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Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 26, 1989

;UWe #pthethVIern
m. sortina'views ,,the soortina views

'89 Cubs unfazed
by past blunders

by Dan Zoch
Daily Contributor
Barring catastrophe, the Chicago
Cubs will soon clinch the National
League Eastern Division. Let me
repeat that. The Cubbies, who beat
out the Mets, the Cardinals, and the
Expos, are going to the playoffs.
Holy Cow, Harry Caray!
The Cubs have a lethal arsenal of
veterans and rookies, of speed and
spirit, along with come-from-behind
victories and a packed Wrigley Field
full of never-say-diehard fans.
All this coached by a slimmer
Don Zimmer, featured this week in
Sports Illustrated. If the Cubs
continue to shed opponents like
Zimmer has shed pounds, they
might just go all the way to
the.......World Series.
Knock on wood.
Who are these Cubs? Nobody ever
heard of these people before this
summer. Jerome Walton and Dwight
Smith struggled to make the team,
now they're the leading contenders

for Rookie-of-the-Year honors.
Lloyd McClendon and Domingo
Ramos have done such a good job of
platooning that nobody's missed
Grace, Dawson, or Dunston when
they took a needed breather, or spent
time on the disabled list.
Mark 'Amazing' Grace hasn't
been exactly idle, though. He's
batting .313 and has added surprising
power to the team. Shawon
Dunston, who seemed to be fading
away to mediocrity in June (batting
.150), has rocketed his average to
.281 to become a fan favorite.
And don't forget Ryne Sandberg.
He's having an incredible year,
batting .290 with a career-high 30
home runs and 77 runs batted in.
Defensively, he remains the most
reliable second baseman in baseball.
All this and lights, too.
Cub pitching has even.improved.
Greg Maddux won his 18th this
weekend and has a shot at winning
20. Maddux, Mike Bielecki, and
Rick Sutcliffe have among them 50

victories this year. Add to that, not
one, but two strong closers in Mitch
'Wild Thing' Williams and Les
Lancaster, and the Cubbies are in
great shape for the playoffs.
It wouldn't be entirely out of
character for the Cubs to blow their
four game lead with only six games
left, but a choke like that would be
worse than their infamous 1969
collapse.
But even when the Cubs do clinch
it this week, they still have to live
down the 1984 disaster against the
Padres when they blew a two game
lead. Thankfully, this young team is
entirely different from that one with
the exceptions of only Sandberg,
Sutcliffe, and pitcher Scott
Sanderson. The young Chicago
Cubs have no memory of past
failures. They know what winning
is, and they don't want to stop.
San Francisco, the Cubs are
coming.
Krickstein
by Adam Benson
Daily Sports Editor

0
6
6

Avuodeled Press,
Cubs' shortstop Shawon Dunston takes a fall after Von Hayes of the Phillies slides into second base. Dunston
has exemplified the new Cubs' spirit, increasing his batting average from .150 in June to his current average of
.281.
asserts self on U.S. tennis frontier


EII
JB~

I

LOS ANGELES --- Aaron
Krickstein scored possibly his
biggest win as a professional tennis
player last weekend, defeating French
Open champion Michael Chang 2-6,
6-4, 6-2 to win the Volvo Players
Tournament in Los Angeles.

With this win and his appearance
in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open
the Ann Arbor-born Krickstein may
be ready to challenge Chang and
Andre Aggasi as the top American
tennis player.
All the hopes and expectations
for Krickstein, that have been slowed
by various injuries to his legs and
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feet, began to seem unrealistic.
"I started off pretty hot when I
was 16 and 17 and then the injuries
set me back," said Krickstein, who
is currently ranked 16th in the world.
"But right now, I think I'm on the
right track. I'm feeling pretty good
about myself."
The win in Los Angeles may
have changed some other minds as
well.
Krickstein, however, downplays
the notion that he is pursuing
Chang, Aggasi or anyone else for
that top American distinction.
"I don't look at it as a chase,"
Krickstein said about the Americans'
competition. "None of us are friends
together, so we don't really talk. We
all have the same goal, to be the
number one player in the world, and
we go are separate ways. But I'm not
chasing them, I'm trying to work on
my game and take it from there.
"I do feel pretty confident about
my ability though that I can get up
there with them if I stay injury free."
Krickstein's exposed that ability
to the nation when he advanced to

the Open semis, before losing to
eventual champion Boris Becker. 0
"It was real exiciting to play in
the U.S. Open semis," Krickstein
said. "I was nervous at the beginning
going against Boris Becker, but I
think it was a good experience for
me. I think it will help me a lot
going into next year. Maybe then, I
can go a round farther."
Besides a better Open showing,
Krickstein has big goals for nextO
season.
"I'd like to end up in the top ten.
I know its tough these days, but
we'll have to see what happens."
Although Krickstein is on the
verge great professional success, he
has wondered about what might have
happened if he had gone to college
first. He almost went to one o4
nation's great tennis powers.
"I would have liked to have gone
to Michigan," Krickstein said.
"Unfortunately, that wasn't an
option. I was pretty good at a young
age, and really had to turn
professional. It would have been nice
to go to Uof M."

V


with your Host
TOM FRANCK
and student comedians
Eric Kurit and
Mike tBloomtield

r( '11S



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