By wpengine November 9, 2001
The Wu-Tang Clan once said that “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.” It’s not often that I disagree with GZA, RZA, ODB, Raekwon, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and U-God. But on the subject of the recently announced major league baseball contraction, that’s just what I’m going to have to do. Ever since Commissioner Bud Selig declared Tuesday that he would wield the axe on two teams, money has been oft mentioned as the root behind his decision. The four teams considered for elimination –Montreal, Minnesota, Florida and Tampa Bay — don’t generate enough revenues, the pundits said. They don’t fill the seats and they’re too small-market, they said. There would be more TV money rights to spread around, they said. Contraction is a necessary evil, and it had to occur sooner or later. But it’s not happening because of money squabbles. No, siree, what’s wrong is that baseball’s fat and it needs to go on a diet. Overexpansion has saturated every major American professional sport (see the Columbus Blue Jackets and the we-were-in-Vancouver-but now-we’re in Memphis-but-we-still-have-the-same-name-for-some-reason Grizzlies for further evidence). MLB has just been the first victim to defend itself. When baseball expanded to 30 teams in 1997 by giving clubs to Arizona and Tampa Bay, it did itself a major disservice. Obviously, Arizona won the World Series last weekend. But that’s not because the Diamondbacks made adroit decisions in the expansion draft. They beat the Yankees because owner Jerry Colangelo shelled out a lot of dough to bankroll a star-studded roster. What expansion did was inject 50 more players into the majors, 50 players that probably weren’t really deserving of that honor, 50 players who probably would still be wasting away in AAA ball if the league was still at 28 teams. Expansion made it more realistic that the fifth pitcher in a team’s starting rotation or its eighth hitter in the lineup would be of less quality. It wasn’t a juiced ball that cause home runs to sky rocket in the 1990s —
By wpengine November 9, 2001
This weekend, the women’s volleyball team will look to avenge two losses that started its four-match slide out of first place in the league. Currently tied for fourth place, Cornell (13-9, 5-5 Ivy) will face Yale (9-10, 3-7) and Brown (13-9, 8-2) tonight and tomorrow. Both opponents are coming off 2-0 weekends, but while the Bears are only a game out of first place, Yale is sixth and looking to continue to improve its record. Whatever momentum drove the Red to its 5-1 start in the conference has disappeared in its last four losing efforts. Sparking the downturn was its match with Brown two weekends ago that knocked it out of sole possession of the top spot. Cornell fell in three straight games, 30-23, 30-23, and 30-16, and hit only .075 in the match. Statistically, Brown and Cornell widely differed in digs only. The Red tallied 34, while the Bears notched 54, a difference that significantly lead to the outcome. Following this shut-out, the Red faced Yale, at that time the worst team in the league with an 0-7 mark, and seemed primed to retain its position in the standings. Undoubtedly shaken from the previous night’s defeat, Cornell committed 38 errors to the Bulldogs’ 20, which gave them a .000 percentage to the victor’s .231. Yale was deserving of credit in the win as it combined for an amazing 19 team blocks on the night. Tonight, the Red will host Yale in a prime opportunity for the squad to regain confidence. The Bulldogs are coming off a three-game win streak, starting with the victory over Cornell, followed by a 3-0 victory over Dartmouth (7-13, 2-8) and a 3-1 success over Harvard (9-11, 2-8). Against the Big Green, Yale took the match with razor thin advantages in each of the three games with scores of 36-34, 30-23, and 30-28. The Bulldogs dove for an impressive 75 digs, but committed 24 errors for a .147 hitting mark. In the win over Harvard, Yale hit .243 with 85 digs to come out ahead after four games with scores of 30-28, 29-31, 30-27 and 30-22. In the fourth round, Yale netted a solid .375 hitting percentage with only four errors. Junior outside hitter Dana Loberg has performed impressively all season, and last weekend contributed 21 digs and 12 kills against Dartmouth and 23 against Harvard. She is eighth in the league with averaging 3.19 digs per game. Freshman outside hitter Kelly McAlerney was named the rookie of the week for her consistent play. After notching 11 kills and five digs against the Big Green, McAlerney tallied 10 digs and a team-high 17 kills against the Crimson. On Saturday afternoon, the Bears will march onto the East Hill. Like the Bulldogs, Brown is coming off a successful weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth, recording 3-0 and 3-1 victories, respectively. Against the Crimson, the Bears jumped out early, winning the first game by a decisive score of 30-13 on a .581 hitting mark, followed by scores of 30-29 and 30-21 to close out the match. Notably, no Brown player had a negative hitting percentage and the team finished with an overpowering .394 hitting mark. The following afternoon, Brown disposed of Dartmouth in a similar fashion. After taking the first game, but dropping the next, the Bears came roaring back in the last two to take the game with scores of 30-27, 22-30, 30-26, and 30-12. In the two matches, the Bears had contributions from numerous players. Junior outside hitter Ceneca Calvert was named the Ivy player of the week after posting hitting percentages of .421 and .261 against Harvard and Dartmouth, respectively. She totaled 13 digs and eight kills against the Crimson, and 21 digs and 16 kills against the Big Green. Against Harvard, junior middle blocker Jessie Cooper posted 15 kills and three blocks on .429 hitting, then added 14 kills and three blocks against Dartmouth. Cooper is eighth in the league with a .270 hitting percentage and sixth in the league averaging 3.89 kills per game. If the Red is disappointed about its performance this season, it can regain some respect with a win against Brown, as that would knock the Bears one game further out of reach of the Ivy title. Considering that, after this weekend, only two Ivy matches remain, a loss to the Red could ruin the Bears hopes of a championship. A win against Yale would slow the Bulldogs attempt at overtaking the Red in the standings. Tonight’s match with Yale will be held at 7 p.m., while tomorrow’s contest with Brown will be at 4 p.m. Both battles will take place in Newman Arena. Archived article by Katherine Granish