Pressing the Issue 808 MILLER Shot, at the majors. only a dream? LAKELAND SPRING TRAINING, baseball, Florida and optimism are synonymous words at this time of year. In Lakeland alone there are five teams working out daily in prepara- tion for the upconing season. Professionally, this is tge home of the Detroit Tigers. This year there are also four college teams, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa St. and Western Michigan, that make Tiger Town the base of their southern trip operation. For the most part, it is the Tigers that I am interested in. They hired me last year for the summer and invited me to work down here during Spring Training. Although I work for public relations, I was also able to act out a lifelong fantasy: I got a chance to pitch for a major league team. Actually, I did nothing more than toss around a few pitches to a non- roster catcher. Nothing fancy mind you, but it gave me the opportunity to see if after all these years I had a hidden talent -for keeping the ball low, moving it around and pulling the string. Who knows, I might have been another Mark Fidrych. I felt like another George Plimpton. Decked out in my white Indiana University track shorts that I got for my birthday, I walked out onto the mound in the bullpen amid the snickers of the other players. At least they were laughing at my legs and not my arms which are really scrawny compared to some of the cannons they have. My tennis shoes would have made me the envy of any racquet club with their sparkling white leather and trim blue stripes, but they didn't help me any on the mound. There were no spikes to grip the soil and, consequently, it hurt my pitching. The bullpen is off to the side of the clubhouse. It is simply an area of dirt with twin pitching rubbers and a matched pair of home plates 60 feet 6 inches away. Directly behind the plate is a cinderblock wall eight feet high. I wasglad for one thing, no one saw me pitch. One of the coaches tossed me a ball and I dropped it. Good start. I don't know what made me so net- vous, this was only for fun anyway. Then my catcher came out of the clubhouse. He didn't want to do this, but he was late for practice and I was the only one available to warm him up. I took the baseball in my hand and rubbed it up like I have seen the pros do. countless times. I tugged at my cap, wound up, stretched and flung the ball as hard as I could. It traveled three-quarters of the way to home plate, sunk into the ground and skipped high over the catcher's glove. The ball bounced off the wall and nearly beaned my batterymate in the back of the head. Embarrassed, I yelled my apologies and assured him that it was only temporary jitters. I was ready to try again. My catcher gave me a sign (one finger) and I tossed a fast ball very high and very wide. Another sign (two fingers) and I let loose with another fast ball that nearly hit a groundskeeper at the side of the other plate. A third time (middle finger) I'd rather forget. Watch out for the bull My pitching developed a pattern. I could get the ball over the plate, but not with any speed. Or I could really gun it-but everyone around me would have to take cover since I couldn't guarantee where my bomb would land. My catcher was only interested in loosening up, so taking his advice, I threw lightly and within reasonablehdistance of the plate. After a couple more throws, I had settled down and was throwing with some ease. I was now ready to pitch sidearm. I should explain that I am left-handed and Ican curve the ball naturally by throwing from the side. In fact, I prefer to throw that way. So when the first few balls landed squarely in the catcher's mit, on the inside then the utside and finally low-just where I said they would, my receiver was quite irnpressed by the imnprovement Now I was having fun and I envisioned myself as a starting pitcher in the majors, winning twenty games and leading my team to the World Series. And all because I couldn't throw straight. The pitching coach came over and asked me my name and how long I could pitch like that. Snyly, 1 told him that I was not interested in playing baseball, I was only pitching for the fun of it. He shook his. head and muttered something under his breath and just walked away. A few minutes later, the loudspeaker woke me out of a long sleep. "First call for breakfast." I looked at my watch and saw that it was 8:00 a.m. Like I said, optimism abounds in Florida. At least I got to pitch some bull, anyway. Netunen capture two P The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, February 28, 1978-Page 7 ODAKS BL UE FA TE RIDES WITH N WCHA playoff picture still fuzzy BY GARY KICINSKI If you thought the CRISP maze was bad, just try figuring out what the WCHA playoff picturelooks like. With just one week of games left to be played, the playoff match-ups, to say nothing of the playoff teams, are still up in the air. MICHIGAN, WHICH lost twice by one-goal margins to Michigan