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
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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
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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
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