Spo
Cheer up, all you SWC fans!
There are some good races
Astros GM plans to sign
manager, pitchers soon
Are you discouraged because of the lack of drama this
year in the Southwest Conference race? Are you
disappointed because of the amazing dearth of qualified
championship contenders? Is all of it making you consider
abandoning the college game, focusing your attention on
races with more doubt and uncertainty — Bush vs.
Dukakis, perhaps?
Well, fear not. It would seem the problem is a
phenomenon isolated to our dear state of Texas.
Quit whining about Arkansas having a stranglehold on
the SWC. It could be worse.
Sure, if Texas and TCU lose Saturday a Hog win over
Rice would give Arkansas a Cotton Bowl berth three
weeks before the conference season is over. (Hog win over
Rice — sounds like an exotic Chinese dish.)
Sure, the A&M-Arkansas game means next to nothing,
since all the Hogs need to do to clinch is beat Rice and
Baylor — hardly the labors of Hercules.
Sure, the mighty Longhorns, once perennial contenders
for national glory, have become also-rans in the
conference that they once dominated.
Sure, Rice and TCU are still members.
But don’t despair. Instead of defecting to the ranks of
the fans of pro ball, just concentrate a little on some of the
more competitive races in the country.
Take the Southeastern Conference and the Big 10, for
example. Just in those two conferences there are 12 teams
within I'A games of the conference lead.
Our near neighbors to the east are having a race for the
Sugar Bowl that is not to be believed. No team is
undefeated in SEC play this year, but seven of the 10
teams have either one or two losses in conference.
Georgia has lost only to Kentucky. Florida only to
Vanderbilt. LSU only to Florida. Auburn only to LSU.
Alabama only to Mississippi. Ole Miss has lost to Georgia
and Florida. Kentucky has dropped games to LSU and
’Bama. Whew! Ya gotta consider yourself pretty sorry if
you’re not in contention over there.
But then again, Tennessee can’t possibly be as bad as its
1-6 record — the Vols were in the Top 20 at the beginning
of the year. Vandy was good enough to beat Florida two
weeks ago. And Mississippi State, well, the Bulldogs are
just waiting for baseball season to start up again.
The poor SEC. It’s never going to have a national
champion. Teams like LSU and Auburn are about as good
as any in the country. But they play such a tough regular-
season schedule, it’s almost impossible to go the entire
way undefeated.
But on the good side, it makes for a great race every
year with four or five of the top teams in the country
playing each other.
Up in the nation’s heartland, the race is almost as
heated.
Michigan leads the Big 10 by an eyelash, with only a tie
to Iowa spoiling a perfect conference slate. Iowa, too, is
undefeated, but the Hawkeyes also tied Michigan State.
(Whoever heard of a team having two ties in the same
season?)
Indiana’s loss last week to Michigan is the only blemish
on the Hoosiers’ record. Michigan State lost to Michigan
and tied Iowa, but that’s it. Even 4-3 Illinois is in the race,
having only lost to the Spartans in the conference.
Poor Ohio State. Earle Bruce has got to be laughing his
head off. He got fired for going 9-2 last year, and already
the Buckeyes have lost three games in conference. They’re
Hal L
Hammons
Sports Editor
3-4 overall. And they still haven’t played Michigan,
Michigan State or Iowa. They ain’t got a prayer for Roses.
Even the Pac-10 looks interesting. Sure, the champion
probably will wind up being the winner of the UCLA-USC
game —just like it was in the good ’ol days — but Oregon
isn’t out of it. The Fightin’ Ducks have already lost to the
Trojans, but they still have to play the Bruins. A UCLA
win over Southern Cal would open the door for a tri
championship — with Oregon a part of it.
raska winner, of course. But again, it’s not in stone.
Oklahoma State hasn’t played OU, and a Cowboy win,
coupled with a Sooner win over the Huskers, could give
OSU a piece of the championship.
No Orange Bowl berth, of course. That bowl reserves
the right to choose a participant in the event of a tie. OSU
isn’t quite the draw the other two are.
The rest of the Big 8 is, as usual, pathetic. The annual
matchup to see what team is the best in the state of Kansas
will only go to prove once again that the worst team in
Division 1-A football starts with the letter “K.”
Iowa State and Missouri, after years of occasional
competitiveness, have apparently grown tired of trying to
beat the Sooners and Huskers. Now they’re just trying to
beat the Kansases.
Colorado shows some promise, but no one is writing
any banner headlines proclaiming them heirs apparent to
the conference crown.
In all fairness to everyone involved, the NCAA ought to
declare the conference “the Big 4” and make them all go
out and find a real schedule.But things are the way they
are, and so it will in all likelihood wind up as the OU-
Nebraska winner in the Orange Bowl again. Ho hum.
They’ll probably play Miami. Again. Ho hum.
The Rose Bowl, “The Granddaddy of them all,” will for
once be the most important one. It would take a strange
turn of events to get a Pac 10 representative that wasn’t
undefeated and battling for a national championship.
UCLA or USC will take the field and thrash the Big 10
rep (Michigan, my guess) just like the Pac 10 always does.
If they did it when they suited up the surfing team back in
the ’70s, think what they’ll do when they have a real team.
The SEC champ (LSU, I’m betting, since Auburn’s
schedule is a little tougher and ’Bama is even afraid of
rain) will get to face Notre Dame, Florida State, West
Virginia, or the Husker-Sooner loser. History favors the
latter. Common sense says the Irish.
