Page 12 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1979 Hunter will retire Catfish just a farmer Puttin’ it over the plate Texas A&M softball pitcher, freshman Lori Stoll warms up before one of the games in Saturday’s Texas A&M Invitational softball tournament. The Aggie Ladies finished third in their tournament. Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco Aggie Ladies have busy weekend By CAROLYN BLOSSER Battalion Staff Texas A&M’s women’s softball team won five games and lost one to finish third in its 12-team tourney last weekend at Bee Creek Park. A&M’s season record is now 8-2. The Aggies finished first in their pool in Friday’s play, defeating Texas Wesleyan, St. Mary’s and Oklahoma University. Saturday morning the Aggies again faced Oklahoma, who Aggie coach Bill Galloway considers to be one of the top 15 teams in the country. The Ags beat Oklahoma 5-0, only to be upset 3-0 in their next game against Sam Houston State. A&M then defeated Stephen F. Austin 7-3 for third place. Texas Woman’s University, ranked No. 1 in the country, won the tournament and Sam Houston State finished second. • One of the brightest features of the tournament was A&M’s pitch ing. Treshan McDonald, a 5-11 sophomore transfer from Scar- bourgh, Canada, pitched a perfect game against Texas Wesleyan. Lori Stoll, a freshman from Missouri, pitched a one-hitter against Okla homa and struck out nine against S.F.A. “Overall I was pleased with our performance,” Galloway said. “We probably scored more runs and got more hits than anyone in the tour nament. I think we re keeping pace with last year.” Next weekend A&M will travel to Denton for the Texas Woman’s In vitational Tournament. Play begins at 10 a.m. Friday. Texas A&M’s women’s volleyball team had a disappointing weekend in Denton, failing to qualify for the finals in the North Texas State In vitational Tournament. A&M went into the tournament as the top seed. The Aggies finished third in their pool, defeating Stephen F. Austin, Southwest Missouri State, North Texas State, and losing to Texas Tech and Oklahoma. Based on last year’s superb sea son, A&M is ranked eighth in the nation and No. 1 in Texas. Six new players joined this year’s squad and the team has been working together only a little over a month. Despite A&M’s finish, coach Dave Schakel said he is pleased with what he saw. “There was a lot of fine individual play,” he said. “We’ve got the tal ent. It’s just a matter of jelling as a team. I still feel we can come out the way we did last year. Tonight the Aggies face the Uni versity of Texas in a 3-out-of-5 game match at Gregory Gym in Austin. Play begins at 7:30. United Press International NEW YORK — By occupation, Jim “Catfish” Hunter is a major- league ballplayer. By inclination, though, he’s more a North Carolina farmer. In other words, when he makes a deal with you, it’s a deal. You don’t have to call in a small army of lawyers or get it notarized. His word is good. Back on New Year’s Eve in 1974, Hunter agreed to a five-year con tract with the New York Yankees that came to something like $2.8 million counting everything that went with it. He was 28 at the time, had just come off a spectacular 25-12 season with the Oakland A s and won his free agency from them fol lowing a contractual disagreement with Charlie Finley. When he joined the Yankees, he told them beforehand he intended to fulfill his contract, pitch for them five years, and then go back home to Hertford, N.C., and spend the rest of his life farming and being with his family. Catfish Hunter keeps his word. In two more weeks, when the season is over, he will be all finished with professional baseball. To show Hunter the way they feel about him, the Yankees gave him a day at Yan kee Stadium Sunday. Among other things, they gave him a TV console, a set of expensive luggage, a camera, a shotgun and a pickup truck. Despite their eco nomic problems, the Chrysler Cor poration presented him with a brand new automobile, and Bill Fugazy, who runs a travel agency bearing his name, tossed in a vaca tion to Hawaii for Hunter and his family, all of whom were on hand. of Leave it to the fertile mind Yankee owner George Steinbrenner to come up with something entirely different, however. What do you give the man who has everything? Steinbrenner gave Hunter an elephant to help him with his farm ing chores. Yup, a real live elephant. The beast was led in from the right field bullpen, positioning him self behind home plate only a few feet away from Hunter, who looked a bit nervous about it and stayed at a safe distance. Perhaps a more appropriate de parting gift might have been a bus because as good a pitcher as he has been in his 15 big league seasons, winning 224 games while losing 163 and recording 20 or more victories five straight seasons from 1971 through 1975, Hunter seldom was better than he was while traveling on the Yankees’ bus. Between them, he and left fielder Lou Piniella could always keep the club loose, needling, joking, carry ing on a running dialogue all the time. “I’m gonna miss him in many ways, but especially on those bus rides,” Piniella said Sunday. “He’d like to get on me about the way I run. ‘How am I supposed to pitch?’ he’d always say to me. T need a speedster in left field.’ Then I’d say to him, ‘when you pitch, I never catch any balls. They all go in the stands. You want me to sit in the stands with a crab net or a jai lai cesta? Otherwise, I’m worthless. ” That was all in the spirit of good- natured agitation both understood, but before presenting Hunter with a TV console on behalf of his team mates as well as himself, Piniella talked seriously about the retiring 33-year-old right-hander. “Without him, we couldn’t have won last year,” he said. “He won the last game of the World Series for us, which was perfectly fitting. This year he didn’t have the kind of a year that an athlete of his stature would like to retire on. He has been overlooked at times for other pitchers, but he never complained or lost his desire to help the club. He never lost his sense of values, either. The years he has been here, he has been a positive influence. Were gonna miss him. He exemplifies everything the Yan kees are.” The one thing you hear over and over again about Catfish Hunter from all the Yankees is that he never complained. “He’s good people,” was the way Luis Tiant put it. “You win over 200 games like he did, that’s a special kind of player. Even when he didn’t have too much, he’d still go out and beat you. He don’t feel good, he still plays. That’s what you call a profes sional, a real superstar.” This year was easily Hunter’s poorest in the big leagues. Not nearly as fast as he once was, he has been hammered hard frequently and the result is his present 2-9 rec ord along with a 5.29 ERA. But Martin, like the rest of the Yankees, loves the guy and wants to give him at least one more start so he can go out on a winning note. “He deserves that,” said the Yankee manager. “As far as Tm concerned, he could be one of my coaches if he wanted.” UPI college poll United Press International NEW YORK — The United Press International Board of Coaches’ top 20 college football ratings, with first-place votes and won-loss records in parentheses (Second week): 1. So. Calif. (33) (2-0) 579 2. Alabama (5) (1-0) 538 3. Oklahoma (1-0) 470 4. Texas (1) (0-0) 394 5. Notre Dame (1-0) 392 6. Penn St. (1-0) 355 7. Nebraska (1-0) 347 8. Michigan St. (2-0) 286 9. Houston (2-0) 247 10. Washington (2-0) 188 11. Missouri (2-0) 143 12. Michigan (1-1) 123 13. Pittsburgh (1-0) 119 14. Florida State (2-0) 115 15. Ohio St. (2-0) 90 16. Arkansas (1-0) 69 17. LSU (1-0) 35 18. UCLA (1-1) 33 19. Brigham Young (2-0) 19 20. N. Carolina St. (2-0) 18 Note: By agreement with tie American Football Coaches As sociation, teams on probation!* the NCAA are ineligible f 20 and national championship consideration by the UPI 1 of Coaches. Those teams cur rently on probation are. homa State, Auburn and Mem: phis State. YOU DON'T NEED GLASSES to enjoy a Tecate Trio Bravo. Just take an icy red can of Tecate Beer imported from Mexico and top it with lemon and salt. Out of sight! Cibco Importing Co., Inc. Dallas. Texas 75229 TECATE £ Niekro knuckles 19th; Astros win $ United Press International SAN DIEGO — Joe Niekro tos sed a six-hitter for his fifth shutout of the season and Cesar Cedeno’s sac rifice fly in the ninth inning Monday night scored Rafael Landestoy to give the Houston Astros a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Padres. Landestoy opened the ninth by slicing a triple off loser Bob Ow- chinko, 5-11, that kicked up the chalk down the right field foul line. Cedeno then lofted a fly ball to Dave Winfield in medium right and Landestoy slid home just ahead of the throw. Niekro, 19-10, notched his fifth victory without a loss over the Padres this season and boosted his career record against San Diego to 13-4. A one-time Padre, Niekro has 17 career shutouts and the complete game was his 11th in 35 starts. Niekro’s ERA dipped to 2.96 as he posted the 17th shutout this sea son by the Astros’ staff, tops in the National League. San Diego’s biggest threat came in the second inning when Bill Fahey doubled with one out and Kurt Bevacqua drew a walk. Niekro then retired Jay Johnstone and Ozzie Smith on ground balls. 9 OUT OF 10 PUPPIES PREFER THE BATTALION your marketpiacel Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611 7, z z N TEXAS HALL OF FAME presents A proposal itudent has tc inanimously leans that c< rram Council Dr. John icademic affa fltiate deans obe making Aether they nit so that th leir dasses.’ The deans 1 limit on ' ith the stuc TUESDAY NITE (7-12) $2/pers