ionday • August 3,1998
The Battalion
PORTS
, 'fflc
itATlOU
* al |mbres agrees
o terms with
e Marlins
By Jeff Webb
Sports Editor
Texas A&M quarterback prospect Chip Ambres
d to terms with the Florida Marlins on Friday
;ht. The Beaumont native said he will play for the
ns' rookie-league Melbourne Manatees, a team for
all players drafted directly out of high school,
his is something I can look forward to," Ambres said,
[have no regrets at all. I feel like I made the right choice
ad I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.
Ambres' father, Raymond, negotiated the deal
dth Florida before the August 4 deadline for rookies
) i«port.
^ "1 was mostly the negotiator," Raymond Ambres
jid. "We had advisers also. We got what we were look-
ig for. We are very satisfied."
The Marlins do not allow baseball signees to play
ther sports while they are under contract for baseball,
jnbres will not be able to play quarterback for A&M,
uving recruit Vance Smith as the one signal-caller left
ithe 1998 Aggie signing class.
I Florida will pay for Ambres' college education when
|pecides to attend school.
That's a big part of it," Ambres said. "I'm not
when."
mbres visited the Astrodome during the series be-
n the Houston Astros and the Marlins and was able
tako batting practice with the team. Ambres talked
vith Florida players and manager Jim Leyland.
H talked to everybody," he said. "It was great. I just
van ted to see what players' attitudes were like.
"I thought they would be on a higher level or their
gos would be bigger, but they weren't. It made me feel
nore comfortable about the whole process."
mbres will fly to Miami today for a physical before
ining the team later in the week.
lef
A Fighting Chance
Ricky Juarez wants his shot at a professional boxing career
By Jeff Webb
Sports Editor
Ricky Juarez, all 119 pounds,
climbed in the ring of Bryan's Lulac
Recreation Center, ready for the fight
ahead of him.
The belt he wore had the name
"Rocky" written across it in black print,
but Juarez, a Houston native, bore little
resemblance to the Italian boxing hero
who made the name famous.
Photo By Mikk Fuentes/The Battalion
Houston’s Ricky Juarez defeated Mexico’s Samuel Lopez in Bryan on Wednesday.
The gloves laced on his fists looked
more like lollipops affixed to their re
spective sticks than fierce weapons
ready for battle.
Samuel Alverez Lopez, a Mexican
Olympic hopeful, was Juarez's oppo
nent for the Wednesday night bout,
the third in the series featuring local
American fighters and Mexican
Olympic "B-team" boxers.
Juarez defeated Lopez by a unani
mous decision from the judges after
three rounds, but Juarez said he was
unhappy with his performance.
tt There are no
timeouts in boxing.
It's the toughest sport
out there.
— Ricky Juarez
Houston Amateur Boxer
"Tonight, I felt real bad," he said.
"People who have seen me fight know I
don't win that close."
Those same people have seen Juarez
fight many times in the last six years.
The 18-year-old began his career
when his father Pedro got him inter
ested the sport.
Juarez got into a fight with the son of
his baseball coach in little league and
soon found himself on the bench for the
season's remaining games.
His father suggested boxing as a new
activity. Since that time, he said his mind
has been set on a professional career.
"I'm planning on making this a job,"
he said. "Hopefully, I will make it to the
Olympics in 2000 for a faster start in the
pros. But not all Olympic medalists
make it to the world championships."
Juarez abandoned his normal life to
pursue his dream.
Training at Ray's Boxing in Houston
takes up most of his time and, during a
period when most 18-year-olds are at
tending college thinking about getting a
diploma, Juarez is working to out-dis
tance the competition in the ring.
"I can stick with it," he said. "What's
hard about it is to stay in it all year
round. You can take a break, but you
have to work double-time to catch up
with everyone else.
"There are no timeouts in boxing. It's
the toughest sport out there."
After his victory, Juarez retreated
to one darkly-lit corner of the room
where his parents waited.
His father helped him unlace his
gloves and take the tape off of his trem
bling fists. Then he gave him a powerful
hug and some words of advice.
"You used your right with power
only one time," his father Pedro said.
"One time."
"Did he hurt you?" his mother asked
as she kissed him on the cheek.
"No," he replied. "Do I have any
thing on my face?"
"Only lipstick, dear," she said.
"Only lipstick."
fcandy Johnson strikes out 12 in first
National League start in 9 seasons
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Randy
nson was everything the Hous-
I Astros wanted when they sacri-
iced their future to get him: Over-
ering, dominating, intimidating.
EB^rything including a winner.
■Johnson, pitching fewer than 48
[hours after Houston swung the big
trade to get him, struck out 12 in sev
en innings and the Astros scored
r times in the eighth to beat the
sburgh Pirates 6-2 Sunday,
espite battling jet leg, an unfa-
liarity with Pittsburgh hitters — he
w only a few even after studying
scores on an all-day trip Saturday
ohnson was just as menacing for
NL Central-leading Astros as he
bs for the Seattle Mariners.
