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University Daily Kansan
Sports
Wednesday, July 16, 1986
Rookie a hit in K.C., lifts slumping Royals
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By the time the Kansas City Royals return from the All-Star break, club officials and the team's fans should know the name of the new fellow in right field
The name is Kingery. Mika Kingery. He wears number 27 and he wore out the pitching staff of the Baltimore Orioles in a stirring, aizzing, 444 start that included hits in each of his first seven big-league games.
"I sure don't know where we'd have been without him," said Dick Howerey, Royals manager, who decided to bring up the left handed Kingin Jr. and Katherine Neb. Bob, Royals were stuck in an 11 game losing streak.
11gale made things happen,
"He's sure made things happen,
said Howser. "I hope he keeps it up.
He brought us some spark."
He's brought in KIngery arrived in Kansas City on July 7 only to find his name misspeiled (the 'e' was omitted) on his uniform and no name tag on his locker.
Royals fans asked, "Who is this guy?" Many reporters admitted they'd never heard of the 6-foot, 180-pound Kingery, who was leading the American Association with a .332 average.
His slashing hitting style, daring base-running and aggressive defensive play immediately endured him to Royals fans, who have watched several players come and go in lightning. He's the departure of Al Cowens in 1979.
Cowen didn't even expect to be called up until September," said Kingery, who is from Atwater, Minn., "the guys at Omaha were telling me that I should be up with the big club, but I just kept thinking it would be September when the Royals expanded their roster."
The Royals found Kinggery at the 1979 Minnesota American Legion baseball tournament where the team's director of scouting, Art Stewart, liked what he saw.
"He could throw, run and hit, but those guys don't play much baseball up there because of the weather," said Stewart. "But he's always gotten better at each level and he's just a great kid."
a great kid.
Kingery had compiled a lifetime 275 minor league average heading into this season in Omaha. His best year previously was a 318 campaign in Charleston, S.C., in 1962.
in Charleston, SC. "I was pretty raw," said Kingery, who thought about quitting once early in his career after a .244 season at Sarasota, Fla., in his first professional season.
Grewing up less than 100 miles from Metropolitan Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins played, Kingery modeled himself after seven-time American League batting king Rod Carew.
"He was the player I really admired," said Kingery. "Being left-handed, I was always kind of limited where I could play, but I always liked Carew as a hitter."
Carew as a musician.
Kingery also played against the Twins' Kent Hrbek in the state legion tournament.
"I didn't realize it until a few years later when we were looking through some old materials," he said.
Kingney, who signed a split contract with the Royals before the 1968 season, up to the $60,000 major league minimum at Kansas City.
"After six-and-a-half years in the minors, is this really nice," he said. "Just seeing the stadium for the first time was a big thrill."
time was a big deal.
Kingery knows his future depends on his bat.
on his knees.
"The pitchers mix it up a lot better up here," he said. "I just try not to think too much."
Driesell subpoenaed in Bias' death
United Press International
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — University of Maryland basketball coach Charles "Left" Driesell and players Terry Long and David Gregg have been issued subpoenas by a grand jury investigating the cocaine-induced death of Len Bias, but may not be asked to testify.
County state's attorney, Arthur Marshall, said he had no immediate plans to summon the three to testify about the Maryland basketball star's June 19 death.
not be asked to remedy
Although the subpoenas were
issued on Monday, Prince George's
The county grand jury reconvenes Monday.
Two days before his death, Bias, a high-scoring All-American, was made the No. 2 pick overall in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
SAN FRANCISCO — The cold world of economics is triggering a training-camp freeze out for much of the NFL's 1986 draft class.
55 in the NFL draft class refuse offers
As of Monday, only two of the top 55 selections in the draft were signed to contracts. With a signed contract, the team reported to MLN training camp.
United Press International
"At the current rate, this draft class will be signed by 1988," said Leigh Steinberg, an agent who represents first-rounders James FitzPatrick and Mike Sherrard. "This is a class that has been drafted and forgotten. It's being frozen out."
Rookie contracts generally were projected to rise at a 15 percent rate each year. However, those figures - inflated for two years by competition for talent from the United States Football League
"the clubs want to get us back to the 1983 (salary) levels," said agent Frank Bauer, who represents first-ranked Joe Kelley among others in this year. We are not sure how break any away. We are just trying to get an offer on the table that we feel is fair."
Competition this year comes mainly from just the USFL's Arizona. It tries to hold a line on rookie contests for a second straight year.
had risen 60 percent from 1982 to 1984
fair.
New Orleans general manager
Jim Finks said the rookie situation was the worst he had ever seen.
