10
University Daily Kansan
Sports
.
Friday, May 2. 1986
Suzy Benorden, Hutchinson sophomore, wraps a track team member's tool before practice. This is Benorden's first year as a trainer.
Trainers aid athletes both on and off field
By Dawn O'Malley Sports writer
Sports writer
When a mother's hugs and kisses can't make the pain go away, the KU trainers corps is on the scene to take care of athletes' aches and pains.
Tape, bandages and sprays are just some tricks of the trade that trainers carry in their medicine chests.
The 16 student trainers on this year's staff became involved in the program by contacting Lynn Bott, director of sports medicine.
"When I first came up here, I was interested in running," David Kaiser, Quinter sophomore, said. "I didn't think I could competetrily so scot Huffman (men's pole) with the team." It got involved with the training staff.
This is Kaiser's first year on the training staff. He said he had come a long way since his first day on the job. This year, Kaiser has worked with the football and men's track teams.
Kaiser said he worked long hours as a football trainer.
"Track is my number one love, next to girls I guess," he said.
During the football season, Kaiser he stayed at most practices from 1:30 p.m. until they ended by 7 p.m. For home football games, he arrived at Memorial Stadium between 8 and 8:30 a.m. to prepare for the game. He did not leave until after 4 p.m. he said.
"I looked forward to Sundays."
Kaiser said. "It is a demanding job.
You grin and bear it, I found it hard
to keep my grades up."
Bott is aware of the demands on the trainers and thinks that school comes first.
Trainers work primarily to prevent injuries. Their responsibilities include wrapping ankles, knees and elbows, carrying equipment also apply cold and warm
treatments.
"You get personally involved with the people from the injury to recovery state. David Edell, who is definitely a helping profession."
Edell has been a trainer for five years. He became involved in training after suffering an injury in high school.
Edell said he worked about 900 hours in a nine-month period. To make it through the long hours he used to rely on each other for support.
"It is just as much of a team concept as football is." Edell said.
Through the years the nickname "frogs" has stuck to coming trainers. It is a traditional nickname that stands for trainers' inexperience.
Although the nickname applies only to men's trainers, the women's trainers' work is the same.
"there is a basic technique to
wrap." Suzy Benorden, Hutchinson
sophomore, said. "It is different for
the other girls. It feels like they
develop whatever is comfortable."
This is the first year that Benorden has worked as a student trainer.
She said that after she finished preparing the athletes for practice or a game, she just sat around and waited in case someone was hurt.
"You sit around and wait for accidents." Benorden said. "I would rather that they didn't happen, but you could get them back as soon as possible."
The reward for the trainers is the satisfaction of knowing they helped an athlete back to recovery.
"This is a good chance to get out and be involved with athletics." Borenden said. "The people I work with all of them are — really unique."
"It really helps if you are a sports fan. But anybody can work with the sports."
Baseball legend Mickey Mantle straddled through Lawrence yesterday and entertained listeners with stories about his playing career, his return to the field and his finish by Babe Kuln, and the new, get-tough major league drug policy.
Rv Matt Tidwell
Mantle calls today's players better
Sports writer
Mantle, one of the greatest hitters ever and a three-time Most Valuable Player with the New York Yankees, was in town to speak at the Kansas Insurance Education Foundation banquet at the Holidome.
The hall-of-famer said he still enjoy baseball, even though he spent most of his time traveling and speaking to groups.
"I'm not one of those old-timers who thinks baseball players were better when we played," Mantle said. "I think major leaguers now are much better athletes and they certainly are paid much more. Dave
Mantle, 54, spent a good portion of his pre-banquet news conference speaking on the shape of baseball tour. He said his favorite player was the Yankees: Don Mattingly and the Cincinnati Reds: Brett. One thing those players do that Mantle said he did not was keep in great physical condition.
Winfield (Yankee outfielder) makes more money in one year than I did in 18."
"I wish I could have taken better care of myself," Mantle, who suffered some nagging injuries during his career, said "I ran around with (Yog) Berra and (Billy) Martin and I think shortened my career a little." The couple got married in crown and 57 when I was injury-free, I was as good as anybody."
baseball commissioner Kuhn, who said he didn't want a baseball legend connected with gambling.
The man who brought Mantle back into the game's good graces, new baseball commissioner Peter Ueberoth, also was in Lawrence yesterday speaking across town in the Kansas Union.
