SPORTS
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THE SPORTING VIEWS
'M' baseball team...
... second to none
By PAUL HELGREN
We have seen the future and it is Michigan baseball.
Michigan's latest powerhouse, the baseball team,
finished its winningest season ever (50-9) and tied for
third in the College World Series, which determines the
national champion. Coming on the heels of three ex-
cellent teams (1980-82), two of which also made it to the
Omaha classic, the baseball team is apparently
heading for the dynasty status that has been the ex-
clusive possession of Michigan football.
Of course, Michigan is known everywhere as the
school where they play football and no sport here will
ever rival football in popularity, but the baseballers
are at least the equals of Bo's gridders in end results.
When is the last time the football team was third in the
nation?
Okay, so the Wolverines didn't win the Series but
they came darn close. Only a very fortunate Alabama
team and a pitching-rich Texas squad prevented
Michigan from claiming its third national baseball
championship. In my opinion, pitching aside, the
Wolverines fielded the best lineup of any of the eight
teams that qualified. Alabama barely hung on to beat
Michigan 6-5 and the Longhorns triumphed on the
power of one blow - a grand slam in the fifth inning
In other words Michigan was honestly close to win-
ning it all. But will Michigan, or any non-sun belt
school for that matter, ever come that close again?
Unequivicably yes. The reason? As much as he
mightdisagree, Bud Middaugh is the reason.
Look at the record. Since he arrived from Miami of
Ohio (the school that gave us Schembechler) Mid-
daugh's teams have won the Big Ten three times, gone
to the College World Series three times, and compiled a
record of 171-57-1, a winning percentage of 75%. These
figures are certainly comparable to the football team.
And with success has come notoriety. A turn-away
crowd of 4,119 packed Ray Fisher Stadium for a
regional game against Miami of Ohio, climaxing back-
to-back tournament weekends at the old ball park that
saw great crowds for every game.
Middaugh himself was featured on the front page of
The Detroit News' sports section is early May. Seems
like everybody started to jump on the blue bandwagon.
Nay-sayers might say that this is all a fluke. Take
away the Sabo's, Stoll's, and Jacobson's, all of whom
turned professional at the conclusion of the season,
they argue, and next year's team will struggle for the
Big Ten championship much less makea return trip to
Omaha.
Well, recent history, and the multitude of fine retur-
ning players, tells us this just isn't so.
At the conclusion of the 1982 season, many observers
felt the graduation of the Wolverine's all-everything
Jim Paciorek, would be devastating to Michigan's
chances of repeating the success of that team (44-10).
And look what happened.
Of course third baseman Sabo, second baseman and
most valuable player Jacobson, and All-American pit-
cher Stoll meant a lot to the team and their positions
will be difficult to fill. After all, who's going to play
third? Who's going to play second? What if Dave Kopf
signs with the Cubs, who will be the starting pitchers?
My answer? Don't worry. Come next spring, Bud will
have most of those problems solved, if not all of them.
Look at the talent he already has to work with: sor-
tstop Barry Larkin, who could be next year's super-
star; Scott Kamieniecki, whose blazing fastball
already strikes fear into the hearts of opposing bat-
ters; Mike Watters, whose bat control and on-baseper-
centage (.454) make him a most valuable commodity;
Casey Close, who doubles as a fine hurler and hitter;
and Ken Hayward, who, if he could ever learn to pull
the ball, would be the slugger the Wolverines will need
next year.
Who knows, if the baseball team keeps it up maybe
someday Michigan will be known as the place where
they play baseball.
Thursday, June 16, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Daily Photo by BRIAN MASCK
Will he or won't he?
Michigan pitcher Dave Kopf is still debating whether to turn pro or not. Kopf met with the Chicago
Cubs, who drafted him in the third round, on Tuesday but did not reach an agreement. The 6-4 junior,
who resumed negotiations with theCubs last night, could play on the U.S.-Pan Am team this summer
if he does not sign.
''track recruits
replace topgrd
By JEFF FAYE Schmidt. Costello is from Grand Rapids, and
The Michigan track team has lost a great hopefully he will be as successful as the last
amount of distance power to graduation, but ac- Wolverine from that city, Brian Diemer.
cording to assistant coach Ron Warhurst, the in- SCHMIDT from Grosse Pointe won the state
coming class could possibly replace them if class "A" cross-country championship last fall.
given time to growa little. Warhurst would like to see him step in and take
Gone are distance men Brian Diemer, who Diemer's place at the head of the distance corps.
won the.3000 meter steeplechase at the NCAA In addition to the runners, the track team will
championship meet, Gerard Donakowski, Bill be joined by Scott Crawford. The Dearborn
O'Reilly, and Don Passenger. Together this native will enter the long and high jumps and will
quartet accounted for 44 of the Wolverine's 92 hopefully increase the power of those already
points at the Big Ten championship meet. strong positions.
BUT THERE will be a few new faces on next Besides those who have already planned to
year's squad that are hoping to fill the distance enroll at the university, there are two more
gap and vie for middle distance positions, as recruits visiting the campus. They are John
well. Leading the way for the recruits are middle Chambers, a distance runner from Eugene,
distance men Bill Davis, John Lawton, John Mc- Oregon who Warhurst would love to get, and J.J.
Cleary and Danny Smith. Woods. Woods, like Davis, is a local product. He
Davis, an Ann Arbor Huron graduate, will run was a sprinter at Ypsilanti High School, but was
the intermediate hurdles and possibly the quar- injured through much of his career. He would
ter- and half-mile (400 and 800 meters) runs. He best be labled as a "dark horse" because he is a
had several third and fourth place finishes in the relatively unknown commodity.
state championships. WHEN SUMMING up the incoming freshman,
Lawton, of Minneapolis,will run the 200- and Warhurst brings up Diemer and sophomore Todd
400-meter runs. Warhurst hopes to see him figure Steverson. Steverson came in as a dark horse
in the Wolverine attack during the indoor season, that the staff took a chance on and came out of
if possible. his first year as one of the finest middle distance
MCCLEARY is probably the prize among the men in the Big Ten. Diemer, Warhurst remem-
middle men. He won the state class "A" cham- bers all too well.
pionship in the half-mile for Birmingham "When he got here I told him he might not make
Brother Rice. the top seven in cross country," said Warhurst,
Smith hails from Inkster (Cherry Hill High who is also Michigan's cross country coach. "He
School) and will be running the half, 600, and turned out to be the number-two man on the
mile. squad and the nation's best freshman."
The distance runners planning to attend Perhaps, if Michigan is lucky, there is another
Michigan next year are Jeff Costello and Joe Diemer among the new men.
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