The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 15,1993- Page 13

Rowers
to head
,South for
reatta
by Brian Hillburn
Daily Sports Writer
For the first time this season, the
Michigan crew team is traveling to a
location where the weather might be
conducive for a boat race. This
weekend the team travels to Oak
Ridge, Tenn., for the Southern Inter-
collegiate Rowing Association's
(SIRA) regatta.
Saturday's competition will fea-
ture some of the best crew teams in
the country, including Virginia,
Washington University, Miami,
Duke, Purdue, Cincinnati, Ohio
State, Tennessee-Chattanooga and
the Florida Institute of Technology.
The Wolverines said they are
excited to compete in Oak Ridge be-
cause of its excellent weather and
facilities, in contrast with the sites of
their previous regattas.
Last weekend the team drove
twelve hours to Washington, D.C.
for the George Washington
Invitational. Unfortunately, the races
were canceled midway through the
competition due to high winds and
rain. The week before that, Michigan
had to compete in mini-races against
Cincinnati, after the original site of
their regatta froze, forcing the teams
to race on the tiny Huron River.
"The weather should be
incredible," senior rower Fletcher
Jones said of Oak Ridge. "It's
usually 80 degrees and sunny.
Everybody's looking forward to next
weekend because it's a really good
race course."
The team has been training hard
for the SIRAs. If Michigan performs
well, it can make nationals.
"This race is important to qualify
for nationals," senior rower Jennifer
Waling said. "It's one of our last two
chances to perform well."
The Wolverines have another
chance to qualify next week at the
Midwest Sprints in Madison, Wis.
To better its chances of qualify-
ing, the men's varsity heavyweight
boat has been making some changes
in personnel. Because coach Will
Brewster thinks that the men can
show further improvement this sea-
son, he has been mixing in some of
* the faster lightweight rowers in an
attempt to get better times.
"Our coach decided to switch
some people around in the boats,"
junior rower Matt Beelen said. "He
then compares the switches to try to
get the fastest boat. It shouldn't hurt
the lightweights too much because
there won't be a lot of lightweight
competition at this meet."
The SIRAs will give Michigan
another chance to race against Vir-
ginia, George Washington, and
Cincinnati - all opponents against
whom the Wolverines have not been
fully able to compete due to bad
weather. The opportunity to race
against these teams in a setting free
of harsh conditions has inspired
Michigan.
"We haven't had a chance to re-

ally race them," junior rower Monica
Maiorana said. "We want to go
down there and win."

Women tumblers
end year at NCAAs

by Thom Holden
Daily Sports Writer
The final meet -- there will be
nothing left to say.
The Michigan women's gymnas-
tics team left Tuesday morning for
the national championship meet in
Corvalis, Ore. The meet, featuring
the top 12 teams in the country,
begins Thursday afternoon with the
team trials. The top three teams from
each session move on to tomorrow's
team championship meet. On Satur-
day, the individual championships
take place.
Last year, Michigan was nar-
rowly edged out for the NCAA
championship meet, but the Wolver-
ines were well represented in the in-
dividual event. Beth Wymer, then a
rookie, placed fifth in the country in
the all-around, earning her All-
American honors. Kelly Carfora also
competed in the all-around, finishing
19th in the nation, narrowly missing
second team All-American.
This year, however, the full
squad qualified for the national
championship meet for the first time
in team history. Along with defend-
ing their Big Ten title, this had been
one of the Wolverines' major goals
for the season.
This being Michigan's first trip
to the national championship meet,
expectations are realistic for this
team. Michigan coach Bev Plocki
says she does not expect a national
team title this year; she is happy just

getting the national exposure and-
experience the championship meet
will bring.
"We have always tried to set real-
istic, attainable goals for ourselves,
and work on meeting those goals,"
Plocki said Monday during the
team's last home practice. "If we
place third in (today's) afternoon
session and made it to the 'Super
Six,' I would be the happiest person
alive."
The rest of the team, however, is
looking for maximum results.
"I hope I get All-American this
year," Carfora said. "First team
would be great, but I would take
second (team)."
"If we can go 24-for-24, hitting
six routines on all four events, that
would be great," sophomore Debbie
Berman said.
While the last week of practice
has arguably been the most impor-
tant for the Wolverines, the team has
not been able to concentrate solely
on the national championship. Leav-
ing Tuesday meant missing four
days of classes with final exams just
a week away.
"I know a lot of people had a ton
of work," Wymer said "(Monday), I
had three papers due, an exam and a
test, since we were going to be
gone. "

Wolverine gymnast Beth Wymer hopes to repeat last year's All-American all-around performance at this week's
NCAA tournament. Wymer and the rest of the Michigan team are in Corvallis, Ore., for the competition.


