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Du Battalion
Sports
Page 3 • Monday, June 21, 1999
er Aggic pitchers eye big-league future
Cardinals make Caple first-round pick
JP BEATO/The Battalion
Junior pitcher Chance Caple, who finished the 1999 baseball season at 8-5 with a 4.26
ERA, was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft by St. Louis.
BY JEFF WEBB
The Battalion
Don and Janiece Caple ribbed each oth
er in front of the television set Friday night
with their son Chance looking on. You will
have to forgive the Caple family for not
putting a rut in the carpet pacing over the
important house guest they were to re
ceive later that evening.
The St. Louis Cardinals scheduled Ben
Gallante, a team scout, to make an ap
pearance Friday to contact the June 2 draft
pick and his family and “throw a propos
al at them” in the words of Cardinals Di
rector of Scouting John Mozeliak.
“I would hope to [sign him early],” he
said. “Players in front of him have been
drafted and signed. If he’s looking to go
where the others have gone [money wise],
it should be simple.”
Though Chance, who will not turn 21
until Aug. 9, has one year of college eligi
bility remaining, he is expected to sign
with St. Louis after the Cardinals made
him the 30th pick in the first round. It was
the latest pick in franchise history, but to
hear Mozeliak tell the story, it was just
what the team wanted.
“When we put together our draft, we
saw that the strength of the draft was
pitching,” he said. “As far as our minor
league system needs, we just go ahead
and draft the best player out there.”
Scouts’ visits to the Caple house are a
family institution since Chance’s father
played for the University of Arkansas,
and Chance’s older brother, Kyle, played
for Texas Christian University. Kyle end
ed up in the Minnesota Twins’ organiza
tion. The San Diego Padres took Chance
in the eighth round of the 1996 draft out
of Carroll High School, but he said he at
tended Texas A&M without regret.
“I enjoyed my three years,” he said.
“Ending my last year with a College World
Series trip was fun. The team turned a lot
of heads, and we had fun doing it.”
The visit of which the family seemed
most proud was the one that had not hap
pened yet. On Father’s Day weekend, Don
Caple could say no wrong about his young
son and his baseball future.
CHANCE CAPLE
1999 STATISTICS
RECORD — 8-5
WINNING % — .615
ERA — 4.26
OPPONENTS’ BATTING
AVERAGE — .246
STRIKEOUTS — 125
“This is something the whole family is
looking forward to,” he said. “We have a
meeting scheduled for tonight (Friday).
They could not make contact with him un
til he finished this year, so we haven’t
even starting talking to them yet.”
Caple does not have an agent yet, but
the IMG corporation supplied them ad
viser Casey Close for their talks with the
Cardinals. Close handled the negotia
tions for former A&M football recruit
Choo Freeman, who signed with the Col
orado Rockies in 1998 after being a
‘sandwich pick’ between the first and
second rounds.
“They have good people,” Don Caple
said. “Choosing someone was quite a fam
ily episode.
“There were lots of people calling, and
we were worried about some of them in
fluencing our son, but most of the people
we were talking to were nice people.”
The Cardinals used six of their first nine
picks on right-handed pitchers this year,
and Caple was the first. In 1998, he post
ed a 7-1 record with a 3.79 ERA as a
starter-reliever. Caple was 8-4 with a 4.21
ERA this season.
“I didn’t want to go into the draft with
high expectations, but I’m looking for
ward to playing,” Chance Caple said.
St. Louis then selected Nick Stocks
from Florida State University as a “sand
wich pick,” the 36th overall. FSU led the
NCAA in team ERA, and Stocks (11-2, 3.15
ERA) put up better numbers than Caple
this season. However, Mozeliak said num
bers are not what scouts are after.
“With those guys, you look at their
durability,” he said. “Assuming all things
are equal, Caple’s size tells us he will be
able to pitch at the professional level.
Stocks is a guy who had ‘Tommy John’
surgery a couple of years ago.”
In the eighth round, the Cardinals se
lected A&M catcher Shawn Schumacher
with the 252nd overall pick. If he signs,
both players will be assigned to the New
Jersey Cardinals, a developmental league
team that will begin play immediately.
“We were looking to get a catcher,
which was a position we lacked in our mi
nor league system,” Mozeliak said. “It’s a
bonus because he’s caught [Caple] before,
and going out to pro ball, he will have a
friend.”
So Caple will take his battery-mate,
commanding mound presence and 90-
mile-an-hour fastball to New Jersey, car
rying on the family tradition of playing
with the goal of pitching in the big show.
