6
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
Tuesday, June 25, 1968
Baseball is now one big bore
By Richard Viets Journalism Camp Reporter
Major league baseball today has slipped from great American pastime to a boring, number two sport.
Professional football with the AFL and NFL have out promoted baseball with their inter-league superbowl and other innovations which bring more excitement to an already exciting sport.
The main complaint spectators have with baseball is the lack of hitting this year. Don Drysdale's recent records for the most hitless and scoreless innings is indicative of the way pitching, certainly the best single aspect of today's baseball, has produced a hitting famine that has affected all but the best hitters.
True, the pitching has been getting better, but so should the hitting. Changes in playing conditions have been partly responsible for the lack of hitting.
Today's stadiums are built with the fence so far away that a ball hit far enough to be a home run a few years ago is caught far short of the fence, today.
Mean pitchers, the hitters claim, are intimidating them with the threat of a beanball.
But the stadiums are built, and the pitchers, being men, will be mean. Something must be done to give the hitters an even chance.
Except for making the pitchers throw from a five foot hole instead of a mound, the only other solution is to move the mound farther from the batting box.
Ryun's 880 record is finally approved
By Rick Folkmire Kansan Staff Reporter
Two years of controversy and argument ended last week when American Athletic Union President David A. Matlin agreed to sign the world record application for Jim Ryun's two-year-old 880 yard time.
The application for international approval of 1:44.9 clocking as the world record was originally turned down by the International Amateur Federation because Ryun ran in an unsactioned meet, held in June of 1966 in Terre Haute, Ind. The A.A.U. Men's Track and Field committee demanded that the KU star's record be given immediate approval.
Following a meeting of the executive committee with Matlin
and Col. Donald Hull, executive director of the A.A.U., the track and field committee issued a press release saying that Matlin would "certify reapplication for the record."
BOTH MATLIN and Hull signed the release.
Ryun's mark was originally submitted to the I.A.A.F. after affirmative votes by various A.A.U. committees. The application, however, wasn't signed by A.A.U. administrative officials, but the mark was approved as an American record.
Ryun, who now holds world records in the half-mile, the mile and the 1500 meters, has been inactive this season while recovering from an attack of mononucleosis suffered this spring.
Drysdale could care less
Don Drysdale is a big cornball.
He admits he is. What's more,
he doesn't care who knows it.
(No, he doesn't know it.)
NEW YORK — (UPI) — Bkay,
so Don Drysdale is a big cornball.
"People keep asking me if those were my biggest thrills," said the strapping, broad-chested Dodger pitching star, talking about the two recent records he set by putting together six straight shutouts and 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
"MY ANSWER is no," said Drysdale. "I've never been one of those record addicts. Maybe it sounds corny. . . I'm sure it does . . . but my biggest thrill was when I walked into the Dodger clubhouse for the first time. That was in Vero Beach, Fla., during the spring of 1955. I wouldn't say I was scared and I certainly was
awed. I'd never been out of the state of California before. There were all these fellows I had read about. Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Pee Wee's locker was right next to mine. He was the captain and his number was 1. I got the last number they had left. I think, 53."
Most ballplayers, after they win their spurs, usually insist upon and generally get lower numbers on their uniforms. That's one of the nebulous fringe benefits that goes with seniority. But Drysdale never has had any of other number than the one he was given that first day. He still wears 53.
"It seems like it's all been a dream," smiled Drysale, who'll be 32 next month and is puttir.
in his 13th year with the Dodgers.
"BASEBALL HAS been great to me. Everything I have I owe to it. I met my wife through the game; Buzzie Bavasi couldn't have treated me and my family better if I were his own son; Mr. O'Malley has been wonderful, and I would never say enough about that man over there."
The man Drysdale referred to was Dodger Manager Walt Alston, sitting in the center of the clubhouse autographing some baseballs.
"He took a lotta criticism when he brought me up at 19," said Drysdale. "He's a helluva man. One helluva man, believe me. I couldn't think of any man I would rather spent 13 years of my life with."
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