Tuesday, February 5, 1985/The Battalion/Page 9 ___ g challenge, >th char.;; i, ause you'it | setter tb / °wever, in. | vork andi l ■list said. really con. I r you, yot decision in '•e-orientBl st said, I e not goinj get into* in reccit g a great!! ity in iIk ling one oil i the natiotl ;nts ford list said. :e at Teral he progranl W e program, ; jackgrounc ! owed a li 'y :riptions[# lical excu* buse-addi(. , n additioni ? Razorbacks always win before Barnhill animals TANK MCNAMARA lt'6 GOihiG? CDWJlO TO Z£RD. WE'vt GOT TO FiMC? A PtAC£ FOI? MOMFLESfe t^EOPLE KEEP WARM TOMl&MT. office of r4t MAVOR by Jeff Millar & Bill Hinds ■m New Broadsider bat a ‘hit’ Associated Press The profanities began in an ancient throat, flowed through ancient lips and were amplified by a modernly acoustic plastic Rig- I he man straining to see over the hog-helmetted heckler looked down upon the press row, wanted to know what the hell I was looking at and chillingly assassi nated the small of my back with a high-velocity ice missile. The editor of The Northwest Arkansas Times leaned 20 de grees to his right (any more would have placed him in my tar get zone) and, in a voice strangely reminiscent of Romans, Chris tians and Lions, said, “Welcome to Barnhill Arena.” And that was before the game even started. Fayetteville, mountain home of the University of Arkansas, has become a living legend in the sports world as the epitome of the “nomecourt advantage.” Hogs in all shapes and sizes (some of them human) come down from the hills of the Ozarks to see their beloved Razorbacks play basketball. They bring with them their pig hats, red sweatshirts and plenty of easily propelled potential pro jectiles. They chant such intricate witti cisms as “Go Hogs Go,” and “Soooooooie, Pig.” And they are masterminded by a certified pork psychologist, Ra- zorback Basketball Coach Eddie Sutton. “I think it’s important for the crowd to get into the game,” Sut ton, a student of crowd psychol ogy, has claimed on several occas- sions. The problem with that philoso- BRANDON BERRY Sports Writer phv, in Arkansas at least, is that the crowd actually does get into the game. If they have good aim, that is. “This was as good as I have ever seen this crowd,” Texas A&M Basketball Coach Shelby Metcalf said following a 58-53 loss to the Hogs last Friday. “They didn’t throw anything (or very much), and they didn’t really threaten anybody. "One time a few years ago we had to pick up out chairs and move out onto the court during a time-out because they wouldn’t leave us alone. They’re a tough crowd, no doubt about it.” 1 18 victories against seven de feats (the Hogs’ record since Sut ton set ip practice in 1974) doesn't really leave very much doubt at all. The Hogs just don’t lose in their Barnhill wallow, lo cated just up the hill from the abortion clinic and “Clyde’s Hog kuntry Kwisene.” And the referees are by far the most quoted reason as to why the Razorbacks become Super Piggies in their kryptonite Ozark setting. "The Los Angeles Lakers would lose here if (Arkansas) had their officials,” A&M forward Winston Crite said. Probably not, but you can bet Kareem would foul out of the game. Or mayoe the lights would go out. “1 don’t know win I should get frustrated, because it’s always something up here,” Metcalf said. “One time the lights went out, an other time it’s a charge on a guy at the buzzer. Maybe that’s how come the crowd was so nice to night; they knew that if things got really bad they could still turn off the lights.” They rarely need to turn off anything but the electronic tally board that keeps count of their opponents’ personal fouls. It overheats. Kenny Brown, the Ags leading scorer who earned the nickname “Downtown” by shooting from long range, mysteriously became an aggressive inside force against the Razorbacks. Just ask the offi cials who gave Brown his fifth personal foul with two minutes eft in the game, thereby disqual ifying him for the first time this season. i V Barnhill truly is a tough place to play, especially if you’re sitting on the bench. “Arkansas really isn’t that good of a team,” Crite said. “We beat ourselves more than they beat us. But they always seem to win; ev ery year they win a lot of games, especially at home. Maybe because they’re afraid to face 9,000 screaming nfieemies with the social graces of Jethro Clampett when they lose. Everyone else sure is. CORPUS CHRISTI — Remem ber when you were a kid and one of the chuckle lines by baseball game hecklers to a frustrated batter was “Get an ironing board!”