Now that is a Father’s Day present no dad
could refuse.
rossunt heads to Red Sox at No. 48
BY REECE FLOOD
The Battalion
After three tremendous years as an
( ie pitcher, Casey Possum is leaving
to pursue a career in professional
bpseball.
The Boston Red Sox selected Possum
With the 48th overall pick in the 1999 Ma-
jov League Baseball draft. Possum said he
is excited about his being drafted.
“Boston is a good team,” Possum
* {said. “I think I’m going to fit in well
■ with them.”
The lefthander will be remembered
■ ai one of A&M’s most successful pitch-
. ejs, A&M pitching coach Jim Lawler
: slid.
“You’ve got to put him into the top
"^jgr, up,” he said.
Possum struck out 162 batters last
3ai|dm;season to break Jeff Granger’s single-
season A&M strikeout record of 150.
I Lawler said he is sorry to be losing
— his ace pitcher, but he said he knows
FAssum will have an impact on his fu
ture team.
“You know he can go get the left-
handed hitters,” he said. “That’s one of
the first things professional baseball
looks at.”
Possum is not sure when he will start
playing, but he will most likely gain ex
perience as a pitcher for a Red Sox mi
nor-league team. He is currently work
ing on contract negotiations and hopes
to take the mound as soon as possible.
“I’d like to get out there and start
playing again,” Possum said.
CASEY FOSSUM
1999 STATISTICS
RECORD — 12-7
WINNING % — .632
ERA — 3.64
OPPONENTS’ BATTING
AVERAGE — .231
STRIKEOUTS — 162
Possum said he is uncertain what his
role will be with his new team. If he be
gins play as a starter, he should be able
to throw the ball hard on every pitch and
maintain his velocity. On the other hand,
if the team decides to use him as a re
liever, he is confident he can pitch 25-30
pitches an outing.
Although Possum is anxious to start
playing, he also is ready to give his arm
a well-deserved rest. Possum pitched
133 innings this season, the most ever
by an Aggie in one season.
While at A&M, Possum has prepared
for his next career step, pitching suc
cessfully to strong batters with alu
minum bats for the past three years.
“A good hitter with an aluminum bat
is comparable to a real, real good ma
jor-league baseball player with a wood
en bat,” Possum said. “If I can pitch to
that, I can pitch to anybody.”
Possum had an opportunity to sign
with the majors when he was drafted
out of Midway High School in Waco,
but he decided to try to improve his
game at A&M.
“Had I signed out of high school, I
might have been a little behind where I
am right now,” he said.
Possum ended his final season for the
Aggies with a 12-7 record and a 3.64
ERA, earning the C. E. “Pat” Olsen Out
standing Pitcher award and a trip to the
College World Series.
Possum said he will return to A&M
in the fall for workouts and to take
classes if his schedule allows. He hopes
to go to instructional league during the
winter break at the Boston Red Sox
spring training facility.
SALLIE TURNER/The Battalion
A&M junior pitcher Casey Fossum, who this year set the single-season Aggie record for strikeouts
with 162, was taken with the 48th overall pick of the major-league draft by the Red Sox.
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — This
season’s University of Miami team
was different from those of recent
years and not just because the Hur
ricanes finally won a champi
onship for coach Jim Morris.
This year, they were better as a
nit.
“I’ve always said when I’ve got
the team that wins the national ti
tle, that’s going to be my best team,
nd this team plays together the
iest,” Morris said after the Hurri
canes beat Florida State Universi
ty, 6-5, for the NCAA champi
onship.
I In his first five seasons at Mia-
mi, Morris always brought a con-
fender to the College World Series.
Those big-hitting teams often left
disappointed, labeled as under
achievers.
I The 1998 Hurricanes, led by No.
1 draft pick Pat Burrell, set school
records for homers, RBIs, total
bases, runs per game and slugging
percentage. They left Omaha after
scoring eight runs in three games.
1 In 1997, Miami won its first two
CWS games but was eliminated by
consecutive losses to Alabama,
one of the teams the Hurricanes al
ready had beaten.
I Then there was the haunting
end to the 1996 season. Miami was
one out from the national title
when Louisiana State University’s
Warren Morris lifted the Tigers to
a 9-8 victory with a ninth-inning
homer.
Finally, in his sixth year, Morris
got his title, the school’s third. And
it was a scrappy team that won it,
surviving injuries, winning with
singles and bunts and getting out
standing pitching.
“Growing up in Miami, I re
member how it felt in 1996 just be
ing a fan,” outfielder Manny Cre
spo said. “I remember ’97 and last
year, when we came here and
failed to win.
