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SPORTS
jesday, February 22. 20(K)
THE BATTALION
Page 9
crence in Washington
(ciation for the Advance
iaylor women’s basketball coach Hogg announces retirement
WACO (AP) — Sonja Hogg, the outspoken
oach who revived Baylor’s struggling women’s
asketball program and led the Lady Bears to
eir first postseason appear-
nce in 17 years, is retiring af-
r the worst of her six sea-
ons here.
The outspoken Hogg was
utine to treat diseases.: nee reprimanded for eom-
fourette's patients cam rents she made about offici-
ith standard drugs, a !oi ting.
Hogg’s surprise decision,
ffective at this season’s end,
ollowed a 6-17 season. The coach told team
iiembers and four incoming recruits Sunday
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HOGG
night that she was leaving.
“It’s been a fun run, but some people don’t
know when to get off the train,” Hogg, who is 82-
88 at Baylor, told the Waco Tribune-Herald in
Monday’s editions.
Last in the Big 12 with a 1 -12 record, the Lady
Bears beat Oklahoma State on Tuesday, 71 -60, to
end an 11 -game losing streak — their longest in
a decade.
However, Hogg, 54, said she wasn’t leaving
the game because of the worst losing streak in her
17-year college career.
“Sometimes the good Lord gives you a lit
tle nudge and says, ‘This might be the time,’ ”
she said. “It’s been a gut-wrenching decision.
but it’s not about winning and losing ballgames,
1 assure you.”
Hogg, who won 307 games and an NCAA ti
tle in 11 years at Louisiana Tech, came to Baylor
in 1994 and assumed leadership of a program that
had endured 10 consecutive losing seasons under
coach Pam Bowers.
Although the Lady Bears were 13-14 and 11-
19 in her first two years — Baylor’s last in the
Southwest Conference — they improved to 15-
13 in 1996-97, and 7-9 in their Big 12 debut.
“This is a sad day for Baylor women’s bas
ketball because we have lost one of the true pi
oneers in the profession,” said Baylor Athlet
ics Director Tom Stanton. “I respect and
support Sonja’s decision.”
He said 1 logg has built a solid foundation that
the school can build upon.
Hogg has accepted a position in Baylor’s de
velopment office, Stanton said. She held a simi
lar position at the University of Texas from 1988-
90.
At Louisiana Tech, Hogg led the Lady Tech-
sters to six-straight Final Four appearances, in
cluding consecutive national championships in
1981 and 1982.
Last year. Big 12 Conference Commissioner
Kevin Weiberg reprimanded Hogg for comments
she made about officiating in a loss against Ok
lahoma State. Hogg had said after the loss, “You
don’t call an intentional foul in a one-point ball-
game when someone’s going after the ball and
somebody falls down.”
The Alexandria, La., native, who signed a
five-year contract extension at Baylor before the
season began, said she reassessed her priorities
alter friends’ health problems in the athletic de
partment and wants to devote more time to her
aging parents in Louisiana.
Hogg decided to approach Stanton after he
congratulated her Tuesday night for the victory
over Oklahoma State.
“During the losing streak, I wondered iff was
going to feel the same way after we won one,”
she said. “And I did.”
The game, unfortunately, evolved
i m-jver ^ y ears j nt0 an overreeulated
ly change the way a
buy and use the sofe . ri . . . ..
Commit felonies during the offseason.
Currently, the National Football
eague (NFL) is the only destination
br the best football players in the
ountry after college.
However, if Vince McMahon’s
agonizingly slow appeiidea for his new cable child — the ex-
tat could wind through | reme football league, or XFL — goes
into effect, it could give the fans what
they were missing.
The basic plan involves faster-paced
games in eight U.S. cities starting right
rthe Super Bowl, with plenty of
rule-changing and special effects.
McMahon knows what he is doing
when it comes to planning a success
ful, meat-eating, entertaining cable
the technologylixtoyttl ser j es f[j s Monday night “Raw Is
undermine rivals. | \y ar ” y s high es t rated cable series
in history and attracts the 12- to 24-
year-old demographic like Aggies to
'Kyle Field.
With a built-in fan base — footbal I
anatics sadly waiting for the NFL Draft
lay and the non-stop channel surfers
iching for something new to stare at —
cMahon could possibly achieve rat
ings somewhat similar to ABC’s “Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
And if the games air on UPN as
suggested, that station may start nour
ishing like the WB did when “Daw
son’s Creek” hit America.
