Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Gamecock United States' Olympic baseball squad no Dream Team By Byren Peters AP Wire LOS ANGELES —No baseball Dream Team in Sydney. The United States has assembled a collection of up-and-coming minor lea guers and journeymen to represent'it next month in the first Olympic base ball tournament open to professionals. Pat Borders, a 37-year-old catch er who was a major league journeyman and currently is in the Tampa Bay farm system, was one of the few recogniz able names on the U.S. Olympic team announced Wednesday. Borders also played with Toronto and was the MVP of the World Series in 1992, the first year baseball was an official Olympic sport. Players on major league rosters weren’t available for the Olympics and teams were reluctant to part with some of their top minor leaguers, fearing they’d need them down the stretch. As a result, the U.S. roster is dotted with players currently toiling in such places as Pawtucket, Mobile and Rochester. “We would have liked to have had players like Mark McGwire, Greg Mad dux and Darryl Kile, but this is what was available to us,” said Bob Witson, co-chairman of the selection commit tee. The U.S. team, managed by Dodgers executive Tommy Lasorda, will be try ing to upset two-time defending gold medalist Cuba Japan, which will fea ture some of its best pros on its team, and Korea which is suspending its pro season for two weeks during the Olympics, also are among the favorites. Host Australia will feature All-Star catcher Dave Nilsson, who played in Japan this year so he would be avail able for Sydney. Lasorda, a former Dodgers’ man ager and Hall of Famer, still has high hopes. “We aren’t going 6,000 miles to lose,” he said. Twelve of the players on the ros ter have some major league experience. Some of them were on the U.S. team that beat the Cubans during the Pan Am Games last year but lost to them in the gold medal game. By finishing second, that team qual ified the United States for the Olympics. “There are a few guys that I wish were there because I know them and played with them last year,” said Todd Williams, a pitcher in the Seat tle farm system who played in the Pan Am Games. “But this committee has gone through so much to pick a team, I don’t think they were going to get anybody who wasn’t capable of doing the job. So I think the team we’ve got and the goal we have, it should be easy to put a good team out there.” Outfielder Shawn Gilbert, who has spent some time in the majors with Los Angeles and now is with their team at Albuquerque, knows expectations are high for the United States. “The other countries are definite ly underrated, as far as their play. But it’s our national pastime, so we’re ex pected to win, in the eyes of our coun try,” Gilbert said. Asked if the Olympics’ stringent drug-test policies might have deterred some players from committing to play for the United States, Bill Bavasi, co chair of the selection committee, said he didn’t believe so, and that all the players had been made aware of the Olympic policies. Major league baseball has no drug testing except for players who have had substance-abuse problems. The U.S. team, which opens the Olympic round-robin series against Japan on Sept. 17, has a pitching staff that includes Ryan Franklin, Chris Geoige, Matt Ginter, Shane Hearns, Rick Krivda, Roy Oswalt, Jon Rauch, C.C. Sabathia, Bobby Seay, Ben Sheets, Williams, Tim Young and Kurt Ainsworth. In addition to Borders, the catch ers will be Marcus Jensen and Mike Kinkade. Infielders on the 28-man roster are Brent Abernathy, Sean Burroughs, Brent 1 Butler, Mike Coolbaugh, Gookie £ Dawkins, Adam Everett and Doug 1 Mientkiewicz. The outfielders are Gilbert, An hony Sanders, Ernie Young, Brad Wilk :rson and Mike Neill. One more player will be added to he roster, which will then be cut to the !4-man limit by Sept. 15. Wttson doubts that the United States vill ever field an Olympic team with ts best major leaguers. “I don’t see anybody here giving ip players to do that. Maybe if they day the Olympics in the Southern lemisphere in November,” he said. ‘But if we win the gold medal with hese guys, maybe that won’t be an is ue.” The United States lost to Japan in he semifinals of the 1996 Olympics nd also failed to win a medal in 992. Tiger Woods plays with own balls, Nike says by David Kravets AP Wire SAN FRANCISCO—Tiger Woods .. endorses “Nike Tour Accuracy” golf balls in TV and magazine ads, but he really plays with custom-made balls unavailable to everyday duffers, Nike acknowledged Tuesday after being sued in federal court. Nike Inc. said the balls Woods us es for his monster swings that produce 300-plus-yard drives have a slightly harder inner and outer core than the balls sold to the public. “Those two elements are slight ly firmer than the marketed ball,” Mike Kelly, marketing director for Nike Golf, told The Associated Press. Kelly said it’s common practice in the golfing world to sell the public different