8B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COACHING LEGEND
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007
Robinson honored at Louisiana Capitol
BY MARY FOSTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, La.
Thousands of mourners passed the open casket of Eddie Robinson on Monday in the Louisiana Capitol, where the famed Grambling State football coach viewed the body of slain political titan Huey Long more than 70 years ago.
Robinson, who endured the indignities of the Jim Crow era while building tiny and predominantly black Grambling into a football power, died last week at 88.
His body was carried up a long stretch of granite steps by dozens of white-gloved former players, including former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams.
Doris Robinson, Robinson's wife of 67 years, sat beside the coffin during a private morning memorial service for players and coaches. She placed a football in the coffin and rested her hand on Robinson's head.
"I'm dong OK," she said later. "I already miss him so much, but I can't
keep breaking down."
An abbreviated version of the renowned Grambling band played the national anthem after the casket was placed at one end of Memorial Hall, the two-story, marble-and bronze-trimmed space between the Capitol's House and Senate chambers.
Robinson is believed to be just the fifth person to lie in repose at the Capitol. Others include Long, the former governor and senator, and his brother, Earl, also a former governor.
When Huey Long died in 1935, the coach and his wife, then teenage sweethearts, made it a point to go to the Louisiana Capitol, grandson Eddie Robinson III said.
"She told me how they walked hand-and-hand across town just to view the body," the grandson said.
Since his death, Robinson has been eulogized as a heroic figure: A patriot tested in the segregation era; a coach who built a football institution; a leader who set a life's example for young black men.
Doris Robinson prepares to place a football in the casket of her husband Eddie Robinson, former football coach of Grambling State University, with the help of former coach Doug Williams, during a ceremony to honor Coach Robinson at the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge, La., Monday.
Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASCAR
Edwards' wins open big points lead early
BY JENNA FRYER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carl Edwards never came close to winning the Busch Series title last season, when Kevin Harvick humiliated the competition with a near-flawless run to the championship.
Harwick wrapped up the title with a month to go and finished with an outrageous 824-point lead over runner-up Edwards.
Edwards was determined to put together a better show, so he decided to run the full Busch schedule this season.
That 35-race commitment gives the NASCAR star almost no break during the grueling February-to-November season. It's a never-ending circus of shuttling between garages and crisscrossing the country on private planes to make every event.
His win Saturday opened his lead in the Busch standings to 321 points over Dave Blaney. At this point last year, Harvick led by 146 points.
Once the schedule splits this summer, and four Busch races are held at different venues than Cup events. Edwards knows one rainy day could
shrink his lead dramatically.
"I guess that's what makes it interesting," he said. "Let's just say we miss all four of those, most likely it will be hard to win the championship. Or let's say we will definitely miss two of them because of weather, it would eat up any lead."
Everything went according to plan for Harvick last season, but it wore him down so much he vowed to never again run both series.
Edwards has yet to tire from the grind.
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BASEBALL
Cold temperatures affect play
BY RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
After a frosty first week baseball quickly made a move for warmth and shifted the Los Angeles Angel's series against the Indians from Cleveland to an enclosed field in Milwaukee.
That didn't do much good for Indians fans on Monday. For the fourth straight day, games were wiped out by snow at Jacobs Field, sending the Seattle Mariners packing without playing an inning that counted.
All of a sudden, players are tracking snowfall and wind chill with the same interest as balls, strikes and outs.
Commissioner Bud Selig thinks it would impracticable to start the season with games only in warm-weather cities and ballparks with domes.
"It's stupid. It's crazy," said Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia. "We should definitely be starting somewhere else, definitely on the West Coast or somewhere with a dome so this doesn't happen."
At least in Milwaukee the Indians will be assured of playing the Angels in a three-game set that starts Tuesday night because Miller Park has a retractable roof. Fans will get a bargain: All tickets will be $10.
"Games have been snowed out for
130 years. Like with everything in life, you need luck," he said. "It's an impossible situation because no matter what you do, the clubs don't want long road trips. You just do the best you can. This is very unusual. We're getting late-February weather."
During a week as cold as a Barry Bonds brushoff, temperatures weren't the only thing way down: Home runs plunged to their lowest level since 1993, with the average dropping from 2.4 in last season's opening week to 1.8 this year. It hasn't
been that low since a 1.6 average 14 years ago, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"It's freezing. Who can hit a home run right now?" said Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada, a former MVP.
In addition to the Mariners Indians series, one game apiece was lost in New York, Chicago and Detroit.
Cold didn't stop Tampa Bay's Elijah Dukes, who hit his first two career homers at Yankee Stadium. He connected for his second while wearing a ski mask with a slit around the eyes just wide enough to allow him to see, looking more cat burglar than slugger.
"Games have been snowed out for 130 years.Like with everything in life,you need luck."
Baseball tried to work around the cold a decade ago, without great
Runs per game dropped from 10.51 to 8.55, a level unseen since 1992's 8.21. Pitcher's ERAs fell from 4.94 to 3.72, also a 15-year low.
BUD SELIG MLB commissioner
"Everywhere I turn on TV and watch highlights, it seems pretty cold," said New York Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado. "And I can tell you that most of the hitters, they don't like to hit when it's cold. That's my conspiracy theory right there."
every West Coast site
success. After enduring a snowout at Boston's Fenway Park, a snowy afternoon at Yankee Stadium and cold in Detroit and Chicago in 1996, baseball remade the schedule for 1997, using covered fields and
After teams in the East and Midwest got home, eight games were washed out by weather on the season's second Saturday, raising that year's total to 17.
Draft schedules must be given to the players' association about nine months before opening day. "Those warm-weather clubs, they don't want 25 April dates," Selig said.