Gamecock Sports
Time again for alterna-uniforms
Todd
Money
Money in the
Bank
Ahh, spring. Birds chirping, pollen
fillipg the air, 20-year-olds sunbathing on
the Horseshoe. Ninety-degree Columbia ,
days beckoning. It’s a great time. And,
with April upon us again, it’s time for we
veteran sports columnists to start discussing •
the most vital, exciting pastime Ameri-,
ca has to offer the world.
Yes, that’s right. Baseball uniforms. '
What is it about seeing those tight-fit
ting Russell polyesters come out every
i year that’s so exhilarating? Maybe it’s be
cause every year’s another box*of choco
lates. Or caramels. Or nuts. Anyway, you
never know what you’re going to find.
Case in point: the altema-uniform
craze. You know, the practice of teams
wearing jerseys that differ from the tra
ditional one-home-and-one-away wardrobe
that teams such as, say, the Yankees, have
employed for billions of years.
The alterna-garb has actually been
around for several decades, but only for
certain teams. And after seeing the teams
that tried it, you’d think the people in
charge would have learned their lesson.
In the late 1970s, in the franchise’s
relative heyday, the Pittsburgh Pirates
modeled those awful gold and black
outfits to go along with their other, more
sensible unies.
Of course, that was the disco area, so
anything’s passable there. But anyone who
followed the sport in the 1980s remem
bers the Baltimore Orioles’ bright orange
shirtk or the San Diego Padres’gold, brown
and orange get-ups that disgraced the 1984
World Series. Uggggh. How do we tell our
kids about those?
With the advent of seemingly
everything else alternative in the late 1990s
(music, food, “lifestyles,” the NBA’s mar
ijuana debate), however, baseball has fol
lowed suit almost wholeheartedly. Unless
your team's been around since the dawn
of time, it has adopted two or three of
these altema-jerseys in the past few years.
Even the tradition-rich Oakland Athlet
ics have fallen in love with mostly-black
shirts this season, complete with easy-to
read dark-green lettering and that, uh, ele
phant on the sleeve.
Last Thursday, those fashion-conscious
Padres wore camouflage uniforms. Ap
parently, they were honoring their city’s
military. Whatever. They should’ve stuck
to dark-green fatigues. Add an M-60 and
plenty of ammo tucked to the side for
each player, and this year’s San Diego team
would surely have recaptured the glory
of‘84.
The San Francisco Giants have cream
colored home uniforms this year. (Isn’t
“cream-colored” funny to say three times
fast?) What’s the point of exchanging white
for cream? As if today’s baseball players
have any trouble hustling and getting their
uniforms a little dirty.
Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Houston
have also altered their unies, with the Reds
falling flat on their (red?) faces with black
hats and long-sleeved shirts and Hous
ton switching from navy blue and gold to
navy and some kind of orangey-red. Of
course, the Astros, Brewers and Tigers
were all forced to make alterations to go
along with their respective new stadiums.
They’re excused.
But, it’s gotten to the point where
gaudy is accepted. Black is everywhere,
especially on Sundays, when at least 15
teams show their ‘reverent’ sides by wear
ing dark-colored jerseys.
The most important question, then,
is: Who makes these kinds of decisions,
and why?
While there’s no need to always re
vert to what’s traditional, even popular
fashion should have limits. There’s no way
you send a baseball team out in camou
flage uniforms. And there’s no way the
proud A’s should have to wear black shirts
for anything. Rollie Fingers in black? Nope.
And who thought of cream as a good
color for a shirt? Oh yeah, gray was al
ready taken. What about fuchsia, or lime,
or chartreuse?
These are the uniforms we baseball
watchers must endure for six months every
year. That’s a whole bunch of 2 a.m.
“SportsCenters” and dty-as-a-frozen-waf
fle Kenny Mayne jokes. If the garb the
players wear is such that we can’t enjoy
the actual games anymore, what else will *
there be to do?
Be concerned. Watch closely. It’s your
pastime.
Softball
from page 10
^
dy Gamecocks took advantage of three
Tiger errors, scoring three unearned runs.
Genovese led off the inning with a
single down the left field line. She was
sacrificed to second by Adrianna Bagget
ta. Schultze singled to center field to scoje
Genovese, and both players would ad
vance a base on an error by center field
er Stacey Newton to give USC a 1 -0 lead.
The next batter, Danielle Quinones,
singled to center field, scoring Schultze
and stretching USC’s lead to 2-0. Jodi Fit
tro got.USC’s fourth hit of the game with
a single to left field. After a throwing
error by catcher Jennifer Scheulke to ad
vance Fittro and score Quinones, Mc
Cutcheon walked. A double steal would
give USC its fourth run of the inning, with
Fittro crossing the plate and McCutcheon
going to second.
USC carried the 4-0 lead into the top
of the sixth, when Stacey Newton opened
the inning with a walk. Newton went to
second on a groundout and advanced to
third on a wild pitch. Newton made the
game 4-1 when she scored on a wild pitch.
