SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1994
SECTION B
GERRY FEY
Pro baseball's fanatics have lost interest
It has come down to this.
The remainder of the baseball season is canceled. The playoffs will not take place. For the first time since 1908, the World Series has been eliminated. And still the owners and players were not even close to a compromise.
So who cares?
who cares if there is no more baseball season this year? It means I will not be spending $6 for a general admission ticket at Kauffman Stadium, where the players look like small dots and I can never find the ball. I can't blow $5 for a soggy hot dog and a flat beer. I can save my hard-earned cash, which is usually wasted on stupid pennants and shirts, and spend it on books for school. The game's interest has been lost in the shuffle for money.
In Kansas this thirst for frenzied action is realized, maybe even more than anywhere else.
America's sports fans think baseball is dull. We want action, hard hits and — as much as we would like to deny it — injuries and fights.
And that seems to be the general consensus from many sports fans. It's football season now. And besides, the baseball season was too long anyway.
The Kansas City Chiefs have stolen the headlines from professional baseball. They just drew the second-largest crowd in Chiefs' history when the team played the San Francisco 49ers game. The Jayhawks' crowd for their home opener against Michigan State was 48,100, which is the largest Kansas home crowd for an opening game since 1988.
Moreover, winters in the Sunflower State are dominated by college basketball, especially with all the success associated with Kansas and Kansas State. Basketball has even more action than football, and the scoring is fast paced. We like that.
Watching football or basketball games on television is much more exciting than watching baseball live, and Neilson ratings prove it. Sports fans do not miss baseball on television.
Sports highlight shows like ESPN's Sportscenter and CNN's Sports Tonight have promoted the idea of constant action for what they call the "MTV generation."
Our generation loves quick edits and sound bits from sporting events. A quick Michael Jordan slam dunk here or a big uppercut from Evander Holyfield, and we are in seven heaven. We do not care about tradition or history, which is the basis for the earlier generations' love of baseball.
Maybe we were influenced by the cynicism our parents developed after seeing professional sports develop into big business, with all its greed and self-interest. The generation before us probably didn't want to share the game of baseball when it was so skewed from the original game.
So what's next for baseball and us? When and if the players and owners resolve their dispute, will the fans return next season? Of course we just, as we always have
We still hold on to some basic values of the American past, no matter what others say about our MTV idealism. Baseball is about America, and it always will be, even if the players' average salary jumps close to $2 million. We still hold on to icons of the American dream — mom, apple pie, the Fourth of July, and the national pastime — even if they are out-of-date.
If fans set out to boycott a few of next season's games, it alerts the big wigs running the show that we are still the reason they play on the field.
Maybe it is time for the fans to send a signal to baseball's elite. This strike has taught the fan that money is the driving force behind today's baseball business.
Major leaguers begin search for second jobs
Sure, baseball may be a business rather than a game, but the players and owners are still supposed to entertain us.
The Associated Press
Andy Benes is going back to growing corn. Roland Hemond is preparing to take his son to a college football game.
All across the majors, players and officials began making their offseason plans yesterday once the inconceivable became the inevitable — there is no more baseball left this year.
"I don't have to worry about working out anymore, about when I'm going to pitch again," said Benes, a starter for the San Diego Padres.
"We're done. We're jobless," he said, now tending a garden at his California home.
Hemond, general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, has been working in professional baseball for 43 years
and says he's seen at least one World Series game in every season since 1955.
But this October, he'll be watching another sport. He's getting ready to take his son to see Maryland play football.
"It's not really what I had in mind for that weekend," Hemond said. "It's sad, very sad. There will be an unexpected void in my life next month."
Former Pirates star Dick Groat, the 1960 NL MVP, found another reason to be angry.
we get a lot of sports fans here," said Groat, who co-owns a golf course near Pittsburgh with former teammate Jerry Lynch, "and they really could care less, and that's what is upsetting to me."
Atlanta Braves general manager
John Schuerholz said he thought baseball, in time, would recover from canceling the rest of the season and the World Series.
Among those left wondering is Kansas City's Bob Hamelin. He was hitting 282 with 24 home runs and 65 RBIs when play stopped, and is considered a strong candidate for the AL Rookie of the Year award, which will be given out in a month or so.
"I would have loved to play the full season to see what kind of numbers I'd put up," he said from his home in North Carolina. "But what are you going to do?"
"It just goes to show that we humans who are placed in charge of this great game, the caretakers of this great game, have fouled up substantially," he said.
Baseball strike chronology
SOURCE: News reports
Jay Thornton / KANBAN
Knight-Ridder Tribute/JAMES SMALLWOOD
'Hawks gear up to meet the Frogs
Down in the South, 'Hawks meet West
By Matt Irwin
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas football coach Glen Mason commented on the upcoming game against Texas Christian during a press conference in the Parrott Athletic Center yesterday. The game will start at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Fort Worth, West.
Kansas offensive standouts John Jones and Hessley Hempstead may finally meet their match on Saturday night.
Royal West
When the two senior guards face off against Texas Christian senior defensive guard Royal West at 7 p.m. Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, they will be trying to block a 1933 All-Southwest Conference performer and third-team All-American.
West broke TCU's school record for sacks with nine in 1993.
He also had nine tackles behind the line of scrimmage and caused 36 incompletions by pressuring quarter-backs.
Perhaps West's best game may be his first game of this season when the Horned Frogs lost 27-17 to the 16h-ranked North Carolina Tarheels.
