Battalion/Page 13
April 12, 1982
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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7:30 p.m.
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