INTRAMURALS The Aerial Display enters its fifth and final season. Page 3
THE CHIEFS
Kansas City tries to go 4-0. Page 6
SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SECTION B
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1995
Injuries continue to plague men's cross country team
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
Kansas senior runner Chris Gaston is looking forward to participating in the Minnesota Invitational on Sept. 30th. He suffered a foot injury during the summer which has kept him from running.
Members foresee chance to compete in Minnesota meet
By Adam Herschman Kansan sportswriter
Memorial Stadium received a good workout about 5 p.m. Monday from three Kansas teams.
At the north end of the stadium, the men's basketball team conditioned for the coming season, while the track and field team ran laps, executed drills and stretched. At the south end, the men's cross country team captain sat quietly and stretched. Kansas junior Bryan Schultz was alone — He was the only member of the Kansas cross country team working out.
Schultz has not been training with his teammates, because a foot injury has limited his workouts to biking and swimming. He has missed both cross country meets this
year, including the Jayhawk Invitational, in which the men's team finished sixth out of seven.
Schultz was plagued with knee injuries earlier this year, and now his left foot has been giving him problems. The diagnosis has not been identified.
"We're not sure exactly what it is right now, so hopefully we'll figure it out." Schultz said.
As a freshman in 1993, Schultz was Kansas' top manager and last year he
to this season. If the results are not serious, Schultz can start conditioning for the coming meets at Minnesota and Oregon. If it is a season-end injury, Schultz will be redshirted.
In addition to Schultz, two other members of the team have missed both cross country meets while nursing injuries.
His absence from team practices and the cross country races makes his job as captain difficult, he said.
"We're not sure exactly what it is right now, so hopefully we'll figure it out."
finished 25th at the Big Eight Conference Championships.
Now that the toe has healed, Gaston has targeted Sept. 30, the Minnesota Invitational, for his return. But the butterflies have made their return as well.
About two months ago, Kansas senior Chris Gaston was helping a friend with construction work when he broke his left big toe with a sledge hammer. Gaston, who transferred last year from Santa Rosa Junior College, finished 26th at the Big Eight Conference Championships and ran at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
I'm really nervous, as a matter of fact, because I know there is a deadline that I need to be there," Gaston said. "That's why I think my motivation is greater. But I have the confidence that I'll be ready to go when the time comes."
A bonescan taken on Schultz's foot yesterday will be important to the team's approach
Like Schultz and Gaston, junior Chris
"I want to be back," Schultz said. "If it's another stress fracture, I'm really not sure if I will run this season or not, but if it's something in the joint or tendon, that could be another couple weeks."
Bryan Schultz
Ronan has been sidelined because of an injury.
Bryan Serrant
Kansas cross country team member
injury. Ronan injured his hamstring in February at an indoor track and field meet at Kansas State. He missed the entire track season and the beginning of this year's cross country season.
"The thing with ham-stings is that it's hard to keep running without aggravating them, so you have to be really careful about coming back and about training." Ronan said.
Ronan has been running without pain for the last six or seven days, Schwartz said, and he may run in the Jayhawks' next meet at Minnesota in two weeks.
Ronan understands that if he and his teammates aren't able to come back, the team will do its best.
"Hopefully Bryan and Chris can come back, and if I can contribute, then hopefully I'll get a chance to," Ronan said. "Whoever has to go as long as the team is going to improve, that's really all that matters."
Senior rower eager to get back in the boat
Knee injury didn't keep Kansas' Maggie Romens from the sport she loved
By Erin Johnson
Kansan sportswriter
Maggie Romens sat in a bus next to her junior high best friend.
Out the window she watched the sun rising above the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., and then she saw something that caught her eye. It was a boat but not just an everyday boat. It was a shell, with a crew of rowers gliding across the water.
"I just knew when I saw it, it looked cool," Romens, Edina, Minn., senior, said of the sport.
Romens was on a class trip when she saw that shell. Romens decided when she went to college, she wanted to join a rowing team.
