Sports
Tuesday, February 7, 1995 Page 7
Baseball given one day to settle dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton
gave baseball one more day to settle its labor
dispute before federal mediator W.J. Usery
presents his own proposal to end the strike.
Presidential spokesman Mike McCurry said
Monday that Clinton was “not overly optimis
tic that they’re making significant progress”
based on what the White House had heard.
Clinton had asked Usery to give him a
proposal to end the 179-day walkout by 5 p.m
Monday, but reluctantly agreed to the exten
Knee injury
ends season
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Nebraska gymnast Laurie McLaughlin
learned Monday that she would receive a medi
cal hardship this season after suffering a sea
son-ending knee injury last week.
McLaughlin suffered a
dislocated right kneecap in
practice on Jan. 30 and had
surgery Saturday.
I Coach Dan Kendig said
McLaughlin was under the
NCAA limit since she had
competed in only three
meets.
MCLaugnnn participated
McLaughlin against Utah State, at Boise
State and Southern Utah and Jan. 27 at Mis
souri.
See MCLAUGHLIN on 8
Back injuries
sideline player
for two years
From Staff Reports _
It was announced Monday that Nebraska
volleyball player Stephanie Clerc will miss the
next two years because of back injuries.
Clerc, a sophomore, will receive a medical
hardship granted by the NCAA for the next two
years.
The backcourt specialist has struggled with
back injuries since coming to Nebraska. She
was named the Big Eight Backcourt Specialist
of the Year in 1993.
The Nebraska volleyball team, coming off
of a 31-1 season, will also lose two other
players to graduation. Senior outside hitter
Kelly Aspegren and senior middle blocker
Peggy Meyer will be lost to graduation.
sion.
“I don’t think the president wants to extend
it much past mid-afternoon,” McCurry said of
the new deadline.
With no progress toward a negotiated agree
ment after 25 months of talks, Clinton stepped
in and essentially filled the vacant role of
baseball commissioner by trying to get his
mediator to recommend a solution.
“They’re working at least,” Clinton said
before Usery arrived. “I just keep telling them
I
to play ball.
“It’s just a few hundred folks trying to
figure out how to divide nearly $2 billion.
They ought to be able: Jo figure that out,”
Clinton said.
On Jan. 26, six days after owners adopted
plans to start spring training with replacement
players, Clinton announced his deadline for a
settlement.
With the sides still billions of dollars apart,
Usery said he would hand the president his
proposal first, then give it to players and own
ers.
“I would be hopeful that they would accept
it,” he said.
Neither side knew what Clinton would do if
the plan was rejected. The president could
propose special legislation to enact terms of a
settlement or binding arbitration, but both
types of bills would have to be approved by the
House and Senate.
-1
Travis Hey inq/DN
Nebraska gymnast Richard Grace concentrates before beginning his routine on the pommel horse. Grace, the
defending national champion in the parallel bars, is the only senior on the Husker squad.
Gymnast gets serious, leads youngteam
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
Richard Grace has fond memories of
last April.
So fond are the senior gymnast’s
memories that he would like nothing
better than to relive them once again this
April.
Grace, a 5-foot, 125-pound graduate of
Millard South, is the defending NCAA
parallel bars champion. He is also the on
the-mat and off-the-mat leader of the
defending national champion
Comhuskers.
But this year’s Nebraska squad, he
said, shares little in common with the
group of experienced Huskers that
captured the school’s eighth national title
in 15 years last spring in Lincoln.
Four seniors, who each played a major
role in the 1994 championship run, are
gone.
“Last year,” Grace said, “our whole
idea was to get through it all. If we lost a
See GRACE on 8
Managers see the big and small of Husker basketball
Two of the most successful
people in Nebraska basketball
history have never even put on a
uniform.
They have gone without notice,
except for a little ribbing from fans
and friends every now and then.
That is, until now.
One has seen the Comhuskers
amass a 100-45 record over five
years and is hoping for a fifth
NCAA Tournament appearance.
The other has been to three
NCAA Tournaments and has
helped the Comhuskers to a 74-37
record.
And the tandem isn’t Erick
Strickland and Jaron Boone.
Or even Beavis and Butt-head.
It’s Benji and Bemie.
This dynamic duo is student
managers Benji Greenberg and
Bemie Inbody.
Greenberg has spent the past
nine years being a basketball
manager — five on the Nebraska
sidelines and four on the sidelines
at Omaha Burke High School.
But he will manage his final
home game against Iowa State on
March 5, and his presence courtside
will be left to just a visit every
once in a while.
“I don’t want it to end, and the
last home game against Iowa State
will be pretty emotional,”
Greenberg said. “It’s the last time I
will be there.”
Greenberg has been around the
program so long he is beginning to
act like Coach Danny Nee.
“You see Coach Nee and you
see me,” he said. “Now I won’t be
there after this year, so it will be
different. I’ve got to go on my
own.”
Being a student manager has
virtually given both Greenberg and
Inbody a spot on the team.
“I love every part of it,”
Greenberg said. “Sometimes you
hate to lose, and I’m a competitive
person, so whenever we lose I take
it pretty hard.”
Greenberg could become part of
history, though, if the Huskers
make it to the NCAA Tournament
for the fifth straight time.
Trevor Parks
“It’s hard for anybody to get
there one time, let alone fiver
times,” he said. “We’re kind of
used to it.”
Another person used to it is the
person who sits next to Greenberg
on the bench, Inbody.
But he came to Nebraska under
different circumstances than
Greenberg.
Inbody was coming off a stellar
high school basketball career at
Wahoo, where he had plenty of
"success.
In his varsity career, from 1989
91, the Warriors were 90-0. Inbody
helped accomplish that with current
Husker Jason Glock.
Inbody had offers to play
basketball at Midland Lutheran,
Nebraska Wesleyan and Hastings,
but he didn’t really see himself
contributing much to those pro
grams.
“I just wanted to be involved in
Division I” Inbody said. “It drew
me not only to be a manager, but to
come to school here.”
But instead of shooting basket
balls, Inbody is cleaning them.
He has been Nee’s mainstay on
the Nebraska bench for the past
three years.
Inbody said he planned to
manage for one more season after
this year.
A typical home game day begins
two hours before tip-off, when
everyone has to be at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
Before the game, the two
managers get everything ready for
both benches, the referees’ locker
room and the visiting locker room.
“It’s pretty easy,” Inbody said.
After the game, they clean up
the home, visiting and referees’
locker rooms.
“It doesn’t take long unless we
come up with a win, and Norm
Stewart and Billy Tubbs used to
stay in the locker room for an hour
after the game,” Inbody said.
Those wins may have propelled
the Huskers into March Madness.
And the trips to the Big Eight and
NCAA tournaments have made the
job worthwhile.
“Being a part of March Madness
and the hoopla that goes along with
all that is great,” Inbody said.
The biggest victory both have
been involved in was the Huskers’
victory over Oklahoma State to win
the Big Eight Tournament.
They’re both hoping for an
encore performance this year. Both
want to go the NCAA Tournament
again.
Except this time they want to
leave with at least one victory.
Parks is a jaalor news-editorial major
and a Dally Nebraskan staff reporter and
coinmnist
