Scott Soltis, Sports Editor Lauren Packer, Assistant Sports Editor Behrend Athletic Events Saturday Baseball vs. Penn State Altoona (DH), 1 p.m. Softball 14 Pitt-Greensburg (DH), 1 p.m. Men's Tennis vs. Pitt- Greensburg, 11 a.m. Men's Tennis vs. Waynesburg, 2 p.m Tuesday Baseball @Allegheny (S), 2 p.m Softball vs. Westminster (DH), 3 p.m Women's Water Polo @ Gannon vs. SRU, 5:15 p.m. vs. W & J, 7:45 p.m Thursday, March 27 Softball I@ Buffalo State, 3 p.m. Intramurals Schedule Soccer Men's, Women's, COED Entries due March 28 Play begins March 31 Badminton Men's, Women's, COED Entries due April 11 Play begins April 14 BEHREND SPORTS BRIEFS Baseball The Lions are 9-4 overall and have the The Lions are 1-7 overall, looking to best record amongst the AMCC. snap a five-game losing streak. Behrend is second in the AMCC for runs Becky Corbin is second in the AMCC scored. The Lions average 6.33 runs per for ERA. Corbin allows only 3.07 runs game Adam Best is second in the AMCC for Freshman Leacy Sauer went 4 for 4 in stolen bases. In 11 attempts, Best has her first collegiate start. swiped 10. Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Athlete of the Week PENNSTATE Erie An ode to sportsmanship This article is a precursor to the thesis I will complete this semester regarding the state of emergency surrounding sportsmanship in professional sports today. It is sad that winning is always the first priority over playing fair. I am guilty of feeding the fire, as I am so passionate about my teams being on top that my comments feed into fights is escalating. I was on the will to win. However, a middle school basketball there are still times, many team that had a fight erupt times, when playing fair is the during the handshakes. The right thing to do. world of sports has become Many athletes are given a k : quite hectic. general idea by their fans, Many governing coaches, and the media that A„ bodies of high school actions that are unruly athletics give out deserve attention and not Douglas Smith sportsmanship awards. much is done about them. Fights in hockey are • these awards always seem glorified, while skirmishes to go to the losing teams? in basketball stay on the news for weeks, It doesn't matter how a team wins, they especially when they involve Jeff Van will get the trophy at the end of the year, Gundy. Baseball brawls that clear the and so we better reward the losers with benches are well documented. something. The payoff doesn't seem so I actually heard statistics as to when good to me. the last fight occured between certain In research for my thesis I have ball clubs after a few incidents last year. rediscovered incidents of sexual I was at a Pirates game versus the harassment by coaches, the tragic beating 5 Reasons Wh 'm lousy at picking March Madness I. I play favorites. Every single year, I send Syracuse to the Elite Eight and every year they burn me. You would think that I would learn my lesson after years of having my bracket busted by the Orangemen that I would be realistic and send them to the Sweet Sixteen this year. Well, in my Sportslllustrated.com bracket I have them going to the Elite Eight, in my ESPN bracket, I have them going to the Final Four, and according to my predictions for CBSSportsLine.com Syracuse is going to win it all. ESPN is the poll that I actually put some time and effort into, so I went middle ground in it. The same goes for Duke. The Blue devils have been my pick to win it all almost every year I have filled out a bracket. All the hope, but few times did they deliver. This year's team is young, so I could justify only sending them to Scott SOltiS the Sweet Sixteen in the ESPN poll, where they will probably lose to Kansas. Of course, in another bracket I have them in the Final Four so that I can sleep at night and not feel as if I betrayed my team. 2. I won't pick teams I don't like. In every sport there are a few teams out there that I just can't stand, and feel guilty for picking to win. In college football they are Nebraska, Ohio State, and any team out of the state of Florida. In the pros, it's the San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Philadelphia 76ers. In college basketball they are Arizona, Stanford, and BENREND SPORTS SCENE Mitch Reckner ~, a ~,,_.. ;,,,.., ~...,.,...„."...:.,:.,., ~.,,,, Friday, March 21, 2003 Cardinals in which the bench cleared three times. The post-game interviews centered on the bench clearing incidents and not the competitiveness of the game. There used to be a time when a nice block was followed by helping the opponent up. Hockey games still have handshakes after a playoff series, but the number of Softball per game SPORT: Baseball CLASS: Junior DATE: March 24 Mitch Reckner (Brockway H 5/ Brockway) was named AMCC Athlete of the Week. Reckner led the Behrend Lions to a per fect 8-0 spring training week, batting .566 on 17 hits in 30 at-bats. Florida. I can't exactly trace the origin of my distaste for these teams, but it's there. Arizona is a one seed, Stanford a four, and Florida is a two seed in this year's tournament I have Arizona going to the Elite Eight in my main bracket, but I don't have Stanford or Florida making it out of the second round. Is this because I have some inside tips about why they're going to lose? Nope, it's because I don't like them. I would have even had Arizona lose earlier if they weren't so good. 3. I pick way too many upsets. This is hard to see when you look at my Final Four this year which is Pittsburgh (two seed), Kansas (two seed), Texas (one seed), and Syracuse (three seed). If you go back one round you can see my penchant for picking underdogs. My Elite Eight consists of two number one seeds, two number two seeds, a three, a four, a six, and an eight All told I have 18 upsets including a 14 beating a three and an eight beating a This is actually one of my more conservative years. Usually I have a two losing in the first round and two number three seeds getting bounced in the field of 64. My typical Final Four does not have a single number one seed in it and usually a four or five winning it all. However, I did indulge my crazy side a bit in my CBS bracket with an all orange final, number three seeded Syracuse beating the fourth seeded Illinois. 