Wednesday, March 30, 1988/The Battalion/Page 9
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Sports
Rivalries — the spice of sports
You know, nothing spices up
competitive athletics quite like a
good rivalry.
You can’t beat ’em — you’ve got
action, drama, triumph and
heartbreak, bad blood, bad language
and all kinds of neat stuff.
For
example,
what's the
biggest thing
in Kansas?
Wheat, you
say? OK,
what's the
second
biggest
thing?
That’s right,
Kansas
versus
Kansas
State, good
old KU
Loyd
Brumfield
Sgort^viewgoint
against righteous K-State.
But there’s more — just about
every state lavs claim to some
particulai rivalry , like Texas
vs. those heathens f rom Austin,
Indiana vs Purdue, Alabama vs.
Auburn. Georgia vs. Georgia Tech,
and on and on and on
Wait, we aren’t finished — the
interstate rivalries get even better
There’s Texas and OL). A&M and
those heathens f rom Baton Rouge
(my personal pick to supplant the
heathens f rom Austin as public
enemy No. 1 around here, at least
where football is concerned),
Harvard and Yale, USC and Notre
Dame, Kansas and Missouri.
And let's not forget Republicans
vs. Democrats, the Hatfields vs. the
McCoys and sports writers vs. those
heathens from the Opinion Page,
but these rivalries are for another
time, another column.
This column celebrates the
growth of the college rivalry, not the
decline of all the fun like that cheesy
column on today’s Opinion Page.
This column celebrates the birth
of a brand new rivalry right here in
Aggieland. Of course. I’m referring
to A&M vs. those heathens from
Stillwatei. Okla.
Otherwise known as Oklahoma
State.
Quite a nice baseball slugfest has
developed from this little interstate
tussle. Last year, the Aggies fought
valiantly in front of a capacity crowd
in Stillwater and a national television
audience.
OS I s powerful hitting attack was
just too much and A&M fell 14 11.
It was probably the most exciting
game shown on ESPN all year.
The same two teams met in t he
Mideast Regional during the NCAA
playoffs. They played for the
championship and a bid to the
hallowed College World Series, and
the three games were classics
A&M , in the true spirit of the
underdog, annihilated Purdue and
traditional power Mississippi State to
reach the finals and once again face
the invincible — and 2nd-ranked —
Cowboys
T he Aggies had the support of
the partisan Mississippi State crowd
behind them as they stunned OSU 4-
1. All they had to do was win one
more game and they were in.
Alas, the Cowboys won the second
game 7-4 and also won the deciding
game 11-9 in a game that came down
to the wire.
Just like Monday’s 5-4 OSU win.
Once again ESPN was there, hut
this time the game was here at Olsen
Field and a rowdy record crowd of
5,373 was on hand.
The Aggies had two men on and
two out before losing in the 10th
inning.
Surprisingly, the A&M-OSU
series hasn ’t been that exciting until
recently. The Cowboys hold a 9-5
series advantage over the Aggies,
and the first game was played way
hack in 1916.
Instead, the Aggies seem to have
padded their schedules w ith another
Oklahoma team, Oklahoma City
University.
Huh? Oklahoma City? What
wussies! You can’t win a national
championship by dominating little
OCT) to the count of 21 wins and
eight losses, A&M’s advantage over
the Chiefs.
And get this, the Aggies didn’t
even play OCU until 1976. 1 wenty-
nine meetings in 12 years, huh?
Heck, let’s let ’em join the Southwest
Conference.
I say forget OCU and bring on
OSU. All the ingredients are there
for a mean-spirited, good old-
fashioned rivalry.
In Monday’s game, OSU’s bench
cleared when its pitcher, after being
tagged out, seemed to punch A&M
first baseman Mike Easley.
Easley stood there calmly w hile
the entire Cowboy team appeared
ready for a fight. Down the third
baseline, the Aggie bench responded
in kind, just in case the situation
came to blows.
From what I heat, OSU tends to
play dirty. The Cowboys don’t shake
hands after games, part of the
reason why the Mississippi State
faithf ul suddenly became Aggie fans
during the playoffs.
Hopefully, A&M and the
Cowboys will meet again in playoffs
this year and the Aggies can even
things up a little.
OSU may he No. 1 in the country,
hut the Cowboys can he beaten. If
things turn out OK, A&M is just the
team to do that.
So bring on those Cowboys and let
this soon-to-be-classic baseball series
join the other great rivalries of
college athletics.
Cowboys want ‘Kitchen’ to trim down for camp
Ags bounce back
By Curtis L. Culberson
Assistant Sports Editor
The Texas A&M baseball team
bounced back from Monday’s
heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma
State in its home national tele
vision debut to gain an 8-1 anti-
climatic victory over North Texas
State Tuesday night at Olsen
Field.
