Sports
Wednesday, October 11, 1995 Page 7
Todd Walkenhorst
Fans shafted
by baseball’s
televised state
The Major League baseball play
offs are upon us. This is the time
when crispautumn nights mean only
one thing. Finally there is quality
baseball in the quest for the World
Championship.
And it did not take long for
memorable games to be played. Did
you see game one of the divisional
playoff when Cleveland’s Tony
Pena hit a home run in the fifteenth
inning to beat Boston?
No, ofcourse not. It wasn’t tele
vised here.
How about the next night when
the Yankees defeated Seattle in 15
innings as well?
I guess you didn’t see that one
either.
Did you see Cleveland clinch its
series?
No.
i * Did you see Atlanta win its se
ries after being forced to watch the
first three games of its series with
Colorado?
Nope. ^
Did you suffer through Pete “I
love the Braves” Van Wieren’s
play-by-play of the Braves-Roekies
series?
Untorlunately,yes.
Did you even know the Dodgers
and Reds were in the playoffs?
That was a shock to me.
If you did not see these events,
you’re not alone. And you can thank
the owners and their creation of the
Baseball Network.
The idea was to play all the divi
sional playoff games simulta
neously and broadcast games re
gionally based on fan interest.
Problem number one. The na
tional pastime is not a regional at
traction.
This was supposed to be a heal
ingyear for Major League Baseball
after alienatingpractically every fan
in the nation with last year’s strike.
So what do the owners do? They
repay the fans by showing fewer
playoff games then ever before.
It’s like Christmas, and the own
ers put lumps of coal in our stock
ings.
It can’t be that hard for the own
ers to figure out, and I developed
this formula for them to see how
asinine this idea is.
In 1993 we saw every playoff
game on television. That’s 100 per
cent of them.
In 1995 we are not seeing every
playoff game on television. That’s
less than 100 percent. In the divi
sional playoffs, we witnessed five
of 15 games played, that’s 33 per
cent.
I’m not a mathematics major,
and really, I’m not as dumb as ev
erybody thinks I am, but it ’ s not that
hard to figure out. The bottom line
is that the fans are getting screwed.
The diehard fans who have not
left the game yet just might leave
now. If not, maybe they will when
the World Series becomes a pay
per-view event.
Walkenhorst Is a senior advertising
major and a Dally Nebraskan sports
reporter.
• «/
Weekend off helps Huskers heal
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
With the injury problems that have struck the
Nebraska football team, having last Saturday off
couldn’t have come at a more important time.
If the 5-0 Comhuskers would have had to travel
to Oklahoma State as originally scheduled when the
year began, they would have been without their
backup quarterback, three offensive linemen, a co
No. 1 I-back, a defensive lineman, and starting
MIKE linebacker Phil Ellis at full strength.
But the game at Oklahoma State was moved to
Aug. 31 for television and so No. 2 Nebraska would
have a game under its belt before traveling to
Michigan State. So the Huskers used their Saturday
off to neal.
Coach Tom Osborne said at his weekly press
conference that having a week off during the season
was a good idea. ,
“I think we still could have won, but we’d have
been a lesser football team,” Osborne said. “That’s
a terrible grind to have to go straight through from
August 3rd or 4th to January 2nd.
“It’s kind of nice to have at least one weekend
when they don’t have to do anything.”
Nebraska has had an off week in late September
or early October in four of the last five seasons. Last
year, Nebraska did not have a week off during that
time.
Osborne said if Nebraska would have had to
play the Cowboys in Stillwater, Okla., last Satur
day, the injury situation might not have been too
bad.
“If we’d have had a game on Saturday, a lot of
those guys would have gotten well, and they’d have
been out there,” Osborne said, “but they really
wouldn’t have been able to play very well.”
Osborne said he hoped backup quarterback
Brook Berringer could practice toward the end of
the week, ana in the meantime freshman Frankie
London, who is redshirting this season, would get
some snaps. London will be the third-string quar
See OSBORNE on 8
Huskers
to battle
Wildcats
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
Listening to Nebraska volleyball
coach Terry Pettit, one would have no
idea that the Comhuskers have rolled
through 13 straight matches, winning
a school record 39 consecutive games.
Pettit said the top-ranked 14-1
Huskers needed an attitude adjust
ment after simply going through the
motions during sweeps of their first
four Big Eight foes.
“We are at a point in our season
where, as coaches and players, we are
challenged to try to get better,” he
said. “I didn’t feel that last week we
got better.”
Last Wednesday, Nebraska drilled
Kansas, holding the Jayhawks to 12
points and a -.080 hitting percentage.
On Saturday night at Ames, Iowa, the
Huskers defeated Iowa State 15-4,
15-11,15-11, but hit .270, Nebraska’s
third lowest percentage this year.
Against the Cyclones, two-time All
American middle blocker Allison
Weston hit only .125, far below her
.405 season hitting percentage.
“We weren’t as motivated,” Pettit
said, “or didn’t have an edge to us. We
addressed that in practice, and I think
we got everybody’s attention. You
can play real well, even against teams
that aren’t as strong as you are, and we
haven’t done that in the last week and
a half.”
