SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 30,1994
SECTION E
Congress trying to squeeze in baseball
Committee approves letting players sue
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Orel Hershiser was back on the hill yesterday — not the pitcher's mound but Capitol Hill, pleading along with other players for Congress to strip baseball owners' of their antitrust exemption.
And for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court created the exemption in 1922, a congressional committee approved a bill to partially remove it.
While Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., said at the subcommittee hearing he would "raise absolute legislative hell" if the strike continued into 1995, it appeared unlikely that any baseball bills would become law this year.
Congress is set to adjourn next week and Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, has
been unable to get the Senate to consider similar legislation.
"Ithink we want to put this league and the players on notice that the antitrust exemption they enjoyed is on its deathbed," said Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla, after the House Judiciary Committee approved his bill by a voice vote.
"It's a significant step forward," said union head Donald Fehr. "Momentum is building, and it's building quickly."
Hershier, appearing before a separate panel, testified before Congress for the
second time in eight days as lawmakers pushed for an end to the strike, which began Aug. 12 and caused the first cancellation of the World Series since 1904.
The exemption prevents players from suing owners, leading the union to strike in order to prevent management from imposing a salary cap. NFL football players gained liberalized free agency only after they filed a successful antitrust suit.
Synar's bill would eliminate the exemption if owners unilaterally imposed work rules.
VOLLEYBALL
Jayhawks want win in Big Eight
By Chesley Dohl
Kansan sportswriter
Oklahoma and Kansas, both 0-1 in the Big Eight Conference, will meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Field House in a battle to even their conference volleyball records.
The Jayhawks, 3-12 overall, and the Sooners, 8-4, want their first Big Eight victories after suffering losses to conference opponents Wednesday night.
Sophomore outside hitter Katie Walsh said the desire to counter the Jayhawks' loss with a victory would be incentive to play well Saturday.
"If we're going to win, we need to start passing better," she said.
Walsh said that the Jayhawks were working well as a team, but that the little things, such as technical serving and passing errors, were hurting their performance.
State defeated Kansas in three games, 13-15, 9-15 and 11-15, in Ames, Iowa, Wednesday night, while Oklahoma lost in three games to Colorado, last year's conference champions.
Kansas coach Karen Schonewise said that she was pleased with the Jayhawks' performance against Iowa State, but that the team was capable of a lot more.
"We played very well against Iowa State, but we just need to step up our game a little more," she said. "We're a pretty good defensive team, but we need to be more concerned with our offensive game."
Schonewise said the Jayhawks would have to refine their passing, serving and blocking to compete with a tall Oklahoma team. The average height on the Sooners' team is 6-foot-1.
"Oklahoma is very similar to Iowa State in that they're a big block team and an experienced team," Sonehence said.
Oklahoma assistant coach Amy Farber said the Sooners were an even more balanced team this season than last year's 21-15 team.
"We're currently playing three freshman in our starting line up," Farber said. "We're a young team combined with some experience."
an Dougherty / KANSAN
Senior David Johnston stretches at Memorial Stadium before cross country practice. The team is preparing for the Chili Pepper/NCA pre-meet this Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
Runners to see red in Arkansas
By Kent Hohlfeld
Kansan sportswriter
The goal for the Kansas cross country team this weekend is to catch the red uniforms. The men's and women's teams will compete tomorrow in the Chili Pepper/NCAA premeet at Fayetteville, Ark.
"It seems like all the big teams like Wisconsin, Oldahoma, Oklahoma State and Arkansas have red uniforms," said sophomore team member Colleen McClimon. "We've been joking that all we have to do is go after the red uniforms."
This weekend's field of teams will be composed of many teams expected to compete in the NCAA championships, which will also be held in Fayetteville on Nov. 21.
"Every year the team that plays host to nationals has to hold a meet," Kansas assistant coach Steve Guymon said. "It gives other teams a chance to see the course they may have to compete on."
The meet will feature 10 of the nation's top-25 women's teams including No. 1 Vilanova. The Jayhawks' women's team enters the meet ranked 22nd in the nation, while the men are ranked 18th.
The race is big and it could help the Jay hawks if they win, Guymon said.
One criteria the NCAA uses to determine the championships' at-large bids is a team's record against ranked opponents. At-large bids are given to teams that don't finish in the top two in their district meets.
"This race also gives us a good chance to see where we are compared to some of the best teams in the nation." Guymon said.
McClimson said the fact that top-ranked competition will be at the meet helped to motivate the team to perform well.
"It totally pumps me up," she said. "The whole atmosphere at practice is more intense."
McClilmon said that the team tried not to pay attention to the polls despite its importance later in the year.
The men's team goal is to prove that the victory against top-ranked Arkansas in Lawrence in the first meet of the season was not a fluke.
Kansas defeated the Razorbacks by two points at the Jayhawk Invitational.
"At this point in the year you have to take the rankings with a grain of salt." she said.
The Razorbacks left their top three runners at home for that meet. All three are expected to compete this weekend.
"I was kind of surprised that Arkansas was still ranked No. 1," Gumman said. "I thought the rankings showed that this is one of the best distance conferences in the nation."
The men's poll had four Big Eight teams ranked in the top 25. Iowa State led the conference at No. 2 and earned six firstplace votes. Oklahoma State and Colorado were ranked 13th and 14th, respectively.
Senior runner David Johnston said, considering the difficulty of the Jayhawks' district, this meet could have added importance.
This meet will give the Jayhawks their best opportunity of the season to defeat a large number of ranked teams. Nine top-25 teams will compete in the men's race, and four additional schools competing received top-25 votes.
"We want to beat as many of the teams as possible," Johnston said. "But we still have to look at it as one meet."
With most teams competing at full strength, this meet looks to be Kansas' toughest competition before the conference and national meets later in the year.
