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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1995)
The Battalion Tuesday December 5, 1995 At a Glance Sports Briefs Former baseball stars may face IRS scandal NEW YORK (AP) — Several re tired baseball stars may be indicted or hit with civil fines by the Internal Revenue Service for failure to report income received for signing auto graphs, the Daily News reported in today's editions. The newspaper said its story was based on a confidential federal re port obtained by the Daily News. It came after two former players, ex-Brooklyn Dodger Duke Snider and ex-Sao Francisco Giant Willie McCovey, pleaded guilty to tax eva sion charges for hiding cash earned selling their autographs. The newspaper said the players were paid a total of $243,100 dur ing a three-day memorabilia event held at an Atlantic City, N.)., hotel )an. 14-16, 1989. The payments ranged from $3,600 for Ernie Banks to $57,000 for Mickey Mantle. According to the newspaper, a two-year probe revealed that only two of the players — Willie Mays and Ted Williams — reported pay ments on their tax forms. Marlins trade Carr for Brewers' minor-leaguer MIAMI (AP) — The Florida Mar lins, who have embarked on an off season spending spree designed to woo fans and win games, on Mon day completed the anticipated trade of crowd favorite Chuck Carr to the Milwaukee Brewers. In exchange for Carr, the Marlins acquired right-handed pitcher Juan Gonzalez, who was 11-4 last season with a 4.16 ERA in six starts for the Midwest League champion Beloit Snappers. Gonzalez, 20, began his pro ca reer in 1994 when he was a com bined 6-3 with a 3.23 ERA with He lena and the Brewers rookie league team. Carr, 27, hit .227 in 105 games last season with 25 stolen bases. He finished with 11 5 steals in three sea sons with the Marlins while posting a .256 average. Upcoming Events A&M Volleyball The Lady Aggies travel to Gain- seville, Fla. Thursday to fake on the fourth-ranked Florida Gators in the third round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Men's Basketball The Texas A&M Men's Basket ball Team will host the University of North Texas Wednesday night at G. Rollie White Coliseum at 7 p.m. A&M Football The Aggies will play the Univer sity of Michigan Dec. 28 in the Builders Square Alamodome in San Antonio. Student tickets go on sale Thursday, Dec. 7 at 7 a.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Near-perfect Gators Ags’ next foe Texas A&M sophomore setter Farah Mensik lofts the ball while junior middle blocker Page White runs to assist during the SWC Tournament. □ The A&M Volleyball Team will face 33-1 Florida Thursday. By Kristina Buffin The Battalion They may have been ragged on Sunday against the University of South Carolina, but the Texas A&M Women’s Volleyball Team is moving on to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Aggies will face the fourth-ranked University of Florida Gators on Thursday in Gainesville. “We played really well, senior outside hitter Andrea Williams said. “It had been a while since we had competed so we were a little rusty. We were able to play against outside competition and not just ourselves in scrimmages.” This is the first time since 1985 that the Lady Aggies have reached the third round. In 1994 and 1993, A&M lost in the second rounds to Ohio State and Texas. It has been a goal for the entire season to reach the Sweet Sixteen. “This is the best team that I have played on,” senior setter Suzy Wente said. “We expect to be here but I don’t think it has really hit anyone yet. If we work hard, we can be in the top eight.” The Florida Gators are 33-1 this season but the Lady Aggies are used to tough competition. A&M defeated then No. 1 Stanford and faced other ranked teams such as Texas, Hawaii, Illinois and Duke. “I try to schedule as much tough competition out of confer ence as possible because it is such an experience,” A&M Head Coach Laurie Corbelli said. “Our program now is a result of this schedule.” The Lady Aggies have only seen tapes of Florida but will concen trate on their game plan and con centrate on defense. “We are now focusing on Flori da,” Wente said. “We know a little about them from film, but we will work on our side. They are a lot like us but they have a Turkish middle blocker who has been on. If our game is on then we will be okay. “We are worrying