The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, February 27, 1995 7

BASTON
*ntinued from page 1
the floor and plenty of in-your-face
blocks at the other end.
Baston's play as of late is not a
surprise to coach Steve Fisher and the
rest of his coaching staff.
"He's made big strides, but not any-
thing that we hadn't expected," Fisher
says.
Fisher knew what he would be get-
*goutofBaston from the start. Ranked
in the top 15 coming out of high school,
Baston signed during November's early
signing period was a major coup for the
Wolverines' recruiting efforts of last
year. The coaches liked everything they
saw out of Baston.
"We saw exactly whatour fans have
seen," Fisher says. "First of all, he's a
terrific young guy that loves to play and
* immediately attracts you as a good
person. Then we saw a wealth of ath-
letic potential that told us that he had a,
chance to really be a special player.
He's gotlongarms, quickfeetandplays
hard."
That mentality made Baston a suc-
cess in high school both on and off the
floor.
"He was a very good player and a
niceyoungman," says Val Rhoads,
o coached Baston for four years at
Spruce High School in Dallas. "People
thought as highly of him as a person as
much as a basketball player."
Baston starred for Spruce, twice
earning an all-state selection.
"He was pretty much the nucleus of
our team for four years," Rhoads says.

"As afreshman Iasked him to be a sixth
man and he went up from there."
In his first year, Baston averaged 10
points, seven rebounds, 3 assists and 3
blocks per game, but by his senior sea-
son Baston was putting forth 24 points,
12 rebounds, 4 assists and three blocks
pergame. Still, Rhoads feels that Baston
wasn't living up to his full potential.
"I really felt in high school that he
didn't have anybody to push him to
bring out the best in him," Rhoads says.
"I think that the most came out of him
when he played in the summer and the
kids traveled to different parts of the
country and play against some of the
top teams.
"Going to Michigan, where they
have a great program, they have a fan-
tastic coaching staff, agreat tradition-
he's going and banging up against All-
Americans every day. That will only
help him. I really think he's going to be
an outstanding player in his career at
Michigan."
While his friends and other people
his age played on different squads,
Baston was playing on the varsity team.
It turned out to be quite a learning
experience.
"I was theyoung guyon theteamfor
the most part," Baston says. "I was on
varsity for my freshman year. I played
with older guys and that taught me to be
a fast learner."
Therewasoneencounterinhigh school
thatBaston especially remembers. Itcame
in his first varsity outing at Spruce. It
wasn't even a game -just a scrimmage
against Plano East High School. Baston
played against a player who would go on

SPORYSMonday Profile
Name: Maceo Bastor
Sport Basketball.
E igiblity: Freshman
Year: Freshman
to win Mr. Basketball in the state of Texas.
A player who would later be Baston's
teammate at Michigan.
"He was catching alley-oops and
everything and I said, 'Damn, who's
this?'" Baston recalls. "That's how I
first got to know who he was. He
blocked my shots and dunked on me
and everything."
Jimmy King introduced himself
with a few dunks in Baston's face.
King went on to Michigan the next
year and started in the national cham-
pionship game two straight seasons
with fellow freshmen Juwan Howard,
Ray Jackson, Jalen Rose and Chris
Webber. In the summer King returned
to the Dallas area where he and Baston
would play against each other in the
local gym. Playing basketball at
Michigan was a subject often dis-
cussed.
"When I was a sophomore in high
school, Jimmy was a freshman here
and they went to the Final Four," Baston
says. "That's when everybody started
likingthem.Ithought, 'I wouldn't mind
playing with them but when I would be
a freshman they would be seniors and
I wouldn't play much my first year."
Baston's fears weren't realized as

Michigan's Fab Five recruiting class
quickly dissolved.
"Jimmy came down that summer
and told me that Chris was going to
leave after sophomore year and Juwan
was probably going to leave early too,"
Baston says. "So I thought I might have
a spot up here."
King continued to sell Michigan to
Baston during the offseason.
"Jimmy came and told me how it
was up here and how coach Fisher was.
We played each other and he told me
everything about Michigan."
Selling Michigan to Baston was no
difficult matter, though. The Wolverines
firstcaughthiseyein 1989 when theyvrode
the hot shooting of Glen Rice and Sean
Higgins right to the championship.
"I liked them when they first won
the national title in '89," Baston says.
"I enjoyed watching Glen Rice shoot
all those threes. It really made me aware
of Michigan basketball."
Baston may have gotten somewhat
of a break when Rose and Howard
opted to not return this season. But an
even bigger break came last month.
Fisher had already been giving more
and more minutes each game to Baston
when Jerod Ward went down with a
knee injury. Baston took full advan-
tage of the situation.
"When Jerod went down and got
hurt, the opportunity came," Baston
says. "We were going to be aman short
playing the four position so I knew I
had to go out there and pick it up. I
knew I was going to be getting some
more minutes."
Since Ward went down Jan. 22,

