Man convicted of
assaulting Yankee
pitcher Wells
by Karen Freifeld
and Graham Rayman
Newsday
A jury convicted a man Thursday
night of assaulting David Wells in a
Manhattan diner, despite testimony
that the Yankees pitcher was drunk
and made the first physical contact
in the confrontation.
Rocco Graziosa, 27, a bartender,
faces up to 1 year in jail for knock
ing out two of Wells' teeth with one
punch in the Sept. 7 altercation at
Gracie's Diner on the Upper East
Side. Sentencing before Criminal
Court Judge Robert Stolz is sched
uled for Jan. 15.
Jurors, who deliberated less than
three hours, said Graziosa had other
options even after Wells, 39, placed
a hand on his shoulder during a ver
bal exchange in the diner. Both men
acknowledged that they had been
drinking before the encounter
shortly before 6 a.m. that day.
"Clearly, not the only option was
to hit him in the face," said juror
Paul Jacobsen, 33, a salesman. "I
have a hard time understanding,
does that warrant a punch to the
face?"
Gaetano D'Angelo, Graziosa's
uncle, reacted with shock at the ver
dict. "You call that justice? I don't,"
he said
Jurors did not buy the defense's
contention that Graziosa, who is 5-
foot-6 and 140 pounds, was intimi
dated by Wells, who is 6-foot-4, 250
PENNS\Ie
Behrend Basketball IMO.
Women's Basketball Roster 2002-2003
No. Name
G
10 Danielle Bemis
12 Bambi Lewis
14 Nicole Pacinelli
5'3 Fr Erie/Mercyhurst Prep
15 I Kristie Connelly G 5'6 Fr i Pittsburgh/North Hills
20 Amanda Mauser j G 5'7 Sr I Canonsburg/Canon McMillan
1 21 Carly Cochran G s'B Jr
Amber Krumpe F s'll So Ene/Mercyhurst Prep
G 55 So I Johnsonburg/Johnsonburg
Norine Scida
24 Danielle Freeburg 1G 57
32 1 Jennifer Yaworsky I G
33 Amanda Butta IF 511 Fr 1 North East/North East
Angela Pellegrino F s'll Fr Warren/Warren
Erica Mozdy I G Jr I Erie/Mercyhurst Prep
Shea Truby
Head Coach: Roz Fornari
Assistant Coaches: Shannon Keller, Becky Reed & Amy Stranahan
Team Manager: Bridgette Ramdhanie
Women's home schedule
November 22
November 23
November 26
November 30
December 1
December 4
December 7
December 10
December 14
January 7
January 9
January 11
January 13
January 15
January 18
January 25
January 29
February 1
February 2
pounds
"We agree with the defense he put
his hand on his shoulder, but we
didn't feel there was enough evi
dence he was so threatened," said
Jacobsen, who said after the verdict
he is a Yankees fan. "We just don't
feel a punch to the face was war
ranted. ... I would have said, 'Take
your hand off me. I don't want any
trouble, pal."
Juror Sonia Dunfield suggested
that Wells' apparent intoxication,
about which two police officers tes
tified, made him less threatening.
"He was also drunk, so he wasn't
overpowering," she said.
Wells was not present for the ver
dict. Mel Sachs, who represents
Wells and the Yankees, said, "He
acted as a true Yankee. Justice was
served in the courtroom."
The jury found Graziosa innocent
of harassment and a weapons pos
session charge. He had been accused
of waving a butter knife at the
pitcher after knocking him down.
Wells testified earlier this week
that Graziosa said, "Why don't you
order a - - cheeseburger, you fat
?" after the pitcher ordered an egg
white omelet and waffles. Graziosa
went on to insult Wells and his
mother, Wells said.
Graziosa's attorney, Harry
Mazurek, told jurors that Wells was
"stinking drunk." He asserted Wells
grabbed Graziosa first, and the
smaller man reacted in self-defense.
Position Height Year Hometown/High School
57 Jr 1 Corry/Corry
G 55 So I Butler/Butler
Fr Waterford/Fort Leßoeuf
Fr Ambridge/Ambridge Area
F 510 Fr
Opponent
Behrend Tournament
Westminster vs. Alfred
Behrend vs. RIT
Behrend Tournament
Consolation Game
Championship Game
Bethany
Thomas More Tournament
Thomas More Tournament
@ W&J
Pitt-Bradford
@ Fredonia
@ Penn State Altoona
@ Case Western Reserve
@ Hiram
Thiel
WSJ
@ Lake Erie
@ Frostburg
La Roche
Pitt-Greensburg
Penn State Altoona
Buffalo State
Erie/McDowell
Oakmont/Riverview
0 p.m
8 p.m
1 p.m.