“This year, we just had guys
keep stepping up and battling and
pulling off wins. We had so many
guys do it. I’ve never seen a team
play as tight as we did this year.”
On Saturday, the biggest con
tributor was Kevin Brown, who
homered in the second inning to
tie the game, 2-2, and hit a three-
run double in Miami’s five-run
fifth to put the Hurricanes ahead
for good.
“I thought the home run was
huge because it tied the game and
got us going,” Morris said. “All of
Kevin’s home runs have been big
this year, whether here, in the Re
gional or Super Regional.”
Stars take sports eyes away from ’Boys
DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas
Cowboys are no longer riding high
on the local sports scene. Six years
after moving to town, the Dallas
Stars have taken over.
The Stars won the NHL title ear
ly Sunday, the first Stanley Cup for
a team from the Sun Belt.
For the Stars, who moved from
Minneapolis in 1993 to raised eye
brows about their prospects on the
sunbaked plains, the
Stanley Cup affirms
hockey’s place in the
pantheon of Texas
sports.
“We’ve come from
the point where peo
ple didn’t know what
a goal was or any of
the rules to every
body being crazy about the sport —
it’s gone 180 degrees,” said Craig
Ludwig, one of three former Min
nesota North Stars still on the roster.
“It’s incredible.”
The Stars won the first title in the
32-year history of their franchise
when Brett Hull scored in triple
overtime, giving Dallas a 2-1 victory
over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6
and 4-2 series win.
The Cowboys, who have won
five Super Bowls, had been the only
local team to win a major sports ti
tle. Baseball’s Texas Rangers have
won one playoff game since arriving
in 1972; basketball’s Dallas Maver
icks haven’t made the playoffs since
1990.
While football will always be
king in Texas, for now the guys with
stars on their sweaters are more pop
ular than the guys with the stars on
their helmets.
“This is the first time somebody
besides the Cowboys has won a
championship. This
is a whole new ball
game,” Joe Nelson,
22, said. “There’s
something besides
football in Texas.”
“It’s great,”
Cowboys quarter
back TYoy Aikman
said earlier this
week of the Stars’ championship
run. “It brings back a lot of fond
memories for us. ”
The Stars’ headquarters is less
than a mile from the Cowboys’
training facility in Valley Ranch,
near Irving. Many football players
are regulars at hockey games and
everyone has seen the city swept
into a Cowboys-like frenzy.
“If they win, you will see this city
stop talking about the ’Boys and talk
about the Stars,” running back Em-
mitt Smith predicted Tliesday.
Many Stars fans were asleep
Blues acquire Dallas goalie
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis
Blues acquired Dallas Stars backup
goalie Roman Tlirek on Sunday in
hopes he will challenge 37-year-old
Grant Fuhr for the starting job.
Turek, 29, the backup to Ed
Belfour in Dallas, cost the Blues
a third-round pick in the Entry
Draft. He was 16-3-3 with one
shutout and a 2.02 goals-against
average last season for the Stan
ley Cup champions and tied for
10th in the NHL with a .925
save percentage.
when the game ended at 12:32 a.m.,
missing many newspaper deadlines
but not The Dallas Morning Nevus,
which splashed “Overjoyed” across
the front page. Local television cov
erage of the locker-room celebration
lasted until 2 a.m.
About 200 fans greeted the
team’s arrival around 6:45 a.m.,
shouting “We want cup! We want
cup!” as players climbed aboard a
bus. Goaltender Ed Belfour obliged,
hoisting the trophy over his head as
he walked along a chain-link fence,
allowing fans to touch it.
Dallas will throw a parade fol
lowed by a rally today at Reunion
“We believe Roman has the
ability and character to be a No. 1
goaltender, and he’ll get the
chance to prove that,” Blues gen
eral manager Larry Pleau said.
“Roman should be an excellent fit
for our club.
“His experience playing for a
Stanley Cup champion should
benefit us next season and into
the future.”
Pleau said he will likely expose
Fuhr in the expansion draft on Fri
day and did not expect to lose him.
Arena, the 17,001-seat venue where
the Stars sold out their last 49 games
despite being ousted in last year’s
Western Conference finals.
Just the opposite happened in
Minnesota after the North Stars lost
in the finals in 1991.
Small crowds prompted then-
owner Norm Green to consider
leaving Minneapolis. Dallas
seemed an unlikely choice, but it
was part of the NHL’s overall plan
to spread its sport.
Texans were not always sure what
was happening in games, but they
bought into the slogan that the NHL
was “the coolest game on ice.”