UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 18. 1996
5B
Hank Aaron's locker brings luck to Klesko
The Marlins hot left fielder just happy to play every day
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Ryan Klesko had to settle for a part-time role with the Atlanta Braves for two years. He couldn't understand why manager Bobby Cox wouldn't play him every day.
"I don't care if it's a left-hander or a right-hander on the mound," Klesko said. "If it's over the plate, I'm going to hit it."
Cox didn't think his left-handed slugger was ready to face tough left-handed pitching. When a lefty was on the mound, Klesko usually went to the bench.
"I might get two, three or four hits and be out of the lineup the next day," Klesko said. "Mentally, that can mess you up."
Still, he hit 23 homers in only 329 at-bats last season, playing 102 games in left field and another four at first base. He became the first player to home in three straight World Series road games. That was enough to convince Cox that Klesko was ready to play left field every day for the defending World Series champions.
Klesko responded by hitting seven homers in the Braves' first 14 games, tops in the National League. He hit a two-run shot Tuesday night against the Florida Marlins, showing uncharacteristic patience for a 24-year-old by staving back on a changeup over the outside corner.
"The pitch wasn't on the black, but it was pretty good pitch," said Marlins pitcher Kevin Brown. "Klesko stayed with it. I tip my hat to him."
Once reluctant to play Klesko every day, Cox likes what he sees.
"He's awfully hot right now," the manager said. "He's hitting everything: fastballs, off-speed stuff, whatever they throw up there."
Klesko hit 73 homers during five seasons in the minor leagues and stepped up his power once he got to the majors. In his first 635 at-bats with Atlanta, he hit 49 homers — an average of one every 13 times he stepped to the plate.
Home-run king Hank Aaron, whose locker has been preserved as a shrine in the Braves clubhouse, averaged a homer every 16 at-bats.
"I always hit homers in the minor leagues and I'll hit 'em in the major leagues now that I'm starting every day," Klesko said. "Knowing that I'm going to play every dav helps a lot, I'm more relaxed."
While reluctant to set goals so early in the season, Klesko is confident that he will be one of the Braves' top hitters, even as he faces more and more left-handers.
"I feel if I get my at-bats, I will definitely be up there," he said. "My job is to drive in runs and hit the ball out of the park."
Aaron's old locker is now guarded by a wire screen as a lasting tribute to the man who hit 755 homers in his career.
"Last year when I wasn't going so good, I went over and rubbed on it," he said. "I rubbed on that again this year, too."
The Chicago Bulls are not best,not quite yet
A title remains to give basketball's top team the undisputed crown
By Chris Sheridan The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — The greatest team ever?
Not yet.
The Chicago Bulls didn't earn that distinction just by climbing the best regular-season record in NBA history with their 70th victory of the season Tuesday night.
The debate, however, has already begun.
"What they've done is quite a feat," coach Mike Dunleavey of the Milwaukee Bucks said after his team almost played spoiler before losing 86-80.
Dunleavy said that Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were three of the best defenders, that Rodman was the best non-center rebounder ever and that Jordan was the best go-to guv ever.
"But they'd have to win a championship before comparing them to all-time teams," Dunleavy said.
Reaching 70 victories was a goal that the Bulls set early in the season and met despite the suspension of Rodman, the injuries to Pippen and Luc Longley, the complaints of Toni Kukoc and the distraction of upcoming free agency for Jordan and coach Phil Jackson.
But the big "seven-oh" doesn't make the Bulls better than the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, a team that went 69-13 in the regular season and went on to win a championship behind Jerry West, Gail Goodrich and Wilt Chamberlain.
Or the 1967-68 Philadelphia 76ers, who were 68-13 and also won a title with Chamberlain.
Or even the 1991-92 Bulls, a team that started 36-5 and won its second of three straight championships.
Basketball is still a team game, and the last team standing is the best. Chicago can finish 73-9 by winning its last three games, but the playoffs haven't started, and the Bulls haven't won anything yet.
"This puts our names in the history books, but it doesn't have the same effect as winning a championship," Jordan said.
Jordan, who retired in 1993 after the Bulls won their third straight title, came back late last season only to play a part in the team's playoff loss to the Orlando Magic.
His first full season back has been an absolute triumph.
Jordan will win his eighth scoring title
and almost surely will be awarded his fourth league MVP.
Right now, though, 70 wins barely makes Jordan's top 10 list.
"My first (NBA) championship was number one." Jordan said. "Then my national championship (at North Carolina). Then my Olympic gold medal in '84. Then the second NBA championship. Third NBA. Then the second gold medal (in '92). Draft Day. And then, 70 wins.
"So as you see right now, I really won't see the importance until I can look back and say, 'Hey, man, that was a major accomplishment.' If we win a championship this year, I'm pretty sure it's going to rank up in the top three."
Jordan was asked if he thought winning 70 games vaulted him past the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Chamberlain and Bill Russell to make him unquestionably the best player in basketball history.
"Each of us played in different eras," Jordan said. "To compare them and say one is better than the next is unfair to the art and to the artists.
"Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain and all the guys before me were the artists of this game of basketball. We've all learned from them and improved the picture to a certain extent, and to say that one improvement is better than all of them is an unfair assessment."
Indeed, the NBA has changed since the Lakers had their record-setting season. There was no three-point shot then, nor were there so many expansion teams diluting the league's talent base.
Teams sometimes played three games in three nights, traveling commercial rather than charter. Jim McMillian, the starting rookie forward who replaced aging Elgin Baylor on the '71-72 Lakers, was asked the difference between then and now and recalled his astonishment at seeing veteran players smoking cigarettes in the locker room at halftime.
The Bulls passed out victory cigars Tuesday night after beating Milwaukee, but none of the players actually smoked one in the dressing room.
It was an analogy, of sorts, for the way the players spoke of the achievement.
They talked mostly about being relieved. And they insisted that they still have to justify the greatness of the season with a championship.
In other words, they aren't ready to light up just yet.
"We have to win it, we have to win. If we don't win it, we might as well be done playing and go to Beirut or somewhere," Rodman said. "It would be a big letdown."
And he started at the Kansas Relays. Where young hearts strain toward the ribbon, and raw strength explodes on the field. Where a young Jayhawk named Glenn Cunningham, beat the odds, and raced into history.
While at KU, Cunningham won countless league and college titles. He raced in the 1932 Olympic games in Los Angeles. And despite fallen arches and a frame that was less than ideal, held world records for both the indoor (4:08.4) and outdoor mile (4:06.7) in 1934. Two years later, he joined the U.S. Olympic Team in Berlin.
But why wait for the Olympics? See some of this country's most talented track and field athletes and Olympic hopefuls at the 1966 Columbia Healthcare Kansas Relays. Where legends begin.
The 1996 Columbia Healthcare Kansas Relays
April 17-20, 1996 University of Kansas, Lawrence
Call 1-800-34-HAWKS for ticket information.
A day pass $5.00 for Adults, $3.00 for Children.
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