the Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 25, 1999 - A'
Blue to get 'feet wet' in Arizona
SHARAT
RAJu
Sharat in the Dark
Baseball bizgs sp g to Arnn Arbor
ople are excited. It's an exciting time - the Final
Four, NCAA hockey regionals, MSA elections. Oh
yes, the end of March has everything.
None of those do anything for me, however. Sure, I'll enjoy
-watching the Final Four as I do every year, even with
Michigan State and Ohio State in St. Petersburg.
I've been eliminated from winning almost every pool I
entered anyway, including a last-place showing in one of
em. That probably surprises you considering that my .700-
us winning percentage in football picks last fall put me way
ihead of the rest of the pack (add applause here).
Although the hockey tournament is as fun to watch as any
tourney around, it really doesn't have the same feel for me
right now. I like watching the Michigan hockey team of
outse, but I saw them win it all, first hand, in Boston last
yeat, And I saw them do it on television two years ago.
And MSA elections ... well, you know.
No, the one thing that excites me about late March cannot
1 illustrated inside of a gym with artificial lights and hard-
od floors. It cannot be felt in the fake cold of an ice rink
'arded off by Plexiglas.
The feeling - the feeling that spring is truly here can only
:be captured by wide open green expanses and tiny sand dia-
monds that dot the landscape.
I know that spring starts on March 21, but for me it doesn't
officially start until the first pitch is thrown nearly a week
later.
It's baseball season. That's spring, the feeling of hope
against hope that the home team will win - or it's a shame.
The home team. For years, for myself, the 'home team' has
always been a certain professional team in a certain large,
t-of-state, nearby Midwestern city. But now that I think
'out it in my waning days in this town, the home team, our
home team, is the Wolverines.
Sure, we may be Yankees fans, Red Sox fans, Tigers fans
or even (heaven forbid) Mets fans. Those divisions represent
dur backgrounds, our upbringings. They help us hold on to
our childhood, to days when we skipped class to go to ball
games with our parents and devoured large amounts of hot
But in our formidable college years, we each spent our
time in this large town that tries to act like a little city. And
rooting for the home team means rooting for the Wolverines.
Down at Ray L. Fisher Stadium, nine guys try to do what
people have been trying to do since before the Civil War -
hit a round ball with a round bat.
It's great to watch - it's baseball, pure and simple. Fisher
Stadium has no modern amenities to speak of. There is no
organ but a scant outdated sound system. The scoreboard,
although electronic, doesn't explode or have a Jumbotron
television screen. The field is real. The players aren't paid a
salary.
Sure, the team uses a designated hitter, the metallic clink of
the aluminum bats is a bit irritating and the team isn't neces-
sarily a national contender.
Fisher Stadium is no Wrigley Field or Fenway Park,though.
In fact, it isn't very pretty and has very little character. The
metallic bleachers are sometimes cold, the field is symmetri-
cal and the wind howls in through the stands on chilly days.
If there is any facility that the Athletic Department needs to
rebuild and modify, it's Fisher Stadium.
Despite that, games are fun to watch. It's baseball and it's
cheap. Michigan baseball has a rich tradition. Along with
football, baseball is the only Michigan team to have won a
Big Ten title in every decade since the conference has been
around.
Still, not enough people take the opportunity to stroll down
State Street and catch a ball game on a Friday afternoon.
What is so great about a baseball game? Nothing. It's the
chance to sit and do nothing. That's what is great - do no
homework, think about no problem sets or essays, move as
little as possible. In our hectic college lives, a chance to sit
around and do nothing is golden. Baseball provides that
relaxation, that laziness borne of the fact that classes are end-
ing soon, daylight lasts longer and the nights need no jackets.
On March 30, that's next Tuesday at 3 p.m., the Wolverines
open the home season. And spring will officially begin.
- Sharat Raju can be reached via email at
sraju@umich.edu.
By Ron Gaber
Daily Sports Writer
This weekend marks the beginning of
the end of an era in Michigan men's track
and field.
The Wolverines head to the Castillo
Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. tomorrow and
Saturday to jump start their outdoor sea-
son.
The meet is the first of coach Jack
Harvey's 24th and final season with the
Wolverines. Harvey, who announced his
retirement during the indoor season, has
won six Big Ten Outdoor Championships
during his illustrious career.
But this year the Wolverines aren't
entering the season with expectations of
capturing a seventh title for Harvey.
Instead, the young team hopes to gain
experience and improve upon its ninth
place indoor finish.
For many of the young athletes, this
weekend's invitational is their first out-
Wom-en's t
door meet wearing maize and blue.
The meet will show them where they
stand among other more experienced
competitors.
"We're looking to gain some experi-
ence," freshman Jeremy Schneider said.
"It's a long outdoor season. We want to
get our feet wet"
Many Wolverines are also bouncing
back from'injuries sustained during the
indoor season and will use the weekend to
see if they are fully healed. Among them
are freshman high jumper Robert Arnold,
freshman' sprinter Ike Okenwa and
Schneider.