3 p.m.
7 p.m.
1:00/3:00 p.m
1:00/3:00 p.m
7 p.m.
6 p.m
7 p.m.
2 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
7 p.m
6 p.m.
7 p.m.
6 p.m.
2 p.m.
6 p.m.
6 p.m.
2 p.m.
2 p.m.
Friday, November 22, 2002
For Kwame Brown, a great
leap forward
It was a nice little curve of a story line: Kid comes to team,
gets blasted, learns the error of his ways and trades confusion
and fast food for discipline and a vegetable plate. By the next
season, kid has become tougher, coach has become looser and
everyone's happier.
Except the real world isn't that tidy. In Kwame Brown's case,
the learning curve's been a learning jumble, with downs for ev
ery up and ups for every down. . „
"Sometimes it works, sometimes I'm still learning," says
Brown. His rookie year with the Washington Wizards was a
muddled swamp of disappointing play and detrimental habits, of
loud bursts of coaching and quiet moments of doubt. Now in his
second season, the terrain of his experience is much more firm
but no more level.
"I knew there were going to be peaks and valleys." says Coach
Doug Collins, and although he's being extra careful this year not
to be too hard on Brown, he makes it clear that along with Brown's
increased production, he wouldn't mind more consistency. "There
just has to be some nice spot in between where we can say. 'This
is what we know he can bring us each night.' Right now we don't
have that."
What they have is a vastly improved player with steady good
intentions and jagged execution, a player of outrageous talent
who can play lights-out basketball for the first two games of the
season and then sag for the next six, who can record two points
and three rebounds in one game and then 15 points and II re
bounds in the next, as Brown did last week against Utah and
Miami, respectively.
They have a player who desperately wants to be independent
but knows he still needs instruction, who's 20 years old and try
ing to learn on the job what most of the others around him learned
in college.
"A lot of guys played big minutes their first year, hut I didn't."
Brown says, "and I think the coaches have to he patient with me
and I have to he patient with myself, learning how to play big
minutes one night and then come back the next night and per
form. It's a lot."
Last year, much was made of Brown's off-court habits. During
the preseason, a New York Times columnist wrote about Brown
being mystified by not being able to get French dressing in a
fancy French restaurant, and so for the rest of the season, Brown
had to answer questions about French dressing everywhere he
went. Even food preferences that didn't become public knowl
edge until later became an issue within the Wizards' organiza-
Men's home schedule
Date
November 22
November 23
November 26
December 7
January 11
January 13
January 25
January 29
February 1
February 2
February 8
February 12
February 17
February 26
Feb. 28-Mar. 1
-03 Men's Basketball Roster
No Name
Joe Lucas
4 Tom Lulichso
i G
110 I Justin Jennings 1510 G
I 53 I F
I 11 I Rylan Marx
M. Steve Merrill
Adam Boettcher 6'B i F/C
111
6'6 [..0
r - - r
22 I JamesCurren
Cam Mascara
I 30 I David Ha irston
Casey Ponsoll 6'3 F
Jr
Doug Merski
34 Travis Butler 6'o
IJoshua Sindlinger 16'7
Jared Clough
42 I Mike Schodt
Joe Ferguson
Nick Paris
5'9
IPat Schodt I 6'o
Head Coach: Dave Niland
Assistant Coaches: Mark Murphy, Joe Spinelli & Pat Swick
Team Manager: Dan Vidal
by Rachel Nichols
The Washington Post
Opponent
Behrend Tournament
Westminster vs. Alfred
Behrend vs. RIT
Behrend Tournament
Consolation Game
Championship Game
Bethany
Pitt-Bradford
Thiel
W&J
La Roche
Pitt-Greensburg
Penn State Altoona
Buffalo State
Frostburg
Lake Erie
Grove City
AMCC Tournament
AMCC Tournament
•
Height Position Year Hometown/High School
510 I G
511 El
6'3 1 F
6'3 1 F
6'2 U
G Fr Ene/McDowell
tion. Brown didn't know how to cook, so for a while he was exist
ing on Popeye's and pizza and whatever junk food ended up in his
cupboards.
By the end of the season, there were a few healthy dishes he
became good at making, and a few more he became good at or
dering. But the real change in his home life didn't come until the
summer, when Brown reunited with a high school girlfriend,
Jocelyn Vaughn. The two are now living together in Brown's house
in Virginia.