■His 12 strikeouts gave him 225
or the season — he led the AL be-
e he was traded Friday for three
Inspects — and are an Astros' sea-
iihigh. It also was the eighth time
iduateofoiit( f ®r sn ’ nestarts double-dig-
iicinstitutions* Strikeouts, and gave him the over-
:hManFoiui^p rria j or league lead in strikeouts,
first to recoM The Big Unit, who drew as many
?ment. peers during pregame introduc-
li ca tiontote |0ns as the hometown Pirates,
oirit / weare®'H eezec l through the first four in-
rst vearmei«^ n S s l n his first NL start since April
tioasoyouJ 989 for Montreal, allowing only
ie 12Confer* osin S les and walking one.
i U faM!i The p '- tes fi r aU >: 8°y? him for
^ |U-year-old rookie third baseman
on uni: Ramirez's S0 ] 0 Homer, his
fixth, leading off the fifth. They took
rkingatAg‘fa2-1 lead on singles by Mark Smith
nd Ramirez, a hit batsman and
Kevin Polcovich's sacrifice fly.
But just when it seemed the
much-traveled Todd Van Poppel
would outduel Johnson, the Astros
took the lead with a four-run eighth
against reliever Jason Christiansen
(1-2), himself rumored in trade talks.
Carl Everett's tying RBI single
followed a single, a walk and a force
play. Ricky Gutierrez's two-run dou
ble into the gap in right field made it
4-2, and Tony Eusebio, batting for
Johnson, added an insurance run
with another double.
hMan
Johnson (1-0), who walked one,
hit another and threw 116 pitches,
was replaced by the Astros' best
pitching prospect, Scott Elarton, who
sailed through the final two innings
for his second save.
Johnson may not know these Pi
rates very well, but they have a histo
ry against him, beating him twice in
three of his 11 previous NL starts in
September 1988 and April 1989, be
fore the Expos traded him to Seattle.
By coincidence, his major league
debut came against the Pirates in
Montreal on Sept. 15,1988, when he
won 9-5 despite lasting only five in
nings and allowing two homers to
Glenn Wilson.
But while Johnson dominated the
Pirates' entirely right-handed hitting
lineup—they even benched NL stolen
base leader Tony Womack to add an
other right-handed bat—the league's
second best offense didn't give him
much support until the eighth.
The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the
fourth on Billy Spiers' double and Jeff
Bagwell's one-out single off Van Pop-
pel, who was tearing up Texas high
schoolers when Johnson debuted in
1988 but has since gone through sev
en major league organizations.
That was Houston's only scoring
against Van Poppel, who gave up
five hits and struck out five over sev
en innings while barely resembling
a pitcher with a 22-35 career record.
It was a smooth return all the way
around for the 34-year-old Johnson,
who didn't arrive in Pittsburgh until
9 p.m. EDT Saturday but chose to
stay on his normal five-day rotation
by pitching Sunday. He last worked
Tuesday, losing to Cleveland.
"I'm tired, hungry and ornery,
just the way I want to be before I
pitch," he said.
His only worry about returning
to the NL was batting again, but he
didn't look overmatched at the
plate, popping up once, hitting a
sharp ground ball another time and
striking out once.
About the only time he looked
uncomfortable was when he shooed
away several of the nine photogra
phers who lined up behind home
plate shooting his warmup pitches.
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Aggie
5ports
rief
from staff and wire reports
’ootball tickets
Mi sale today
A limited number of Texas A&M
ngle game football tickets remain
nd orders will be taken beginning
xiay at the athletic ticket office in-
de G. Rollie White Coliseum.
"Season ticket orders have been
lied and we can begin accepting or-
lersfor single game tickets with the
txception of the Nebraska and Texas
ontests," Athletics Director Wally
Toff announced today. "With the
lorth end zone expansion project
Underway, our capacity is around
58,000 for this season."
Tickets for Big 12 games will most
kely be folding chairs on the track
&nd bleachers in the south end zone.
Americans claim MLS victory
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It will
not change the results of a disap
pointing World Cup showing, how
ever the United States did reclaim
some bragging rights in Major
League Soccer's third All-Star game.
Brian McBride of the Columbus
Crew scored one goal and assisted
on two others Sunday as the U.S.
All-Stars beat the World All-Stars 6-
1 before a crowd of 34,416 at the
Florida Citrus Bowl.
Nine of 11 U.S. starters were
members of the national team that
went 0-3 in France this summer, and
they viewed this game as an oppor
tunity to regain a measure of respect.
McBride and MetroStars team
mates Alexi Lalas and Tab Ramos
scored in the first 16 minutes, and the
U.S. built a 4-0 lead before D.C. Unit
ed's Roy Lassiter and Cobi Jones of
Los Angeles finished the rout with
goals in the final 12 minutes.
The World team avoided a
shutout when Tampa Bay's Mauri-
cio Ramos scored on an assist from
Chicago's Jorge Campos, who start
ed the game in goal before return
ing as a forward in the 89th minute.
The first two MLS All-Star
games were played under an East
ern vs. Western conference format
that was abandoned for the U.S.-
World concept this year.
While winning didn't bury mem
ories of a poor World Cup showing,
the U.S. team's domination was
complete. McBride was the MVP,
breaking World star Carlos Valder-
rama's two-year stranglehold on the
award, but he had plenty of help.
