FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2000 America’s past time America’s pastime is one of fun, skill, and food. It is such a weird combination, but it’s known the ballparks are filled with joyous faces munching on a hot dog and cheering on their favorite players. Of course, one of the other attrac tions at the ballpark has always been the organ. Would baseball be the same without the famous “charge” cheer or, for Pirate fans, the “let’s go Bucs” chant? I highly doubt that the same luster would fall over the fan-filled stadium. The organ seems to be fleeing the stadiums at a rapid rate as the highly priced players begin to choose their own theme music. Think about this: most organ players last many, many years at their respective stadiums for cre ativity and ability. Theirjobisto find something about the next bat ter that can be incorporated into a song over the public announce ment speakers. During the years of many Pirate division titles, their veteran organist, whose name es capes me at the moment, found a new way to make Andy Van Slyke exciting every time he came to the plate. Now the theme music has be come something to spark the player instead of exciting the crowd. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the major league play ers good enough to come up to the _ ' .iv-^rv. I ~ " ' ' v \ Behrend Scores There are no scores this week due to no action. Check out the Herb Lauffer Memorial Soccer tourna ment this weekend and check back next week for all the results. Major League Baseball (As of 8/30) American League East Team W L GB New York 73 55 - Boston 69 60 4.5 Toronto 69 62 5.5 Baltimore 59 72 15.5 Tampa Bay 57 74 17.5 American League Central Team Chicago Cleveland 69 59 6.5 Detroit 65 65 11.5 Kansas City 61 70 16 Minnesota 59 73 18.5 American League West Team Seattle 71 60 - Oakland 69 61 15 Anaheim 67 64 4 Texas 58 73 13 American League Wild Card Team W L GB Cleveland 69 59 - Boston 69 6 .5 Oakland 69 61 1 Toronto 69 62 1.5 Anaheim 67 64 3.5 Detroit 65 65 5 National League East Atlanta 78 54 - New York 78 54 - Florida 64 67 13.5 Philadelphia 56 75 21.5 Montreal 55 74 21.5 plate in a pressure situation with out having to get ready by hear ing fifteen seconds of their favor ite song? Yes, I do like some of the songs that are played. For in stance Brian Giles usually has “Kryptonite” by Three Doors Down playing over his approach to the plate. Still, all of this be comes very repetitive. Even if I do like the song or bit being played, it does not mean that it cannot get old. Jason Kendall chooses the popular “Oh You Didn’t Know...” from the Road Dogg in the World Wrestling Fed eration. This is a reference to be ing very good, which Kendall is. However, both times 1 saw the Pi rates at Three Rivers Stadium Kendall went a combined l-for-7. This was also at a time when Kendall was not accepting a deal worth sixty million dollars. Hav ing music to pump him up and thinking he is worth more than sixty million in a city never will ing to spend that much, he should have been producing day in and day out. Okay, so that may have been a bit of a tangent, but nevertheless it does deal with this new trend. There are those players that choose some very interesting selections as their entrance music, if you will. Derek Bell of the New York Mets chooses “Big Pimpin’” by Jay-Z. It is a good song, but a better choice to go out dubbin’ than to hit a Randy Johnson fastball. Just as a note, Bell has been going downhill in his production the sec ond half of the year. National League Central Team St. Louis Cincinnati Chicago Milwaukee Houston Pittsburgh National League West San Francisco Arizona Los Angeles Colorado San Diego National League Wild Card Team Atlanta 78 54 New York 78 54 - Arizona 72 59 5.5 W L GB League Leaders (as of 8/28) 77 54 American League-Batting Batting Average Garcia parra, BOS .371 Delgado, TOR Erstad, ANA W L GB Sweeney, KC Stewart, TOR Home Runs Delgado, TOR Thomas, CHI Glaus, ANA Batista, TOR Justice, CLE-NY Runs Batted In Martinez, SEA Thomas, CHI Delgado, TOR Sweeney, KC Williams, NY W L GB Stolen Bases Damon, KC DeShields, BAL R. Alomar, CLE Henderson, SEA Cairo, TB is showing less family appeal W L GB 74 58 - 66 65 7.5 56 74 17 56 75 17.5 55 77 19 53 77 20 W L GB 74 56 - 72 59 2.5 70 62 5 67 65 8 64 67 10.5 W L GB 123 120 118 116 109 I know this whole column may seem like a waste of time to read at this point, but hear me out. Think about how much this takes away from the family aspect of our pastime. How many times have you seen your father bust out in Jay-Z? My dad used to know the words to “Can I Get A...” but that is a whole different article in and of