The scene for the game
seemed almost totally opposite of
the carnival atmosphere sur
rounding A&M’s confrontation
with No. 1-ranked Cowboys. No
TV cameras were to be found; at
tendance was closer to 57 than
Monday’s record-breaking 57
hundred; and the weather had
taken a nasty turn from the sunny
70s experienced earlier this week
to cold and rainy with wind
chills in the 30s.
The 3rd-ranked Aggies up
their season record to 29-7 and
stay at 2-1 in Southwest Confer
ence play while NTSU drops to 5-
25.
A&M Coach Mark Johnson
said he knew there was a possibil
ity of the players not being up for
the game.
“We played a bunch of tough
games in a row, mutiply that by
the cold weather and that makes
this a tough game,” Johnson said.
“We’re pleased with the win.”
Johnson was most pleased by
the pitching. Anthony DeLaCruz
pitched the first five innings and
got the w in improving his record
to 3-0. But Randy Pryor and
southpaw Jeff Jones also pitched
two innings apiece. NT'SU’s Jack
Bunn took the loss for the Eagles.
The Aggies got on the
scoreboard first when center
fielder Kirk Thompson came
home off a sacrifice fly by third
baseman Scott Livingstone after
Thompson got a double on an
NTSU error in the first inning.
A&M scored another run in
the fourth inning and the game
remained 2-0 until second base-
man Terry Taylor knocked the
only home run of the game over
the left field fence in the bottom
of the sixth with none on.
NTSU scored its only run in
the seventh after Jones walked
second baseman Mike Sanders,
who stole second alter a wild
pitch. Then, designated hitter
Mike Thompson and catcher Ce
cil Vega both threaded the same
hole in left field for back-to-back
singles the latter of which
brought Jones home.
A&M took complete control in
the seventh when it scored five
runs off a Livingstone single and
six walks, including a wild pitch
that hit left fielder Deron Dacus
in the face, opening up a 2-inch
gash above his left eye.
Dacus was taken to the hospital
and Johnson said the swelling was
too severe to tell the extent of his
injury.
T he Aggies are in action at Ol
sen Field against NT SU today at
3 p.m.
IRVING (AP) — Dallas Cowboys
minicamp continued Tuesday with
the team trying to deal with its “ex
tras” — Nate Newton’s extra weight
[and tht hacklield s extra i unning-
back
The Kitchen is Back, big as ever,
[and Dallas Cowboys officials are not
I amused.
And even less humorous is the still
[lingering problem of the tailed
Dream Backfield ot Tony Dorsett
[and Herschel Walker.
Newton, nicknamed ‘The
[Kitchen’ because of his si/e, checked
in to the team’s veterans minicamp
Monday at 345 pounds.
The camp is voluntary and New
ton is not subject to a fine, but he has
been subject to a few jibes from team
members who laughed and called
him Body Wonderful.
Last March. Newton’s weight was
347 pounds, hut he slimmed down
to 298 during the season in an at
tempt to shake the nickname.
“I went home to Florida alter the
season because everybody told me to
relax,” Newton said. “Maybe i went
a little overboard. I went back to
Florida to see my people. But every
where I went somebody was fixing
me a big meal.”
Offensive Coach Jim Frkenbeck
criticized Newton, as he attempted
the agility drills Monday. Trainers
tried to measure Newton’s body fat,
but the machine wouldn’t calibrate
his hulk
He did OK in the drills,” Erken-
beck said. But if we had to play in a
Super Bowl tomorrow ; he would
have a hard time finishing. Still, it’s
not unusual for a player to come to
minicamp with a little extra weight.”
Bigger wasn’t better for Landry.
“His future hinges on weight, and
if you don’t have pride then you
might not have a career in the NFL,”
Landry said. “It’s pretty hard unless
you just stay on their back, especially
in the off-season. They get hungry
and they gain weight.”
Landry’s attention also w’as turned
to Dorsett who is still waiting to be
traded. A film of highlights shown
Monday featured Dorsett’s NFL-re-
cord 99-yard run six years ago.
“A great run,” Landry said “He
can still do that.”
The inability to make the Dream
Backfield a reality w'as a problem of
Walker and Dorsett being unable to
adapt and then losing the enthu
siasm to make it a success, Landry
said.
A&M men’s tennis team
plays Horned Frogs today
The Texas A&M men’s tennis
team, recovering from a 6-3 loss to
Texas Saturday, returns to action
against Texas Christian today at
1:30 p.m. at the Omar Smith Tennis
Center.
A&M , 10-5 overall and 0-1 in the
Southwest Confet'-cice, used domi
nating singles play to defeat Illinois
7-2 Friday.
The Aggies have an eight-game
winning streak at home, but have
lost five-of-seven on the road.
Dean Johnson will take the court
as A&M’s entrant in the No. 1 singles
bracket, followed by Shaun O’Dono
van and Steve Kennedy in the Nos. 2
and 3 singles brackets.
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