? Softball players will be able to do something like that beginning this season. The unique Broadsider bat, made with a triangular barrel the inventor says “provides the biggest ‘sweetspot’ of any bat made,” has been ap proved for full use in a vote of the council of the Amateur Softball As sociation at its convention here re cently. Approval of the bat, designed and manufactured by New York ar chitect Bill Merritt, made it legal for all levels of play, both slow pitch and fast pitch. Merritt, obviously pleased with the ASA action, was uncertain how long it would take bis company to gear up manufacture of the bats for the anticipated increase in demand. The bat previously, had been ap proved by the United States Slo- pitch Softball Association (USS-SA) and the NCAA for its women’s pro gram. Merritt developed the bat from his architectural and engineering background to try to help what had been, graciously put, his modest showing in softball in New York City. “I- was playing in a pickup game with some friends and just couldn’t hit the ball,” Merritt explained. “I was at bat three times and popped up all three times. I was somewhat annoyed. I played a lot of tennis and I’ve been active athletically so I fig ured it couldn’t be me, it must be something else.” From that point, Merritt’s design background began to focus on the bat and, adapting the principle used in manufacture of a tennis racquet, particularly the oversized Prince model, he oegan to concoct what be came the Broadsider. “I had access to a metal fabricat ing shop and its lathes and other equipment so I started experiment ing,” Merritt said. “I thought of the Prince, but if you make a wooden bat bigger, you might get one that weighs 20 pounds.” The first few he manufactured he used in playground games with friends and found himself being so successful, he decided to try to sell his idea to an organized program. When he went on a vacation trip to San Francisco, he made a point to visit with Galifornia-Berkely wom en’s softball coach Donna Terry. “I originally had intended tne bat only for the recreational player but Coach Terry liked it so much she prompted me to go to other sports organizations with it,” Merritt said. Terry called the bat “the most ef fectively constructed bat that I have ever used,” and it was dubbed “the first innovation in the equipment used in the sport in the past 40-50 years,” by Lynn Ebert, professor of engineering and sports mechanics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Only a few thousand models of the bat, the wooden version of which is made of northern white ash, are available, but Merritt leaves no doubt the plants in Michigan and New Jersey which produce the Broadsider could tool up to fill the demand. As Merritt says, “Imagine trying to hit a golf ball with a round golf club or a nail with a round hammer. Does it make any more sense to hit a softball with a round bat?” Wolfpack’s Washburn to serve three days in jail her )ber jell for Associated Press RALEIGH — North Carolina State University basketball standout Chris Washburn pleaded guilty Monday to three charges stemming from the theft of stereo equipment and was ordered to serve three days in jail later this year. "Yes sir,’’ Washburn said when asked by the judge if he was guilty of the charges. There was no immediate com ment on Washburn’s status from North Carolina State. Wolfpack Bas ketball Coach Jim Valvano couldn’t be reached immediately for com ment. The pleas resulted from an agreement between Wake County District Attorney Randolph Riley and defense lawyers Wade Smith and Dan Blue, both of Raleigh. Washburn, 19, a f reshman center from Hickory, was arrested Dec. 21. His attorneys said at a hearing Jan. 8 in Wake County District Court that Washburn took $800 worth of stereo equipment from another athlete’s room as a prank. Riley said last month that evi dence gathered by police showed Washburn “intended to take (the ste- reo) and, furthermore, intended to keep it.” Washburn-told police he took the equipment from the room of Wil liam West and Jeffrey Davis, both sophomores on the North Carolina State University football team, but said he was going to return it. The 6-foot-1 1 Washburn, a top national recruit a year ago, was a starter for the Wolf pack team before his arrest. Coach Jim Valvano said after the arrest Washburn was dis missed from the team and declined to say whether he would reinstate Washburn. Wake County Superior Court Judge Milton Reid sentenced Wash burn to six years suspended for five years as part of the plea agreement. The judge ordered Washburn to serve three days from Dec. 19-21. Washburn was charged last Dec. 21. Last Sept. 20, Washburn was found guilty of assault on a female, given a 30-day suspended sentence and fined $25 and court costs. 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