Romens wasn't at Kansas long before she was a part of a team that finished fourth in the Lightweight Four division at the Collegiate National Championships in 1993 and 1994.
"She's the only person I know who came here to actually row," said Rob Catloth, Kansas women's rowing coach.
Kansas was the only school in the Midwest that had a club team, and that was one of the reasons why Romena became a Jayhawk
"She has a lot of experience," Catloth said. "Maggie, Paige (Giger), Rosie (Kozul) and a few others are definitely leaders on my team with the experience they've had. They're kind of my anchors for the lightweight eight this year."
and didn't row in the fall in order to save a year of eligibility.
Romens decided to take last year off. She planned to go to Spain during the spring semester
Before she left in January, Romens went on a ski trip in Montana during winter break. While on the trip, Romens had a ski accident that almost ended her chances of rowing this season.
Romens fell, and as she went down, she felt something tearing in her knee.
While she thought it was only a sprain, she later realized it was more serious.
Andy Rullestad / KANSAN
She had surgery several days later and doctors said she tore her anterior cruciate ligament — the worst thing she could do to her knee, Romens said.
"It was crazy," said Romens, who gave her crutches to her dad as she boarded the plane. "I had this huge brace on my knee and a backpack on my back."
While in Spain, Romens joined a swim club in Seville and worked on rehabilitating her knee. The rehabilitation was so important that Romens left Spain three months early to have the extra months to strengthen her knee and get in shape for rowing again.
Six days after surgery, Romens left for Spain.
Romens is glad she opted for the rehabilitation, even if she did have to give up her summer months in Spain.
"It's such a team sport that we all need each other," she said. "We all make sacrifices in one way or another, and my part was to focus on my knee."
"Everyday I see improvement,
so it's really positive," Romens said.
"I've got all this energy and desire to row hard. Not being able to physically row has made me appreciate what I had before, and
Although Romens still doesn't have full range of motion in her knee, she is making progress.
Senior Melliga Romena rips one of several new women's boating to be used this season. The team's first meet will be Oct. 15 in Kansas City, Mo.
it gives me a stronger desire to do well this year."
Being away from rowing for a year not only has made Romens appreciate the sport more, but it's also caused her to work harder.
THE ISSUE:
"I can always see myself doing it in one way or another. I always imagine rowing as a part of my life." Romens said. "I really like the team effort.
Is pro baseball dead?
America's pastime seems to be losing a lot of its big appeal
My friends keep telling me that I have a problem and that the first thing I need to do is get it out into the open. Here goes: My name is Robert, I'm 21 years old, and I'm a Major League Baseball fan.
I've watched baseball, played it and coached it. I'm one of those guys who wakes up every morning and checks the standings. With the New York Yankees trailing Seattle, this ritual often includes running to watch CNN to find out the late scores.
You can imagine my excitement during Baltimore shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.'s run for the record of consecutive games played: I couldn't get enough coverage.
Unfortunately.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that I'm one of the few people who actually feels this way.
I got home from the Kansan that night, ready to kick back and watch this monumental accomplishment — 2,131 consecutive games is comparable to going to school
for 11 years and not missing a single class — only to find my roommates watching "Dave's World."
Not that I've got anything against prime time television, but this situation made me realize that America's pastime is quickly losing its ambiance.
But I can't figure out why.
After doing a little research I collected the baseball standings for this date during each of the past 10 season (except for last year for obvious reasons). What I was looking for was what I called playoff contenders. These were the teams within five games of a playoff spot.
When compared with this year's realignment and new wild card format, the results were startling.
Since the 1984 season there have been 67 teams which were playoff contenders — an average of almost seven a year. When you take into account that there were only four playoff spots, this means that there were only three teams a year that were in contention.
Looking at yesterday's standings there was a total of 15 — count 'em: 15 — teams that had a legitimate shot at making it to the postseason. Even by taking away the eight teams that will eventually earn a shot at the World Series, that still leaves seven teams in contention.
