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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1998)
onday • June 29,1998 The Battalion PORTS ■Johnson 'dOlickey replaces linistrator Texas A&M Baseball Coach irk Johnson announced the lation of David Crowson as ;administrative assistant to the baseball team. Crowson will enter private business in Tyler. "David has done a tremen dous job in an impor tant posi- ^in our baseball program/' on said. Current coach Bill Hickey will [over the job per Johnson's ?st. Because of Bill Hickey's ex- Ise, 1 have asked him to take ; Administrative assistant posi- an, Johnson said. "1 will begin okir ig for an on-the-field coach ith emphasis on recruiting." Wrowson worked with the Ag- tBaseball staff as a volunteer as- |tant in 1993 and worked three as the baseball administra- yelassistant. He served the '91 hd[92 seasons as a student assis- (ntlwhile finishing work on his iilsiology degree. ^■ickey served 14 years as an feuiit coach on the A&M staff working with catchers, defense nd coaching first base. inow’s grand slam lowers Giants )ver Rangers, 7-0 '|f$AN FRANCISCO (AP) — Last H?, Mark Gardner was the win- it an ning pitcher in the first interleague lormf ganne ever as San Francisco beat I'ithafHas. On Sunday, he once again t rev had his way with the Rangers. Etardner pitched a three-hitter ir and J.T. Snow hit a grand slam hri and drove in five runs, giving San ItiieST jraiidsco a 7-0 victory over Texas, jdardner (7-3) gave up a kind-ball single to Tom Good- I Mn leading off the fourth. He al- |d-.»ed nothing else until Kevin El- [ Sf#'s two-ou t single in the eighth, cedi! fldking none and striking out five. In three interleague starts against the Rangers, Gardner is arc: 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. [ylwyWhen you bring them to our enlf '*■ equalizes things a little nW |t," Gardner said, who pitched j Giants past the Rangers 4-3 at jas last June 12. I cts ("But I think every pitcher lieir should still be intimidated by Jm. Great teams demand that should bear down," he said. Texas first baseman Will Clark 8s impressed. 'If you shutdown this team on | ee hits, you're doing some- ” Clark said. ISnow, who hit three grand n ^ s while playing for the Cali- fnia Angels, hit his first NLslam [the second inning off Aaron (H-5). The home run was ->w's seventh of the season and §3th of his career. After he hit that grand slam, ats the flattest I've seen this p™ in four years," Texas man- lp Johnny Oates said. | Sele missed out on his bid to be- ie the AL's first 12 -game win- | r ’ He lasted five innings and |ve up six hits, walking four and liking out seven. In his last seven Fts, Sele is 3-3 with a 7.52 ERA. Astros overwhelm Indians 12-3 Alou homers, drives in three as Houston manages to take series from Cleveland CLEVELAND (AP) — The Houston Astros marched around Jacobs Field as if it were their own. For two days, they owned the Cleveland Indians. Moises Alou homered, had three hits and drove in three runs as the Astros beat the Indians 12-3 Sun day to take two of three in the inter league meeting of Central division leaders. "I was real happy to come in here and take two of three from a team like this," Houston manager Larry Dierker said. "1 didn't expect it." They didn't squeak by, either. The confident, NL Central-leading Astros outscored the defend- ing AL champions 21-8 in the final two games of the series, showing a nice mix of power and speed that's tough to beat in any league. "We have the same type hitters as they do," Dierker said. "We have guys who can hit it out and guys who can run the bases." And Houston can do it against the NL or AL, take your pick. The Astros are 8-3 against AL clubs, and starter Shane Reynolds (9-5) improved to 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA against the junior circuit. "It's not fun to face a team like this when you're not feeling well," Reynolds said, still feel ing the effects of food poisoning he suffered about 10 days ago. After beating Houston in the series opener Fri day, it was the Indians who looked ill. The Astros matched Cleveland's three homers and won the second game of the series 9-5 in 11 innings on Saturday, then homered twice against Charles Nagy (7-4) on Sunday. Nagy, winless in June, was charged with eight earned runs in 5 1- 3 innings after Houston rocked newcomer Tim Worrell in the sixth. The Cleveland right-hander left the ballpark without doing interviews. "To say the least, Charlie didn't have it," Indi ans manager Mike Hargrove said. Alou, who hit three homers for Florida against the Indians in the 1997 World Series, beat Cleve land on Saturday