Baston has failed to reach double fig-
ures in scoring just once.
"He's a guy that's gotten an op-
portunity to play and has taken ad-
vantage of it," Fisher says. "So often
a player isn't ready when an opportu-
nity presents itself. He went from
getting three, four or five minutes to
getting 20 minutes.
"He's proven he can handle it. With
every successful segment it gives you
more confidence in him the next time
and it also helps his confidence."
Earlier in the season Fisher showed
a belief in Baston starting him against
Utah and Arizona. That didn't fare well
as Baston managed just seven points
and six rebounds in the two games
combined. He credits his early-season
troubles to the newness of his situation.
"Like most freshmen, you have to
come in and get adjusted to the pro-
gram," Baston says. "You have to know
what you're playing in. I was homesick,
kind of timid and nervous. I know once
I got in and got enough minutes and
confidence to play and to get a good feel
for the game, I'd do pretty well."
One area that Baston needs to im-
prove is his strength. Baston has long
arms-his reach is equivalentto some-
one who is 7-foot-3 - but at 210
pounds, he is not able to throw his
weightaroundinthepaint with some of
the Big Ten's other post players.
"He needs to live in the weight
room," Fisher says. "He needs to get in
with Jim Plocki, our strength coach,
and get stronger. That will do nothing
but make him a whole lot better."
Baston may remind some people of

Eric Riley, who first came to the
Wolverines in 1989. Riley was very
thin on his arrival but proceeded to hit
the weights to bulk himself up. He
was taken in the NBA draft following
the 1992 season.
"He's further along than Eric was
his freshman year," Fisher says."Both
of them were very thin coming in.
Maceo has more skills than Eric did at
this point."
Baston's thin body actually stretches
all the way down to his feet. He puts on
five pair of socks each time before
taking the floor to provide himself with
the necessary ankle support.
"I have a narrow foot and I'm kind
of pigeon-toed too," Baston says. "I
need the extra cushion. I get blisters
easily. It helps fill out the shoe."
Along the way this season. Baston
has received guidance from Jackson,
another Texas native. The two have
often roomed together on road trips.
"He's been a mentor for me," Baston
says. "He's given me a lot of inspiration
and encouragement. That was another
thing that started me off well. He's
taught me a lot about life and basket-
ball. He's told me about what he went
through and thatI'm going to go through
while I'm here. He's told me how to
handle it and what I have to do."
Baston's high school coach believes
there is much more to come from him in
the future.
"From what I've seen, I believehe is
right on track," Rhoads says. "I try to
explain to a lot ofpeople that by the time
he's a sophomore in college he's going
to be devastating."


BACHMAN
ntlnued from page 3
But with increasing racial
tensions, especially in the South,
came conflict among league
players. Before leaving for
Richmond, Toledo's manager
received a letter saying that "75
determined men" were waiting to
attack Walker if he played on their
I m's field.
In Louisville, the crowd's jeers
and insults so rattled Walker that he
committed five errors in a 5-4
Toledo loss. Afterward, The Toledo
Blade came to Walker's defense,
saying he was "one of the most
reliable men in the club, (and) his
poor playing in a city where the
Color line is closely drawn as it is
in Louisville ... should not be
Ounted against him."
Even his own teammate, pitcher
Tony Mullane, once said this of him:
"Walker was the best catcher I ever
worked with, but I disliked a Negro,
and wherever I had to pitch to him, I
used to pitch anything I wanted
without looking at the signs."
Walker survived the onslaughts
as he moved from teams in
terbury, Conn. to Newark, N.J.,
terre Haute, Ind., Oconto, Wis.,
and Syracuse, where he played last.
But his career wouldn't last.
After many anti-Black protests

from Chicago White Stocking star
Cap Anson and other whites, in
1887 International League officials
voted to prohibit the admission of
Black players into the league.
Underscoring the hypocrisy of the
action, the Newark newspaper read:
"It is safe to say that Moses F.
Walker is mentally and morally the
equal of any director who voted for
the resolution."
Although certainly terrible for
African-Americans on the whole,
his exile from baseball propelled
Walker to many accomplishments
off the field.
He was a newspaper editor, hotel
proprietor and the owner and operator
of the opera house in Cadiz, Ohio. He
owned several movie houses, which
inspired him to patent three devices
that streamlined film loading and
projection.
In 1908, Walker published "Our
Home Colony - A Treatise on the
Past, Present, and Future of the
Negro Race in America," which
advocated emigration to Africa. In
it, he explained how the self-esteem
of Black children was damaged by
apparently innocuous things like
white dolls that were regarded as
the model of beauty. His
observation came almost 50 years
before laboratory tests in the
landmark Brown vs. Board of
Education case drew the same

conclusion.
Perhaps his most remarkable
accomplishment came in 1891.
The incident began when
Walker was accosted by a group of
men who were coming out of a
saloon. The ensuing conflict turned
into a melee, and when Walker
drew his knife and stabbed his
attacker, it entered the man's
abdomen. Amazingly, an all-white
jury found Walker not guilty by

reason of self-defense.
A century later, Walker is
gaining new recognition for his
athletic "first: - a book on his life
will be released in June.
It is long overdue. Walker
navigated the "twilight zone" to
became a scholar, inventor, would-
be criminal and author, all about six
decades ahead of his time. How
many human beings can you say
that about?

,.
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