Octoer , 2002 michigandaily.com sportsdesk@umich.edu POreRTSigtnap 8 Broken wrist sidelines Shouneyia Center will miss first four to eight weeks By Kyle O'Neill Daily Sports Writer DAVID HORN Ding dong! The wicked witch is finally dead! When John Shouneyia stepped off the ice hold- ing his right wrist in the second period of Michi- gan's exhibition game against Toronto, many wondered if the senior alternate captain would return the next period. Yesterday, the team announced that he might not be back until December. Michigan coach Red Berenson confirmed that the senior's wrist was fractured on Saturday and that he will have surgery tomorrow morning to repair the broken wrist. According to Berenson, the surgery will involve a pin being placed into the junior center's wrist. Michi- gan's top returning scorer is expected to be out four to eight weeks. The injury occurred on a clean play, when Shouneyia jammed his wrist while getting hit on a shot. "It's not an uncommon injury, but it's still serious," Berenson said. ,Shouneyia was seen yesterday in the stands with his sweatshirt sleeve covering the wrist and hand entirely. He didn't mention surgery when asked about the injury, but he did say he would be meeting with the doctors tomorrow. In his absence, Michigan will again need to find new people to play larger roles. The Wolverines just were starting to figure out who would fill the holes left by the early-departures of Mike Cammalleri and Mike Komisarek when Shouneyia went down. "The good thing is we have some depth and we have some players who can play different positions," Berenson said. "Because of the way (Andrew) Ebbett and (David) Moss are playing at center - (Milan) Gajic is playing pretty well - we can move Dwight Helminen back at center. Even though it gives us three sophomores and a freshman at center, I still like our centers. We're not going to be the same without Johnny, but we can still put a pretty good lineup on the ice." This may turn out to be a blessing for some indi- viduals, as it will mean more ice time and new line placement for several Wolverines. This is especially true for Gajic, who could establish himself as the FILE PHOTO For the second year in a row, Michigan will have to play a significant number of games without its top center. Last year, Mike Cammalleri missed much of the second half of the regular season with mono. Three types of baseball fans - Yankees fans, Diamondbacks fans and brainless fans - are bemoaning this week: We survived a work stoppage and the ensuing Armageddon that would have ensued - for this? For a League Championship Series that features two teams representing cities that, if their populations were combined,.could fill Michigan Stadium just six times? Awesome. Take that, Bud Selig. No bombs from Bernie! No Rocket or Rivera! No web gems from Jeter, for. Christ's sake! No. I won't watch it. I won't. I can't.. Thank God - it's about time. There will be no rematch of the clas- sic 2001 World Series, in which all the Scott Brosius/Paul O'Neill/etc. heroics and Byung-Hyun Kim misfires could- n't keep Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling - the best one-two punch ever (yeah gramps, we all know about Koufax and Drysdale. We don't care.) - from showing the Yankees how they should have been spending their money these last two years. There will be no resurrection; no Bronx phoenix will rise from the ashes to reclaim its glorious perch at the top. of the world. That bird has flown, Mr. Steinbrenner. It's now called the South Bend phoenix, and hopefully it won't return to the Bronx for many years. The Roman Empire has officially fallen, and in its place are small tribes of little wealth but high aspirations. The tribe from Minneapolis is play- ing in the spirit of perseverance and survival - decontraction satisfaction. If only the Expos had held on (from like May, when they were making a push for the N.L. East title), a Montre- al-Minneapolis indoor World Series might just make Selig's head implode. The tribe from Anaheim is playing for all the journeymen and overachiev- ers who have ever played in the big leagues. Adam Kennedy - a career .267 hitter - batted .312 for the Angels this season. Jarrod Washburn - who has never won more than 11 games and whose career ERA was 4.31 before this season - went 18-6, striking out 139 with a 3.15 ERA The seasons of those two is typical of what the Angels are doing - they've been smoking all year long. If they can find the mirrors this week ... ? Stranger things have happened. Manager Mike Scioscia worked the solid containment encapsulator at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant with Lenny and Carl, after all. The tribe from St. Louis is playing for love and remembrance. The Cards have lost radio announcer Joe Buck and starting pitcher Darryl Kyle, both of whom passed on earlier this sum- mer. Theirs is the kind of storybook season that sportswriters drool over, and everyone with a heart should be rooting for them. And the tribe from San Francisco is led by the greatest player of our gener- ation, who can solidify his legacy among the greats if he can do some- thing this October that he's never done before: win. The stories are multitude, and are dramatic. The musty, pinstriped repeti- tiveness of Octobers past has been dusted away by the October that almost wasn't. As a Mets fan, my season ended sometime in July, around the time our bullpen was rounding up money in the clubhouse to buy another ounce. But when'the mighty fell last week my attention is turned back to the Great American Pastime. "America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time ..." The Yanks have finally been erased. The baseball Gods are smiling on baseball fans, and are treating Bud Selig (and his cadre of ownership) like they stole fire, defecated on Olympus, diddled Athena and tried to contract the Twinkies. Oh wait. Will anyone watch baseball this week? Probably not in New yrk. Should everyone watch baseball this week? Abso-freegin-lutely. October baseball and a smattering of teams to rally behind - thanks for the years of reruns, Yanks, but I like my (post)seasons like this one is