"Money, that that's what it boils down to," he said. "It's worse than I've ever seen it. Usually at this time of the year, there's just a few people unsigned. Rookies have to realize if they lose any time in
The Houston Oilers, Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants had not signed any of their draft picks as of Monday. Only one first-round pick, defensive Roderick Dixon, Bay, Bay, the draft's 29th pick — had signed Running back Kenneth Davis by Green Bay was the lone second-round pick under contract.
training camp, it's going to work against them as far as many of the teams."
"One of the problems this year is there no established market value for any round except maybe the fourth," Bauer said. "《the draft's top pick Bob Jackson and No. 2 eddy Tony》 Castillus may go to the USFL. That brought a lot of confusion to the market."
sion to the market Seattle president-general manager Mike McCormack, for
one, is among the growing number of NLP executives who are getting tired of what they view as an arrogant attitude by the rookies.
McCormack said he thought the agents were being pressured by the NPL Players Association to their clients out for a better offer.
"We're going to start cutting the offers," he said. "Every day they miss, they're less valuable to us." Seattle reportedly has offered first-round pick John L. Williams of Florida a $500,000 signed bonus and a series of five one-year contracts worth about $1.2 million in total. The running back has turned down that offer.
Joining McCormack's hardball stand is Colts owner Robert Irisy, who has placed a Friday afternoon deadline on negotiations with his club's second-round pick, quarterback Jack Trudeau.
Howe fails drug test, faces rehabilitation
United Press International
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Steve Howe, the 1989 National League Rookie of the Year, tested "99.9 percent positive" for cocaine in a urinalysis given by the San Jose Bees on Monday morning.
Team president Harry Steve told the San Jose Mercury. News he would ask Howe to leave the Class A Bees and re-enter a rehabilitation program. The pitcher had been talking to the Toronto Blue Jays about returning to the major leagues.
regula.
If Howe refuses, he will be placed on the suspended list or the disabled list, Steve said.
Howe also was tested later in the day by representatives of Commissioner Peter Ueberherb's office in Alabama, and he was moved to North Carolina for analysis.
The club test was checked twice by a technician at Laboratory Services of San Jose and the results were consistent with certainty of cocaine use, Steve said.
Howe could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, John Lence, said he would withhold saying anything until talking to Howe.
while playing in the majors and was suspended for the entire 1984 season because of his involvement with drugs.
The Dodgers released him last year but he was signed by the Minnesota Twins, who dropped him in September.
Howe was suspended by the Bees in May because of a disputed drug test conducted by commissioner's representatives who said the results were positive for cocaine. But Bees later reported that he was reinstalled through a negotiated settlement with Ueberroth's office.
Howe has a long history of drug and alcohol problems. He went through rehabilitation four times
Steve said Howe passed eight previous drug tests administered by the Bees.
Ueberroth's office wanted to test Howe when the Bees were playing Sunday in Modesto but Howe skipped the game so he could be tested Monday by the club.
ment tape.
"But it shows he's not completely recovered. He has more work to do."
"I don't think he was using (caine) regularly all along," Steve said. "I think I knew him well enough and with him enough to know that this was a spur of the moment lapse."
Michigan loses top recruits
United Press International
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan basketball team Monday lost a second top recruit to Proposition 48, the new NCAA rule that requires athletes to meet minimum academic standards to play during their freshman year.
Rumeal Robinson, a star guard at Cambridge (Mass.) Rinton & Liddle High School, received his Scholastic Aptitude Test results Monday and failed to score the necessary points to be eligible under Proposition 48.
The measure requires incoming freshmen this fall to have earned a 2.0 average in at least 11 high school courses and to score 700 or better on
the SAT or a 15 or better on their American College Test.
Michigan learned last week that Terry Mills of Romulus, another highly recruited recruit, also would attach himself to the failure of failing to reach requirements.
Robinson and Mills, who was the state's "Mr. Basketball," last season, were ranked among the top five players in the country by USA Today.
The 6-foot-2 Robinson took the test early in the school year, again in May and a third time in June.
"It's going to be hard not playing basketball for a year, but it will give me more time to play," she said. "It still work on my game. But I don't think the test is fair."
White obeys orders
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Frank White of the Kansas City Royals said he was just following orders when he hit a home run during last night's All-Star Game.
White said Royals' hitting instructor Lee May told him that if he got in the game, "I don't want you trying to hit a single to right. It hit out of
So he did, sending an 0-2 pitch from Mike Scott into left-center field and giving the AL a 3-10 lead in the seventh inning.
But White said the double play he turned to end the game, preserving the American League's 3-2 victory, was a more difficult feat.
"The ball just floated to me and I was praying that I would get a good bounce," he said. "But what made it really difficult was the ball from first, wouldn't slide and I had to find a way to throw the ball around him."⁴⁶
White came into the game as a pinch hitter for Lou Whitaker, who delivered a two-run home in the season. Dwight Gooden, also on an 9-2 pitch.
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