about the block and defense. We are good in transition and have a quick of fense. We want to at least get a touch on the ball.” Coach Corbelli said that Florida is really just a hodgepodge of the teams they have seen in the regu lar season. “Their middle player and set player are great,” Corbelli said. “But every player has their strengths and weaknesses. We will work to defend the outside hitter who is good. But they are not any thing that we have not already seen. They are bits and pieces of other teams.” The Lady Aggies are no strangers to hostile environments, so playing in Gainesville won’t pre sent anything that they haven’t seen before. Although playing among the top 16 teams in the na tion has made some of the players a little nervous. “It is a little bit of a mix,” Cor belli said. “Some are nervous ,but everyone is different. I think they will be really ready to play. We’ve had enough experience in loud anti-A&M environments, and we’ve pulled through those.” It’s still A&M-UT ... even in New York City Chris Whitley Guest columnist NEW YORK — While clinging for dear life to an overhead strap on the No. 6 subway heading up town, it became quite clear that something was missing. After all, this was the A&M- Texas game. As long as I’ve lived, there has been a certain air of ten sion and anticipation surrounding The Game. Every year about this time in College Station, you could n’t help but feel the excitement. But here, there was nothing. Everyone seemed to preoccu pied with holiday shopping or staying out of the 45-degree weather. And the Giants and the Jets have turned everyone here off of football. But this was supposed to be dif ferent. Don’t they know that this the game to end all games? That this would decide the Southwest Conference championship? And that after this game, there would be no more SWC titles to decide? There was only one small cor ner of this vast, imposing island that showed concern for any of these things. a A few blocks away from the subway station, perched on the comer of 7th Street and 1st Av enue, people were piling into a place called the Cowboy Bar. It was the closest thing to the Dixie Chicken you’ll find in Manhattan. Set amongst the dark wood paneling that covered the estab lishment, patrons found such non- New York items as a saddle, specks of sawdust on the floor and even a neon sign that proclaimed, “Don’t Mess With Texas.” But the sea of people that con sumed the Cowboy Bar made it next to impossible to see anything else. A sign in the back comer said “Maximum Room Occupancy: 80 persons,” but there was nearly twice that. The Cowboy Bar is where the New York chapter of the Texas A&M alumni club meets to watch Aggie football games. The bar owners get A&M games via satel lite because they know there’s al ways a receptive audience to watch them. However, the Cowboy Bar is also where the New York chapter of the University of Texas alumni club meets to watch Longhorn football games. It made for a bizarre juxtaposi tion of loyalties. Aggies crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with Long horns watching their “holy war” play out, while outside taxi cabs drove by indifferently. Most of us stood the whole game, just like home, transfixed on the six overhead television sets all tuned to the same even. There were cheers after every play. Only the hand signals (a hook or a gig’em) were different. “Beat the hell outta t.u.!” shout ed one side. “Texas! Fight!” replied the oth er. Everyone watched intently the first quarter until the lack of of fense started driving people to talk or drink. Those that chose the latter could go to the bar and get a tall bottle of Lone Star (sorry, no Shiner Bock) for the low, low price of $4 a bottle. Most of them real ized that this was four times high er than the happy hour price at Duddley’s, but, hey, what can you do about it? Both the maroon and the or ange cheered on for hours, but be fore long the faces showed who would prevail. Cheers in orange came after hobbled Texas quarter back James Brown completed a long pass downfield. When A&M quarterback Corey Pullig threw an interception on the Aggies’ last-ditch drive, the emotions spilled over. “Dammit, Corey, where are you throwing?” shouted one middle- aged man in maroon. As the television screen showed Texas Head Coach John Mackovic being carried off the field in victo ry, the supporters