O.J. SIMPSON Trial overshadows another LA serial murder , Page 6B
ROYALS McRae traded to Cubs, Page 2B
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1995
Solution: boycott baseball
Major League Baseball sucks.
It has to be said. It should be out in the open. It is easy for casual baseball fans to admit their frustration in this way. Now it is time for the true fanatics to join in.
Professional baseball is tainted
fearless. Open it.
forever. Once it was America's pastime, now it is just another sign of the apocalypse. Professional baseball is no different than any other popular spectator sport in America. Money owns it.
GUEST COLUMNIST
All people can see is money, money, money. It's hard to argue against the owners' and players' greed because they're just looking out for their best interests.
That's why I say to the fanatics that it is time to look out for the fans' best interest.
But fanatics are blinded by their love of a game that no longer exists. They say they don't want to go to games with the real professionals playing, but they make the excuse that they will attend just one game to see the new grass at Kauffman Stadium. One game is just enough medicine to get them through the year, they say.
The problem is that one game will act more like an addictive drug than like medicine, and they will go to several games during the season. They know it, they just won't admit it.
If fanatics were true fans they wouldn't settle for the baseball the MLB gives them. They can find that type of sport in two other professional leagues. Whining and egos can be found everywhere in sports today.
If fanatics really want to see the Kauffman Stadium grass they can pay for parking and walk behind the water falls and the Jumbotron.
The Jumbotron is another example of how the game has changed. Technology beats tradition and ambiance in yet another sport, one that used to be the most pure of sports. Fans just eat up whatever is put on their plates.
It doesn't matter that the talent level has consistently decreased during the past 25 years. Fans like the fact that their expansion team is called a "Major League" team.
The Major Leagues now have three division champions and a wild-card team in each league, and fans undoubtedly would have supported that because their team had a better chance of making the playoffs. Luckily the players' strike occurred.
Fanatics have a chance to think about the game as it once was. Even when great players became dispersed, pennant races were dramatic, and the season was a metaphor for life and war. Now, even a 144-game season is a joke, a long battle before the real war begins.
Fans will continue to be taken in the direction the owners and players want if we don't take action.
There are three sides in the baseball dispute, and the owners' and players' sides are usually the only sided talked about anymore. We must voice our anger at what the game has become by not attending games at all and by making sure our voice is heard by the media. Letters to the editor, calls to the radio and television stations and calls to the public relations department of a fan's local team would be sufficient. The Royals' phone number is 816-921-2200. Ask for the public relations department. Call early. Call often. The Royals' address is P.O. Box 419969, Kansas City, Mo. 64141.
Don't forget to write your United States representative and the president.
They used to say that players would play for free. Now, there are probably three Philadelphia Phillies that would play for free and a league full of overpaid lazy jerks that compete only during a free-agent year.
SECTION B
Take the game in a different direction. Don't go to games this season.
Softball team splits with Wichita State
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
Splitting a doubleheader with Wichita State left the Jayhawks shrugging their shoulders, shaking their heads and asking lots of questions.
The Kansas softball team put together quality pitching and strong hitting in the first game yesterday at Jayhawk Field. Kansas won 3-0.
But they returned with a less than brilliant performance in the second game. Sophomore pitcher Tiffany Blood struggled, giving up two runs in 3 2/3 innings, and the Jayhawks scored no runs despite seven hits. They suffered a 2-0 defeat.
The loss moved Kansas' record to 12-10.
"I don't know what to do," Kansas softball coach Kalum Haack said. "We choked, to put it plain and simple. There's no other word for it."
Despite all the searching Haack was left to do after the second game, he had to feel pretty good after the first game. Kansas junior pitcher Beth Robinson went the distance for the Jayhawks and surrendered only two hits. She recorded her sixth win of the season against five losses.
"I think I was more mentally into it today," Robinson said.
While Robinson got the job done on the mound, her teammates took care of business offensively. Kansas sophomore second baseman Heather Richins led off in the bottom of the first inning with a triple to right field. She was driven home by junior Katie Morgan's single. Morgan stole second and third. She then scored on a double steal.
Morgan also showed her knowledge at the plate. She was 2-for-3, and Haack said he hoped Morgan continued to have good at-bats.
"I always feel positive about my base running ability," Morgan said. "I like feel I've got the speed. I've got the knowledge."
"I was feeling really aggressive," Morgan said. "In the past, I haven't been. In the second game, I didn't get any hits, but I felt like I was making good contact with the ball."
Wichita State senior pitchers Jodie Musser and Beth Wilson held the Jayhawks scoreless. Haack said Kansas had the opportunities to score but just didn't do it.
"When we've got runners at second and third, one out and our big guns up and the best we can do is a ground ball to third and a ground ball to first, we just choked," he said.
Blood seemed to choke, too. In the first inning, the Shockers had two out and sophomore Jennifer Bachman on first. They managed a single and an RBI-double from sophomore Carrie Brown, scoring Bachman.
"We're just playing very inconsistent, poor ball right now," Haack said.
