Page 6
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1978
sports
Ross gains experience in Alaska
v J ■ — TW mountains. That is sometl
By DAVID BOGGAN
Battalion Sports Editor
What does Mark Boss have in
common with Tom Seaver, Chris
Chambliss, Andy Messersmith, and
Greg Nettles, other than the fact
that all of these men play baseball?
Ross, Texas A&M’s senior right
hander, is spending his summer in
the land of the midnight sun, play
ing baseball in the Alaska League.
Seaver, Chambliss, Messersmith
and Nettles, along with many other
professional baseball players, also
played in the Alaska League before
beginning their successful pro
careers.
The Alaska League is a non
professional, summer baseball pro
gram that brings hundreds of col
lege players to the 49th state for
three months of intense and practi
cal playing experience.
And the quality of Alaskan
baseball has not digressed one bit
since the days of Seaver and the
rest, according to Ross, who plays
for the Kenai Oilers.
“This is the best competition
anywhere,” Ross said in a telephone
interview Wednesday. “The chal
lenge is just super. Lots of the
players up here have already been
drafted. We have two All-America
third basemen on our team, so one
of them has to sit on the bench.”
Ross has contributed to the qual
ity of Alaska League baseball, as
well as the Oilers’ win column. At
the present time, he boasts a 5-0
record, including two back-to-back
shutouts.
“I’ve been pretty lucky,” said
Ross, who had a 11-4 record for the
Southwest Conference champion
Aggies last season. “I have a good
hitting team behind me.”
Indeed, Ross does have a good
team behind him. The Oilers have a
2-game lead in the first half of the
season, which ends Saturday. The
winner of the first half play the win
ner of the second half in August to
decide the champion. The chain-
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that will include teams from Ven
ezuela and Japan, as well as an
American team coached by Texas
A&M Coach Tom Chandler.
One of the reasons Alaskan
baseball is so successful is because of
the support received from the
people of Alaska, Ross said.
“The way they support the pro
gram is great up here, he said.
“Every city really backs their team.
And they get after you if you start
losing.
“Kenai only has about 5,000
people. There’s not much social life;
baseball is about all they have to do.
But they show a lot of interest. They
are really die-hard baseball fans.
And when Ross says support, he
means more than just fans coming to
the ballpark for an afternoon of
baseball.
“All the players are put up by
local families, Ross said. They
feed us and take us to the games.
“I live with the man who’s the
judge in Kenai. They call me their
summer son. They have six kids, so
I feel right at home because I have a
big family in Houston.
Ross might never be the same in
the Texas heat, after he returns to
the Lower 48 this fall.
“It gets pretty cold here, the
Aggie pitcher said. “The weather in
Fairbanks (in central Alaska) is usu
ally in the 70s, but Kenai is on a
peninsula (in south central Alaska).
The cold wind coining off the water
keeps it in the 50s, sometimes in the
Mark Ross
40s. And it has rained 27 out of the
28 days I’ve been here.”
In the summer there is very little
darkness in Alaska, thus the claim of
the midnight sun.
"In Fairbanks, the sun goes down
at midnight and comes up at 2 (a.in.)
Ross said. “In Kenai it goes down at
about ll (p. m.) and comes up at 3
(a. m.). We can play baseball in the
evenings and never have to use
lights, ft never really gets dark un
less the sun goes behind the
mountains.
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The mountains. That is something
else about Alaska that impresses
Ross.
“The mountains with snow are
great,” he said. “The other day we
were flying from game to game and
when we looked out the window of
the plane, we could see Mt. McKin
ley. We were level with it!
"There is also a lot of water up
here. And there is great fishing. We
go fishing in the Kenai River. They
pull king salmon out of there that
weigh .50 or 60 pounds.”
The Oilers play 48 games in 51
days, so baseball keeps Ross busy.
But when he is not playing baseball
and when he is not out on an occa
sional fishing trip, Ross is working in
the post-pipeline economic world of
Alaska.
“I work for a construction com
pany for $7.50 an hour and that ’s not
much here, Ross said. “The cost of
iving is real high. For example, on
road games we have to buy our own
meals and a cheeseburger and fries
costs $2.75.
The Texas Rangers’ Jim Um-
barger, Jim Sundherg and Bump
Wills and the Houston Astros Floyd
Bannister played hasehull in the
Alaska League before beginning
their professional careers. Ross feels
that this summer in Alaska will im
prove his chances of playing pro
hall.
“If I can have a good season up
here. I’m sure it will help me,” he
said. "More scouts will be looking at
me and 1 will also have more experi-
And what constitutes a good sea
son? Well, a 5-0 record is certainly a
good start.
Battalion
Classified
Call 845-2611
Evert an
Navratili
gO tO fill!
Vol
8 F
Cnited Press iMer*
WIMBLEDON, L,
Evert dethroned
champion Virginia \l|
Martina Navratilova i
limping Evonne Ca»d
nesday to reach thej
singles final in the|
Wimbledon tennis|
pionships.
Evert, from Fort bj
Fla., outlasted Wadeij
87 minutes to avenge)
she suffered againstthtH
last years s semis. NiH
the Dallas-based
came from behind tom
6- 4, 6-4 victory overt)*
ban Cawley, who playd
the last three gamesii!
an injured left ankle. 1
The F vert-Wade
victory for Evert’s t-
power after a nervom .
the 23 year-old A inert
won the title in 1974r
Both players hade
holding their early sent
icy wind whipped thm
center court and it
who gav e way first uhe
ted a weak iorcliandint
game to trail 1-3.
But the American 1
immediately and
with service until the
a blistering double-fi
hand passing shot gavel
7- 6 lead.
Evert then held her i
take the set and gain
control in u sequence
her win eight of the I
games.
'Hie other semi resiilld
left handed Nj\ ratiloilj
the match and Cawley
paths of a packed cei
crowd.
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