Tuesday, February 10, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 9
Sports
im
’) 111
ml
AM trio is pillar of strength
'or young baseball squad
Controversy continues to cloud
NCAA’s 19’9” three-point basket
'9
fn.
By Doug Hall
Sports Writer
Over the past century of baseball,
merica’s favorite pastime has left
s with sets of names that just natu-
|ally go together.
Gherig and Ruth, Spahn and
Sain, Drysdale and Koufax and the
magical double-play combination of
Tinkers to Evans to Chance.
But to Texas A&M Baseball
each Mark Johnson, who begins
is third season at the helm of the
ggie squad on Friday, the names of
Fry, Magallanes and Livingstone
have tremendous significance.
■ The Aggies, whose 1986 record of
45-23 allowed them to win the
Southwest Conference tournament
and advance to the NCAA regional
playoffs, will take on Northeast
Louisiana at 3:00 p.m. at Olsen Field
in their opener.
I A&M will be led by co-captains
Darryl Fry and Ever Magallanes as
well as 1985 All-SWC third baseman
Scott Livingstone.
I Fry, a left-handed pitcher out of
Houston North Shore, enters his se
nior season for A&M coming off an
impressive 11-5 record in ’86 that in
cluded 60 strikeouts in 97 innings.
I During the off-season, Johnson
Stilt I Fry added an additional 10
Bounds to his 5-11 frame in hopes of
increasing his velocity.
I But Fry, who said he is only con-
(jerned with getting his arm in shape
at this point, is known more for the
jbcation of his pitches than his veloc-
m-
■ “I’m not really trying to throw
hard,” Fry said Monday at the pre
Season press conference. “I throw
four different pitches and I’m just
trying to stabilize my control on
■lose. I want to have the confidence
to throw any pitch at any time.”
■ In addition to Fry, the Aggies re
turn three pitchers to the mound
who had playing experience last
year. Johnson said righthanders
[ Gary Geiger and Russ Greene and
southpaw Pat Wernig all will figure
in his rotation, although the order
has yet to be decided.
;< But Johnson also said the Aggies
: ; ; ■
Darryl Fry
were counting on help from Ed
Perez, transfers Tim Herrmann and
Sean Snedeker and highly touted
freshman Randy Pryor from Pearl
and.
Fry knows the difficulty of step
ping on the mound against major
college teams — especially as a fresh
man.
“I could tell at every level of ball
how much the hitters improved,” he
said. “In high school, a team might
have had three good hitters. In ju
nior college, maybe they had five
good hitters. But in college, every
body you face can hit the ball out of
the park.”
The long ball, as a matter of fact,
was something the Aggies hit with
regularity last year. Unfortunately
for Johnson however, the majority
of those hitters have moved on to the
minor leagues. The lone exception
being Livingstone who combined a
.302 average with seven home runs
and 46 RBI.
But hitting the ball deep is not a
primary concern for Livingstone,
who along with senior shortstop
Magallanes combines for what John
son called “a left side of the infield
that will be as good as any in the
country.”
“I’m just going to do what comes
naturally,” the junior from Lake
Highlands said. “If the long ball
comes, then it will come. A lot of
Scott Livingstone
people are telling me that I’m the
one who has to supply the power this
year, but I think we’re going to con
centrate on improving all areas of
our game.”
One of the keys to last years co
championship team was Magallanes’
ability to step in and fill the shoes of
shortstop Rob Swain. The 5-11 na
tive of Chihuahua, Mexico played
junior college baseball at Cerritos Ju
nior College in California before
transferring to A&M prior to the ’86
season.
His steady fielding and .310 aver
age was good enough for him to be
drafted by the New York Mets last
summer.
But Magallanes, like Fry (also
drafted by the Mets) and Liv
ingstone (New York Yankees), all
chose to return to A&M for this
year’s campaign.
“I’m ready to get the season star
ted,” Magallanes said. “It’s going to
be an extremely exciting race. We’ve
got a lot of young guys (as of Mon
day Johnson planned to start at least
three freshmen) in the line up, but
they’re all good athletes.”
Offensively, Magallanes said he
would like to hit in the .300 range
again, but driving in runs and put
ting the ball in play are just as impor
tant to him.
As important to him, as Fry, Mag
allanes, and Livingstone are to John
son’s 1987 Aggies.
By Hal L. Hammons
Sports Writer
In the “unusual sports news” de
partment last month, the NCAA got
front page billing. Who else could
take an already-
controversial _ 1 1
subject and ViGWpOiflt
make it even
more so?
