HHII Texas A&M mm m m B
The Battalion Sports
February 18, 1982 /Page 17
avid Kennard
Aggie shortstop looks for exciting season
to by Eileen Jl
by Frank L. Christlieb
Sports Editor
|avid Kennard knows exactly
re he stands in his baseball
er.
he 5-9, 165-pound short-
for the Texas A & M baseball
has no doubts about what
|vants to do with his baseball
ts. Kennard has set high
is for himself, and he says
going to do his best to attain
a.
knew after my junior year
high school that I wanted to
baseball and try to make it
e professional level,” Ken-
said Wednesday. “I’ve
:d to a bunch of scouts, and I
[k that if I have a pretty good
K, I’ll have a good chance of
Jg drafted.”
APThat chance may arise due to
" J fact that college baseball
jayers become eligible to enter
dder fountip professional ranks after
“ieir junior years. However,
,ennard has an advantage over
piy college baseball players
1 / sv 'h° can on *y wa ^ f° r t f ie sum "
l V/1 ier draft and hope for the best.
I|ast summer Kennard and
igie teammate Billy Cannon
C Played in the college-sponsored
■'Clu , entra i Illinois Collegiate
Kgue in Peoria, and the con-
I n ptions he made there may
L LiJ gb his chances of being picked
i tnis June’s draft.
, „ “Some of the scouts up there
ease ' fij talked to me and told me
came to ■ others were interested in
c TuesdayiT- Kennard said- -You kind
private$essm et a { ee ] f rom things that
i undisdo J e g U y S are interested in you.
afterwardmain thing in baseball is
istency. If you’re consistent,
(the professional scouts)
ping to give you a look. The
g I’ve got to do is work on
is going o
predicted
n Walesa
, with otherij
present as
has dem;
Iks will tatt|
ae said.
David Kennard
the little things — getting on
base, moving the runners up,
stealing bases. If I can show the
scouts that I can do this, they’ll
give me a good look.
“A lot of times if you’ll do a
little thing that’ll stand out in the
scouts’ minds, you’ll have a good
chance to impress them,” Ken
nard said.
Kennard finished the sum
mer season with a .291 average,
44 walks, 52 runs and 26 stolen
bases while hitting in the lead-
off position. The Peoria Tigers
had a 35-6 record, and Kennard
said that the experience contri
buted a great deal to his know
ledge of baseball.
“You can really learn a lot
from the other players and the
coaches,” Kennard said. “We
hardly had an out in our lineup.
We shattered nearly every re
cord in the league ... and aver
aged about nine runs a game.
“Some of the coaches and
scouts were saying that of the 22
players on the team, about 12
will probably get drafted this
June.”
Kennard, whose baseball
career began during his fifth-
grade year, played football,
baseball and basketball for Klein
High School, north of Houston,
before graduating in 1979.
However, he quit playing foot
ball and basketball when he disc
overed that baseball was his
number one interest.
“The first couple of years af
ter I quit playing football, it was
hard for me to realize that I’d
never play football again,” Ken
nard said. “I’d go back and
watch my high school team play
and it really hurt not to be
playing.
“I knew I didn’t have the size
to play football and go very far.
My dad had a lot to do with my
deciding to play baseball. He
played his college baseball at
LSU and was drafted by the (St.
Louis) Cardinals. He was a great
influence on me.”
Kennard also gained valuable
experience during his high
school baseball career, when he
played three years for Klein’s
varsity. After his junior year, he
played for the Little Pirates, a
team made up mostly of all-star
high school players in the grea
ter Pittsburgh area.
Since Kennard and his pa
rents knew Milt Graff, the assis
tant general manager of the Pitt
sburgh Pirates, they were able to
get Kennard a spot on the Little
Pirates squad. Kennard said the
greatest memories for him while
playing for that team were the
games played at Three Rivers
Stadium, the Pirates’ home field.
