8, foci'll Battalion
PORTS
5
Wednesday, July 18,1990
Sports Editor
Clay Rasmussen
845-2688
Clay
Rasmussen
Sports Editor
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A’s Van Poppel
model for used
car salesmen
He’s more sly than a
used car salesman with a
Brooklyn accent. After all, he
had both Sports Illustrated and
me fooled.
Who’s he? Todd Van Poppel.
Van Poppel, the 18-year-old
pitching sensation, signed a $1.3
million deal with the Oakland A’s
Monday despite scaring away
many teams by announcing that
he would bypass a pro contract to
attend the University of Texas
and try to land a spot on the
United States 1992 Olympic
team.
Hey, I’m a capitalist. After
college, I’m looking for the big
bucks and I’d be delirious if 1
could land a job that paid $1
million plus. And so I take my hat
off to Van Poppel.
Skewed priorities
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But I can’t say I agree with his
method.
Sports writers across Texas
were praising Van Poppel’s
comments after the A’s wooed
him. Sports Illustrated gave Van
Poppel kudos. “It’s nice to see
Van Poppel’s priorities in order,”
Sports Illustrated wrote.
In order indeed. I was even
willing to accept the fact that this
pitching coaches dream possibly
would be facing Aggie batters for
the next three or four years.
He was one of the good guys.
My faith in baseball was
restored. No longer wds the
young ace swayed by monetary
concessions. An education and
the chance to play ball for the
U.S. Olympic squad was more
important to Van Poppel.
Or so he said, anyway.
A salesmen’s model
Van Poppel’s had us fooled.
While I was bestowing praise on
him, the Oakland A’s came to
Texas and were doing one heck of
a sales job to nab him. And
evidently, so was Van Poppel.
Headlines read that he had a
change of heart, but I contend
Van Poppel was doing a selling
job of his own. Like a fine used
car salesman, he held out and
stressed that he intended to honor
his commitment to Texas.
Obviously the A’s upped their
initial offers. I use the term upped
lightly.
When the smoke cleared and
Van Poppel had a change of
heart, the A’s had him at a price
of more than $800,000 a year
over three years including a
$500,000 signing bonus.
Not too bad a deal for a kid
who was drafted 14th overall. In
fact, his contract with the A’s
equaled the record salary for an
amateur. Tony Clark shares this
distinctive record when Detroit
signed him last week. Clark was a
No.l draft pick.
So, once again my faith in
baseball has been shattered (or
restored, however you prefer to
look at it). And once again. Van
Poppel deserves kudos for doing
one hell of a selling job.
SEC commissioner: no hasty league decisions
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) —The
commissioner of the Southeastern
Conference said that because serious
decisions are involved, any SEC ex
pansion will not be done hastily.
Eventually, Roy Kramer said, the
conference has to take a final vote on
whether to admit new members,
“but we have not set any meeting or
any schedule for that type of meet
ing.”
Kramer said the SEC continues to
ask for information from schools
such as Arkansas of the Southwest
Conference and Florida State, an in
dependent, and provide those
schools with information they need
in deciding whether to join the SEC.
“These are serious decisions and
they’re not going to be made over
night,” Kramer said. “If it doesn’t
happen by the start of football sea
son, that doesn’t mean discussions
are not continuing.”
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank
Broyles recently said the possibility is
strong that Arkansas will remain in
the Southwest Conference, which
also is considering expansion.
Florida State Athletic Director
Bob Coin said an expanded Metro
Conference, which would add foot
ball as a league sport, “sounds like a
great concept,” but that “it would be
a mistake to put a timetable on us.
“We only heard 30 days ago from
the SEC.
“You don’t give up 30 years of
athletic history in 30 days.”
FSU President Bernard Sliger has
Consultants hired to assess SWC league operation
. .1... ipr
dents hired a consulting company on Tuesday for an
extensive study of all facets of the league’s operation
before deciding what to do about expansion and re
alignment.
Commissioner Fred Jacoby said the report by Mc
Kenzie and Co., of Dallas and Houston, would be re
ady for the presidents by late September.
The move put on the back burner any immediate
action by the SWC about the threat of the University
of Arkansas leaving the league. The Southeastern
Conference is courting Arkansas, and the SWC fears
that Texas and Texas A&M would follow suit should
the Razorbacks leave.
