Newspapers / St. Andrews University Student … / March 1, 1992, edition 1 / Page 11
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March 1992 The Lance * St. Andrews Presbyterian College Sports Page 1 1 Little Knights David Benzaquen Staff Writer The Little Knights, a new Little League baseball team, will take the field this spring, thanks to the St. Andrews baseball team's Fun Nights and the Laur- inburg Optimist Club. The St. Andrews baseball team set up Fun Nights for kids in the communityT held in the gym two Fridays of ev ery month during the season. They charge $ 10 per child and for larger families, after the first child every other one is half-price. During these "Fun Nights" the baseball players play basketball and soccer with the kids and bring in Nintendo games for them. The players also set up other ... 1o tnc- J)nK activities to entertain the kids, such as swimming, and a pizza party at ten o'clock each night. The baseball players say they get a real kick out of babysitting a few nights. "It gives us a chance to act like kids again," said Josh Miller. He al so said that it's help ing them practice being fathers. "The baseball team is successfully giv ing something back to the community by giv ing the parents some free time," he said. The baseball team uses the money for trips away and to enable them to stay on campus spring break to play scheduled games. The team had $300 left over from their past trip to Florida and donated it to theX^urin- burg Optimist Club. The* Optimists used the money to sponsor the new little league team. LEMAY'S GOING PRO GARY BRAZZELL STHFF UfRITER As Bob LeMay leaned back on the hard, wooden bleachers to watch his old St. An drews teammates play their second home game of the season against Catawba, he appeared too placid to be a man living a dream. But when he slid his newly re-laced baseball glove on his right hand and pounded his fist into it, a determined expres sion and a glaze over his eyes betrayed his cool de meanor. The same deter mination mixed with dreaminess showed in the faces of the blue-sleeved St. Andrews players on the field. Most of them want to achieve what LeMay accomplished on June 6, 1991 when he was asked to accept a draft from the Detroit Tigers. Last season LeMay had his first taste of pro ball when he played on Detroit's short-season, A-ball team, the bottom tier of the Tigers' farm system. His minor- league Niagara Falls Rapids Teamplaced third in the New York Penn Lake League. He pitched 30 innings and finished with a 2.88 ERA. The unshaven 22-year-old broke his long trek from Schaumburg, IL. to the Tigers 1992 spring train ing site in Horida by stop ping at St. Andrews March 3 and 4''- his first visit since he left the col lege in 199 L "I miss the *■ people, the teachei-s ind ‘ ' the team a lot,'’ he smd; While on campus LeMay pitched with ftiend Gary Wood and "lifted" in the Physical Education Building's training room for condi-' “■ tiofling before the six- week practice season /j ^ ^ begitis on'March 6. Looking back on baseball at St. Andrews, LeMay said: "I really re spect Gary (Coach Gary Swanson) for what he has done for the team and for me. Playing for Swanny really helped me be cause he taught me a lot of discipline.... Last year I called Gary 'coach' or 'sir'." LeMay said profes sional baseball is "just like college ball" under Swanson. However he said the intense attitudes of the players all trying to earn their way to the major league makes adif- ference. "We're all try ing to get noticed," he said. "It's a job, but it's a person's dream, too. You get paid to do something you love to do, some thing that boys just start ing out dream of doing. Not too many people can say that." In the 1992 sea-son LeMay will play long- season A-ball with the Fayetteville Generals. The move from short to long season represents a small promotion in a climb which will have to take him from A-ball through AA and AAA- ball before he reaches the major-league level. The forward-looking lefty keeps his head out of the clouds by setting a three-year limit on the time he will allow him self to play minor-league ball without significant promotion. He explained that he plans to continue his education at c*ne of the many colleges in Illi nois if he does not play in the major leagues. His contingency plan con- ' sistsofeamihgamaster^s degree in accounting • with further studies in ^law before he is 31. Some say thatprofes- ^'sional baseball players are overgrown boysplay- ing a boy' game. Bob '■ LeMay is obviously not ■-' "^that. He is a m£6i with his feet'firmly plants on i^alistic ground but with a rare opportunity^o bye a boy's dream. CRNRDIRN BOV DOES lUELL GARY BRAZZELL STAFF WRITER Pitching for Team Canada last summer in the 1991 Pan-American Tournament to qualify for the Olympic games in Barcelona has changed neither Dan Chlebus' team-first attitude nor his desire to work hard and improve. Only three days be fore his first home game against Salem, St. An drews Knights pitcher Chlebus went straight from practice to dinner at Belk and finally to Winston-Salem Hall. He and teammates Lee Gogol, Jeff Markosky, Dean Nowe and Brad Pederson sat in Chlebus' room playing Super Mario Brothers and wait ing for their turns in the shower. Burny Beckman, head scout for Canada, hon ored Dan Chlebus for the second time last summer by making him one of only forty invited to try out for Canada's Olym pic baseball team. In 1990, Canada let him go in the final cut. "This time around I knew what was expected of me and went in with a tougher mental outlook...! wasn't going to be cut," he said to Dan Bellerose of Ontario's The Sault Star. In 1991 he earned the privilege to relief pitch for Team Canada in ex hibition tournaments in Tennessee and Holland and to play in the 15-day Pan-American Tourna ment in Havana, Cuba. Tfie first four teams from that tournament go on to play in the Olympic Games iii Barcelona, -Spain. The first four teams were .Cuba, the United States, the Do-- minican Republic and Puerto Rico. Team^ Canada placed seventh out of eleven teams. Nevertheless, the boyish Canadian from Windsor, Ontario appre ciated his summer expe rience. "Uppy (John Upham, Team Canada's pitching coach) moti vated me and really helped me out. He found my weaknesses, and I learned a lot," he said. Chlebus mentioned bad food, great beaches, and an all-out brawl with Team Mexico in Havana as other noteworthy as pects of his tour. The 21-year-old slinger expressed sur prise when told that he is only seven saves away from breaking the 13- year-old National Asso ciation of Intercollegiate Athletes record for saves. Fred Morrone of Saint Xavier holds the current record of 18. Pitchers are credited with saves when they pitch for one to three of the last innings and do not allow the opposing team to overcome a pre existing lead of three or less. The six-foot-seven junior stopped to imag ine how his record might stand if he had not been injured his freshman year. However, Chlebus has not kept track of his rapid gain on Morrone's record. He wants to play more middle reliever even though doing so will hurt his chances to break and hold the NAIA saves record. Showing his strong team-first attitude, the 230-pound Knight said: "The saves record is not my concern right now. My concern is be ing able to hold the 6p- ‘ position. I'hope'to do a lot of middle reliever and closing this year. I’d rather have'rtiore of a presence on the team."
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