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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1997)
The Battalion Monday • August 4, 1997 avet inclii strict dot efigi! lazft 01: to:i VOCB injui ijdtme bet o# Houston fans need lesson in team loyalty H ouston has to be one of the great sports myster ies in the world. Al though the city has seen many quality teams come and go over the past 40 years, the support that those teams have received is less than what most avid sports fans call acceptable. This year’s Houston Astros are a prime ex ample of why there is a gener al feeling amongst sports fans that Houstoni ans don’t support their teams. The Astros, who are in the midst of a pennant drive and a red-hot second half, have yet to gather any real support from their fans. In what may have been the most important game of the season last Wednesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, only 28,000 fans bothered to show up. Daryl Kile, the most dominant pitcher in the National League, was on the mound, and the Astros had a chance to run their lead to seven games over the most un likely team to catch them — no offense to the Pirates. But where were the fans? The stadium issue, the per ceived gun to the head tactics of Drayton McLane and the 1994 Major League strike, may have kept some fans away, but in the end this team is a hard-working unit and deserves better fan support. The bottom line is that the Astros have been an above average team for the last six years, yet the fan support just has not been there. The Oilers may have been the exception to the rule in Houston, as they consistently saw good fan support year in and year out, until the most hated man in Houston, Bud Adams, finalized plans to move the team to the country music capital of the world, Nashville. The city would likely have given Bud his stadium, except Hous ton had dished out millions only a few years earlier to im prove the Astrodome. That soon proved to be unaccept able, once Bud saw everyone else getting shiny, brand new stadiums. The fans of the Oilers were consistent, even after the debacle in Buffalo and many playoff disappointments. Please see Dabney on Page 4. Niekro, Lasorda, Fox, Wells join Hall of Fame Tommy Lasorda COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — The first time Tommy Lasorda saw Phil Niekro on the mound, he thought of an old baseball adage. “They say you don’t want to have a knuckleballer pitching for you or against you ,” Lasorda said. That was Niekro’s problem, too. It was the one pitch he had mas tered from his father, growing up in the coal mine country of eastern Ohio. And not a lot of baseball peo ple liked it very much. On Sunday, when he and Lasor da went into the Hall of Fame to gether, the pitcher they called "Knucksie” recalled how close he came to being cut because of the gimmick pitch that got him his first contract for $500. “They have those organizational meetings every winter when they decide who to keep and who to let go,” Niekro said. “Five hundred bucks. You can afford to write that off. I know a couple of times, Birdie Tebbetts was the man in the Braves organization who raised his hand and said ‘Keep the man.’ ” So Niekro stayed around, even tually for 24 years, winning 318 games and gaining election to the Hall of Fame. Also inducted Sun day in the tiny hamlet celebrated as the birthplace of baseball were infielders Nellie Fox and Willie Wells, increasing membership in the shrine to 232. Longtime base ball writer Charley Feeney and broadcaster Jimmy Dudley re ceived media awards. The single traffic light in down town Cooperstown worked over time as thousands of visitors jammed the town to honor Lasorda, the longtime Dodgers manager, and Niekro. Many fans wore shirts and hats in tribute to Fox, the scrap py second baseman, and Wells, the 14th Negro League player inducted. Joanne Fox accepted for her late husband and Stella Wells accepted for her father. Fox, a 12-time All-Star, played 19 major league