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Page 8 THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1978
(Festival aver
Aggies do well
United Press International
V
COLORADO SPRINGS,
Colo. — The first National
Sports Festival is over and Texas
A&M was well represented in
the nationwide event.
Aggie volleyball players
Wendy Wilson and Kristen
Bloom left the festival with hon
ors, as their South team won its
tournament. Wilson, a sopho
more, was named Most Valuable
Player of the tournament and
Bloom was selected as the best
setter of the tournament. Both
have been invited to play with
the U.S. national team in the
Pacific Rim Tournament in
Hawaii later this month.
Javelin thrower Donna
Branch, basketball player Rudy
Woods and the entire men’s
water polo team also participated
in the fesitval.
The festival managed to run its
four days without too many
people outside the state of Col
orado working up much of an
interest, but the man in charge
says it served its purpose.
And he thinks it will do a lot
more than that in the future.
“I realize it is hard to get
people s attention when you first
start to do something,” said
Baaron Pittinger, director of the
festival. “But people are going to
catch on. They are going to come
around. We hope to have live
television next year and that will
probably help a great deal.
“I think this year went very,
very well. We learned things we
needed to learn and it’s going to
get better every year.’’
The 25-sport festival — a
long-time idea of USOC Presi
dent Robert J. Kane and finan
cially backed by the Olympic
Committee — is assured of at
least one more year of existence.
“We will be back next year,”
Kane said. “That has already
been decided. We are commit
ted. ”
The largest problems facing
the USOC as it tides to make the
summertime athletic festival a
yearly affair are trying to lure the
best athletes in each sport and
the ever-present concern of
financing.
The Olympic Committee is
counting on television revenue
to help trim or eliminate the $1
million loss it had to absorb this
year.
And in an attempt to prevent
conflicts in scheduling, the festi
val will be held next year in Au
gust after most of the national
championships, after the Pan
American Games and before the
opening of school.
A question concerning Yankees
By MILTON RICHMAN
United Press International
NEW YORK — Now that it’s all
over and the two of them are
buddy-buddy again following a sur
realistic chain of events which kept
swinging somewhere between sheer
farce and pure fantasy, everyone has
the same question.
Why?
Why did George Steinbrenner,
ordiharily a tough, iron-willed indi
vidual with rocklike resolve, sud
denly turn around after firing Billy
Martin as manager of his New York
Yankees’ ball club and hire him back
again five days later?
People are asking some other
questions, too.
Like, what happens to Reggie
Jackson now?
And will Billy Martin actually
ever take over as manager again 18
months from now?
But, let’s get back to the first one:
What made George Steinbrenner
change his mind?
The answer isn’t quite as simple
as it was made out to be in the news
conference immediately following
Saturday’s Old Timers’ Day celebra
tion at Yankee Stadium.
One of the aspects which wasn’t
even mentioned, mostly because
both men considered it strictly pri
vate, was the mutual oath Stein
brenner and Martin took together
one day last week.
It concerns Billy Martin’s health.
The former and future Yankee
manager can’t really be called a sick
man but he has a condition, which if
not properly taken care of, could
appreciably shorten his life.
Within the past year, doctors dis
covered a spot on his liver and told
him it probably came from drinking.
They also told him he could help the
condition if he quit drinking.
By ordinary standards, Billy Mar
tin isn’t a big drinker. I know a
number of baseball men who drink
twice as much as he does and it may
be that they have liver problems
also, but the majority of them we
ren’t under the same continuous
stress as Martin.
As manager of the Yankees, Billy
Martin felt the pressure of his job
every day, the same way he felt it in
the days he played second base for
the Yankees. Some of those pres
sures as manager were relieved with
a couple of drinks after a tough ball
game.
Steinbrenner became aware of
Martin’s health problem only re
cently. When they talked about
Martin’s coming back this past
week, the Yankee owner came up
with an idea to help Martin.
They’d lick Martin’s problem to
gether, Steinbrenner said. He
would help Martin, but only on one
condition — that he, meaning Mar
tin, make a genuine conscious effort
to help himself. Steinbrenner wasn’t
asking for lip service now. He im
pressed upon his ex-manager, in
every possible way he could, that
Martin himself was the key and if he
made the effort, Steinbrenner
would match it.
That was a solemn promise the
Yankee owner made Martin under
stand. In turn, Martin promised
he’d do everything he could to jus
tify Steinbrenner’s faith in him.