The Fiesta will get the Big 8 loser and pit them against
the best team they can scrounge up, meaning either Florida
State or West Virginia.
That leaves a quality team — hopefully the Seminoles
— for the Cotton Bowl. Using history as a guide,
however, it’ll probably be Arkansas vs. the Mountaineers.
Boy, that’ll make for great ratings, huh?
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston Astros
General Manager Bill Wood is pointing
to mid-November as the target date for
hiring a new manager and signing free
agent pitchers Nolan Ryan and Bob
Forsch to contracts.
New York Mets hitting instructor Bill
Robinson became the fourth managerial
applicant on Wednesday, Wood con
firmed Thursday.
“I was impressed with Bill, he’s a guy
who certainly knows the game,” Wood
said.
Robinson, 45, has been the Mets’ hit
ting instructor for the past five years and
is highly respected as a coach.
Former New York Yankees Manager
Lou Piniella, Astros first base coach
Matt Galante and Texas Rangers coach
Art Howe previously interviewed with
the Astros.
Piniella, a good friend of Astros coach
Yogi Berra, could be the leading con
tender for the job vacated at the end of
the season by Hal Lanier.
But Wood won’t rate the applicants.
“I’ve known Art and Matt a lot longer
than I’ve known Lou,” Wood said.
“Rut I liked the discussion I had with
Lou and I think this is going to be a very
tough clu-ice.”
Howe, a former Astros player, is the
only applicant who has talked with As
tros owner John McMullen.
Wood sa; 1 he may interview more ap
plicants bef.re leaving Tuesday for the
general managers’ meeting in Palm
Springs, Calif.
Wood says he wants to conclude the
interviewing process by this weekend
and name a new manager by the second
week in November.
Piniella started last season as the Yan
kees general manager and finished it as
manager. He was fired after the end of
the season and replaced by Dallas Green.
Piniella is under a personal services
contract worth $1.2 million with the
Yankees through the 1991 season.
Wood also said the Astros would try to
re-sign pitcher Bob Forsch, who joined
Nolan Ryan in declaring free agency on
Wednesday.
“He can still do a lot of things,”
Wood said of Forsch. “He takes care of
himself, and he provides you with much-
needed insurance and depth on the pitch
ing staff. ’ ’
Forsch, 38, was acquired by the As
tros Aug. 31 and in six starts compiled a
1-4 record and a 6.51 earned run aver
age.
Ryan announced his free agency on
Tuesday after several meetings with
Wood.
McMullen expressed disappointment
at Ryan’s action.
“I guess in this business there’s no
such thing as loyalty,” McMullen said.
“I made Nolan Ryan the highest paid
player in baseball when I signed him in
1980.
“I think I’ve treated him and compen
sated him well over those years. That’s
why this is a little hard to swallow. ”
Ryan, despite a five-game losing
streak in June, finished last season with a
12-11 record and 3.52 earned run aver
age. He led the National League with
228 strikeouts.
Ryan earned $1 million in salary and
$200,000 in incentive bonuses last sea
son.
Rozelle between 2 extremes
in NFL drug policy problem
Associated Press
The suggestion came after Pete Rozelle had once again
been quizzed repeatedly about the NFL’s drug problem the
other day.
“Why doesn’t he do what Peter Ueberroth did with baseball
and what several people suggested Lyndon Johnson do with
the Vietnam War?” a reporter asked. “Declare that there is no
problem and go on to the next thing. ’’
Indeed, why not?
For if the commissioner and the NFL are to be blamed for
the off-field conduct of Reggie Rogers, Lawrence Taylor, Da
vid Croudip and the other players who have run afoul of ad
dictive and often illegal substances, then every business in
America should be held accountable for employees who pour
their salaries into a shot glass or white powder.
In fact, Rozelle is caught in the middle between those who
think a 30-day suspension is too short and a union that is ready
to go to court to prevent him from imposing even that. The 30-
day penalties handed out to second-time offenders this season
are only the result of a ruling by an arbitrator in a grievance
filed by the NFL Players Assocation that watered down what
the league wanted to do.
In fact, the NFL is trying to temper its punishment with
treatment, just as many businesses do.
Last Tuesday, Rozelle told owners and club executives that
he wants each team to have direct contact with drug and alco
hol treatment facilities in their areas and doctors who special
ize in such treatment rather than leaving the problem in the
hands of team physicians — most of them orthopedic special
ists.
Athletes involved with drugs are more visible so their in
volvement makes news, but are they more drug-prone?
Twenty suspensions out of nearly 2,500 players tested in
camp would suggest not, although most of those suspended
were relatively prominent. When teams catch lesser players
doing drugs, they’re simply cut and nobody knows the differ
ence.
In fact, the NFL’s drug policy has become a captive of its
labor policy.
Unlike most businesses trying to deal with similar prob
lems, the NFL doesn’t have the cooperation of its union.
Two weeks after Atlanta’s David Croudip died from appar
ently ingesting cocaine in a drink; one week after Detroit’s
Reggie Rogers was charged with vehicular homicide after an
apparently alcohol-related accident that killed three teen-ag
ers, the NFLPA indicated it would file suit to stop drug test
ing.
The NFLPA’s contention is that the 1982 contract — tech
nically no longer in effect but still being honored on many is
sues — does not allow random drug testing. And that, it says,
is just what the league is doing.
TIME: 8 :00 P.M.
DATE: TUESDAY, NOV. 1
PLACE: 110 HECC
PROGRAM: DR. ZENAIDO CAMACHO
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