Sports
University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 20, 1991
13
Jackson bids farewell to Royals and says he will play again
The Associated Press
HAINES CITY, Fla. — Bo Jackson said yesterday he had no bittersweet toward the Kansas City Royals for playing with a confident friend he would play baseball again.
Jackson bid an emotional farewell to his teammates one day after the Royals announced they were giving him his unconditional release and suffered in January while playing football for the Los Angeles Raiders.
"They felt that they had to do what they did as a business aspect of baseball," said Jackson, sitting back in his chair. "There are a lot of teams I would like."
to go to. Whether decides to pick me up, if I'm picked up, I'll play for. If not, I'll try out for somebody, and I'll make the team."
Jackson said he would spend the summer with his family and continue his rehabilitation.
"I still have my home, my family," Jackson said. "Business deals down the road. Starting a family business, building a community, being dependent on baseball at this point."
"I love the sport. I love to play until it'm 70, but that's not possible," he said. "I won't pull a Palmer and try to come back when I'm 45. When the man upstairs says it's over, it's over."
Jackson said he had no regrets about playing both football and baseball.
"Hell, I may go out and take up flying," he said. "I've got plenty of time. I'll take up a third sport.
"Seriously, this summer I plan on,
doing my rehab and finish up my
schooling at Auburn. A burden has
been lifted off my shoulders as far as
took me to school (to quick).
When I do come back, watch out.
Katie, the door."
Jackson said he was not stunned by his release.
He said he had taken comfort in his family and particularly from his wife, who is a psychologist.
"It's not that bad," said Jackson, who was near tears when he talked about teammates he were particularly close to. "I thought I was going to be fine." My depression and sit around the house did not take baths and drink beer all day.
"But I would love to come back to Royals Stadium and knock down that new scoreboard in left field."
Jackson, the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner who played four years for the Royals, was being given his unconditional release following an examination Monday by physician James Andrews in Birmingham. Ala
"Don't count me out," Jackson said in Birmingham. "I'll be back
playing baseball this year."
As in football, Jackson was capable of mind-boggling performances on the baseball field, but his inconsistency in both the outfield and at the plate sometimes seemed to hurt the Royals more than help them.
Fans at Baseball City still talk about the marmomath home run Jack honin in 1867 that was still climbing over the tail scoreboard in left-center.
Jackson won a starting fieldjob with Kansas City that year — less than a year after he was a fourth-round draft choice in June 1986.
Jackson seemed to thrive in high visibility situations. In 1988, he hit a
home run in his first All Star game after getting the most fan votes in the American League. Last year, he hit three home runs in a game against the New York Yankees and drove in seven runs but was stopped from taking a fourth time when he hurt his shoulder while diving for a fry ball.
In 1988 he became the first Royals player to hit 25 home runs and steal 25 bases. In 1989 he did it again
But Jackson had 638 strikeouts in 1,837 at bats. He was a disappointment as a center fielder and was moved to left, where the knock on him was that he routinely failed to hit the cutoff man.
Emporia State second baseman David Martinez throws past Kansas outfielder Chris Moore during a rundown in the Jahawys' 10-9 victory over the Hornets at Houlund-Maupin Stadium.
Narrow victory saved in ninth by Jayhawks
By Mark Spencer
Kansan sportswriter
"This game centers around how you perform on the mound." Kansas coach Dave Bingham said. "We just pitched itbad in the ninth."
The Kansas baseball team built an eight-run lead over Emporia State during eight innings and then held on for dear life in the ninth for a 10-9 victory yesterday afternoon at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
Emporia State's late-game surge of runs was the only serious threat to the Jahavins during the game.
After Emporia State scored two runs in the first inning, Kansas left-hander David Meyer and right-hander Daniel Anderson exceeded the Hornets' until the ninth.
For his strong performance, Meyer credited Bingham's advice given during a first-inning visit to the mound.
"Cook came out and said I should get on my front foot more," Meyer said. "I have a little problem with my mechanics every now and then."
Meyer used a variety of pitches to keep the Hornet batters off balance
"It was good to get back in the groove," Meyer said. "We went down to Texas over spring break, and my buddies helped us to see some movement back in it."
from that point. He raised his record to 2-1 by burying only four hits in the five innings he pitched
Stoneciphe relieved Meyer in the sixth inning and continued to frustrate the Hornet batters through the eighth.
Baseball
Stonecipher said he enjoyed pitching in relief instead of in his usual role as a starter.
Stonecipher struck out four and gave up no runs or hits in three innings.
While Hornet batters struggled, the Jayhawks were blasting Emporia State's pitching with 10 runs and 12 hits.
