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Sports
■
The Battalion
Johnson tries to balance recruiting with draft
MLB amatuer draft takes bite out of2003 squad
By Jeff Allen
THE BATTALION
In the world of sports, there are
probably more cliches than there are
athletes and sports writers to beat the
tired old words into submission on a
daily basis. However, there is usually
a reason why things become cliches.
Take, for example, the well-worn say
ing, “Any given team can win on any
given day.” Aggies of all stripes have
learned this lesson over the years.
The most recent tutorial came
about a month ago when the Texas
A&M baseball team came up short
against a team that lost twice as many
games as the Aggie squad. Houston
beat the Aggies twice in a row at
Olsen Field, and ended the Aggies’
opportunity to take on the eventual
national champion Rice Owls in Rice
Super Regional.
“You count your blessings anytime
you get into post-season play,” said
A&M coach Mark Johnson. “Then the
game itself sometimes can get cruel,
you don’t get a second chance.”
The Aggies may have lost that night,
but Johnson explained that the Aggies’
fate was the same as 63 other teams
who entered post-season play last year.
It is just the nature of the game.
“Anyone can win, and you run that
risk so often in baseball. That’s why
you play 56 games, and you’re still
not positive this is the best team.
Nonetheless, you move on and have to
mature,” Johnson said.
It’s the moving on part where the
Aggies find themselves today, and in
baseball, like many other major col
lege sports, the off-season poses its
own challenges.
In June each year. Major League
Baseball holds its amateur draft. The
draft tests a college team twofold and
takes shots at the incoming recruiting
class as well as players who are
already on the team.
R LAYERS
going pro
Brian Finch
*Scott Beerer
Logan Kensing
Matt Farnum
Kyle Parcus
Zach Dixon
Robert Ramsey
Dwayne Pollock
* Scott Beerer is going to sign
“It’s hard to get continuity in a pro
gram with the June draft,” Johnson said.
Initially, a player has the option of
signing a professional contract out of
high school, but if he waives that and
goes on to play college ball he has
made what amounts to a commitment
to the university to play for at least
three years. However, if a player turns
21 before the amatuer draft, he can
elect to go pro before his junior season.
This stipulation has cost the Aggies
three players in the past two seasons,
including Logan Kensing this year.
The club stands to lose as many as
nine players off last year’s second
place Big 12 team to the professional
ranks, including juniors Brian Finch,
Matt Farnum, Kyle Parcus and All-
American Scott Beerer, among others.
“I had decided if I had a good
enough season (I’d enter the draft),
“Beerer said. “I’m excited about it. I
couldn’t pass up the money and the
opportunity (to play professional
baseball).”
The draft not only affects the cur
rent team, but also the year’s recruiting
class. It is not uncommon for players to
skip college and go straight to minor-
league ball. It puts college clubs in
direct competition for some of the best
talent across the country with deep-
pocketed professional franchises.
“It’s always been a problem, but
(more so today with) the amount of
money they are giving to guys, some
they are really rolling the dice on,”
Johnson said. “When I started coach
ing it was like $100,000 was the
ultimate, and now it is ($)7 million
just to sign (their) name on a piece
of paper. It’s hard for people to
turn down.”
This problem complicates recruit
ing even further by adding another
variable to the equation. Not only do
college coaches have to look at the
talent of a player, but they also have to
consider whether the player is going
to sign a contract and leave the col
lege team with roster spots to fill and
the recruiting season past.
“It’s frustrating, but part of our
recruiting,” Johnson said. “We have
to find players who can play, but
whether the professional people want
them is in account, too. I don’t want to
sign 10 guys who are going to sign
pro contracts in June; then I’m left
JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
A&M coach Mark Johnson looks down after a play didn’t go the Aggies’ way against
Houston at the College Station Regional in June.
with nothing. We try to get the top onship. Those are (usually) the same
players to win a national champi- guys who the professionals want.”
ACC introduces Miami and Virginia Tech
By Tim Reynolds
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Money played a large
role in Miami’s decision to leave the Big East and
join the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But not in the way that might have been expected.
Miami officials relied less on the amounts of the
offers from the two conferences and more on the
ways the leagues distribute profits to all sports.
If guaranteed money over the next five years was
the most important factor, then university president
Donna Shalala and athletic director Paul Dee would
have kept the Hurricanes in the Big East.
“Frankly, the Big East made us a better financial
offer,” Shalala said after the announcement Monday.
“It was a sense of the future. They’re fundamentally
different in the way in which they distribute money.”
So, Miami went to the ACC largely because that
conference pays all its members the same amount. In
the Big East, teams received some base money, then
more in a sliding bonus system that rewarded nation
al championships and other achievements.