"I just want to prove to myself that I'm
healthy again," Okenwa said. "There's
not going to be any world-class times or
anything. We're just trying to get our
names out there"
Fortunately for the Wolverines, there
are several healthy upperclassmen who
seem poised to lead the team through the
,rack heads
beginning of the season.
Sophomore hurdler Jonathan Cohen;
sophomore pole vaulter Charles DeWildt
and junior distance runners Dan Snyder
and Jay Cantin have been consistent
throughout the indoor season and have
looked strong in practice.
In addition, a healthy and reenergizd
Derek Applewhite is looking to improve
on his indoor season. The freshman hui-
dler has lost 10 pounds and is poised foia
breakout season.
"Derek's been looking real fast in prac-
tice," Okenwa said.
With strong performances from its
upperclassmen and consistent improve-
ment from its strong freshman class the
team could rebound from its indoor finish
and send Coach Harvey off in style.
"I think the experience from the indoor
season will really help us," Schneider
said. "We can really surprise some teams
in the Big Ten."
to Arizona-
By Chris Langrill
Daily Sports Writer
Having started off its season on a successful note at last
weekend's Florida State Relays, the Michigan women's track
and field team looks to continue its winning ways as it heads
to Tempe, Arizona for the Castillo Invitational tomorrow and
Saturday.
In the unscored meet, the Wolverines will face Arizona
State, Northern Arizona, Dartmouth and Indiana. Dartmouth
is led by a group of strong middle-distance runners, who
should match up well against Michigan's competitive middle
distance group, especially in the 400 meters.
At last weekend's unscored meet - the first of the outdoor
season for the Wolverines - though many runners placed in
their events, only two Michigan athletes took home individual
titles. Senior Nicole Keith won the shot put and junior
Elizabeth Kampfe took the 3,000.
But in contrast to late-season meets, the focus of these early
meets is not exclusively on winning and head-to-head compe-
tition, Michigan assistant coach Mike McGuire said.
"Non-scoring events are all about cultivating team develop-
ment," McGuire said. "Events like team relays aren't part of
the Big Tens or national competitions, but we like running
them because it lets us see what the kids can do together.
"Track and field isn't just about the score. It's more cost
effective to have a multitude of events ... it provides opportu-
nities for our kids."
The team will have plenty of opportunities this weekend to
continue improving. Having had the chance to enjoy the
Florida sun last weekend, the warm Arizona weather nNow
awaits the team.
But does the shift to an outdoor venue, after a few months
of strictly indoor competition, pose any adjustment problems
for the team?
"After competing indoors, and now being outside for the
first time, the track seems bigger than Texas," McGuire said
"But that's about it ... we've had good conditions so far, which
should continue in Arizona, so that has definitely made the
transition easier."
The biggest change - indeed a positive one - is that
events that were really cut down by the nature of an indo,
venue can be run as they should be. Hurdlers, discus competj.:
tors and hammer throwers get the biggest boost with the sta t
of the outdoor season.
For example, during the indoor season, discus throwers
have to toss a rubber version of the discus against a brick wall:
whereas now they toss the traditional metal discus into they
wide-open sky.
This weekend, the Wolverines will bring a relatively healthy-
team of 30 athletes (the NCAA limit forroad events) to the:
Castillo Invitational.
And what does McGuire want to get most out of this week
end's trip?
"We just want to have a week better than last;" he said.
dogs and popcorn.
EG IONALS
ntinued from Page 9A
"We need the fans in the building,"
Berenson said. At least "our band is
going, but we can't control that. With
Denver, both teams will be on equal
footing. I don't think either team has the
edge."
The Wolverines hopefully will be able
to count on a larger alumni crowd out
east when compared with Denver in
taer to make up for the fans who can't
ake the long trip.
"Maybe we'll have a few more, 100,
250 more,"
Berenson said. "It's too bad that the low-
est attendance has to come in the most
important game of the year."
And instead of a No. 3 seed, the
Wolverines settled for a lower No. 5 seed
this season, meaning they will be the
underdogs for at least the first two
games.
A No. 5 seed has never won the tour-
nament. Lake Superior, a No. 4 seed,
won the 1994 championship.
But the process of seeding teams only
began eight years ago, and Berenson
believes that his team knows how to play
in different rinks.
The Wolverines had a 3-2-0 record in
neutral rinks this season. In its two loss-
es, though, Michigan still gave Michigan
State a run for its money.
"We know we have to play a hockey
game whether it's on the road or at
home;" Berenson said. "Of the nine
years we've been in the NCAA
Tournament every year we played in
Wisconsin and that sure as heck wasn't
home ice. The regionals have been in all
sorts of rinks."
But with the huge home-ice factor,
last year the Wolverines lucked out in the
regional pairings by landing a spot in the
West regional.
The selection committee may have
changed its mind when deciding this sea-
son's NCAA brackets. Boston College
was shipped out to Wisconsin, instead of
playing close to home in Worcester
where it may have had the home advan-
tage that Michigan had a year earlier.
"It can be a factor, but it won't be a
factor this year," Berenson said. "I don't
think it's been a factor in most games,
but it was in the game against North
Dakota."
. --i6
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