5
Sports
Wednesday, January 23, 1991
The Battalion
Sports Editor Alan Lehmann 845-2688
Networks, bad
rules cheapen
pro football
I ardon me, but professional
football has become a game for patsies.
As we edge
closer to Super
Bowl weekend,
we can look back
and see how pa
thetic the real
man’s game has
become.
Football was a
game that, de
cades ago, was
played by men
who wore leather
helmets and little or no padding. They
grinded each other into the natural turf
and then bled as they left the field.
But now the sport has turned into a
mockery of flap-jackets, commercial en
dorsements, and numerous ifs, ands, or
buts.
A bureaucracy of league officials de
cided to change the game in the last few
years to protect the health of the players
and cater to the networks and their mil
lions of dollars of advertising revenue.
But the league officials were overlook
ing the very reason the game exists —the
fans.
Let’s look at a few of the more frivo
lous changes that have occurred in the
last few years.
The most upsetting is the instant re
play. When it was first brought into the
National Football League three seasons
ago, it was met with (divided support.
Some believed the officials were capa
ble of making mistakes and that the
change would eliminate that degree of
human error.
Wrong.
The idea had potential, but it has yet
to live up to its expectations.
The device is supposed to be used to
correct flagrant blunders that officials
make when their mind is somewhere
other than the game. It would eliminate
those “oops” calls that can change a
game’s outcome.
Instead the instant replay has become
a privileged instrument the referees
have sought to abuse. At times every
other play becomes subject to the replay
machine.
Officials have more trouble making a
decision than a 16-year-old does figur
ing out how to ask for a kiss on his first
date. So they pass the buck to a more de
finitive mind upstairs, who reveals his
decision.
That decision is usually inconclusive.
Inconclusive? That kind of answer is
incomprehensible. Why bother taking
the time? It leaves fans frustrated and
pondering the question: “Who’s paying
these guys?”
Money. The big dollars of TV con
tracts have considerably changed the
flow of the game.
It is true that without advertising most
entities in the world would not exist.
Such is also the case with the NFL.
See Wudel/Page 7
Scott Wudel
Sports Writer
Palmeiro leads by example
SCOTT D. WEAVER/The Battalion
Texas Rangers Rafael Palmeiro (left) and Kenny Rogers sign baseballs and
photos at Post Oak Mall. The Rangers caravan passed through town Tues
day after appearing in Austin earlier.
By DOUGLAS PILS
Of The Battalion Staff
Ask Rafael Palmeiro about prospects for
the upcoming Texas Rangers’ season and
the standard answer of any ballplayer with
high preseason expectations comes rolling
off his tongue.
Only this year the answer doesn’t call for
the Rangers simply to be competitive, but
for them to be a serious contender for the
division crown.
For most of the Rangers’ existence in the
American League’s Western Division, the
team has year in and year out come up
short in the victory column. This year, the
hot-hitting Palmeiro said, the team has a le
gitimate title shot.
“I think definitely we’ll be able to make a
run at it this year,” Palmeiro said. “We’re
going to have a healthy team this year. If we
get out to a good start and everyone stays
healthy,-then we definitely have enough tal
ent to win the division.”
Palmeiro, the Rangers starting first base-
man for the last two years, was in town
Tuesday as part of the 1991 Texas Rangers
Winter Caravan which also included short
stop Jeff Huson, relief pitcher Kenny Rog
ers and radio announcer Eric Nadel.
Palmeiro credits the nucleus of the team
being together for two years as the reason
for such high expectations.
“Everybody’s in the right frame of mind
this time,” he said. “I think everybody’s
going in there thinking we have a good
enough team to win. Realistically, I believe
we can get there, because I see teams that
make to the playoffs and even to the World
Series that aren’t as good as we are.
“I know we’re in a tough division that in
cludes Oakland, Kansas City and the rest of
the strong teams, but we’re as strong as they
are. The only difference is, they’ve been
there before.”
