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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1990)
NelSaskan Thursday, February 8,1990 Gymnasts want success at UCLA Invite By Jeff Apel Senior Editor Nebraska senior gymnast Patrick Kirkscy doesn’t want to leave Cali fornia without a title. Kirksey said his top goal Saturday is to lead the Nebraska men’s gym nastics team to the team title at the UCLA Invitational. He said he is placing heavy emphasis on the meet because it is one of the few competi tions that Nebraska has not been overly successful in. Kirkscy and his teammates will try o change their fortunes when they ravel to Los Angeles to compete in he invitational, which includes six anked teams. In addition to top-ranked Nebraska and fifth-ranked UCLA, the nect’s field includes fourth-ranked Minnesota, lOlh-rankcd Arizona State, lth-rankcd New Mexico and 19th ranked Illinois. Nebraska will umc up for the UCLA Invitational by facing Cal Slatc-Fullcr ton tonight * Kirksey admitted that he feels somewhat frustrated by Nebraska’s lack of success in the UCLA Invita tional. The competition has been dominated by the Bruins, who have claimed seven of the last eight team titles. Illinoiscndcd UCLA’s dominance last season by earning the team crown. “I don’t know if we’ve ever won the UCLA Invitational,” said Kirksey, the defending NCAA all-around cham pion. “I know we haven’t won it since I’ve been here, so we really want to win it this year, ” Nebraska men’s gymnastics coach Francis Allen said two factors have prevented the Huskcrs from winning the UCLA Invitational. He said those factors include the meet’s competi tion and the home-floor edge that the Bruins enjoy. Allen said UCLA is not an easy place to perform. “It’s hard to go to UCLA and win,’’ Allen said, “but wc need to. “Our meet will pretty much be a good indicator of who is the best team in the country.’’ Allen said UCLA will counter the presence of Kirkscy and fellow all arounders Bob Stelter, Mark War burton and Trent Dimas with Scott Keswick,ChaineyUmphrey and All America selection Chris Waller. Kirksey and his teammates will have their hands full against the trio of Bruins, Allen said. “Patrick won’t want to get beat, but they will battle him,’’ Allen said. “It will probably just come down to whoever performs the best.’’ UCLA men’s gymnastics coach Art Shurlock said the team race will come down to whoever has the most depth. He said depth will be a key because all of the teams involved have superior gymnasts. Shurlock said UCLA will rely heavily on Umphrey, Waller and Keswick. “Those guys are used to this type of competition, and they’re depend able,’’ he said. “They know what it takes.’* Shurlock said his team’s ranking is misleading because UCLA scored 278.675 points in its only meet of the season. Because official rankings have not been released, team scores arc the only determining factor for national rankings. Shurlock said UCLA is capable of scoring much higher than it did in its season-opening win against Cal State Fullcrton. The Bruins will need to, as Nebraska tallied 282.90 points cn route to whipping Ohio State on Sunday. “We scored (278.675) and had a lot of misses,” Shurlock said. “We can score a lot higher than that. “We just need to be a little more consistent, and hopefully we will be.” Allen said Nebraska needs to be consistent in order todefeatCal State Fullerton. He said the Titans are in the same class with Oklahoma, a team which the6-0 Huskers defeated twice this season. “Cal State-Fullcrton is probably tiot as strong as UCLA, but they are about as good as Oklahoma,” Allen said. “I don’t think Cal Slate is at Ohio Stale’s level cillicr, but it’s always mote difficult to perform before judges from other regions.” 3.5 Mark Davis | pitcher # San Diego 3.0 k5 s '$% S32S mllllon n cu a? **®$ 56 23 | | { | »-* 2.0 I }glsl | 13 t i at it siim 1.0 “ ** S> S a a 2 * 2 29s O ■ 5 §;* & 05 i oJM_i_ Figures in millions of dollars and | rounded to the nearest hundredth. | Major league’s arguments irrational; pay should be based on performance There they go again. Yes, fans, once more the major league base ball owners and players arc argu ing with each ocher. This time the owners arc seri ous. The owners are threatening to lock the players out of spring train Nick Hytrek ing camps if the two sides can't reach an agreement Excuse me, but this seems a little irrational. Even though the players won't be practicing or play ing, they still have to be paid, don’t they? Personally, if 1 were an owner I *d rather pay a player $3 million (6 play baseball than sit at home watching reruns of “ Mister Ed” or whatever baseball players watch. This leads to another question: - Why arc baseball players paid so much anyway? It seems odd that sojnc 25-year old guy gets paid $1 million to $3 million a year to play in the after noon sun compared to a 40-year old college professor who is lucky to get $50,000a year to educate the future leaders of the country. Col lege professors can’t use rain as an excuse for a day off either. Since the whole pay thing is a 1 major issue between the players and owners, I’ve decided to step in and solve the whole problem for a small sum which still is being dis cussed (arbitration talks start to morrow). These proposals rue designed to do two things: Save the owners a lot of money and make the players do something to actually cam their salaries. First, pitchers should be paid only one fourth of what other play* ers make. Pitchers only play every four or five days, so why should they make just as much or more than their teammates who play every day? Of course, they can receive a few bonuses along the way. A shutout would be worth a grand or two and every five wins should merit a few extra bucks. But it’s absurd that some pitchers make t»vlcc as much as their teammates for only a fraction of the playing time. , . Designated