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
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