seasons and was the American League’s MVP in 1959 Astros slide by New York, 3-2 HOUSTON (AP) — Greg McMichaeTs 0-2 pitch hit Luis Gonzalez with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth to force home the winning run and give the Houston Astros a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets on Sunday. With two outs in the ninth, Craig Biggio singled to center and stole second before McMichael (7-9) walked pinch-hitter Thomas Howard and Jeff Bagwell to load the bases. McMichael hit the left-hand ed hitting Gonzalez on the right leg on an 0-2 count to bring in Biggio with the winning run. Tom Martin (4-2) pitched two innings of one-hit ball for the victory. Biggio homered and had three hits for the Astros, who have won 20 of 25 games and haven’t lost a series after dropping two of three to Cleveland at the Astrodome from June 30-July 2. Houston has won or split nine se ries since. The Mets have won 10 of 16 games, but finished their road trip at 5-6. The Astros tied the game 2-2 in the seventh. Pinch- hitter Bill Spiers doubled to left and scored one out lat er when Biggio hit the first pitch from reliever Juan Acevedo over the center-field fence for his 16th homer of the season. New York starter Brian Bohanon allowed three hits and one walk over 5 1-3 innings, striking out four. Todd Hundley’s 23rd home run of the season, a shot over the right-field wall, scored Jason Hardtke for a 2-0 first-inning lead. Hardtke hit a one-out single to left be fore Hundley connected on a 2-2 fastball from Shane Reynolds one out later. Reynolds pitched five in nings, giving up two runs on three hits and two walks, with six strikeouts. Houston’s Sean Berry missed a home run leading off the fifth when his long drive to left hit a speaker hanging from the Astrodome ceiling in left field. The ball bounced back towards the infield and Berry reached second with a double. Bohanon then retired the side to strand Berry. Berry is the second player to hit an Astrodome speaker. Mike Schmidt hit one in center field on June 10,1974. Schmidt was held to a single as his blast struck the speaker and bounced back to short center. Johnson struggles in 400-meter semis ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Michael Johnson’s defense of his 400-meter title at the world cham pionships got off to a shaky start Sunday. He finished fourth in his second-round heat and barely ad vanced to the semifinals. The reigning Olympic and world champion at both 200 and 400 me ters eased up too much at the end of the race and was edged at the line by Senegal’s Ibrahima Wade. “I was sure I had a firm grip on my position. I just didn’t see (Wade),” Johnson said in a state ment released by track and field’s governing body. “It surprised me that he was suddenly beside me." The top three from each heat plus those with the four next fastest times advance, and Johnson’s time of45.39 seconds gave him the next- to-last qualifying spot. He made it into the semifinals by five-hun dredths of a second. With 50 meters left, Johnson was second behind eventual heat win ner Jamie Baulch of Britain. But as the defending champion coasted to the finish, he was passed by Ugan da’s Davis Kamoga and outleaned by the hard-charging Wade. Baulch and Nigeria’s Clement Chukwu, both at 45.06, turned in the top heat times, while Ameri cans Antonio Pettigrew, the 1991 world champion, Jerome Young and Tyree Washington also reached Monday’s semifinals. Johnson walked away from the interview area in silence, trailed by about 50 reporters. Johnson, who hopes to eventu ally break Butch Reynolds’ world record and bring it under 43 sec onds, had to run two 400 heats on the same day for the first time. He has not had an easy season. In his 150-meter showdown with 100-meter record-holder Donovan Bailey on June 1 in Toronto, Johnson, who holds the mark for 200 meters, pulled up with a leg injury that sidelined him for more than a month. “I’m not surprised that he’s run ning this slow,” Young, who took his