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Smith continued from page 11 about itself after acquiring the arms of Mike Hampton and Den ny Neagle. Unfortunately for the Rockies, though, the thin air of Coors Field will provide its usual damage and Hampton and Neagle could suffer the same fate as ex Rockie Darryl Kile. The Giants will repeat in this division, and finish ahead of the big-spending Dodgers, who threw a combined $77.5 million at pitchers Darren Dreifort and Andy Ashby. San Diego won’t be last in future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn’s potential final season, as new Arizona man ager Bob Brenly will discover that actually managing from the dugout is a whole new ball game •than doing it from behind the cameras of Fox Sports Net. Fearless prediction: Kevin Brown goes on the 60-day DL and forces the Dodgers to eat up his oversized contract for the year. NL East: John Smoltz’s elbow surgery will have an effect, but not enough to prevent Atlanta from capturing this division for the millionth time. Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux will do just fine and look for a strong year from hurler John Burkett. The Mets will miss Hampton, but will still finish second ahead of Florida, Montreal and Philadelphia. Fearless prediction: Montreal’s Vladimir Guerrero .vill be above .400 in late August. NL Central: Kobe Bryant may crave a Big Mac in his commer cials, but the real Big Mac is crav ing something more delicious: a World Series title. Mr. Mark McG wire might get just that this sea son as the Cardinals bolstered their pitching staff with the addi tion of Dustin Hermanson, who joins Andy Benes and Kile. Ken Griffey, Jr. will have an improved sophomore campaign with the Reds, but it won’t be enough to catch St. Louis. Fearless prediction: Chicago will lose 100 games, but will still draw sold-out crowds. AL West: A-Rod will have a good year with Texas. Seattle will have a bad year without A-Rod. Oakland will win the division. The A’s lost sweet swinging Ben Grieve, Randy Velarde and Matt Stairs, but they picked up leadoff hitter Johnny Damon, who last year with the Royals led the A.L. in stolen bases (46) and runs scored (136). Texas will finish second solely on its offense, which will be helped by the addi tion of Andres Galarraga, Ken Caminiti and Alex Rodriguez. The Mariners will get by thanks to a solid rotation of Aaron Sele, Jamie Moyer, Freddy Garcia and John Halama, but unless hyped Japan ese sensation Ichiro Suzuki is God’s cousin, the offense will struggle. Fearless prediction: A-Rod will get tired of hearing the number 252, as in how many million he will get paid over the next 10 years. AL East: A rotation that in cludes Roger Clemens, Andy Pet titte and Orlando "El Duque" Her nandez is lethal. A rotation that includes those three along with free-agent addition Mike Mussina is downright scary. Sorry Boston, but New York just has too many firearms to topple. The Red Sox will finish second and snag a wild card berth despite having Nomar Garciaparra on the DL to open the season. Toronto will wish it still had David Wells and his 20 wins, but will take third behind the bat of Carlos Delgado and his 40-plus dingers. Fearless prediction: Tampa Bay’s Ben Grieve will lead the American League in batting aver age. AL Central: One of the best, but least talked about offseason acqui sitions was Cleveland’s signing of Sports briefs Football opens spring practice It’s that time again. The Oregon football team’s off season is over as the Ducks hit the practice field today for the opening of spring workouts. Oregon has lofty goals for the 2001-02 season after finishing last season as the seventh ranked team in the country. The Pacific-10 Conference co champions must replace seven starters from defense, but return a strong nucleus from its prolific of fense. “We lost some key people,” head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We need to create opportunities to discover who are going to be players [on de fense], especially at the linebacker positions. We have to identify them and make them better.” Monday will be the first of 15 practices for the Ducks in April, all leading up to the annual Spring Game on April 28. Ducks place 3rd at own tourney The Oregon men’s golf team made its lone home appearance of the season a good one, placing third at the Duck Invitational on March 27. Seventeen teams took to the Eu gene Country Club greens, fighting through