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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2004)
Page 3 • Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Sports The Battalion Standing tall 1 bed otto ! Jason Meyer impresses many in freshman season with Aggies By Jordan Meserole THE BATTALION Jason Meyer doesn’t stick out much o, said : * |on the baseball field. He quietly shags fly balls during batting practice, does his routine bullpen workouts and hits the showers. At 5 feet 9 inches, he is often over shadowed by the larger, bulkier 6 foot- plus players around him. But the soft- spoken and polite redshirt freshman I left-handed pitcher from Abilene was a | leading factor for the Texas A&M base ball team’s success this season. On the season, Meyer had a 2.89 ERA, second lowest of any pitcher with at least 10 innings pitched, 111 strike outs and gave up only 34 runs in his 106 innings of work. These stats are usually rare for a pitcher in his first sea son facing hard-hitting teams like the University of Texas, Baylor University and Louisiana State University. But Meyer’s success this season almost wasn't. Last season Meyer had surgery to repair a torn ulnar col lateral ligament more commonly known as ‘Tommy John’ surgery, that has ended many ballplayers’ careers. The procedure takes non-useful ten dons from the hand, wrist, forearm or leg and replaces the torn tendon on the throwing arm. “He has had an amazing comeback,” said A&M head coach Mark Johnson. I "Most guys are off one or two years and lose a lot of velocity off their pitches - if they ever can pitch again that is - but he’s I really impressed us.” r y a Meyer attended Abilene Cooper 0 J 1 ' 1 High School where, in his senior year, I he was the star pitcher and workhorse for the team, pitching 83 innings. Despite his small frame, he caught col legiate coaches’ eyes by throwing a no archiii ig p: T Of f. 1 I’s ihotog ireser pie it: it for lograf air st hitter in his first game of the season, striking out 116 batters and compiling a 1.30 ERA. He was highly recruited by Texas Tech, Baylor, Alabama and A&M, among others. But the Olsen Magic caught Meyer’s eye after a trip to College Station. “1 came to a game and it was more than awesome,” Meyer said. “I would def initely have to say the game environment around here swayed my decision some.” Johnson said it wasn’t Meyer’s stats or pitch selections that made him so desirable, but something that can’t be taught to players. “He’s got great composure out on the mound,” Johnson said. “He’s a great competitor, doesn’t back off any body and really trusts the stuff he’s got. He’s not scared at all, he really gets after it.” Nagging soreness in his forearm after his senior season forced Meyer to see a doctor, who gave him and Johnson the unfortunate news that he would have to have surgery. As May rolled around and the 2003 season came to an end, Meyer was itching to get back on the mound and pitch again. Watching the team play and not being able to help out was excruciating, Meyer said. When doctors finally gave the greenlight for him to start again, he was throwing that very day. Meyer would get his first chance to pitch in a live game situation after almost a year on Feb. 15 against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and would use the opportunity to impress the coaches. Meyer faced five batters, allowed only one hit and struck out one in the 4-3 win. “We originally wanted to use him as a short reliever even though he didn’t real ly fit the role,” Johnson said. “After see ing him pitch in a few games, we felt that he deserved to be one of our starters, and Redshirt freshman Jason Meyer delivers a curve ball against Rice University on June 6. A&M came from behind to defeat Rice 7-5 Brian Wills • THE BATTALION and advance to the super regionals. Meyer struck out nine bat ters and walked one in the no-decision. the rest of that story is still being written.” Now after earning the coaches’ respect, Meyer has earned the respect of others in the NCAA. Meyer has been nominated for the Roger Clemens award, given to the top collegiate pitch er and the Dick Howser award, given to the top collegiate player. At the end of the Big 12 tournament in May, Meyer was named to the All-Big 12 first team and also given the honor of freshman pitcher of the year. Also, Meyer was recently awarded the A&M team award for the most outstanding pitcher. Even with overcoming Tommy John surgery, accomplishing phenomenal stats in his first season and being nominated for the prestigious awards, Meyer is still humble and shy about it all. “This has all kind of caught me off guard,” Meyer said. “I definitely didn't think 1 would have this kind of success. And to be listed with some of those pitch ers from the other clubs for those awards is an honor and dream come true.” Even though Meyer wasn’t able to help lead the Aggies past LSU into the College World Series, there will always be next season to impress fans and coaches alike even more, especially his own team. “1 expect him to do even more next season,” Johnson said. “But even if he performed like this for three more sea sons straight, I’m not going