GIE1 :diter. 101} ‘discJ Sttiv; tudicv gore 'uistkJ lifeirl drive t; seem' nlodi;. kcik' ml 112 lu i Sports The Battalion Page 5 • Thursday, July 11, 2002 D says Tech football budget to be balanced by September LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Texas Tech’s overbudget foot ball program, which couldn’t afford to send its outgoing mail this summer, will have a bal anced budget before September, [athletic director Gerald Myers said Wednesday. Fund-raising money and some of a $1.62 million payout from the Aug. 24 season open er at Ohio State will shore up a $400,000 overrun before the fiscal year ends Aug. 3 1, Myers [said. In recent weeks, news of the football program’s budget prob lems created a rift between coach Mike Leach and school administrators. But Leach and Myers said at a Wednesday news conference that they worked things out in a Tuesday meeting with school administrators. Leach said the situation was made more difficult because he was out of town in the days after news broke that the program was denied outgoing mail privileges in May and June because it owed $5,000 to Tech’s mail service. “With people scattered around the county and things of that nature this time of year, yesterday was a great chance to get together, and I think every body’s headed in the same direction,” Leach said. Leach said the move to stop his mail was detrimental to recruiting efforts in that it occurred at a time when tele- I.EACH phone calls to recruits were prohibited. Leach’s job performance was never part of discussions Tuesday afternoon with Tech President David Schmidly, Myers and Leach, university spokeswoman Cindy Rugeley said. Leach said he did not believe the budget has affected the players or their preparations for the upcoming season and that he is putting the controver sy behind him. Myers said Wednesday he Spaniards capture stage 4 ‘Good ride’ by USPS helps Armstrong gain ground C H AT EAU-THIERRY, France (AP) — The Spaniards sped to victory and a blown tire stalled the rival Danes, ensuring a “good ride” and a second- place finish Wednesday for Lance Armstrong’s squad in the Tour de France team time-trial. Team Once won the stage, clocking 1 hour, 19 minutes, 49 seconds in the 41.85-mile run from Epernay to Chateau- Thierry, northeast of Paris. Armstrong and his U.S. Postal teammates were 16 seconds behind. “As close as it was, there’s a little bit of regret,” said Armstrong, bidding for a fourth Tour championship. “We could have been a little more aggres sive in the first 20 kilometers (12.4 miles).” Still, he said, it was among the best showings by USPS in its current form. “I’m happy with the team,” he said. “We had a good ride.” The strong performance by U.S. Postal helped Armstrong move into third place — seven seconds behind — after starting the day in fifth. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano, riding for Once, became the first Spaniard in seven years to don the yellow jersey of the overall leader. Joseba Beloki was in second, four seconds behind his teammate. Thousands of fans lined the route for Wednesday’s fourth stage, marked by cloudy skies but only one brief dose of rain near the finish. That was a con trast to the downpour during the time trial a year ago, when two of Armstrong’s teammates fell on the slick roadway. “Compared to last year, it’s a big relief — coming in second without any problems,” Armstrong said. The Danish team CSC- Tiscali finished third, but had a rough ride. CSC-Tiscali, whose racers include France’s Laurent Jalabert and American Tyler Hamilton, clocked the fastest time through the first two inter mediate splits. Then Michael Sandstod got a flat tire and had to change his bike. His team- mates slowed to wait for him before speeding ahead. But the damage was done -— the team lost time. “There was a misunder standing,” Jalabert said. “We had agreed on a strategy of not waiting for anyone — and we didn't keep to it.” CSC-Tiscali finished 30 sec onds behind USPS. The overall standings under scored the importance of faring well in the team time trial. After Wednesday’s stage, the first 14 racers in the overall standings were either from Once or USPS. The Telekom team of German sprinting specialist Erik Zabel, who held the yellow jer sey coming into the day’s action, finished nearly three 2002 TOUR DE FRANCE A win for Once; yellow for Igor Spanish team Once won the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, a team time-trial through the heart of Champagne country. Once’s Igor Gonzalez Galdeano of Spain took the overall leader’s yellow jersey. o too mi , LUXEMBOURG 0 100 km Stage 5 Thursday, July 11 Soissons to Rouen 195 kilometers (120.9 miles) Soissons 