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Jnjured Dodgers
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The Battalion Friday, Oct. 21, 1988
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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Orel
Bcrshiser and the hurtin’ Los Angeles
Jodgers did everything they weren’t
iipposed to do, stopping the Bash
Bunch and stunning the Oakland Ath-
■tics 5-2 Thursday night to win the
[world Series in five games.
I Hershiser’s four-hitter closed out
Hie of the most dramatic turnarounds
Kind biggest upsets in baseball history.
Je held Jose Canseco and Mark Mc
Gwire to a combined 2-for-36 and al-
Iwed just five earned runs in his fi
nal 101 innings and was voted the
jcSeries’ Most Valuable Player.
■ The Dodgers, crippled by injuries
B Kirk Gibson, Mike Marshall, Mike
iScioscia and John Tudor, weren’t ex-
Ipeek'd to stay in the same ballpark as
I the Athletics. Instead, Los Angeles
I blew the winningest team in the ma
jors off the field.
■ Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis
K4ch hit two-run homers that made it
Hi in the fourth inning. That was
iplenty for Hershiser, who pitched Los
Hgeles into the Series with a shutout
in Game 7 of the National League
1 playoffs against the heavily favored
Hw York Mets and then shut out
^ikland on three hits in Game 2.
It was the sixth World Series
lampionship for the Dodgers, who
kame the first team to win two
championships in the 1980s, their last
one coming in 1981. It also ended a
streak in which 10 different clubs had
won the last 10 Series.
Los Angeles, the most active team
in the off-season, made the moves
work. They rebounded from a 73-89
mark the last two years, the greatest
improvement of any National League
team to win the World Series.
Hershiser struck out nine and
walked four. He was toughest when it
mattered most, twice getting Canseco
with two runners on base.
Canseco grounded out to end the
third with Oakland trailing 2-1. In the
eighth, after Stan Javier’s RBI single
pulled the Athletics within 5-2,
Hershiser walked Dave Henderson
and brought Canseco to the plate as
the potential tying run.
But Hershiser got Canseco, who
led the majors in homers and RBI, on
a popup and struck out Parker to es
cape.
Canseco finished 1-for-19 — hit
less after his grand slam in Game 1.
McGwire, Oakland’s other big
basher, went 1-for-17, his only hit a
winning home run in Game 3.
The Athletics lost for the first time
in four World Series appearances
since moving to Oakland. They won
three straight championships, begin
See Dodgers/Page 11
Tradition and towels
The Rightin’ Texas Aggie 12th Man on the field
By Cray Pixley
Assistant Sports Editor
Imagine leaving the safety of the
stands at Kyle Field to don a maroon
and white uniform to be a part of the
A&M kickoff team. There are
70,000 fevered fans shouting appro
val and waiting to see if you will suc
ceed in bringing down a possible
Heisman Trophy winner — or fail
when he blows by you in a blast of
exhaust headed for a TD return.
You've been practicing since mak
ing the 12th Man Kick-off Team,
and now' its time to step onto the
Held and prove it doesn’t take a
scholarship to contribute something
to the Aggie football team.
As you take the field, there are
feelings of excitement, determin
ation and nervousness that must be
tempered by level, clear thinking.
The ball is set — the kick is up.
Your eyes are keyed on the opposing
jerseys as you burn down the turf in
a burst of energy. . . .
In the 1982 football season, the
Aggie team went 5-6, and A&M
Head Football Coach Jackie Sherrill
was a fairly recent addition to a
floundering team with a power
house crowd of fans. A Southwest
Conference title and Cotton Bowl
appearance seemed distant years
from ever being realized by an Aggie
team.
While Aggie fans were looking to
ward the new coach for some respite
for the ailing home team, Sherrill
was planning a
way to harness stu
dent enthusiasm
and pump it back
into the Aggie
team.
Seven years ago
this fall, he issued
an invitation for
male students to
tryout for a posi
tion on the start
ing kickoff team
for home games.
About 250 male
students showed
up the following
February, along
with two aspiring
female 12th Man
candidates who were turned away.
To be a pari of the Aggie football
team seemed a dream for a good
number of men on campus — and a
few women too.
The 12th Man Kick-off Team was
born.
“There had been a num
ber of injuries, but it
was not until I arrived
on the field that I
learned that Coach Bi--
ble wanted me to put on
a football uniform and
be ready to play if he
needed me. I was ready
to play but never was
sent into the game.... ,
E. King Gill
At the time, Sherrill said the 12th
Man squad was a way for students to
identify with someone on the Field
who wasn’t a scholarship player. He
stated that it would really make a
student feel good to know that his
roommate went out on Saturday af
ternoons and re
turned kickoffs.
Sherrill’s idea of
non-scholarship
players covering
kickoffs was un
heard of, and it
horrified many
critics who
thought the coach
should concen
trate his efforts on
strengthening his
“real” football
E players instead of
ulling players
om the untried
ranks.
