Scoreboard
USA TODAY/NFCA
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
POLL FOR MAY 8
1. WASHINGTON
2. ARIZONA
3. UCLA
4. Oklahoma
5. ARIZONA STATE
6. Fresno State
7. LSU
8. S. Mississippi
9. CALIFORNIA
10. STANFORD
11. Alabama
12. OREGON STATE
13. Michigan
14. CS Fullerton
15. Iowa
16. OREGON
17. La.-Lafayette
18. Long Beach State
19. Notre Dame
20. Nebraska
21. Mississippi State
22. Florida Atlantic
23. Illinois-Chicago
24. Oklahoma State
25. South Carolina
I
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NBA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — j
Shaquille O’Neal was as |
dominant in the NBA’s |
Most Valuable Player bal- |
loting Tuesday as he has j
been all season for the Los j
Angeles Lakers.
He came within one vote I
of becoming the first unani- j
mous choice for the award.
The 7-foot-l center, who I
led the league in scoring
and field goal percentage,
received 120 of 121 votes
from a panel of sports
writers and broadcasters.
His 99.2 percentage was
the highest for any player
since the league intro
duced the award in 1955
56. Michael Jordan re
ceived 96.5 percent of the
vote in 1995-96.
CHICAGO (AP) — This
time, Elton Brand is going
to have to share.
The No. 1 pick in last
summer’s draft will share
the NBA’s Rookie of the
Year Award with Houston’s
Steve Francis, the No. 2
pick last summer, a league
source confirmed Tuesday.
The award will be an
nounced Thursday.
It will be only the third
time a pair of rookies will
share the award. Jason
Kidd and Grant Hill were
co-winners in 1994-95, and
Dave Cowens and Geoff
Petrie shared in 1970-71.
Brand, the 1998-99 con
sensus college player of
the year, said from the day
he was drafted by the
Chicago Bulls he wanted
to win Rookie of the Year.
And it wasn’t just about
adding to the collection in
his trophy case.
Best Bet
NBA Playoffs, Suns vs. Lakers
7:30 p.m., TNT
May 10,2000
Volume 101, Issue 149
Emerald
Twilight hazy for Johnson, Fein
Nat Johnson
and Steve
Fein still
have time to
get NCAA
marks; and
Oregon is
already hot
on the
recruiting
trail
By Robbie McCallum and Scott
Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Nat Johnson sprinted down
the runway, hitting his steps
and taking off just before his
toes crossed the board. His 6
foot, 4-inch frame flew through
the air, and when he landed,
he’d flown farther than he had
in a long time.
That’s how Johnson’s season
shaped up to
be in the ear
ly going, with
a leap of 23-8
3/4 that was
rivaled only
in his 1998
season.
Throughout his Oregon ca
reer, the senior has been a de
pendable Pacific-10 Confer
ence scorer. Now, nearing the
end of his collegiate tenure, he
still is.
Yet this season could have
been — and still could be —
more for Johnson. He still has
Saturday’s Oregon Twilight and
next weekend’s Pac-10 Cham
pionships to notch an NCAA
mark in the long jump or triple
jump.
Turn to Track, page 12
mt im
Azle Maiinao-AWarez Emerald
Steve Fein finished second in the Washington Dual but picked up a Pac-10 mark in the race (3:49.57).
Raising mound won’t stop home runs
Changing the
mounds is not
the answer
to the
overpopulation
of home runs;
it’s expansion
and young
pitching
By Matt O'Neill
Oregon Daily Emerald
Some people say there is too much
of a good thing in major league base
ball these days — home runs.
The home run race in the summer
of 1998 was fun. McGwire and Sosa
going down the wire trading homers
brought baseball back into the hearts
and minds of millions of Americans.
But now the long ball barrage has
gotten out of control.
When utility infielders and career
.220 hitters are knocking the ball out
at record pace, there needs to be
something done.
One proposed remedy is to raise the
pitching mound from 10 inches to 14
inches high. As a result, the outcome
will hopefully give the pitchers an
added advantage they haven’t experi
enced since the 1968 season when
Bob Gibson had a league-leading
earned run average of 1.12.
In 1969, when the mound was low
ered to 10 inches to where it stands to
day, Gibson’s ERA went up a whole
run to 2.18, and that’s when there
were only 20 teams as opposed to 32
now.
The changing of the mound is not
the answer because it will be only a
temporary fix.
Right now, baseball is in the middle
of yet another home run boom. At the
current pace, 2.6 per game, last sea
son’s record for home runs in a season
(5,528) will be easily surpassed.
That mark was set by an average of
2.3 homers per game.
Something definitely needs to be
done because the home run does not
mean as much as it did 10 years ago.
There are only two pitchers who have
a fighting chance to have good num
bers year in and year out. Unfortu
nately, Randy Johnson and Pedro
Martinez can only pitch every five
days.
Martinez has been one of the most
dominating — if not the most domi
nating — pitchers in recent times.
When he doesn’t throw for the Boston
Red Sox, the team is a very pedestrian
12-10, as opposed to 5-1 when he is
on the mound.
As for Johnson, he is only one of
three pitchers to be 6-0 in the month
of April. He has also won every regu
lar season start since Aug. 31,1999.
Other than those two, pitching is
pretty thin
around the
league. The de
fending World
Champion New
York Yankees,
which has two
former Cy
Young Award
winners on its
staff, has a team
ERA of 4.00.
While the At
lanta Braves, the
National
~ League’s World
Series representative, has a team ERA
of 3.27.
Even Greg Maddux, who in his
most dominating Cy Young days had
an ERA under 1.70 in two consecutive
seasons —1.56 in 1994 and 1.63 in 95
— boasts a inflated average of 2.98
this season.
The main culprit of these bloated
numbers can more closely be attrib
uted to the expansion of the 1990s
and not the height of the pitching
mounds.
Matt
O’Neill
Yes, raising the mounds may give
the pitchers an added advantage, but
the fact that 18, 19 and 20-year-old
kids are being rushed to the big
leagues years before they are ready
will ultimately negate any edge the
raised mound could offer.
Major League hitters like Tony
Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry
Bonds will always be able to get to
and exploit the holes in a young
pitcher’s arsenal. These players have
been in the league for a number of
years and have consistently produced
against some of the best pitchers, so
there is reason to believe that they
will destroy some Joe Rook’s 92 mile
per-hour fast ball at the belt.
Some of the best hurlers appear al
most human compared to their previ
ous performances. Maddux is on one
of the best teams in the league, and he
hasn’t been the dominating force he
once was.
Not only is it youth that is helping
with the power going around the
league, it is the fact that the new parks
are being built to cater to the long ball.
Enron Field has already yielded 24
homers in 13 games while it took the
Astrodome 18 games (until May 11) to
allow that many.
In San Francisco, the Giants built
their park to play into Bond’s hands.
The right-field porch is only a short
309 feet away, and McCovey Cove
and the San Francisco bay is only a
little beyond that. Bonds has already
sent one into the water and hit a total
six round trippers at home.
The only one of the three new parks
that is not built for home runs is Corn
erica Park in Detroit. The Tiger pitch
ers have a huge outfield to play with
and are not afraid to throw a curve or
a change-up when they are behind in
the count.
In the future, Detroit may get all the
top free-agent pitchers to sign with
them, but Comerica may scare off a lot
of big hitters, even Tiger slugger Juan
Gonzalez is hedging on signing a long
term deal because of the ball park.
But that is the exception and not
the rule. So at least in the foreseeable
future the balls will keep bmng, and
records will continue to i. oken.
Even the height of th. )... nd will
not,change that.