2B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
ATHLETICS CALENDAR
TODAY
+ Men's Golf all day, Alvamar Golf and Country Club
WEDNESDAY
Volleyball at Texas, 6:30 p.m., Austin
FRIDAY
- Soccer vs. Baylor, 7 p.m., Waco, Texas
SATURDAY
Cross Country Roy Griak Invitational, 11:20 a.m., Minneapolis, Minn.
- Softball vs. Pittsburgh St., noon, Arrocha Ballnack
♦ Softball vs. Missouri Southern, 4 p.m.
Arrocha Ballpark
♦ Volleyball vs. Baylor, 7 p.m., Horeisi Family Athletics Center
SUNDAY
♦ Softball vs. Rockhurst, noon, Arrocha Ballpark
- Soccer vs. Texas &M, 1 p.m., Jayhawk
Soccer Complex
♦ Softball opponent TBA, 2 p.m., Arrocha Ballpark
ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
Big Jay ranked third in challenge, unbeaten after two rounds
University of Kansas mascot Big Jay won the second round of round-robin competition in the Capital One Mascot Challenge during the weekend.
He is in third place in the overall competition. Big Jay trails Auburn's Aubie and Georgia Tells' Buzz.
He defeated Baylor University's Bruiser. Big Jav now has 159,544 total votes.
In this week's competition, Big Jay leads Aubie by less than 100 votes.The current voting period ends Sept.26.
Big Jay will compete against the University of Miami's Sebastian next week.
University retracts secondary violations reported to NCAA
Ryan Schneider
The Kansas Athletics Department has announced it has notified the NCAA to remove two violations the University self-reported in June.
The two secondary violations involved improper off-campus academic meetings between three football recruits and two faculty members in December 1998.
The report alleged that the meetings occurred between the three recruits and Florence Boldridge, Director of Diversity Programs for the School of Engineering, and John Michel, Speech, Language and Hearing professor.
An attorney hired by the department concluded that the reported meeting did not occur, following interviews with Boldridge and Michel. The attorney, Rick Evrard, has notified the NCAA that the University wishes to remove the violations from the report.
"Ms. Boldridge and Mr. Michel have been outstanding ambassadors for the University of Kansas, educating numerous prospective student athletes about the University." Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins said. "They did nothing wrong, and we are truly sorry we included their names in the self-report."
— Ryan Schneider
MLB
CHICAGO — Aaron Boone's two-run, two-out single in the eight innings sent Cleveland to a 7-5 victory over Chicago last night and moved the Indians one game closer to the sliding White Sox in the AL Central.
Tribe cuts White Sox lead to 21/2
Cleveland cut the White Sox's one-time lead of 15 games on Aug. 1, to 2 1/2 games and maintained its 1 1/2-game lead for the AL wild card.
Boone, who homered to help the Indians build a 4-10 lead, lined a single up the middle off Bobby Jenks to give Cleveland a 6-5 lead. The Indians have won six straight and 13 of 14, while the White Sox have lost eight of 14.
Carl Everett homered in the seventh off Rafael Betancourt (4-3) to give the White Sox a 5-4 lead. —The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Saints blame loss on performance
NFL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — To the New Orleans Saints, last night's bizarre "home" opener was unfair from the outset. And they played like they did:1 want to be there in losing 27-10 to the New York Giants.
"They made this seem like the Super Bowl," quarterback Aaron Brooks said of the NFL and the hoopla after New Orleans had six turnovers and 13 penalties. "We played a team that outplayed us today, but it was way overdone. Setting up a stage, traveling out here, was uncalled for.
"Try not to patronize us next time, traveling us to New York, saying we're playing a home game."
Added coach Jim Haslett: "We were in the visiting locker room, on the visiting field. It seemed like an away game."
The Giants, visitors in name and jersey color only, had no complaints. Playing before 68,031 of their fans, they took advantage of New Orleans' sloppiness from the first play, a fumbled kickoff. Tiki Barber scored two touchdowns and the defense had four sacks.
"It was supposedly their home game, but we just played like it was our home game," said Giants defensive end Osi Umenjiora, who had two sacks.
NFL nomads after the damage to the Superdome and New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were given a home game here by the league. Historically more successful on the road under Haslett (25-17 going in), they couldn't overcome critical mistakes in falling to 1-1.
Efforts to make this resemble something akin to home appeared minimal at Giants Stadium, where -- surprisingly, considering the local team's popularity -- about 10,000 seats went unoccupied. Those in attendance generally were dressed in Giants blue and, except for mild applause when the entire Saints squad came onto the field before the coin toss, they rooted for their guys.
