Oregon daily emerald., May 15, 2002, Image 5

Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald. com
Wednesday, May 15,2002
Henderson
kicking,
screaming
into Hall
Rickey Henderson is 43 years old
and still stealing bases, drawing
walks, hitting home runs, and
For the next four
to six weeks, Boston
baseball fans and
Red Sox players will
have a chance to
concentrate on the
game between the
lines without a con
stant nag.
All-star out
fielder Manny
Ramirez fractured
his left index fin
ger in Saturday’s
game in Seattle
while sliding into
Mariners catcher
Dan Wilson’s shin
guard, and he will be out for at least a
month. Brian Daubach and Hender
son, who has been complaining be
cause of lack of playing time, will
likely fill the void left during
Ramirez’ absence.
“Rickey is Rickey,” Red Sox manager
Grady Little told the Boston Globe.
“That’s just the way it is. He likes play
ing baseball, and I can’t fault him for
wanting to play more, but we’re not in a
position to change what we’re doing
and that’s that.
“We’ve got a good thing going here,
and you would think that anybody
would like to be part of this, and I think
Rickey does.”
Before Boston’s three-game series
with the Mariners in Seattle, Hender
son left the rest of team (with the per
mission of the management) to visit his
family in Arizona just after the team’s
May 9 game in Oakland, Calif. The
team was unsure whether the nine
time All-Star would return to the team.
Henderson did report to the Red Sox
clubhouse the next day, just one hour
before pregame stretching. It was the
third time Henderson had threatened
to quit the team.
“If I don’t do much the next couple of
days, I might as well help someone
else,” Henderson told the Providence
Journal after his brief hiatus. “I know
(Little is) trying to get everyone in. But
I’m tired of sitting.”
Baseball’s all-time leader in runs
(2,260), walks (2,150), stolen bases
(1,397) and leadoff home runs (80), Hen
derson is approaching 300 homers to go
along with his 3,013 hits and on base
percentage of .402. His base-stealing per
centage is an outstanding 80.7 percent.
In 1981, Henderson stole 130 bases fora
below-average Oakland team.
Rickey is good, and he knows it.
“Lou Brock was great, but today I am
the greatest,” Henderson said May 1,
1991, after swiping his 939th base to
put him past Brock on the all-time
steals list.
While Henderson has been the one of
the kings of the jungle on the field over
the past two decades, off the field he
has been like a little mosquito in the
baseball world’s ear. If he had kept his
Turn to Cabot, page 6
complaining.
Cabot
Around the
Dasher
Pappas earns sole conference honor
Adam Amato Emerald
Billy Pappas, competing here at last year’s NCAAs, won the Pac-10 decathlon title on Sunday.
■ Decathlete wins Athlete of the Week, an award usually
given to two athletes—one in track and one in field
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Oregon senior decathlete Billy Pappas has been competing
for only one month after suffering an injury that kept him out
of the indoor season and a large chunk of the outdoor season.
Oh, how far he’s come.
Pappas was named the Pacific-10 Conference’s men’s track
and field Athlete of the Week on Monday after winning the con
ference decathlon title on Sunday. The conference award is usu
ally broken up into a track winner and a field winner, but Pappas
was the only athlete to win the award this week, possibly be
cause he did everything in winning the Pac-10 decathlon title.
Pappas won the title in only his second decathlon of the
season by amassing a personal-best and
NCAA-qualifying total of 7,532 points.
“So many things can go wrong in every
event, but I stayed positive and worked on
my confidence, so I am happy with how it
turned out,” Pappas said.
Pappas ensured the Ducks a share of the
team lead heading into the second weekend
of the conference championships. Aided by Jason Slye’s fifth
place showing in the decathlon, Oregon garnered 14 points to tie
for the Pac-10 Championships lead with Southern California,
which placed athletes second and fourth. Washington State is
third with six points.
This weekend, Pappas will return to Pullman to try and
score even more points for the Ducks. The senior ranks 16th in
the conference in the 110-meter hurdles, and will compete in
the event this weekend. In an interesting twist of fate, Pappas
was ranked 16th in the decathlon heading into last year’s
NCAA Championships, before scoring a then-personal best
7,488 points to finish eighth.