hitters only should be paid about half as much as the everyday players. After all, they only bat four or five times a game ana once in a while put in a token appearance in the outfield to give, fans the illusion that they actually have talent. , Designated hitters don l need the money anyway. A desinated hitter is just a fat, over-the-hill player trying to hang on to what’s left of his career because he doesn’t know liow to do anything else. Dave Parker is a prime example of this. Catchers should be paid twice as much as anyone else. Anyone who has to squat in the dirt for nine innings and get run into by the likes of Bo Jackson deserves big bucks. Besides, catchers need extra money for arthritis treatment on their knees after their career is over. Anyone who plays for the New York Yankees deserves at least $2 million. They also should be given a complimentary mental health care plan for having to pul up with owner George Steinbrenner. Yankees managers should be given a free pass to the front of the line at the local unemployment office - they’ll need it Chicago Cub players also de serve a little extra money for hold ing up the reputation of being the league’s biggest losers. All other players should have their salaries based on perform ance. This way a player can get a raise every year if he increases production. This solution also works the other way. If performance drops, so docs the paycheck. By basing pay on performance, players will put out more of an effort. Also, a player no longer will tell the manager he can t play because his cat (girlfriend, wife, son/daughter, teammate or all of the above) scratched his pinky, and See BICKERING on 14 Wrestling coach worried about next two matches By Chuck Green Senior Reporter Although the Big Eight wrestling championships arc still more than a month away, Nebraska’s wrestling team is getting restless. But, Coach Tim Neumann said, the Comhuskers’ meet against the University of Nebraska at Omaha tonight and Saturday’s meet against Northern Iowa should lessen some of the anxiety. At least he hopes so. “We need to get through this weekend’s schedule,” he said. Neumann said he doesn’t think this will be a problem, especially after last week’s win against North Dakota and North Dakota State -- ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in Divi sion II. Tonight’s dual is the third con secutive for the No. 4-rankcd Husk ers against a highly ranked Division II team. The Mavericks arc ranked No. 2 by Amateur Wrestling News. Neumann said UNO’s talent con cerns him. “They’ve got one of their best teams in seven years,” he said. “UNO normally gears up for this dual. They look at a dual like this as an opportu nity to knock off a pretty good Divi sion I team, and they really gel after it.” UNO has not beaten Nebraska since 1978 when the Mavericks won 26-12 in Lincoln. Bui Saturday’s meet is against an even scarier opponent for Neumann - Northern Iowa, a team Neumann hasn’t beaten in his four years as Nebraska’s coach. The last Husker win against the Panthers came in 1984. “We’re really looking forward to the Northern Iowa match,” he said. “They’re one of the few teams we haven’t been able to beat... yet.” Saturday’s match is the 11 th lime in the last 16 duals against Division I opponents that the Huskers have faced teams ranked in the lop 20. Nebraska is 6-3-1 in those matches, which in cludes a 1-0 default against Iowa State in the consolation round of the Na tional Team Championships on Jan. 13. Notes: Layne Billings, Nebraska’s top wrestler at the 142-pound weight class, has decided to quit the team. Billings had been slowed by a dislocated rib during the past several weeks. Neumann said Billings’ perform ance was slowed by the injury. “Pri ority changes’’ in Billings’ life added to his decision, he said. “It was good to have him in the program,” Neumann said. “He just wasn’t sure he wanted to wrestle anymore.” Billings, a junior math education major, plans to complete his degree a year from May, Neumann said. NU men snap road losing streak with win against CU ✓ From Staff Reports Two years ago when Nebraska beat Colorado in Boulder, Colo., it would be the last time the Comhuskers would win a Big Eight road game. Until Wednesday night. Seven Huskers scored in double figures to lead Nebraska past Colo rado 91-82 at the CU Events Center, snapping a 14-game conference road losing streak. Nebraska coach Danny Nee called the effort was ‘‘a solid, super win.” ‘‘We weren’t going to be denied tonight,” he said. ‘‘Everyone that played, played well for us.” Clifford Seales led the Huskers with 16 points, while Ray Richardson added 14. Carl Hayes and Dapreis Owens each added 13 points for Nebraska, while Rich King and Rich ard van Poclgccst each scored 11. Colorado’s Shaun Vandiver and Stevie Wise led all scorers with 20 points each, while Reggie Morion added 17. Eighteen of Wise’s points came in the first half. Colorado jumped to a 46-8 lead cany in me game ana ica ny as many as nine points in the first half. But the Huskers chipped away at the Buffa loes’ lead throughout the remainder of the first half. During one stretch toward the end of the first half, the Huskers outscorcd Colorado 13-1. A three-point shot by Nebraska’s Carl Hayes tied the game 41-41 about three minutes before halftime. An other three-point shot — this time by Chris Crcsswcll - gave Nebraska a 44 42 lead. The Huskers led 48-45 at halftime. Nebraska extended its lead by as much as 13 points in the second half. The Buffaloes came to within two points, but they never led. The Huskers shot 56 percent from the field - only the second lime this season Nebraska has shot belter than 50 percent from the field on the road. Nee said the biggest factor in the game was the Buffaloes’ frcc-lhrow shooting. Colorado made only half of its free throws in the game. “Our kids were really together See HUSKERS on 14