SPORTS
The Michigan Daily Saturday, April 17, 1982
Blue softballers
advance
By JEFFREY BERGIDA
Overcoming a torrential downpour
which delayed play for three hours and
the efforts of a tough Iowa squad, the
Michigan women's softball team ad-
vanced to the third round of the Big Ten
Tournament with a 5-1 victory over the
Hawkeyes at Mitchell Field.
The Wolverines will next play North-
western this morning at 10:00. The
Wildcats advanced with impressive
victories over Indiana and Ohio State.
MICHIGAN, the only team in the field
of seven to receive a first-round bye
overcame an early 1-0 deficit on the
strength of clutch hitting by Lisa Panet-
ta and Sue Burk plus solid pitching),
from Jan Boyd and Laura Reed.
Starter Boyd got off to a rough first
inning as the first three Iowa hitters she
faced all reached base, loading up the
bags with no one out. But she settled
down after that, allowing only one run
to cross the plate in that inning and
blanking the Hawkeyes over the next
three. Reed got the save, finishing up
with three scoreless stanzas.
The Wolverines tied up the game in
the bottom of the second as shortstop
Missy Thomas worked her way on with
a two-out walk, stole second, and scored
on Panetta's single to center.
MENA REYMAN led off the
Wolverine third with a walk and tried to
score all the way from first on Jody
Humphries' double but was pegged at
the plate by Iowa leftfielder Tammie
Ragatz. Humphries advanced to third
on the throw however, and pinch-run-
ner Karen Crawfis later crossed the
plate on a wild pitch by Julie Kratoska,
the Hawkeyes' starter and loser.
Burk added insurance runs in the six-
th with a two-run double to deep left-
center field scoring Reyman and
Diane Hatch. The Wolverines finished
out the scoring in the sixth as Hatch
singled home Karen Pollard.
Michigan was leading 4-1 in the bot-
tom of the sixth when the rains came,
moving the day's games back three
hours while the fields dried. The delay
caused the Michigan State-Ohio State
contest to be postponed one day as the
'winner of this contest will join Michigan,
Northwestern and Indiana in the tour-
nament's "final four."
Today's play will determine a tour-
nament champion as Michigan and
Northwestern would have to be the
favorites, since both are as yet un-
beaten in the double-elimination event.
The winner of their contest will be only
one win away from the finals which are
scheduled for 4:00 this afternoon at Mit-
chell Field.
K00
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Show the folks at home
what you've been getting,,
heir money.
Page 12
THE SPORTING VIEWS
AlumnipAy well for choice seats..,
.What's left for the students?
By MIKE BRADLEY
ry year, thousands of Michigan studednts pay half price for tickets
admittingthem to Wolverine football and basketball games. These tickets
allow their holders to sit from the 50-yard line on into the end zone for foot-
ball games, and from the foul line to behind the basket for Michigan hoop
contests. To the average sports fan, these seats seem fair enough. After all,
this is Michigan, this the Big Ten, this is college athletics at its finest.
For those who follow National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
sports closely, however, student tickets here are grossly inadequate. Why
do viewers tune in to televised college basketball games and find rabid North
Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana basketball fans seated at courtside exhor-
ting their teams? Why did Iowa's football fans enjoy the luxury of cheering
their team into the Rose Bowl from the 35-yard line to the goal line, instead of
the end zone?
These answers can be found when one examines who will receive the good
seats for major Michigan sporting events every season. Michigan alumni,
substantial in number, receive the bulk of the good tickets for these impor-
tant intercollegiate contests.
Why? The answer is simple, money. The students here pay half price for
tickets, the alumni, full. The students don't make hefty contributions to the
various Michigan athletic funds, the alumni do. What sense would it make
for Athletic Director Don Canham to instruct his ticket office to adopt a
policy more favorable to the students? Why should he take the chance of
losing part of the valuable income derived from these Michigan graduates?
If the athletic department was to fall out of favor with the alumni,
Michigan's athletic program might fall into the red.