"I guess I don't think as much then," he said. "I got my curve over, and they didn't have much of a chance."
Kansas designated hitter Mike Bard was three for four and scored
two runs as Kansas took a seemingly commanding 10-2 lead into the top of the ninth.
The Hornets sent 12 men to the plate in the inning as Kansas pitchers Chris Corn and Joel Bacon were charged with a combined six runs.
Kansas right-hander Jim Walker, who pitched 9% innings Saturday, was brought in to stop the Hornets' run-scoring flurry.
Emporia State shortstop Anthony Deli scored on a sacrifice fly to center field, and the Hornets found themselves behind 10-9 with runners on first and second bases and two outs.
Walker, however, sealed the victory for Kansas by forcing Emporia State right fielder Jeff Lopp to ground out to second base.
Bingham said he was somewhat encouraged with the Jayhawks' performance despite the Hornets seven-run ninth inning.
Softball team goes 12-4 in tournament
"Our kids were more positive today than what I saw over the weekend," he said.
The Jayhawks, 12-8, will travel to Manhattan on Friday.
Kansan sportswriter
By Lana Smith
The softball team is getting lots of playing time.
If Kansas softball is your sport of choice, March is sure to bring you happy days.
Kansas went 3-2 against the three ranked teams they played.
During spring break, Kansas challenged 11 teams and finished with a record of 12.4 at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
15. Central Michigan lost to Kansas 32.3, as did ninth-ranked Ohio 40 and 0.1. Third-ranked Arizona defeated the Jayhawks 2.3 in 12 innings
Kansas junior Camille Spitaleri said she thought the Jayhaws played well against the teams.
Despite that loss, Spitaleri said that the team was eager and that she anticipated good results from the
"We looked like a top 20 team, and we played like one." Spitali said.
However, she said it would be poor judgment on Kansas' part if the Jayhays thought they had nothing to improve.
She pointed to the Kansas-Sam Houston State game, which Kansas lost, say the Jayhawks played well for the first four innings and then fell into neutral. Sam Houston State came back and won.
Spielera that hitting was that area Kansas has been trying to better because at times in Texas the Jay-ers are not as strong as it should have been.
next tournament.
"I think now that we beat Texas A& M, our confidence is way up there," Spitaleri said.
Spitialer and junior Shelly Sack led the Jayhawks in hitting, batting .326 and .391 respectively.
Sack hit two home runs and picked up three pitching victories.
Spitaleri had three doubles, two triplets and a home run.
Kansas freshman pitcher Stephani Williams went 5-3 during break, and sophomore Jill Bailey went 3-1 on the mound.
Big Eight coaches disciplined
Williams said that she was pleased with Kansas' results in Texas.
"As a team, we played together really well," Williams said. "We came together."
As for队 improvements, Williams said hitting and pitching were key areas to work on because she needed more equipment to be tougher than the last one.
Williams and Spitaleri are two of five Jayhawks who will be playing in their home state when Kansas plays in the Bud Light Invitational conducted tomorrow through Sunday in San Jose. Calif.
During the tournament, Kansas will face two more ranked teams, fifth-ranked Arizona State and No. 19 Massachusetts.
Spitaleri said she thought Kansas would be ranked after this tournament.
The Associated Press
Williams was also optimistic
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Onehea coach was suspended and four others, including Kansas coach Roy Williams, reprimanded for comments they made about officiating during this year's Big Eight basketball tournament, league commissioner Carl James said yesterday.
"A lot of California teams out there are really tough," she said. "If we play really intense, we should do well."
James suspended Iowa State coach Johnny Orr for the first game of the next basketball season. The disciplinary action was in response to Orr's comments about officiating in the Iowa State-Missouri game March 8 at the Big Eight tournament in Kansas City, the league said.
The coaches receiving reimpriments were Williams, Missouri coach Norm Stewart, Colorado coach Joe Harton and Nebraska coach Danny Nee.
Orr also received a reprimand
"These codes request that coaches model common courtesy, fair play and sportsmanship while treating all persons with dignity and respect."
"The Big Eight Conduct Code and the National Association of Basketball Coaches Code of Ethics include the principles of honoring all professional relationships with athletes, colleagues, officials, media and the public by basketball coaches," James said in a statement.
Under conference regulations, coaches, players and game administrators are not permitted to give comments about officiating at the games.
The conference would not disclose the coaches' specific comments about officiating.
Feb. 27 for his comments about officiating in the Iowa State-Missouri game three days earlier.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Universities should have independent control of all athletic revenue, including income from shoe contracts for coaches, and players should be intelligible if they are not on course to graduate in five years, a private commission declared yesterday.