The U.S. team beat Campos on
four its first five shots on goal, while
goalkeeper Tony Meola stopped
shots by five different World players
before being replaced by Zach Thorn
ton at the start of the second half.
Valderrama, rumored to be head
ed for the New England Revolution
in a trade spurred by his dispute
with Miami Fusion coach Ivo Wort-
mann, started and played all but
about 15 minutes of the game.
Watkins takes Texas A&M men’s team
on European vacation basketball tour
From staff and wire reports
The Texas A&M Men's Basketball Team will play a
five-game exhibition schedule August 14-25 in Ger
many and Holland. The Aggies
begin practice for the tour today
at Reed Arena.
The Aggies' tour roster will in
clude only the nine returning
players from last season since
newcomers will not be eligible un
til school starts in early September.
"The tour will allow me to see
the players and get to know them
better," first-year A&M coach
Melvin Watkins said. "Maybe
more important, it will give them
a chance to get to know me and allow us to get our phi
losophy somewhat in place. If we can accomplish that,
I won't worry too much about the wins and losses.
"Just the fact that we can spend some time to
gether and get to know each other will make the trip
worthwhile."
The Aggies are led by senior forward Shanne
Jones, who earned second team All-Big 12 honors last
season after averaging 18.1 points and 6.7 rebounds
per game.
Junior guard Steve Houston led the Big 12 in
steals last season with 2.5 per game and also aver
aged 9.5 points and 4.4 assists. Houston was named
to the Big 12 All-Defense Team.
The Aggies leave for the tour on August 14 and
play their first game against the Weert Basketball
Club on August 16 in Eindhoven, Holland. After one
game in Amsterdam, Holland, the Aggies will play
three games in Cologne, Germany, before returning
to the United States on August 25.
AGGIE BASKETBALL TEAM
CERMANY-HOIJLATVD TOUR ITINERARY
Weert Basketball Gub Sunday, Aug. 16,4 PM Eindhoven, Holland
£' I I \ 'X.
Amsterdam "Ricoh Astronauts" Tuesday, Aug. 18,6 PM Amsterdam, Holland
Bayer Leverkusen Thursday, Aug. 20, TBA Cologne, Germany
Telekom Basket Bonn Friday, Aug. 21, TBA Cologne, Germany
Brandt-Hagen Sunday; Aug. 23,3 PM Cologne, Germany
New Cowboys coach Chan Gailey says team
‘made too many mistakes’ against Seahawks
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) —
It was not the way Chan Gailey
wanted to start his NFL head
coaching career.
After viewing tapes of the Dal
las Cowboys 20-19 exhibition loss
to the Seat
tle Sea-
hawks,
Gailey de
clared on
Sunday:
"We made
too many
mistakes
even for a preseason game."
The Cowboys were flagged Fri
day night 11 times for 97 yards.
Four penalties, three for having 12
men on the field, and a 33-yard
pass interference call, led to the
game-winning touchdown in the
third period.
Gailey said the calls for 12 men
on the field came from typical pre
season confusion.
"We're going to get that straight
ened out," Gailey said. "I hope that's
not going to happen anymore. It
wasn't just one player. It was differ
ent people at different times."
He said what confused some of
his younger players was the differ
ent defenses the Cowboys were run
ning including "the nickel, the dime.
the heavy and the goal-line."
"We also got some guys hurt
and that added to the confusion,"
he said. "It's my fault we didn't ad
just to all that."
Gailey, who was an offensive
coordinator at Pittsburgh and
called games from the press box,
said it was a change for him to be
on the field.
"There was an adjustment I had
to make," he said.
For the first time, the Cowboys
coaches used wireless microphones,
and Gailey said, "I kept trying to tug
on a long wire that wasn't there."
He rated his first game as Cow
boys head coach as "not every
good. We lost and that's how you
are judged. I was doing the best I
could to win."
The Cowboys played their
starters only in the first period
and Gailey said both units did a
good job.
"Our first team defense played
the run well and the secondary
looked good," Gailey said. "Our
first team offense did fairly well,
not great."
Gailey said it was a comfort to
see Chris Warren have a big game
after Emmitt Smith suffered a minor
elbow injury.
"We have a great deal of confi
dence now that we can still keep
running the ball if something hap
pens to Emmitt," Gailey said.
Gailey also praised third-string
quarterback Daniel Gonzalez, a free
agent from East Carolina.
"He surprised me a little bit but
I love those
kind of sur
prises," said
Gailey of
Gonzalez,
who com
pleted 9 of 12
passes for
105 yards.
"He hadn't
had very
many repeti
tions in prac
tice and we hadn't seen him do
something like that."
Gailey added "of course Jason
Garrett will be our No. 2 quarter
back but it's good to have someone
with the promise of Gonzalez at
the No. 3 spot."
Gonzalez beat out Max Knake for
the third quarterback spot.
The Cowboys play their sec
ond game of the preseason next
Saturday night in Texas Stadium
against Oakland after a Thurs
day scrimmage in El Paso against
the Raiders.