In 1981, when the Aggies
finished 35-16-1 and 10-10-1 in
the Southwest Conference, Ken
nard started the season at
second base. He and Clint
Heard shared the duties at that
position, but after 20 games,
Coach Tom Chandler moved
Kennard to shortstop to replace
Cannon. Kennard batted .331,
scored 40 runs, stole seven bases
and had 32 RBI.
Kennard, whom Chandler
says he’ll be counting on to be
come one of the team leaders for
the Aggies this season, said he
feels he will be able to help in
providing guidance to the team.
“I’m just going to go out there
and play my best and hardest
every game and try not to feel
any pressure,” Kennard said.
“There really shouldn’t be any
pressure on anybody, because
we’re returning a lot of experi
ence, and that’s one reason
we’ve got an advantage. We’re a
lot closer than last year’s team.”
The Aggies, ranked 14th in
the nation in pre-season picks,
begin the season Tuesday when
they host St. Mary’s University
in a double-heafeler at 1 p.m.
Kennard says that Texas A&M,
which will receive its major com
petition this season from Hous
ton, Texas and Arkansas, may
have the right combination
needed to win the SWC cham
pionship.
“As it stands now, we’ve got an
excellent chance at winning the
conference, provided we don’t
have any major injuries or a ma
jor letdown,” Kennard said.
“The attitude is the best I’ve
seen from everybody since I’ve
been here.”
E-Systems continues
the tradition of
the world’s great problem solvers.
are optimist
ation.
Unquestionably, Leonardo
da Vinci possessed one of the
world's great minds. Not only re
nowned as a painter and sculp
tor, da Vinci also applied his
exceptional talents to the me
chanics of flight, to cartography
for planning military campaigns,
and even astronomy.
Today, scientists and engi
neers at E-Systems continue the
tradition by expanding the practi
cal application of advanced tech
nology. E-Systems uses the
principles of flight mechanics as
the basis for major modifications
to aircraft, expands basic car
tography to encompass highly
Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519
sophisticated guidance and com
mand and control systems, and
has designed and built a sys
tem that greatly expands man’s
ability to study the universe.
That’s only a small seg
ment of the tough problems
E-Systems engineers solve in
the area of antennas, communi
cations, data acquisition, pro
cessing, storage and retrieval
systems and other systems ap
plications for intelligence and re
connaissance — systems which
are often the first of a kind in
the world.
For a reprint of the da Vinci
illustration and information on ca
reer opportunities with E-Systems
in Texas, Florida, Indiana, Utah,
and Virginia, write: Dr. Lloyd K.
Lauderdale, Vice President
Research and Engineering,
E-Systems, Inc., Corporate
Headquarters, R O. Box 226030,
Dallas, Texas 75266.
E-SYSTEMS
The problem solvers.
Our Greenville Division will be on campus February 19
Up and in
photo by C. Michei Chang
Lonniel Biuntson of the Texas A&M has- *>le miss. Defending for Texas Tech is cen-
ketbali team puts in a layup against the ter Clarence Swannegan. The-Aggies host
Texas Tech Red Raiders while teammate the University of Texas Saturday at 2 p.m.
Claude Riley prepares to rebound a possi- in G. Rollie White Coliseum.
1-HOUR COLOR PRINTS
Beginning February 17, bring us your
color film, browse the Post Oak Mall, and
pick up your color photos in one hour.
We're THAT FAST... and we're GOOD
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
*
*
*
We use
*
*
*
*
*
*
Excellent
*
*
*
*
*
* *
KODAK
*
*
*
*
*
*
Quality
*
*
*
*
*
paper for the
*
*
*
*
Competitive
*
*
*
*
*
Better Look
*
*
*
*
*
*
Prices
*
*
*
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
quick os a flash
Main Entrance — Post Oak Mall
Suite 2034
Phone 764-0601
Interested in Photography
Develop that Interest
through
ALSG
GAM‘E e RA
^MONDAY
‘FEB. 22 7:00
601 ‘RUDDER