Tigers try to contend
despite poor pitching


-----'"

SPORTINGVIEWS

Gwynn may be
the .400 player,

DETROIT (AP) - There is a
feeling around the Detroit clubhouse
that the Tigers can contend in the
AL East despite shaky pitching.
No, they won't score 20 runs a
game. Although, heaven knows it
would help.
But the Tigers will score lots of
runs. Last year they averaged 4.88
runs per game. Through their first
seven games of 1993, they are aver-
aging 7.14 runs.
That, of course, is the good news.
The bad news is their record was 3-4
during those seven games.
And the primary reason for the
bad news is that the team ERA was
5.19.
Nothing but numbers.
The trouble with numbers, as
anyone who has struggled with a
Form 1040 lately can tell you, is that
numbers can be made to support al-
most anything. To you, the numbers
mean one thing. To the friendly
folks at the IRS, those same numbers
mean something quite different (you
pay!).
That's why the Tigers believe
they're going to surprise some peo-
ple this season.
"If you look around the league, I
think our pitching is good," Tony
Phillips said. "There aren't a lot of
teams with guys like Roger
Clemens. That kind of pitching just
isn't out there."
You know something? He's right.
Since the mid-1970s, the number
of 20-game winners in the American

League has dropped dramatically. InI
1973, there were 12, one of whom
was Detroit's Joe Coleman, who,
won 23 games that year.
In 1981 and 1982, there were no
20-game winners in the AL. Zip.
Nada. Nary a one. Last year, there
were three, up one from 1991 when
Detroit's Bill Gullickson and
Minnesota's Scott Erickson each,
won exactly 20 games.
Toronto had the best pitching in
the AL last year, of course. Jack
Morris won 21 games and Juan
Guzman won 16. But this season
Morris and Guzman both are getting
knocked around. Jack is 0-2 with a
16.71 ERA. Juan is 0-0 with an
11.81 ERA.
So much for dominant pitching.
And all the more reason to listen
when the Tigers talk about what
might happen.
"I think our offense can keep us
in the race," manager Sparky
Anderson said.
The Tigers had the most potent
offense in baseball last season,
scoring 791 runs. It is fairly well-
known by now, of course, that
Detroit pitchers gave up 794 runs.
That explains their sixth place finish
rather neatly.
So, the Tigers fired most of those
pitchers and started 1993 with new-
comers Mike Moore, Bill Krueger,
David Wells and Tom Bolton. The
only starter they kept was
Gullickson. But he's on the disabled
list at the moment.
A NN A 1 O R
SA.=USl WO#40. MUSIC DIRICTOR
Season Finale
MARTINA
ARROYO
Sat., April24, 1993
Michigan Theater, 8:00 p.m.
Samuel Wong, Conductor
Martina Arroyo, Soprano
Mozart: Symphony #1
Falla: Seven Popular Spanish Songs
Mozart: Bella, mia famma, addio!
Mozart: Symphony #41 (Jupiter)

by Brett Johnson
Daily Sports Writer
Some people say it will never be
done again. The last player to hit
.400 was Ted Williams of the
Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in
1941.
This statistic will change this sea-
son, however. And in twenty years,
I'll be able to tell my kids that Tony
Gwynn was the last person to hit
.400, thanks to baseball's expansion.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a
Padres fan, but Gwynn is one of the
best hitters in baseball, and he has all
the tools to reach the .400 plateau
this season. First of all, most pitch-
ing staffs have trouble going three or

four deep in the rotation. You can,
forget about having a solid fifth
starter, which was hard to find even
before expansion. Just like when
Roger Maris broke the home run
record in 1961, the pitching will be
very depleted.
Secondly, look at the two expan-
sion teams themselves. The Padres,
like every other National League
team, will face the Colorado Rockies
and the Florida Marlins a combined
25 times. Normally, a player would
get around four at bats per game,
giving the hitter 100 at bats against
these two staffs. Quite frankly, Jack
Armstrong, Charlie Hough, Butch
Henry, and Willie Blair don't strike

fear into many batters, especially not
one of Tony Gwynn's caliber.
In addition, the two parks in
which the expansion teams play will
hurt their pitchers even more. Balls
hit at Mile High Stadium are travel-
ing far, fast, and at an alarming rate,
as demonstrated by 54 runs being
scored in the first three games there.
Florida's Joe Robbie Stadium's out-
field is so spacious that cows could
be grazing in left-center and the out-
fielders would never run into them.
With the overall quality of pitch-
ing plummeting and the number of
games played against the two teams,
Gwynn has one of the best chances
to hit .400 in recent times.


... ........
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~JRLI:K


THE TRA

I

Harkey, Cubs shut
down Braves, 6-0

Associated Press

i


Mike Harkey pitched 7 1-3
shutout innings as the Chicago Cubs
defeated the Atlanta Braves 6-0 yes-
terday.
Harkey (1-0) gave up four hits,
struck out five and walked two.
The right-hander was removed
from the game after walking Otis
Nixon with one out in the eighth in-
ning. Bob Scanlan relieved and got
out of the inning before Randy
Myers finished.
Jeff Blauser had three of the
Braves' six hits.
Jose Vizcaino had gssacrifice fly
in the second inning dif Pete Smith
(1-1) and a two-run double in the
sixth. The three RBIs tied a career
high.
Chicago's Mark Grace extended
his hitting streak to eight games with

With San Francisco leading 4-2,
the Marlins started the sixth with
five consecutive hits. Jeff Conine's
single made it 4-3, chasing starter
Bill Swift (0-1).
Dave Righetti came on to give up
an RBI single to Walt Weiss before
Renteria drove in the go-ahead run
with a single.
Florida added a run in the seventh
when Junior Felix, who led off with
a single, scored on a passed ball by
Kirt Manwaring.
Ryan Bowen (1-0) allowed four
runs, two unearned, walked five and
struck out three in five innings.
Bryan Harvey pitched the ninth for
his third save.
Red Sox 12, Indians 7
Mo Vaughn and Scott Cooper led
a Boston attack with four hits apiece,
nd the fir.t-nlac ReA ox nnnded

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FEATURING "THING OF BEAUTYN
AND *AN EMOTIONAL TIME'
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INCLUDES -HATE ST:"HELLO COSMO" AND "EVE.,TRo'.

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