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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1975)
Outfielder is versatile athlete Page 6 THE BATTALION FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1975 By ROBERT CESSNA Staff Sports Writer Jim Thorpe-type athletes come along once in a lifetime and when they do they’re something to watch. Michael Frazier, catcher for the A&M baseball team, may be one of those rare gems. While the right-handed Frazier is known for his talents on the baseball diamond, he has also performed on the football field and basketball court at A&M. “When I played football I had a slight differing of opinion as far as moving up goes,” Frazier said. Things were looking promising for Frazier, then it appeared he would not move any further up the ladder. “I was kind of depreciating, so why stay out here when I might get hurt.” When he played basketball he was doing well. “I really like Coach Metcalf and wanted to play for him, Club Sports SOCCER The soccer club will hold a re quired meeting on Feb. 19. Plans for the Baylor tournament will be finalized. Election of officers for the coming year will be held. Plans are currently in the making for matches with Baylor and New Mexico State. but I didn’t have myself discip lined,” Frazier said. It was Thank sgiving break and Frazier wanted to go home because he hadn’t been home for a long time and college adjustment was rough. “I went home and gave up basketball,” he said. Frazier regrets that he didn’t con tinue playing basketball. “It’s hard to keep me off a basketball court.” Frazier, a senior physical educa tion major, said that A&M will have a pretty good year. He points out that there is a lot of togetherness on the team. Individually, Frazier said, he has progressed a lot in the time he’s been here. “I was slowed down my freshman year because of the new environment,” he added. Frazier came from an all black school, B. C. Elmore of Houston, and, “I became the first black player in the South west Conference. It was a challenge for ine,” Frazier said. “But I just wanted to play ball and go to school. Over the years Frazier has im proved because the other players he came up with have improved also. “We were brought up together and they try to understand my view point,” he said. “They push me to do better and are really understand ing,” Frazier added. To utilize his speed Coach Chan dler will try Frazier in the outfield. Frazier once again will show his ver satility. Any athlete has to have the main tools of the trade; running, hitting and throwing. “Mike has a big plus in all these areas,” Coach Tom Chandler, head baseball coach, said. “It’s a matter of him putting it all together, and he has,” Chandler said. “In 1973 he won the Wally Moon award. The award is voted by the players to the player they felt has improved the most. “He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school, the Cleveland Indians last year and the Pittsburgh Pirates in January. He has made a wise choice and chose to remain in school to work for his degree. He is an excellent pros pect.” Chandler said Frazier would make it in the pros. Assistant Baseball Coach Jim Sampson said, “He has a tremendous amount of ability.” The 511” Frazier would like to be more devastating when batting and likes to throw the ball. “I just haven’t put it together last year, but I’ll do it this year no doubt. No one can steal on me this year,” he added. The pro scouts have found out how hard it is to steal on Frazier. The three teams mentioned before tried to steal him from A&M. “I’m pointing toward that degree and it would take a good offer for me to give it up, ” Frazier said. IfbyJuneS he has not signed with Pittsburgh, his name goes back in the free agent list. But until then he has a baseball season to accomplish some goals. No justice Could perfect record fail? By LYNN GARTMAN Special to the Batt The fobulou/ 4fl imitLEm - GLOBCTROTTERS m Pflisoni G. ROLLIE WHITE COLISEUM %£ THURSDAY—FEB. 27—8 PM A TAMU SPECIAL ATTRACTION FOR INFO—CALL 845-2916 TICKETS NOW ON SALE MSC BOX OFFICE—1st FLOOR—RUDDER TOWER Prices:$4. l> " amt $4. , ° STUDENTS AND CHILDREN 12 & UNDER—$1. 00 OFF THE $4.°° TICKETS ujfiicn Tiif HfiRirm Glow trotor; popcoiw moonnt. SATURDAY Ofl CBS TV The Texas Aggie basketball team may go undefeated in Southwest Conference (SWC) play next year and not advance to the National Col legiate Athletic Association (NCAA) playoffs. The best won-lost record will still merit the SWC champion title. However, a season’s end tourna ment starting in the 1975-1976 sea son will determine the SWC rep resentative in the NCAA playoffs. “It’s really going to help a team like A&M has been in the last three years,” senior basketball player Cedric Joseph related. “In the first half of conference play we usually start off real slow. Then we keep working and finish real strong. “So when we got off to the tour nament we would really be peaked and playing out best ball. ” Mike Floyd, also a senior player, said, “If we were a mediocre team with several losses we would really be looking forward to it.” wltk &we... RLING SILVER ^ ' HAPPY COTTAGE • Beautiful heart jewelry from Europe Musical paperweights • Musical Jewelry Boxe^ Scented drawer liner • Other unusual gifts. 809 E. 29th St., Bryan 3 blocks from City National Bank Joseph agreed, adding, “Nor mally with several conference losses a team’s season is over. From then on the coach starts playing for next year; he starts playing the younger guys. “With the tournament they would still have a chance and would play every game for every game. “Also a team can be playing at a time when they don’t have the best players out there,” Joseph added. “By the time it’s worked out they might have already lost the confer ence. Floyd also feels that the tourna ment will help recruiting. “A tournament like this will prob ably give more publicity to SWC basketball. It will pull in a lot more, better players for us,” he said. “I’d like to play in the tourna ment,” Floyd said. “It will be more fun. It will give us more games to play.” Scouts for professional teams would benefit from the tourney, Floyd said. “They could stop in at the tourney for a couple of days and see a lot of players. ” As a disadvantage, Floyd feels that the tournament will make play in the SWC weaker for a couple of years. “A team