Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2000)
Golf PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — From record TV ratings to praise by his awe-struck com petitors, Tiger Woods has dear ly moved into territory claimed by few stars in any sport. ■ “We’ve had two athletes in my time — Muhammad Ali and Jordan — that draw fans from outside their sport,” said Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports. “Every indicator we have says Tiger is the next one.” Certainly that was the case at the U.S. Open, where Woods won by a record 15 strokes in a performance that sent televi sion ratings soaring. NBC’s coverage of the final two rounds of the tournament drew an average overnight rat ing of 7.5 with an 18 share, ac cording to numbers released Monday by Nielsen Media Re search, the highest two-day av erage for the Open since overnights were instituted in 1975. The overnight numbers showed an increase of 14 per cent over last year’s 6.6. Sun day’s fourth round recorded an overnight mark of 8.8, a gain of 11 percent from 1999’s 7.9. Next month, Woods heads for Scotland — the home of golf — and will try to complete a career Grand Slam at the British Open at St. Andrews. Woods will be an abiding fa vorite and invariably will raise questions about whether courses can be “Tiger-proofed” to keep tournaments competi tive. "You can’t stop him by trick ing up the course,” said Michael Bonallack, who retired last year as secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. “What purpose would that serve? He’s already proven he’s the only one who could handle this place.” Woods’ victory Sunday at Pebble Beach gave him his third major in only his fourth year of professional golf. That’s one fewer than it took Jack Nicklaus. It was the most lopsided vic tory in major tournament his tory, with Ernie Els and Migc-el Angel Jimenez tied for second. He tied the U.S. Open scoring record of 272, set at par-70 Bal tusrol by Nicklaus in 1980 and Lee janzen in 1993, and broke the record in relation to par, 12 under. “It’s kind of like Texas in the old Southwest Conference,” former Longhorn Tom Kite said, referring to the football team. “You knew who was go ing to win before the game. It’s certainly fun when you’re pulling for Texas, but it’s not real exciting for everybody else.” Searching other sports for comparisons were common place over the weekend, with Michael Jordan’s name coming up more than once. Tuesday June 20,2000 Volume 102, Issue 1 Emerald Celine Bally tor the Emerald Michael Mallory (15) and Emmanuel Pina (26) are both excited to be on the Emeralds this summer. Bailers on c ■The Emeralds are an eager bunch ready to reward their fans with a winning season, after finishing last the previous two years By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald It was Saturday afternoon and the Eugene Emeralds were holding their first workout in Civic Stadium in preparation for today’s season opener at Spokane. Michael Mallory, the Chicago Cubs second round draft pick in 1999, glanced around at the 20 or so fans spread out in the 5,000-plus seat stadium and looked amazed. It appeared as though he was a bit disappointed that only a few people came to watch the team take batting practice and do defensive drills in its first ap pearance in Eugene. But his thoughts were quite the opposite. “Those fans right there are the most fans I’ve seen all year,” said Mallory, who is a 6-foot-4 centerfielder with a strong arm and a powerful bat. “We usually drew only two or three people a game down in Mesa. The weather was just too hot for the fans.” The Emeralds, the Cubs short season Single-A team, arrived into town late Friday night after spending the previous two months down in the 112-degree heat in Mesa, Ariz. In order for the players to avoid any weather related problems, the team held their spring games at 7 a.m., hence the lack of fans. “I’ve heard that the fans here are great and they like to fill this Turn to Emeralds, page 9A Emerald at-home schedule (partial) June 25—'felama June26—l^lama June 27—'telama June28—Nakima June29—'falama July3—Vancouver July4—-Vancouver JulyS—Vancouver July12—Spokane July 13—Spokane July 14—Spokane July 15—Spokane July 16—Spokane July 2D—Everett Jufy21—Bereft July22—Bereft July23—Bereft July24—Bereft July 31—Rutland Aug1—Fbrtland Aug2—FbrtJand Aug3—Vancouver Aug4—Vancouver Aug5—Vancouver Aug9-Salem-Keizer AuglO-SalemKeiz er Television stations vie for rights to Ducks KEZI-TV was awarded back the television rights of University sports, but KVAL-TVis not going down without a fight By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald In 1991, Eugene-based tele vision station KEZI-TV lost its telecast rights of Oregon ath letic events to local rival KVAL-TV. KEZI, the ABC affiliate, protested the decision, but lost. Then on June 7, the Univer sity awarded the rights back to KEZI after nine years at KVAL, the CBS affiliate. And now, it is KVAL who is protesting the arrangement. The reason for the protest, says KVAL general manager David Weinkauf, is that he feels that the bidding process “unfairly placed our company at a competitive disadvan tage.” Weinkauf asserts that his station was “misled” by the athletic department during the bidding process. KEZI, on the other hand, feels that the process was fair and is thrilled to get back the rights to televise Duck sports. “I feel for Weinkauf because 1 know this puts his job in jeopardy,” said Bill Nagy, who was hired onto KEZI in De cember of 1998 to oversee the company’s broadcast, produc tion and cable divisions. “Yet I’m also thrilled. It’s a good feeling and we’re locally owned and we feel the local news team should be the ones covering the Ducks.” The deal between the Uni versity and Chambers Com munications, who owns KEZI, is believed to be worth $1.4 million dollars over three years. A key for the controversy between the two stations and the University is the role that ESPN Regional played in the decision. Unlike nine years ago. when the University did not have a partnership with ESPN, the deal was negotiated on behalf of the University through ESPN. According to Dave Willi ford, director of the athletic department’s Media Services, ESPN had the final say. “ESPN talked to both of them and they got separate bids,” Williford said. “KVAL’s protest is being looked at closely by Melinda Grier [gen eral counsel to the Universi ty].” Weinkauf strongly believes that the agreement is not one that should be made by people outside of the University. “I think that ESPN has been brought into this to turn things around,” Weinkauf said. “But it’s not an ESPN decision. It’s a U of O decision.” What also has Weinkauf up set is the role that the televi sion stations in Medford played. He says that when University representatives vis ited his station on May 12, he “specifically asked if exposure in the Medford market would be a consideration in the award process.” In his protest letter to Uni versity President Dave Frohn mayer, Weinkauf wrote, “We Turn to TV stations, page 12A We want to enhance the product. We kind of feel that the coaches shows have been a little dull and have looked into making some changes. Bill Nagy KEZI-TV supervisor
