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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2004)
Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, October 6, 2004 “You can’t knock the hustle. I mean, you see a brother getting broke off, you gotta like that. All I’m sayin ’ is don’t stop breakin’ the bread now. ’’ Edcerrin James on Peyton Manning’s new contract JON ROETMAN ROUGHING THE PASSER Sosa's home runs may have gone to his head I never thought I’d say this, but I’m ashamed to be a Sammy Sosa fan. Sosa’s 2004 season was one of struggle. The 35-year-old missed 36 games with various in juries, including back spasms caused by a vio lent sneeze. He posted his lowest batting average (.253) in seven years and lowest home run (35) and RBI (80) totals since 1994. A lack of production from the aging superstar is forgivable. There are plenty of major leaguers who would love to hit 35 dingers in a season. What Sosa did last Sunday, however, is anything but excusable. With Chicago already eliminated from play off contention after losing seven of its last eight games, the Cubs still had to play a meaningless home game against Atlanta to finish the season. Slammin’ Sammy showed up late to Wrigley Field, claimed to be ill, and instead of riding the season’s final game out with his teammates on the bench, left the park early without permis sion from Cubs general manager Jim Hendry or manager Dusty Baker. To make things worse, Sosa, who claimed to have left the park during the seventh inning, was caught by parking lot security cameras leaving 15 minutes after the first pitch. Sosa has always claimed to be a “gladiator.” A team leader who is capable of carrying the city of Chicago on his back. What kind of a leader bails out on his troops? And what kind of a self-respecting ball player skips out on a day of work when he is paid roughly $105,000 per game? Yes, $105,000 per game. That’s roughly $26,250 per at-bat and nearly $17 million for the season. This could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Sosa has worn out his welcome in Chica go. The once-lovable character who, along with Mark McGwire, “saved” baseball during the 1998 season with his pursuit of Roger Maris’ home-run record, has become a clubhouse nuisance. Sosa carries with him a sensitive ego that was tested on several occasions this season. A god like figure for many years in Chicago, the Cubbie boo-birds ripped into the future hall-of-famer for his repeated failures to hit with runners in scor ing position. Sosa quickly took on a “me against the world” attitude that seemed to be embraced by the rest of the Cub players as well. Sosa went so far as to lash out at Baker, who pointed out that the broken-down slugger needs to work harder during the offseason and come back in top form for 2005. “I’m tired of being blamed by Dusty Baker for all the failures of this club,” Sosa said. “I resent the inference that I’m not prepared. I live my life every minute every day to prepare for combat.” First of all, Baker did nothing but stick up for Sosa’s shortcomings all season. Second, a player who spends that much time preparing himself for the season shouldn’t miss 36 games with nagging injuries. And third, where was Sgt. Sosa when the Cubs were wrapping up their season? With Sosa due $17 million next season, it’s likely the Cubs will try to trade the once-untouch able superstar in an attempt to move forward ROETMAN, page 10 ■ Duck volleyball Ducks seek two Pac-10 wins in a row Pac-10 Teams continue to occupy the No. 1 position in the Coaches' poll BY STEPHEN MILLER SPORTS REPORTER Can lightning strike twice? Oregon has not achieved back-to-back Pacific-10 Conference wins since 1991, when the Ducks defeated California and Oregon State. After defeating Washington State in three straight games last Saturday, the Ducks will be looking for their second consecutive league victory when they face Arizona State on Fri day at McArthur Court. Oregon (9-4 overall, 1-2 Pac-10) is 2-55 against Pac-10 teams in the last three years and has not had two conference wins in a season since 2000. Oregon’s Heather Madison had nine kills in 11 attempts against the Cougars last week end. The sophomore setter had a total of 13 kills in 2003, yet she already has 31 in 45 "'’mes this season. Madison has 526 assists this year, but only accumulated 61 in two matches last weekend. Her career-high is 57. She is sixth in the league with 11.69 assists per game. Sophomore outside hitter Sarah Mason had a team-high 48 kills in the first three confer ence matches this season. Erin Little, also a sophomore, had 29 kills, and junior Kelly Rus sell pitched 23 into the attack. The Sun Devils (5-7,0-4 Pac-10) are winless in their last