heat in 44.87, said of Johnson. “It’s a rough struggle to come back from injury.” MIDNIGHT SALE ALBUM RELEASE PARTY l> tt » c © TOBTOtlDWNASEr OF DBCeOlf DISCS' FREE PIZZA COURTESY OF: ~FREE POSTER W/ PURCHASE^ •SALE PRICED $12.95 THRU S/19' medM marooned "THE*' RECORD STORE IN RXC-S l i o c<»ii«Ks»«fc iViola» -w That’s 34c* a day & includes all the benefits of Cable TV TCA CABLE TV VIEWERS ENJOY: • Top cable channels; local news, weather and sports • Additional outlets at no extra monthly charge • One monthly bill; no long-term contracts to sign • No expensive equipment to purchase • Local installation; guaranteed on-time service calls • Upgrade to optional channel packages at any time The Best Entertainment Value In Town! Call today! 846-2229 %A^cabiew_ • Does not include applicable taxes. 4114 E. 29th St. • Bryan, IX when he led the Chicago White Sox to their first pennant in 40 years. He won three Gold Gloves and his 798 consecutive games played at second base remains a major league record. He joins his old double play partner, Luis Aparicio, in the Hall of Fame. Fox and Aparicio are the fourth double play combination in Coop erstown, joining Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Joe Cronin and Bobby Do- err of the Boston Red Sox, and Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers of the Chicago Cubs. Wells batted .331 in 20 years of Negro League ball. He had 123 ca reer home runs including 27 in just 88 games to set a Negro League record in 1929 and led the league with a .403 batting average the next year. Lasorda, whose Dodgers teams won 1,599 games in 20 seasons, re called a conversation with Reese about the 1955 Dodgers, Brooklyn’s lone world championship team. “I said, ‘Pee Wee, if I told you one of the 25 guys on that team that year would manage the Dodgers to a world championship in 1981, you’d put me at No. 25.’ ” Reese disagreed, telling Lasorda he would be No. 24. “Who’s 25th, then?” Lasorda wondered. “Amoros,” Reese said, referring to Cuban outfielder Sandy Amoros. “He couldn’t speak English.” Lasorda’s voice broke once when he talked about longtime Dodgers executive A1 Campanis, who is ail ing. He called Campanis, “My men tor, who taught so much about the game of baseball and life.” Niekro’s emotional moment came when he spoke of his family, including his brother, Joe, who also pitched in the major leagues. “We faced each other nine times,” he said. “He won five and I won four. That’s the way it should be. He’s the baby. He got one hit off me. He hit one home run in the big leagues and it was off me. Won a game, too.” National Football League Preseason At A Glance AMERICAN CONFERENCE East W L T Pet. PF PA Indianapolis 1 0 0 1.000 20 16 N.Y. Jets 1 0 0 1.000 31 17 Miami 0 1 0 .000 00 20 New England 0 1 0 .000 3 7 Buffalo 0 2 0 .000 27 51 Central Pittsburgh 2 0 0 1.000 58 31 Jacksonville 0 0 0 .000 00 00 Baltimore 0 1 0 .000 20 21 Cincinnati 0 1 0 .000 16 20 Tennessee 0 1 0 .000 12 21 West Denver 1 0 0 1.000 31 10 San Diego 1 0 0 1.000 20 13 Seattle 1 1 0 .500 60 34 Oakland 0 0 0 .000 00 00 Kansas City 0 1 0 .000 14 28 NATIONAL CONFERENCE East W L I Pet. PF PA N.Y. Giants 1 0 0 1.000 21 20 Washington 1 0 0 1.000 20 8 Arizona 0 1 0 .000 6 34 Dallas 0 0 0 .000 00 00 Philadelphia 0 1 0 .000 17 31 Central Green Bay 2 0 0 1.000 27 3 Minnesota 2 0 0 1.000 52 32 Detroit 1 0 0 1.000 20 17 Chicago 1 1 0 .500 37 47 Tampa Bay 0 1 0 .000 08 20 West New Orleans 1 0 0 1.000 21 12 Carolina 0 0 0 .000 00 00 Atlanta 0 1 0 .000 17 20 St. Louis 0 1 0 .000 6 24 San Francisco 0 1. 0 .000 13 20 Saturday's Games Washington 20, Tampa Bay 8 Minnesota 24, St. Louis 6 New Orleans 21, Tennessee 12 N.Y. Jets 31, Philadelphia 1 7 N.Y. Giants 21, Baltimore 20 Pittsburgh 28, Kansas City 14 Chicago 20, Buffalo 17, OT San Diego 20, San Francisco 13 Seattle 34, Arizona 6 Monday's Game Denver vs. Miami at Mexico City, 8 p.m. MSC Barber Shop Serving All Aggies! Cuts and Styles All Corp Cuts $7. 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