gg The Battalion
; SPORTS
Wednesday, May 3,1989
Ags must sweep Hogs for title
)VfC
By Richard Tijerina
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The task the Texas A&M baseball
earn faces this weekend is a difficult
)ne — they must sweep their three-
;ame series against Arkansas for an
indisputed Southwest Conference
:hampionship.
Going into the series against the
Razorbacks, ranked fifth nationally
n the latest ESPN/Collegiate Base-
)all poll, the second-ranked Aggies
rail Arkansas by only one game in
inference standings.
The Aggies were tied for the con-
erence lead last Saturday after Ar
ansas dropped the first game of a
hree-game series against Texas Fri
day night.
However, the Aggies dropped
jack down to one game behind the
Razorbacks in conference standings
when they lost the first game of a
doubleheader to Houston Saturday.
The two teams have been tied for
the conference lead or within a game
of each other all season.
However, now they each only
have three conference games left to
play—against each other.
The series this weekend at Olsen
Field begins with a game Friday at 7
p.m. and concludes Saturday with a
doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.
Trailing the Razorbacks (42-8,16-
2) by a game, the Aggies (48-4,15-3)
can ill afford to drop one of this
weekend’s games if they want to win
conference championship out
right.
The conference championship
comes down to simple arithmetic: If
they sweep the series, they win the
championship. If they don’t sweep
the series, the whole scenario be
comes a little sticky.
There are several ways the
championship can be decided, but
all of them come down to this week
end’s series.
• If the Aggies sweep the Razor-
backs, A&M wins the conference
championship outright.
• If the Razorbacks sweep the
Aggies, Arkansas would win the con
ference championship outright,
SWC Baseball Standings
Team
Record
Pet.
Arkansas
16
2
.888
Texas A&M
15
3
.833
Texas
12
6
.667
Texas Tech
8
10
.444
Houston
7
11
.389
Baylor
7
14
.333
TCU
6
12
.333
Rice
4
17
.190
marking the first time the Razor-
backs have won a conference
championship and making them the
only team other than A&M, Texas
or Texas Christian ever to win an
SWC title.
Arkansas would be the first team
other than A&M or Texas to win the
title outright since 1956, when TCU
did it.
• If the Aggies win two of three
games against the Razorbacks, A&M
and Arkansas will end up with iden
tical conference records and would
share the conference championship
as co-champions.
They each would be awarded a
championship trophy and A&M
would be the top seed at the SWC
Post-Season Tournament May 17-20
because they would have won the
season series with Arkansas.
• If the Razorbacks win two of
three from the Aggies, Arkansas
would win the championship out
right by two games.
• If one or more of the games are
rained out and are unable to be
made up, Arkansas would win the
championship outright because they
have a higher winning percentage in
conference games than A&M.
In 1980, A&M lost its chance to tie
for a conference title with Texas
when one of its three games against
Arkansas was rained out and never
made up.
Texas finished with a 18-6 SWC
record and won the title outright.
The Aggies finished with a 17-6 re
cord for second place and went on to
lose to Arkansas and Texas Tech in
the the double-elimination SWC
tournament in College Station that
year.
The four conference teams with
the best SWC records go on to the
SWC tournament in College Station.
The Aggies, Arkansas and Texas
all have assured themselves of being
in the top three, but the race re
mains close for the fourth and final
tournament spot between Texas
Tech (8-10) and Houston (7-11).
TCU (6-12) is all but mathemati
cally eliminated from the tourna
ment picture.
Texas Tech and Houston play a
three-game series with each other
May 12-13 at Houston.
)b-
thai
wed
Rich-
Astros’ Davis what we need
Jones fires Brandt from Cowboys;
new owner cuts fat’ in organization
IRVING (AP) — College player
scout Gil Brandt, the last member of
the original foursome who built the
Dallas Cowboys from scratch, was
fired by new owner Jerry Jones, who
says the team he bought is “fat, fat,
fat.”
