the sports
THE BATTALION Page 7
TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1978
tiotu bv
David
Boggan
Sports Editor
ur day on court
ie media. We are a strange lot.
e are constantly in competition with each other. Daily, from 8-5
beyond.
md despite this continual striving to see who can scoop who, we
l!compelled to compete amongst ourselves even after office hours,
amount of viewers polls or listeners’ surveys or circulation counts
‘m to be able to satiate our hunger for this intra-professional compe-
°n. So, occasionally we take our battles out of the news rooms and
to the next most natural field of competition—the field of athletic
deavors.
during So it was that 1 found myself on the tennis courts at Bryan High
he eampi W early Sunday morning teaming up with my editor, Debby
enek, in the First to My Knowledge Local Media Tennis Tourna-
;nt.
It turned out to be a unique tournament, to say the least. I felt like
nailman, playing in almost every kind of weather condition known
man. First there was the heat. Then there was the rain, which had
en predicted by one of the weathermen in the tournament. The
strain was followed by humidity which was followed by a wind that
eceded a second rain. All that was missing was the snow, the sleet
us were d the hail.
It snot easy to get enthused about tennis on Sunday morning after
eg party or the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday night, but
started off all right with a two-set victory in our opening match.
If they gave out an award for stamina above and beyond the call of
ty, Todd Carroll and Debbie Ramsey from KBTX would win the
ze. While we had an hour to rest after our first match, Todd and
ibbie only had about 30 minutes to recuperate from their three-set
us ® ening match before we began the semifinal match against each
lunged a ie r ,
ittingii Fheresaword for the kind of semifinal match we plaved.
pledron Grueling.
S r‘ lcc ! 1 ^ 1 After leading 5-1, we finally managed to defeat the never-say-die
m across the net from us B-4 in the opening set. In a neck-and-
k second set, they won 7-5.
in;
ized
1 major i
ays and
) using oi
lems can
is city oi
lamilini
in oneJ
lairowaJAn obvious pattern had developed. People who had left for lunch
aU * We starte ^ ^ ie returned to find us still on the court,
rent pop® all are still out there? became almost a chant that afternoon,
hone, that point, water breaks had become the highlight of the day. I
items,aMuldn t have traded our jug of ice water for all the ace serves at
'owdingMimbledon.
dlords p®The third set showed me a side of Competition that I had never
supphdBen before. It was almost like the four of us w ere on the same team
lousing Biting a common opponent—the heat.
y of liBlodd and Debbie jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the deciding set
ective nMd things looked bleak for the sole representatives from The Battal-
(Debby and 1 had set a goal for ourselves before the tournament,
e wanted to take home a trophy. If we lost two more games, we
«ldforget about that. It is here that a person's mental state is just as
iportant as his physical state.
I ■ f fried to convince myself that “Wait till next year,” was not in my
till ■' caWar y- * called the words of an acquaintance who is now a
Bportscaster in Austin. He said, at a hometown tennis tournament a
W e re V ears a 8 0 ’ that if you dig down deep enough inside, there’s
()(r »ay s a little extra energy left.
TB We dug down deep and made the score 4-4. Then the lead changed
■ed in\lll an(issevera L' n ies until the score was 7-7. Tiebreaker time. The first
>h
black q
western
snt sail
ided
ited to
night.
, the si)
hree oi
in Higti
ilice #i
hallenjl
d,” the
UNO
intedfl
ingM
)
fcam to iiin five points would claim this marathon match.
I Just as we began the tiebreaker, the rain started to fall. The court
I mditions changed rapidly from sizzling to slippery.
True to form, we stretched the tiebreaker to its maximum limits:
|T
Todd was now serving the final point of the match to me. An
ilinite number of “what-ifs” flew threw my mind and while I was
ndering one of them, his first serve went long.
The last serve. It seems a sin for both teams to come this far and for
e whole match to rest on one serve, I thought. And then, as 1 was
visioning myself slipping on the wet concrete and sending the ball
to the neighboring court, Todd hit his second serve into the net.
oublefault. Game, set, match.
We were handily defeated in the finals by a superior team. But we
id our trophies, we had our sunburns, we had a few new friends
d, most important, we had a good time.
Martin resigns
United Press International
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tempes
tuous Billy Martin, who won two
American League pennants and a
World Championship despite con
stant battles with both club man
agement and players, resigned as
manager of the New York Yankees
Monday after the latest in a series of
battles with owner George Stein-
brenner and star outfielder Reggie
Jackson.