Citing the team’s growth over the past
couple of years and the fact that the nucleus
is finally steady with outfielders Pete Inca-
viglia, Ruben Sierra, infielders Steve Bue-
chele, Julio Franco, Jeff Huson, Palmeiro
and a pitching staff led by the ageless Nolan
Ryan, the Rangers now find themselves
with a solid base.
A similiar situation to that of the Pitts
burgh Pirates, who after years of strug
gling, won a division title in 1990 on the
shoulders of home-grown talent and seve
ral key acquisitions.
Palmeiro was born in Havana, Cuba, in
1964. However, it was in Miami, where Ra
fael and his family moved when he was six,
that he started beleiving he could make a
career out of playing baseball.
Palmeiro credits his father, Jos£, for
pushing him and making him work toward
acheiving that goal. From Miami, Palmeiro
went to Mississippi State Univesity, where
he played on the same team with future ma
jor leaguers Will Clark of the San Francisco
Giants and pitchers Bobby Thigpen of the
Chicago White Sox and Jeff Brantley of the
Giants. All four are Major League All-Stars.
Upon leaving MSU in 1985, where Palm
eiro was a three-time All-American and the
Southeastern Conference’s first-ever triple
crown winner, he became the first-round
draft pick of the Chicago Cubs.
Palmeiro made his major league debut in
September 1986 and made 29 plate appear
ances before New York’s All-Star pitcher
Dwight Gooden was the first to make him
swing and miss. In his next at-bat Palmeiro
cranked a home run off of the right-
handed fireballer.
Midway through the next season he was
called up and became a fixture in the Cubs’
outfield. In 1988 he was named to the Na
tional League All-Star team and he finished
second in league hitting. Heseemed des
tined to be a Cubbie for a long, long time.
Then, to Palmeiro, it appeared that di
saster struck and he was traded to the
Rangers.
“I wasn’t happy with the trade at the
time,” Palmeiro said. “But when I got to
Texas they accepted me with open arms
and they made me feel like I had been play
ing there for years.”
It wasn’t that Palmeiro was upset about
becoming a Texas Ranger, he felt like he
had been betrayed. ^
See Palmeiro/Page 7
Clemens’ court hearing postponed
HOUSTON (AP) — A scheduled hea^ •
ing concerning felony charges that Boston
Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens and his
brother assaulted a Houston police officer
was put off until next month.
Neither Clemens, a two-time Cy Young
Award winner, nor his 39-year-old brother,
Gary, was in the courtroom of State District
Judge A.D. Azios for the probable cause
hearing Tuesday. The proceeding was re
scheduled until Feb. 18.
Instead, their lawyer, Mike Ramsey, re
quested the delay so he could interview wit
nesses.
Clemens and his brother were arrested
for aggravated assault on a police officer
during a Saturday morning disturbance at
the Bayou Mama’s nightclub.
They remain free on $2,000 bond.
“What I did was go in and read the of
fense reports and the case has not been in
dicted yet,” Ramsey said. “If there’s an in
dictment down on the 18th, both of them
will appear. It’s filed presently as a felony
and that would be a matter for the grand
jury.”
Ramsey said he would be discussing the
case with prosecutors in hopes of getting it
reduced to a misdemeanor or have it dis
missed.
“Regardless of whose version you be
lieve, it is a very light-running case to be be
fore the court,” he said.
Police said the two were involved in a
shouting match with other club patrons
when an off-duty officer working there as a
security guard tried to break up'tbe group
and got into a wrestling match with the
brothers. Roger Clemens is accused of
jumping on an officer’s back and choking
the policeman who tried to arrest his
brother.
Ramsey declined, however, to detail his
clients’ version of the incident.
“I don’t want to start to do that yet except
to say it’s very, very different from what’s
been reported,” he said. “Frankly, I want a
complete investigation before we start to go
public with the position the defense believes
to be true.
“Traditionally, we don’t talk about these
things in the media before they go to court,
but this is a kind of a special circumstance
because Roger is a newsworthy guy.”
Aggies face
tough trip
to Arkansas
By SCOTT WUDEL
Of The Battalion Staff
As if the Aggies didn’t already have
enough problems.
The Texas A&M basketball team has
travel plans for Fayetteville, Arkansas.