The XFL plans to give football
fans all that the NFL has taken away.
Viewers should expect unregulated
play with the return of the head-slap
and bump-and-run techniques.
The games will be limited to three
hours with no television timeouts. Mi
crophones will abound — in the huddle,
on the coaches and inside locker rooms.
Though producers will probably be
forced to hire someone to sit on the
bleeper, football fans will finally be able
to hear what the coach says to the wide
receiver when he fails to catch a per
fectly thrown ball in the end zone.
Viewers have always wanted to
know, but the NFL refuses to quench
this desire.
Another goal of the XFL is to al
low players to demonstrate their per
sonalities. Granted, this could proba
bly become insanely boisterous and
even barbarous, but those qualities
have continued to sustain ratings for
the WWF. Players will be allowed to
dance in the end zones and after sacks
— whenever they want with no threat
of a yellow Hag flying through the air.
The idea of bringing back the raw
excitement of unregulated football
seems a dream come true. However,
special effects added to the games will
be one drawback to McMahon’s plan.
Football is football, just like
wrestling was wrestling before
McMahon decided to add a lot of silly
outfits and many minutes of macho talk.
Though McMahon does not care
what “legitimate” sports executives
think about his new pro-football league,
he will not score points with hardcore
football fans if he adds frivolous ef
fects, like teams mouthing oft'to each
other for half an hour before the game
starts or flashy, fluorescent uniforms.
Planning senseless stunts could
amount to a smaller audience for the
XFL’s games, so McMahon’s plan
could amount to smaller profits for the
league.
“McMahon doesn’t give a damn
what anyone thinks of his plan,” ac
cording to the XFL Website, so expec
tant viewers will probably be subject
to the crazy effects regardless.
The eight team XFL league will
start play in cities such as Washing
ton, D.C., Los Angeles, New York,
San Francisco, Miami and Orlando in
February 2001.
Though many are doubtful of its
“true sport" components, McMahon
and the XFL can count on a large au
dience checking the game out, if noth
ing else, for its shock value.
And perhaps, if all goes right in
the world, someday the old-fashioned,
bash-their-head-in, real pigskin will
return to America.
In the meantime, Americans can
watch the XFL’s “exciting, exhilarat
ing, extreme” football to curb the
cravings for the “real thing” — Texas
Aggie football.
Jill Riley is a senior
journalism major.
ROBERT HYNECEK/Tiu: Battalion
Griffey arrives at Reds’ spring training camp
Sports in Brief
GRIFFEY
V
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Ken Griffey Jr. could have
lone without the superstar treatment—the dugout news
inference, the golf cart ride, the photo shoot on a balcony.
His new team couldn’t give him
noughofit.
The Cincinnati Reds formally
ivelcomed Griftey to spring train-
on Monday, a day after he
lipped unannounced into the club-
louse to unpack his belongings and
report to his new team.
That was more to his liking than
Ihe front-and-center treatment he
got Monday. About 150 reporters and photographers
were on hand, following his every move.
Griftey was nervous, felt out of place and wished he
pldhave been treated like just one of the guys.
just figured I’d sneak into the locker room with-
ut being noticed and go onto the field and that’s it,”
Iriffey said wistfully. “I didn’t have any idea there
would be this many people and cameras here.”
Instead of the Ordinary Joe treatment, he got the
ichael Jordan treatment. He sat atop the first base
lugout — the very spot where Jordan was seated six
(ears earlier for his introduction to minor league base-
iall — and pumped his right leg nervously during a
lalf-hour news conference.
Nervous? Not at all. Junior is back home,” gener
al manager Jim Bowden said. “It’s tremendous for
)aseball, and baseball is finally back in Cincinnati.”
Bowden pulled dff one of the biggest trades in the
history of baseball’s first professional franchise by get
ting Griffey from Seattle in a 4-for-l swap on Feb. 10.
GrifFey had told the Mariners he would accept a trade
to his hometown team, and accepted $116.5 mil-
over nine years — roughly half his market value
— to join the small-market Reds, who get to defer $57.5
million of what they owe him.
“I don’t think it’s a triumph (for small-market
clubs),” Bowden said. “Ken Griffey Jr.’s contract is the
highest contract ever given to a player in the history of
the sport, so he’s being paid a lot of money.
“It’s very unique, though, to be able to bring the
Michael Jordan of baseball home to where he was
raised. I think he’ll not only pay for himself, I think
we'll probably make more than that over the tenn of the
contract.”
