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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1982)
Battalion/Page 13 April 12, 1982 r . : - ' ' : ‘ /■: ' ' v,j _ VV. . . - . Donate * EVERy° ^NINg sports ies’ SWC dreams may not come true in ’82 by Frank L. Christlieb Sports Editor Hopes and team spirits rode as high as pop flies during the Aggie baseball team’s pre season workouts in January and February. Many people were picking Texas A&M to win the South west Conference championship, with the Texas Longhorns and the Houston Cougars providing the biggest obstacles on the Aggies’ road to that title. With Analysis staff photo by Eric Mitchell Texas Aggie freshman first baseman Houston Cougars April 3. Aside from Buddy Haney is congratulated by sec- that game, the Aggies haven’t had too ond baseman Brad Hisle after scoring much to laud themselves about. Texas the winning run in a victory over the A&M has a 26-15-1 mark for the year. centrates ( ) match. dule iid continiity 351 G. pollic | eld. and after d. Supcrshin ITCU’s Carpenter hired to public relations post ;j Texas Christian University sports information director Ralph W. Carpenter will become assistant athletic director for public relations at Texas A&M University, athletic director Jackie Sherrill announced this weekend. 1 Carpenter will direct public relations and sports information operations for the Texas A&M Athletic Department. He re places Texas A&M sports infor mation director Spec Gammon, who last fall anounced plans to retire at the end of the current school year. “We are extremely fortunate to be able to attract a person of Carpenter’s national reputa tion,” Charles Thornton, Texas A&M associate athletic director, said. “We are most gratified at the excellent response we received when we advertised the position. We interviewed three outstand ing final candidates; however, we feel that Carpenter is unique ly qualified for the new position because of his extensive back ground in the field. 1 PROFESSIONAL SERVICE & fi REPAIR Foreign & Domestic TOTAL PERFORMANCE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE CENTER 696-3775 FULL CAR CARE • Air Conditioning • Tune Ups • Brakes • Charging Systems • Engine Rebuilding OWNER J. BITTLE ATM 78 Pelican’s Wharf * Parts 1800 Welsh & S.W. Pkwy. College Station “We hope to make the Texas A&M athletic public relations program a model for the rest of the nation,” Thornton said. Carpenter, 47, was sports in formation director at Texas Tech from 1967-77 before join ing the athletic staff at Mississip pi. While at Ole Miss, Carpenter was the coordinator and pro ducer for football and basketball television shows. Five of Car penter’s former assistants have become sports information dire ctors at schools throughout the country. “I am extremely pleased to be joining Texas A&M’s athletic department,” Carpenter said. the four-team SWC tournament scheduled for Texas A&M’s Olsen Field May 14 17, Coach Tom Chandler and his squad believed they could enter the tourney as league champs. But not anymore. Texas A&M has a 5-9-1 SWC record, the same record it had after 15 conference games last season. The Aggies, in sixth place in the SWC, are no better off than they were at this time in 1981. To qualify for the league tournament, Texas A&M will have to win practically all of its six remaining SWC games. The aspirations can be traced to the end of the 1981 season, when the Aggies won 17 of their last 20 games. Although the team fell half a game shy of the final tournament spot with a 10- 10-1 conference record, one could sense a great anticipation about the 1982 season. Chandler, in his 24th year as the Aggies’ coach, returned nine starters and 17 lettermen to this season’s team. Only five players didn’t return from last year’s team. “We hope we can carry over the good things that happened late last season into this year,” Chandler had said about his team’s prospects for this season. “We are indeed fortunate in 1982 because the Southwest Conference schedule is in our favor. We play four home con ference series in College Station this year.” Home schedule in the Aggies’ favor? Try 39 of 52 games this season in Olsen Field. And two of