to com plain one bit.” Pistons step in as NBA champs; Lakers reign comes to end ewl hene xvot ;ti< 4 ,)a: By Chris Sheridan THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Motown is Titletown. The descendants of the Bad Boys made sure of it with a stunning upset that was really no contest at all. Without a superstar among them and without being given much of a chance, the Detroit Pistons humiliated the Los Angeles Lakers 100-87 Tuesday night in Game 5 of the NBA finals for their first title in 14 years. With finals MVP Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace leading the way, the Pistons were at their very best in the clincher, defeat ing Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers in every facet of the game. It was both methodical and shocking the way they pulled ahead and pulled away for one of the biggest sur prises in NBA finals history. Wallace took a big step toward becoming a superstar with an 18-point, 22-rebound effort that helped Detroit become the first Eastern Conference team to win the title since the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1998. Equally important was 14 points from Billups, the best guard on the floor throughout the series, 21 from Richard Hamilton and 17 from Tayshaun Prince. Game 5 was so lopsided that Lakers owner Jerry Buss, carry ing his jacket and accompanied by an entourage, headed for the exit before the third quarter was over. By the time the last time out rolled around, fans were already being urged to keep their celebrations under control. As the final buzzer sounded and confetti began dropping. Pistons coach Larry Brown sto ically walked to midcourt and received an affectionate hand shake and warm smile from Lakers coach Phil Jackson and a hug from Bryant. Many fans at The Palace stood through the final several minutes, savoring every moment they had waited for since the Bad Boys of 1989 and ’90 won back-to-back titles. The game steadily got away from the Lakers from the second quarter on, unraveling com pletely over the latter part of the third quarter when it became clear they weren’t going to make a game of it. On one especially telling sequence, Bryant missed a 3- pointer, got his own rebound but missed on a drive, and Wallace soared high above everyone to snare his 14th rebound. Bryant was then called for a blocking foul as Billups brought the ball upcouit, and an “M-V-P” chant greeted the point guard as he went to the line and made it 80-59. For good measure, Bryant missed a layup just moments later, and the quarter ended with Detroit ahead by 23 and the Lakers shuffling off the court a thoroughly defeated team. Lindsey Hunter began the fourth quarter by stealing the ball from Bryant, who could manage only a grimace and did n’t even give chase as Hunter took it in for a breakaway. It was a Pistons party the rest of the way, the culmination of one of the greatest and unexpected suc cess stories in NBA annals. Even before the series, the Pistons promised they were pre pared to shock the world. What they lacked in star power they made up for in cohesiveness and determination — two factors that Detroit displayed in abun dance throughout the finals while executing their coach’s mantra to “play the right way.” For Billups, a castoff in five NBA cities before he landed in Detroit, that meant taking advan tage of his mismatch against Gary Payton and making the key baskets that demoralized the Lakers through all five games. For Rasheed Wallace, it meant keeping relatively quiet when the officials whistled him for fouls and his coach sat him on the bench for extended peri ods because of foul trouble. For Prince, it meant keeping one of his long arms in Bryant’s face whenever possible and jus tifying the faith team architect Joe Dumars showed in him a year ago when he passed on Carmelo Anthony with the sec ond pick in the draft. For Ben Wallace, it was about pounding the boards relentlessly and showing a level of effort O’Neal could only envy. For Richard Hamilton, it was proving how big of a mis take Jordan made two years ago when he dealt him from Washington in exchange for Jerry Stackhouse. And collectively for the Pistons, it was about not being afraid as previous Eastern Conference opponents had been when confronted with the task of taking on the big, bad Lakers. Michael Coulding • KRT CAMPUS Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant attempts to steal the ball from Detroit Pistons forward Richard Hamilton in the second quarter of Game 5. The Battalion IN PRINT • ONLINE • ON RADIO News Sports Opinion Mailcall Aggielife Photo/Graphics Comics A.R News Classifieds www.thebatt.com Why bother with parking when you can walk to TAMU? - New LOWER prices - Only 2 blocks from TAMU - Now preleasing for summer/fall Casa Del Sol 696-3455 aggie.inn@verizon.net Texas A&M Univers Church ty Dr St Stasney © Cross St Casu Del Sol tMotie. PtieattaticM Centetod, * • *OF BRAZOS VALLEY FREE PREGNANCY TEST ♦ Pregnancy, Adoption & Abortion Education ♦ Post Abortion Peer Counseling ♦ Adoption, Medical & Community Service Referrals ♦ All Services Free & Confidential ♦ Open M-F 9-5 and some evenings & Saturdays ♦ www.hopepregnancy.org