Commission says universities should take control
The report by the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics also said that schools should adopt no-pass, no-play policies with its recommendations to be verified by outside auditors.
College athletes are brought in, used and then discarded like so much rubbish on the scrap heap of humanity, said the Rev. Theodore Hesley. The Dame's son is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and co-chairperson of the commission.
The NCAA currently has a satisfactory progress rule based on a "banking of hours" concept where an athlete must average 12 hours a term
or 24 hours an academic year to be eligible.
The "banking" concept differs from the commission's proposal in that it allows an athlete to store up hours through summer school or during the regular term. This allows athletes to take easier or fewer courses to concentrate on sports and make up the credits later.
Fourteen of the commission's 22 members are current or former college presidents. The panel said the academic administrators needed to take direct action of their athletic programs, requiring student athletes to get an education and making sure finances of the athletic programs were controlled by the university, not the coaches or athletic directors.
"We would love to put the sleaziness of intercollegiate athletics to rest today," said Hesburh.
The commission will continue to operate for another year to push its proposals.
"We are not going away," said
William C. Friday, former president of the University of North Carolina and the other co-chairperson of the commission. "This is not a report that will be put away and gather dust."
While the commission members and the report were blunt in describing the problems of collegiate athletics, complaining that many have been excluded from team network contracts and private fundraising, no institutions were named.
Hesburgh, when asked to name some of the worst offenders, replied, "That's the easiest one in the world to duck."
"We sense that public concern about abuse is growing. The public appears ready to believe that many people are not meeting their goals not through honest effort, but
And that's just what he did.
"At their worst, big-time college athletics appear to have lost their bearings," the commission report said.
The Knight Foundation, which put up some $2 million for the commission and the study, is one of the nation's largest foundations.
through equivocation; not by hard work and sacrifice, but by hook and crook," it said.
It is independent from Knight-Ridder, Inc.
The commission found that academic and financial problems were so deep-rooted and long standing that they must be understood to be systemic. It also said they could no longer be swept under the rug or kept under control by tinkering around the edges. And because these problems were so widespread, these much promise for restoring intercollegiate athletics to their proper place in the university.
A university president, it said,
could not be a figurehead whose
leadership applied elsewhere in
the country but not in the athletics
department.
Inexperienced men's team not quite up to par
Matt Gogel, Tulsa sophomore, practices chipping golf balls out of a sandtrap and onto the green. The golf team practiced yesterday afternoon at Alvamar Golf Course.
The fairways at Alvamar are still hay-colored, but the greens are as green as the Kansas men's golf team.
Four sophomores and seven freshmen make up the bulk of the team this season. The starters for the team are freshman Jeff Moeller, sophomore Gogel and Brad Bruno and Kansas' lone starting senior, Len Johnson.
By Rick C. Honish Kansan sportswriter
"Hopefully I can lead by example," he said.
Johnsen said his goal on the team was to play as well as possible.
If last week's tournament results are an example of what lies ahead for the Jayhaws, then a successful year on the links is probable.
The team had not been in a tournament for more than three months when it traveled to Orlando and Tampa during spring break. The two tournaments the team competed in while there were the first in 1991 for the second in 2013, they earned the fifth spot for the Jayawhaks and traveled with the队.
Gopel placed eighth overall with scores of 74, 74 and 72. Johnsen and Bruno tied for 15th. They both had stroke totals of 224.
Kansas tied with South Alabama for sixth place at the Tampa tournament. Both teams had scores of 891 Mississippi won with a score of 883.
In Orlando, the Jayhawks compete against, among others, top-five teams Arizona and North Carolina. Kansas finished fifth and beat 20th-ranked New Mexico and 13th-ranked State. Arizona won the tournament.
Golf
Kansas coach Ross Randall said that victory had been within reach until the last nine holes.
"On the last nine we had trouble on two holes, numbers 13 and 14," he said. "We lost nine shots on those holes."
Both holes were over water, and the birdies the team scored after those holes were not enough to make a double bogleys suffered at 13 and 14.
Brad Bruno had the low score for the team, shooting 76, 73 and 72. He recorded a 10 on the 13th hole the last day. Randall said that if Bruno had played the par 4 hole two over instead he could have won the tournament.
the unshaken sophomore redeemed himself on the last three holes, shooting three consecutive 100s and four doubles with an overall 221 and 123 place.
Randall said he was pleased with the team's play at both tournaments but added that there were many aspects of the team's performance.
"If we are going to be a better team, we will need more help from our fourth and fifth guys," he said.
The team needs to improve its mental play as well, Randall said.
"Playing more tournaments gets you mentally sharp," he said. "A month from now we will be doing a lot better."