“The jpresidents want more concrete information
before they determine the future of the Southwest
Conference,” Jacoby said.
Arkansas chancellor Daniel Ferritor was on hand
for the meeting which included a unanimous vote to
hire the consulting firm.
Ferritor said after the meeting that the Razor-
backs’ upcoming meeting with the SEC still was with
out a date. Athletic director Frank Broyles was in
Scotland for the British Open and not available this
week.
On Friday the 13th, Broyles left a meeting of ath
letic directors and faculty representatives, saying “it’s
a strong possibility” the Razorbacks will stay in the
SWC.
“Not only is it a possibility, it’s a strong possibility
we will stay,” Broyles said. “If changes are made, the
conference will be a viable competitive national con
ference.”
Jacoby left Tuesday’s meeting saying there was a
“strong feeling to keep the conference intact. You
don’t take 76 years of history then discard it in 30
davs without a lot of information. In September, we
will have more direction.”
The presidents put on the backburner any imme
diate raid of other conferences.
“I did not receive a positive response to move
ahead to talk to other conferences,” Jacoby said. “We
needed more review. I’m confident we will hold
ranks until the study is in. I think everyone wants to
go about this in a deliberate matter.”
Jacoby said under review will be the SWC’s round-
robin schedule. He said one of the suggestions in
cluded SWC teams playing only six league games,
leaving two more games to schedule against other
opponents.
Jacoby said, “There was a feeling that we also
shouldn’t rush into realignment. There is more to
this than just television money. We feel the big pic
ture needs to be discussed and studied. The confer
ence presidents do want to be pro-active and not re
active.”
Jacoby said he viewed the whole process “as a
chance to improve the conference.”
Asked about recent polls that showed a majority
of Arkansas fans favoring a move out of the SWC,
Ferritor said “polls aren’t going to make any differ
ence.”
visited Louisiana State, where he However, Coin said the SEC has to give up our bachelorhood. I
worked for 19 years, and spoken yet to tell Florida State ‘“we want haven’t seen too many successful
with officials there about the SEC. you,’ and we haven’t said we’re ready marriages by shotgun.”
Alabama Athletic Director Hootie
Ingram spent eight years as the AD
at Florida State, which is a football
independent but a member of the
Metro Conference in other sports.
“It very definitely would be a plus
for Florida State to join the SEC and
for the SEC to get Florida State,” In
gram said. “I think from my experi
ence that any independent school in
this day and time would welcome the
opportunity to get into a solid orga
nization.
Current and potential Metro Con
ference schools are to meet this week
to discuss a 16-team football league
and a 12-team all-sports league.
Miami, East Carolina, Rutgers,
Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, Boston
College and Temple have been in
vited to join the eight-team Metro.
“That Metro group has been
meeting since 1981,” Ingram said.
“They may be more serious about it
now because there has been some
movement with Penn State going to
the Big Ten and the SEC looking
into expansion.”
Ingram said a consolidated
league, such as the SEC, in which all
members play all sports, works much
better than a league in which some
schools are members in only certain
sports.
Although the SEC and Florida
State are just exchanging informa
tion at the moment, Coin said they
should know “in the next 30 days or
so whether we’re getting closer or
further apart.”
Tour victory
within reach
for LeMond
LUZ ARDIDEN, France (AP)
-—The yellow jersey of the leader
seems to be all that separates
American Greg LeMond from a
second consecutive victory in the
Tour de France.
And that seems to be just a
matter of time — five seconds to
be exact.
Up and down the hills of Tues
day’s mountainous 16th stage,
LeMond pulled into second place
and within easy striking distance
of overall leader Claudio Chiap-
pucci of Italy and established
himself as the clear favorite with
five stages left in the three-week
race.
Lathon signs contract;
ready for rookie start
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston Oilers first round draft pick Lamar La
thon, wearing faded overalls and a t-shirt, signed a five-year contract Tues
day night and pronounced himself ready to become a rookie starter.
Terms of the contract were not announced, but Lathon was seeking a
$3.1 million deal with a $1 million signing bonus.
“This is my image, I like to feel comfortable,” Lathon told a hastily called
news conference late Tuesday.
Lathon, who played under Oilers coach Jack Pardee last season at the
University of Houston, was the 15th player chosen in the NFL draft after
Pardee became head coach of the Oilers.