Carolina came roaring back in the
bottom of the sixth, scoring two to put
the game out of reach.
Quinones got her second hit of the
game with a double to left field. Fellow
freshman Fittro walked, putting runners
on first and second. Heather Culver came
in to pinch hit for McCutcheon and de
livered a double to deep center field, scor
ing both freshmen.
The Tigers scored one run in the sev
enth, but Matthews would get out of
the inning to earn her team-leading
19th win of the season. Matthews allowed
eight hits in-seven innings, striking out
six.
LSU 6, USC 0 (Game 2 Friday)
The Tigers broke out early in Game
2, scoring single runs in the first and third
innings. Ashley Ducote drove in a run to
give LSU the 1-0 lead in the first. In the
third, Asbill walked with two outs. Asbill
was initially called out trying to steal, but
after an umpires’ conference, she was
called safe. Ducote tripled to score As
bill.
. LSU added two in the fifth and two
in the sixth, led by Ducote’s seventh and
eighth home runs of the season.
Carolina returns to Beckham Field
at 5 p.m. Tuesday to face Coastal Caroli
na. USC will then take to the road for
its final SEC series of the season with a
pair of doubleheaders against Eastern Di
vision rival Georgia Friday and Saturday
in Athens, Ga.
Baseball
from page 10
Geshke led off with a double, his third
hit of the game, and scored on Free
I man’s single.
Vanderbilt’s other hits were singles
by Luellwitz in the fourth inning and
a seventh-inning single by Cabrera, who
took a wide turn rounding first base and
was picked off by Gamecock center
fielder McBeth. South Carolina’s on
ly hits over the first eight innings were
a third-inning infield hit by McHenry
and a fourth-inning single by Kelly.
USC 14, Vanderbilt 5 (Friday)
Peter Bauer pitched eight innings
to improve his record to 7-0 Friday night
and Rios hit a pair of doubles, one with
the bases loaded, as USC defeated the
Commodores 14-5 in the first game
of the series. USC stretched its overall
record to 34-4, equaling the best record
in Gamecock history after 38 games.
The 1975 team lost its 38th game
l to go 34-4, but didn’t lose another game
until the College World Series when
South Carolina finished second to na
tional champion Texas and had a final
record of 51-6-1.
Reigning SEC Player of the Week
Nonemaker hit two home runs for Van
derbilt to increase his season total to
seven. Nonemaker had three of Van
derbilt’s nine hits and drove in four runs.
His two-run homer in the first inning
staked Vanderbilt to a 2-0 lead, but Car
olina scored three in the top of the sec
ond.
Vanderbilt quickly tied it with
one in the bottom of the inning. The
Gamecocks took the lead for good with
two runs in the fifth inning and added
three each in the sixth, seventh and
eighth.
Vanderbilt scored on Nonemaker’s
solo homer in the sixth inning and added
its final run in the eighth. Six Game
cocks had two hits apiece with Rios con
tributing two doubles. His bases-loaded
two-bagger in the seventh drove in three
runs.
Notes: USC’s bullpen received more
bad news when John Wesley and
Clint Collins received injuries and will
be lost for two weeks. The bullpen
has already lost Lee Gronkiewicz for
the season and is still waiting for
Chris Spigner to recover from elbow
soreness ... Senior Shane Nelson will
be out of action for at least one more
week with a knee injury ... The USC
schedule was recently ranked by the
RPI as the toughest in the nation.
USC still has 16 regular-season games
remaining.
Men’s tennis
The USC men’s tennis team defeat
ed Vanderbilt 5-2 Friday in its last home
match of the 2000 spring season. Two
of the four seniors participated in the
competition,and both went out with suc
cessful performances in their last home
appearances as Gamecocks.
Senior Jerome jourdon had an easy
day at the No. 3 position, where he de
feated his opponent, Bill McGugin, 6
1,6-1. Jourdon’s fellow senior, Olof
Akesson, also won his match in straight
sets over Brad Hambrick, 6-2, 7-5.
Other Carolina singles winners in- .
eluded Seth Rose, who kept his winning
streak alive at seven. David Nelson al
so won at the No. 6 spot, where he filled
in for injured senior Juan Gamboa. Jeff
Beigman, the cocaptain along with Jour- ,
don, was the fourth senior on the
team.
In doubles, the Gamecocks swept
through the Commodores to win the
point. In the process, the doubles team
of Guillaume Legat/Rose defeated No.
48 Andrew Nisker/Hambrick in a close
match, 9-7.
Women’s tennis
The No. 20 USC women's tennis
team lost 5-1 Sunday to visiting Ten
nessee in the Gamecocks’ regular sea
son finale at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis
Center on the USC campus.
Carolina (14-10,6-5 SEC) next trav
els to Ole Miss for the 2000 SEC Tour
nament on Thursday. Pairings for the
tournament will be announced today.
The singles winner for USC against
Tennessee was junior Leigh Eichelbetg
er, who downed Vilmarie Castelivi 3
6.6- 4,6-2 at No.3 singles.
