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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM Sports WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2008
》 BASEBALL
Five selected for MLB Draft
ckeefer@kansan.com
BY CASE KEEFER
Five Kansas baseball players were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft last Friday.
Junior pitcher Sam Freeman was walking his dog when his phone rang with the news
"I got a call from one of my friends telling me I got drafted," Freeman said. "It was kind of surprising. It felt good, like a relief."
The St.Louis Cardinals picked
"I got a call from one of my friends telling me I got drafted. It was kind of surprising. It felt good, like a relief."
"I've always been a Giants fan," Ryne Price said. "Then talking with them the last couple of years, that's the organization I always wanted to get into."
The MLB Draft isn't like
Freeman in the 32nd round of the draft, making him the 965th player selected overall. He was the first of five Jayhawks to be drafted Friday.
SAM FREEMAN Junior pitcher
Senior outfielder Ryne Price, junior pitcher Nick Czyz, senior pitcher Andres Esquibel and senior infielder Erik Morrison rounded out the list of Kansas players headed to the majors.
Price, who was the second Jayhawk taken, was starting to wonder whether he would be drafted at all as he worked at a youth baseball camp Friday afternoon. But then Price received a phone call. It was his younger brother and fellow Kansas baseball player Robby Price who told Ryne that the San Francisco Giants had selected him in the 33rd round.
the NBA and NFL Drafts, where most of the players picked start playing for the team immediately. Players taken in
the baseball draft play for a team's organization, usually in the minor leagues. After they prove themselves, they have an opportunity to move up to the major league.
Ryne Price said part of the reason he was excited to play for the Giants organization was because he felt the team gave him a good opportunity to move up the organizational ladder. He left Lawrence last weekend for Phoenix, where he will participate in training camp.
Erik Morrison, who was selected in the 46th round
Freeman
Morrison
Price
Czyz
Esquibel
by the Texas Rangers, also shipped off to Arizona for training camp this week. This was the third year Morrison was picked in the draft but the first two times, he decided to stay in college. Now that his college eligibility has run out, Morrison said he was excited about chasing his dream of playing baseball for a living.
"I get to prolong my career in baseball," Morrison said. "You never want to see something come to an end after you've worked at it for the last 16 years of your life."
Freeman and Nick Czyz, who was picked in the 35th round by the Seattle Mariners, were both juniors so they could chose to either sign a contract and start their professional career or return to Kansas. Freeman said he would not return to Kansas next year. Czyz could not be reached for comment.
Two high school seniors who comitted to Kansas for next season were also drafted. Infielder Zac Elgie went in the 12th round to the Oakland Athletics and pitcher Lee Ridenhour went in the 31st round to the Minnesota Twins.
Edited by Mandy Earles
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boston Celtics' Kendrick Perkins, left, and Paul Pierce ride stationary bikes during practice Saturday in Boston. The Celtics play host to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the NBA basketball finals Sunday night.
Lakers could be wary against Celtics
》 NBA
BY TOM WITHERS ASSICIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Frequent flyers, the Los Angeles Lakers were allowed an unlimited number of carry-on items for their trip home.
It remains to be seen if any of them contained momentum.
After losing two games in Boston, the Lakers returned to California on Monday in a hole as deep as Topanga Canyon. Over 96 minutes, they have looked nothing like the team which pulverized Denver, pushed aside Utah and swatted away San Antonio with ease on the way to winning the Western Conference title.
With the exception of an eight-minute stretch at the end of Game 2, Kobe Bryant and his crew have looked sickly in the finals.
However, there's no truth to the rumor they were taken from their charter plane at LAX in Paul Pierce's infamous wheelchair.
Though down 0-2, and facing history along with the league's toughest defense, the Lakers felt good about their comeback — they whacked a 24-point deficit to two over the final 7:55 — and are confident they can swing the series at the Staples Center in Game on Tuesday night.
They are 8-0 in the postseason there and unbeaten in 14 home games since March 28.