Martin announced his resignation
in a short prepared statement fol
lowing a meeting with Club Presi
dent Al Rosen and General Manager
Cedric Tallis.
“There 11 be no questions and an
swers after this statement,” Martin
said. “I am a Yankee now and
forever and Yankees are not talkers.
Yankees do not talk or throw rocks. I
don’t want to hurt this team’s
chances at the pennant with this
undue publicity. The team has a
shot at the pennant. I hope they win
it.
“I owe it to my health and my
mental well-being to resign. I’ve
had my differences with George but
we’ve been able to resolve them.
I'm sorry about things that were
wrifen about George Steinbrenner.
He does not deserve them nor did I
say them. I’d like to thank the Yan
kee management, the press, the
news media, my coaches, my
players and most of all . ”
Martin broke into tears at this
point, muttered a soft, "thanks ,
and was led away by friends.
"I did not ask Billy to resign and
George Steinbrenner did not ask
him to resign,” Rosen said.
"This is natprally a result of a cer
tain alleged statement made,”
added Tallis.
The final episode in the continu
ing battle between Martin, Stein
brenner and Jackson came Sunday
night. Jackson, who was suspended
for five days early last week for fail
ing to follow Martin’s instructions
while at bat, returned to the club
Sunday in Chicago. Jackson told the
news media before and after the
game that Martin had not spoken
with him since he reported back to
the club.
Martin was silent after the game
but finally erupted at O’Hare Air
port as the Yankees waited for a
flight to Kansas City. He raged at
Jackson and Steinbrenner, claiming,
"they deserve each other — one’s a
born liar and the other’s convicted”.
The reference was to Steinbren-
ner’s conviction in 1974 for making
illegal campaign contributions.
Despite Martin’s denial of the
statement about Steinbrenner, both
writers yyho reported the outburst,
Murray Chass of the New York
Times and Henry Hecht of the New
York Post, stood by their stories.
"I stand by it completely,” Chass
said. "The man said it and I wrote
it.”
In his two years as manager of the
Yankees, Martin won two American
League pennants and a World Se
ries.
The union between Martin and
the Yankees was like a beautiful
marriage gone bad. Martin always
said he “loved” the Yankees. When
he replaced Bill Virdon as manager
three years ago and put on Yankee
pinstripes for the first time since his
playing days with Mickey Mantle
and Whitey Ford, Martin said sin
cerely it was the job he’d been wait
ing for all his life.
Martin, who closely followed the
teachings of his bid mentor, Casey
Stengel, was on his way to ehalleng-
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MU adds to schedule
)
9!
United Press International
DALLAS — Athletic officials at
Pern Methodist University an-
piced Monday the school would
|pete against the University of
sat Arlington and North Texas
sin both football and basketball
Jie coming years.
he officials said the Mustangs
|Mplay NTSU in football begin-
in 1979 as a regularly
Puled game and have signed
[ractsfor the three years follow-
hat.
he 1979 game will be played at
jas Stadium Sept. 22.
1U will play UTA in football on
Sept. 27, 1980, but the location of
that game has not yet been set.
In basketball, SMU will take on
NTSU Dec. 6, 1978 at Moody Col
iseum. The two teams also have
agreed to meet again in the 1979-80
season, tentatively at Reunion
Arena if it is completed.
SMU and UTA will meet in bas
ketball Dec. 15, 1978 at an unde
termined location.
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ing Stengel’s unparalleled success of
five straight pennants and World
Series championships, 1949-53. In
his first full season as Yankee man
ager, Martin led the club to the
American League pennant — its
first in 12 years — only to be wiped
out in four straight games by Cin
cinnati in the 1976 World Series.
But last year, Martin overcame
frequent personality clashes with
and among his high-salaried players
and led the Yankees to their second
straight AL flag, culminating the
season with a six-game World Series
triumph over the Los Angeles Dod
gers. It was the Yankees’ first World
Championship since 1962.
Throughout his stormy tenure as
Yankee manager, there was little
indication of harmony between
Martin and his players or the front
office. Martin repeatedly communi
cated with the players through his
coaching staff, an old Stengel ploy
which the new breed of player re
sented. He also clashed repeatedly
with Steinbrenner, although ten-
(See MARTIN’S, page 8)
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