145 feet Clairoix 142 feet Stage start a Stage finish B Stage ® finish/start Rest a Berneuil- sur-Aisne 175 feet Br u n vl 11 er s-la-IVI otte 442 feet Rouen Formerle 231 feet 775 feet Noyers-sur-Martln - 591 feet Grandvllliers 690 feet Forges-les-Eaux 120.9 561 feet miles SOURCES: Associated Press: Societe du Tour de France; ESRI AP minutes behind Once. Zabel sank to 39th place overall. In addition, the team time trial winner can reap an impor tant psychological advantage over other riders, said Frenchman Bernard Hinault, one of only four riders to win the Tour de France five times. “The time trial gives us an idea of the strength of each team,” he said. “It’s difficult to make any predictions about them before this test, because the teams have changed so much since last year.” Last week, at a news confer ence before the start of the Tour, Armstrong said he believed this year’s Postal Service team is the best yet. The team gained two new riders — American Floyd Landis and Czech Pavel Padrnos —^ and saw the return of Benoit Joachim of Luxembourg, whom team lead ers selected for the 2000 Tour but not last year’s. didn’t blame coaches for the shortfall. “We knew at the beginning of the year that our budgets would be extremely tight,” Myers said. “I don’t think our coaches have been reckless with the budget.” Less than two weeks ago, Myers said he was tired of hear ing comments from some Tech coaches about how the football program’s budget compared with other Big 12 schools. The program’s operating budget was $1.2 million for fiscal year 2002, placing it in the bottom three in the Big 12, excluding salaries and scholarships. “Well this is what we have at Texas Tech. We’re going to do the best we can with what we have,” Myers said in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on June 29. “I’m tired of hearing about what they do there. Maybe they should get a job there if they think that’s so great.” Myers apologized for his comments Wednesday. “In the heat of the moment, public comments were made that we all regret,” he said. All-Star game has worst TV rating ever NEW YORK (AP) — There was not a winner in the All-Star game but there was a loser: the sport’s television rating. Tuesday night’s controver sial 7-7, 11-inning tie in Milwaukee set a record for baseball’s lowest-rated All-Star game, getting a 9.5 rating and 17 share, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday. The rating was down 14 per cent from the 1 1.0 for the American League’s 4-1 victory last year in Seattle. The previous low was a 10.1 for the AL’s 6-3 win two years ago in Atlanta. Like network ratings in gen eral, the All-Star game rating has steadily declined. From a peak of 28.5 in 1970, dropped below 20 for the first time in 1987. The game drew a 15.7 rating in 1994, then dropped to 13.9 the follow ing year after a strike wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years. Tuesday night’s game was seen by an average of 10,023,000 households, less than half the 20.38 million that tuned in 20 years earlier. The rating is the percentage of television households in the United States watching a broadcast, and each point rep resents 1,055,000 homes. The share is the percentage watch ing a program among those households with televisions on at the time. Because of a lengthy pregame show, the game started later than in recent years, after 9 p.m. EDT. Commissioner Bud Selig stopped it at 12:35 a.m., when the teams ran out of pitchers. Some in the sellout crowd of 41,871 threw bottles on the field, booed and chanted “Let them play!” and “Bud must go!” ESPN’s telecast of the Home Run Derby on Monday night drew a 6.1 1 rating — the sec ond-highest rated show this year on the network. The competi tion, won by the New York Yankees’ Jason Giambi, was up 18 percent from last year’s event, which drew a 5.19. SPORTS IN BRIEF Stars to start away from home in 2003 DALLAS (AP) — The new-look Dallas Stars will open the upcoming season on the road against Colorado on Oct. 9, then will make their home debut two nights later against Anaheim. The Stars, entering their 10th season in Dallas, are coming off their first non-playoff appearance since 1996. They have a new coach, new goal- tender and three new high- priced free agents to try return ing the team to among the NHL's elite. The season schedule released Wednesday shows that the Stars will play only four of their first 13 games at American Airlines Center. The flip side is that from Nov. 6 to Dec. 13 they'll have 11 of 18 games at home. OPEN mmm mu smms NO COVER FOR LADIES 21 AND OVER $1.00 CALL IT ALL NI6HT wrww. I WEDNESDAY I NOW OPEN! 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