6B the university daily kansan
sports
tuesday, february 17,2004
Rangers trade Rodriguez to Yankees
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — It’s a done
deal: Alex Rodriguez is a Yankee.
Commissioner Bud Selig approved the record-setting swap yesterday, allowing the reigning American League MVP to be traded to New York by the Texas Rangers.
"I'm pretty excited. This is a big, big one." Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said.
"It ranks with when we signed Reggie," he said, a reference to when slugger Reggie Jackson joined the Yankees before the 1977 season.
Texas will pay $67 million of the $179 million left on Rodriguez's $252 million, 10-year contract, the most cash included in a trade in major league history. The Rangers get All-Star second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named — but they also will pay Rodriguez through 2025.
"I am very concerned about the large amount of cash consideration involved in the transaction,
and the length of time over which the cash is being paid." Selig said.
"I want to make it abundantly clear to all clubs that I will not allow cash transfers
of this magnitude to become the norm. However, given the unique circumstances, including the size, length and complexity of Mr. Rodriguez's contract and the quality of the talent moving in both directions, I have decided to approve the transaction."
Rodriguez will move from shortstop, a position at which he's been an All-Star seven times, to third base, where he will replace injured Aaron Boone. The Yankees will keep Derek Leter at shortstop.
"Jeter is the captain. He is the leader," Steinbrenner said at the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Fla.
Jeter didn't comment on the deal after his workout, with the team saying Steinbrenner would be the only one to speak to reporters in Tampa.
Both Jeter and Yankees manager Joe Torre were expected to attend today's news conference at Yankee Stadium to introduce Rodriguez. Torre will miss the first day of spring training.
Steinbrenner praised Rodriguez's decision to move to third.
"I don't think he ever thought about playing another position until the concept came up," Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, said Sunday. "He decided it didn't make a difference — shortstop, third base, center field. He wanted the opportunity to play on a competitive team."
Rodriguez, who waived his no-trade clause, was desperate to play for a winner.
The Rangers will wind up paying $140 million for three seasons with Rodriguez, an average of $46.7 million annually for
three last-place finishes in the AL West. The Yankees will owe him $112 million over seven years.
"Since the end of last season we said we would not trade Alex unless it made sense for our organization," Texas Rangers general manager John Hart said.
"This deal is a win-win-win situation for the Rangers, the Yankees and Alex Rodriguez. This trade is about flexibility. We've traded the best player in the game, and we're getting tremendous financial flexibility."
Baseball's biggest spenders will raise their payroll to about $190 million.
"The disparity is not healthy for the sport," Arizona Diamond-backs owner jerry Colangelo said Sunday. "But everyone runs their team the way they see fit, and they did it by the rules."
Boras said the possibility of a trade first came up last Monday while he was talking to the Yankees about another player. Boras then called Rodriguez.
Big 12 coaches say sports is a business
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - NCAA president Myles Brand's recent assertion that "college sports is not a business" drew just the kind of response one would expect from Texas Tech coach Bob Knight.
"If it isn't a business, then General Motors is a charity," Knight said yesterday.
Speaking on the Big 12 Conference coaches' weekly teleconference with reporters, Knight and several other Big 12 coaches countered Brand's comment by pointing out the multibillion-dollar contract the NCAA has with CBS to broadcast its men's basketball tournament, as well as pressures that coaches face year after year to win.
"College sports has turned into one of the biggest businesses in the whole sports industry," Knight said. "It takes people who are extremely good business peo
ple to run a college athletic program."
Brand made the comment last week at an ethics conference after calling for a task force to reexamine NCAA recruiting rules.
"College sports is not a business," Brand said. "It's about educating young men and women in the field and in the classroom."
Kansas' Bill Self said he wondered why so many coaches got fired for losing "if it's not a business."
"It is big business," Self said. "Certainly, I think the NCAA has done a lot of things that have been driven by money and sponsors and things like that."
Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton said college sports should be considered at least "a small business."
"It's the front porch of any university," he said. "When teams have success, enrollment goes up."
Colorado panel may seek subpoena power
The Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. — A former judge who investigated a 1962 recruiting bribery scandal at Colorado says a panel that will look into the school's latest recruiting controversy should seek subpoena power.
Jim Carrigan, who spent nearly 20 years on the federal and state Supreme Court benches, said subpoena power will make the panel more effective.
"Otherwise, I don't think you can get people to show up and tell the truth, because this is serious, serious stuff with possible criminal violations," he said.
The Colorado Board of Regents, scheduled to meet Monday, will name an independent commission to investigate whether the school's football program used sex and alcohol to entice recruits.
The university has been ensnared in controversy since a deposition by Boulder County
District Attorney Mary Keenan making those allegations
were made public two weeks ago. The deposition was taken in one of three lawsuits by female students who claim they were raped during or just after an off-campus party for recruits in December 2001.
Regents have promised an independent investigation into the accusations, denied by athletic officials.
Carrigan said for the investigation to be effective, the panel should ask the Legislature for subpoena power. He said the investigation he headed in 1962 after allegations surfaced that Colorado football coaches paid cash to top recruits and their families would have been easier and more productive if the panel could have compelled testimony.
