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please recycle this paper!
12 Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, April 14,1999
Women gain in Davis’ close loss
Many people on campus
— and in the Eugene
area — have recently
questioned the role of women in
society.
And on a different playing
field, even I have found myself
contemplating the issue.
That realization hit me Satur
day afternoon at the Hayward Re
lays. The crowd of 4,689 fans was
on its feet, cheering wildly as All
American Marie Davis ran shoul
der-to-shoulder with Stanford’s
Sally Glynn in the distance med
ley relay.
Until that moment, I did not
know what it was about track and
field that seemed to draw me. But
between Davis, the crowd and
every other exciting event on the
men’s and women’s teams, I dis
covered the reason why.
Sports has been a male-domi
nated world since it earliest be
ginnings, and to this day it still is.
To prove my statement, I present
an easy-to-follow, four-step plan:
Step 1: Buy a newspaper.
Step 2: Open up to the sports
section.
Step 3: Count the number of
men’s and women’s headlines.
Step 4: Compare.
This plan may not work with
the Emerald, because with
women’s basketball, tennis, golf
and softball, Oregon is an oasis
for women’s sports. But the slant
ed results in the majority of news
papers may cause people to ques
tion why things are the way they
are.
Think about basketball, and
why the NBA attracts so many
more fans than its women’s
league counterpart. Yes, the NBA
has been around longer and has a
bigger fan base, and in time, the
WNBA could have a large fan
base, too.
The problem is not that women
can’t be physical. Anyone who
thinks that is the case should go
watch an Oregon women’s bas
ketball game and reevaluate the
situation.
The truth is that
the majority of bas
ketball fans want
more than just a
physical game —
they want a game
played above the
rim. A women’s
basketball game
has almost every
thing, but it lacks
the high-flying
dunks and acrobat
ic aerial moves that fill the high
light reels on SportsCenter.
The same concept holds true
across the board. Around the
world, there are more fans for
male-dominated sports such as
football, basketball, hockey and
soccer. Men are biologically big
ger and stronger and therefore can
put on a more visual show.
But as I watched Davis and her
Stanford opponent battle down
the back stretch of Hayward
Field, I finally found an instance
where I was wrong.
I sometimes refer to track and
field as “the missing link” be
tween male and female sports, be
cause I have found it to be the
only widely viewed sport in
i_
Scott
Pesznecker
which men and women compete
on equal ground.
Yes, men’s track will still gain
more media attention than
women’s track. But on the field of
play, with the crowd on its feet
and cheering for the hometown
favorite, there is not one major
difference between a male and fe
male competitor.
Track and field is all about
technique, focus and preparation.
There are no flashy distractions
such as dunks, spins or bicycle
kicks that will take attention
away from the key elements of
the sport.
Davis’ race was similar to the
men’s 4x800-meter relay, where
Richard Girvan took the lead with
about 100 meters remaining to
claim another victory for the
Ducks.
In terms of the big picture,
women have a lot of catching up
to do if men’s and women’s
sports are ever going to be com
pletely equal. And because men
have the biological edge to be
come bigger and more athletic,
perhaps complete equality in all
sports never will be achieved.
But as All-American Marie
Davis slipped into second place
moments before crossing the fin
ish line of the distance medley re
lay, the pumped-up crowd wit
nessed something that is unique
in sports history.
At Hayward Field, all was equal.
Scott Pesznecker is a sports reporter
for the Emerald. He can be reached
via e-mail at
spesznec@gladstone.uoregon.edu
UConn’s El-Amin arrested,
charged for dopey maneuver
oy oimi uuuuidi
The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — Khalid
El-Amin, who helped Connecti
cut win its first national champi
onship just 15 days ago, was ar
rested Tuesday and charged with
possession of marijuana.
The sophomore point guard
was in a car when he was arrest
ed and charged with possession
of less than four ounces of mari
juana, police said. He was also
charged with a minor traffic in
fraction.
Another UConn star, junior
Richard Hamilton, was with El
Amin when he was arrested, said
Lt. Mike Manzi, a police
spokesman.
Hamilton, a first-team All
American, was not charged. But
members of the Statewide Nar
cotics Task Force, who made the
arrest, impounded the late-mod
el red Cadillac the players were
in. Police would not say to
whom the car is registered.
El-Amin was hustled out of a
ponce suDstation in tne city s
North End, just after 6 p.m., and
taken to the main police station
where he was booked and re
leased on a written promise to
appear in Hartford Community
Court later this month.
About a dozen teen-agers had
gathered at the substation on
news of the arrest. They cheered
as El-Amin eluded reporters and
dove into the backseat of the
waiting cruiser.
Richard Johnson, an attorney
who represented El-Amin at the
booking, said the player would
have no comment.
Tim Tolokan, UConn’s sports
information director, said the
school had no knowledge of
the arrest, and no further com
ment.
El-Amin, a 5-foot-10 point
guard, led the Huskies (36-2) to a
77-74 victory over top-ranked
Duke in the national champi
onship game on March 29. It was
the school’s first trip to the Final
Four.
hi-Amin announced last week
that he would return to UConn
for his junior season rather than
make himself eligible for the
NBA draft.
He has started 71 games and
became the third UConn player
to score 1,000 points as a sopho
more.
For the past two seasons, he
has averaged 14.9 points and 4.1
assists. He finished second in
scoring this season at 13.8 points
and led the team in assists with
140.
El-Amin was voted to the Final
Four all-tournament team after
scoring 30 points and handing
out 10 assists in the wins over
Ohio State and Duke.
El-Amin’s arrest came one day
after Minneapolis North High
School in Minnesota retired his
jersey. El-Amin graduated from
North in 1997 after leading the
Polars to three consecutive state
high school basketball champi
onships.
McGwire displays power in Steel City
By Alan Robinson
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — It’s starting to
look like 1998 all over again for
Mark McGwire.
With flashbulbs popping on
every at-bat just as a year ago,
McGwire homered in two of his
first three at-bats off Pirates starter
Pete Schourek on Tuesday night.
McGwire jumped on left-han
der Schourek’s first pitch, a sink
ing fastball down around the
knees, and lined it into the left
field seats in the first inning.
After being intentionally
walked in the third, McGwire led
off the fifth by hitting a 1-1 pitch
over the 400-foot mark in center
field and into the netting covering
the hitters’ background.
Nearly a hundred fans sprinted
for the seats, hoping to come up
with a souvenir, before a fan
reached under one of the covered
seats and pulled out McGwire’s
fourth homer of the season.
It was the 54th multiple-homer
game of McGwire’s career, tying
him with Frank Robinson for fifth
place all-time.
After homering only once in his
first five games, McGwire has
caught up to the pace of his 70
homer season. Last year, he home
red four times in his first four
games but didn’t hit No. 5 until the
St. Louis Cardinals’ 13th game.
McGwire also seems to have
found his stroke in Three Rivers
Stadium, where he went homer
less on his first two visits there af
ter joining the Cardinals in 1997.
He now has four homers in his
last three starts in Pittsburgh.
McGwire hit homers No. 52
(Francisco Cordova) and No. 53
(Ricardo Rincon) on consecutive
games Aug. 22-23 in Pittsburgh,
then sat out the final game of the
three-game series on Aug. 24.