Oregon daily emerald., January 11, 2005, Image 9

Oregon Daily Emerald
TUesday, January 11, 2005
“I want all the kids to do what
I do, to look up to me. I want
all the kids to copulate me. ’’
Andre Dawson, former Chicago Cubs outfielder, on being a role model
■ In my opinion
BRIAN SMITH
LEFTY SPECIALIST
Outfielder
Beltran not
worth Mets'
big payday
If I was a hot dog vendor in Shea Stadi
um, I’d be asking for a raise right now.
A flat salary of $100,000. Nothing more,
nothing less.
After all, the New York Mets have taken
the rubber band off their checkbook and
bought a pen with multiple ink refills.
Anybody and anyone who works for the
Mets could get a million dollars right now.
Ask Carlos Beltran and the $130 million
($11 million in signing bonuses) the
Mets have just guaranteed him for the next
seven years.
I don’t know what the Mets are doing.
Normally, when the sports world
talks about uncontrolled spending and free
agents in baseball, they are talking about the
OTHER team from New York.
So, did George Steinbrenner suddenly
have an attack of consciousness?
Seriously, what is an extra $17 million a
year in addition to the $205 million that is
already slated for the Yankees in 2005?
What’s up, George? Feeling a little
pinched in the pocketbook?
Does anybody else find this odd? The
Yankees not willing to pay a player an
ungodly amount of money to play baseball.
I find this extremely interesting.
I think the Yankees know something.
I think they know Carlos Beltran is not
worth $119 million.
I think they know Carlos Beltran
is an unproven filly in the stable of $100
million horses.
What will follow is the only positive thing
I will ever say on the Yankees’ behalf: You
did the right thing.
The Mets just paid an extra $40-or-so
million for a great two-week run by Beltran
during last year’s playoffs.
Sorry Mets, the joke’s on you.
I know what the Mets are trying to do.
They are trying to become the mirror of
the New York Yankees — and rightly so —
but I think they are looking at it from
more of an entertainment standpoint. A
revenue generator.
After all, when you are launching
your own cable network, you better field a
team that’s more interesting to watch
than Anna Benson sitting in the stands
eating a hot dog.
In terms of baseball ability, Beltran
is a five-tool player. I can’t take that away
from him. He hits with power, drives in
runs, plays a great center field and steals a
lot of bases.
However, only twice has Beltran hit over
.300 for the season. Last year, he hit .267.
Give me three seasons of .300 and above
and I will give you $100 million.
SMITH, page 10
■ Duck volleyball
Geoff Thurner | Oregon Media Services
After being announced as Oregon’s new women’s volleyball coach, Jim Moore, along side Senior Associate
Athletic Director Rene6 Baumgartner, addresses the media at the Len Casanova Center on Monday.
Oregon announces new
head volleyball coach
Jim Moore steps in just more
than a month after former head
coach Carl Ferreira stepped down
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
Who will be Oregon’s next volleyball coach?
The question has been answered.
Oregon Athletic Director Bill Moos
announced Jim Moore as the new head coach
for the Oregon women’s volleyball program
during a press conference at the Len Casanova
Center on Monday.
Moore takes the helm of a Duck squad that
finished 10-19 overall and 1-17 in the Pacific-10
Conference in 2004.
“Jim has a tremendous reputation for
rebuilding programs across the country for a
number of institutions,” Moos said. “It
reinforces my feeling that Oregon has become
a destination and not a stepping stone and that
is how Jim looks at it as well. ”
The 16-year collegiate head coach comes
from Northern Michigan, a team he returned
to in 2003 after coaching the Wildcats from
1989-94. He has headed programs at Kansas
State (1994-96), Texas (1996-2000) and Chico
State (2000-02).
“I’ve been at different places and I
wanted that to stop,” 46-year-old Moore said.
“I wanted to come to some place that I could
stay. To have the opportunity to step into a
program that can be at the absolute top
level in this country and to give me that
opportunity, I am honored and humbled.
“I wanted to go to a place that I could
win it all.”
The search for a new coach began immedi
ately after former head coach Carl Ferreira
resigned on Dec. 7, 2004. Ferreira joined the
Ducks in 2000 and finished his tenure at
Oregon with a 43-104 overall record. His teams
were held to a 4-86 record in Pac-10 play.