In that game, West displayed his diverse defensive abilities. He had seven tackles, one sack, one blocked field goal, and two batted-down passes.
"He's a very quick, agile player who plays hard, North Carolina offensive line coach Edwin Williamson said. "He's never really out of a play. He has a knack of being in the right place at the right time."
Texas Christian defensive line coach Hugh Nall said that West's hustle and awareness kept him involved in every play until it was completed.
"There were several times when he got blocked but batted down the pass." Nall said.
West attributed much of his success
to several elements.
"I think my strengths are my technique, basic overall knowledge of the game and quickness," he said.
West said he believed his instincts came from being around his father, who is a high school football coach.
"Ilove to recruit a coach's son," Nall said. "There are little things they understand that others might not because it's talked about around the house and talked about around the dinner table."
Nail said West's experience helped
him succeed because of his effort to improve.
Nall said that, in a sense, West was one of the best defensive tackles in the country.
"I think talent-wise, there might be some that are better," Nall said. "In terms of technique and working hard, I don't know if there's anyone. He probably worked (on his game) more this past summer than he did his whole life."
This week West will get to measure his abilities when he plays against
Hempstead was the offensive MVP for the Michigan State game.
Jones and Hempstead.
"I don't know if I've seen a couple guards as good as those two are," Nall said. "They've got great mobility. They run well and I haven't seen them bust an assignment from the film I've seen. They ought to be professionals."
"It definitely gets you hyped up." West said. "I read where one of them was the offensive team MVP. That says a lot for an offensive lineman."
Opening crowd pleases Mason
By matt irwin
Kansas sportwriter
Kansan sportswriter
Big-time football means big-time crowds, and Kansas football coach Glen Mason said he hopes for both all year long.
When the Jayhawks defeated the Michigan State Spartans 17-10 Saturday at Memorial Stadium, it was in front of the 16th-largest home crowd in Kansas history.
"That's what we need at the University of Kansas," Mason said. "We need a home-field advantage, just like we have a home court advantage."
"We didn't sell any tickets to the Spartans," Mason said. "We had a 48,000 plus crowd of Kansas supporters. That's the thing that was amazing about the crowd. When we start getting involved in the Big Eight schedule there's going to be more of an interest."
Mason said that the large crowd support was an effective recruiting tool, but he expected the crowds to get larger.
Mason said his only role in attendance was winning, and that he does not worry about putting a flashy offense on the field. He said his team reflects his style.
"Everyone has different tastes," Mason said in explaining what fans enjoy seeing in football games. "If I go to watch any type of contest and I see a bunch of athletes out they're playing as hard as they can. That's entertaining to me. If I see a bunch of talented guys running around and not giving it all, I've got to get turned off by that."
Mason said he always thought attendance would reach this level. But he said he hadn't forgotten the small crowds in the past.
"When I first came here, we were giving out tickets in grocery stores."
Volleyball team enjoys bouncing across the country
By Chesley Dohl
Kansan sportswriter
Weekend get-aways all business for team
Out-of-state weekend trips are no oddity to the Kansas volleyball team.
For a third consecutive weekend the Jayhawks will travel out of state, this time to a tournament in Virginia. Earlier weekend trips were to Springfield, Mo., and Fort Collins, Colo.
"We eat, sleep, study and play volleyball," sophomore outside hitter Lara Izokaita said. "Studying and volleyball are our main priorities when we're away."
The weekend volleyball matches are basically all business and are designed to expose Kansas to higher levels of competition, Kansas coach Karen Schonewise said.
Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, trips to out-of-state tournaments include anything but the vacation luxuries of shopping and sightseeing.
Schonewise said she took a no-frills approach to planning the team's itinerary.
"Our whole objective is to play volleyball." Schonewise said. "In planning our trips we do what we need to do to get the team prepared to play."
The team usually leaves for its tournaments via charter bus after classes on Thursdays and returns home late Saturday nights.
But this weekend's trip to Blacksburg, Va., to compete in the Comfort Ink Holk Classic at
In lieu of a charter bus, Kansas will board a plane today at 5:30 p.m. and fly to Roanoke, Va. In addition to more than $2200 dollars for the team's travel expenses, meals and motel costs must be added to the total cost of the trip, Schonewise said.
Virginia Tech.. is a little different.
In early spring, each athletic program at Kansas submits to the Kansas Athletic Department a prospective budget proposal for the fiscal year. An athletic department committee studies the projected expenses, taking into account each athletic program's schedule and anticipated travel expenses, said Susan Wachter, assistant athletic director in charge of business.
"All the expenses are added up and put in one document. If the expenses are less than revenue, we approve it," Wachter said of the teams' budget proposals. "If the expenses are not less, then we sit down with the coach and chip away at it until it fits our budget."
The state of Kansas allots money to non-revenue teams, including the Kansas volleyball team, to assist in paying for the team's meals during out-of-state trips. Schonewise said the state allotted a set amount of $26 for each player's meals a day.
Even though weekend road trips at Kansas aren't all fun and games, Izokaitis said just traveling together as a team made the trips something to look forward to.
Jay Thornton / KANSAN
"We're always on time constraints," she said. "But the coaches are good about making trips enjoyable for us."
Kansas volleyball managers Tim Lattimer and Jason Yeates try to block the kill of sophomore outside hitter Lara Izokaikis in a practice drill. The Jayhawks will travel for the third time already this season when they go to the Comfort Inn Hokie Classic tomorrow in Blacksburg, Va.
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