Major League Baseball
PHOENIX (AP) They were 43-12 with 665 strikeouts and a 2.74 earned run average – perhaps the greatest season by pitching teammates in the game’s history.
They were co-MVPs of the World Series and Sports Illustrated’s sportsmen of the year.
So what can Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling do for an encore?
More of the same, they say, or maybe better.
“I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for the last six or seven years,” Johnson said. “Curt has finally come into his own. I don’t think it’s something that can’t happen again.”
Not even Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale packed the kind of lefty-righty wallop that Johnson and Schilling threw at opposing hitters last season in leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to the World Series championship.
Yet Schilling, whose 22-6 record was a career best, says the comparison with the great Dodgers duo is premature.
“It’s tremendously flattering, but I know the history of the game,” Schilling said. “Koufax and Drysdale were teammates for an extended period of time and did it for a long period of time. If three or four years from now people are still making those comparisons, then maybe some part of that will be valid.”
Johnson and Schilling arrived this spring primed for a repeat performance.
“They’re trying to come out of the chute early,” catcher Damian Miller said. “I don’t know if they’re pushing each other or what.”
There is no doubt that they have made each other better.
“Absolutely,” Schilling said, “and he’s made me a better golfer, too.”
Both are intensely competitive, but the resemblance ends there.
“We’re extreme opposites in some instances,” Johnson said. “He’s a man of many words. Me, I just like to go out and pitch, then I go home. I’m not one who wants to hang around here and small talk with a lot of people.”
Johnson has won the National League Cy Young Award in each of his three seasons at Arizona, compiling a 57-22 record with an amazing 1,083 strikeouts.
Last season, he was 21-6 with a league-leading 2.49 ERA. His 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings is a major league record.
At 38, he has never been better but sees room for improvement. The same goes for Schilling at age 35.
“They both want to get better,” manager Bob Brenly said. “They both think there’s room for improvement. It’s hard to believe they could better what they did last year, but that’s the attitude you love to see from them.”
In the postseason, Johnson and Schilling were a combined 9-1 with a 1.17 ERA.
After losing a game to St. Louis in the division series to run his postseason losing streak to six, Johnson reeled off five consecutive victories, a major league record. He beat the New York Yankees three times in the World Series, including 1 1-3 innings in relief in Arizona’s come-from-behind victory in Game 7.
As the series triumph unfolded, and in the months afterward, Johnson’s scowl lost a bit of its edge. He appeared on the “Tonight” show, and in an appearance on Fox Sports’ “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” got off a big-time zinger when host Tom Arnold suggested he could hit a Johnson fastball.
“You’ve got a better chance of getting back with Roseanne,” Johnson said.
The Big Unit admits last season changed him.
“Yeah, I loosened up a little bit and felt like there wasn’t quite as much pressure put on me every fifth day because Curt was here and there were a lot of other great contributions,” Johnson said.
The World Series triumph has made him even more relaxed.
“A lot of the accolades we both got last year were nice, but that’s not what I play for,” Johnson said. “What I play for is to do what we did last year. Now I can feel like my career has been fulfilled in a lot of different capacities – from an individual standpoint, from a performance standpoint and from a team standpoint. We were on top of the mountain for a year.”
But is the motivation to stay on top equal to what it took to get there?
“Absolutely,” Schilling said. “I mean, why wouldn’t it be? I can’t even imagine looking at this year any differently.”
Johnson said that while in some ways it is harder to repeat because you’re everybody’s target, in other ways it should be easier.
“When you’ve been there, now you know what it takes to get there,” he said. “The kind of contribution it takes to have it be a successful season. The biggest thing I was always wondering prior to last year is what did it take for a team to get to the World Series. What do you have to have?”
Because the World Series ended in November, the winter layoff was about a month shorter than usual. Maybe that’s why both pitchers seemed to pick up where they left off in terms of control of their entire repertoire.
Schilling came to spring training buoyed by his wife’s successful battle against skin cancer. The couple is expecting their third child, and second son, in July. They are both family men. Johnson has four children.
The rest of the Arizona pitching staff was 49-57 last season, but Schilling and Johnson are hoping for more help this year.
The Diamondbacks acquired right-hander Rick Helling in the offseason. If Todd Stottlemyre is successful in his comeback from injury and Brian Anderson bounces back from an off year, the rotation should be much stronger.
But everyone knows that the Diamondbacks will go as far as the powerful arms of their two warriors will take them.
“It’s very realistic they can put up better numbers,” Miller said. “It’s not going to be easy to do, but there’s no indication they’ve lost anything. They’re both very competitive guys, and I’m sure they’re looking forward to the challenge.”
NCAA Division I Basketball
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) Missouri basketball Coach Quin Snyder thanked fans and declared “we don’t have anything to cry about” as his team basked in a rousing welcome home after Saturday’s West Regional NCAA loss to Oklahoma.