Tonight, Nebraska travels to Man
hattan, Kan., to challenge 13-4 Kan
sas State at 7:30 p.m. in the Aheam
Fieldhouse. Despite suffering two
straight losses, Pettit said Kansas State,
coached by Jim Moore, was playing
as well as any Wildcat team he had
seen.
“What they have is a coach who has
really brought them a disciplined sys
tem,” Pettit said. “They are winning,
and when you win, your confidence is
up. They believe that they can com
pete. They are two levels above where
they have been the last two or three
years.”
Nebraska, which is 50-0 against
Kansas State since 1975, dropped one
game to the Wildcats last season, the
first time the Huskers needed four
games to beat Kansas State in the past
10 years.
“We need to get better,” Pettit said.
“You have to do that because come
November, we play No. 2 Florida, No.
7 Notre Dame, and Texas, who is one
of the better three or four teams in the
country. If we don’t get better, we are
not going to have any success against
those teams.
“We need to stay sharp for three
games, or five games, whatever it takes,
and come out of there with a win,”
Pettit said. “Butmore importantly, we
need to be a better volleyball team
than we were last week.”
Trevor Parks/DN
Iowa State running back Troy Davis takes the field as the
Cyclones prepare for Oklahoma Saturday. Davis became
the first sophomore running back in NCAA history to
rush for more than 1,000 yards in five games with a 89
yard performance against the Sooners.
Cyclones’ Davis makes
college football history
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
What Herschel Walker, Tony
Dorsett, Barry Sanders, Marcus
Allen and Marshall Faulk could not
do, Troy Davis did on Saturday.
The Iowa State tailback — in
running for 89 yards on 21 attempts
during the Cyclones’ 39-26 loss to
Oklahoma—became the first back
in college football history to gain
1,000 yards in the first five games
of his sophomore season.
The 5-foot-8,185-pound native
of Miami has been a pillar of con
sistency in Coach Dan McCamey’s
first-year attempt to resurrect the
Cyclone program, which failed to
win a game last season.
“I am sick about losing today,”
said McCamey, who has directed
Iowa State to a 2-3 record, defeat
ing Ohio and Nevada-Las Vegas.
“But I am very happy for Troy. It’s
a major accomplishment. We’ll
build on it, and Troy Davis will
build on it. He’ll want to improve
on it, and he can finish with a sensa
tional season. You are measured on
a season, not any one game.”
After rushing for no fewer than
139 yards in Iowa State’s first five
games, Davis appeared to be on
track for another record-setting day.
He carried the load on the Cyclones’
opening drive in the first quarter,
scoring his con ference-leading 1 Oth
touchdown of the season.
Davis — who became only the
fifth player ever to run for 1,000
yards in the first five games of a
See DAVIS on 8
Lineman
will sign
with NU
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
An offensive lineman from
Hartington Cedar Catholic High
School on Monday became the sec
ond player in less than a week to
verbally commit to play football for
Nebraska next year.
Russ Hochstein, a 6-foot-4, 245
pound guard told the Cornhusker
coaches he would sign a letter of in
tent in Febmary Joining Wichita, Kan.,
Collegiate running back DeAngelo
Evans, who committed last week.
Hartington Cedar Catholic coach
Terry Kathol said Tuesday that
Hochstein, who has attended
Nebraska’s summer football camp
each of the past two years, was offered
a scholarship last Thursday.
“He is really excited about Ne
braska. They have been cal ling him on
a weekly basis since the season
started,” Kathol said. “That is some
thing that has really impressed Russ.
One night, (Nebraska assistant coach)
Dan Young called him the same night
as a Kansas State coach, and I could
tell Russ really favored Nebraska.”
Kathol said Hochstein played cen
ter during his first two seasons at
Hartington Cedar Catholic, a Class C
2 school that is 2-4 this season. Last
season, he switched to tackle, and this
year, he moved over to guard. He
chose Nebraska over Kansas State,
Iowa State and Wayne State, Kathol
said.
Hochstein has played defensive end
and linebacker on the defensive side
of the ball, but Kathol said Hochstein
would play offense in college, possi
bly center.
“For us, he is a a pretty good-sized
kid,” Kathol said. “He has got a good
frame and can definitely put on some
weight. He understands what his role
is, and is very understanding of the
game.”
Hochstein, a team captain, is one of
four senior starters on the Hartington
Cedar Catholic roster. He has been
timed at 5.3 seconds in the 40-yard
dash, Kathol said, and is academically
eligible to play next fall.
A two-year starter on the Cedar
Catholic basketball team, Kathol said
Hochstein, who also plays baseball,
put in long hours of work this summer
to improve his chances of being re
cruited by a Division I school.
Hochstein lifted weightsfor two hours
at 5:30 a.m. every day, and works on
his deep-snapping after football prac
tice each evening.
“He has been a very influential
player for us since his freshman year,”
Kathol said. “He is a positive role
model. He is a very mature player, and
is smart on the field. He has worked
very hard to get where he is now and
will continue to work hard in college.”