- She's someone who I can relate to, she knows me inside out,"
says Brown. "When I come home quiet. she knows when and
how to talk to me, so that's a big deal."
Brown's still learning how to work out not just for strength but
endurance. Last week, when veteran teammate Charles Oakley
was asked whether Brown was tough enough for the NBA yet,
Oakley answered "no," a sentiment that seemed to be backed up
by Collins a day later, when he substituted Oakley for Brown to
defend Utah's Karl Malone.
"We were on our heels--they were playing volleyball on the
backboards," Collins said after the game. "1 was looking down
there going, who do I put in to play against Karl Malone that will
at least put their body on him and make it tough for him?"
Said Oakley: "I've told Kwame, when you're playing against
the best, it's going to he a task. 1 don't think his mind yet is into
diving and getting onto the floor, going after the loose balls. He
started the season out like Superman, and he doesn't have to have
that energy every night, but he does have to have energy."
Brown knows this, and the fact that he's even able to put it to
use sonic of the time marks a significant change from last season,
when he struggled to get just 15 minutes a game, averaged just
4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds and fell into the decimal points in
blocks (.5) and steals (.3). But sometimes even now, he has trouble
getting his internal engine started, and even when he does, he
often needs help figuring out which way he should direct the steer
ing. Then there's the variant of how different teams play him.
"At the beginning of the season, teams basically thought I was
going to he the same kind of guy from last year, so they were kind
of leaving me alone, - says Brown.
"Before, they were like, oh, let him catch it, he's going to turn
the hall over anyway. Now, they're saying we've got to guard this
guy in the post, so they're fronting me a lot more."
The days that Brown can make it all work, the days where last
season's struggles seem a thousand miles behind him, feel good
in a way Brown didn't even know was possible. "My whole goal
last year was to he on the floor during the fourth quarter, because
that's when you know the coaches trust you and respect you enough
to make the play happen, and I've gotten to do that."
So Edinboro/General McLane
So Canonsburg/Peters Township
Fr [Cranberry/Seneca Valley
So I Bradbrd/Bradford
Union City/Union City
FactoryvillelTunkhannock
WarrenNVarren
Charleroi/Belle Vernon
Erie/Cathed ral Prep
EdintoroiGene ral McLane
Fr Erie/Mercyhurst Prep
Spring Mills/Penns Valley
:;ey/CommodorePe;ry
N Andover/Bridgton Academy
E ne/McDowe II
SummervilleiC la non- Limestone
New Castle' Laurel
The Behrend Beacon
Fans are
definitely
unbalanced
in rivalries
by Lisa Dillman
l_ns Angeles Times
College football fans don't need an extra cup
of coffee to keep alert during rivalry week.
They are already closely monitoring televi
sion programs for hints of bias, counting the
inches in newspapers, wondering how school
X managed to get 10 more inches of copy on
Wednesday than school Z.
It can even be difficult to get universities to
agree on a team of television announcers.
Which is why the "Civil War"--Oregon vs.
Oregon State--almost didn't get on TV this year,
according to the Portland Oregonian.
Veteran announcer Barry Tompkins, who
wound up being acceptable to both sides, says
there is a fail-safe way of knowing whether he
has successfully straddled the line during a
"Civil War" broadcast.
"I always know I'm safe when I get hate
mail from both sides, which I'm sure will hap
pen this game," he told the Oregonians Rachel
Bachman.
94 and counting: Someone was bound to
puncture the good vibe surrounding Dusty
Baker's introduction as the new Cubs' man
ager at recent news gathering in Chicago.
Not surprisingly, the Cubs' 94-year World
Series drought came up. Baker, looking
startled, said: "I'm finding out all these num
bers when I got hew."
Wrote Chicago Sun-Times columnist Ron
Rapoport: — Somebody had to break the bad
news to him at some point, I guess, and Baker
did his best to turn things around by saying,
`You can't bring the past with you to the
present.—
Thumbs down: There is no such thing as
- only - an exhibition for the Kentucky men's
basketball team, as Pat Forde of the Louisville
Courier-Journal noted after Nike Elite defeated
Kentucky on Monday.
The fans registered their disapproval, boo
ing and hitting the radio call-in shows.
"Memo to Nike kingpin Phil Knight: Don't
kill the golden goose, dude," Forde wrote.
"You're jeopardizing merchandise sales when
this team of vagabonds beats your flagship
programs like UK and North Carolina.
"Not a loss that counts, of course, though
you'd have a hard time convincing UK fans of
that. Its only mid-November, and toxicity al
ready is thick around this basketball program."
Page