Published since 1915 by the students of Xavier University

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Home sweet home: Baseball team
remains undefeated at Hayden Field

Paul Moeller
Asst. Sports Editor Elect

With a 4-3 victory over non-conference rival Miami last Tuesday afternoon, the Xavier University baseball team improved to a perfect 10-0 at home this season.

The friendly confines of Hayden Field have been good to the Musketeers, who are now 16-20 on the year.

Xavier scored first in the bottom of the fourth inning, as sophomore Neil Lindgren tagged up on senior Matt Waskerwitz’s one-out sacrifice fly to deep center field.

Two more Xavier runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the fifth. Junior Robbie Kelley’s sacrifice squeeze bunt scored sophomore Sean Farrell and freshman Drew Schmidt drove in senior Adam Lipski on a single to center field.

Kelley struck again in the bottom of the seventh inning, lining what turned out to be the game-winning homerun over the left field wall.
The Redhawks scored three runs in the top of the eighth, but they could not overcome the pitching of senior David Hartman, who earned his second save of the season.

The Musketeers started off a key Atlantic 10 weekend last Friday with two wins over the Duquesne Dukes. Xavier won the first game by the score of 8-6, thanks to a stellar pitching performance from senior Bill Konecny.

The right-hander won his second game of the season, allowing just two hits over his final four innings. In the second game of the Friday doubleheader, junior Michael Lucas threw for an impressive eight scoreless innings before surrendering the Dukes’ only run in the ninth.

He allowed just four hits while striking out seven Duquesne batsmen. After unfavorable weather postponed the Saturday contest, the Musketeers came out strong on Sunday to sweep the Dukes and remain undefeated at home.

The 9-3 win brings Xavier’s conference record to 10-2, tying them for second in the Atlantic 10.

Xavier’s game against rival UC on Wednesday, April 11 was postponed due to weather and is rescheduled for Tuesday, April 24.

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The Spectator

Weekly Commentary On the World of Sports

John LaFollette
Sports Editor

It is yet again the time of the year that usually puts the Spectator in a sort of entertainment malaise. His two favorite seasons, college football and college basketball, are far enough gone, or far enough in the future, to be effectively off his radar. None of the other major sports (NBA, Major League Baseball and especially the NHL) have the drama or relevance necessary to captivate the Spectator’s selective viewing senses.

While it is probably true that the Spectator would only attend an NBA or NHL game in a strictly journalistic capacity (and then only if the price was right), live baseball has long been one of his favorite pastimes.

Against the backdrop of corked bats, performance enhancing drugs and a tyrannical lack of a salary cap, he has since become disillusioned with the Big Show. His fondest memory of childhood is slurping over-priced ice cream from a miniature plastic baseball helmet, cheering aimlessly for minor league baseball players he’d never heard of.

Such is the beauty of minor league baseball. Entertainment can be found not only in the excitement of the competition, but in a multitude of other quirky, strictly minor league attractions, which the Spectator, in his excitement for the upcoming season of the Louisville Bats, is more than happy to enumerate.
First and foremost on the Spectator’s list of reasons to go see minor league baseball is the allure of heckling an out-of-town player with all the freedom and venom that his status as an irregular provides.

After cheap tickets (or free tickets, depending on who you know or don’t), dollar drafts, Dime-A-Dog hot dogs and more dollar drafts, there is nothing more fun than staking a spot on a grassy knoll in left center field and berating an unlucky opponent for running too slow, throwing too weak and possessing mere warning tack power.

This is especially true when the target of said vitriol is Gregor Blanco, the care-free, fun-loving, fan-friendly center fielder for the Richmond Braves, who happens to be the best player on the team, and incidentally, neither slow, weak, nor possessing of warning track power.

Which brings the Spectator to his next reason to go see minor league baseball: making friends with the players. When a player is sufficiently cut-down, it is best to build him back up through a series of apologies and recantations, or risk ejection from the stadium.

Unlike the overpaid primadonnas who fill major league lineup cards, the minor leaguer is insecure about his abilities and always looking for compliments on his game.

He will often reward adoring fans with a bleacher-ward toss of a warm-up ball, a smile and a wave (which usually elicits more cheering) or, if the fan is lucky (or persistent) enough, an extended conversation after the game.

The latter is the goal of the Spectator and his comrades at every Bats game they attend. Some such attempts result in friendly rapport between player and fans. Still others result in the fans being invited by the player to an evening of carousing around Louisville with the player’s horde of aging, overly made-up groupies (in this sense “Bull Durham” is true to life).

The Spectator does not wish to divulge the name of the particular minor league phenom with whom he and his associates cavorted, lest that player become inundated with fan requests, but suffice it to say that he is a rising start on a National League farm team other than Richmond, who has yet to learn how to hold his bourbon like a local.