“He told me finances was the rea
son, that he’s losing $29,000 a day,”
Brandt told The Associated Press.
“He’ll probably fire four or five
scouts including Bob Griffin.
“I told him I know I did as good a
job as possible. I feel good about the
29 years I had with the Cowboys.
But it’s a bad way for it to end. He
didn’t even shake my hand.”
Brandt was a baby photographer
who dabbled in evaluating profes
sional football talent when he was
hired by club president Tex
Schramm as the Cowboys chief tal
ent scout.
Schramm, Brandt, owner Clint
Murchison and coach Tom Landry
built the team in 1960 starting with
an office in the Automobile Club
building just off Central Express
way.
Murchison died several years ago
after he had sold the team to Bum
Bright.
Jones, who bought the team from
Bright on Feb. 25 for $140 million,
fired Landry. Schramm resigned to
become president of the Interna
tional Football League.
Brandt’s brainstorms included
drafting track and basketball stars
and using computers to analyze tal
ent.
He said leaving the team will be
like going from “a mansion to a pup
tent. But anything beats the water
torture of the last few days. You’d
jump every time the telephone
rang.”
The triumvirate management
team of Schramm, Landry and
Brandt took the Cowboys to 20 con
secutive winning seasons (1966-85),
including five Super Bowl appear
ances and two world championships.
Brandt said he had no immediate
plans.
“I have no plans to join another
NFL team,” Brandt said. “I have had
an offer to write a book. ”
Brandt evaluated the talent for
Landry, who made the calls. In the
1970s, the Cowboys were considered
the sharpest organization in the NFL
at judging talent.
In recent years, the formula
didn’t work. Of the last 15 players
drafted in the first three rounds by
Brandt, only four are now starters.
The Cowboys haven’t had a win
ning season since 1985 and finished
3-13 last year — second worst in
their history.
Only one player remained on the
roster from the 1983 draft.
Jones also has fired public rela
tions director Doug Todd, a mem
ber of the front office staff since
1971; Don Wilson, club treasurer for
18 years; Ann Lloyd, assistant ticket
manager for 20 years and Bob
Friedman, director of photographic
services, who had been with the club
28 years.
Joe Bailey, Schramm’s assistant
since 1977, fled the purge to join
Schramm in the International Foot
ball League, as did Suzanne Mitch
ell, director of the Cowboys’
cheerleaders.
Jones justified his employee-cut
ting binge by saying, “I have to make
the best decisions I can. We will turn
off the lights. Sometimes you have to
make hard decisions. You just have
to put together the folks you want to
go forward with. ”
Brandt served as a part-time scout
for the Los Angeles Rams under
Schramm in the 1950s. When
Schramm took command of the ex
pansion Cowboys, he immediately
hired Brandt.
Brandt, a native of Milwaukee
and a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin, also was a super sleuth at
finding free agent talent such as
wide receiver Drew Pearson, and de
fensive backs Cliff Harris and Ever
son Walls.
On March 2, Brandt said Jones
told the front office people in a
meeting: “Let me put your minds at
ease. You don’t have a lifetime con
tract, but if you do your jobs that’s
good enough for me.
Schramm said he hated to see all
the people he hired “cast aside in a
needless manner. It also hurts to see
them described as ‘fat.’ They worked
many long hours to make the Cow
boys into what they are today. The
manner in which this has happened
has surprised me.”
a hero for kids to look up to
rot;
ton!
It ill!
ed i
3ther
J.
nter-
more
rim
that
:oun-
oes-
affil-
ie I
liltot
The sports world needs more Glenn
i; Davises.
Davis plays baseball for the Houston
Astros and leads the National League in
I!home runs. More importantly though,
I Davis has told the Houston Astros
1 management that he doesn’t want to be
[associated with the managements’ home
I run production sponsored by Anheuser-
Busch.
Budweiser is a major sponsor in the
■ televising of Houston Astros home games.
I As part of a commercial package, anytime a
■ home run is hit by an Astro, the
r? sportscasters cut away with an Anheuser-
| Busch/Budweiser screen and announce the
I player’s name along with the slogan, “This
I Bud’s For You!”
