UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 1, 1996
3B
Mariners re-sign All-Star
Griffey Jr. extends contract to earn $34 million salary
The Associated Press
SEATLE — Ken Griffey will stay with the Seattle Mariners through the 2000 season, signing a four-year contract extension today worth $34 million.
Griffey, the six-time All-Star center fielder, is considered among the best players in the game. The extension starts with the 1997 season.
"I cannot tell you how excited the Mariners organization is to have the best player in baseball under contract through the turn of the century," said Mariners president Chuck Armstrong.
Griffey, 26, appeared in 72 games last season, batting .258 with 17 home runs and 42 RBL. He missed 73 games after fracturing his left wrist on May 26.
In his seven-year career, Griffey has a .302 lifetime batting average with a Mariners-record 189 home runs and 585 RBI in 917 games. He was selected to the startline up in each of the last six All-Star games. Last year, he won his sixth straight Gold Glove award.
Lakers use some Magic
Johnson doesn't miss a beat in his return to Los Angeles
The Associated Press
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Nick Van Exel's eyes were still wide with admiration, and it was almost 30 minutes after he had finished playing his first game with Magic Johnson.
After going on and on about how wonderful it was to play with his new teammate, Van Exel suddenly stopped and brought up something he had read in a local newspaper.
"Oscar Robertson made a comment about him not being able to play," Van Exel said, shaking his head. "It's unbelievable."
Robertson, an NBA Hall of Famer, said at Sunday's Southern California-Cincinnati college basketball game that he did not approve of Johnson's comeback, saying he thought the game had passed Johnson by and that he was too old to contribute.
Robertson, who, like Van Exel, played his college ball at the University of Cincinnati, might feel differently if he saw Johnson's return to the Los Angeles Lakers
As teammate Vlade Divac said, it had been like Johnson never left.
on Tuesday night.
Coming off the bench, Johnson had 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 27 minutes as the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 128-118.
Divac and Elden Campbell are the only players who were with the Lakers when Johnson last played in an NBA game that counted. That was on June 12, 1991 against the Chicago Bulls in the last game of the NBA Finals, which the Bulls won.
Johnson retired five months later, just prior to the 1991-92 season, after learning he had tested positive for HIV.
"It's amazing." Divac said. "Having him back is great. I can't even describe it. Everybody is a better player with him on the team."
Johnson, 36, announced Monday that he was ending his retirement after several days of speculation. Divac laughed when asked whether Johnson's return might upset the team chemistry.
"How can you detract from the chemistry when you make everybody better?" Divac said.
Van Exel, who had 16 points and six assists, grabbed a box score of Tuesday night's game and showed what Johnson did for the Lakers.
"He does this," Van Exel said, pointing to the 44 assists the Lakers had, the most by any NBA
team in a game this season. "He helps Elden, he gives players wide-open shots, he's a big man who can pass, rebounding, leadership, it's just great. I'm still in shock.
"I told Sedale Threatt, Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, there's going to be a lot of wide-open jumpers for us now."
Threatt was traded to the Lakers by Seattle shortly before Johnson's 1991 retirement.
Threatt, who succeeded Johnson as the Lakers' starting point guard at the start of the 1991-92 season, said it had been a thrill to play for the first time with his new teammate.
"I tell you, he hasn't even missed a beat," said Threatt, who had 13 points and six assists. "It's exciting. You know something exciting is going to happen with him in the game. He's looking to pass, he's a team player. That's his game."
Ceballos, who had 33 points and seven rebounds, said leadership was the most important thing Johnson would provide.
"He's going to improve this team so much more," Ceballos said. "He has the ability to make other players better. He has the ability to take control of a game. He's still got it. He said he's not going to be the Magic of 26, but he's still got it."
"I couldn't wait to get a pass from him."
Media crowd strikes out with Indians
He figures to get many more, he said.
The Associated Press
It was also too much media.
NEW YORK — It wasn't just too much pitching or hitting by the Atlanta Braves that threw off the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
ing at."
At a meeting two weeks ago with major league baseball officials, the Indians claimed reporters disrupted their pregame workouts at the World Series.
"We don't want this in any way perceived as an alibi or an excuse for what happened. The bottom line is we got flat-out beat by the Braves," said assistant general manager Dan O'Dowd.
Nevertheless, the Indians had off- the-field concerns.
"We didn't play, for whatever reason, as well as we had during the season and we, as an organization, are looking at all aspects at how to improve in the event that we are fortunate to get back there again," he said. "The media issue is only one of several things we are look-
O'Dowd, executive vice president Dennis Lehman and special assistant Bud Black represented the Indians. The half-hour session took place during baseball's winter meetings in Los Angeles.
Except for Albert Belle, whose tirade at NBC-TV's Hannah Storm underscored his dislike of the media, and Eddie Murray, who avoids interviews, the Indians and their front office got along with reporters last season. The long-suffering team became a favorite of the press, although the club was not happy with the on-field congestion reporters caused during the World Series.
With so many media members in the dugout, around the batting cage and in foul territory before games. Cleveland players had trouble preparing to play.
The clogging was bad at Jacobs Field, where there is not much foul ground. The Indians, though, won two of three games at home.
"They brought up some issues that were legitimate and that we will look at," said Rich Levin, baseball's executive director for public relations. "But part of what they went through is the first-time experience that teams go through."
"They seemed to be pretty overwhelmed by the media."
About 1,100 media credentials were issued to see the Indians, who were in the World Series for the first time since 1954, play the Braves, who'd been there in 1991 and 1992. The number of credentials has been roughly the same for six years.
The Indians argued that because of the media crush at Jacobs Field, it was difficult for coach Charlie Manuel to work with hitters in a small cage near the backstop. Also, they said,media members got in the way during stretching drills and soft-tossing practices.
There were no complaints by the Braves, who warmed up in the outfield, out of the range of reporters.
Media members, though, were not the only ones on the field before games. Some Indians players' children were on the sidelines during warm ups.
Manager Mike Hargrove was asked whether the Indians' performance was affected by their lack of World Series experience.
"None of us will really know that unless we get back and try it again." Hargrove said. "Looking back on it, the game itself, not so much. But everything around the game, the media crush, which is what it really was, having experience with that, I'd like to try it again. I think everybody else would, too."
O'Dowd said the Indians would be ready, if there was a next time.
"I think we second-guessed ourselves on how we got ourselves prepared," he said. "We'd done it one way all season long, and couldn't do the same things in the World Series. Give the Braves credit, their advance people did a tremendous job."
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