Tech over the weekend, has fallen to eighth place in the standings, a mere two poin- ts ahead of ninth-place North Dakota. The Wolverines play a home-and-home series with the cellar-dwelling Michigan State Spartans this weekend. What may determine Michigan's playoff fate more than anything, however, is the fact that North Dakota still has four games left to play, all of them at home, while Michigan has just two. The Fighting Sioux played a make- up game with Notre Dame late last night, and will host another game tonight. The series is a make-up of the games originally scheduled for January 27-28, when the Irish couldn't get out of South Bend due to the snow storm. If the Nodaks can't make up any ground against Notre Dame, they still have a shot on the weekend against Minnesota. If you give the Nodaks four to six points out of their possible eight, Michigan's best chance of making the playoffs would depend on seventh-place Duluth's performances. If Michigan, with 22 points, can win one more game this weekend than Duluth does against Michigan Tech, the Wolverines would get a playoff berth. ADDING TO THE monotony is thei fact that fifth-place Colorado CollegeI (who is separated from ninth place by1 just six points) must play a home-and- home series with first-place Denver. Thus, just about any of the five teams between fifth and ninth can wind up in any order imaginable. As far as the top four teams are con- cerned, the following things are cer- tain: Denver has first place clinched, and will host the eighth-place team in the first round of the WCHA playoffs on1 March 10th and 11th. Also, Minnesota] has wrapped up fourth place and it gets+ the home ice advantage against the fif- th-place team. Wisconsin and Tech are battling it out' for second and third, and in the event that they remained tied, Wisconsin would get second by virtue of its giving up fewer goals in the head-to-head four- game series with Tech, which the teams split two games each. Confused yet? THE FOUR WINNERS of the first round series (decided on a two-game, total goal basis) will then square off on March 14-15, with the teams that at- tained the highest point total during the season gaining the home ice advantage. Two teams will emerge victorious from the second round, but instead of pitting the two to determine a WCHA champion, the second round winner with the highest point total will auto- matically go to the NCAA tournament, and the other winner will play the CCHA winner in a single playoff game to determine which of those teams will also go to the NCAA's. BUT JUST LIKE the "i before e' rule, the'playoff system has an excep- tion to confuse the hockey wizards even more. Denver is ineligible to par- ticipate in the NCAA's since it is on probation, but it can partake in the WCHA playoffs. Should the Pioneers win both the first and second rounds, the other second round victor would go to the nationals directly and the team finishing highest in the standings after that would play the CCHA victor. Thus a situation could arise in the second round of the playoffs where Wisconsin and Michigan Tech could end up playing each other, and both of them could still end up at Providence for the nationals. And if you're not confused by all that, then just wait 'til I start explaining how the consolation rounds work.. GEAR FOR UPCOMING BIG TENS: Gophers gobble tumblers SWCHA Standings W L Denver ........................... 25 5 W isconsin ........................ 19 9 Michigan Tech...............'.20 1o Minnesota ..................... 17 12 Colorado College................13 17 Notre Dame ...................... 12 15 Minn-Duluth-.................. 11 18 MICHIGAN ...................... 11 19 North Dakota..................10 18 Michigan State.................... 22 Games to play Monday-Tuesday Notre Dame at North Dakota This weekend CC-Denver (h&h) Tech at Duluth Mich.-MSU (h&h) Minn at N. Dakota Notre Dame at Wisconsin T 0 2 0 i 0 0 0 TP 50 40 40 35 26 25 23 22 20 15 By JEFF BLAKE At the gymnastics meet between the University of Minnesota and Michigan this weekend in Crisler Arena, won by the Gophers in the gymnasts last home meet of the year, there was a little something for everybody. The fans, at least the few who showed, saw some stellar performan- ces and got their money's worth. Paral- lel-bar specialist John Corritore was excellent in scoring a 9.7. The judges, who twice had to confer after giving wide-ranging scores, got confused. Perhaps the biggest prize awarded was the plaque given gymnast Paul McBride in honor of his four years of work for the Michigan squad. And all he did on Sunday was to sit on the bench and cheer. For McBride, that ' position is familiar. He has worked hard in prac- tice for years, and has competed in an occasional invitational meet, but has never been able to crack the starting line-up which competes in the regular meets. "It's nice to have something to show for the efforts," McBride said of the plaque delivered along