"This will give us a good test," Johnston said. "I think we ready."
Football preview: Colorado
By Matt Irwin
Kansan sportswriter
"It's better to be lucky than good," is often heard from coaches whose teams win games miraculously.
The Buffaloes are undefeated after three games, including a 55-17 demolition of 15th-ranked Wisconsin and a 27-26 last-second defeat of seventh-ranked Michigan.
But in the case of fifth-ranked Colorado, the Buffaloes have been both lucky and good this football season.
Colorado hopes its luck and skill lead it to victory when it travels to Texas tomorrow to play the No. 16 Longhorns.
Colorado coach Bill McCartney said the Buffalooes had designed a schedule that would help them prove how good they were.
This weekend, Colorado will play the last of three games against nonconference, top-20 teams. The Bufaloes start the Big Eight season on Oct. 8 at Mts.
Colorado schedule
Colorado Schedule
Record-3-0
Date team score
Sept. 3 NE Louisiana 48-13(W)
Sept.17 Wisconsin 55-17(W)
Sept.24 at Michigan 27-26(W)
Oct. 1 at Texas
Oct. 8 at Missouri
Oct.15 Oklahoma
Oct.22 Kansas State
Oct.29 at Nebraska
Nov. 5, Oklahoma St.
Nov. 12 at Kansas
Nov. 19 Iowa State
souri, but follow that immediately with three more games against ranked teams. Colorado will play home games against No. 21 Oklahoma and No. 23 Kansas State. The Buffaloes then play at No. 2 Nebraska on Oct. 29. On Nov. 12, Colorado will face another team that received votes in the Associated Press poll — Kansas.
"That's the kind of schedule we want to play," said Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart. "It makes us want to be prepared and practice hard."
McCarthy agreed that Colorado wanted to play a schedule that would allow it to show whether it was worthy of the national championship. But he stressed that his players need to put each win behind them.
After the Buffaloees dismantled Wisconsin, McCartney called the game a, "big, emotional victory." He said Colorado's victory against Michigan on a Hall Mary pass from Stewart to wide receiver Michael Westbrook was also emotional — so emotional it had prompted Stewart to say he wanted to marry Westbrook.
"We're going to try and take care of that today in practice," McCartney said jokingly after the game. "I think we'll have them tie the knot today."
He said the Buffaloes' fifth-place ranking was a good position in the poll despite his team's defeat of two highly ranked teams.
"That'a great ranking this early in the year," McCartney said. "Our opportunities are still in front of us. Texas is 11th in the coaches' poll." That's a big game.
Although Texas is ranked lower in the AP poll than Wisconsin and Michigan are after their losses to Colorado, McCartney still fears the Longhorns.
"I'm impressed with them," McCartney said. "Their offensive line is particularly good. It's going to be difficult to defend them."
McCarney said he was happy coaching an undefeated team through a tough schedule.
"We've tried to arrange games with really good universities," McCartney said. "It's what we think college football should be. It's not something we have to do. It's something we want to do."
Ram Eddings, third from right, founder of the national rugby team Gray Wolves, passes the ball during a rugby game. Eddings and members of the team are running across the country promoting rugby.
Paul Kotz / KANBAK
Rugby players traveling nation
By Kent Hohlfeld
Kansan sportswriter
Organizer hopes to appeal to minorities
That is the message that Ram Eddings, founder of the national rugby team Grey Wolves, and members of the Grey Wolves hope to promote in their run across the country.
Eddings, a California native, was in Lawrence Wednesday as part of the run, which will take nearly four months to complete.
Rugby is a sport for everyone.
4.
Eddings said that the trip, which started July 17 in Inglewood, Calif., would end in mid-October in Washington, D.C., where he hoped to present autographed rugby game balls to President Clinton.
"We've traveled almost 1,600 miles since we started this," Eddings said. "We expect to end up in Washington on Oct. 15."
The Grey Wolves, which Eddings founded in 1991, is a national rugby team that is composed of minority players from around the nation. The goal of the group is to broaden
what Eddings said was the narrow appeal of the sport to minority and youth communities.
He said that rugby could have a strong appeal to youth unable to play other sports.
Xentho Hatton, publicity coordinator for the Grey Wolves, joined the club in 1991 after he graduated from Kansas State.
"We want to promote rugby, especially within the minority community," Eddings said. "We try to go into a community and help tie the local clubs to the youth and minority groups."
"I saw a lot of students that couldn't play sports like football or basketball," Hatton said. "After I introduced them to the sport they would say, 'Hey, I can play this game.'"
He said he thought rugby was a sport that could channel the athletic talent of many minority college students.
Eddings said that the Grey Wolves stopped in some cities to talk to minority youth groups and to promote rugby.
"We talk to youngsters about conflict resolution and violence, and we promote rugby in general," he said.
Ramon Fewell, a team member who is helping Eddings with the trip, said he thought rugby could help youths deal with the problems they faced.
"In football you play the game and go your separate ways," Fewell said. "In rugby the host team takes its opponent out for food and drinks. That's traditional in the sport all over the world."
"This sport has a camaraderie that you don't find in any other sport," Fewell said. "It's like one big family where no one really feels a loser."
He said rugby players felt closer to each other than athletes in many other sports.
Kansas rugby coach Dominic Barnao said he thought groups like the Grey Wolves could help the sport gain the same popularity it had in other countries.
"In New Zealand, every kid grows up with a rugby ball in hand," Barnao said. "In the U.S., it's predominantly a college sport."
Barnao said he thought the team would help broaden the sport beyond the college crowd.
"This helps to move the sport beyond just one socioeconomic group," he said.
Eddings said that because rugby players were easily accessible to younger people, they had the chance to inspire young athletes.
"One of the biggest goals of our group is to be positive role models for younger players," he said.