Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SOUTH
AFRICA
2010
FIFA
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010
Recess for adults Expanding kickball league grows into summer fixture. PAGE15 Live from the World Cup
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Kansan writer Clark Goble blogs from South Africa. Kansan.com
WOES AND PROS
PAGE 13
Recent graduate Robby Price talks to media members at the Kansas baseball clubhouse Tuesday afternoon. He was selected in the 14th round of the Major League Baseball first-year player draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. Price said his father, baseball coach Ritch Price, called to tell him the news. Price is the third player in his family to be drafted; his older brothers Ritchie and Ryne were selected after their senior seasons at Kansas.
Baseball wraps up tough season
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
Kansas entered the final series of the regular season needing to steal at least one of three games against the No. 14 Sooners in addition to picking up a couple victories in the Big 12 Tournament. If they could take three of their last six, they could cling to their slim postseason hopes.
Instead of picking up a requisite win in their final regular season series, the Jayhawks were swept at the hands of Oklahoma, twice losing when the Sooners rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning.
ment, Kansas still held out hope.
Even after the sweep and an opening round 3-2 loss to the Sooners — on a third consecutive ninth-inning rally — in the conference tourna-
"I think we can do a great job in this tournament even though we lost that tough one," junior third baseman Tony Thompson said after the fourth straight loss. "We have to come out and play well and I think we still have a shot."
But Kansas cemented its fate during the next two games. Needling to win both for any chance at the post-season, Kansas fell 10-5 to Kansas State and 6-3 to Baylor to close the season with a whimper. It was a disappointing end to what was a disappointing season for the Jayhawks.
■ Junior third baseman Tony Thompson selected by the Oakland Athletics in the sixth round
"I think we probably eliminated ourselves," coach Ritch Price said after falling to Kansas State in the second game of the conference tournament. "I thought coming into the thing, after we lost the two games
Senior second baseman Robby Price selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 13th round
KU BASEBALL PLAYERS SELECTED ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE MLB DRAFT
- Junior closer Brett Bochy selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 20th round
Senior starter Cameron Selik selected by the Washington Nationals in the 22nd round
with the lead in the ninth inning earlier against Oklahoma, that we had to win two out of three to get in."
After coming into the season as the preseason pick to finish second in the conference, a pair of devastating injuries — Thompson's
fractured kneecap early in the season and junior Brett Bochy's torn ligament in his throwing elbow late — and a shaky bullpen often found the Jayhawks looking up in
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 14
COMMENTARY
What we learn from conference realignment
BY STEPHEN MONTEMAYOR smontemayor@kansan.com
In big-time college athletics, cash is king and tradition is just a smoke-screen.
That Kansas and Nebraska have shared a conference for generations matters not. That the layhawks and Tigers share the second longest football rivalry is of lower priority than revenue streams.
A little more than a week ago, few of us could have foreseen the speculation over conference realignment and expansion that has run rampant. Last week we listened to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little weigh in on Athletics Director Lew Perkins and the ticket scandal that had previously dominated headlines in Lawrence. Now we listen to the chancellor urge Nebraska and Missouri not to bolt from the Big 12.
Today we also face the prospect of a collegiate sports landscape the likes of which we've never known.
We can devise any number of scenarios to pass the time until something of substance breaks. We can assume Nebraska and Missouri land in the Big Ten, that the Pac-10 scoops up the Big 12 South and that Kansas and Kansas State must search for a new home.
It is also not unreasonable to assume that nothing will happen. That all holds constant or, at the very least, the Big 12 replenishes after a hypothetical loss of one or two to the Big Ten.
SEE MONTEMAYOR ON PAGE 14