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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1988)
Tuesday, April 5, 1988/The Battalion/Page 9 ouston starts season on new turf HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston A^ros face an old nemesis on a new aying surface tonight when they en their National League season ainstthe San Diego Padres. A baseball-only Astroturf playing I n L^" le ^ be ready for the 7:35 p.m. nmn as part of a $60 million Astro- " dome renovation plan. The Padres finished last in the National League’s Western Division Ht season but they posted a 13-5 re- Jrd against the third-place Astros. Mo.(«HNL batting champion Tony mewjifjHwynn got more hits off Astros ttgknej.Htching than any NL hitter, averag- |g.397 on 25 hits. H Mike Scott, 18-13 last season and 1986 Cy Young Award winner, oppose San Diego’s Ed Whitson, i was 10-13 last season and 2-0 in tliee starts against the Astros. ■ “You can’t tell us they were that Jd last year, they killed us,” Scott right Itch! “We’ve got to do better against racear B em ’bis year. We can’t afford to he 6-lw Btoffto a bad start.” imselH 79-77 J rnity foil offense t-3 atilii ’• But lie; e throac The Astros’ goal in 1988 will be to score more runs. Manager Hal Lan ier said. “I’ve stressed all spring that you i don’t have to get a hit to drive in a run,” Lanier said. “We’ve em phasized putting the ball in play with men in scoring position.” The Astros begin the season with second baseman Bill Doran and right fielder Kevin Bass hobbled by injuries. Lanier said Doran would be in the opening night lineup but Bass, re covering from a hamstring injury, was questionable. San Diego Manager Larry Bowa is pinning his season hopes on the Padres’ pitching. “If you don’t get pitching, it doesn’t matter how many runs you score or how good your defense is, that’s the name of the game,” Bowa said. “The three veteran pitchers on our team have to pitch better than they did last year. If they don’t, it could be a long season.” The worn Astrodome playing sur face that was used both for baseball and football, has been replaced by, two surfaces, one for baseball and another for football. The two playing fields make the Astrodome the first stadium to have separate turfs for the two sports. The renovations also include a newly painted blue outfield fence and the dugouts have been raised to the level of the playing surface. “It’ll be just like playing an away game at first,” Bass said. “We’ll just have to get used to it.” Pitcher Nolan Ryan prefers the old dugouts. “These dugouts don’t give you much privacy from the fans,” Ryan said. “There are times a player needs that after an inning.” Bowa’s opening day lineup will be: Stan Jefferson, first base; Gwynn right field; Keith Moreland, left field; John Kruk, first base; Randy Ready, second base; Benito San tiago, catching; Chris Brown, third base and Gary Templeton, short stop. Lanier will start: Gerald Young, center field; Billy Hatcher, left field; Doran; Glenn Davis, first base; Bass or Terry Puhl, right field; Alan Ashby, catching; Denny Walling, third base and Rafael Ramirez, shortstop. sJP’Brien slams two homers in Rangers’ 4-3 win 0 Man:-® ^ . HHtBARLINGTON (AP) — Pete ■Brien hit his second home run of J or -'-He game on a 3-2 count in the bot- twosy toi l of the eighth inning Monday j :B[ht to give the Texas Rangers a “d t!ie:;®ison-opening 4-3 corne-from-be- t, the:Bid victory over the Cleveland In- nal gag dins. rebourtBo'Brien, who hit a second-inning to puiBme run, also on a 3-2 pitch, :tory fnHmmed an opposite-field drive tip. Her the 380-foot sign in left field to ed theBrt the inning off reliever Chris reborn®! Codiroli. idtwoftHlhe game-winning homer en- Hled Charlie Hough to beat Cleve- rantdit land for the 13th consecutive time, y Ki:; Bill ninth-inning help from Mitch irovedt' Williams. ttedhiiseH The opener drew a crowd of 37,613 who saw Jessica McClure, the Midland girl rescued from a narrow well, throw out the first ball. Hough is 16-4 lifetime against the Indians and hasn’t lost to them since Aprils, 1984. The veteran knuckleballer Hough allowed five hits, including home runs by Willie Upshaw, Julio Franco and Cory Snyder. Williams took over after Hough walked Joe Carter to start the Cleve land ninth. Carter was caught stealing when Williams thrw behind him and Wil liams struck out pinch hitter Carmen Castillo and Brook Jacoby. Texas tied the game 3-3 in the seventh, scoring twice with the help of two Cleveland errors. Cleveland starter Tom Candiotti walked Steve Buechele and Jerry Browne with one out. Oddibe McDowell singled and Buechele was safe.at the plate when catcher Andy Allanson dropped the throw from right fielder Snyder. Codiroli relieved and Scott Fletcher grounded into a forceout, but second baseman Franco threw wildly to first trying for an inning ending double play, allowing Browne to score the tying run. Upshaw’s sixth-inning homer gave the Indians a 2-1 lead and Snyder made it 3-1 with a two-out homer in the seventh. The Indians took a 1-0 lead on Franco’s leadoff homer over the 400-foot sign in center field. usy golfer lits $2 million lark Sunday latest plj > coadilj n alwavs | RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) — When she’s not working ,s a short-order cook, grooming er Scottish terrier for shows or dng involved in her numerous Jharitable endeavors, she finds a little time for golf. Amy Alcott is, in fact, good Inough at the game that she’s forking on her third million. Alcott, 32, went over the $2 million mark in earnings Sunday, when she won the Dinah Shore tournament for the second time. The $80,000 winner’s check lifted her career earnings to $2,050,831, making her only the third player in LPGA history to surpass $2 million. She’s made $118,652 this year, tops on the tour. But although Alcott is ded icated to golf, she finds time for any other activities. She spends some time working s a cook at the Butterfly Bakery in Los Angeles. She enters her pup, Shortscots Flying Venus Mc- Rhe, in dog shows. I She also serves on the Presi dent’s Council Against Drug Abuse, is a playing editor for Golf Digest, holds an annual tourna ment to benefit the Multiple Scle rosis Society, and funds an en dowment to the women’s golf program at UCLA. I In addition, she’s working with Charles Schulz on a book for ju nior golfers. 