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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1999)
he Battalion — Matt cl Uerimir] urns. : s is theS iac darl . This ge and I 5 itly to B goes M S SUSpB ihead slam, ' ned Jiil s retuB o PINION Page 5 • Monday, June 14, 1999 Sports players should not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do. But many athletes still wear horns instead of halos. They sometimes hit below the belt. Do ethics get a sporting chance? >fa! rad p ) 4 in h 61/3 erl irado l! I Ranger; n recent years, the sport of boxing has been lit tered with corruption and a lack of superstars - a far cry from the days of yore when names like Ali, Frazier, Marciano and Liston attracted fans by tie thousands. I our-mi! ■s (2-5 e hoiT: jfaelPi >w Coin RYAN GARCIA Boxing desperately needs role models. It has one in champion Roy Jones Jr. States Drug Enforcement Agency for its nationwide anti-drug poster. Whenever Jones is not fighting, he is traveling across the country with his semi-professional bas ketball team which he plays on to raise money for various charities. In a time when professional ath letes from every sport seem to hide behind Charles Barkley’s irrespon sible statement — “I’m not a role model. I’m an athlete” — Roy Jones Jr. embraces the chance to positively influence everyone he can, especially children. p. He; ts, str.; 06. ed the save. hmnre al out. lomet 1,000 c plaiea. g hir E ree A.". ’Acces;. Calling I >honsa h e I Allegations of fight-tampering have run ram- pant, decimating boxing’s fan base. If boxing is to survive, then it must once again produce a hero that fans can rally around. I Light-heavyweight Roy Jones Jr. may have answered the call this month when he won a unanimous decision over Reggie Johnson, consoli dating all three championship belts — the IBF’s, WBC’s and WBA’s — for the first time in 14 years. I Jones, who has a 40-1 record with 33 knock outs, is the most electrifying boxer in the business. I Regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by several boxing publications such as KO Magazine and Boxing Illustrated, Jones has the potential to save boxing much like Mark McGwire revitalized baseball last year by shattering Roger Maris’ longstanding single-season home run record. I With hand speed that the Philadelphia Inquirer called “quicker than Muhammad Ali,” Jones can do just about anything he wants to inside the ring. I In his recent victory, Jones backed his opponent to the ropes, looked at Michael Jordan who was ringside and shouted, “Watch this!” Jones then proceeded to land a flurry of jabs to the face of the 39-6-1 Johnson. I Jones, who has received Fighter of the Year ^ awards every year since 1993, has often expressed Boredom over what he considers a lack of qualified Opponents in the professional ranks. Unlike most recognized boxers who fight at a rate of two fights per year, Jones fights more fre quently. Jones’ consolidation of the championship belts was his fifth title defense in the past 18 months. I As amazing as Jones’ skills are, his character truly sets him apart. Boxing fans have all too often seen the unbal anced equation of skill without integrity. I For an ever-so-brief moment, boxing fans re- jpiced as a 20-year-old street-tough kid by the name of Mike Tyson shocked the world, winning the heavyweight championship. Fans eagerly antic ipated Tyson’s next victim. I Twelve years later, the only thing fans can look forward to is Tyson’s next jail term. I At 32, Tyson has served two jail terms, including one for a 1992 rape conviction. I Jones’ out-of-the-ring experiences have been somewhat different. I With numerous Humanitarian of the Year Awards from various organizations, Jones provides a role model for America’s youth. | When most fighters are negotiating the amount of money they will make, Jones frequently donates a portion of the gate proceeds from his fights to local charities. In 1996, Jones was chosen by the United T his year has already seen the nadir of sports manship on the baseball diamond. It did not happen on a major league field, and the usu al suspects like Albert Belle and Roberto Alomar had nothing to do with it. It happened on a base ball field at Wichita State Uni versity in Kansas, during a game with the University of Evansville. The perpetrator of this act was actually an honors student by the name of Ben Christiansen, a player with a previously spotless record. What did this for mer choir boy do? He hit the leadoff batter in the face with a pitch-while he was waiting on deck. Christiansen said Evansville’s leadoff hitter, Anthony Molina, was not in the on deck circle and was too close to the plate while taking his warmup swings. He said this warranted his ac tion, which shattered Molina’s left eye socket and, at least tem porarily, ruined his vision in that eye. Standing alone, this was a sick thing to do. Molina was not even looking at Christiansen when he was hit and was com pletely defenseless. What makes it even worse is the fact that Christiansen’s action was not only expected by his coaching staff, but was taught to the play ers by the coaches. Wichita State may not be a college that is known nationally, but it is a baseball power. It has won the College World Series once and has been the runner up three times in the past 17 years. The fact that such a program would resort to goon-squad tactics is a good indication of the “win at all costs” mentality that some programs have taken. It is not like the coaching staff at Wichita State is a new bunch trying to make an impression by showing they are trying really, re ally hard to win, either. Wichita State base ball coach Gene Stephenson has won over 1,200 games during his tenure as head coach at Wichita State. Pitching coach Brent Kemnitz is also well established. Many apologists for the Wichita State program say that there has never been one other negative incident that has affected the team in the two decades that Stephenson has coached there, and College baseball sees some foul plays. Unfortunately, some coaches encourage it. MARK PASSWATERS this one episode should not be a big issue. By this logic, O.J. Simpson should not be frowned upon as an athlete because he only killed people once. What happened at Wichita State before cannot excuse this act. Twelve hundred wins cannot cover up the fact that a pitcher drilled an unsus pecting player in the face with a 92-mile-per-hour fastball on the orders of his coaches. Chris tiansen and other Wichita State pitchers have been quoted as saying they were taught from day one that if someone does what Molina did — get too close to the batter’s box while the pitcher is warming up — they are to hit them in order to “send a message.” • The next time Coach Stephenson wants to “send a message,” will someone