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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1979)
THE BATTALION Page 13 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1979 ose looks forward to Phillies’ camp By MILTON RICHMAN UPI Sports Editor can tell just by looking at him, Pete Rose can’t wait to put on ise new peppermint pinstripes. [es so anxious, in fact, he had the Philadelphia Phillies send him of their uniforms, then went to a photographers studio in Cin- ati where he had a picture of himself taken in it. Anyone asking his autograph now gets that signed scaled-down photo of him in new Phillies’ flannels. oday, he 11 be putting them on to go to work. That’s when instead eporting to the Cincinnati Reds for spring training as he has done the past 16 years, he’ll report to the Phillies for the first time. He’s ling forward to the change. m not gonna play any different than I’ve played in the last 16 s,’ says Rose, who signed for $3.3 million with the Phillies two (nthsago after becoming a free agent with the Reds. “I’m not gonna to prove Cincinnati made a mistake by letting me go. All I’m inatry to do is pay back (Philadelphia owner) Ruly Carpenter for ^confidence he had in me. ’’ lose shows some impatience with people who ask him what he ifically hopes to do for the Phillies. Since he made his reputation hustling everyone else and has always given maximum effort, listically, he doesn’t see how he can possibly try any harder than las in the past. 'Withall the money I make now, I don’t get my uniform any dirtier ildid when I was 9 years old,” he says. "The only difference is mother used to wash it. Now the club has it dry-cleaned. If I do thing at all differently today than I did as a kid, it’s only that I ctice more.” ilmost from the moment he signed with the Phillies, the general amption was that Rose automatically would become their new Jer. Mostly because they didn’t have an old one. [may not be the team leader for Philadelphia,” says Rose, who |be38 in April. “It took me a lot of years to become that in I cinnati. I think the reason there is no one leader with the Phillies ecause most of them are pretty much the same age. The majority e Roy Lescli[Kr|i clfo. on Roll™ home ■ lived vas 16 v lem are in the 28-to-32 bracket and it’s hard for a kid 28 to look up omeone only a couple of years older.” eporting to a new club can be an unsettling experience for some lers. Rose isn’t worried about it too much because he knows ■ w ually all the Phillies and has a close relationship with some. Be- r ^ / iS ’^ e remem bers the first time he reported to the Reds in 1963 / J/l [after that experience, anything else has to be an improvement. lose came to spring training with the Reds as a second baseman [had a contract with Macon of the Sally League. Don Blasingame the Reds’ regular second baseman and was well-liked by the rtant to herl er members of the team. Most of the Reds players resented me, Rose says. “That was courtsandj ause they liked Blasingame so much. The only two fellows who r more expos ntanytime at all with me were Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson, rthermore,)! member (Cincinnati newspaperman) Earl Lawson handing out a atives of An ceofpaper to all the players asking them whether they thought I d Tethe club or not. The only guy who voted yes was Don Blasin- opearanceuw ie. All the rest voted no. ige of worn phen he finishes his four-year contract with the Phillies, Rose will 42and doesn’t know whether he’ll stay in baseball, lused to think I’d like to manage but I’m not so sure anymore, ltd ieball players are too temperamental these days with those long- m contracts and all. With my personality, I don’t know if I could •holslovakiai e 't' Especially if some young kid part-timer started telling me a and sincell feverything should be run.” most consta to tournai United Statej e is tired ofl •tween tom dly answei guess.” added, Its j p vess International do. Istdlpfci VffAN0 Subpar weather conditions SMU defends title at Briarcrest By SEAN PETTY Battalion Sports Staff You take two days of a little cold and a lot of wind, add one nice day, mix it with the hilly, narrow fair ways of Briarcrest Country Club and 14 women’s golf teams and you come up with what was known as the fourth annual Texas A&M In vitational golf tournament. And rising out of that strange con coction was the SMU Mustangs’ women’s team who took the team title for the third straight year de spite all the hardships the weather provided throughout the three day tournament. The University of Tulsa led the tournament after the first windy day of play and held on through the sec ond day which was much nicer weather-wise. SMU went into the third day of the tournament one stroke behind Tulsa but by the end of the day, the Mustangs had taken the lead and won the tournament by 11 strokes. “The tournament went about like we thought,” said A&M coach Kitty Holley. "Tulsa and SMU are two ol the best teams in the country and they both have a real good chance to win the national championship. “We had some very good scores despite the weather. If someone told me on Sunday that anyone could go out and shoot 74 in that wind, I wouldn’t have believed them but Tulsa s Holly Hartley went out and did it.” Hartley ended up winning the medalist competition in dramatic fashion in a one hole playoff. She, along with SMU’s Kyle O Brien, ended regulation play tied for the lead but Hartley’s birdie on the first playoff hole gave her the final victory. There was also a playoff for the third and fourth spots between Tulsa’s Carolyn Hill and Lynn Cooke of Lamar. Hill birdied the first hole while Cooke took a bogie, thus giving Tulsa the first and third place medalists. But the birdies didn’t come for the Aggies. After the first day of play they were in seventh and remained there all three days. In fact, after the first day, the team rankings didn’t change except for Tulsa and SMU switching places on the third day. SMU won the tournament with a 934, Tulsa was second with 945 while the Aggies were seventh with 1003. Athletic injuries at high level United Press International WASHINGTON — High school and college