Wednesday, September 28, 1988/The Battalion/Page 13
From the Bleachers
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Bolz ignorant of tennis
SPORTS EDITOR:
I am writing in response to the ignorant and
biased remarks made by Jerry Bolz in “Sports
Viewpoint” on Sept. 21. Obviously, he knows
next to nothing about either tennis or golf and
has never even attempted to learn. Unfortu
nately, I don’t know enough about golf to de
fend the sport, but I do intend to speak up for
tennis.
First, tennis is just as challenging a sport, in
respect to both physical and skill-level de
mands, as basketball, hockey, or any other.
Tennis requires hard work, self-discipline, and
dedication. Bolz made one of his few accurate
remarks by conceding that tennis players are
great athletes.
Second, his statement about tennis players
being “caged-up on a tiny court” is completely
irrelevant. Every sport has boundaries — foot
ball, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and soccer
players, to name a few, must all stay in the
boundaries of a court or field. It takes a great
deal of skill to learn to place the tennis ball ef
fectively, and I think Bolz would be surprised
at how hard they are hit.
The attack on tennis fans is also unwar
ranted. A ticket to the Virginia Slims, a profes
sional tournament, costs about $10-$ 15, Tick
ets for college matches — for example, here at
A&M — are free. Compare those prices to ones
for an A&M or professional football game, and
calling them “outrageous” seems pretty ridicu
lous.
Fans do not “dine on extravagant dishes” ei
ther. The traditional strawberries and cream
served at Wimbledon, though no more extrava
gant than ice cream, is hardly typical of the re
freshments found at most tennis matches.
The scoring in tennis is no more confusing
than any other system. It just takes a couple of
minutes to learn. Few sports have completely
sequential scoring systems, which is the simplic
ity Bolz seems to require.
Finally, the remark about the color of a ten
nis ball topped it all off. Tennis balls have been
white, yellow, and occasionally orange but
NEVER green!
Melissa Kibler ’89
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The ed
itorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but
will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter
must be signed and must include the classification, address and
telephone number of the writer.
owboys ‘killer’ October begins;
’elluer’s poise pleases Landry
IRVING (AP) — Dallas coach
I'om Landry eyed the Cowboys’
iller October stretch of five games
uesday and decided a 2-3 record
or the month wouldn’t be all that
d.
“If we were one game under .500
fewould be in good shape,” Landry
aid of the October schedule. “Then
e would be in the race and have a
hance to streak to the playoffs.
“The way things are going this
tar a 9-7 might get into the play-
ffs. There are no easy games on
iur schedule and we will have to
ick it up. We are stepping up a
lotch in class.”
Dallas is at New Orleans next
londay night, plays hosts Washing-
)n Oct. 9, at Chicago Oct. 16, at
hiladelphia Oct. 23, and entertains
fast-improving Phoenix can Oct. 30.
Landry is wary of the Saints, who
will be hosting their First Monday
night game in three years.
“There will be a lot of noise in the
Superdome and we’ll have to work
on it,” Landry said. “We might have
to cut down the plays we run out of
the shotgun formation because it’s so
hard to hear the snap count. It will
be deafening in there.”
Quarterback Steve Pelluer had
trouble with the noise in Pittsburgh
and Phoenix.
“We may have to take a lot of
snaps from under the center,”
Landry said.
He said he was “very pleased”
with the way the team had played in
splitting its first four games.
“The most important thing is that
we have been competitive,” he said.
The Cowboys are tied for the
NFC East lead with Washington,
Phoenix, and the New York Giants
with 2-2 ledgers.
“Our division should shake out in
the next four weeks,” Landry said.
“I’m surprised about the way it has
gone early. I Figured either Wash
ington or the Giants would be 3-1 or
4-0 by now.”
Landry praised Pelluer’s fourth
period poise in the 26-20 victory
over the Atlanta Falcons.
“Steve has an excellent future if
he keeps it going like he played that
fourth quarter,” Landry said. “It just
has to build his confidence.”
Dallas’ offensive line has yielded
an NFL low three quarterback sacks.
Berndt says
Horns may
wake Owls
HOUSTON (AP) — Rice football
players are disappointed about their
0-2 start but playing Texas Saturday
may be the stimulus the Owls need,
Rice Coach Jerry Berndt says.
“They’re really not sure about
themselves,” Berndt said as the team
prepares for is first conference
showdown of the season. “We’re
down, we’re disappointed, we’re de
pressed.
“Fortunately, we play a team that
we don’t have a lot of love for. There
have been a lot of years of misery
that have gathered from playing and
all too often losing to the Horns.”
The Owls haven’t beaten the
Longhorns since Oct. 23, 1965, for a
string of 22 straight losses.
Rice had an open date following a
41-14 season opening loss to Indiana
and then lost to Southwest Louisiana
41-16 last week.
The Owls contributed to their
downfall against the Ragin’ Cajuns
with three turnovers and 13 penal
ties for 121 yards.
“Somewhere along the line, we
have to learn a little bit about not in
flicting pain upon ourselves, not
self-destructing,” Berndt said.
“That’s what we’ve been doing.”
The Owls now have a nine game
losing streak.
One positive factor in the South
west Louisiana loss was the perfor
mance of redshirt freshman Eric
Henley.
