COLUMN: Random thoughts

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by Chuck Whitten

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There comes a time when a sportswriter, even one of my talent and infinite wisdom, runs out of story ideas. When this happens, a good way to turn out a column of 650 words is to present "mini-columns," each focusing on a specific idea.

Thus, being in such a situation, I am presenting a few random thoughts for Rice students to take with them on spring break.

I know many of you feel cheated. May I suggest e-mailing Sports Editor David Gordon ( flashg@rice.edu ) and begging him to hire another columnist?

Athletic time zones?

The 48-member Western Athletic Conference council named its two eight-team divisions the "Mountain" and "Pacific" divisions for play next year. Because the WAC council thinks of skiing and pine trees when they think of Houston, Rice was assigned to the Mountain division along with the following powerhouses: Brigham Young University, University of New Mexico, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, the University of Tulsa, the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Utah.

The committee rejected the names Pioneer, Frontier, Skyline and Border when making their decision. I suggested the names "Heat" and "Humidity" as in, "It's not the heat that's bad, it's the humidity."

Baseball better this year than last?

The Rice baseball team is living up to its preseason hype by going 10-1 to start the season. I am going to assert that even with the loss of Jose Cruz Jr. this year's team is better than last year's phenomenal squad.

The difference this year is that Rice has a balanced offensive and defensive attack. After averaging about one walk per inning last year, Rice has had 72 walks in 98 innings in their first 11 games.

While this might not seem great, it's a dramatic improvement over last year and can be attributed to the adjustment required in pitching to batters.

Although not putting up as many runs this year, Rice has generated enough offense to win games. Powered by a great crop of freshmen, Rice will continue to score six to 10 runs a game.

The Rice pitching staff has an ERA of 3.12 with Shawn Onley leading the way at 0.60 in three appearances. Numbers like these are going to take Rice to the next level in college baseball. Pitching wins games, and Rice will win more in the end if batters no longer have to score 20 runs to stay competitive.

Tech doesn't deserve higher than fourth.

If Rice loses to Texas Tech University on Saturday, the Red Raiders will become the first team since the 1982-83 Houston Cougars to go undefeated in the SWC. This would be an amazing feat, but let me be the first to say that Tech will probably never be ranked among the greatest teams to play college basketball.

Although they are now 24-1 on the year, Tech's schedule is extremely weak, and the Southwest Conference is a weak basketball conference. Projected seedings for the NCAA tournament place Tech no higher than the fourth seed in any region because of the NCAA's emphasis on strength of schedule.

Although Tech should be congratulated for its season, a team that is going to win championships needs to be challenged before the NCAA tournament.

Astros on their way out?

With opening day approaching, the Astros are still not close to owner Drayton McLane Jr.'s goal of 17,200 season tickets sold. I agree with many of the players who have declined to purchase blocks of season tickets, arguing that it is more important for the average fans to be at games, rather than corporate executives using free tickets.

However, one aspect I think players and owners tend to overlook is the spiraling costs of attending professional sporting events. If owners truly want to create a "fan base," then prices have to fall considerably.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the March 1, 1996 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
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