please pick up the phone and call UPS? It is much safer. Such thuggery has no place in the game of baseball, and all the people involved should be punished severely. If Anthony Molina was too close to the plate, why not call time out and ask the umpire to make him step back into the on deck circle? This is a decent, logical response to a minor infringement on the pitcher’s “turf.” The nickname of Wichita State’s baseball team is the Shockers. This incident has certainly shocked the nation and will hopefully cause a re- evaluation of what is important in college athlet ics. Winning is certainly important, but Coaches Stephenson and Kemnitz have forgotten that be sides racking up “W’s,” they have another task — to help develop these athletes into decent young men who will be assets to society should they not make the Major Leagues. Teaching cutthroat tac tics like this most certainly will not do that. Hopefully, the NCAA and the law will come down hard on these men, as they were the precipi tators of an assault with a deadly weapon. Anyone who has ever faced a 90-mile-per-hour fastball can attest to this. Anthony Molina will probably never play base ball again. He may never see properly again. Ben Christiansen was drafted in the first round by the Chicago Cubs and will probably make it to the major leagues. While Christiansen actually threw the pitch that hurt Molina, he was probably the least guilty of the three, since he did what he was told to do. But this may not be much solace to him should a fastball from someone like John Smoltz, Curt Schilling or Jaret Wright come sailing up and in on him “accidentally.” Mark Passwaters is an electrical engineering graduate student. Maternity leave laws should be expanded I n her recent book What' Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modem Woman, Danielle Crit tenden illustrates the common plight of career women who desire children and home life but feel pressured to remain in a career by the ideals of femi- tom nism gone too far. In her book. Crittenden 1 OWENS says that although feminism has liberated women ,s from being forced to stay home, it has now mi grated to the other extreme by pressuring women who desire families into careers. Perhaps even more disturbing, she notes, is that those career I aaa women who choose to have children are expect- 1U9, et j by moc jern feminists and businesses to quick- xd vaila- Stall" ly return to work, as if the pregnancy were only some sort of disease she is expected to recover from instead of the beginning of a new era of her He. I This insensitivity perpetuated by both extreme nplO) f feminism and greedy business acutely manifests , J itself, says Crittenden, in the “sudden, unexpect- IFCP e q moment when women find their insides shred- ding the first day they return from maternity leave, having placed their infants in a stranger’s thCiBms.” pit® Crittenden is right. This assault upon hu- rhankind’s most sacred institution — motherhood must be stopped. ‘ Unfortunately, because extreme feminist pro- H gramming is so pervasive in society, the ideal so lution of erasing the prejudices against women staying home could take decades to achieve. A more practical solution is legislation to ex tend maternity leave from its present level to a full five years after birth. Working women who have a child would be given five years from birth to re turn to work penalty free. The mechanics of im plementing such a plan would be similar to the Family and Medical Leave Act. Although the direct benefit of this plan is al lowing a woman to care for a child in his or her most important developmental years, perhaps the most potent quality is the legislation’s ability to remove the teeth from the typical feminist argu ment. Women in careers are often manipulated into believing they are wasting their potential if they stop their careers and choose to have a fam ily. Under a 5-year maternity leave plan, a woman could feel she was only pausing her career, not wasting it. If a woman finds rearing children preferable to the rat race of corporate America, she can remain at home. If not, she is free to re turn to work. Fellow conservatives would probably oppose such a measure because they think it would im pose too heavy a burden on businesses. But it could be argued in response that slight inconveniences for employers is a tax worth pay ing to pass on the genetics of our most talented women. Since intelligent women are the ones most strongly targeted by the lie that they are wasting their talents if they stay home and have children, modern society Implicitly encourages only those with the least potential to have the most children. Feminists should also be swayed by this argu ment. If the genetic quality of future generations is eroded, then the treatment of women will erode also. There is a medium to strong correlation be tween the intelligence of a society’s members and “/f a woman finds rearing children preferable to the rat race of corporate America, she can remain at home. If not, she is free to return to work/' its treatment of women, and the most primitive peoples are the ones most savage toward women. In accommodating our most gifted women’s de sires for children, America can stop or severely slow such a regression. Motherhood is the noblest of any human en deavor, and it is time American attitudes and laws reflect the level of respect the institution deserves. Torn Owens is a senior chemical engineering major. MAIL CALL Column makes unfair stereotypes In response to Tom Owens’ June 3 column. Tom Owens’ column has chal lenged my faith in America’s atti tude toward and respect for oth er countries. I do not see any positive re sult that can come out of the writer’s proposals. For example, his appeal to “end all tourism and visits be tween China and [the United States]” could cause more harms than benefits to the Unit ed States, the People’s Republic of China and the world. It would also be selfish and arrogant for us to demand con formity from other countries by using our superior military power without allowing diplomatic com munication. History has taught us painful ly that the arms race will bring more tension and fear to the whole world. Furthermore, on Texas A&M University’s diversified campus, Owens’ stereotyping opinion about the Chinese and other non-citizens should have had no place on the opinion page of the campus newspaper. This incident has caused many to believe the majority of • students here are in agreement ( with Mr. Owens. In my opinion, his article has offended not just the Chinese but also other international stu dents. It gives this great country a bad name. David Hendrawirawan Class of ’01 The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude the author’s name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu