16 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 14, 1999 Saban, Spartans not overlooking the unlucky Fighting Irish EAST IANSING (AP) - Michigan State coach Nick Saban isn't about to be fooled by Notre Dame's 1-2 record. Or the fact that the Spartans have won the last two games between the two. Notre Dame, Saban said yester- day, is one of the top teams in the country. And Saturday's clash with the Fighting Irish will be the biggest test yet of Michigan State, now 2-0. "Notre Dame has an outstanding football team; I think they're proba- bly 15 yards away from being rated in the top five in the country," Saban said, referring to the Irish's narrow losses to Michigan and Purdue. "They've had two very, very diffi- cult defeats," Saban said. "They have a lot of good football players, and I'm sure they will be very much ready to do the bent they possibly can to get things on the right track." Michigan State is going to try to stay on the right track when the Spartans visit South Bend to take on the Irish on Saturday. The Spartans are coming off victories over Oregon and Eastern Michigan, but beating 24th-ranked Notre Dame - espe- cially on the road - is something else again. "Notre Dame has a special tradi- tion so that makes it a special place to go and every player knows that," Saban said. "Notre Dame is a place that has as much national prestige as any school in the county, probably more. It's not an easy place to play." It may be even harder with Notre Dame having suffered two straight setbacks at the hands of the Spartans - 45-23 last year and 23-7 in 1997. "They're definitely going to be jacked for this one' said Michigan State guard Shaun Mason, a stand- out in Michigan State's 51-7 pound--: ing of Eastern Michigan Saturday in Spartan Stadium. Saban gives Notre Dame the cred- it it's due, but refuses to be awestruck by the Irish. w "I think our players should feel they can win every game that we play," he said. "I think the more you compete well and win against good football teams, the more that confi- dence grows. "We have a couple of challenges: Notre Dame is an outstanding team and this is our first game on the road. It takes a special kind of con- fidence and a special kind of psy- chological disposition to play on the road because you have to have an inner strength not to get affected by the things that are happening in the game. "We've played some good games DAVID ReCukN~st/a" on the road, and itswill take our best The Michigan State football team is still wary of Jarious Jackson and the Notre Dame football team, despite the Fighting effort in this game to be successful." Irish's 1-2 record to start the season. Charismatic Williams sisters boost , popularity of womens' tennis NEW YORK (AP) - One of the most memorable images of the U.S. Open is Serena Williams launching herself toward the net for a volley, her legs spread wide far above the court, her racket high, poised to strike. In that moment of attack, when the light glints off her taut, thick muscles and her face is filled with voracious delight, she resem- bles no one so much as Michael Jordan on a fast break, tongue wagging as he leaps to dunk the ball. Williams brought a new level of athleti- cism to women's tennis in her surge to the Open title Saturday, just as Martina Navratilova did in the early 1980s and Steffi Graf did later that decade. More than that, the 17-year-old Williams and her big sister Venus, a finalist at the same age two years ago who, no doubt, will be a champion herself someday, brought a new level of interest to tennis. That interest goes beyond the obvious, the hundreds of black fans suddenly sitting in a crowd that had always been a sea of white faces. Even if there were thousands of black fans, as well there might be in years to come, that change would be little more than super- ficial. What the Williams sisters brought goes deeper. Their success, their unabashed cocki- ness, their youthful coolness from the beads in their hair to their revealing dresses, is cap- turing millions of young people, black and white, who might never have paid attention to the sport. One indication: The television ratings for the women's final between Serena Williams AP PHOTO Serena Williams, who won the women's singles title and combined with her sister Venus for the doubles title, represents an exciting future for women's tennis according to many analysts. Fans won't let go of stadium's parts DETROIT (AP) - A Detroit baseball fan apparently feeling sentimental for the bathrooms at Tiger Stadium tried to make off with a urinal. The Tigers play their last game at Tiger Stadium later this month, and police and stadium security say some fans have begun scavenging for nostalgic items. Besides the man who tried to steal one of the trough- style urinals, other fans have been unscrewing oak arm- rests from Tiger Den seats and spiriting them out of the stadium, officials told the Detroit Free Press. "For many people, going to Tiger Stadium was some- thing that they did with their parents or with their dad, and it means a great deal to them," said Detroit police Lt. Shereece Fleming-Freeman. "People just wanta piece of anything." The Tigers did not return calls seeking comment, the paper said. Fans across the country historically have taken items from stadiums after final games, even wielding tool- boxes and cutting their seats loose or sawing turnstiles off their bases. Two fans were arrested before old Comiskey Park closed in Chicago in 1990 on charges of trying to steal home plate. With I11 home games left at Tiger Stadium, the last Sept. 27 against Kansas City, some Detroit officials worry the same could happen here. "It is apparent to me that the stadium will.-become a As the 20th Century draws to a close, the Detroit Tigers will grace their home- field of memories - at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull - only four more times. In two final series to remember the ages, the Tigers will take on Cleveland Sept. 20-23 all games at 7:05 p.m. and Kansas i , Sept. 24-27 games at 7:05, 5:05, 1:05 and 4:05, respectively. Read Daily Sports in coming weeks for our coverage of the waning days at Michigan & TrumbDull. I ii introducing m uM : : f'om , " ,,,collegestudent.com.. 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