constant rain. No. 41-ranked San Diego State edged No. 37 Washington on the final hole for the tournament win. UC-Santa Barbara’s John Wood captured medalist honors,-finish ing six under par. Oregon finished nine strokes be hind San Diego State while edging Arizona State for third. “The conditions with the weath er were certainly tough out there,” Oregon head coach Steve Nosier said. “But it’s not like it was any better for Washington or San Diego State. Third is a lot better than fourth and we certainly competed and gave a good effort out there.” The No. 32-ranked Ducks were led by. junior Aaron Byers, who shot a personal best 66 (3-under) in the first round and ended the tournament tied for third. Sophomore John Ellis also fin ished in the top-20, shooting a 220 in a tie for 16th place. Oregon’s “B” team finished 13th, shooting a 908 on the final day. Oregon headed to Western Intercollegiate The men’s golf team heads to San ta Cruz, Calif, today for the 55th Western Intercollegiate, the oldest golf tournament west of the Missis sippi. The No. 32 Ducks are the sec ond-highest ranked squad entered, right behind Stanford at No. 31. “You look at the trophy of the Western Intercollegiate and it’s a who’s who of golf,” Nosier said. “There’s probably 25 or 30 Ryder Cup players who have won this tournament. It is as demanding a golf course as we will play.” Freshman Mike Sica makes his varsity debut and joins Byers, Ellis, Matt Genovese and Chris Carnahan as starters. The two-day tournament at the Pasatiempo Country Club will fea ture 18 teams. two-time MVP Juan Gonzalez. Gonzalez badly needed a change of scenery from Detroit and will help absorb the loss of Manny Ramirez to Boston. Cleveland will win the division in the tightest race of the year over Chicago. The White Sox will contend thanks to the arm of Wells and the resur gence of Frank Thomas. The Roy als, Twins and Tigers will then have a tight race of their own to try to avoid the cellar. Fearless prediction: Wells throws another perfect game against Minnesota and then re peats his celebration from his first such performance and drinks 27 beers for each out. NL Playoffs: Atlanta over wild card Cincinnati. St. Louis over San Francisco. St. Louis over Atlanta in six games. AL Playoffs: New York over Cleveland. Oakland over wild card Boston. New York over Oakland in five games. World Series: Finally, the Yan kees crack under pressure and the Cardinals capture the ultimate prize in game seven at Yankee Stadium. McGwire will garner the headlines, but center fielder Jim Edmonds will be the series MVP after three home runs and three sensational diving catches. So, there you have it. October will assuredly provide an exciting month of baseball, but as for my self, I’m looking forward to April, May, June, July, August and Sep tember. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some chicken noodle soup to slurp, some Vitamin C to take and plenty of baseball to watch. And really, who needs to go to class on the first day of the term anyway? Jeff Smith is the sports editor of the Emer ald. He can be reached at Smittside@aol.com “37 years of Quality Service’ Mercedes • BMW • Volkswagen • Audi German Auto Service 342-2912 • 2025 Franklin Blvd. Eugene, Oregon, 97402 y^r/eo^/e. a'^-f eye/ver-ce. Don't miss out. Work for your college paper. lor more iniorm.nion on how to freelance for the Oregon Daily Emerald call 346-551 1 010831 asic Step Debbie Floor Aerobics Wendy 0:(.>0- / Body 5:50 / Sculpt _I Jamie 6:00- / Intermed. 6:00 I Step ^ I Rorey lntermed. Step Debbie Kickbox Aerobics Debbie I Body Sculpt Jamie ,ntermed. Step Jamie lntermed Step Wendy Kick Box Aerobics Wendy • A maximum of 30 participants may enter a workout • In order to enter a workout, the participant must present both their punch card and photo ID. • Classes last 50 minutes. REGISTRATION begins April 2nd. 102 Esslinger, fi> a.m.-5 p.m CLASSES RUN FROM April 9-June &, 2001 (9 weeks) Rec Sports Workout Program has a format to provide better service. We have developed a PUNCH CARD system! This will allow you more flexibility in planning your fitness workouts. It also allows greater variety. COST: 10 punch card $20 20 punch card $30 30-punch card $40 Unlimited card $45 Classes meet in Room 41 of the Student Rec Center For more information call 6-4113 or drop by 102 Esslinger. FIND THINGS IN ODE CLASSIFIEDS (ROOMMATES, TICKETS, STUFF YOU LOST, BICYCLES, CARS, JOBS, ON-CAMPUS OPPORTUNITIES)
