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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1987)
Tuesday, September 8, 1987/The Battalion/Page 13 8,1987 ^ns f rise Irop it* countries.. if economic the violence. showed that, government ol e La Madrid hjj i ord $14.6 bil, age income di. I jrerceni, c ■u ent and in u. The averagt 2,-107 last yea i 1 OHO. tries did beitei has been hit oi Id oil pnees age income ercent after a A&M volleyball team to take on LadyKats ;yb tfcam will try to bounce back from a tough weekend at the Illini (tlassic in Champaign, Ill. when it takes on the Sam Houston State LadyKats tonight in Huntsville. ■ A&M, 1-3, lost to three Top 20 warns in the tournament, includ ing 4th-ranked Brigham Young (5-15, 6-15, 11-15), 6th-ranked Il linois (11-15, 5-15, 5-15) and 13th-ranked Arizona State (15- 10, 2-15, 10-15, 0-15, 8-15). The Lady Aggies opened the season with a three-game sweep of La mar here last Wednesday. ■ “I’m glad we were there (at the tournament),” A&M Coach A1 Givens said. We were concerned going into the tournament about facing strong competition so early, but that’s what we needed to help us continue to improve and mature. “We were disappointed that we didn’t win a match, but we served notice that we can be a Top 20 team by competing with Arizona State on an even level.” Sam Houston State brings a 3-1 record into tonight’s match with two wins over Prarie View A&M and one win over Lamar. The La dyKats’ lone setback was at the hands of the University of Hous ton in the UH Kickoff Classic. “We don’t want to take Sam Houston lightly,” Givens said. “We want to see improvement from match to match.” h .it c ounts lor America’s «c noduction byt ate of 8.2 perti in a row. Bui led bv a resurj! .ed its Brazil ■ Lima, the cap jnt, but that i it was the vear ad a good yi tal productior The report at to an increase Hnue zes; retui ded to fire c londay to til chores. Thn ■een killed in California sine iting the woo id the Forest ■n injured, d -496,800 ac: by more that nia as of Mond 1 - acres had gon- :jn. >out 30,000 acij ho, plus smalts i. Arizona, Mir ind Wyoming! timed areawai ials estimatedt] , mostly in titnt} tate firefightiri >2 million ada> I ta, the damagtO one fire, the 111 nplex blaze in tM at Forest, war■'?. Pokes cut Sweeney, stick with McDonald ■ rVING (AP) — The Dallas Cow boys Monday cut rookie quarterback Kevin Sweeney of Fresno State, a seventh-round draft pick who had been impressive in training camp Out lost a close battle to veteran Paul \tcDonald for a backup job. ^Bweeney, the NCAA’s all-time leading pass yardage producer, didn’t play in Dallas’ last two presea son games. McDonald threw a tout hdown pass, the only one of the exhibition season, during Saturday night’s 18-13 loss to the Houston Oilers. ■t was a particular tough cut for Dallas Coach Tom Landry, who had seen Sweeney grow up as a ballboy at the Cowboys’ Thousand Oaks, Calif ., training camp. JB.'It came down to the experience we needed for the season,” Landry said. “Kevin has a tremendous arm and did well in camp. But you saw how McDonald can perform, how he can read defenses,” he said. ■‘I gave it my best shot. Maybe something will work out for me but the Cowboys have always been my team,” Sweeney said. ^^IcDonald, who will back up Steve Pelluer and Danny White, was ob tained by Dallas as a free agent in 1986 but never played in a game. McDonald is comfortable in offen sive coordinator Paul Hackett’s pass offense, having worked with Hackett in both the collegiate and profes sional ranks. Other surprising cuts included place-kicker Rolf Benirschke, ob tained from San Diego Five days ago, and cornerback Johnny Holloway, a two-year vet from Kansas. Others cuts included rookies: Wide receiver Cornell Burbage of Kentucky, running back Alvin Blount of Maryland, running back Carl Miller of Arkansas, cornerback Robert Williams of Baylor, tackle Reggie Smith of Kansas, defensive tackle Mike Makins of Tennessee - Chattanooga, defensive end Ray Perkins of Virgina; one-year vets tight end Steve Folsom of Utah, tackle Steve Cisowski of Santa Clara, guard Bob White of Rhode Island. Veteran wide receiver Johnny “Lam” Jones was waived injured, which means he can join the Cow boys’ injured reserve list if he is not claimed. Placed on the injured reserve list were defensive, tackle Don Smerek, defensive end Robert Smith, and guard Glenn Titensor. A&M don’t employees lose your right to officials anno.; 000 people evo uolumne Rivt:' vfeadng^i ! Traditional medical insurance offers one key in Tuo| 'advantage no clinic-based HMO can match freedom of choice. 