They took an oath together, even
shook hands on it.
George Steinbrenner can be
rough as nails or soft as hotter. He
was born on July 4, under the sign of
Cancer the Crab, and one of the
characteristics of Cancerians is that
they can freeze you to death with
their icy manner one minute and
melt your heart away with their
utter devotion the next.
There were those around him
who urged Steinbrenner to let Mar
tin s departure stand after last
week’s severance.
“No,” said Steinbrenner. “When
a man is down and has a problem,
you don’t walk away from him.
There is a time to be rigid and a
time to be compassionate.”
This shouldn’t be taken to mean
Steinbrenner wasn’t aware of the
mood of the people, the legion of
Yankee fans who were unhappy over
what happened to Martin.
By doing what he did, rehiring
Martin for 1980, Steinbrenner made
the perfect public relations move.
He softened public opinion against
him and bought time.
That brings up the subject of Re
ggie Jackson, the controversial Yan-
Ongais, Mears return to TWS for Texas Grand Prix
The eleventh race for the In
dianapolis Championship cars of the
United States Auto Club Citicorp
Cup, the Texas Grand Prix, will he
held at Texas World Speedway,
south of College Station, on Stin-
day. This, the Second Annual Texas
Grand Prix will be a 200-mile race
on the world’s fastest speedway.
This is the first in a series of arti
cles on the top contenders ex
pected to compete in Sunday's
race, which is scheduled to start
at 3:15 p. m.
He is known as Danny On Gas,
and that he is.
Danny Ongais is the most promis
ing new star on the Citicorp Cup
Series horizon. In 1977, he was the
fastest qualifier for four US AC
Championship races and, in 1978,
he has been on the pole for almost
every race, led every race, and won
three races, including the Coors 200
at Texas World Speedway in April.
Prior to that time, he’d recorded a
pair of 13th place finishes in his only
two Texas World Speedway appear
ances, both last year, but he led five
the 1978 season and is a top threat
for victory in the Texas Grand Prix,
but nobody has ever before won
both Texas Indv Car races in the
same year.
He gained his first National
Championship victory in a 200-
miler at Michigan International
Speedway last season and recorded
the fastest lap in the history of the
Indianapolis 500 during competition
in May of that year.
His primary experience was
gained in dragsters, but he’s now
branching out into all types of rac
ing.
Danny Ongais
laps of the July race after winning
the pole at 205.421 m.p.h. He won
the pole for the Coors 200 last April
at 211.889 m.p.h.
USAC’s National Championship
“Rookie of the Year” in 1977, Ongais
finished 12th in his first full season
of competition. He’s again assigned
to the Interscope Racing Special for
Rick Mears gained the distinction
of winning his first Championship
Car race earlier this year at Mil
waukee. He joined a select group
and put himself in the top ten in the
Citicorp Cup point standings even
though he sat out four of the first
Rick Mears
eight races while Mario Andretti
drove the car.
Mears was named the 1976 USAC
National Championship “Rookie of
the Year”, finishing eighth in his
very first Indianapolis 5(X) that year.
He didn’t race in the Coors 200
but started the last three races at
Texas World Speedway, placing
seventh in last July’s American Parts
200. He’ll drive the Gould Charge
Special as a teammate to LTSAC Na
tional Champion and Citicorp Cup
winner Tom Sneva.
Mears’ primary experience has
been gained in off-road racing
events, and he has several major
triumphs there. He converted that
experience to the rugged Pikes Peak
Hill Climb for a stunning victory in
the “Race to the Clouds’ in 1976.
Mears finished fifth in the
Phoenix opener and a disappointing
23rd at Indianapolis because of
mechanical problems, but came
back with a second at Mosport be
fore his win at Milwaukee.
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kee slugger some blame for what
happened to Martin. Jackson says
there’s “a 50-50 chance” he won’t be
with the Yankees by the end of this
More likely, there’s a 50-50
chance he won’t he with them by
the end of next month. The logical
club for him to move to is the Angels
because they’d like him to beef up
their hitting. It would be rather ap
propriate for him to wind up in
California because that
originally achieved stardom
In my opinion, Martin
age the Yankees 18 monj
now. True, a lot of things
pen between now and thei
Martin has his health then
have the job.
1 think he’ll have hishei
Billy Martin makes upli
do something, he thinks
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