“More importantly, if there is a revenue-sharing
situation, you can budget accordingly because you
pretty much know what you’re going to get,” Miami
athletic spokesman Mark Pray said Tuesday. “It’s not
predicated solely by what you get in football, and that
really helps our Olympic sports.”
In the 2001-02 academic year, ACC members
received $9.7 million each, the highest disbursement
in that conference’s history. Miami earned a reported
$9.3 million that year, but even with a substantial
bonus for appearing in a Bowl Championship Series
game and winning the national title, the Hurricanes
made less than every other ACC school.
Miami made $4 million by appearing in the 2001
season’s BCS title game at the Rose Bowl; they
would have made $ 1.7 million less otherwise.
Much of the ACC money comes from TV deals.
The schools will split $69 million for the three
seasons left on the conference’s football TV contracts
with ABC, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot Sports. By
adding Miami and Virginia Tech, the ACC figures to
negotiate a much better deal next time around.
“In the Big East, which has worked for us up until
now, the more successful you were, the more money
you got,” Shalala said. “If you look at the ACC, it’s
an even distribution. Everyone gets the same thing. In
addition to that, the ACC could better accommodate
all of our sports.”
Specifically, baseball. Miami remained independ
ent in baseball when it joined the Big East 12 years
ago, a move that kept the Hurricanes from commit
ting to at least six road trips to the Northeast every
spring.
Miami was, and will remain for one more year, a
Big East member in all other sports. But travel costs
for track, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, volley
ball, rowing and swimming and diving teams will be
much lower when the Hurricanes enter a regionalized
conference.
An average of 1,284 miles separates Miami from
the other campuses of full Big East members. Only
830 miles, on average, spans between Coral Gables
and the schools that will be the Hurricanes’ ACC
foes.
Virginia Tech, 900 miles from Coral Gables, was
the Hurricanes’ closest rival in Big East competition.
But the Hokies will become Miami’s third-longest
travel distance in ACC play.
“There’s a lot more broader issues than athletics,”
said Richard Ensor, commissioner of the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference. “Presidents think about
what schools they want to be associated with. An
association with ACC schools makes a lot more sense
with Virginia Tech and Miami in terms of geogra
phy.”
Shalala also said Miami’s academic interests
would be better served by a switch to the ACC, which
is trying to strengthen its academic alliances. She did
not say academic reputations were better at ACC
schools than at Big East institutions, but likened the
setup in the ACC as comparable to what other aca
demic conferences have in place.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
University of Miami basketball coach Perry Clark is
greeted by fans and trustees as he enters a news con
ference about joining the ACC.
From 1987 to 1993, Shalala was the chancellor at
Wisconsin, a Big Ten school that has the sort of aca
demic cooperative in place like the one the ACC
aspires to have. Schools in the Big Ten often apply for
grants together, share library resources, have student
exchanges and visiting professorships from other
member institutions.
The “broader” academic goals in the ACC was
another attractive tenet, Shalala said.
“The ACC has built a remarkable conference
based on equal treatment and high academic and ath
letic expectations,” Shalala said. “We have both. This
is a good move for this university.”
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Tom Holliday named new
Longhorn pitching coach
AUSTIN (AP) — Former Oklahoma State base
ball coach Tom Holliday was named the new
pitching coach for Texas on Tuesday. He'll take
the job vacated by Frank Anderson, named as
Holliday's successor at Oklahoma State.
Holliday was fired in May after the Cowboys
missed the post-season playoffs for the second
straight season. Holliday spent the past 26
years at Oklahoma State including the last
seven as the head coach. He was 281-150 at
Oklahoma State.
"Tom's hiring gives our players the opportu
nity and privilege to work with one of the great
teachers in the game. He is a strong addition to
our baseball family," Texas head coach Augie
Garrido said. Among major leaguers coached
by Holliday are Robin Ventura, Jeremy Burnitz,
Pete Incaviglia, Doug Dascenzo and Mickey
Tettleton.
Mets trade a disappointing
Roberto Alomar to White Sox
NEW YORK (AP) — Roberto Alomar's disap
pointing stay with the New York Mets ended
Tuesday when the 12-time All-Star second
baseman was traded to the Chicago White Sox
for three minor league prospects.
In exchange for Alomar, the Mets received
pitchers Royce Ring and Edwin Almonte and
infielder Andrew Salvo.
The trade marks the beginning of a long-
expected makeover of the Mets. The team is in
last place for the second straight season
despite having a $116.9 million payroll on
opening day, the second highest in baseball.
Alomar, 35, is in the final season of a contcact
that pays him $8 million. He came to New York
in an eight-player trade with Cleveland after
batting .336 with 20 home runs and 100 RBIs
for the Indians in 2001.
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