Lathon says he’ll be comfortable in the Oilers’ 4-3 defense, the same
alignment in which he starred for the Cougars.
“I feel comfortable in our defense,” Lathon said. “Basically I think Coach
Pardee would turn me loose and I could call the signals.”
Lathon skipped his final collegiate season with the Cougars to apply for
the NFL draft despite missing most of last season with a knee injury.
“There is no question about the knee and I’ll prove the knee is fine when
we start working out,” Lathon said.
Lathon’s agent Tom Williams vowed on draft day that his client would
not be a holdout.
“It got a little nasty but not too nasty because Mike Holovak doesn’t get
nasty,” Williams said.
Soviets invade Texas to ‘pkn ball’
AMARILLO (AP) — It took a
little Glasnost, some Southern Hos
pitality, a portion of perestroika, and
a lot of Yankee Ingenuity to get the
U.S.S.R. National Baseball Team to
Amarillo to play the Amarillo Tex
ans.
In today’s doubleheader, the Sovi
ets play the Oklahoma City Colle
gians at 6 p.m. in the first game, and
the Texans in the second game.
The Soviet team originally was
scheduled for a one-game stop in
Amarillo as part of its pre-Goodwill
Games tour.
However, when the American
marketing company, which was
sponsoring that tour, dropped them
just before their arrival, the Russians
didn’t feel so lucky to be back in the
USA with no place to play or to stay
between June 29 and the start of the
Goodwill Games on July 23.
Enter comrade Bunny.
That’s Bunny Mick, now a special
assignment coach with the St. Louis
Cardinals, who played and managed
in the New York Yankees farm sys
tem in the 1940s and ’50s.
Mick had put on a clinic for the
Russian team during their 1989 tour
of the United States and was invited
to the Soviet Union later in the year
where he instructed their teams sev
eral weeks.
Mick arranged for the team to
stay at Cocoa (Fla.) Expo Sports Cen
ter, where the Houston Astros held
their spring training camp when
Mick coached for them in the 1970s
and ’80s.
“I asked these wonderful people
at Cocoa Expo if they would be in
terested in housing 30 people for 21
days for nothing,” said Mick, a na
tive of Tampa, Fla.
“I was almost asking tongue-in-
cheek when I asked them for it. And
they gave it to us for the whole time
for nothing. That’s absolutely amaz-
Graphic byjayme Blaschke
ing! That’s 30,000 dollars or so
worth of goodies.”
Cocoa Expo is not only feeding,
housing and providing practice fa
cilities for the Russian team, but ar
ranging for games with Space Coast
League teams, which has college, ju
nior college and high school players.
' “They did everything for me,”
Mick said of the Cocoa Expo people.
“All I had to do was show up with a
bunch of Russians.”
The United States Baseball Feder
ation, headquartered in Trenton,
N.J., came up with $4,810 to bus the
team from Kennedy Airport in New
York to Florida.
Meanwhile in Amarillo, manager
Mike Moore, the Texans general
manager, had heard the Russian
tour had been canceled. But neither
he nor any other executives in Jay-
hawk League towns where the Sovi
ets also had been scheduled to play
could locate the team.
Moore enlisted the help of U.S.
Rep. Bill Sarpalius in finding the
Russians. Sarpalius aides Rick Smith
and Robert Hinkle spent several
days on the phone with the Soviet
and U.S. embassies locating the team
and arranging their games in Am
arillo.
The Russians will leave Amarillo
on Thursday morning and play
games in San Bernadino, Calif., on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They
are due to report to Seattle, Wash.,
on July 23 for the Goodwill Games.
The Texans and San Bernadino
officials will share the airfare ex
penses of getting the Soviets from
Florida to Seattle.
Moore said this visit by the Rus
sians will give the Texas Panhandle a
rare chance to show off its western
heritage to its new-found friends.
The Soviet group will be given cow
boy hats, boots and jeans shortly af
ter its arrival.
Da dude, run, run, run
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Photo by Sondra IV. Robbins
Mark Waite, a junior marketing major from Houston, runs up the
bleachers in Kyle Field during a break in Tuesday’s rainfall.
BODY
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A^GIE C IN EM/\
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July 18-8:45 PM
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