Kathy Boyanovich, playing at No.
5 singles, pushed Candy Reid to three
sets before falling 4-6.6-2.6-0.
UT moved to 15-10,7-4 SEC with
the win.
The Lady Gamecocks also lost 6-3
Friday night to visiting No. 10 Vander
bilt. Singles winners for USC werej'lo.
20 Katarina Markovski (6-7,7-6,6-2 over
Julie Ditty) and Tamara Sutton (2-6,6
3.6- 3 over Kate Burson).
In doubles play, the team of Boy
anovich and Jennifer Radman beat Dit
ty and Sarah Riske, 9-7.
Track & field
In the third day of the Sea Ray Re
lays Saturday, junior Terrence Trammell
and sophomore Miki Barber both made
their 2000 outdoor debuts in their sig
nature events and senior Jimmie
Hackley broke the USC record in the
400ra.
Barber won the 400m at 51.97, an
NCAA automatic time. Barber, the
NCAA indoor runner-up. took over the
No. 1 spot on the NCAA lis't with the
time.
Trammell continued his unbeaten
streak against former Tennessee hurdler
Dawane Wallace (now with adidas) and
won the 110m hurdles with a time of
13.34. The time, the fastest time in the
NCAA this year, also broke the Sea Ray
Relays record.
Hackley was second in the 400m at
45.82, breaking his own school record.
Hackley’s time is the sixth-fastest in the
NCAA in 2000. Greenville’s Gerald
Pressley was ninth at 47.32.
Junior Jackie Madison and senior
Eilakisha Williamson finished 1-2 re
spectively in the 100m hurdles. Madi
son posted a time of 13.18, while ‘
Williamson ran 13.30.
Demetria Washington was fifth in
the 200m at 24.09, an NCAA provisional
time, while freshman pole vaulter Chris
Steddum vaulted a personal best.16’ 10
to finish fifth.
Mechelle Lewis was fifth in the
100m at 11.54, also an NCAA provi
sional mark.
Competing in rain and 48-degree
temperatures, USC sophomore Tacita
Bass finished second in the heptathlon
with a personal best 5,278 points at
the Sea Ray Relays. Junior CJ Ander
son scored a personal best 6,817 points
to finish third in the decathlon.
Bass’ score, just four points behind
winner Nakeshia Jackson of UAB, pro
visionally qualifies her for the NCAA
Championships. Bass jumped 18’ 11 in
the long jump, threw the javelin 110’ 2
and ran the
800m at 2:22.09. Bass’ time Friday in
the 200m set a Sea Ray Relays record.
Anderson ran the 110m hurdles in
14.50, threw the discus 117’3, pole vault
ed 12’, threw the javelin 138’4andran
the 1500m in 5:17.67.
Anderson was bested only by Phil
McMullen (Asics) and Kamau Sullivan
(Indiana Invaders), who finished 1-2.
The team will next be in action Sat
urday at the Vngina Tech Invite.
I
s April 17th & 18th 2000
My{br RHA, NRHH, Omega P^ ^
e Red Cross and Area Business*
Jo REMINDER
Don’t forget to renew your reserved space
for the Summer and/or Fall semesters.
Deadline is...
April 28, 2000 for Summer
May 31» 2000 for Fall
Failure to renew by this date will result in
the loss of your space. If you already
made payment, please disregard this notice.
Don’t have a space and are interested in
getting one? Sign up for the Lottery L’
^ _ drawing at Parking Services.
Deadline is July 14, 2000
Questions should be directed to the Parking
Services Office. Phone #777-5160.
; Graduation 2000
• A Celebration
for Students
j BEACH..
! PARTY.
jHOUSES.
• Beach Week
• Classic Cottages
; Nyrtlebeach
tours* com
• 5tudent BeachUne
il.800.7W.8687
• •••••••••••••••
P*riia»c a nice Monday?? ^
1 l "
'■■■■■ ...-.. « «
Find the Best Price on New
and Pre-Owned Flondas
www.rickhendrickhonda.com
HONDA
791-5660
1650 Airport Boulevard » West Columbia, SC 29171
Propecia
I (finasteride)
J Ask your doctor about this pill
I from Merck.
For more information, call
| 1-888-MERCK-74.
1
o www.propecia.com
Co*^-5-3 JTP 9^,
^ USC Hj
Official Ring Ceremony
May 4, 2000
at 2:00 p.m. in the
Rutledge Chapel
I
I I
Lessons That
Will Last
A Lifetime.
Put that college degree to use by enrolling into the Air Force Officer
Training School.-Upon successful completion of the Officer Training
School, you will become a commissioned Air Force officer with
earned respect and benefits like - great starting pay, medical and
# dental care, management and travel
AIM HIGH opportunities. For more on how to qualify
and get your career soaring with the
Air Force Officer Training School, call
1-800-423-USAF, or, visit our website at '
www.airforce.comwww.airforce.com