2A - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 NATION/WORLD ABBOTT Continued from page 1 "But after playing with him for three years, I'd say he didn't." Abbott perfected a method that allowed him to pitch with just one hand. While in the windup, he cradled the glove on the stump of his right hand. As soon as he released the ball, he transferred the glove to his left hand. It worked. During his 10 seasons, Abbott made only nine fielding errors in 372 chances. Drafted out of high school by the Toron- to Blue Jays, Abbott almost skipped col- lege to pitch in the pros. But former University baseball player Rick Leach encouraged him to develop his pitching in college first. Abbott turned down Toronto and went to the University. True to Leach's word, Abbott's skills bloomed. "It was obvious that he had a special tal- ent as a left-hand pitcher;"said Danny Hall, the University's assistant baseball coach. In 1987,his junior year,.he posted a 2.08 ERA, an 11-3 record and 60 strikeouts. In the same year, he won the Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the best amateur baseball player in the country. "The exposure to baseball at the Big Ten level and traveling nationally was a great way to prepare for the demands of professional baseball," Abbott said in an e-mail interview. In his senior year, he played in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He allowed only 3 runs in the gold medal game, propelling the United States to a 5-3 win over Japan. In the same year, he became the first baseball player to win the James E. Sulli- van Award, which is given to the top ama- teur athlete in the United States. By the time Abbott graduated, he'd dazzled Major League scouts with the cut fastball and curveball he'd developed at the University. "Playing for (former baseball coach) Bud Middaugh made him more of a pitch- er than a thrower, said Hall, who now coaches at Georgia Tech. The California Angels drafted Abbott with the eighth overall pick in 1988. The club sent him straight to the majors, making him one of only 21 players since the institution of the draft to skip the minor leagues. "Once he got the taste of winning at Michigan, and knew he could do it, it carried over into everything else he did," said Ignasiak, who played in the majors for four years. Abbott found success with the Angels. He joined the league's elite starting pitch- ers in 1991 when he posted a spectacular 2.89 ERA and an 18-11 record. One September day in 1993, while playing for the New York Yankees, Abbott threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. It was one of about 250 no-hitters recorded in baseball history. "The moment I pitched the no-hitter was absolute disbelief and elation,' he said. But Abbott couldn't remain a pitcher forever. In 1996, again pitching for the Angels, Abbott posted a 7.48 ERA. He retired from baseball and skipped an entire season. In 1998, he attempted a comeback and won all five games he started. But the next year, he pitched poorly and retired perma- nently from the sport at 31. Having left the baseball world behind, Abbott works as a motivational speaker, speaking once or twice a month to groups ranging from 50 to 1,000 people. He hopes to show people that adversity can be over- come, he said. "I believe there is great potential within all of us to rise up to the challenges we face," Abbott said. AP PHOTO Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's nuclear chief, speaks in Mashhad, Iran's holiest city, yesterday. Iran successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel. Iransuccessfulily enriches uraniu for fi-rst tie ROME Berlusconi loses, demands recount Center-left economist Romano Prodi emerged the winner of Italy's election by a razor-thin margin yesterday, promising to form a strong government able to run a deeply divided country mired in economic stagnation. But Premier Silvio Berlus- coni claimed voting irregularities and demanded a recount. The dispute could usher in a period of uncertainty over the results, a process which could take weeks. The outcome of the election must be approved by Italy's highest court, and it is up the president to give the head of the winning coalition a mandate to form a government Even if the result is confirmed, prospects of a stable government under Prodi look cloudy at best. Many fear a return to the political chaos that has characterized Italian history since the end of World War II. There have been 60 governments in about as many years. In addition to a weak popular mandate, Prodi would preside over a potentially unwieldy coalition. The center-left, while built on two mainstream parties, includes a mixed group of smaller formations ranging from Catholics to communists. ATLANTIC CITY, NJ. Man awarded $9 million in Vioxx trial A jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages yesterday to a man who blamed his heart attack on Vioxx, finding that manufacturer Merck & Co. knowingly with- held information about the risks of its arthritis drug from federal regulators. Saying Merck's conduct showed a "wanton and willful disregardof another's rights," the state court jury added to the $4.5 million it had awarded last week to John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, and his wife, Irma. Last Wednesday, the same panel found that Merck failed to warn of the drug's risks and committed consumer fraud in misrepresenting them to prescribing physicians. "This is a victory for all of the John and Irma McDarbys of the world, people who are taking medications every single day, who now have at least a chance of making sure that the companies that are making those medications are going to do the right thing," said Jerry Kristal, one of McDarby's lawyers. KARACHI, Pakistan Suicide bomber kills 41 at prayer service A suicide attacker detonated a bomb during an outdoor Sunni Muslim prayer service yesterday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens. In the mayhem that followed, angry mobs torched cars and hurled rocks at police, who fired warn- ing shots in the air. The attacker blew himself up near leaders of the Sunni Tehrik religious group, which helped organize the prayer service at a downtown Karachi park, police chief Niaz Siddiqui said. The religious leaders were sitting near a stage erected in front of the thou- sands of Sunni Muslims marking the birth of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Several leaders were killed. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Bush urges seniors to enroll in Medicare President Bush, trying to rouse public interest in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, urged seniors in the Midwest yesterday to sign up for the program before the May 15 deadline. "I'm just telling you it's a good deal," he said. Bush's visits with seniors in Missouri and Iowa are part of the administration's grass-roots effort to ramp up enrollment in the program, which suffered startup prob- lems and continues to be criticized as too confusing. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS An article on page 11 of yesterday's edition ('M' won't repeat without a leader) incorrectly stated that the Michigan softball team has no captains. Seniors Stephanie Bercaw and Grace Leutele are the team's captains, although their selec- tion was never publicly released. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com *1 Development does not mean Iran will quickly be able to develop the material for a nuclear warhead TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has suc- cessfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mah- moud Ahmadinejad said yesterday, although he insisted his country does not aim to develop atomic weapons. In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. The announcement came ahead of a visit to Tehran this week by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nucle- ar watchdog agency, who is trying to resolve the West's standoff with Iran. The U.N. Security Council has demand- ed Iran stop all enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected this, saying it has a right to the process. "At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory-scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," A hmadinejad said. "I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air. The White House denounced the lat- est comments by Iranian officials, with spokesman Scott McClellan saying they "continue to show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction." Ahmadinejad said Iran "relies on the sublime beliefs that lie within the Iranian and Islamic culture. Our nation does not get its strength from nuclear arsenals." He said Iran wanted to operate its nuclear program under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agen- cy and within its rights and regulations under the regulations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The announcement does not mean Iran is immediately capable of pro- ducing enough fuel to run a reactor or develop the material needed for a nucle- ar warhead. Uranium enrichment can produce either, but it must be carried out on a much larger scale, using thousands of centrifuges. Iran succeeded in enriching ura- nium to a level needed for fuel on a research scale - using 164 centrifug- es, officials said. But the breakthrough underlined how difficult it will be for the West to con- vince Iran to give up enrichment. Ahmadinejad made the announce- ment in a richly appointed hall of one of Iran's holiest cities in a ceremony clear- ly aimed at proclaiming the country's nuclear success. Speaking before Ahmadinejad, Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh - the nuclear chief - said Iran has produced 110 tons of uranium gas, the feedstock that is pumped into centrifug- es for enrichment. The amount is nearly twice the 60 tons of uranium hexaflou- ride, or UF-6, gas that Iran said last year that it had produced. Aghazadeh said Iran plans to expand its enrichment program to be able to use 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the year. The United States and some Euro- pean countries accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran denies, saying it intends only to generate electricity. The IAEA is due to report to the U.N11Security Council on -April 28 whether Iran has met its demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment. If Tehran has not complied, the council will consider the next step. The U.S. and Europe are pressing for sanctions against Iran, a step Russia and China have so far opposed. McClellan told reporters traveling on Air Force One with President Bush that Iran's enrichment claims "only further isolate" Tehran and under- score why the international commu- nity must continue to raise concerns about its suspected ambition to devel- op nuclear weapons. McClellan noted the Security Coun- cil clock now running on Iran. 0 DONN M. 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