The problem is that Davis, the National
I League’s home run leader, is active in anti-
| drinking campaigns.
“Personally, I don’t drink and I don’t
I want to be associated with it,” Davis says. “I
B try to set a standard and be a role model for
a lot of other people. ’.
Talk is cheap, so Davis goes the extra
mile.
During the off-season, Davis makes
about 250 public appearances to talk with
high school and middle school students
about the dangers of alcohol abuse and
drunk driving.
“I don’t want to be sending out mixed
signals to young fans,” he says.
That is the reason he went to the Astros’
management and asked not to be part of
the promotion.
It’s refreshing to see an athlete in the
limelight take this positive approach and
realize a responsibility to the public.
Athletes are people and as such are
entitled to their privacy, but as athletes they
serve as role models for youth. They must
be held accountable for their actions that
might influence youth negatively.
Case in point: Lawerence Taylor.
Taylor is an All-Pro linebacker for the
New York Giants. He has been
instrumental in the Giants’ rise during the
80s. Naturally, youngsters look toward
Taylor’s success and use him for a role
model.
What do they do when Taylor is
suspended for drug use?
What kind of message is Taylor trying to
send to his fans when he writes his
autobiography and brags about showing up
for games high on cocaine, and when he
relates stories about the relative ease in
eluding the NFL’s uranalysis tests?
The problem extends deeper than just
an isolated player in professional football.
These incidents pop up all over the
sports world. Ben Johnson, Canadian
Olympic great, and six other Olympians
were stripped of their medals after it was
discovered they were using steriods.
It seems the public is made aware of
athletes’ illicit drug use daily. On top of
that, we hear the same names over and
over. It must be a hard lesson for some to
learn.
Davis himself learned the hard way.
Involved in a serious alcohol-related car
accident at 17, Davis doesn’t want others to
learn the lesson the same way.
“That scared me sober,” says Davis. “I
don’t want other kids to have to go through
that. ”
It was only recently Davis learned about
the Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser
promotion. Upon discovering that his name
was being used in connection with it, Davis
went to management and asked to be
excluded.
“Players live in glass houses,” he says.
“People look to us. Kids pattern their lives
after us. I think every ballplayer should set
an example... people are watching you all
the time.”
It’s time for athletes, management and
society to pull together and be responsible
for their actions. A stricter policy of drug-
user enforcement needs to be instituted
either to rehabilitate users, or get them out
of the public’s eye and out of professional
sports.
“We need heroes, we need role models,
we need guys who can stand up and say you
don’t need to follow the crowd,” he says.
What we actually need is more Glenn
Davises.
4^ TVSt?
Registration Applications are now available in your
Student Finance Box (Room 217 MSC) or in the
Student Programs Office (Room 216 MSC)!!!
Fee: $20.00
Deadline: May 19, 1989
Applications may be turned in at Carol Griffin's desk in Room 216 MSC
NEW MANAGEMENT
Lots of Changes:
TRAVIS HOUSE
Sand Volleyball courts
Ceiling fans
Mini blinds
Covered parking
Sun screens
New carpet available
505 Harvey Rd.
College Station, TX 77840
693-7184
Open 8-6 Mon-Sat
Alpha Kappa Psi
National Professional Business Fraternity
Proudly announce its newly inducted members for the 1989 Spring Semester.
JON ARMSTRONG
SHANE BARTON
RICK BROWN
BILL CAVANAUGH
JULIE DAVIS
CHRIS FISCHLER
HANS GEORGE
TAMARA HANNES
GINGER JOHNSON
JEFF JUDAH
KATHLEEN KENDRICK
MARK MCALLISTER
BRIAN MCGREGOR
MICHELLE MILLER
KELLY NORWOOD
BRIAN RICKMERS
MIKE RYAN
GRETASCHRAEDER
RENE SMITH
TODD STORCH
Congratulations Kappa Pledge Class