will keep on losing and losing, remembering that at the end of the year they will have the tour ney. They will keep thinking in the back of their heads that when it comes to the end of the year they will get ready and beat the top teams,” Floyd explained. Paperwork Pulp and paper work. It is one of the top five U.S. industries. Eastex is one of the industry's fastest growing companies. Our rapid growth makes it possible for you to get respon sibility quickly. We need graduating technical and professional students who are interested in pulp and paper work, not paper shuffling. Make an appointment at your placement office now to see the Eastex representative on campus. In the meantime, write for our brochures. At Eastex you will become part of a relatively small but highly trained and technically oriented management group. You will work with some of the newest developments in the industry, such as America’s first complete paper machine and stock preparation system specifically designed for direct digital computer control. You will also become a guardian of our great natural resources. For while we work, we replenish the forest, conserve the environment. We are concerned about the air we breathe, the water we drink and the origins of our raw material. We are concern ed with pulp and paper work and your career with Eastex. EasTex Personnel Director Eastex Inc. P.O. Box 816, Silsbee,Texas 77656 An Equal Opportunity Employer For the top team the tourney could be a bother, Joseph added. “A team that has already won the conference will have to fight to win a few more so that they can go to the playoffs,” he said. “Another thing that could hap pen,” Floyd said, “is that a poor team with a lot of conference losses could come out in the tourney shooting real well and beat the top team. “Then they could turn around and get beat by a mediocre team. So, our conference might not be represented by the right team,” Floyd pointed out. Joseph suggested, “You also have to take into consideration that in a tourney like this many teams with few chances of their own will work real hard to be the spoiler.” Past 10 years sees tennis fans double By NICK G. VOINIS Special to the Batt More than 13 million men, women and children now play ten nis in the United States — double the number of ten years ago. They spend over half a billion dollars a year on rackets, balls, lessons, clo thing, membership dues, court con struction and fees. TAMU Tennis Coach Robert Barker says tennis is one of the more popular P.E. activities on campus. There are twelve sections of tennis classes with a capacity 45 students in each. “The kids enjoy it,“Barker re plied. “We try to teach them enough about the game so they will enjoy it enough to keep playing when they get out of the class. Barker believes a big reason ten nis popularity is increasing is that the investment is not that expen sive. All one needs is a racket and balls. “If the weather is good on an af ternoon, there are usually no courts available for play,” Barker said. “This is really becoming a problem, seeing people stand in line waiting for a court to play on. We may need some new courts. Club to hold road rally “Tennis is a good exercise,” said Barker. “It also does not take as much time to play tennis as it does some other sports such as golf.” One problem most tennis en thusiasts find is a lack of open courts. Most community and pri vate courts stay open all-night dur ing the summer with players volley ing till all hours of the night. The Winter Weekend Two will be sponsored by the Sports Car Club this weekend. The weekend will include an “All’s Well that Ends Well” road rally and a parking lot autocross. Registration and rally school for the road rally is set for noon Satur day in the basement of the MSC. Fees will be $5 for non-members of the TAMU club and $4 for mem bers. The course is 80 miles for the road rally and first car out is I p.m. from parking lot 60. The auto cross will be held on parking lot 61 across from the Wof ford Cain pool. Two driving instructors from the Texas Transportation Institute center for high performance driving will give instruction on car safety. They are Mark Edwards and Quinn Brackett. AM PJJ.S1 STARTS TUES 8 pm 1st American Film Festival One Nite Only Tues 8 pm When Lindsay Anderson directed Alan Bates in IN CELEBRATION on the London stage, audiences and critics were captivated by the David Storey play about one night in the lives of one particular family in a mining town in northern England. The director and original cast join again in creating the screen version of the stage success that reveals the tortuous, complex relationships that surface as three grown sons join their parents for their fortieth anniversary. ALAN BATES AND THE ORIGINAL LONDON CAST IN DAVID STOREY S IN CELEBR ATION SCREENPLAY BY DAVID STOREY. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OTTO PLASCHKES. PRODUCED BY ELY LANDAU AND DIRECTED BY LINDSAY ANDERSON NOW SHOWING DOUBLE FEATURE Marlon Brando ‘Last Tango in Paris’ ‘What Do You Say to A Naked Lady” (R) SKATELAND OF BRYAN 305 Dodge 8! Thursday — 6:0D P. M. to 10:00 P.M Friday— 6:0Q P.M. to 8:15 P.M 8:30 P.M. to 12:00 Mldnite Saturday — 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M 5:15 P.M. to 8:15 P.M 8:30 P.M. to 12:00 Mldnite Sunday— 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. (Reserved for Church Groups) 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M \ CALL US FOR GROUP AND PARTY RATES SAINT THOMAS’ EPISCOPAL CHAPEL AND STUDENT CENTER 906 Jersey Street (Southern Boundary of Campus) Telephone: 846-1726 Sunday, 8, 9:30, 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, Canterbury Eucharist and Supper, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Holy Eucharist and Breakfast, 6:30 a m. The Rev. James Moore, Chaplain. The Rev. W. R. Oxley, Rector ar\sar3 ouse Mostb comin aftern cloutb I day. I I tonite 68. Restaurant and Lounge Dine and Dance in our Elegant Atmosphere SERVING Fine Beef • Prime Ribs • Seafoods Appearing Nitely Beginning Monday, Feb. 3 The Easy Listening Music of cttl^ r :i-. The Family Jewels I PLEASE CALL FOR RESERVATIONS 693-2200 LOCATED IN DOUX CHENE APTS. 14012 FM 2818 [aiysartl louse- opera i the re Your Valentine Gift Headquarters Also Several Styles of Sweetheart Rings Northgate College Station 9:00 - 5:30 Mon.-Sat.