Before the NCAAs “I’m going to do some speed training,
since my 100 meters is really hurting me,” Pappas said. Be
fore the Pac-lOs “I’ll concentrate on hurdles since I’m coming
back (this weekend) to hurdle here.”
Pappas may also compete in the long jump this weekend.
He finished eighth at last season’s Pac-10 Championships in
that event.
Multi-athletes for multi-events
Pappas will be gone next year, but the Ducks won’t be
starving for decathletes by any stretch of the imagination.
Along with Slye, Santiago Lorenzo — Oregon’s first-ever
Turn to Track, page 8
USC women front-runner to take Pac-10 title
■ Only a few days remain before some of
the nation’s best converge in Washington
for the Pac-10 Championships
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Pacific-10 Conference confidently
calls itself the “Conference of Champions.”
There’s a reason that can be said.
With the 2002 Pac-10 Championships
scheduled this weekend in Pullman, Wash.,
the 200 or so athletes who will grace the
Mooberry Track and Field Complex will get
a chance to put that moniker to the test.
The NCAA Championships in Baton
Rouge, La., are still two weeks away, but with
nine squads participating, the Pac-10 version
should provide a glimpse into the future.
Last season, USC — the eventual NCAA
champion — placed second behind UCLA in
Berkeley, Calif. In fact, the Bruins have won
the past five Pac-10 titles, and eight of the
past nine.
The following is a look at each of the nine
squads, listed by projected finish and who to
watch in Washington.
USC — Flanked by three-time NCAA cham
pion Angela Williams, the Trojans are the
deepest team in the nation in running events.
Williams, who holds the season’s best time
in the 100 at 11.06 — and also participates
on the nation’s second-ranked 4x100 relay
team — is a force, comparable to some of the
Pac-lO’s former best in Gail Devers and Jack
CONFERENCE
ie Joyner-Kersee. In fact, if Williams can im
prove her time to better than 10.97 — Devers’
best time — she will take home the all-time
Pac-10 mark.
Don’t count out the Trojan field squad,
though. Inga Stasi
ulionyte is back in the
javelin, is the best in the
nation and is already be
ing targeted as the
woman to beat in Pull
man.
“Inga is the person to
beat, and maybe if I can
beat her at Pac-lOs,
maybe I can get in her
head a little bit,” Oregon sophomore Sarah
Malone said.
UCLA — If anyone can beat the Trojans,
the Bruins have the best chance. Mirroring
their cross-town rivals with an amazing run
ning program, UCLA — this past season’s
Pac-10 winner — is going to have a success
ful day in the Northwest.
Monique Henderson, one of only seven
women to gain an NCAA automatic mark in
the 400, headlines the list of Bruin runners,
and she’s only a freshman. Tiffany Burgess
and Lena Nisson go one-two in the nation in
the 800, with Nisson coming back again as
the No. 1 athlete in the nation in the 1,500.
Then all you have is the No. 1 athletes in
the high jump (Darnesha Griffith) and pole
vault (Tracy O’Hara).
Wow. ’ ’1 '
Washington State — The home squad
doesn’t have the impressive list of athletes
that the two previous schools do, but the
Cougars are nonetheless qualified to contend
for first.
The Cougars already saw Ellannee
Richardson take first in the heptathlon last
week with 5,821 points — best in the nation.
Oregon — If the Ducks can improve upon
last season’s eighth-place finish, it will be at
tributed to a strong field program.
No running athletes rank high on the na
tional lists for Oregon, but the squad features
No. 2 pole vaulter Becky Holliday, two top
10 javelin throwers (Malone and Elisa Crum
ley) and the No. 8 discus thrower, Mary Etter.
However, the disc will be a packed event
with six of the top 10 athletes in the nation
coming from the Pac-10.
Stanford — A mixed bag and a team that
could easily place anywhere from third to
eighth, the Cardinal are a balanced group.
They feature 800 runner Ashley Wysong, as
well as Lauren Fleshman, the No. 6 runner in
the nation in the 1,500. Fleshman also com
petes in the 5,000 run and is tops by 16 min
utes in the event.
Watch out for Kathleen Donoghue. The
junior, following O’Hara, Holliday and Ari
zona’s Amy Linnen in the pole vault, could
capitalize, should one of the previous three
miss at a crucial height.
Arizona — When one thinks of Arizona,
Turn to Pac-10, page 8