UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, April 18, 1997
3B
The following are comments received via e-mail by the sports desk. Comments and questions can be sent to sports@kansan.com and selected comments will be printed.
In response to Spencer Duncan's column saying that Jim Ryun never signed his poster and that athletes should be kind to children:
I'm a staff person here at KU and have no real interest in sports. But I just read your article on Jim Ryun and the autograph, and had to comment — excellent job! Well-written — people like that need to be called on the carpet whenever possible. There is something insidious and contradictory about sports 'heroes' cashing in on their hero image ... and these days all too common, as well.
In these 'hero-less' days, athletes are the last frontier, especially for kids. That story needed telling.
ability.
By coincidence, the announcer
Your experience reminded me of a similar disappointment that I had at an international track meet (ISTAFA) in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, my home. I had gone to the city to visit my uncle who was in the hospital, dying. I went to the track meet because I had run in the stadium myself when I was about 12 years old and our schools had their annual city-wide competition.
In Berlin, big track and field events are held in front of a sold-out stadium. It is difficult to find this kind of exciting atmosphere anywhere in track in the United States, save the Atlanta Olympics. All the top track and field athletes in the world were at the Berlin event, including Edwin Moses. He had run the 400-meter hurdles for about three years without defeat, and I had admired him for his disciplined training and
called me to the podium area where all of the athletes were (he had made a mistake). Another professor with my last name — what is the probability of that? was actually requested, and I found myself 10 feet or so from Edwin Moses and many world class women runners. Edwin Moses was being interviewed. When he stepped down, I told him how impressed I had been with his performance and asked him for an autograph in my program. He looked at me and said, "I am not Edwin Moses" and walked off. I was shattered and felt insulted. None of the other athletes there refused their autographs.
This happened about eight years ago, and I have never forgotten my shock and disappointment. I do not know what motivated Jim Ryun and Edwin Moses to react the way they did — but it was not Christianity. May I suggest that we forgive these men? They need our compassion because they might be very unhappy people.
Billy Mills gave my five-year-old son an autograph for free last Sat urday night.
General comment;
I find it amazing, even unacceptable, that not one word has been written about the Kansas women's basketball banquet and the honors bestowed on the players. A crowd that barely fit in the Alumni Center honored some outstanding players who have given a great deal of joy to many of us. We read all about the men's banquet, and rightly so — it was a wonderful experience; but the women certainly deserve attention also, and as a campus paper, shouldn't you be responsible for covering that event? Next year give me a call. I will be happy to pay for a reporter's ticket to the event so it can be adequately covered.
Blue Jays' manager accuses columnists of racist remarks
Radio personality concedes dislike
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Toronto Blue Jays' manager Cito Gaston, a frequent target of some Toronto writers and broadcasters, fired back with the suggestion that some of the criticism is racially motivated.
"There are a couple who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all," Gaston was quoted as saying in yesterday's edition of the Toronto Sun. "I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was White."
The newspaper said Gaston, who managed the team to World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, was critical of Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons and Globe and Mail sports editor David Langford.
"I'm not surprised," Simmons said Wednesday. "If you disagree with Cito, you're racist. ... I put my opinion on the line and it has nothing to do with race, color or anything else."
Langford said he was caught off guard by Gaston's remarks.
"I'm shocked that Cito would say something this silly," Langford said. "It's the farthest thing from the truth. In my opinion, Cito was the right manager for the job during the World Series years. Since then, he's done virtually nothing to improve the performance of the team.
"Unlike Felipe Alou (Montreal Expos manager, who also is Black) whom I consider a brilliant baseball manager, Cito does virtually nothing to affect the outcome of a game once it has begun."
Gaston first made the comments Tuesday night in a radio interview before a game against Kansas City. Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in the major leagues.
"Ijust wonder if they would take the same shot at meif I was White."
Cito Gaston
Toronto Blue Jays manager
Gaston, who has managed the Blue Jays for eight years, was told of a call into a program broadcast by the station, the FAN, in which the caller challenged a move by Gaston and was supported by host Bob McCown.
Pregame show announcer Jerry Howarth asked Gaston if he felt "incidents like this are racist?"
"What else can they be, Jerry?"
Gaston replied. "I've never done anything to this man. There are a few others in this city ... after a while you just wonder what you have to do...
("Is it) because of your color or because they just don't like you? How the heck they not like you when they don't know you?"
On Wednesday, Gaston denied calling McCown a racist, while the radio personality said he would attempt to meet with the manager.
"I have said on the air many times that it is possible, maybe probable, that my opinion of him as a manager is clouded by my personal dislike for him," McCown told the Globe and Mail. "I've willingly acknowledged that I may be biased. But I am not a racist."
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--the general public that today, April 18, the World Expo event might be misleading The "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC) is being represented with a pseudo flag which is an illegal entity. The Unilateral declaration was condemned by the US, the UN and the world community.
We would like to inform
We are offended by the University administration's decision to allow the inclusion of this flag. Furthermore, we are offended by the International Student Association for allowing one of its members to present material of a political content at the World Expo.
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