with a short speech by Coach Newt Loken at the start of Sunday's optionals. And though the side-horse specialist admits that at times things got pretty frustrating, his time has still, he says, been well spent. "I got to work out with a lot of talented guys, and besides, I wouldn't want to compete if I didn't deserve to." Another graduating senior honored on Sunday was side-horse man Carl Badger, and though Badger still has a year of eligibility left, he intends to pass it up in favor of another endeavor - graduate school in neuro-anatomy. "I'll miss it," says Badger of his two years on the team. "I'll keep working out casually, but it's not the same as being competitive." In case you've forgotten, the Min- nesota team which easily defeated Michigan by the score of 424.8-398.6, is the same bunch which took last year's Big Ten title. For Coach Loken, though, whose only objective was to "stay in the PROGRAM TO BE CHOPIPED? ballgame," the narrow margin of defeat in the optionals (four points) was enough to cheer about. For the fans; there was much more. John Corritore, who practically takes an entire crew with him to help straighten out the mats and the height of the p-bars before he begins his routine, said on Saturday night before the compulsories that, "I feel really good tonight," and he looked even bet- ter. He dismounted and gave the judges a look which said, "Now that was extra- ordinary," and they agreed. The 97 given was his highest ever received, and together with his nearly super- fluous 9.45 on Sunday, it gave him an easy win and his highest total ever. Specialist Brian Carey also perfor- med steadily, tying for first on the side- horse, and put himself in good standing going into the Big Tens in two weeks. "Their guys were a little more stylish, but I was glad to give a good solid routine. I was a little spooked after missing my compulsory routine last week, so a couple good ones definitely helps toward the end." Other strong performances were given by Bob Creek, who turned in a 9.25 on the high-bar after a poor com- pulsory routine, by Gordon Higman on both the rings and the parallel bars, and by Jim Varilek, who took a first in the vaulting competition. - Varilek's win came at the expense of Badger, who led after Saturday night. But the honoree could manage only a 9.05 in the optionals, which could have been higher considering his hand- spring front which drew plenty of gasps. On the other hand, a 9.05 isn't too shabby - especially for Badger's horizontal finish. In the all-around, Nigel Rothwell tur- ned in his strongest performance of the year, a 103.2, but still wound up second to Minnesota's strongest, Jay Lowin- ske. For the Wolverines, as well as for the rest of the Big Ten, it's back to the drawing board. Or back to the chalk anyway, and plenty of it in preparation for the Big Tens to be held in Cham- pagne, Illinois on March 10-11. A JV cagers By BRIAN MARTIN Their season began with a 100-point outing against a much taller Owens Tech, and ended with a 98-point per- formance against a more talented Mott Community College, with both games showing Michigan wins, In between, four wins among three losses were posted to accumulate a 6-3 season record. A record that may-be the last posted by a Michigan varsity reserve basket- ball team. AT ONE TIME, the JV squad was a very useful tool to the varsity program, enabling freshmen recruits to gain finish strong season valuable playing experience until they became eligible for varsity action as sophomores. But before the start of the 1973-74 season, freshmen were declared eligible to play with the big boys and it was only a matter of time until the um- bilical cord would be cut from the JV program. Many reasons have been offered for the inevitable surgery, but not all con- cern themselves with the economics in- volved in the program. "The team just hasn't proved to be a training ground (that it was designed to be)," explained assistant Sports Infor- mation Director Jim Vruggink. "All By PETE LEININGER The Michigan men's tennis team, having won the Big Ten the past ten seasons, opened the season with a pair of one-sided 8-1 victories over Miami (Ohio) and Notre Dame. This past weekend the Blue squad downed the Irish, winning all the singles matches, with only one match going to three sets. JEFF ETTERBEEK got things-star- ted off with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 first singles victory over Carlton Harris. In second singles play, Michigan's Brad Holland downed the Irish's Herb Hop- wood, with scores of 6-2, 6-2. "Overall, I was very pleased (with the performance'of the team) because we just came back from -Northwestern the night before," said Michigan coach Brian Eisner. The Michigan men's and women's teams, playing on a team basis, defeated the Northwestern squad 30-24. The Northwestern meet was a first in the Big Ten. Five matches of singles and doubles were played by the men and women with a mixed doubles mat- ch at the end of the evening. In the third singles play, Jud Schaufler defeated Tom Westphal 6-1, 6-4. Ihor Debryn slipped by Brian Hailine 7-6, 3-6, 7-5. "Hailine probably played better than any other Notre Dame player," commented Eisner. JACK NEINKEN, playing fifth singles, breezed past Mark Hoger 6-0, 6- 2. In sixth singles, Pete Olsen brushed off Kevin Gandhi 6-1, 6-1. "I was especially pleased with the play of Neinken and Olsen in fifth and sixth singles." 