homering 29 times in losses. In the midst of the Cubs' unsteady march to the playoffs, hardly anyone noticed. But McGwire's home run Tuesday night marked his
Sosa: This year's home-run chase isn't the same.
32nd this season in a losing cause. And even if that
states bother no one else, it bothers him.
"All my impressions of all that stuff will mean a lot when I'm retired," McGwire said. "I have a lot of playing left and that's about it."
McGwire went through the same dilemma last season, but then, at least, there was Roger Maris' record and all the attendant hoopla to lessen the sting.
But the home-run hitters themselves are finding this year's attention wearying. Stuck on losing teams and unable to squirm out of the spotlight, they are trying to play hard without appearing to play only for themselves.
"Truly great players have agendas," said Cubs coach Billy Williams, one of baseball's best hitters during his 18-year career. "It's not that they're selfish — they would love everybody to play the way they do.
"But because they're so disciplined, the only thing they know is coming to the ballpark and having a good day. They keep hoping once their teammates see that day in and day out, they'll jump on it and get the wagon rolling.
"And if it doesn't happen?" said Williams, who put together 16 splendid seasons in Chicago without ever seeing the postseason. "Well, then they just keep their heads down and plow straight ahead."
Rose eligible for team
MasterCard didn't push Rose on MLB
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Commissioner Bud Selig decided on his own to allow Pete Rose to participate in baseball's All-Century team if the banned hits leader is elected, according to the sponsor of the voting.
After snubbing Rose at the All-star game, Selig said Monday he would be invited to the World Series if fans vote him to the team, even though Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball following a gambling investigation.
Fans select 25 players, and a media panel can pick up to five others.
1
"It's a baseball policy issue," Jeff Price, the vice president of U.S. sponsorships and events for MasterCard International, said Tuesday. "MasterCard didn't get involved with it."
Selig said last month that Rose
Price wouldn't say whether MasterCard planned to use Rose for its commercials. Its current ads include Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, George Brett and Barry Bonds.
wasn't invited to on-field ceremonies at the All-Star game honoring the living players on the 100-man ballot.
"I think that what is important is that Bud has been very strong on not readmitting Pete to baseball," said Vincent, who oversaw the Rose investigation as the top deputy to commissioner A. Bartlett Glamatt. "That's the critical judgment. The rest is on the fringe."
Rose applied for reinstatement in September 1997. While Selig hasn't ruled on the application, he's made clear that he sees no reason to change the lifetime ban. Giamatti said in announcing the ban on Aug. 24, 1989, that he concluded Rose had bet on the Cincinnati Reds, the team he was managing.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the announcement of Rose's lifetime ban, former commissioner Fay Vincent said he didn't mind Selig's decision.
Randa comfortable in KC
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Beset by worry and doubt? Unsure where you'll be living a month from now? Or even if you'll have a job?
Take comfort then in the saga of Joseph Gregory Randa. His life turned completely around, and he and his wife, Bethany, realized just about every dream in four days.
"There had been a lot of anxiety in our house. All of a sudden, there was a lot of joy," said the young third baseman of the Kansas City Royals.
Kansas City was where the wiry, soft-spoken third baseman started his career in professional baseball and Kansas City was where he wanted to stay.
But even though he hit .303 in 110 games for the Royals in his first full major league season in 1996 and led the team with a .349 average with runners in scoring position, he got traded to Pittsburgh.
A year in the National League.
where he hit .302 with nine triples and 60 RBI only resulted in his being left unprotected in the expansion draft. The Arizona Diamondbacks snatched him up in the third round, then dealt him to the Detroit Tigers.
In Detroit in 1998, his average slipped to .254. Then last December, in a revolving door of change, he got word that Detroit had swapped him to the New York Mets.
Not only was he now the property of a fourth team in less than a year, he was going back to the National League, where there would be no road trips back to Kansas City to see Bethany and their first child, who was just days from being born.
As he and Bethany pondered their future, who should call but the team he never wanted to leave in the first place?
"Lots of nice stars started happening all at once," Randa said. "I got traded to the Royals on Dec. 10. Then Jacob was born on Dec. 14."