with an RBI single in the 11th off Jose Mesa. He got a key hit for the second straight day, making it 4-2 with a two-run homer, his 16th, off Nagy in the fourth. Reynolds allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, nicked only by Sandy Alomar's sixth homer off the left-field foul pole in the sec ond. Derek Bell hit a 433-foot solo homer in the first, his 11th, and made a couple of sliding catches in right field. "If I saw Derek Bell dive one more time, I was going to puke," Hargrove said. Dierker "I didn't plan on making those catches diving, it just happened," said Bell, who robbed pinch- hitter Shawon Dunston of a hit in the ninth. Houston scored four runs in the ninth on six straight hits off Worrell and Alvin Morman. Alou had an RBI single, and Tony Eu sebio had a two-run single off the left-field wall. C.J. Nitkowski pitched three in nings for his third save. Nagy, who surrendered his major league-leading 22nd and 23rd homers, was chased in the sixth after Sean Berry gave Houston a 5-2 lead with a bases-loaded RBI single. Worrell, claimed on waivers from Detroit as part of the Geronimo Berroa trade, promptly walked Eusebio to force in a run. Carl Everett, who singled, scored on Ricky Gutierrez's sacrifice fly to the wall in left, and Craig Biggio drilled an RBI double into the right-field corner to make it 8-2. That left Nagy with his worst line since his first start on March 31 — 5 1-3 innings, eight earned runs and seven hits. Nagy, who walked three and struck out five, was 0-2 with three no decisions this month. Host country France advances PARIS (AP) — With a sweep of his foot, Laurent Blanc allowed 60 million Frenchmen to breathe again. Blanc's short shot 24 minutes into overtime Sunday lifted France to a 1- 0 victory over Paraguay and into the quarterfinals of the World Cup. It was the first sudden-death score to decide a World Cup game; the so- called "golden goal" is being used in the tournament for the first time. "You shouldn't put forward the one who scores, but the whole team," Blanc said. "We were fight ing, fighting and we got our reward in the very last minutes." Nigeria didn't get any reward for winning its first-round group. It got a Denmark squad that took advan tage of gaping holes in the Africans' defense for a 4-1 romp. "We're on a high, definitely a high," Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said. France plays Italy and Denmark takes on Brazil in the quarterfinals. The French couldn't finish off dozens of penetrations through the Paraguay defense. Instead, goal keeper Jose Luis Chilavert made 24 saves and his defenders cleared away ball after ball. Playing the game Texas A&M strives for all-around success in athletics like rival Texas Longhorns I magine a head-to-head compe tition between the two Texas athletics powerhouses, Texas and Texas A&M, played out on an oversized chessboard. The pair of players con struct their at tacks, reveal ing a skew here, a pin there. However, in the end, Texas' superi or pawn struc ture would Jeff Webb sports editor eventually overtake the Aggies' porous defense. That has been the story between the bitter in-state foes for as long as many students can remember. Sure, A&M has dominated the football series for the last 14 years, compiling a record of 11-4, but how has the A&M Women's Tennis Team fared over time? In case you haven't been keeping up, Texas is 26-1 against A&M since the 1980 season. The story repeats itself for most of the "lesser" pro grams maintained by both institutions. Texas leads the all-time women's basketball series 43-8. Legendary coach Jody Conradt nailed a 580-133 record in her 22-year tenure in Austin. Recently de parted coach Candi Harvey turned heads around the state by posting a 4-6 record against the 'Horns. Former men's basketball coach Tony Barone was a paltry 2-12 in meetings with his good friend Tom Penders. The men's tennis team was 2-26 versus the Texas team in the last 20 years until a monumental upset vic tory over the 5th-ranked Burnt Orange and White in the Big 12 Championships. Add to that a 103-200-5 mark in 94 years of base ball, and the balance looks like a Kate Moss-Mama Cass weigh-off. Texas always is mentioned in the same sentence with Stanford, North Carolina and UCLA when conversation turns to overall athletics superiority. Why not A&M? There is no reason for A&M not to be a contender in any sport it participates in. Alumni support has been in place to generate the money needed. All it takes is an aggressive director to concentrate the resources. Finally, the A&M athletics department has demon strated with its recent coaching hires that A&M is committed