28
Thursday, April 6, 1995
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
McRae traded as Royals start fire sale
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs acquired outfielder Brian McRae yesterday as the financially troubled Kansas City Royals began to shed big-money players
who could command millions under reinstated salary arbitration rules.
The Cubs gave the Royals two minor-league pitchers in the deal.
McRae, a free agent, said during a conference call that he was excited to play in Wrigley Field but expected it to be a challenge to switch to the National League from the American.
"I saw my first game two years ago and I got chills just walking in there," he said.
Brian McRae
Cubs field manager Jim Riggleman said at the team's spring training camp in Mesa, Ariz., that the Cubs already have a wealth of outfielders but that McRae is an all-star-calliber player.
"I think our infield is pretty solid. With the kind of outfield we can have, I think it can give our pitchers confidence," Riggleman said.
McRae, 27, batted. 273 with four home runs and 40 RBI last season. In his four-plus year career with Kansas City, McRae has hit .262 with 30 home runs and 248 RBI. He was a first-round draft pick in 1985.
The Cubs sent pitchers Derek Wallace and Geno Morones to the Royals. Wallace pitched for Orlando and Iowa in the Cubs farm system last year, while Morones spent last season at Class A Daytona.
Robinson said he was happy with the trade.
"We had an opportunity to acquire two young pitchers with outstanding arms, and this supports our philosophy of further strengthening our nucleus of prospects," he said.
The move surprised McRae, even though there had been speculation he would be traded.
Royals general manager Herk Robinson was faced withditching players or getting clobbered in arbitrationhearings. He's trying to hold the payroll to about $31million. It had been more than $40 million.
The Royals had seven players under contract for 1996 at a total of more than $21 million. That doesn't leave much for the remaining 18 players on the 25-man roster.
Those who were seen as likely to be traded included McRae and pitchers Kevin Appier and Tom Gordon.
Appier's 1994 contract was for $3.8 million, McRae was at $1.9 million and Gordon at $2.635 million. All were likely to seek considerably higher figures in arbitration.
The Royals were already losing about $16 million even without the strike, team president Mike Herman has said. That made the Royals No. 1 among major league money-losers, according to the team's own projections.
The Royals had been concentrating on building up farm teams until the strike forced them to shut down their fall instructional league. The team hoped to straighten out the payroll by 1996 by letting long-term contracts expire and signing younger, less expensive players.
The reinstated arbitration rules, imposed by a federal court injunction that was upheld Tuesday, probably forced them to speed up their timetable.
Bruins bring good news to L.A. for a change
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A day after it mattered, Ed O'Bannon and Toby Bailey couldn't make uncontested layups.
The triumphant UCLA Bruins, bleary-eyed from a night's celebration after winning the school's first NCAA basketball championship in 20 years, arrived home Tuesday and were met by about 500 screaming fans at Los Angeles International Airport.
Then, it was a quick bus ride to campus, an hour or so to unwind, and another bus ride to Burbank for a five-minute appearance on the "Tonight Show," tapped in late afternoon.
With an enthusiastic audience cheering them on, the players, wearing street clothes, each attempted a layup, with most being successful, and reserve center omn'A Givens finished with a dunk that brought the portable basket down.
O'Bannon and Bailey, who combined to score 56 points in UCLA's 89-78 victory over Arkansas in Monday night's championship game at the Seattle Kingdome, missed their shots. The audience didn't seem to notice.
The celebration continued yesterday. The team visited Disneyland, where a parade down Main Street was scheduled, and a celebration was planned in late afternoon at
Pauley Pavilion on campus.
"For a month now, it's been an emotional ride that unparalleled," a worn-looking Bruins coach Jim Harris said moments before the "Tonight Show" was taped. "I haven't had much sleep."
"We didn't get much sleep last night. Two hours, if that," Bailey said. "We were out partying, the whole team."
The championship was the first for a major Los Angeles area team since the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 1988 World Series. Since then, the area has been hit by riot, fire, earthquake and flood.
"L.A. is alive again," said O'Bannon's brother, Charles, who scored 11 points in the championship game.
"I love Los Angeles, and I've been through those five years, too," said Harrick, referring to the 1992 riot, the 1993 wildfires, the 1994 quake and recent storms. "I just hope we all have a moment of joy and share in this and enjoy it for everybody in the city, regardless of what team they root for or anything."
"It's fantastic," mayor Richard Riordan said, comparing the Bruins to a city that has overcome adversity. "We've got the economy back, we have great weather and UCLA. It's a great metaphor," he said.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Lawyer quits Baylor coach's conspiracy trial
The Associated Press
WACO, Texas — A disagreement over how to finish a federal conspiracy and fraud trial has cost former Baylor basketball coach Darrel Johnson one of his lawyers.
Prosecutors contend the methods used by Johnson and three former assistants to recruit five junior college players who enrolled in the fall of 1993 was not only a violation of NCAA regulations, but a fraud against Baylor through scholarships that should not have been granted.
Garvin Isaacs Jr. of Oklahoma City, Johnson's lead attorney throughout the trial, left Waco on Monday and returned to Oklahoma City.
Speaking by telephone Tuesday, Isaacs said from his Oklahoma City office that he quit after Johnson concluded over the weekend that his other attorney, Jim Darnell of El Paso, should deliver the final arguments to the jury.
"Mr. Darnell, who is Mr. Johnson's junior-high school chum, based his argument on sentimentality. I had prepared an argument on the law and the evidence. Mr. Johnson and his junior-high school chum refused to abide by my instructions, so I withdrew from the case," Isaacs said.
U. S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. told jurors to return today for a second day of deliberations.
Johnson and assistants Kevin Gray, Gary Thomas and Troy Drummond are accused of helping the five junior college players to make higher grades through term papers written by others and changed grades.
In his closing argument Monday, Darnell said the charges were unwarranted because to commit fraud, one must receive monetary gain or swindle someone out of something valuable. If there were violations of NCAA regulations, Johnson was unaware of them, Darnell argued.
Isaacs said that when Johnson hired him, he agreed to follow Isaacs' advice, adding that allowing Darnell to give jury summations was "not in the best interest of my client."
"I don't try cases by committee like the O.J. Simpson lawyers," Isaacsa said. "I never have and never will because I think that is a disservice to the client to do that."
"Coach Johnson needs to stick to basketball coaching and let me do the lawyering," Isaacs said.
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