WICHITA STATE
ab r h rbi
2b Bachman 2 0 1 0
cf Braadbum 3 0 0 0
1b Long 3 0 0 0
c Anderson 2 0 0 0
rt Moores 1 0 0 0
lf Schremmer 2 0 0 0
3b Paull 3 0 1 0
dh Brown 3 0 0 0
ss Smith 3 0 0 0
23 0 2 0
Kansas IP H R ER BB SO
Robinson 7.0 2 0 0 1 8
Wichita St. IP H R ER BB SO
Hart 8.0 5 3 3 3 0
KANSAS
rbi
ab r h
2b Richins 2 1 1 0
cf Reyes 0 0 0 0
1b Richardson 2 0 0 0
c Johnson 3 0 0 0
rf Kirkwood 0 0 0 0
lf Morgan 3 1 2 0
3b Wenger 2 0 0 0
dh Holland 2 0 0 0
ss Hubler 1 1 0 0
18 3 5 1
B. Enderstrom DR. Pennsylvania C. Wichita State 1 LOB Kansas W. Wichita State 6 BN None 28 Richins SB Morgan (3) Ulmer, Richard. Bradford
Edmee Rodriguez /
KANSAM
KANSAS
| | ab | r | h | rbi |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 2b Richiris | 4 | 0 | .1 | 0 |
| rf Reyes | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1b Richardson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| c Johnson | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| rf Herrera | 2 | 0 | .1 | 0 |
| if Morgan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3b McCann | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| dh Wenger | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| ss Hubler | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | 26 | 0 | -7 | 0 |
WICHITA STATE
E Smith DP, Krause W, Wicklite State
O LUKR Rasson W, Wicklite State S B
SBown SB Krause W, Wicklite State O
SBown SB Krause W, Wicklite State O
SB Nnw W, Wicklite State O SB
Nnw
ab r h tb1
2b Bachman 2 2 2 0
cf Bradburn 4 0 0 0
1b Long 3 0 0 0
c Lawellin 0 0 0 0
rt Moores 2 0 0 0
lf Schremmer 3 0 0 0
3b Pauli 3 0 2 1
dh Brown 3 0 1 1
ss Smith 2 0 0 0
24 2 6 2
ABOVE:
Kansas infielder Michelle Huber slides into home plate during the first game of yesterday's double-header against Wichita State. The Jayhawks won the first game 3-0 and dropped the second one 2-0.
LEFT:
Kansas pitcher Beth Robinson throws the ball to Kansas catcher Kristina Johnson during practice yesterday before a doubleheader against the Shockers.
Louganis shows his talent for Kansas swimming and diving
Olympian tells how diving was his self-esteem
By Tom Erickson
Kansan sportswriter
"An Olympic medal is only temporary. I've tried to keep things in perspective."
Greg Louganis may be retired from competition, but he definitely hasn't lost his love for diving.
Louganis described how he was emotionally fragile as a child growing up in San Diego and eluded to the fact that diving helped him get through the tough times.
"Diving was my entire self-esteem," he said. "I wasn't real healthy. If I had a good workout, I had a good day. If I had a bad workout, I had a bad day."
The three-time Olympian showed his best stuff in front of members of the Kansas swimming and diving team and the Missouri Valley Diving Association yesterday afternoon at Robinson Natatorium.
Louganis went through a full series of dives with four members of the Kansas diving team before answering questions for nearly an hour.
Greg Louganis former Olympic diver
"I had to learn that I Joved the sport of diving," Louganis said. "I ended up enjoying it for 19 years. That's a real long time."
In the end, he said diving became his best friend.
Of particular interest to those gathered, was the day at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, when Louganis hit his head on the platform in his ninth dive of the semifinals.
"It hurt," he said, laughing. "I first heard a hollow thud, then I felt myself crashing in the water. It was really difficult. All of your confidence is totally shattered.
Getting back on the boards to complete the final two dives of the day wasn't difficult because of the adrenaline that was working, Louganis said. The hard part was climbing up the tower the next day for the finals.
"I said to myself, 'whatever happens, my mother will still love me.' If I did a terrible dive, I pictured my mom sitting in her living room in front of the TV, saying 'That was a pretty splash."
Louganis said if he has learned anything from his diving career, it is that life is more important than anything else.
The diver earned a silver medal in the 1976 Olympic Games, two golds in 1984 and two more golds in 1988.
"An Olympic medal is only temporary," he said. "I've tried to keep things in perspective. You really have to prepare for life beyond the sport. I'm beginning to find myself more now."
Louganis announced that he had AIDS in February.
Setting and reaching goals helped Louganis become a successful diver, but he stressed the importance of making sure the goals were the right ones.
"My goal was never to win a gold medal in the Olympics," he said. "But to do the best I can and be in the best shape I can. That involves taking one dive at a time and doing the best on each dive."
BEVER Louganis spoke to students in the Kansas Union Ballroom last night. LA 1A
As for the future, Louganis said he wants to continue his career as an actor.
"I have my degree in drama," he said. "I would like to do more film and TV, I'm getting a lot of scripts now."
BRIEF
Baseball team loses in the ninth, again
Kansas lost its second consecutive game in the bottom of the ninth inning when Nebraska right fielder Matt Meyer hit a two-run home run as the Cornhuskers won 12-10 yesterday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb.
The blast came off Jayhawk freshman reliever Robert Keens (1-2) who pitched the final two innings and got the loss. Jayhawk starter Clay Baird struck out four and walked two in four innings.
Kansas is 10-22 overall and 2-8 in the Big Eight Conference. Nebraska completed the two-game sweep of the Jayhawks.
"It's tough to lose again in the ninth inning," Kansas coach Dave Bingham said. "We just can't find a way to win, but hopefully we can bounce back."
Kansas returns to action against Washburn at 7 tonight at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
CORRECTION
The Kansan inadvertently omitted Kansas assistant track coach Doug Hedrick from yesterday's profile of senior sprinter Natasha Shafer. Shafer's coaching is also Hedrick's responsibility, not solely Theo Hamilton's, as the Kansan story implied. Kansan staff reports