But let me explain. By now every
member of the sports fan commu
nity knows about the latest scourge
of college basketball. I refer, of
course, to the three-point shot of
song and story. Those on high de
cided before the advent of the pre
sent season that any shot 19’ 9” or
farther from the basket was worth
three points instead of the regular
two.
Now, anybody who watched
North Carolina State steal the na
tional championship away from
Houston a few years ago, knows
there are people who find shots of
that magnitude to be somewhat sim
ple.
However, the criterion is not diffi
cult to meet. If you doubt it, go to
the Read Building on a Saturday
morning and watch all of the non
scholarship talent at our own univer
sity. Hey, / can make seven or eight
out of ten if I get hot.
On the surface, the NCAA seems
to have come to the same conclusion.
NCAA officials, in their infinite wis
dom, agree that saying a 19’9” jump
shot is worth three points is inappro
priate. And they say they have fixed
the problem. Beginning immedi
ately, the three-point line is being
moved back to 21 feet. Sort of.
And I say “sort of’ because of the
most bizarre part of the whole ar
rangement. Instead of counting dis
tance from the center of the hoop as
before, the distance will now be
numbered from the center of the
backboard. This amounts to 15
inches added to the shot.
Give me a break.
I’m not trying to misrepresent
anybody. I’m just finding it difficult
to see the reasoning behind calling a
jump shot of a certain length a jump
shot of that length plus 15 inches.
In a phone conversation with Ed
Steitz, secretary of the NCAA rules
committee, Steitz insisted the change
in terminology was to equate the
three-point distance with free-throw
distance. Free throws are 15 feet
from the backboard, not from the
middle of the hoop as is commonly
believed.
However, the two do not equate.
The free-throw line is drawn in rela
tion to the baseline, not the basket.
The three-point line is drawn to be a
set distance from the basket.
The problem is not, as Steitz sees
it, that people misunderstand the
relative distances on a basketball
court. The problem is that the entire
concept of a three-point shot in col
lege basketball is lame to begin with.
For a complete understanding of
the motives and intents behind the
three-point shot, one must step back
in time a bit.
It all started with the ABA. It was
a fledgling trying to fly with the
NBA eagle. Like all young leagues, it
needed some kind of draw that
would make athletes and fans come
to it rather than the more estab
lished one.
The draws of the ABA were ba
sically three in number: a red, white
and blue ball; Julius Erving; the
three-point shot.
The three-pointer provided extra
excitement to a league that needed
any kind of attraction it could get.
Halftime fireworks, dancing bears,
anything.
Then, a few years after the two
leagues merged, the NBA decided it
needed more excitement, which
would translate into more ratings
points.
The NBA decided it could create
more excitement by helping teams
come from way behind to make
f rames close. And if it could open up
anes to allow Erving and those like
him to penetrate for graceful layups
and devastating dunks, so much the
better.
So the league looked in its gar
bage cans and found the three-
pointer.
Then college ball, ever the trend-
follower, decided it was a pretty
good idea and some of the confer
ences decided to try it out.
The distances from the basket
varied. One of the closest was in the
ACC at 19’9”. Teams like North Car
olina, N. C. State, Georgia Tech and
Duke proceeded to make ribbons
out of the net from long range just
as they always had, except the teams
got three points per shot for it.
After that fiasco, NCAA officials
promptly decided that 19’9”
sounded pretty good for the whole
league.
The first, and still the biggest,
question in my mind about the ques
tion of three-point shots was,
“Why?” None of the old motives for
starting it apply in the case of the
NCAA.
College basketball never has and
never will need any help to draw in
fans. And those fans don’t feel the
need for artificial means of interest
stimulation. The game is exciting
enough as it is.
And most of the basketball fans I
know, pro and college alike, seem to
think that if a team has trailed a bet
ter team for the entire game, and
with five minutes to play, has to re
sort to three-pointers to get back in
the game, that team deserves to lose.
Doesn’t that make sense?
But the basic fact of the matter is
that a shot from 19’ 9” (or 21 feet,
however you want to measure it) is
just not worth an extra point.
In games prior to Jan. 26 by
Southwest Conference teams this:
year, the combined shooting per
centage was 47 percent. The teams
shot a combined 35 percent from
three-point range.
So essentially, the NCAA is giving
50 percent more points for a shot
that’s 12 percent more difficult to
make. Pretty sensible, huh? I can’t
figure out why teams with fair long-
range shooters don’t take a three-
pointer every trip down the floor.
Mathmatically, it should result in
more points.
Hopefully the NCAA will realize
that the problem is not with the mea
suring system, but with the entire
concept. It’s not fair, and it’s cer
tainly not needed.
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