Twenty Colorado recruits were declared ineligible by the NCAA.
MOODY: Reserve forward sees more playing time this season
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Moody saw decreased playing time after that, sometimes not even getting in the game.
Coach Bill Self will sometimes use senior Bryant Nash or sophomore Moulaire Niang to fill the role. But both have played extended amounts of time before, while Moody played a total of only 41 minutes last year.
Now with Graves being disciplined, and not expecting to play tomorrow, Moody's role should increase even more this week.
Even though Self was unhappy with Moody's, along with Niang's and Nash's, play over the weekend — the three combined for 19 minutes, zero points and four rebounds — he said they would still be a part of the offense.
"We need solid production out of those guys," Self said, "and they'll get their chance against Baylor."
Moody may be going up against
players that are his size or not much bigger tomorrow. As Self noted, Baylor has a smaller than average lineup. That should come as relief for Moody who is used to muscling against one of the premier big men in the country every day in practice — Wayne Simien.
"It's just a confidence booster playing against Wayne everyday," Moodv said.
For the rest of the season, or his career for that matter, Moody said he had the confidence to play against anybody. He isn't worried about scoring against that person, just keeping the opponent from scoring and helping the team win. Hemay never have an offensive performance that turns anyone's head, but Moody said he was concentrating on a more team oriented goal.
"I want to win a national championship, and be a part of that national championship," he said.
Invited walk-on Christian Moody boxed out during a Jan. 14 game against instate rival K-State. After spending the bulk of his first year on the bench, Moody has more playing time under Bill Self.
- Edited by Nikki Nugent
Kansan File Photo
BASKETBALL: Woodard makes changes to player lineup, drills
defense. She thinks the matchups will be no different than those they have faced throughout Big 12 play.
In the weekend's game against Oklahoma, Woodard made a decision to start sophomore forward Nichelle Roberts in place of sophomore forward Tamara Ransburg.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Ransburg has enjoyed being able to watch the game from the bench to see where she can make a difference and to stay out of foul trouble.
Slowly, Woodard has made changes to Washington's status quo by changing drills and lineups in order to create the most effective matchups possible.
"I'm just trying to get them to believe," Woodard said.
Woodard was chosen as one of 16 finalists for induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this week.
"Hopefully tomorrow they'll step up to the plate."
Woodard honored
Inductees will be announced before the NCAA Men's National Championship game in San Antonio, Texas.
"This comes as a complete surprise." Woodard said. "It is a privilege and an honor to be considered one of the finalists."
This is Woodard's first year of eligibility. She is one of three finalists to be nominated in their first year of eligibility.
This year's potential class includes ESPN announcer Dick Vitale, Boby Jones, Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo and 12 others.
Edited by Nikki Nugent
GRAVES: Benched forward must show respect to coach, players
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
tion that I don't want to deal with any longer as far as handling negativity with Jeff."
Saturday was the second time this season Graves was withheld from the lineup.
On Dec. 12, he received an indefinite suspension from Bill Self after missing a practice.
Graves wound up sitting one game, and upon returning, Self lauded his efforts in practice to regain his teammates' respect.
Now, Graves must prove to his coaches and teammates once again that he deserves yet another shot.
Even more important is erasing the distraction to the team that comes with his absence in the lineup.
"Is it a distraction worthy of dismissing a youngster in his senior year from the basketball team? I would like for it not to be, because I really like the guy.
"I don't think there's any question that when you don't have your full complement of players it becomes a distraction," Self said.
"Certainly, if it gets to the point where it hurts the team, then you've got to make decisions. We haven't got to that point yet."
—Edited by Joe Hartigan
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
CONTROVERSY: 'Rock Chalk Gay Hawk' sign stirs debate
Kansas, said she had mixed feelings about what happened.
"We are a diverse University. We are an accepting University. We care about our students,"Burris said.
The Lawrence senior said she was upset at the derogatory tone of the sign, but had no problems with people seeing the University of Kansas as a place that accepts homosexuals.
Burris did not watch the game or see the sign, but if she had, she would have laughed, she said.
One said does not think the issue warrants a formal apology from the Nebraska athletics department or ABC.
Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director for external affairs, said he understood the difficulty sports administrations had with keeping inappropriate signs out of games.
"Regardless of what anyone says, even if it against me, I'm going to support their right to say it." Burris said.
Marchiony referred to the Kansas-Missouri basketball game earlier this month when security officials took several signs away from Jayhawk fans.
"Sometimes brains don't overcome fanaticism," Marchiony said.
Marchiony said the fault of ABC depended on whether it showed the sign intentionally.
He said ABC was wrong if it deliberately showed the sign.
He said the fans should take responsibility to act appropriately.
Anderson said if the fan who held the sign was identified as a student, discipline might be taken against him by student affairs.
Unfortunately, it's hard to catch every sign, Marchiony said.
At Kansas, Marchiony said, it is the responsibility of the administrators and security people to use their discretion to determine when a sign is inappropriate and then to remove it.
"Regardless of what anyone says, even if it's against me, I'm going to support their right to say it."
Sarah Burris Queers and Allies director
— Edited by Joe Hartigan