itself. You can actually bond with your family if they are play ing the old cheers that we are all used to. Still, we have somewhat of a large dilemma on our hands. Some players do not have a real song that they want played. This should just mean play the organ, right? Wrong! This is especially untrue at Camden Yards in Balti more. The promotions and public relations people decided that they would just start picking songs for the players. I can understand that they find it a new challenge to come up with a fitting song that everyone in the stands will com prehend for a certain player. Still, playing a top 40 song in today’s baseball stadiums is nothing like Charlie Sheen’s character in Ma jor League. This also seems like such a hassle to me. Do you know how much trouble it is to be able to use some of this music or these catch phrases? We have to deal with copyright laws. Once again this may seem like worthless information, but this just irks me. I would be pleased to hear your thoughts on this subject. American League—Pitching Victories Wells, TOR Pettite, NY P.Martinez, BOS Hudson, OAK Helling, TEX Earned Run Avera P.Martinez, BOS Clemens, NY Lopez, TB Helling, TEX Sirotka, CHI Saves Jones, DET Koch, TOR Lowe, BOS Rivera, NY Sasaki, SEA Strikeouts P.Martinez, BOS Mussina, BAL Colon, CLE Finley, CLE Clemens, NY Shutouts P. martinez, BOS 22 Players tied National League-Batting Batting Average Helton, COL Hammonds, COL Castillo, FLA Piazza, NY V. Guerrero Home Run? Sosa, CHI Sheffield, LA Bagwell, HOU Bonds, SF Edmonds, StL Sosa, CHI Helton, COL Bagwell, HOU Giles, PIT Griffey, CIN ///> • ■ v/>, s - f| »A :^ Stolen Bases Castillo, FLA Good win,COL-LA E. Young, CHI Womack, ARI 37 Wilson, FLA National League-Pitching Victories 1.77 3.65 3.70 3.78 3.84 Glavine, ATL Johnson, ARI Elarton, HOU Earned Run Average Johnson, ARI Brown, LA Leiter, NY Person,PHl Maddux, ATL Saves Alfonseca, FLA 36 226 168 164 Benitez, NY Hoffman, SD Nen, SF Aguilera, CHI Strikeouts Johnson, ARI Astacio, COL Brown, LA 2 Players Tied Shutouts Estes, SF 2 Hernandez, SF 2 Johnson, ARI 2 Sanchez, FLA 2 Schilling, PHI-ARI 2 ,397 .353 ,350 .347 340 Nascar Points Standings 1. Bobby Labonte 3,458 2. Dale Jarrett 3,367 3. Dale Earnhardt 3,263 4. Jeff Burton 3,238 5. Rusty Wallace 3,168 6. Tony Stewart 3,060 118 116 106 106 106 7. Ricky Rudd 8. Mark Martin 2,996 9. Ward Burton 2,984 10. Jeff Gordon 2,825 ■ \ >'oo-"' ■:*+* 17 16 15 2.41 2.71 3.08 3.19 3.20 278 186 172 170 * r . «*;> *■•/»> * * . ■« *» *x » * . „ X *,' ''*xTJ~T % \ X.-/- \ V/-a\ 2000 U.S Open (Tennis) (as of 8/26) Men’s First Round Action (ranking in parantlieses) Marat Satin (6) def. Thierry Guardiola 7-5, 6-7(5- 7). 6-4, 6-4 Alex Corretja (X) def. Paradon Sicaehaphan 7-6 (7-2), 6-0, 6-0 Andre Agassi (I) del. Alex Kim 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 Thomas Lnqvist (7) del Mariano Puerta 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 Pete Sampras (4) def. Martin Danim Yevgeny Kafelnikov (5) del Or! m S: Women's Second Round Action Venus Williams (3) def Kvetoslava Urdlickova 6-1,6-1 Arantxa Sanehez-Vicario (9) def. Sonya Jeyaseclan 6-4, 6-1 Jennifer Capriati (15) def. Henrietta Nagyova 6-2, 6-2 Monica Seles (6) def. Anne Kremer 6-3, 6-4 This year’s U.S. Open runs until September 10th in Flushing Meadows, New York. Wateh for updates in The Beacon as it gets closer to the final round. is is the progress being tde on the new baseball and 'ftbali complex being built jacent to the tennis courts id Station Road. By the pic es, it looks like there is a ig way to go, but it prom js to be better than the last tup for the fields. The lay is below. ► t t I nX x - >* ■ x "*”"•* .7'■>'«*_ «v ' ~ ; ' NL ' ■ jf' National Football This is the schedule for the opening weekend of the NFL season for 2000/2001. Sunday, September 3, 2000 1:00 PM San Francisco at Atlanta Jacksonville at Cleveland Indianapolis at Kansas City Chicago at Minnesota Tampa Bay at New Fngland Detroit at New Orleans Arizona at New York Giants Baltimore at Pittsburgh Carolina at Washington 4:15 PM Philadelphia at Dallas New York Jets at Green Bay San Diego at Oakland Seattle at Miami Tennessee at Buffalo Monday, September 4, 2000 9:00 PM Denver at St. Louis Spring Breakers! Cancan, Bahamas, Florida,& Jamaica. Call Sun Coast Vacations for a free brochure and ask how you can organize a small group and Eat, Drink, Travel Free & Earn Cash! Call 1-888-777-4642 @suncoastvacations.com Spring Break! Delux Hotels, Reliable Air, Free Food, Drinks and Parties. Cancun, Jamaica, Bahamas, Mazatlan & Florida. Travel Free and Earn Cash! Do it on the web! 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