'aises rarity you will die of 1 :y do a track i a respirator.! t a respirator. | e what this lool o get vou.” | ; show, Lewisfy im Grigsby,ah who helped lau?, am 25 years £ ‘is stand onbuV donations in by learned ab® re had a form' d earlier this yf 1 had attended 1 , as visibly slialjl id his voice bntf e show. lends halfofl 11 j year working 1 !, e New York 1 },- trophy Asso‘% illar more” iky. record. He>H ir the associaki m, with the : iety of purpP ! care and reseJ 1 sts included ’ i IcMahon, Ci il '( Rosa and Wi kmgappearj inatra, Ann-! Paul Anka. n has raise'- Additional Joining an HMO means surrendering the right to choose your own doctor from among all the physicians in an area. Since clinic-based HMOs pay only for visits to physicians employed by C the HMO, joining such a health plan signifi- , cantly restricts your access to the community's ti full spectrum of health care providers. f The same is true of hospitals. Clinic-based ' HMOs pay for hospitalization only at participat- , ing hospitals. So your ability to seek cancer therapy at Houston's M.D. Anderson Hospital, or cardiac surgery at St. Luke's, is similarly re stricted. Add to those limitations the loss of all dental ( s coverage and most psychiatric benefits, and the true cost of HMO participation becomes apparent. Before you abandon your proven medical insurance for the latest trend in health care delivery, be sure you know all the facts. A message in the public interest from your ^Brazos Independent Physician irporate sj# , have pushe f [DA to near!)' Sports Bat incident damages Astros’ image By Anthony Wilson Sports Writer I’ve been a Houston Astros fan all my life. Some of my fondest child hood memories Viewpoint revolve around evenings spent at the Astrodome. I vividly remem ber crowds howling “Jose Cruuuuuuuzzzzz!!!!”, Joe Sambito and J.R. Richard mowing down bat ters left and right, and Cesar Cede- no’s hotdogging in centerfield and on the basepaths. I was even lucky enough to be in attendance the af ternoon Nolan Ryan pitched his fifth no-hitter against those dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers. But something happened in a game Sept. 2 against the Chicago Cubs that made me ashamed to be an Astronut. Left fielder Billy Hatcher was ejected from the game for using an illegal bat. Hatcher’s bat shattered when he hit an inside pitch to the shortstop. When Cub third baseman Keith Moreland retrieved the splin tered bat, he noticed a hollowed out portion in the barrel end. He showed it to the umpires and Hatcher was through for the eve ning. Players have been known to re move an 8-inch plug of wood from the barrel and replace it with cork or grounded “superballs.” Corking a bat supposedly improves the dis tance a hit ball travels. Several play ers have been accused of using ille gal bats this year, most notably New York Mets third baseman Howard Johnson. Ironically, the Astros were among the first to point the finger at Johnson. The laughter and jeers the Astros faced around the league when they started wearing flourescent rainbow- striped uniforms will be nothing when word of this incident gets out. First, let’s look at Hatcher’s mo tives for using an illegal bat. Maybe he’s not a very good hitter, you might say. On the contrary, Hatcher is one of the best hitters in the league. His .311 average is tops on the team and among the league leaders. He has 151 hits this season, fourth best in the league. “WeYl,” you might think, “mayb • Billy’s trying to hit more h )i > runs.” If that is the case, then Ha r’ effort seems to be in vain. He has hit 11 home runs this season. That’s not bad, but it’s not really that good ei ther. His offensive role on the Astros is to get on base and use his speed to steal bases and score runs. Perhaps Hatcher is just trying to help the team, you conclude. After all the Astros had