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LACK AM AS
April 20, 2005
*9
Cougars split two, remain in third
Michael McCormack
Sports Editor
April showers hit the Cougar base
ball players right out of their park last
week, by postponing two of die four
Clackamas home games.
Saturday’s doubleheader against
Lane CC was called because of the
torrential downpour the night before.
Thursday, the team was able to make
up the two cancelled games versus
Southwestern Oregon CC.
In the first game of the double
header Clackamas got on the board
first with an RBI single by Zach
Reinhardt.
Sophomore Travis
Galbraith started on the mound for the
Cougars and looked strong through
the first three innings before getting
into trouble in the fourth.
“I pitched well, but I didn’t clutch
up when I needed too,” Galbraith
said. “SWOCC was talking trash; it
got me pissed off so I tried to do it
myself.”
In the fourth, Galbraith let the first
three batters on, by way of a walk,
hit batsman and a single. The fourth
batter knocked in the visitor’s first run
on a fielder’s choice. SWOCC would
score again in the inning on another
fielder’s choice.
In the bottom half of the inning
with one out, Mike Veselik hit a dou
ble to left-center followed by a single
from Robert Badilla. Clackamas
wasn’t able to nod up the game at two,
leaving Veselik and Badilla stranded
at first and third.
‘We need to start scoring. We’re
leaving too many guys on base and
not getting the hits we need,” center
fielder Josh Breslaw said
hi the bottom of the sixth the
Cougars let another golden opportuni
ty slip away. Catcher Mike McNally
doubled down the leftfield line and
Veselik followed that up with a walk.
A sacrifice bunt moved the runners
up one base, and left the Cougar men
at second and third with one out, but
the following two batters popped out
leaving the score at 2-1.
Galbraith got back in a groove
after the fourth, striking out nine for
the game, in 7-1/3 innings pitched
Jason Hart relieved him with one
out in the eighth, and let up one hit
and one run, which was charged to
Galbraith.
Clackamas wasn’t able to score
in the bottom half of the eighth or the
ninth and lost the game 3-1. Reinhart
went one for two with two walks and
the only Cougar RBI, as Breslaw and
Veselik both had extra-base hits for
theCougs.
“The track we’re .on is going in the
right direction, we just freed to execute
better on offense,” Breslaw said
In game two, the Cougars found
those lost bats in the early going,
jumping on top of SWOCC 3-0 in the
first. The next inning Lucas Pfaller
kept the run parade going with a
three-run bomb. Pfaller went two for
four on the day and drove in four
runs.
With the score being 6-0, starting
pitcher Brian Goff had some real
estate to work with, and as time would
tell he was going to need every run the
offense could get Goff gave up four
earned runs in the fourth, and was
later relieved by Joe Cole.
“I’m not feeling it; I need to get
into a groove. I’ll find it though,”
Goff said
After Goff left the game, Cole and
Howard “Hap” Purden were able to
hold off SWOCC a little. But by the
end of the fifth inning the game was
tied at six.
Purden would pitch the rest of the
way, and held the visiting team to only
one more run while earning the win.
The Clackamas offense “cluthed up”
as well and scored twice more, giving
them the 8-7 win. Back-up catcher
Miles Johnson scored two runs in the
victory.
“We need to stay consistent, with
the defense making the easy plays and
the offense hitting the ball,” Purden
said “This week is big for us, and
we are goipg to need the freshman
pitchers to step up; we’ve done this
before.”
The Cougars are scheduled to
play six games this week beginning
Tuesday when the team travelled to
Mt Hood CC to play a double-dip.
Cory Price Clackamas Print
HOVE: Clackamas starting pitcher, Travis Galbraith,
itched into the eighth innning on Thursday afternoon,
■plunked three SWOCC players, but struck out nine
plosing effort. RIGHT: DJ Johnson waits for the
k-off, as a SWOCC player dives back into first safely.
teroid accusations make MLB look like ‘juicy’ soap opera
Ichael McCormack
oris Editor
Whatever happened to the
id old game of baseball,
ere guys like Ted Williams,
ckey Mantle and Willie
ys played purely on natural
[ity, without speculation?
America’s game has been
iished by accusations of
roid use, and is making
yers named Bonds, Giambi
¡McGwire look like the bad
'S in this fiasco of “juicing
Former Oakland Athletics
I St. Louis Cardinals slug-
Mark McGwire was recent-
ordered to testify in a House
imittee testimonial about
use of steroids in base-
1. McGwire, who retired in
01, refused to answer ques
ts about his history of using
roids, saying that he wasn’t
re to talk about the past.
Sammy Sosa and Rafael
Imeiro were also in atten
dee at the House meeting and
th denied that they had ever
ed the drug. Former Major
aguer Jose Canseco pub-
hed a book called “Juiced”
February and said in the
pk that he injected Palmeiro,
well as Juan Gonzalez and
In Rodriguez, when the four
them were teammates with
e Texas Rangers in the early
b
Two of the main targets
r steroid use in baseball
b Barry Bonds and Jason
Giambi. Earlier this year both
players were ordered to tes
tify in front of a Grand Jury
in California. Bonds denied
that he never knowingly took
steroids. Giambi on the other
hand admitted that he used
the drug earlier in his career
and had attained the testos
terone from Bonds’ trainer,
Greg Anderson, who presided
over the Bay Area Laboratory
Co-Operative at which Bonds
trained.
Whether or not Bonds and
others used steroids is still up
in the air, but even if players
have used them, should they be
the ones to blame? MLB has
been bashed in the past for not
having a strict steroid policy
in the league and not until this
season has a firm strategy been
applied. The new rule states
that there will be random tests
throughout the off-season, and
for the first offense, a player
will be suspended for 10 days.
The second offense takes away
30 days, the third suspends
the player for 60 days, and
the fourth occurrence will sus
pend the player for a year. All
suspensions will be without
pay.
So what will happen if it
comes about that Bonds used
steroids; will his home run
record be tarnished with an
asterisk? What about the
reputations of future Hall of
Fame players like Palmeiro
and Rodriguez? There is no
proof of them using the drug,
but speculation has made them
look like they flawed and dis
respected the game that has
treated them so well.
I am a baseball purist and
love the game for what it is.
The speculation that players
have used steroids is making
baseball fans focus on some
thing other than the game.
Let’s say Bonds did use ste
roids. Did that help him hit
.362 last season or that .370
average he put up in 2002? I
doubt it. The point I am trying
to make is that no matter how
much juice went into Bonds,
he was already a great ball
player despite the unnatural
help.
People in general have many
skeletons in their own closets,
so how can we judge these
players when nothing has been
proved? Are we going to listen
to Canseco, a person who has
had numerous run-ins with the
law over cocaine and assault
charges? How do we know
that he is telling the truth?
He might have thrown those
names out there to sell more
books; who knows? Canseco
isn’t the most credible person
to be name-dropping in a scan
dal this big.
In the meantime, I encourage
fans of all ages to put the ste
roid controversy behind them,
and start watching Bonds,
Palmeiro and Rodriguez play a
game that they have mastered
so well with their own natural
ability. Steroids didn’t make
these guys the players they are
today; it was their hard work
and dedication that gave them
a chance to entertain you.
Internet Photo courtesy of FreeRepublic.com
San Francisco Giants slugger, Barry Bonds (above), has
been a main focal point in the investigation of steroid
abuse in Major League Baseball. Bonds has repeatedly
denied charges of using the testoterone drug, despite
his increase of muscle mass in the past decade.