In his defense, this player did not have the luxury of chowing down on ridiculously cheap ballpark franks for almost three hours.

Only at minor league baseball games does one find such economically priced processed meat, and at the Gateway Grizzlies’ GCS Ballpark outside St. Louis, the fan with an insatiable appetite for obscure food can feast on a series of so-called “Baseball’s Best” menu items.

These include White Castle Sliders (Best ‘Slider’, get it?), a bratwurst with a slice of Swiss cheese in the center (Best Brat), a 1/5-pound all-beef Black Angus hot dog served with bacon and cheddar cheese sauce (Best Hot Dog) and a “thick and juicy burger topped with sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon, then placed between each side of a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut.”

The Spectator is hard-pressed to find food more gimmicky (“fun and unique” according to a Krispy Kreme spokesman) than that, but understands obscure promotions as part and parcel of the minor league baseball experience.

Among the varied and esoteric promotions arranged for the Bats this season, the most endearing performance is certainly that of Jake the Diamond Dog.
A golden retriever known for his uncanny ability to “pick up bats, deliver water to umpires, catch Frisbees and sign autographs,” Jake drew countless fans to minor league games across the country, before his tragic passing on March 18, 2007, two days after suffering a stroke at age 14.

The original Jake was replaced by another golden retriever, also named Jake, lending immortality to the spunky canine and confusing young children about the nature of death.

Rapport, carousing, doughnut-sandwiched cheeseburgers and un-dead dogs. Join the Spectator in looking forward to all this excitement, plus the unique weirdness of intense minor league baseball fans, at a minor league ballpark near you.

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Brian's Song

'Hockey Heaven'

Brian Bowsher
Editor in Chief

While hockey fans at Xavier are vastly outnumbered by students with a parent’s credit card, there is, believe it or not, a devoted group of puck heads who follow the sport devotedly.

But thanks to the NHL’s post-lockout divorce from ESPN and the university’s audacious choice to leave Versus off the XU cable service (what hoser made that call?), this group of fanatics is forced to either seek out a local bar and ask to turn on the game (and get cursed at), try to convince an off-campus friend to spend more than $100 on the Center Ice Package (and get laughed at) or download a couple of illegal P2P programs that will stream free online video broadcasts of the games (and hope you don’t get caught).

It’s an unpleasant predicament.

So, on a day featuring five different playoff games, I have decided to do the dirty work, risking online piracy persecution in the name of bringing you, the hockey-starved Newswire readers, a minute-by-minute recap of everything you’re missing. Watching video of two games at a time while keeping tabs on the others via gamecast, I present to you tonight’s lineup:

7 p.m. MSG Atlanta at New York Rangers
7 p.m. CBC Ottawa at Pittsburgh
8 p.m. CBC Vancouver at Dallas
9 p.m. KDOC Anaheim at Minnesota
10 p.m. CBC Detroit at Calgary

Here we go…

7:00—Pittsburgh—We are greeted by the Hockey Night in Canada theme, which is arguably the best theme in all of sports in the absence of the NBA on NBC. Nelly should really take note.

7:01—Pittsburgh—In the opening segment we see a bunch of boisterous and almost certainly inebriated Senators fans tailgating in the Mellon Arena parking lot yelling in unison, “Bring it back to Canada!” I think this is what a Canadian NASCAR Fan would look like.

7:02—Pittsburgh—The first over-analysis of the night comes from Ron MacLean: “[Sidney] Crosby has two empty bottles of water, so you know he’s hydrated.”

7:08—Pittsburgh—Penguin fans pause for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. Unlike last night at the Islanders game, no one yells profanities over the silence. You would think New Yorkers would have more respect for a tragedy.

7:11—New York—Over at the Garden, Daniel Rodriguez performs one of the most emotional renditions of the Star Spangled Banner I’ve heard. Closing his eyes and clenching his fist, Rodriguez belts out the last few lines in front of a roaring crowd. The arena sounds like the roof is about to be blown off.

7:12—New York—Sure enough, the emotion in the building translates onto the ice, as the Rangers take a 1-0 lead just 32 seconds into the game. Not the best way for Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen to show he shouldn’t have been benched for game two.

7:16—Pittsburgh—Tough break for the Pens. A centering pass from Ottawa’s Jason Spezza deflects off Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal and flutters over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury into the net. The Sens have too much offense to get breaks like this.

7:27—New York—2-0 Rangers. Atlanta’s playing like a franchise that’s never been to the playoffs.

7:29—New York—Rangers center Sean Avery finds himself in a familiar position: a headlock. The guy might be the most hated player in the NHL. As long as Elisha Cuthbert still hangs out with him, though, he probably doesn’t care.

7:45—Pittsburgh—The boy love for Crosby continues: “He’s the hardest working player in the NHL.” As is always the case, such a superlative is not backed up with anything resembling rational evidence.