lost their previous six games, due to a lack of offensive punch, at the time of the incident. However, the Astros were just five games behind division leader San Francisco with over a month left to play. It was surely not so late as to throw in the towel and resort to cheating. Another logical explanation could be that the accusations of several teams in the league are true con cerning several of the Astros’ pitch ers. Maybe Mike Scott, Dave Smith and Nolan Pvun are scuffing base balls, doing if successfully and not getting caught. Maybe Hatcher saw this happening and figured he could get away with a little fudging of the rules too. Or maybe, just maybe, Hatcher is a victim of circumstances as he claims. Hatcher says the bat be longed to Smith. Smith admits it was his bat. He says he used it only in the pitchers’ long-hall hitting contests during bat ting pnctice and he didn’t know it w'a die bat rack or that Hatcher .. using it. Hatcher does have a valid argu ment that he didn’t know the bat was corked. He tried to bunt in two at bats during the game. A corked bat would also increase the distance a bunted ball travels. Obviously a burit that rolls all the way to the third baseman is useless. But why would Hatcher be using someone else’s bat? Most profes sional baseball players are very par ticular about the dimensions of their bat. They usually don’t pick up just any old bait and walk up to the plate. Whether Hatcher knowingly broke the rules or not, the fact re mains that he did use a bat which gave him an unfair advantage. Earlier this season, Minnesota Twins’ pitcher Joe Niekro and Phila delphia Phillies’ pitcher Kevin Gross were suspended for 10 days for scuf fing baseballs. On Sept. 3, National League president A. Bartlett Gia- matti suspended Hatcher for 10 days without pay. Hatcher will miss eight games, including a crucial three game homestand against San Francisco, and $7000 of his pay- check. Maybe Giamatti should’ve been a little harsher on Hatcher to let the players know he won’t toler ate cheating. Maybe this time a sus pension of 14-21 days was in order. It might have served as a deterrent to others who are cheating or con templating it. Cub manager Gene Michael’s suggestion of a three month suspension would’ve been cruel and unusual punishment. Baseball is a beautiful and impor tant part of America’s culture. It would be a shame for future genera tions to describe something as Amer ican as Mom, apple pie, baseball and cheating. Valentine makes Oiler ^ A, 7-year vet Baker doei i t HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Oilers cut four players, including veteran defensive end Jesse Baker and guard Mike Kel ley Monday, reducing their roster to the National Football League’s 45-player roster limit. The Oilers’ 12th-round draft pick, Ira Valentine from Texas A&M, made the team after hav ing an excellent camp and prea- season. Safety Kenny Johnson and running back Hubert Oliver also were dropped from the team. Baker, 6-5, 267 played seven seasons for the < lets before he was cut last Sept. 1 and resigned Oct. 2. Kelley, 6-5, 280, left the Oilers training camp for several days, saying he no longer wanted to play football. The Oilers list does not include first-round draft choice Alonzo Highsmith and starting offensive tackle Bruce Matthews, who have not signed their 1987 contracts. Rozier soys he took and passed drug test HOUSTON (AP) — Houston Oiler running back Mike Rozier, who missed practice on Friday and did not play against the Dallas Cow boys Saturday, confirmed Sunday he took and passed a drug test. The Hoir w Post quoted a team source Sunday saying Rozier had taken and passed the drug test. Rozier also said he would be avail able for Sunday’s NFL season opener against the Los Angeles Rams in the Astrodome. Asked if he took a drug test; Ro zier said “Yeah.” Asked if he passed, Rozier also said “Yeah” as he left the Oiler practice facility Sunday. But Rozier declined comment on why he missed Friday’s practice. And Oiler Coach Jerry Glanville de clined comment on Rozier’s status. Rozier also was late for pregame warmups before Houston’s exhibi tion opener against Kansas City in the Astrodome. 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