Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 19, 1985
Diamond hopes

I

sparkle around Seegert

By JON HARTMANN
Back when she was in high school, Michigan
slugger Alicia Seegert acquired the nickname "Flo"
as a result of her shyness.
"It was my first year at Gabriel Richard" she said.
"I was just out with some girls one night and-I'm
very quiet-they just said 'Come on, Alicia, Flow
with words!' From there on, they just called me Flo
'cause I'd never talk to that many people."
LAST SEASON, the softball flowed sweetly off
Alicia's bat as she hit her way to the top of the Big
Ten in batting average (.418), hits (33), triples (4),
and RBI's (19). Her season total of 72 hits was best in
the country.
Needless to say, the soft-spoken sophomore was
surprised by her performance. "When I came in, I
didn't think I'd do very well hitting, but I guess that
was my strongest point last year," she said.
She may not have seen it, but many college coaches
recognized her potential in high school. By her own
count, Flo was recruited by Michigan State, Central
and Western Michigan, Indiana, New Mexico, "some
division two colleges," and, of course, the Maize 'n
Blue. Alicia was impressed by the Hoosier staff, but
decided to become a Wolverine on the last possible
day in April 1983.
WHILE AT high school at Manchester and Gabriel
Richard, Seegert had many coaches. "I never had a
coach for more than a year," she said. "Since I was in
seventh grade, every coach has quit after their first
year. That's kind of hard. But I think it's really
helped me becuause I've learned lots of different
styles of ball."
But Alicia's favorite coach has been her father.
"He's taken all of my coaches' techniques and put
them together and showed me ways of being better,"
she said. "He was my baseball coach for a couple of
years.''
Seegert began playing baseball early. "We never
had a girls' softball team in Manchester," she ex-
plained. "So when I was in second grade, I played
baseball... 'till I was 16. When I started softball in
Mancester in seventh grade, I had a lot of

background in ball already."
APPARENTLY, softball was not Seegert's first
choice as her main sport. As she related, "Basketball
has always been my favorite sport, even over sof-
tball." In addition to playing forward and guard on her
high school hoop squads, Seegert has participated in
volleyball, track, and wrestling. Alicia has received
strong support from her family. "Everybody in my
family was involved in sports," she said.
For her junior year in high school, Seegert tran-
sferred from Manchester to Gabriel Richard for both
academic and athletic reasons. "We lost (all)
athletics in my old school . . . and Gabriel Richard
pushed sciences ... that's what I'm interested in."
The move turned out to be a fortuitous one as
Gabriel Richard, with the help of Flo and Wolverine
second baseman-catcher Martha Rogers, won the
state Class D championship. In her senior year, the
team was runner-up in the Class C tournament.
ROGERS RELISHES the memories of those
seasons. "We were the two big hitters in high school"
she said. "We were three-four. Our coach'd
sometimes put me four and her three because they'd
walk her a lot."
Seegert is not only a heroic hitter, but an adroit
defensive player as well. Last year, in addition to
playing catcher, which she did in high school when not
playing short or pitching, she had to learn to play
third base. "I was really rusty," she explained, "but
he (ex-Michigan coach Bob DeCarolis) put me there
for a reason, so I did my best. I learned a lot from
playing the position."
Alicia said she enjoys playing catcher most, and it
seems she will be playing more often. "She's a heck
of a third baseman," said head coach Carol Hutchins,
"but I think we're going to use her at catcher. She's so
quick behind the plate, and she doesn't let anything
get by her."
ROGERS echoed Hutchins' sentiments: "She's so
strong physically - she'll take any advantage that
she can to get you out."
While Seegert is throwing out a lot of runners from

behind the plate this year, her hitting has slumped to
.265 with nine RBI's entering Wednesday's
doubleheader. Part of the problem, according to Hut
chins, is that opposing pitchers are now aware of heP
ability. "People aren't throwing her anything to hit
up there," said Hutchins. "She's got a lot more inten-
tional walks this year."
Seegert agreed. "They're not giving me the pitch I
really like," she said, although she declined to name
her pitch. "It just takes patience, and I don't have
very much patience."
SEEGERT'S hitting should begin to improve, if
Hutchins' assessment of her is correct. "She's a real
student of the game," remarked Hutchins. "When
tell her to do something, she doesn't do it right awa
- I have to explain it to her. She always has to ask
why, but then she does it."
One thing Flo doesn't have to be told to do is exer-
cise. Seegert keeps in training all year round. When
not playing softball or working out, she has fun
drawing, bicycling and waterskiing.
Alicia trains her mind at the School of Education,
where she is working on a joint Physical Education
Kinesiology degree. She hopes to attend gradaute
school here at Michigan, studying cardiac
rehabilitation.
ACCORDING to Seegert, the Michigan softball
team has now rehabilitated itself from the ills of its
1984 fourth-place finish. "Our team was very in-
dividualistic last year," she said. "We're more team-
oriented (this year) and it makes the team so much
better."
Referring to the team's quick (seven-and-three)
start this season, Alicia commented "We knew we
didn't have as much talent as last year, but our hustle
took over. Everybody worked really hard. Getting in
to the national tournament in Omaha (by clinchin
the Big Ten title) would be the next biggest goal.
When one considers Alicia's hitting slump, it seems
remarkable that Michigan is in first place in the Big
Ten. But if she can regain the flow of her hitting
stroke, a Big Ten title appears inevitable.