But the trip will be no vacation.
The Aggies face the second-ranked
Arkansas Razorbacks in Barnhill Arena
tonight at 7:00.
The Aggies (5-11) will face almost in
surmountable odds as they try to upset
the unwielding Razorbacks on their
home floor to pick up their first South
west Conference win.
Arkansas (18-1,6-0 in SWC) has won
15 straight games, the third longest
streak currently in the country, and of
fers no consolation to a struggling Aggie
team that has lost seven of its last eight.
Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson
said he will approach the A&M game
just like any other day at the office.
“When A&M comes in here, we’re
going to get after them, it’sjust as simple
as that,” Richardson said.
Richardson says he expects his team to
respond after grinding them during
practice.
“That’s what I always tell the guys, ‘if
I’m going to work vou this hard, some
body needs to pay for making you work
like this,”’ he said. “So every team that
you’ve got to play against, you’ve got to
make them pay.”
A&M faces a host of challenges when
it takes the floor tonight.
Arkansas boasts one of the most po
tent talent levels in the country. A&M
coach Kermit Davis Jr. says he is well
aware of that fact.
“You’ve got maybe four NBA draft
choices on that team, it makes them so
good, they’ve got so many weapons,” Da
vis said. “They score inside, they score
outside, they bring guys off the bench
that they don’t lose anything with.”
Davis said he doesn’t have plans to
stop any particular player.
Junior forward Todd Day leads the
conference with 22.5 points per game,
and is coming off a 30-point perfor
mance in UA’s victory over Florida State
Monday night.
Guard Lee Mayberry posts 14.6 point
average, and leads the conference in
steals.
What the Razorbacks don’t do from
the outside they make up for on the in
side.
Oliver Miller fills the middle of the
Arkansas lineup. The 6-9 center is lead
ing the SWC in blocked shots per game
(3.6) and field goal percentage. Miller
also adds over 13 points a game.
Davis said he will also have to match
the Razorbacks’ depth.
“Fve never seen a team in college bas
ketball in years have 10 or 11 guys that
they play, and they play effectively,” he
said.
The factor that may wear down the
See Aggies/Page 6
Business Career
Fair ’91
Women in Business Symposium
Monday Jan 28th Rudder 601
Executive Women of Dallas
9:00 a.m. - "Great Expectations: A Reality Check"
10:00 a.m. A. Entry Fee For Success
B. Learn to Love What You Do In Order to Do What
You Love
C. Skill and Cunning Beats Fear and Superstition Every
Time
10:00 a.m.- "American Business: What It Means to the
11:00 a.m. College Graduate"
A. Banking
B. Real Estate
C. New Directions
11:30- Luncheon at the Hilton
1:00 p.m. "Male and Female Leadership:
The Difference"
2:00 p.m.- "Great Expectations: A Reality Check"
3:00 p.m.
3:00 p.m.- "American Business: What It Means to
4:00 p.m. the College Graduate"
The Executive Women of Dallas are:
Elaine Agather Executive Vice President, Texas
Commerce B ank
Pauline Graivier President, Verbal Communications,
Inc.
Susan Gwin President, The Gwin Real Estate
Companies, Inc.
Dr. Scherry Johnsom.Vice President for University
Affairs at the University of Texas
at Dallas
Elizabeth Morris President, Insight Research Corporation
Wanda Tomas President, Legal Documentation Systems, Inc.
Luncheon Tickets Available in Blocker Lobby
On sale now through January 25th For more info, call 845-132(7
m MSC
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APPLICATIONS
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Pick, one up in the Student
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due Friday, January 25, at 5:00 p.m.
General Meeting
Wed., Jan. 23 ~
7:30 p.m.
TANCT ARTS’ 'poomy
Texas ONWEf^SiTy
1 cut here'
DEFENSIVE DRIVING CLASS
January 30, 31,1991 (6-10 p.m. & 6-10 pm)
February 8, 9, 1991 (6-10 p.m. & 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
STATE APPROVED DRIVING SAFETY COURSE
Register at University Plus (MSC Basement)
Call 845-1631 for more information on these or other classes
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