1 And when she won the Dinah Shore Sunday with a tournament- record 14-under-par 274 total, ‘Alcott wasn’t only playing for herself. 1 She dedicated the victory to Ann Paulson, a friend who is suf fering from cancer. 1 “I’m elated for her,” Alcott said of Paulson, 25, who lives in Chi cago. 1 Alcott and Paulson have been friends since Alcott was a teen age golf champion. She met Paul- iTson, who was 10 at the time, at an tmateur tournament. Baseball cards selling briskly as Major League season opens DALLAS (AP) — The 1988 major league baseball season opened Mon day, and to many sports fans collect ing baseball cards is as irresistible as a promising rookie. Baseball card sales for this season are breaking last year’s record, as tonishing even the hobby’s most in formed enthusiasts. “Every year we expect the thing is going to level off, and every year we see significant gains,” Richard White, vice president of Major League Baseball Properties, told the Dallas Times Herald. White’s company, based in New York City, licenses the official cards bought by 250,000 collectors nation wide. Industry estimates place sales of pocket-size baseball cards at $250 million a year, up about 10 percent from the 1987 season. Breaking into the majors in the 1988 season with a sleek new base ball card, a rookie card maker in the Dallas area is squaring off for a share of the 7 billion-plus cards sold every year in a market dominated by old- timers such as Fleer, Donruss and Topps Co. “The big reason we got into this was because demand was not being satisfied,” says Ann Flavin, owner of Optigraphics Corp., whose modern, high-tech plant in Grand Prairie can’t print its Score cards fast enough to keep pace with orders. Score has gained an edge among kids with its high-tech graphics as much as its attention to meticulous detail in the information on the back of each card. Action photographs of players are each bordered in one of six glossy colors. Quotes from each player’s manager supplement life time player stats, features that only Score offers. Topps — the market’s largest and longest-established competitor — uses posed photographs, and its stats are less complete, enthusiasts say. Like major league owners buying and selling players in the off season, the kids who gathered were trading the rookie cards of their favorite players — the Athletics’ Mark McG wire, the Rangers’ Ruben Sierra, and the Yankees’ Don Mattingly. Collections of Topps cards —team sets, all-star sets, all-time great play ers, the combinations are endless — date back to 1951. As a record of the history of America’s favorite game, Topps has an appeal to serious col lectors that newer players in the baseball card market can’t rival. Topps, which has made cards since after World War II, had no competition until Donruss and Fleer began card production in the early 1980s, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision opened the market to other manufacturers. Lyle hopes to add a green jacket to his wardrobe after 52nd Masters AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Sandy Lyle took a day off, relaxing and shopping before getting down to work for the 52nd Masters. But a cursory prowl through Au gusta’s shopping malls failed to pro duce one item he was seeking. “I don’t have a green jacket in my wardrobe,” the Scot said. “Maybe I can pick one up this weekend.” Lyle’s chance of acquiring the famed green jacket that goes to the winner of the Masters, the first of the year’s four big golf tournaments, was enhanced by his playoff triumph at Greensboro Sunday. But it also took its toll. “Having a three-shot lead, then losing it, then fighting back, it was steamy out there. “I’m experienced enough to put it behind me. I should be in good form” for the start of the tourna ment Thursday at the Augusta Na tional Golf Club course. “And with the small field, about 50 pros who can win as opposed to the 100 in other tournaments, that improves the odds,” he said. “Much depends on the first round. I hope to get a good first round, get my teeth in the tourna ment and hope for the right results.” Lyle’s second victory of the season opened other possibilities for him; possibilities such as becoming the first British player to take the Amer ican money winning title. “I don’t expect to change things much. I’ll stick to my plan, 15 or 16 tournaments in the States,” said Lyle, who already has played in nine American tour events this season. “I have commitments in Europe that I must meet. And that is my home circuit. I must play nine tour naments there. And with 15 or 16 in the States, that’s a full schedule,” said Lyle, who will return to Europe after next week’s Heritage Classic. With the shift in golf’s balance of power in recent years, much of his most formidable opposition is con- , tained in the 16 foreign entrants. Chief among them are Seve Bal lesteros of Spain and Greg Norman of Australia, both playoff losers to Larry Mize in last year’s Masters, along with Ian Woosnam of Wales, winner of more than $1.8 million in worldwide earnings last season, and 1985 Masters champion Bernhard Langer of West Germany. The American field is led by Paul Azinger, Mark McCumber, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Tom Watson, Lanny Wadkins, PGA champion Larry Nelson, Jay Haas, Curtis Strange and Payne Stewart. Puts You On The Right Side Of The Tracks. It’s two minutes until your class starts in Kleberg and you’re stuck in Blocker—on the wrong side of the tracks. Scooter Brown's can get you there on a Honda Spree for only $49.00 per month. It's the scooter leasing plan Aggies have been waiting for! 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