to excellence in sports other than football, and it's about time. The addition of Peggie Gillom as the women's basketball coach and Melvin Watkins as the men's basketball coach is a Texas two-step in the right di rection for Aggie athletics. In the last 15 years, Texas garnered six national championships (one in base ball and five in swimming) and won or shared 56 other conference titles. With the internal strife in the Texas athletics depart ment that led to the firing or reassignment of baseball coach Cliff Gustavson, football coach John Mackovic and basketball coach Tom Penders in the last two years, the Aggies are in a position to wrestle away the crown of Texas' athletics power that has been poised atop the ears of Bevo himself. With an incentive-laden contract that is rumored to rival that of football icon R.C. Slocum and a new arena at his disposal for impressing recruits, Watkins promises no excuses for failure in his tenure as coach. Gillom now finds herself thrust into the same gem of a position. When the next game begins between the orange and maroon gamers, perhaps the Aggie counterat tack will uncover a forgotten piece that slips through undetected. In chess parlance, that lone pawn that survives the trip might become a queen. Checkmate. Jeff Webb is a junior journalism major. Don Nelson says new acquisition Nowitzki appears likely to play DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks brought Dirk Nowitzki to Texas on Sunday, only four days after acquiring the German phenom amid doubts they could get him to play in the NBA this season. Whether or not Nowitzki will suit up for Dallas next season still is uncertain. But it appears much more likely than when coach and general man ager Don Nelson pulled off a three-way trade during Wednesday night's NBA draft to land Nowitzki. "We're going to continue to sell him," Nelson said Sunday. "We've gone a couple of big steps in the right direction. I don't know when he'll make a decision." Nelson, along with his son and assistant coach Donnie Nelson, and Mavericks owner Ross Perot Jr., went to Germany on Thursday to court Nowitzki, who had hinted he would play in Europe for another one or two years. The recruiting committee needed only two days in the tiny Bavarian town of Wurzburg to persuade the 6-foot-ll forward to go to Dallas. Now the Nelsons hope a red-carpet tour will clinch their bid to sell the 20-year-old on an immediate jump to the NBA. "Just the fact that we brought him back is a big step," Nelson said. "We want to show him around where he has some idea where he would be liv ing. Hopefully we can never let him go until he makes a commitment. That's the idea." The Mavericks had two big hurdles to persuading Nowitzki. First, he wanted Dallas to consent to him leaving the team in February to play Olympic qualifying games for his country. Don Nelson has agreed to that. Secondly, the Mavericks had to persuade Nowitzki that he's ready for the NBA because it had been suggested he wasn't strong enough. "It's a big decision that has to be made," Nowitzki said after arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and shooting a few baskets for reporters. "I think I'm not ready yet, but they try to convince me that I'm ready. ... We'll see." The Nelsons promise he's wrong on that point. "When people see him play, they'll understand," Donnie Nelson said. "People aren't educated about this guy. To Mavericks fans, he's just a name. When people see him play, it'll all make sense." Nowitzki, the ninth overall pick in the draft, averaged 17.5 points and 10 rebounds for DJK Wurzburg last season. He dazzled scouts at the Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio in March with 33 points with 14 rebounds. Then he returned to Germany and en listed in the army to fulfill his military obligation. Seattle bullpen blows another game PHOENIX (AP)—Yamil Benitez homered on the first pitch by Bobby Ayala in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday, sending the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 32nd home run, and Seattle tied it at 2 in the eighth on Alex Rodriguez's RBI grounder. Ayala (0-6) retired the Diamondbacks in order in the eighth, but couldn't handle Benitez, who hit his second homer in as many games and fourth in his last seven starts. Alan Embree (2-0) worked two scoreless innings for the win. Matt Williams had an RBI single for Arizona in the first, and Karim Garcia made it 2-1 with a run-scoring triple in the sixth. Jamie Moyer of the Mariners allowed seven hits and two runs. Brian Anderson held the Mariners to five hits. 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