It would only seem logical that if Michigan must position its students in
second class seats for athletic events in order to remain self-sufficient, any
Big Ten school that will seat its students between the baselines for basket-
ball or between the goal lines for football has un upset alumni contingent and
a budget deficit in its athletic department.
Not so. With the exception of Northwestern, a private institution with a
less than prolific athletic program, and Michigan State, all the other Big Ten
athletic departments claim to operate in the black. A source within the
Spartan ticket office claimed that while MSU's program was not totally self-
supportive, it was moving closer towads that situation yearly. This fact
means that while seven of the Big Ten schools' athletic departments remain
out of debt, they still furnish their students with excellent tickets for sporting
even ts.
How is this done? For the most part, student ticket prices throughout the
Big Ten are half price with a few exceptions, mostly in the area of basket-
ball. Students paid $48.75 or $3.75 per game for 13 games at Minnesota this
past season, while Illinois student supporters paid eithev $4.00 or $3.00 per
ticket for the 1981-82 campaign. For the most part, however, the students
paid the extra money for seats which were stationed between the baskets.
Minnesota put some of its students behind the basket, but only in the lower
levels of Williams Arena.
Football tickets across the Big Ten are pretty consistently priced, with the
exception of Purdue, whose students pay an outrageous fee of $66.00 out of
their tuition to see the Boilermakers play. The only radical exception in the
league where ticket prices are concerned is Northwestern. Students in
Evanston enjoy the luxury of paying nothing to watch the Wildcats play foot-
ball and basketball. Their athletic department, of course, depends immen-
sely on university grants to stay afloat.
What then, does this say about Michigan's ticket policy towards students?
The answer is obvious. Don Canham realizes that in order to make the big
bucks to keep the Michigan sports programs in comfortable financial
situations, someone has to sacrifice preferential treatment. Here, it is the
students. We receive tickets, if we want them, to all sporting events here.
There are no lotteries for basketball tickets or lines for admission. This,
however, is reflected partly by the lack of student support for the basketball
team that is not evident at schools like Indiana, Virginia, or North Carolina.
If there were to be a sudden surge of school spirit in the winter here in Ann
Arbor, students would have to miss some games in order to satisfy the
enormous demand that would accompany such a situation. That is not the
issue.
For now, the issue is-money, something very dear to Don Canham's heart.
Other Big Ten schools look out for their stu4ents while remaining financially
sound; why can't Michigan? NCAA athletics should be students par-
ticipating for the enjoyment of their peers first, the general public second.
This may be idealistic in today's world of big.time athletics, but most Big
Ten schools remember their students when it comes to athletics, why can't
that happen here?
WE'LL PAY YOU TO GET INTO
SHAPE THIS SUMMER.
1 two years of college left,
you can spend six weeks at
our Army ROTC Basic
Camp this summer and earn
a approximately $600.
if you qualify, you
can enter the ROTC 2-
Year Program this fall and
receive up to $1,00a year.
But the big payoff
happens on graduation day.
~A That's when you receive
anofcrs commission.
So get your body in
shape (not to mention your
b ank account).
V
On sale now: $14.75.
AUDITION
"Nastasia,
Lady of Mystery"
An Original Musical by
Tom Simonds
April 19 & 20
7 p.m.
Michigan Union
Daily Photo by AVI PELOSSOF
Michigan second baseman Sandy
Taylor prepares for her turn at bat
during yesterday's 5-1 Wolverine vic-
tory over Iowa in the second round of
the Big Ten Tournament. The tour-
nament concludes today. Michigan will
take on Northwestern in its first game.
~;. \
. ..
- uw
chigan Union.
Open 7days a week. In the Mic
_ M 8 W Q~
\ \ \ F
.Il.dr
aC 9
4-1
t
NO MORE WAITING
The yearbooks are here
" f 0
Pick up your 1982 Michigan Ensian
beginning Friday, April 9
at: Student Publications Building
420 Mavnard (Nert to SA)