"I'm a little prejudiced because he took the cloud out from over my head." Mantle said, "but I think it was him. The rock under undertakes will be a success."
One Ubeerberrth innovation that Mantle agrees with is drug testing and stiff penalties for baseball athletes involved with drugs.
"I would have wanted it testing; when I was playing because I wouldn't want people thinking I struck out four times in one game," he said. "We had the next year with Uberherb, you won't see any more drugs in
Mantle was watched by the entire sports world in 1961 when he and teammate Roger Maris battled neck-and-neck for the single-season home win, but his barely beat Mantle and finished with 0.1 to set the major league record. 0
baseball."
"I would have given anything to get 61 homers that year." Mantle said. "I'm glad he did it because I know how hard it was on him. That was the greatest feat I ever saw in baseball."
"Brett's the best hitter in baseball today," Mantle said. "I got goose bumps last year when he dove into the play-offs and made that catch."
A nearby baseball hero now catches the former slugger's eye. Manle said George Brett played the game the way it used to be played.
Bunge to end illustrious college career
By Tom Farmer
Sports writer
It was only practice. But the conditions were those of a real game for one senior softball player.
The voice echoed across Jayhawk Field as Tracy Burge yelled encouragement and instruction to her teammates from the first-base
"Do it for me, she hollered at the batter. "Get a piece of it."
The players were made aware of her presence as she yelled at them to stay on their toes.
"Let's hustle out there girls," she said. "Play your position."
Instead of leading by example, as she normally does, and stifling batters with her hitting the ball to all fields or pitching, Bunge was forced to watch this practice from the sidelines while nursing a sore back.
Bunge considers herself a team leader and thinks the need to prove her abilities every game with unbenabled players. She has statistics comparable to hers.
"I feel like it's important to play with emotion and not play emotionally," she said.
In her first three years, Bunge broke all Jayhawk individual career pitching records on the way to a 10-2 victory and an earned run average of 0.72.
"I think I'm a team leader. We're still relatively young and a lot of the younger players look up to me."
Offensively she has steadily improved from a .258 batting average as a freshman to .358 last year. Her career average is .324.
Through 54 games this season, Bunge didn’t experienced much luck. She three well enough to build a 0.51 ERA but had only a 18-7 record to show for it. In the first four Big Eight conference games her ERA was 0.44 but she had a 1-3 record with the beating by the scores of 2-1, 1-0 and 1-0.
BUNGE PROFILE
Overall, the team is doing a good job this year, she said.
"People have gotten their confidence back and are playing with consistency," Bunge said. "I'm look-ward to the last month of the season."
Bunge's softball career began when she was 13 years old. She played on a team of 16 to 18-year-old girls who traveled through Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Kansas while representing their hometown of Bartlesville, Okla. It wasn't some of her best softball, but the competition was keen and for the most part three to five years older
"I was the world's worst pitcher," Bunge said. "I was about the third or fourth pitcher on the team."
Allan Bunge, her father, said the two of them would practice five to six days a week between April and July beginning when Tracy was 13.
With the coaching and patience of her father, Bunge fine tuned her game and eventually lead her high state championship in a state championship her junior year.
Bunge said he never expected Tracy to become such an accomplished pitcher but always knew she had the ability.
Tracy Bunge
Hometown: Bartlesville, Okla.
Age: 22
Family: Parents, Allan and Barbara Burge.
Class and major: Senior in business.
Background: Last season she led the Jayhawks in wins (24) hits (54) and batting average (358). She ranked sixth nationally in wins with 23. She toured Europe as part of the Athletes in Action team last summer. She has been named to the All-Big Eight team three straight years.
"When she was 13, she wasn't a very good pitcher, but she was always a good athlete," he said.
In her first three years at Kansas, Bunge said she experienced some ups and downs in softball.
Her freshman year she pitched in 33 games and compiled a 28-4 record with a 6.3 ERA. It was the year she achieved as her best ever as a pitcher.
"My freshman year was fantastic," Bunge said. "We ended up in a tie for first place in the Big Eight and around seventh in the country."
But after that season, nothing seemed to go right as far as she was concerned. In her sophomore year, a teacherammates quit for personal reasons.
To make matters worse, it rained for 11 straight weekends, canceling half of their games. Instead of
playing a normal schedule of 60 to 65 games, the team finished with a 16-13 record.