4. I change my picks too often. My bracket that I am Brigham Young University lost in MEN'S NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES SET the first round of the NCAA Tour- FOR THIS WEEKEND nament. The loss comes as a sigh of relief to the bracket makers. Missouri squeaked by Southern Illinois to earn the The Mormon school would have right to play Marquette on Saturday night at 8:50. had to play on a Sunday if it won that game and its next one. How- Top seed Arizona annihilated Vermont and Gonzaga ever, it is against the school's re- upset Cincinatti to create a One Vs Nine matchup on ligion to play sports on a Sunday Saturday. and so the NCAA would have had to move BYU into a differ- UConn beat BYU and Stanford knocked off San Di ent bracket for that one game and ego to set up a East Coast Vs. West Coast battle. then move them back if the won. But they didn't make it out of the Top seed in the East, Oklahoma won by nearly twenty first round. in its first round game and will square off against eight seed California on Saturday. of hockey dads, the beating of a first base coach, a 115-2 basketball game, and many other immoral events. The agenda-setting media glorifies incidents like the small scuffle that Eric Snow got into after receiving the Joe Dumars award for best sportsman in the NBA, instead of mentioning the existence of a National Sportsmanship Dday. By the way, that was March 4'h. Did you get any notice of this? I didn't think so. You can even get a free packet from the website teaching all about ethics in sports. That website is http:// www.internationalsport.com/nsd/ nsd.cfm Maybe I am ranting and I come across as a hypocrite. To an extent I probably am, but it is refreshing to see players help opposing players back up or give credit to a great performance. It is just a shame that fans, the media, and coaches emphasize winning without any concentration of sportsmanship. Teams can still win and be a sportsman. One good example of this is phenom Leßron James. He is getting media coverage as the first round draft pick in the NBA. He is in high school and has been the focus of the media for years. NATIONAL SPORTS NEWS He scored 12 runs and contributedl4 RBIs. "Mitch had a tremen dous week for the Behrend Lions," said eight-year head coach Paul Benim. "He was a rally starter. He made us go all week in spring training and be cause of his work ethic and intensity we expect The Behrend Beacon Do you think he has a small ego at all'? His success is leading him to overlook getting an education for the money, fame, and winning. How about the 115-2 basketball game I mentioned earlier? What could possibly make anyone want to run up the score this badly? College football often has coaches running up scores to improve their rank in a chance to play for the national championship. These coaches are seen as very unfair. If a team is so unevenly matched with its opposition, then maybe the other team's coach can be more fair by putting his players that usually sit on the bench in the game much more. Maybe governing hoards should make a rule that says the clock doesn't stop in lopsided victories. Something must he done to stop th , e..se horrible showings of poor sportsmanship. If you want to read more about this topic, the thesis must be completed by May 2. The communications department will hold onto the final version. It is called "Real Sportsmanship.- serious about was set for the final time late Wednesday. My picks changed at least a dozen times as Andy Katz or Dick Vitale would come on ESPN and make a few predictions. On top of this I look at all of my friends' brackets, and wonder how in the hell I could have ever thought lUPUI could knock off Kentucky. That's a bit of an extreme case, but they did influence many realistic changes. I've found that picking a bracket is just like picking answers on a multiple choice test. Your first answer is usually the right one. It's when you second guess yourself that you get into trouble. In the tournament I second, third, and fourth guess myself to the point where I don't even know who my original picks were and why I picked some of my new ones. 5. I don't watch nearly enough regular season. I usually watch some at the start of the season, see Sportscenter highlights in the middle of the season, and then watch some of the conference tournaments. I know about the marquee players, I catch the big upsets, and I closely watch how the rankings shift from week to week. All of that is fine, hut can't compare to watching the actual games. To see how teams respond under pressure is key. To be watching when a player gets hurt or fouls out and seeing how a team responds to this adversity will tell you a lot about how they will play in the tournament. Although some teams seem like a totally different group of athletes when tournament time comes around, a lot can he said for the regular season. That's how they got to the big dance. him to continue doing several more good things for our team," said head coach Paul Benim. Next up for the blue and white is a doubleheader against Penn State Altoona Page 13
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