Some critics
thought it was a
suicide move.
But Sherrill was concrete in his
plans and the 12th Man played the
1983 season.
The idea was a resounding success
with students on the home campus
and similiar 12th Man teams were
spawned at universities around the
nation.
The sight of 12th Man towel-wav- 1
ing athletes is now, . . . well, a tradi
tion at Kyle Field — and fast becom
ing one at the Cotton Bowl. For six
years the 12th Man Kick-off Team
has hurled itself down the football
field with a killer instinct and a drive
to make the fellow students in the
stands proud.
Throughout the early years of the
12th Man, the team compiled an im
pressive list of stats and had better
return coverage than the varsity
team. Then in 1987 the team hit a
patch of bad luck and fell below par.
Houston’s James Dixon returned
one for 53 yards breaking through
the yardage that the 12th Man had
jealously guarded for four years.
Until that play, the team hadn’t al
lowed more than 39 yards or
movement past the 50-yard line.
The slip was noticed.
In that one run, the reputation
and prestige of the 12th Man re
ceived a blow and seemed headed
for a tumble from the pedestal of
honor. The problems of the team
reached a peak when Sherrill re
placed the team with varsity athletes
See 12th Man, page 11
aybe “best team” doesn’t necessarily mean “most talent”
bargaii
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epaitm
i hid J
All I could think about Thursday was the 1954
iveland Indians. The team that cruised to the
irican League pennant, winning 111 of 154
in the regular season — still a record,
Bn a 162-game world. They were the
ist assemblage of baseball studliness since
27 Yankees, everyone said,
itncame the Series. And Willie Mays.
ie New York Giants were lucky to even be
Ithe World Series. It took a dramatic, ninth-
Bing home run by Bobby Thompson in a
layoff game to get there.
And then came The Catch. . . .
He Wouldn’t have ever gotten there. Runners
Hnfull motion after Vic Wertz’ crushing
five to the deepest part of the Polo Grounds —
ihowouldn’t be? It was a sure triple. Maybe an
aside the-parker. If it stayed in the park in the
ffplace.
|Willie Mays was on his way to becoming
Hal L.
Hammons
Sports Editor
the greatest defensive center fielder — maybe
the greatest player — in baseball history.
And he got there.
Not only that, he doubled up a runner to get
the Giants out of the inning.
The Indians never recovered. The Giants
swept the Series in four.
Maybe the Giants were better than people
After you’ve shown
your folks around,
show them this.
gave them credit for. Maybe the Indians weren’t
ready for a challenge.
Maybe they thought too much about the ’27
Yanks. The legendary “Murderer’s Row” of
Ruth, Gehrig, and cast of home run machines
sauntered into batting practice and literally took
the Pittsburgh Pirates out of the Series before the
first pitch was thrown.The hapless Pirates sat in
amazement as the Yankees powered pitch after
pitch after pitch over the fences. They might as
well have surrendered then and there.
The Indians themselves are the only ones who
will ever know for sure.
Except maybe for the ’88 Oakland Athletics.
A World Series hasn’t looked so lopsided in
years. The A’s looked — still look — at least
equal to the Los Angeles Dodgers at every
position, in every category. Better in most.
And it wasn’t just me who thought so. When I
told people, “A’s in five,” I meant it. Most
people agreed with me. For that matter, a fairly
loud voice in the back of my brain is still saying
they’ll win in five. Certainly in six.
Needless to say, they won’t.
But perhaps the sports world needs a story like
the ’88 Dodgers. The American public, long
awed by outward signs of strength, gets rocked
to sleep by a continuous parade of “best-in-the-
businesses” walking away with blowout Super
Bowl wins and national championships.
Sure, an occasional Brigham Young football
team or a Villanova basketball program might
take a title with weak scheduling or one good
game against an obviously better team. But we
always can justify the upset away. We always
can convince ourselves that the winners weren’t
really the best team.
But it takes a World Series — a triumph in a
best-of-seven format — to make even the most
skeptical of critics rethink his position.
The New York Mets did it in 1969. It was
done to them this year.
Maybe it doesn’t take more talent. After all,
could anyone think of anything short of Orel
Hershiser with an amputation that would have
hurt the Dodgers’ chances than what actually
happened to them? If something bad could have,
it did.
Maybe a team outmatched at practically every
position, with half of its home run output injured
and half its starting pitchers out, isn’t
automatically out of it. Maybe pitching Orel
Hershiser every day and giving Kirk Gibson a
leg transplant isn’t necessary.
Maybe being a team just means playing the
best. Maybe it’s making the most of your
opportunities, knowing your limitations, and
performing to the best of your ability.
And maybe, just maybe, the Los Angeles
Dodgers are the best team in baseball.
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Friday, October 21 7:30/9:45
Saturday, October 22 9:45/Midnight
Rudder Theatre
$2.00 w/TAMU ID
★ ★★★★★★★
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