"It was really frustrating. We had such a young balloon," she said. "Plus, we weren't able to practice much because of the weather."
Her junior season, Bunge started out slowly. She said she threw very well the last third of the season. For the season she struck out 191 batters in 255 innings while walking only 34. The Jayhawks went 38-17 and were
The Jayhawks went 38-17 and were ranked ninth in the country.
Bunge said that with most of the team back this year, she expected to have a good season, maybe even a trip to the college softball World Series in Omaha, which is held prior to the college baseball World Series.
"We have so many girls back from
See BUNGE, p. 12, col.
United Press International
Padres beat Cards in 16th one-run game
SAN DIEGO — Carmelo Martinez homered and scored three times yesterday, helping Eric Show to his first victory of the season and leading the San Diego Padres to a 4-3 trump over the St. Louis Cardinals.
San Diego has played 16 one-run games this year, winning 10. Eleven of the close games were played at the Padres where the Padres have an 83 record.
Martinez hit his second home run of the year in the eighth inning off Pat Perry to score what proved to be the winning run.
Pittsburgh 6. San Francisco 2
Show. 1,2, allowed four hits and two runs during six innings before being replaced by Craig Lefferts. Rich Gossage worked the final two innings to gain his fourth save. The loser was Danny Cox. 0,2.
SAN FRANCISCO — Johnny Ray drove in three runs, including one in a three-run eight innings, boosting his National League-leading RBI record. He also pitched the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 64 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
The Pirates snapped a three-game losing streak.
ATLANTA — Zane Smith pitched a four-hitter and struck out a career-high 12, and the Atlanta Braves unloaded four home runs, including three in the fourth inning, to defeat Washington. The Mets 11-game winning streak.
Reliever Bob Walk, 1-0, pitched the final three innings to gain the victory. Giants starter Mike Krukow, 3-2, pitched seven innings and allowed five runs, taking the loss.
Atlanta 7. New York 2
Smith, 2-2, walk five in pitching his second complete game. Rick Aguilara, 0-2, took the loss as the Mets fell short of a club record for consecutive victories. Boston 12, Seattle 2
BOSTON — Wade Boggs went 3-for-5, drove in three runs and scored three times to last night, sparking a win against a 12-2 run of the Seattle Mariners.
The loss was the sixth in a row for Seattle, while the victory extended Boston's winning streak to four games.
Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, 2-2, scat-
tered nine hits, walked one and
struck out five, posting his second
complete game. **Player** 4.
TORONTO — Brian Downing drove in three runs and collected three extra base hits last night to
lead the California Angels to a 7-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays;
Winning pitcher Jim Slaton, 34, worked six innings and allowed three runs on five hits as Toronto lost 10 to Oakland 7. Milwaukee 2.
MILWAUkee — Moose Hank limited his former teammates to six hits in eight innings, becoming the season's first five-game winner, and the Oakland A' s got two-run home run from Dwayne Murray and rookie Justin Maxwell, deflecting the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2. Minnesota 7, New York 4.
NEW YORK — Steve Lombardby and Tim Laudner singled home run in the sixth innning Thursday night helping the Minnesota Twins break a 7-6 streak. Stadium fans streak with a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees.
Pattin memories still linger around Rovals' clubhouse
By Jim Suhr
Sports writer
They recall a man who feverishly turned over the hot dogs and was undistracted by the game taking place on the field. Teamsmatted approached the man, hoping to exchange a doggie dog or maybe even a Polish snowboard.
Several Kansas City Royals vividly remember a short, portly man in a Royals uniform who once hovered over the team's grill stationed in the team's bullpen
Marty Pattin, the Royals pitcher/chef, was released from the Royals in 1980, making the mid-game cookouts a thing of the past. He packed up his grill and his memories, refused to work his way through the league, and left Kansas City pros, and left Kansas City to become the head baseball coach at Kansas
"A hot dog back then would be worth at least two or three baseballs," the cook recalled.
Martv Pattin
But then the cook was gone.
"I would have liked to stay another year," Patton said. "But I was pretty old and they were going with younger kids. I wasn't about to go through the miners and work myself up all over them. Maybe they might be. It was just time to retire."
Pattin's departure was a mutual loss. His former Royals teammates remember Pattin as a "Bulldog"
"But I really miss being around the guys and keeping the bullpen fed."
who fought for everything he could get, a man with a never-ending love for both the game and his teammates, and a team combo who always managed to inject fun into major league ball while siponing on the tension.