products than what the pros really use. “It’s an industry practice to make minor specification changes to golf products: irons, putters and golf balls for tour players,” Kelly said. “Slight specification and modifications need to be made to their equipment for their game.” But other leading names in golf say their customers get exactly what their pros endorse. Joe Gomes, a spokesman for Ti tleist, of Fairhaven, Mass., said its play ers use the same products they ad vertise. And if a player uses a “tweaked” version of a club, he said, a consumer could special order it. “We are very particular about our advertisements. We don’t make any claims that cannot be substantiated in both golf balls and clubs,” Gomes said. Callaway Golf of Carlsbad, Calif., said that if one of its golf pros says he uses a certain club, that identical club is available retail. Spokesman Larry Dorman did say, however, that in Feb ruary, one of its golf balls had a dif ferent number of dimples on it than the ones its pros used. That occurred, he said, because Callaway was awaiting approval ol the new ball by the United States Golf ing Association, so the company’s pros were briefly forbidden from using it in tournaments. “We used a prototype with a dif ferent number of dimples,” Dorman said. “As a result, for a very short pe riod of time, there was a little bit ol a lapse from what was being market ed. We were very up front about it.” Woods’ agent, Mark Steinbeig, did not immediately return a call re questing comment on the lawsuit In the suit filed Tuesday in U.S District Court in San Francisco, a non profit group called Public Remedie Inc. claimed Nike, based in Beaver ton, Ore., was engaging in unfair busi ness practices. It asks that Nike’s “ill gotten gains” be restored to the public “Tiger Woods does not play the Nike Tour Accuracy golf ball, but in stead plays one with a different com position and performance character istics specially made for him ... and not available to the general public,” the suit said. The group did not return repeat ed calls for comment. Woods officially switched to the Nike Tour Accuracy ball before the U.S. Open, the first of his three ma jor championships this year. The move officially ended a marketing conflict between Woods’ top two golf spon sors — Nike and Titleist — that be gan last year when Nike entered the ball market. Titleist argued that Nike was us ing Woods to promote golf balls be cause of two commercials—one that showed Woods bouncing a ball off his wedge, and another that showed hack ers on the range belting 300-yard dri ves as soon as Woods showed up. Spain from page B2 “The Canary Islands had beautiful black sand beaches, basically on vol canoes,” said Ross. “We had dinner one night in a restaurant actually in a volcano.” Something he ate in one of those restaurants certainly didn’t sit well with him it seemed, as he spent a Friday and Saturday in a hospital with food poisoning. Ross sat out the fi nal game against CB Canarias. “The food was OK ... until I got sick,” Ross said. “It was different.” Fogler had an interesting time din ing on the islands as well, spending time with Luis Lopez, a native of the Canary Islands who was instrumen tal in bringing the Gamecocks to La Palma. “I would go into a restaurant with Luis Lopez, and he knows everyone,” Fogler recalled. “I didn’t even order anything. I followed him, the food came, the cheers followed, and the nights were late.” Also while in La Palma, the team was treated by the mayor of the city of Los Llanos to an afternoon picnic. All in all, both coach and players agreed that the trip was extremely ben eficial, but Fogler brought it all back to perspective. “It was a great trip, and it’s good to be back in the U.S. But classes start tomorrow, and it’s back to the real world.“ The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com The Gamecock wishes everyone a great first day of classes! Student Distribution Schedule New Mexico State Aug. 23,24,25,28,29,30, V Georgia Aug. 23,24,25,28,29,30; \ Sept. 5, 6, 7 Eastern Michigan^! Sept. 5,6,7, |l|l2^ 13 *1 Mississippi State Sept. 11,12,13,18,19,20 : ■I L OLLIER LEVEL | 5EC ROW SEM §f| 30 E8 7 V i iO»T Wt TH» Pin #f.Y Block Seating Schedule ™“lj New Mexico State & Georgia Aug. 23,24,25, 28, 29,30 Eastern Michigan || ft }f| n & Mississippi State $ep^|^l7,j1,12,13 ^Arkansas & Teniissee Oct. 2,3,4,9,10,11 a I tiMa mmM amm mL:m h ■B H fllBMi BBB into the Stadium with Student Ticket ThejStudent^ Section is located in the North Sectidifoflhe Stadi^nl Sections 21 thru 34. For more complete information about student tickets, pick up a copy of the I I Student Football Information Book | ■ : ' ' at the Russell House lobby Information Desk. Student Tickets will be distributed at the Russell Housflrroom 205 9am - 4pm. Ml Students are not guaranteed a student ticket to each game, only Handicapped or disabled students can get assistance by calling the right to a ticket as long as student tickets are available. 777-8742.