Disher seeks the right

ci

Daily photo by KATE O'LEARY
Michigan catcher Alicia Seegert puts on her game face as she warms up be-
fore a recent contest.
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By DAVE ARETHA
There is an outfielder/pitcher on the
Michigan baseball team that
has simply "outstanding potential,"
according to the Michigan media guide.
This No. 30, who hit a Carew-ish .350 as
a freshman, can pull a line drive hard
enough to make Brooks Robinson flinch
in self-defense. And as a hurler, he
throws so fast that batters hear his pit-
ch better than they see it.
However, No. 30 had not been able to
harness his star potential. In a league
where hitting .300 is the norm and not
the exception, this guy is now a .283
career hitter. He's also been so wildfn
the mound, one would think he's been
blindfolded and spun around before he's
thrown each pitch. In six and two-thirds
innings last year, he issued 23 walks.
No. 30 would appear to be your stereo-
typical dumb, monster-jock baseball
player. One of those guys that can disin-
tegrate a baseball during practice, but
says, "Duh, what do I do?" when he
steps onto the field.
But in reality, No. 30 doesn't fit that
discription at all. Dan Disher hits cur-
ves, throws curves and sets curves too.
As Disher shed his red and green
striped dress shirt in Michigan's Ray
Fisher Stadium training room, perhaps
the most appropriate place on campus
for this biology major/baseball player,
the imagined Incredible Hulk physique
was lacking. Even if he was dyed green,

it wouldn't have mattered.
DISHER'S BUILD was more conven-
tional, something on the order of
Detroit Tiger Alan Trammell's body.
The junior's affable schoolboy
demeanor, so out of context for an
Organic curve-setter, was also similar
to Trammell's. When Disher greeted a
visitor with a handshake, his small blue-
gray eyes tried to jump out and shake
hands too.
All in all, Disher, or Dish, as his
teammates inevitably tagged him, still
looked like be belonged back in Oakland
High School in his hometown of Dayton,
Ohio. You could almost picture him
coming home after school on a sunny
spring day, saying hello to Mom as he
drops his biology book on the kitchen
table.
HOWEVER, AS Disher propped him-
self on a table inside the small maize,
blue and sanitary white training rooom,
he said it was hard scrounging up all
the studying time he wanted.
"During the season, you've got to do
it on the bus," he said as an ex-
Sressionless trainer wrapped a plastic
ag of ice cubes snugly onto his bruised
shoulder. "I'll be studying on the bus to
Columbus tonight, and then in the hotel
room. In the winter time, if we practice
at night, you have to study in the after-
noon. And in the fall, when we practice
at three-fifteen, you just got to do it
when you get home from practice."
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again, hold on. Disher made it clear
that he does more during his non-
baseball hours than trying to beef up his
3.6 grade point average.
"SURE, THERE'S free time," said
the man whose GPA got him named
honorable mention Academic All-
American last year, despite a .229 bat-
ting average and 24.18 ERA. "You've
got to take time off every once in a
while or you're going -to go crazy.
There's time to find that.
"I play guitar and I like listening to
music. I like old rhythm and blues." He
nodded and a smile emerged. "Ya, old
music. Like Chuck Berry and the
Beatles."V
So what we have here is a guy who's
intelligent, athletic and has a social life
to boot. Yet despite all the ability,
Disher is still bummed because he can't
figure out his lusterless diamond play.
Disher can solve almost any chemistry
problem you stick in front of him, but he
cannot solve the seemingly simple game
of baseball.
DISHER, WHO was recruited
primarily as a pitcher, remains baffled
as to why his career base-on-balls total
has reached obscene heights: 41 walks
in 17 1/3 innings.
"I don't know," he said, shaking his
head. "It's hard to say. If I knew
(why), I think I'd turn things around."
With his bare shoulder still on ice in
the quiet training room, Disher started
to dwell on his lack of success. But he
just became more bewildered.
"THIS YEAR I thought I've done
really well in scrimmages, throwing to
our hitters," Disher said. "I thought I
threw well in the wintertime when we
threw indoors in the cages. I felt good. I
felt in a good rhythm. But things fell
apart the moment I got into the game."
It could be that Disher is too in-
telligent for the basic yet infinitely
complex game. Reggie Jackson, whose
IQ score scaringly approaches the
genius level, has often talked about the
severe mental strain he's had when he's
in a batting slump. Throughts buzz

iemistry,
throughout Jackson's head like mosquitoes
until he can barely take it anymore.
"It's definitely better not to think,"
agreed Disher. "The games I pitched
well in, I wasn't thinking about
anything. I was just going out and
trying to be competitive. The games
I've not pitched well in, I've had a lot of
things go through my mind.
"I FEAR walking people because
that's been my main problem. I go out
there and I'm thinking, 'Okay, don't
walk these guys. Stay in the game. Ge
the ball over the plate andyou're goin
to stay in the game.' And you can't
think like that. You've got to just go out


Disher
.problems at the plate

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and be competitive."
Disher, like Reggie, said a peaceful
mind is one of the keys to successful hit-
ting.
"When you're up at the plate,"
Disher said, "sometimes you know
you're going to hit the ball hard because
you feel right. You're not thinkin
about too many things and you fee
good."
According to Disher, an endless
string of bad pitching outings
generates more frustration than
CRISPing on the first day and finding
all your classes are closed.
"Oh, it's extremely frustrating!" he
said, jarring the ice bag loose from his
shoulder. "It's very frustrating. I've
been so frustrated because I'll do well
one day and then I'll be a different per-
son the next day. And I just go hom
wondering 'Why? What am I doing.
And I'm remembering back to games,
maybe back in high school, and I'm
trying to picture that when I'm out
there. And it's just...it's just really
frustrating."
Disher looked toward the floor, shook
his head, and began to chuckle. If only
baseball was as easy as Organic
Chemistry.

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SCORES
Major League Baseball
American League
Yankees 3, White Sox 2
Angels 9, Twins 8
Indians 11, Orioles S
National League
Expos 7, Cardinals 1

I

I 1 117


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