7:49—Pittsburgh—Wearing a khaki-colored suit, a yellow French-cuffed shirt, gold tie, gold handkerchief and yellow corsage pinned to his lapel, the conservatively dressed (by his standards) Don Cherry makes his first appearance of the night on “Coach’s Corner.” Canada’s version of John Madden, Tony Kornheiser and Rush Limbaugh rolled into one colorful suit, Cherry draws more attention and scrutiny than Duke lacrosse players. For some perspective, several newspaper articles appeared in Canadian papers this morning questioning Cherry’s tame opinions on a relatively minor injury to Ottawa defenseman Christoph Schubert.

8:01—Dallas—The Stars-Canucks game is being called by none other than Jim Hughson, known better in the States as the play-by-play guy in the EA Sports NHL video game series.

8:17—Pittsburgh—Despite being just 18-years-old, Jordan Staal is playing a key role for the Penguins against one of the best teams in the league. His goal in front of the net ties the game at 1-1.

8:39—Dallas—Ouch. Stars forward Ladislav Nagy catches a high stick to the face, and the lucky people watching at home on HD get to see a close-up of his mangled, bloody mug in picture-perfect clarity. I bet he doesn’t miss a shift.

8:46—Dallas—Sure enough, here’s Nagy back on the ice with his linemates. Hockey players are beyond tough.

8:54—New York—The always colorful Stan Fischler with some candid commentary on the Atlanta Thrashers: “They remind me of the guy who goes to the shrink asking help for an inferiority complex and the shrink says, ‘You don’t have an inferiority complex; you’re just inferior.’” Sometimes the truth hurts.

9:33—Pittsburgh—Thanks to unlikely hero Anton Volchenkov, Ottawa takes a second game in Pittsburgh to assume a commanding 3-1 series lead. A great year for the Pens though, who entered the season expecting this to be their last in the Steel City.

9:39—New York—The Rangers’ seventh goal gives Michael Nylander a hat trick and caps off a proverbial curb stomping. Rangers lead the series 3-0.

2:31—Cincinnati—With the final horn having long-since sounded (both literally and metaphorically), I fare thee well, dearest Newswire readers, for my time here is all but up.

As hard as it may be to do, it is time for me to move on.

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed the 92nd year of our publication, and I ensure you that the 93rd will be even better.

Thanks for the memories, Xavier.

 Briefs

Doug Tifft  
Sports Editor

Women poised to hit Atlantic 10 Championship hard

The Xavier University women’s tennis team will be the fifth seeded team in the 2007 Atlantic Conference Championship. The championship will be held April 20-22 at the Club 4 in Monroeville, Pa. Xavier is scheduled to play the Bonnies of St. Bonaventure University in the first round.

The women tennis players have won nine of their last 12 matches, and are 14-6 overall on the season. Their Atlantic 10 conference record is an impressive 5-1.
The Muskies are led by sophomore Kara Courtney. Her regular season mark of 17-2 in singles play is best on the team, as is her 16-3 record in doubles play.

enior Jackie Vilines will also be an important part of Xavier’s potential run through the tournament. She is regularly paired with Courtney in doubles and is the No. 1 singles player on roster with a record of 8-12 against the opponent’s best.

In addition to Vilines and Courtney, the Musketeers will be leaning heavily on freshmen Kaitlyn Zinn and Jill Ducro who are 15-4 and 11-8, respectively. Also, sophomore Jeanette Feider and senior Alicia Papa sport winning records for Xavier and will be counted on to win matches during the A-10 championships.
This would be the first title for the women’s tennis team in 11 years.

Track team tames tempest, turns in tepid times

The men’s and women’s outdoor track teams recorded notable finishes on Saturday at the Boston-Moon Classic in Nashville, Tenn. Despite uncooperative weather and only competing in half of the events, the women’s team placed eighth out of 13 teams. The men’s team placed sixth out of six teams.

Two school records fell as freshman Kate Phillips and Dani Meiners had impressive days. Phillips achieved her personal-best and school record time of 1:01.06 in the 400-meter run while Meiners placed first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, turning in a time of 11:32.11 and breaking her own school record in the process.

But the women weren’t the only Xavier representatives breaking records. The men’s team broke three records, led by Clinton Womack. The sophomore ran the best 800-meters of his life, breaking the school record with a time of 1:56.10. Freshman Derek LeBlanc ran the 100-meter dash in a school-record time of 11.64. In the high jump, freshman John Schultz finished third with a height of 1.80 m., also eclipsing a former Xavier record.

The Musketeer track teams will run in two meets next weekend. They will participate in the Eastern Kentucky Invitational on Friday, April 20 and the All-Ohio Championships on Saturday, April 21.