One end zone had SAINTS painted in white and a few Saints banners were scattered along the blue bunting on the lower level. Other than a www.saint-shurricanefund.org sign on the message board, everything about the night said New Jersey, not New Orleans.
"It could go on and on like this, we have to take this one week at a time," Brooks said. "At some point, it is going to wear down on us. We've got to be strong enough and mature enough to handle this situation and accept the responsibilities given to us."
While they could be excused if their minds were elsewhere, Saints players have insisted that on game day, nothing distracts them from football. It looked that way in last week's upset of Carolina. It looked decidedly different Monday night.
"I think the guys have gone a great job of focusing on football in practices and meetings," Haslett said. "It did not reflect that today. It didn't carry over."
In the first half alone, the Saints committed 11 penalties for 72 yards, including an illegal contact by Sedrick Hodge that negated a third-down sack and set up the Giants' third touchdown.
"We've been in four complexes in four weeks, I've been in three hotels, now an apartment," Haslett noted. "But that (performance) had nothing to do with where we live or what we do. We sucked on that field today."
At least the Saints' other seven home games will be played closer to home: four in Baton Rouge, La., and three in San Antonio, where they train. For this one, they had to dress in the cramped visitors' locker room, with a makeshift Saints sign hung above the entrance.
The Glants (2-0) benefited in every way from the NFLs decision, beginning with the opening kickoff. Some Saints trickery immediately backfired. Michael Lewis handed off the return to Fred McAfee, who tumbled at the 10, with Chase Blackburn recovering. Three plays later, to tumultuous cheers for the "visitors", rookie Brandon Jacobs squeezed into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
Hardly the start the Saints needed, and it didn't get much better. The Giants took a 14-0 lead on Barber's 6-yard reception.
But the Saints are nothing if not resilient, and they came back with an 86-yard drive that was almost all Joe Horn. He had two catches of 15 yards, then a 21-yard touchdown reception. It was Horn whose cell phone antics in a game against the Giants two years ago drew him a measure of fame -- and a $30,000 fine.
Scintillating salsa
Alecia Williams, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, left, Maria Samuels, Wichita sophomore, center, and Erica Rowe, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, right, learn a salsa dance step from members of the KU Ballroom Dance Club. SigmaLambda Gamma sorority hosted a salsa 101 class last night at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union as part of Hispanic Heritage Month 2005.
Jared Soares/KANSAN
Lining up for a victory
Kim Andrews/KANSAN
Despite a rain delay, the University of Kansas men's golf team rose to the top of the leader board yesterday at the Kansas Invitational Golf Tournament at Alvamar Golf Club. With an opening day two-round total of 563, Kansas is leading the 16 teams in the tournament. The top three teams will be paired for final play tomorrow; a shotgun tee-time is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. The Jayhawks have won back-to-back Kansas Invitations and are striving for a third-straight victory. A KU player has won top individual honors for the past two tournaments.
MLB
Royals beat Tigers avoid 100th loss
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matt Stairs had three hits, including a three-run homer, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 10-4 Monday night before their smallest home crowd in 10 years.
The Tigers are 4-15 in September, and with 82 losses are assured of their 12th consecutive losing season.
The Royals, who have lost 99 games, drew an announced attendance of 8,915. That is the smallest crowd to see a Royals' home game since July 5, 1995, when 7,511 watched them play Boston.
Stairs homered in the first after Mike Sweeney snapped an 0-for-11 skid with a single. Terrence Long was also on after a single.
Mike Wood (5-7) was 0-3 in four starts before earning his first victory since Aug. 20, when he helped snap the Royals' franchise-record 19-game losing streak. He is 2-3 in eight starts since moving into the rotation on Aug. 9.
Wood gave up four runs and eight hits, including home runs by Carlos Pena and Chris Shelton, in 5 2-3 innings before being replaced by rookie reliever Ambiorix Burgos. He walked one and struck out four.
The Royals made it 5-2 in the fourth. Angel Berroa's double scored Emil Brown, who opened the inning with a single, and Andres Blanco's sacrifice fly scored Berroa.
The Royals scored three more runs in the fifth and chased Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman (14-13). The inning included doubles by Stairs, Berroa and Mark Teahen. John Buck contributed a run-scoring single, his third hit.
Shelton homered in the first. Ivan Rodriguez, who leads all active players with a .357 average against the Royals, doubled home Placido Polanco in the fourth with the second Detroit run.
Bonderman gave up seven runs and 11 hits in 4 2-3 innings. He has lost four straight starts and seven of eight.
The Royals added a run in the sixth, which Aaron Guiel led off with a double and scored on a Sweeney single.
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Sopl Farm team
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