Hoarse and tired, Snyder grinned at the cheers of about 200 fans who stayed up past midnight for the team’s return to campus. “Wow, wow!” Snyder said as his players lined up behind him on a stage at the Hearnes Fieldhouse.
“They’ve expended so much energy – physically, obviously, but also emotionally,” Snyder said of the team. “I’m so proud to be associated with them.”
No players spoke during the brief rally, but several paused to high-five fans and sign autographs.
Snyder praised his team’s only senior, Clarence Gilbert. He said the Tigers and their fans “owe a special thanks” to Gilbert, whose final college game was a disappointing display of missed shots in Saturday’s 81-75 loss in San Jose, Calif.
Missouri fans were jubilant about their Tigers’ first trip to the NCAA’s round of eight since 1994.
“Yes, I was disappointed not to get a win, but I am also happy to have these young guys coming back for next season. Missouri will rule next time,” said Marit Johnson, of Ashland. She stood out in a furry Missouri hat, gold with a bold black Tiger stripe. “It’s so fashionable,” she said with a laugh at the rally.
Van Alexander, 16, a sophomore at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, said he couldn’t think of a better place to be on a late weekend night during spring break than greeting the Tigers in person.
“Just wait, they are going to play some fine ball next season and I’ll be right there cheering them on,” Alexander said.
Despite Missouri’s loss, there were plenty of toasts and cheers in bars surrounding the Columbia campus.
“This Missouri team is making history and will make more history,” said Steve Roth, 22, of Jefferson City, who watched the game on a wall of televisions at Spanky’s night club.
His buddy, David Love, 23, of Jefferson City, said the Tigers’ season “helped end a drought in a way, since we haven’t had anything at the large college level that has been spectacular in a while.”
Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Joe Walljasper wrote in Sunday’s editions that there was “no shame losing to Oklahoma. It was just time for the ride to end.” He called Missouri “a team redeemed.”
Missouri’s athletic director, Mike Alden, said the national attention that came to the Tigers during the NCAA tournament will raise the profile of the entire campus. He held up an inch-thick sheaf of photocopied newspaper stories from recent days, many of which mentioned Missouri’s plans for a new $75 million arena for basketball.
The Columbia campus chancellor, Richard Wallace, has likened the new arena to the “front porch” of the institution; visitors checking out the porch will be welcomed to take a closer look, he says.
“What it all shows is that it’s the greatest-by-far advertising vehicle for the whole university,” Alden said.
National Basketball Association
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Sacramento Kings center and former University of Michigan standout Chris Webber says he’s irritated with a legal dispute dating back to his college days.
Prosecutors allege that Webber received payments of about $280,000 over a five-year period from a former Michigan basketball booster.
A federal court on Tuesday indicted Ed Martin, a retired Ford Motor Co. electrician, for making $600,000 in loans to Webber and three other players.
Webber told the Sacramento Bee he’s frustrated by continued questions from the media about the matter, and was defiant at times during an interview after a Saturday team practice.
“That’s something people have been fishing and trying to get quotes on for 10 years,” Webber said. “It’s 10 years ago, you know what I mean? I’ve said too much by even having a quote on it. It’s nothing.”
“I’ve done everything I’ve had to do. I’ve gone to court and we talked about it and everything is done,” he said. “So, why should I talk about it? To give y’all something to talk about? There’s nothing else to do.”
Martin, 68, and his wife, Hilda, 72, were arrested Thursday on charges of running an illegal gambling business, conspiracy and money laundering. They pleaded innocent and were released on $10,000 bail.
Webber testified before a grand jury in Martin’s case in August of 2000.
Prosecutors allege that Webber received money from 1988 to 1993, starting during his freshman year in high school through his sophomore and final season at Michigan.
“It’s really not unfair,” Webber said of the indictment. “It’s just annoying. You live your life. You have other things to think about. I’ve got a little nephew at home. What do I care about a question about what college kids are doing? That was 10 years ago.”
College Football
FLINT, Mich. (AP) Kettering University’s football team was undefeated last year.
And the one before that.
OK, so Kettering doesn’t have a team, but that didn’t stop the Flint co-op school from selling T-shirts with the slogan “Kettering University Football, Undefeated since 1919.”
The Student Alumni Council project was a tongue-in-cheek way to raise money for the American Red Cross.
“Everybody thought it would be funny,” Michael Dobransky, president of the student group, told The Flint Journal for a story Friday. “All of the students loved it. People were buying them for their friends and relatives.”
With the exception of the name and the year the school was founded, 1919, the T-shirt’s slogan makes an end run around the truth.
The donation to the American Red Cross was $2,000.
Kettering does have a hockey team and a lacrosse team. Neither is undefeated.