turning out to be: Original. David Horn can be reached at hornd@umich.edu. 6 team's most exciting player to watch in Shouneyia's absence. Gajic has already been tested and has proven that he can handle being on a top line. The sophomore had three goals in the two exhibition games this past weekend while being teamed up with senior captain Jed Ortmeyer. Gajic "is one of our top centermen," Berenson said. "At least right now we've put him in that situation to see whether he could handle playing with Ortmeyer. That puts him in a big role on a big line." Although his leadership as a captain will be missed over the first portion of the season, Shouneyia is con- fident that the Wolverines will be able to stay just as strong without him. "The character on this team is really phenomenal," Shouneyia said. "The guys, no question about it, are going to come together whether I miss one game, or two or three. They'll pick up the slack. There's plenty of guys who can fill a role and they'll do just fine." Secondary smells Nittany Lions blood By Joe Smith Daily Sports Editor Michigan senior safety Charles Drake is often jokingly labeled a "dirty player" in practice by his teammates. "I wouldn't call it dirty, but I do get my share of licks and hits in when they're not quite expecting it," Drake said. "Although I may catch some unas- suming freshman off-guard, the older players know that us in the secondary are just trying to simulate game-like sit- uations." But the amount of swagger, trash talk and late bumps at practice by members of he secondary - which Drake has nicknamed "The Wolf Pack" - doesn't rub all Wolverines the right way. "We get sick and tired of it as receivers," Michigan tight end Bennie Joppru said with a grin. Michigan's safeties seemed to be in attack mode in their last game, when Drake, Cato June and Julius Curry each recorded sacks. In addition, two inter- ceptions by cornerback Marlin Jackson and another by Drake translated into three Michigan touchdowns. But against an explosive Penn State offense this Saturday, the "Wolf Pack" knows it has to be careful not bite on play-action fakes. By going for the kill instead of sticking in their right positions, the sec- ondary could be victimized by big plays on play-action - something that has been an Achilles heel for the defense all season long. "That's something that (Penn State) is probably going to focus on after watching film," said senior safety Julius Curry. Penn State might be the most balanced team Michigan has faced so far. The Nit- tany Lions average nearly five yards per carry on the ground, but they also stretch the field with 260 yards in the air per game. Add intangibles like quarterback Zack Mills' scrambling ability and tail- back Larry Johnson's playmaking skills out of the backfield, and it seems even more important for Michigan safeties and linebackers to stay at home in their zones and not overpursue. Mills "doesn't really stay in the pock- et much, but when he does he throws the ball very effectively," Curry said. "He can throw off his back foot 40-50 yards pretty precisely and he can run the option real well. We're going to have a big challenge ahead of us." Despite Mills slightly spraining his shoulder and Johnson hurting his knee in the Nittany Lions' 34-31 win at Wisconsin last Saturday, the Wolverines are expecting nothing but the best from a dramatically improved Penn State offense. Michigan shut out the Nittany Lions 20-0 last year in State College, and the Wolverines have won the past five meet- ings between the two schools. But while legendary coach Joe Pater- no hasn't reinvented the wheel offen- sively, he helped invigorate his team's efficiency - which is the main reason Penn State is 4-1 after five games instead of 1-4 like it was a year ago. The Nittany Lions have nearly dou- bled their total offensive yardage per game (283.6 to 435.8) and dramatical- ly increased their average point total (13.8 to 37) compared to this point last year. They've done this by racking up nearly 100 more yards rushing and two more yards per carry. And while they're throwing fewer passes, they're more efficient - passing for 50 more yards per game. 0 Favortes hope to boost- Big Ten status By Mike Wolking a For the Daily Is the Big Ten back? With Iowa's jump to No. 17, the conference now boasts five teams in the Top 25. While Michigan and Penn State are the only two that face each other this weekend, AROUND there are a number of exciting games to The Big Ten be played this week. MICHIGAN STATE AT No. 17 IOwA, SAT- URDAY, NOON, ESPN: There are two sure things people have been able to count on in East Lansing recently: Wide receiver Charles Rogers will have a touchdown reception, and head coach Bobby Williams will be on the sideline looking confused regardless of his team's play. Expect more of the same on Saturday, when Rogers tries to extend his NCAA record by catching a touch- down for the 14th straight game against an Iowa pass defense ranked last in the Big Ten. Believe it or not, the Spartans actual- ly lead the Big Ten in total defense, holding opponents to 285 yards per game, but that won't be enough to stop a Hawkeyes team that posted gutsy wins over Penn State in overtime and Purdue on a last-minute drive. The Spartans will lose their first road game of the year in a shoot-out against an Iowa team that looks more and more like a contender every week. Iowa 41, Michigan State 28 See BIG TEN, Page 9 ALYSSA WOOD/Daily Senior safety Julius Curry and 'The Wolf Pack' will be on the prowl this weekend. Free! MCAT Strategy and Admissions Event AMSA Pre- Medical Club is pleased to announce that Albert Chen, the world's foremost authority on the MCAT, is returning to the University of Michigan. Mr. Chen will be in Ann Arbor on October 911 at 8:00pm at the MLB (auditorium 4) to present a free MCAT and Medical Admissions Seminar. Kaplan is giving away over $10,000 in scholarships the night of the event ANN ARBOR REALTY LOCATION - LOCATION - LOCATION Central Campus Efficiencies, 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apts. Starting at $575/mo. Includes some utilities. ANN ARBOR REALTY 616 CHURCH (734) 663-7444 AM