Tuesday, February 5, 1985/The Battalion/Page 9
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by Jeff Millar & Bill Hinds
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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.
Washburn pleaded guilty to two
charges of breaking and entering
and a third charge of taking the
equipment with “fraudulent intent.”
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