Griffey couldn’t avoid the Jordan comparisons, even
though all he wanted to do was blend in and learn the
names of his new teammates.
“I don’t consider myself any different than anybody
else on our team,” he said. “I just want to go out there
and play and hope this ballclub will win a champi
onship. I’m just one of 25 guys.”
Technically, he’s one of 69 players in camp. On
Monday, he was the only one that seemed to matter.
Even his new teammates got caught up in the moment.
Griffey walked through a semicircle of photogra
phers as he left his car and headed for the clubhouse
Monday morning. Once inside, heads turned as he
walked toward his two dressing cubicles — he’s got so
much stuff that he needs more than one.
Minor league pitchers sat in a row with their legs
crossed, watching the newcomer’s every move with
wide eyes. Outfielder Dmitri Young walked over, gave
Griffey a hug, then retreated to his dressing cubicle and
watched with a huge grin as dozens of reporters roamed
around.
It reminded the fonner Cardinal of the day that Mark
McGwire reported to the St. Louis clubhouse for the
first time.
“Wow,” Young said. “This is a great day. There’s a
media circus, the fans are in a frenzy, it’s going to be
great for the Cincinnati Reds. There’s a lot of adrena
line flowing.”
Outside, about 200 fans — a much larger crowd than
the day before — watched pitchers and catchers work
out on and hoped for a glimpse of the newcomer. A few
wore Griffey Seattle or Cincinnati replica jerseys.
He didn’t have time to mingle. After the interview
and photo sessions, he had to head off to find a place to
stay for spring training. He was due back for a physical
exam Tuesday and the first ftill-squad workout a day
later.
Griffey was looking forward to that.
“Yeah, I’m nervous,” he admitted. “I just want to
go out and play. There were some things written and
said about me that were not true, and I just want to make
people forget about it by going out there and playing.”
Griffey took exception to suggestions that he forced
Seattle to trade him. He also bristled over the talk about
money.
“I think the one thing that bothered me the most was
that everybody said, ‘When an athlete says it’s not for
the money, it’s for the money.’ I’ve always said from
Day One that it’s not about money,” he said. “And I
guess in a way I proved it, but it wasn’t intentional.”
By agreeing to take millions of dollars less to play
for his hometown team, Griffey became a sensation in
Cincinnati. The Reds’ offices were overwhelmed by
calls about tickets, and fans flew banners over the city
welcoming him home.
He has heard about the commotion secondhand.
“As far as all the excitement of Cincinnati, I still
have family there,” he said. “They were calling me and
telling me they had people flying planes and helicopters
(pulling banners). It was like, ‘Here we go again.’ But
I’m happy. 1 grew up there.”
LECHLER
Webster, Lechler
receive honors
The All-American Football Foun
dation announced its 1999 All-
America football
team and two
Texas A&M se
niors, punter
Shane Lechler
and cornerback
Jason Webster,
were named to
the squad.
“The Founda
tion waits until all
of the returns are in, after the
championship games have been
played, before voting on the All-
America teams,” Jimmie McDowell,
the All-American Football Founda
tion president, said.
Lechler helped the Aggies finish
No. 1 in the country in net punting
average and he finished as the all-
time NCAA career
punt leader with an
average of 44.7 for
his career.
He also set
the NCAA record
for games with a
40-yard plus aver
age with 37
games in his four-
year career.
Webster turned in an excellent
senior season as a coverage corner
WEBSTER
and was the team leader with 10
passes broken up and he inter
cepted four other passes.
He recorded 74 tackles and was
involved in a team-high 640 defen
sive snaps, seeing action on punt
coverage and all kick returns.
Webster was honored by his
teammates with the Aggie Heart
Award, the most prestigious honor
for an Aggie Senior football player.
Baseball hits road
to face SHSU
The Texas A&M baseball team
travels to Huntsville Tuesday to take
on the Sam Houston State Univer
sity Bearkats at 2
p.m.
The Aggies (5-
6) are coming off
a series win
against the Uni
versity of Arizona
Wildcats this past
weekend at Olsen
Field.
Arizona took
the first game of the series, 4-1.
A&M came back and won the last
two games, 8-3 and 7-3.
The Aggies swept the season se
ries against the Bearkats last year,
winning 7-3 in Huntsville and 14-10
at Olsen Field.
A&M returns home Friday to
open Big 12 play against Kansas
State University.
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