in burnt orange sang “The Eyes of Texas,” until their eardrums burst. Meanwhile, the crowd in ma roon quietly filtered out of the Cowboy Bar with heads upright. They rode off in cabs and went back to being New Yorkers. I approached one of the Aggie fans, desperately searching for something positive to say. “Guess if we give them one every five years, we’re not doing too bad.” I said. “Yeah,” he replied, “two out of 12 ain’t bad!” But that’s not much consolation in College Station, and it sure wasn’t on the No. 6 subway train back home. • Chris Whitley served as Sports Editor in the fall of 1992 and was Editor-in-Chief of The Battalion in the fall of 1993. The King? Meatloaf? My team’s on the field Philip Leone Sportswriter T he conversation took place on my apartment balcony a few hours after most of Bon fire fell and a few hours before Saturday and Sunday combined to provide the most depressing football weekend of my life. We were three old buddies en joying each other’s company, rem iniscing about glory days past while guarding the keg with “go to hell” glares to those who looked unfamiliar. In between belches, we dis cussed ways to bring peace to Bosnia and knocked around the whole meaning of life thing before finally settling on one particular topic: what performers would be on our all-time musician football team. Hey, I know it’s irrelevant, but I’d rather write about this than bitch and moan about the Aggies, Cowboys and Oilers. Anyway, this is what we came up with. Offense Quarterback: Elvis, in his younger years — his arm strength was questioned, but training camp at Graceland was just too good to pass up. Running Back: James Brown — you think Leeland has moves? Fullback: Hank Williams, Jr. — he’s always ready for some fpotball. (It was either him or LL Cool J, okay!) Flanker: Angus Young, lead guitarist for AC/DC — You need to see this fella in concert to understand this pick. The guy has more energy than four bottles of Vivarin. Wide FLeceiver: Diana Ross — oh sure, go ahead and laugh. Bet you didn’t know Diana can flat- out fly — has decent hands, too. Tight End: Alan Jackson — if you don’t look at him for very long, he sorta looks like Jay Novacek. Right Tackle: Meatloaf — self- explanatory. Right Guard: Pavaroti — he sings kinda sissy, but you should see him get out to the comer on power sweeps. Center: Dolly Parton — we thought Elvis might enjoy this se lection. And natural assets make her a pass-blocking dynamo. Left Guard: B.B. King — His blocking techniques will have op ponents singing the blues. Left Tackle: The Notorious B.I.G. See Meatloaf. See Leone, Page 8 FREE TOWING ‘WHEN WE DO REPAIR 693-6189 601 Harvey Rd. SPECIALIZING IN DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION ONE DAY SERVICE ON MOST CARS •TUNE-UPS • TRANSMISSION REPAIR • WATER PUMPS •ALIGNMENTS • FREE ENGINE DIAGNOSIS • FREE 9 POINT SAFETY CHECK • MAJOR & MINOR ENGINE REPAIR • QUALITY FRIENDLY SERVICE BRAKES A/C REPAIR ALIGNMENTS FREE BRAKE CHECK OPEN MON. THRU SAT. 8 AM TO 6 PM LEAVING SOON? X-MAS FREE OFFER Not sure about your vehicle’s condition to get you home? 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W/ COUPON ONLY LUBE, OIL & FILTER SPECIAL 14 95 Chassis lube New oil filter 9 point safety check • Up to 5 qt. oil ^ • Check all fluid levels | ERA $2 fee extra Most Cars W/ COUPON ONLY HEY, AGS HAVE YOU... e' PICKED UP OR PURCHASED YOUR 1995-96 CAMPUS DIRECTORY? PICKED UP OR PURCHASED YOUR '95 AGGIELAND? ORDERED YOUR '96 AGGIELAND? W PAID YOUR '96 AGGIELAND MAILING FEE? (if YOU WILL NOT BE ON CAMPUS NEXT FALL) P icking up or purchasing your Aggiel/inft or Campus Directory is easy. If you ordered a ’95 Texas A&M yearbook or ’95-96 directory, just stop by room 230 Reed McDonald Building between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please bring your Student ID. If you did not order last year’s 864-page yearbook or this year’s 416-page directory, you may purchase a yearbook for $30 plus tax or directory for $3 plus tax. If you did not order the 1996 Aggie/anr/ as a fee option when you registered for fall ’95 classes, you may still order one for $30 plus tax. If you ordered a 1996 Aggie land and will not be on campus next fall to pick it up, you can have it mailed. You should pay the $6.50 mailing and han dling fee. Cash, check, VISA, MastcrC: and American Fxprcss accep Phone: 845.-2611 A GGIELAND