"Inside the clubhouse and around his teammates he was one of the most popular guys to come our way in a long time," Mickey Cobb, a longtime Royals trainer, said from the Royals dugout as he watched the team warm-up for a game against Boston last week.
Just having Pattin in around, his former Royals teammates agree, was a rewarding experience.
Pattin had the uncanny ability to
make his teammates laugh
Wathan said a player would carry the cake in while others would gather around it and chant "Ducky, Ducky, Ducky." Duck was the nickname given to Pattin because of his famous Donald Duck impersonation. Responding to the call of his teammates, he turned into a look of fierce intensity, slowly and methodically turn his cap around and mash his face into the cake.
John Wathin, Pattin's former catcher who now is a Royals coach, said one way Pattin loosened up the team was the ritual-like way in which he danced to songs and birthday cakes sent to the clubhouse each season by Royals fans.
"If you destroy one thing like a cake in the clubhouse, you'll have to do it for life," he said. "If I did not do it, they were all over me."
It soon became a ritual for the Royals.
But Pattin said his method of selecting cakes to destroy was very subiective.
"Sometimes I'd cut a piece of cake to taste it and see if it was worth destroying," he said. "I didn't like it, but I'd be sitting on it or putting my face in it."
Patin's involvement with food didn't stop with cakes. When the team traveled to other cities for a tour, Patin determined where everyone would eat.
Pattin, concerned with making the
most of the players' $25 daily meal allowance, wined and dined at the finest restaurants. His teammates followed.
"I always felt I got my money's worth," Pattin said.
So did the Royals. Dan Quisenberry, a Royals relief pitcher who joined Pattin in the bulpen in 1979, said Pattin's legacy continued.
him before he went out to pitch a game. He had to visit the bathroom first sometimes and throw up a bit "
Leonard said he and other Royals
leaminated Patin's great respect
for both the game and his body. Patin,
he said, was preoccupied with
staying in shape and having a
good diet. He often had the frequently
put on — even if it caused serious
'Sometimes I'd cut a piece of cake to taste it and see if it was worth destroying. If I didn't like it, I wrecked it.'
--- Martv Pattin
Kansas head baseball coach
When Pattin took the mound, however, he became what his teammates called a "Bulldog". There were no more off-the-wall antics or Donald Duck impersonations. It was time to get serious.
"He's still a famous guy around this club," Quinsey said. "Most of the restaurants the guys still go to are from where I grew up." Patton's hand-picked restaurants.
Dennis Leonard, Royals pitcher, knew how serious Pattin could get, but he said Pattin's fear of losing often made him too serious. Pattin's worries about his pitching, Leonard said, often took their toll.
"I know he got nervous a lot before the games," Leonard said. "It was really comical sometimes to watch
injury.
step further.
Cobb took Leonard's comment one
Leonard said it was an incident that exemplified Pattin.
He lost the weight — too much this time — and later collapsed in the clubhouse with severe dehydration.
"He dehydrated himself and almost killed himself trying to stay in shape." he said. "That's just the kind of person he is."
Leonard remembered a time several years ago when the team traveled to Minneapolis, Mimm., to face the Twins. It was an unusually hot day in May where temperatures rose into the 1980s, and Pattin, in an uniform over his weight, put on an uniform over a rubber suit and went out running.
"I've often decided that if I wanted to get a bulldog, I'd name him Matty" he said.
Cobb said Pattin's ability to stay in shape may have been responsible for his almost injury-free career. He said Pattin's only injury in 13 season was a twisted ankle he suffered one season in spring training.
But there was one aspect of Pattie that Cobb was most impressed with.
"I think of all the pitchers that we've had, there's no question in my mind that he had the most powerful forearms." Cobb said.
Pattin's forearm strength predated baseball. He said his arms were when he got him through the final two years to high school and four years of college.
Pattin mixed hamburger and other ingredients in a huge pan, scoop the meat out with an ice cream dip and flipped the mealtables onto patty paper. Then the pounding bear.
"We had to pound out 160 pounds of hamburger three times a week with five-pound weight." he said. "If you lost 25 pounds, you bound to get strong arms."
Cobb often learned just how power ful those forearms were.
"He used to love to grab the top of my head like this," he said, placing his hand in a vice-like grip on the top of his bald head and squeezing "I've got impresss to this day on my skull."