'sazid Eisner. "We n without Matt Horwitch, our second singles player. In doubles play., Schaufler and Neinken ousted Harris and Hopwood, 6- 2, 6-2. Second doubles action saw Debryn and Ollie Owens defeat Hoger and Gandhi 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. The only win for the Irish came with their third doubles victory. In the mat- ch, Westphal and Koval defeated Gar- cia and Solys 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Michigan, now 2-0 in dual-meet com- petition, will have its next two home meets against powerful Southern Illigois and a tough University of Ken- tucky squad. AP Top Twenty A Recreational . SPOTS During spring break the Central Campus Recreational Wilding and the North Campus Recreational Building will remain open and the Sports Coliseum and Intramural Building will be closed. Hours during the break are as follows: March 4,6-11-9:00 am.-7:00 p.m. for the CCRB and NCRB. March, 5, 12-12:00 p.m.-7-00 p.m. for the CCRB. March 5, 12-2:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. for the NCRB. Building hours will be back to regular schedule March 13. five freshmen are on the var- sity . . . It's just not a big priority." A SMALL PRIORITY, maybe, but not in the eyes of the 11 men listed on the JV roster. The squad jelled over their abbreviated season, transforming from a collection of five players on the floor at a time to an unselfish team. Many times throughout the season, multi-talented guard Ray Owens chose to dish off an assist rather than put up a more difficult jumper, and this became characteristic of Dan Fife's team. The Wolverines played their best game of the season last Saturday, but unfortunately, it was also the last game of the season. The cagers emanated an air of triumph in the locker room after- wards, and even Johnny Orr congratulated their efforts before he followed his team out on the floor for their game. "I JUST WISH we had some more," junior Chris Fielder said. Indeed, everyone wished some more games loomed on the schedule, for the taste of victory is sweet and lingers in the mouth. It's a taste the JV's may never be, able to sample again. Thompson Ag$ftment$ furnished e iciencles 1 and 2 bedroom apartments available for Fall 1978 occupancy Located at corner of William and Thompson call 665-2289 ,Out~ PREPARE F OR: ear' MCAT " DAT - LSAT " GRE GMAT - OCAT - VAT -SAT NMB L[rIII, ECFMG " FLEX* VQE NAT'L DENTAL BOARDS - NURSING BOARDS Flexible Programs & Hours There IS a differencer! K4P N EDUCATIONAL CENTER Test Preparation Specialists Since 1938 For Information Please Call: (313) 662-3149 For Locations in Other Cities, Call: TOLL FREE: 800-223-1782 Centers in Maor us cities Toronto Puerto Rico ad 'Lugano Switzerlan Keep you eyes open for publicity regarding the second annual; ALL-NIGHTER, Saturday, March 18, from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. CCRB. Movies, tournaments, games and recreation galore will hand to give everyone a high on good, clean fun. spring at the be on . Team Record 1. Kentucky (39)...................... 22-2 2. UCLA (13) ......................... 22-2 3. Marquette (1)... ............... 22-3 4. Arkansas. ....................27-2 5. Kansas .........................23-3 6. DePaul (2)......................23-2 7. Notre Dame ........................ 19-5 8. New Mexico ...................... 22-3 9. Michigan State ....... ...........21-4 10. North Carolina.................23-6 11. Florida Statef..................... 21-4 12. Texas .............................. 22-4 13. Illinois State ....................... 23-2 14. Syracuse......................21-4 15. Duke ...........................20-6 16. Detroit ............................. 23-2 17. Georgetown, .................... 21-5 18. Providence ......................... 22-6 19. Utah .........................21-5 20. Louisville....................... 18-6 Points 1,044 964 819 720 616 579 485 395 378 335 261 179 117 109 98 88 41 32 24 22 THE HIGHLANDS 1 and 2 bedroom apartments includes security lock system, drapes, dishwasher, lighted tennis courts, and pool Buses to and from campus daily 1693 Broadway, Apt. 302 769-3672 Reaume and Doddes Management Co. * SPECIAL 0 at the Bagel Fadeq 1306 S. University INTRODUCING ALWAYS FRESH, 7 days. 1 0 Our New Cream Cheese Spreads: strawberry-blueberry vegetable-walnut 49C per sandwich on your choice of bagel (Good thru Feb. 28) "Expert in Tray Catering" Bite Back At Winter Go Skiing with great savings NOW Annuul Ski and NO BIG DEAL TT T~/)A w.