Henley, making his second college
start gained 106 rushing yards on 16
carries, becoming the first freshman
in Rice history to surpass 100 yards
rushing.
Henley’s 36-yard touchdown run
in the first half was a thing of beauty,
Berndt said.
“We broke him open at the line of
scrimmage, but one of their line
backers had a clear shot at him,”
Berndt said. “He just spun out of
that, cut across the grain and went
in. He’s just a big-play player.”
Practices will be closed this week,
Berndt said, because of the extra at
tention Owl workouts have received
during Texas week.
Matson
iakei:
[Continued from page 1 1)
ardown the road, though not yet in
he form of Olympic gold. When
atson came back to A&M in the
n of his sophomore year, he
the world record shot of 70-
Yi at Kyle Field. When he upped
he record to 71-5'/a almost two
ears later, the grassy surface of
/le Field was the spot again.
Matson said his career wouldn’t
lave been as productive at any other
chool. He loved Aggieland and it
oved him.
More than 2,000 Aggies sent their
iignatures in a telegram to Matson at
he Mexico City games. He said the
ram was important enough to
imthat he kept it in his bag out on
he field when throwing for the
In fact, the whole Bryan-Colleere
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in
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Bolz
(Continued from page 11)
ave
rst.
the
ivo-
his
his
id
iot-
:all themselves — are soaring early
his season. Although North Texas
night not fare to well against UTEP,
heir story is more surprising be-
:ause of their smaller size.
As a Division I-A A team, UNT
tas fewer scholarships and a smaller
wdget to work with. They don’t
lave the prestige to draw the big
ilayers either.
Somehow, though, they have built
Ueam that is taking on the SWC
Station area was so enamored with
Matson that April 22, 1967 — the
day Matson was to throw his 71-5‘/a
shot — had been officially declared
Randy Matson Day.
Fondness of Aggieland seems to
be continuing in the Matson family.
His oldest of three children, is a
sophomore here. But fondness for
his family seems to far outweigh that
for A&M in Matson’s heart.
The way he used to train for com
petition and strive for perfection, or
at least improvement, leads one to
think he might push his children the
same way. Instead, though, Matson
just enjoys watching them, no matter
what they are doing.
Though truly gentle in nature, he
seemed to find it easy to be ruthless
with himself. His strength coach as
an Aggie said that Matson wanted to
get so big and strong that he could
teams with a new boldness.
Growing up in Fort Worth in the
early and mid 1980’s, I remember
the annual TCU-NTSU games. The
Horned Frogs and any other SWC
team clobbered NTSU almost with
out fail.
But UNT, as is the pattern of
smaller teams wanting to grow or
move up a division, takes on the gi
ants every year. The Eagles have
been blown out by such college foot
ball hulks as A&M and Oklahoma in
recent years.
tear a door off its hinges.
His desire to always throw better,
whether by a half-inch or anything,
led him to most of his successes in
the shot put. This way changed in
Mexico City, however.
After the Tokyo games, Matson
was focused only on winning a gold
medal in 1968. He felt like his car
reer wouldn’t be complete without it.
The entire experience at Mexico
City seemed to be one of the rare
times that this oak of a man was sha
ken in competition. Unlike Tokyo,
with its pressureless atmosphere for
a 19-year-old not expected to do
well, Mexico City had Matson eyed
as the favorite.
“I went in for one thing — to get a
gold and come home,” he said. To
Matson, this attitude was a mistake.
His defensiveness bound him in
the trials, and a slight scare arose as
he could only muster the last of
three spots on the U.S. team.
Contrary to Tokyo, Matson was
strictly tuned in to his event. He
didn’t join the opening ceremonies
and within a few days after he had
won his gold, bought his own plane
ticket and gone home, against the
wishes of the U.S. team.
Because of his approach to the
games, being best in the world in
Mexico City was more of a relief to
him than a thrill. He was not satis
fied at all with his performance of
67-4 3 /4, even though the closest com
petitor was more than a foot back.
Matson can understand a lot of
what this years athletes are going
through in Seoul, including A&M’s
shot-putter Randy Barnes, who won
a silver medal last week. He said the
hardest part of training for the
Olympics is the mental side of it.
These lumps are producing a
tougher team this year, however.
UNT opened the season with an vic
tory over Texas Tech in Lubbock.
No fluke, though. This last Saturday
the Eagles lost to Texas 27-24 on a
last-minute touchdown that ap
peared on replays to be caught out
of bounds.
So instead of 3-0 UNT is at 2-1.
Later in the year they play Rice and
should come away with that win to
put them at two official wins and a
moral victory over the “big boys” of
Texas football.
It’s exciting to see that the SWC
doesn’t have to go out of state to get
beat. Goliaths like A&M and Texas
can learn a lot from taking one on
the chin to a David like North Texas
or UTEP.
After a preconference schedule
like this year, A&M might enjoy its
lighter early schedule the next cou
ple of years.
le’s
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STUDENT
Training
Session #1
RELOAD CREW
September 28 at 7:00
Rudder 701
Slide Show
RAZOR’S EDGE
Barber Shop
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SUMMER 1983
Study Abroad Meeting
September 30 /
701 Rudder / 2-3:30 p.m.
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