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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1995)
The Battalion • Page Tuesday • May 2, 1995 Just a stroll in the park for Curl, Alexander Robert Rodriguez Sportswriter After watching the Texas- Texas A&M baseball games this weekend, I had to won der if the TV Guide was right. Was this a baseball game or Home Run Derby? In the series, Aggie hitters knocked nine home runs and eight of those went out of the “friendly confines” of Disch- Falk Field. Four of those home runs came off the bat of senior John Curl, including three in Saturday’s 16-11 loss. Two of them were hit by juniors Chad Alexander and Jason Stephens, and a homer by freshman Matt Garrick. After seeing their perfor mance, I had to make a plea concerning both Curl and Alexander and their bright fu tures that’s ahead for them. Curl is a perfect example of just how much hard work and dedication can lead a per son to succeed. After an “off year” last season. Curl decid ed to hit the weight room and get stronger. Not only has his batting numbers increased dramatically, but his amateur baseball draft stock must have increased as well. Curl has one of the sweet est swings in baseball. In my opinion, he joins Will Clark of the Texas Rangers and Uni versity of Texas freshman Kip Harkrider in the smoothest swing department. Also, the weight room has given Curl that “Jose Canseco-like pow er” that major league scouts should notice. In the game Saturday the Longhorn pitchers tried to pitch Curl in every possible way. But when those pitchers made one mistake. Curl jumped all over it and hit the ball in almost the same exact spot over the fence. If the U-Haul that was parked behind the right-cen ter field fence was two more feet to the left, the target someone made would have had some bulls-eyes on it, courtesy of Curl. Curl has a promising fu ture ahead of him in the orga nization which snatches him in the draft. He belongs in the top 10 rounds of the draft be cause of his bat. Hopefully, Curl will lead the Aggies to a Southwest Conference cham pionship and a berth in the College World Series. Alexander is another play er who will be a key in lead ing the Aggies to a SWC crown and a CWS berth. However, Alexander’s will have a major decision to face once June comes around. Since he is a junior, Alexander will be eligible for the baseball draft and he is expected to be picked in the early-to-middle rounds. After a solid performance in both hitting and fielding, Alexan der’s stock should have gone up throughout this season. As an opponent of mine in the Bi-District playoffs of my See Rodriguez, Page 10 Womens golf team to hit Scottish links □ The Rangers manager is back after asking off to be with his wife. ARLINGTON (AP) — Johnny Oates returned from a leave of absence four days earlier than planned Monday night and man aged his first regular-season game for the Texas Rangers. The 49-year-old manager left the Rangers during spring train ing to be with his wife, Gloria, who was suffering from exhaus tion. He was granted a leave of absence of up to two weeks. The Rangers won two of their first five games under interim manager Jerry Narron. Oates was expected to join the team at Oakland on May 5 for the start of a seven-game road trip. But Oates said his wife re covered faster than anticipated and the family agreed that he should return to his job. “Things on the home front are much better,” Oates said prior to Monday’s game against Seattle. “Now I can devote 100 percent to baseball. I don’t foresee missing a beat. That’s the reason we took two weeks, so that when I came back everything would be okay. I’m here with the intention of staying, hopefully for a long time.” Oates, who managed the Bal- □ While playing on some of the best courses, the Lady Aggie team will also get valuable experience. By Kristina Buffin The Battalion The Texas A&M women’s golf team has the opportunity to travel abroad this summer and play on some of Scotland’s best golf courses. On August 14 the team will travel to Scotland to compete at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Crail, Letham Grange, Blaingowrie and maybe Glen Eagle courses. “We will be playing four ball matches against the course’s teams,” coach Jeanne Suther land said. “It will be a different type of competition. Instead of match play it’ll be stroke play so we will play head to head. It’ll be good for golf and help our competitive nature.” According to NCAA regula tions, a team is allowed to travel abroad for tournament play once every four years. Playing in a tournament like this will give the Lady Aggies extra practice and experience for next season. “It will give us a good start to next season,” junior Kristina Ed- fors said. “It will give us the op portunity to play on a variety of courses. It will only make us better. Scotland will give us more experience in our game.” The Lady Aggies goal is to raise $20,000 to make the trip. They are only $3,000 away from their goal. The money being raised has mostly come from for mer Aggies all over the country. “Having a good season has helped in the fund raising,” Sutherland said. “Our better play has made more people in the community follow us. It is amazing how supportive Ags are. We’ve even had a (Universi ty of) Texas player’s father do nate money.” The Lady Aggies are looking at this as an opportunity to not only compete in the internation al arena but to have fun as well. “We will get to see where golf has originated,” Jamie Hullett said. “The traditions and original courses that we see on TV now we will be able to see in person.” For a lot of the golfers this will be the first time that they will travel out of the country. Although the Lady Aggies will be there to compete, they are also looking at this trip as an opportunity to see places other than Texas. “I think golf has given us an opportunity to travel and see places that other sports do not have the opportunity to see,” Hullett said. “Some other ath letes and teams only get to trav el as far as Oklahoma.” The Lady Aggies are looking forward to playing at St. An drews and Glen Eagle because of the prestige that the two courses have. See Golf, Page 1 0 Photo courtesy of A&M Sports Information Using a little body english, junior Kristina Edfors follows her putt as it approaches the hole. She and the other members of the Lady Ag gie golf team will travel abroad to play some of Scotland’s best courses this summer. Oates returns from leave of absence timore Orioles from 1991-94, said his bosses were understand ing of the importance that he placed on his family’s well-being. she is better. “I feel much better now because of it. I’m thankful to the whole organization for their support.’ “You have to do what you have to do and I’m glad I did what I did,” said Oates, who has refused to elaborate on his wife’s condition other than to say that Oates said he was only able to see one of the five games he missed: the Rangers’ 8-6 opening day loss to the New York Yankees. “I talked • with „ _ Jerry every day and lexas Rangers manager Doug almost every day,” Oates said. “As far as managing the ballclub, I "You have to do what you have to do and I'm glad I did what I did." —Johnny Oates thought Jerry did an outstand ing job. I thought the team played hard for him. They’ve been in fouV of the five games.” Women’s golf team gets Regional bid The No. 18 Texas A&M women’s golf team received a bid to the West Region Championship yesterday. The Aggies along with 19 other teams will * compete for a trip to the NCAA Championship scheduled for May 11- . j 13 in Tucson. Seven teams from the East Regional and 11 teams from West will ! advance to the NCAA Championship, which begins May 24-27 in Wilmington, N.C. “We expected to receive a bid, and we are pleased that we got one,” coach Jeanne Sutherland said. “Arizona State, Stanford, San Jose State and Tulsa are very strong contenders, but I think we can play | with all of the teams out there. “It’s going to take really low scores to advance to the NCAA'i Championship. We’ll have to shoot three rounds around 290 to qualify. If we don’t break 300, we’ll have no shot at going.” The Aggies last trip to the West Region was in 1993 when they placed 17th. A&M will be seeking its first NCAA Championship appearance since 1985 when the Aggies placed | 10th. Curl named national Player of the Week Texas A&M first baseman John Curl was one of four players named to the Mizuno’s National Players of the Week. In four games. Curl belted four home runs with 10 RBI, three doubles and scored eight runs. He collected nine hits in 15 at bats with seven hits being for extra bases. He was also walked five times (three intentionally). Astros’ May 12 game officially a ‘give-out’ HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Astros announced Monday that no tickets remain for the May 12 game against the Philadelphia Phillies. All tickets were given away. The May 12-14 three-game series with the Phillies has been designated “Fan Appreciation” and “Turn Back the Clock” weekend. The players will be wearing the “shooting star” uniform worn during the inaugural season 30 years ago and fans will be treated to T-shirt giveaways. Several thousand fans waited for the free tickets outside the Astrodome Monday morning. The last ones were distributed by 3 p.m. Fans will have another opportunity to pick up free tickets when the Astros play the New York Mets on May 16 7 18. Beginning at 10 a.m. on the day of each game, all 3,400 Pavilion tickets will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis at the Astrodome box office. The limit is four tickets per person. Order your Olympic tickets now □ Thousands line up for order forms for tickets to the 1996 Olympic Games. ATLANTA (AP) — Thou sands of people, some in At lanta lining up before dawn, turned out Monday to be among the first to order tickets to the 1996 Summer Olympics. “I figure it’s a once-in-a-life- time chance,” said Gabe Owens, a student at Emory University who was among about 150 peo ple standing in line at a subur ban Atlanta grocery when book lets containing ticket order forms were released at 6 a.m. “They told me a lot of people were going to be here, and I did n’t want to miss out,” he said. Lines ranging from 25 people to 400 were reported at Atlanta area Kroger and Home Depot stores, where the first brochures were distributed. A total of about 36 million brochures were to be distributed at more than 15,000 outlets across the country, includ ing Home Depots and groceries that sell Coca-Cola, on Monday. However, for some would-be ticket buyers it may be a few days before they get a chance to order tickets. Spot checks across the country found that some stores listed as distribution points in Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina did not have the brochures available. Mark Pygot, manager of a Food Lion in Raleigh, N.C., said he hoped to receive the booklets from a Coke bottler later this week. “We’ve been getting many calls for them. It’s been generat ing a lot of excitement,” he said. In most places, however, the rush for ticket books was for many people the first real event of the 1996 Atlanta Games. Now the waiting begins — ticket or ders won’t be con firmed until Septem ber. “We’re beggars and we can’t be choosy,” said Bill Geddes. “I’d like to just see part of the Olympics.” Some people said they were afraid they would not be able to get tickets to the most popular events. “I think we have a 50-50 chance of getting tickets,” said Sherm Tratten of Moultonboro, N.H. "We're beggars and we can't be choosy. I'd just like to see part of the Olympics." — Bill Geddes hopeful ticket holder Collegiate Baseball Top 20 The top 20 teams in the Collegiate Baseball poll, with records through April 30, point totals and previous ranking (voting by coaches, sports writers and sports information di rectors): Record 1. Florida State 38-9 2. Auburn 42-6 3. Clemson 44-7 4. Cal. St.-Fullerton 41-9 5. Oklahoma 33-11 6. Southern California 36-17 7. Louisiana State 38-10 8. Tennessee 37-11 9. Wichita State 39-12 10. Florida Inti. 46-7 11. Miami,Fla. 34-12 12. Fresno St. 36-15 13. Central Florida 43-10 14. Oklahoma St. 36-13 15. Texas Tech 41-11 16. Rice 37-14 17. Alabama 31-17 18. Texas 41-14 19. Texas A&M 35-17-1 20. Mississippi 32-15 FREE MONEY For programming a campus-wide International Awareness Program for the 95-96 school year Open to all International Student Groups and Academic Departments Sponsored by the Enrichment Fund of the L. T. Jordan Institute for International Awareness, 845-8770 Pick up applications in MSC RM 223 F Due: Fri. May 12, 5p.m. One thing true Aggies shouldn’t be withou 1/ 1996 Aggieland O RDER YOUR COPY of one of A&M’s most beloved traditions when you reg ister for fall classes. Don’t miss the. chance to own the nation’s largest yearbook — an £>04-page record of the 1995-90 Texas A&M school year. Simply select fee option 10. Just $30 + tax.
