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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1986)
Thursday, October 29, 1986 AThe Battalion/Page 11 P eci alisi$to, iv toil, v 'ngllie s listed as >'l.eV^| in 1975. "I lr, lirouiij,J [i :l '8,butv t f 10111 explaJ '^s begat | iti°n is heij.1 rvev ' coinmi-l ulu-based I elution Ceaifj I i charge of J ■ i . s i ( leisli ej| ! J ad of a Fort-1 r resolvingv| ii the tails ij mt onaw ■ i ead P names Hal Lanier anager of the year Monday he tml ■ HOUS TON (AP) — Hal Lanier of the Houston Astros, who learned his managing skills from St. Louis’ Whitey Herzog, on Wednesday matched an honor won by his old boss by being named The Associated iwess’ Manager of the Year. ■Lanier guided the Astros to the NL Western Division title in his first year as a manager after five years as a CQach for Herzog, who was manager of the year in 1985. ■Lanier received 53 votes and was a runaway winner over Boston’s John McNamara in nationwide voting by sports writers and broadcasters, which took place before the playoffs. ■McNamara, whose Red Sox lost to the New York Mets in the World Series, received 14 votes. ■Texas Manager Bobby Valentine, ialookie like Lanier, was third with 12 votes followed by Davey Johnson of the Mets with 10 votes. ■Lanier’s Astros charged from an also-ran status all the way to the NL plavoffs where they lost to the Mets in sil games. ■anier said his 10-year major league playing career, five years as a minor league manager and five sea sons of watching Herzog, had pre pared him for the challenge. ■‘I don’t think I had any surprises,” Lanier said. “I’ve been around a long time and even though it was my first year as a major league manager, I’ve just about seen it all.” H.anier pulled the right strings with a pitching staff headed by Mike Scott, the major-league leader in strikeouts and earned run average, Nolan Ryan, baseball’s all-time strikeout king, and left-hander Bob Knepper. Houston also became aggressive on the bases under Lanier. The Astros almost doubled their stolen bases from 1985, stealing 163 com pared to 96. Lanier drew skeptical looks in pre season when he forecast five Astros could steal 25 to 35 bases. He named Kevin Bass, Bill Doran, Billy Hatch er, Jose Cruz and Terry Puhl. Doran led the team with 42 stolen bases followed by Hatcher with 38 and Bass with 22. Cruz and Puhl were slowed by injuries and did not figure in the new-style attack. “My philosophy is to give credit to the players who did the job,” Lanier said. The players gave credit back. “There were times early in the sea son where he would move a player over a little bit and he’d be in the right spot to make the play on the next pitch,” third baseman Phil Garner said. The Astros battled the Mets before falling in Game 6 which lasted 16 in nings. “In that last game we had the win ning run on second base when the game ended,” Lanier said. “The Mets never gave up until the last man was out and neither did we.” Ag women’s tennis in ITCA tournament ihild rjBriie Texas A&M women’s tennis [ team will be in action this weekend when it travels to Austin to compete inlhe Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches association regional qualifying tour nament. | Run Labuschagne, A&M’s top plaverwith a 14-1 record in fall tour- : nament action, enters the ITCA tour nament as the eighth seed. ^■Vlso competing for the Aggies in singles competition are Gaye Lynne ig, K id Cir man, Missy Kibler and Cindy Craw ford. The doubles teams will be Gens- ler-Labuschagne, Liong-Crawford and Dorman-Kibler. The finalists in the singles and doubles competition are guaranteed spots in the National Indoor Cham pionships, while other players may be selected on an at-large basis. The tournament begins today and will conclude Sunday. Sports Aggies striving to be consistent Photo by Anthony S. Casper A&M’s Stacey Smith, left, and Cheri Steensma try season. The Aggies begin a three-match tour in to block the volleyball during a match earlier this Kentucky when they take on Louisville tonight. By Doug Hall Sports Writer Analysis — ■mu ii i With an 18-6 record approxi mately two-thirds of the w'ay through the 1986 season, the 18th-ranked Texas A&M women’s volleyball team is still looking for the consistency needed to win the BIG game. A&M Coach A1 Givens, in his first year at A&M, has given his team a hard-work approach to the game by using aggressive defenses and attack offenses. But despite this new approach and the talent of two All- Southwest Conference perfor mers in middle blocker Margaret Spence and outside hitter Stacey Gildner, the Aggies have not been able to overcome a five-year slump of losing to the University of Texas. The Aggies’ main problem: consistency. Undoubtedly, the most obvious example of this inconsistency was seen during a four-game stretch earlier this month. On Oct. 13, the Aggies easily defeated the strug gling Baylor Bears in three straight games by the combined score of 45-19. Two days later, in front of a boisterous G. Rollie White Col iseum crowd, the Aggies suffered a four-game defeat at the hands of eighth-ranked Texas. On Oct. 19, however, the Aggies stole three quick games from Texas Tech at the Red Raid er’s hostile confines in Lubbock, bringing A&M’s season record to a respectable 16-6 and a 3-1 SWC mark. But that was before the struggling Rice Owls flew the G. Rollie White coop with a five- game win over the flat Aggies. Before the game, Givens called the 13-11 Owls a “scrappy team that could be very tough to play.” Correct he was. But all has not been dim for the Aggies. The Aggies, who have lost back-to-back games only once this season, bounced back from the Rice upset to again defeat Baylor, this time in four games. In addition to the play of Spence and Whitwell, the Aggies have seen fine play from most of its 13 members. Givens has been especially pleased with the leader ship given by senior setter Chris Zogata, who has 887 of the team’s 1,097 assists, and the inspirational play of redshirt freshman Kelli Kellen. With a week-long break in the conference action, Givens sche duled a three-match tour of Ken tucky for the Aggies starting tonight in Louisville. Following that game, the Aggies will play Kentucky on Friday night and Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, before traveling to Rice on Nov. 5 for a rematch with the Owls. ( Be EET SE 30 iht N in pus itivities NY Silver l| CIGAR^ ’ ShoMK® 1 "!,' coUp0 U:'- ibiteO' la Aw “ Jackie Sherrill &TAMU Football say THE Another service of Alpha Phi Omega, Student Government, Omega Phi Alpha £1 Paso. BLOOD CENTER at Wadley AGGIE BLOOD DRIVE DATES: November 3, 4, 5 & 6 PLACES AND TIMES: Commons 10 am to 8 pm Fish Pond 10 am to 6 pm MSC 10 am to 6 pm Zachry 10 am to 5 pm