those 13 road games were rained out when Texas A&M was to have played South Alaba ma in Mobile, Ala., earlier in the year. Before the season. Chandler didn’t concede the SWC cham pionship to the Aggies. But he sounded as confident as several of the players in saying that they’d finish in the upper por tion of the standings. “We’re aiming very high,” Chandler said before the Aggies’ season-opener with St. Mary’s Feb. 23. “I want these boys to believe in themselves. They have been very enthusias tic and they realize the task at hand. “I think that we’ll be im proved — there’s no doubt ab out that.” Everyone said that Texas A&M’s pitching staff would dominate the SWC. The hitting would be adequate. The defense would be tough. And the team speed would be outstanding. Residence Hall Association Presents 4 You are cordially invited to the SIGMA Expansion Party on April 15, 1982 for sche<l uit ' 1:00 I).'"' 1:00 p' 1 "' 2:30 P 1 "' 2:30 p " 1 - 3:30 p." 1 - ticipatH”' For more information call 696-3172 (Greg) 696-7679 693-5696 (Bryan) (Jeff) A NIGHT OF GAMBLING, PRIZES, AND ENTERTAINMENT th Friday, April 16 8:00-12:30 Major prizes donated by DIAMOND ROOM 707 AND TOTAL PRIZE WORTH OVER $3000! PLACE: MSC, 2nd floor and Lounge TICKETS: $3.00 advance $4.00 door J TICKET SALES: APRIL 12-16 MSC,Sbisa,Commons,DuncanA&A,Zachry,Academic But the pitching has faltered, giving up more than five runs a game. The hitting has been good at times, but it’s been in consistent. The defense has made 53 errors in 42 games, whereas last year’s team made 54 errors all year. And the speed has earned the Aggies 41 stolen bases, 31 less than last season’s team-record 72. Most people would look at Texas A&M’s 26-15-1 season re cord and speculate that the sea son has been a success. But most of those 26 victories have been against teams that Texas A&M was expected to beat. St. Mary’s. Louisiana Tech. Delta State. McNeese State. Maybe the non-conference schedule didn’t include the proper dosage of above- average, championship caliber teams. Maybe it takes more than double-headers against Centen ary, Louisiana Tech and South western to prepare for teams like Texas, Houston and Arkansas. Although the Aggies had little trouble defeating their non conference opponents, SWC competition hasn’t been quite as accommodating. Texas A&M SWC standings Conference W-L-T PCT Season Texas 7-2-0.778 39-3-0 .928 Arkansas 11-4-0.733 30-6-1 .819 Houston 7-3-0.700 27-7-2 .778 Texas Tech 7-5 .583 19-14-0 .576 Baylor 4-6.400 17-15-0 .531 A&M 5-9-1 .367 26-15-1 .619 Rice 4-9-0.308 26-18-0 .591 TCU 3-10-1.230 13-18-2 .424 has won only one of five confer ence series, that coming against the seventh-place Rice Owls in Olsen Field. The Aggies won one, lost one and tied one against last-place TCU. They lost all three games to Texas. They won one of three from Houston. And over the weekend Texas A&M won only one from the second-place Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Ark. That doesn’t help Texas A&M in its bid for one of the four SWC tournament berths. Maybe everyone had the Aggies picked too high. Maybe there’s dissension among team members. Maybe it’s a lack of leadership. Or maybe there’s no unity. The problem more than likely doesn’t lie within the team’s ta lent availability. There’s more skill than on last year’s squad, but it’s not being used effec tively. Whatever the problem, it must be alleviated during Texas A&M’s final six conference games against Texas Tech and Baylor. Those two teams occupy fourth and fifth place in tne SWC, which means that the Aggies must defeat them in order to creep ahead into the fourth-place spot. And that won’t be an easy task. MANAGEMENT Tuesday, April 13 7:30 p.m. Room # 158 A6cA Building ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS BANQUET TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE y<t- /z /$ Introducing Shellenberger’s 520 University Drive East To introduce you to our new location this coupon will entitle you to 10% OFF any purchase. Featuring the largest selection of Polo Between Dallas & Houston and this area’s exclusive line of Polo for men. Shellenberger’s (Next to Randy’s Liquor) This coupon valid through April 17th