students suffered more than 1 million athletic injuries in 1975-76, an unacceptably high fig ure, the federal government has re ported. The report released by HEW Secretary Joseph Califano showed women suffered more than 20 per cent of these injuries and said that rate will inevitably rise with the growth of women’s sports programs. It also showed that young Ameri cans suffered three quarters as many injuries in gym class as on the foot ball field — 244,879 to 325,000 — and said the physical education fig ure "was higher than anticipated and suggests that this area also needs more attention in health planning care. “This report suggests that the casualties (of student athletic pro grams) have reached unacceptably high levels, Califano said. Males accounted for 824,684 of the injuries, while females suffered 235,595. “Texas A&M didn’t play well,” said Holley. “The home course ad vantage isn’t always such an advan tage. It often turns out to be home pressure because the girls want to play better before the home crowd. I think our girls were pressing a lit tle out there. “Some of our girls played like it was the first time they had seen the course even though we practice everyday at Briarcrest. Plus it was the first tournament of the spring so they were a little nervous about that. I think they got this first tour nament out of their systems and will be ready to go.’ The Aggies were in the thick of it after the second day with only six strokes separating them from fourth place Texas. But the final windy day of play kept them in the seventh spot. While the weather took its toll of players’ scores, two holes seemed to give everyone the hardest time. “On Sunday No. 15 was killing everyone, Holley said. “It’s a par five and the girls said it was playing like a par seven into the wind. But today (Tuesday) the wind was with them on 15 and the killer hole was 17. Needless to say, the weather really made the tournament in teresting. “I thought the overall play was excellent for the conditions. We had girls shooting in the low 70s throughout the tournament. But of course, these, are some of the best players in the country and an ex perienced team like SMU can over come just about anything. “All in all the tournament ran very smoothly. The only bad thing about holding a tournament is that you can’t talk and work with your girls. I think it would have helped if I could have walked around with them or watched them on the driv ing range. “But the Aggies will be okay. We’ve got the first tournament down and we re ready to play in our next tournament in Austin.” The women .will be playing in the University of Texas Invitational in Austin the weekend of March 17. Wednesday Night ITEXAS HALL OF FAME! J 5 presents “The Debonaires AND BEER BUST NIGHT (FREE DRAFT BEER ALL NIGHT) Admission Gals $2 Guys $4 — SATURDAY NIGHT — DAVE AND SUGAR TEXAS HALL OF FAME Advanced tickets $6 at TIP to Xt B a e w ords about the ss ents that (h t year,"she si) schedule oft anything.” As choice, eastern CoiA :holarship last two ye^ ills working hard this season make up for ‘sophomore jinx’ BEACH, Fla. — It ilways easier the second time Wills found that out the way last season, hut he also edavery valuable lesson of life take anything for granted, spectacular rookie season i which he batted .287 and tamed to several All-Rookie the 26-year-old second Jan of the Texas Rangers fell J to the dreaded “sophomore year and was one of the treasons why the Rangers ear, but he* I to live up to their pre season ools outside^ ts r the record, Wills finished ion batting average. But that f \w Ibeii " isleaclin g' He was hatting only 1 1 ■ aslate as Sept. 4, and it took a ayeroftheja ^ — after the Rangers had out of the American League pennant race — for him to the .250 plateau, was as if a prize Texas steer lenly had developed hoof- louth disease. no one to blame but my- lt the kind of year I had last said Wills. “I learned a great . You’re never too good and never get too high in a cer- level of your specialty without ig harder and harder, you don’t maintain that high level of proficiency, you’re not going to have a very good year. 1 know you have to work real hard to get where you’re going. My father (former baseball star Maury Wills) told me many years ago that hard work breeds success and it’s true.” Well, if young Wills knew the an swer, why didn’t he heed his father’s advice? “It was in my mental approach,” he says. “It’s all in the mind. Skill is important but if you’re not in the right frame of mind, you’re not going to do it. I didn’t make myself believe. I didn’t work hard enough at making myself believe I could do it. I took a lot for granted and I didn’t have the kind of year I wanted. So I’ll work harder and hopefully have the kind of year I had my first year.” Wills thinks part of the problem for his poor mental approach last season could have something to do with the Rangers’ terrible perform ance over the first half of the season. It’s easier to get into the proper frame of mind to play when the team is playing well, he reasons. “Whenever a team isn’t going well, you have to give 110 percent concentration. I’ve always said that confidence and concentration are the two key words to a successful season for a ballplayer. When a team isn’t showing that confidence and concentration, it’s harder on you as a player.” But what will prevent Wills and the Rangers, as a whole, from falling into the same pattern this season? “You have to almost psyche your self up, right from spring training,” he says. “We’ve made some person nel changes that I think will help us. We’ve got some guys I think will blend together very well as a team, skill-wise and personality-wise. v/im: A NICOTINE-FREE, TOBACCO-FREE SMOKE Now you can smoke when you want to—not when you have to, with a rev olutionary new product culled FREE, Made from the tender outer layer of the cocoa bean, FREE is a non-habit-forming, low tar brand that delivers a great new flavor and aroma. ml mm NON SOBAiX.'O iO ru?;> SMOKE FREE Regular and Menthol Available at SARITA’S SMOKE SHOP 3709 E. 29th St. Town & Country Center * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ TffNSickickii