four matches — 12-straight games — and are looking for their first league win of the season. Taking attendance The Oregon Athletic Department verified that the match against Oregon State on Sept. 24, which drew 1,902 fans, was the second highest attendance of any Pac-10 volleyball contest this year. Conflicting information in the Pac-10 weekly press release excluded the Ducks’ conference-opener, which attracted the fifth-largest audience at Mac Court in pro gram history. USC helped fill 1,917 seats in Tlicson, Ariz., when it played at Arizona on Saturday. Wash ington’s home-opener against the Ducks at tracted the third-largest crowd of the year with 1,744 spectators on the same night. Oregon lost in that match. Pac-10 justified The most recent USA Today/CSTV Top 25 poll ranked Washington as the best team in the nation, with USC a distant second. The Huskies, who have gone 4-0 in Pac-10 play for the first time in school history, received 61 of the coaches’ 65 first-place votes. The Women Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer Sophomore Heather Madison, seen here playing against Oregon State, is sixth in the Pac-10 Conference in assists, averaging 11.69 per game. of TVoy received one vote. Both programs were ranked in the Top 10 at the start of the season. USC was No. 1 as the defending national cham pion. UCLA sits idle at No. 11; Stanford, Cali fornia and Arizona all fell. Through the last 41 ranking periods, a Pac-10 school has occupied the No. 1 spot 37 times. Outside the Pac-10 re gion, Hawaii, Ohio State and Texas have per fect records. Deceiving Arizona Arizona (8-6,0-4 Pac-10) is somehow hang ing on at No. 21 in the coaches poll. The Wild cats have the most losses (6) of any ranked team in Division I volleyball. Junior outside hitter Kim Glass is second among Pac-10 active career leaders in kills (1,269) and service aces (90). She leads the team in three categories, averaging 4.20 kills, 2.80 digs and 1.00 blocks per game. Jennifer Abernathy earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors in the second week of the season. She leads the team this year with 189 kills, landing 4.11 per game. The Wildcats are fifth in the league in blocks, hitting percentage and opponent hit ting percentage. Abernathy has six double doubles this season (T-4 in Pac-10), followed by Stephanie Butkus with five and Meghan Cumpston with four. stephenmiller@ dailyemerald, com Boston Red Sox scour Angels 8-3 Anaheim won the National Championship in '02 after losing the first game in each playoff BY JOHN NADEL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Curt Schilling and the Boston Red Sox got the jump on Anaheim in the AL playoffs. Perhaps that's how the Angels prefer it. Schilling pitched 6 2/3 effective innings, Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar homered during a seven-run burst, and the Red Sox beat the Angels 8-3 Tbesday in Game 1. Pedro Martinez will pitch against Anaheim’s Bartolo Colon in Game 2 on tonight before the best-of-five series moves to Boston. Two years ago, the Angels lost the openers to the Yankees, TVvins and Giants before bouncing back to win all three series en route to the championship. Just like the 2002 postseason, most of the fans at Angel Stadium wore red and made it noisy by banging ThunderStix. The volume level decreased significantly after the Red Sox's big fourth inning gave them an 8-0 lead, and not even stuffed Rally Monkeys could spur the Angels. The seven runs were the most ever scored by the Red Sox in an inning in the postseason and the most ever allowed by the Angels. Five of the runs were unearned be cause of a throwing error by third baseman Chone Figgins. An eight-run lead was more than enough for Schilling, who en tered with a 5-1 record and a 1.66 ERA in 11 previous postseason ap pearances. He wasn’t at his best, allowing nine hits and three runs, two earned, while walking two and striking out four. But that was good enough. Schilling, who allowed at least one baserunner in every inning, was relieved by Alan Embree with a runner at second, two outs in the seventh and the Red Sox leading 8 3. Embree retired pinch hitter Adam Riggs on foul popup to end the inning. Boston went ahead for good off Jarrod Washburn in the first on a two-out double by Ramirez and a broken-bat single by David Ortiz. Ortiz walked to begin the fourth and Millar hit an 0-1 offspeed pitch into the left-field bullpen, making it 3-0. The Red Sox then loaded the bases with one out, and two runs scored when Figgins fielded Johnny Damon’s grounder but was far off target with his throw ^ home as he went for the force. Scot Shields relieved and struck out Mark Bellhorn, but Ramirez capped the inning with RED SOX, page 10