Moore’s collegiate record is 352-156 and in
his seven seasons with Northern Michigan, he
finished 173-63. In 1993, he led the Division II
Wildcats to a 38-1 record and a national
championship. Moore’s 2004 squad finished
24-7 and reached the NCAA Elite Eight, while
his 2003 team went 26-1 after finishing .500 the
previous year.
“I’m very pleased with how the search
turned out,” said Renee Baumgartner,
Oregon’s senior associate athletic director,
who led the hunt for a new head coach.
“Bill and I wanted a head coach that had
experience at rebuilding programs. ”
Baumgartner said that Moore agrees
with Oregon’s principles relating to the
development of successful student athletes in
an enjoyable environment.
“In a few years it’s going to be great to see
how our volleyball program has turned
around,” she said.
Moore has yet to meet the team he has
inherited and could not evaluate its talent and
potential. He said the key to rebuilding a
program is by recruiting heavily.
“We’re going to have to get after it,” he
said. “We need to first take the players that are
here, get them to believe in themselves, get
them to play hard, get them to play with heart
and passion.”
Moore said that adapting the existing
players to a new system will not be hard, so
recruiting will be his immediate emphasis. He
said he will look at uncommitted high school
and junior college players, which may become
a global search.
“I’d like to look at going foreign and getting
players that can play here right away,” Moore
said. “I’ll look anywhere.”
Moore said he was attracted to the competi
tiveness of the Pac-10 and expects to use that as
a selling point to recruits.
“That’s how you get players here,”
Moore said. “Kids want to come play in this
conference. It’s a great confeience — it’s
always been a great conference.”
Moore has two player scholarships available
and two assistant coaching positions that he
hopes to fill soon.
“I really believe we’re going to have the best
staff, perhaps, in the country,” he said.
One assistant coach on his side will be
his wife Stacy Metro, who he said will
volunteer her expertise. As a former Northern
Michigan player, Metro was a three-time
All-American and two-time Player of the Year
for Division II volleyball.
Moore comes into Oregon’s program with
13 letter winners and four starters on the
team’s roster.
stephenmiller@dailyemerald.com
■ Club Sports
Club sailing
places 17th
at regatta,
stays rosy
Oregon's Sailing Club gained
valuable experience at the
two-day Rose Bowl Regatta
BY BEAU PASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Facing off against the best collegiate
sailing teams in the country at the
Rose Bowl Regatta last weekend, the
Oregon Sailing Club brought home the
experience-of competing at the elite level,
if nothing else.
“It was intense,” said George Yioulos,
Club coordinator and skipper of Oregon’s
“B” boat.
The Ducks finished the two-day regatta
with 395 points, good for 17th place out of
24 teams. Yioulos and Rob Dubuc, the “A”
team skipper, led their boats ahead of local
rival Portland State (18th) and California
schools UCLA (22), UC Santa Cruz (21) and
San Jose State (24). Southern California,
the meet host, won with 85 points.
The Ducks struggled against the topflite
field in nasty conditions.
“We did OK,” Dubuc said about the
team’s performance at the regatta held at
the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long
Beach, Calif. "The competition was very,
very good. You make one little mistake and
you lose five to 10 boats.”
“We found ourselves on the cusp
of the second bubble,” Yioulos said,
referring to the divide in the different levels
of competition.
Despite placing in the lower division, the
Ducks were upbeat about their experience
at the “Super Bowl of regattas.”
“It was tons of fun,” Yioulos said.
“Unbelievable,” Dubuc added about
the two-day event. “The best learning
experience.”
The two skippers also used the meet as a
recruiting tool. With approximately 50
high school teams competing in their own
regatta, the Oregon captains were able to
make a pitch for their program to some of
the best secondary school sailors on the
West Coast.
“It was good to get our name out there
for in the future," said Dubuc, who will be
taking over the coordinator duties for
Yioulos next year.
The regatta, officially the last meet of
the 2004 fall season, also served as a
measuring stick for Oregon against
chief rival Washington. The Huskies
compete in the Northwest division of the
Intercollegiate Sailing Association along
with the Ducks, annually winning the
NWICSA and clinching the division’s only
bid to the national regatta in the spring.
“We’re starting to knock on their
heels,” Dubuc said. Washington finished
13th, four spots ahead of Oregon, with
278 points.
“This year we absolutely have a chance
to make nationals,” he added.
The elder Yioulos was a bit more cautious.
“UW picks it up when the chips are
on the line,” Yioulos said. “It’s the goal
(beating Washington), but we’d have to
sail our ‘A’ game. ”
Not overlooking other NWICSA division
SAILING, page 10