When I compare this year with a year like 1986, I am convinced that realism was the best thing to
happen to the game. In 1986, the closest thing to a penant race was the fact that California was only ahead by 8 1/2 games. Eight and a half games?
You do the math.
I feel that the wild card has made this normally dull month
When the season ended on Sept. 14 because of the strike, so to did the chance to see Roger Maris' single-season run record be broken and Tony Gwynn bat, 400.
New divisions and wildcard winners won't help anything
I thought that nothing good would come out of the 1994 Major League Baseball season. The World Series, the greatest sports championship in the greatest game there is, was canceled by the greediness of players and owners.
But if one positive came out of last year, it was the fact that the new playoff system was not allowed to materialize.
It is ironic that it took one travesty to get rid of another.
The six division, wildcard format
One of my best friends is a Kansas City Chiefs fan as well as a Houston Oilers fan.
Not that Kansas Citizens would know since they refuse to support their plawoff contender.
was supposed to rejuvenate a so-called dying game, its supporters said. Fans were going to stay more interested later in the season because there were going to be more pennant races.
Wild Card Glance
American League
Now if he can root for two rival teams such as these, then surely Kansas Citizens can root for both the Royals and the Chiefs.
What we've ended up with is sagging attendance and a race for bad clubs to enter the post-season
Somewhere along the way somebody must have said that people can't support the Royals and the Chiefs at the same time.
of September one for the ages.
Wild Card Games
American League
W L Pet. GB
Beattle 71 63 583 —
New York 71 64 528 ½
Kansas City 68 68 507 3
Texas 68 68 507 3
Oakland 67 68 497 4¹⁴
I'm especially pleased with the new system because two of my three favorite teams — the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs — are making a run at the wild card. Even the lowly Minnesota Twins are making their presence felt by causing problems for the Royals.
The worst part of the wildcard is that has killed the pennant race.
| | W | L | Pot. | GB |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Los Angeles | 70 | 63 | - | - |
| Houston | 70 | 64 | .522 | 1/4 |
| Philadelphia | 70 | 68 | .489 | - |
| Chicago | 85 | 68 | .489 | 5 |
| San Diego | 85 | 68 | .489 | 5 |
Baseball, unlike the other major professional sports, has never rewarded mediocrity and has never
Teams no longer have to be concerned with being the best; they just have to come close. A case in point is this year's quest for the National League West Division championship. As of Sept. 20, the Los Angeles Dodgers were just 1 1/2 games behind division leader Colorado. What should be a battle that would come down to the final games to see which team would advance to the playoffs, has come down to a hoohum finish that will probably see both teams make the playoffs, with one being the wild card.
As a die-hard New York Mets fan, I would have loved to have seen the Mets make the playoffs more in the 1980s. I was crushed when they didn't make the playoffs in 1985 when they won 98 games but finished second. As much as I hate to admit it, they didn't deserve to make it that year because they weren't the best in their division.
The American League West title also would have come down to the wire between California, Seattle, Texas and Kansas City with just four games separating them. Instead we are left in the American League with two division races that were over at the all-star break.
had watered-
down playoffs.
Why start now?
The strike is not
the only reason
fans aren't going;
that should be
behind us. I think
that fans realize
that there is no
true significance
to a wild-card
race. Kansas
Citizens should be
ashamed of them.
selves for not supporting the Royals. They are a young, exciting team on the rise that should contend for the division in the coming years.
Even if the Royals or even the Seattle Mariners or Houston Astros make the divisional playoffs, their games won't sell out. The Atlanta Braves announced yesterday that all of the advance World Series tickets are sold out but more than 19,000 tickets remain for the divisional playoffs.
Aren't empty stadiums in the postseason going the be the ultimate embarrassment to the people who came up with the wild-card idea?
Baseball has lost money, fan interest and credibility with the wild-card concept. The next time baseball has an idea to get back the fans, I have two words for them and it's not wild card.
Try labor agreement.
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