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Show Your Sports PAGE B8 MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005 So long Seniors A Wolverine fan says goodbye to the athletes about to join the game of life What April brings April is finally here. It could be argued that April is the most rewarding month of the year. The snow finally starts to melt, the flowers are in bloom and the grass turns from grey to green. We as students, are enthralled in the last push towards finals and the end of the semester and for some of us that means the start of a four-month vacation. But for us sports fans, it also means much, much more. April means the end of perhaps the most exciting event in all of sports (March Madness) and the start of the sport that has the most passionate fans (Major League Baseball). While some of you may feel that baseball is a boring game, or that the games are too long, there are millions of fans that feel the exact opposite. Where else will you find teams that have been "lovable losers" (i.e. the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs) followed so closely that they sellout almost every game? So why do they continue to follow these teams that until~recently have not enjoyed post-season success? Most likely it is because of the little nuances that are specific to baseball. Like the fact tEat; baseball is comparable to a;chess match involving the ler and the batter facing £Jj[here is not another sport tti&fi provides such a constant sjlflggle between the two only sport that comes is the duel in the trenchfootball. l also provides us the opportunity to watch the hardest thing to do in sports; hittjng a baseball. How many of us could stand in.the batters box arid face a ,95 mph fastball, let alone even try and swing at it? 1 And how many of us would have the reflexes to even think about moving if that same pitch was flying at our heads? It is because of these "unknowns" surrounding the game of baseball that the game is so exciting. Where else do you get moments like Carlton Fisk trying to wave a homerun around the foul pole or the image of a hobbled Kirk Gibson hitting a homerun that dashed th'e"hopes of A's fans everywhere? Even though baseball is currently under scrutiny over the steroid issue and is consistently losing ground in the ratings to the NFL, NBA and JXASCAR, the fact remains that no other sport can stake a claim as our nations pastime. ,, Making baseball, whether you like it our not, the most loved sport in America. Ve^ar Ryan Sausedo ^ejnxor^, What a year you v e h a d . What care&jc-*? you v e had. What loyalty you have engendered aman^ stu. r f t d e n t s and -Pan>?. I t i s tough being the tradition-builders. I t i s easy to go to ^ome^ big university, s i t an the bench, play a little, and maybe get a chance to compete in some tournament somewhere. I t tak.es a lot} a real competitor and athlete, to come to a ^>cY\aa\ where i t isnt lilcely youII get your name, on Sports Center. You ran in bad weather under tough conditions because there was no inside track, -facility, but you d i d i t well, and comfex<z,d with some o-f the best schools in the country. You s t a y e d a-Pi&r c^ames? and signed autographs and taltced to the little kiids you had met while participating in Know Greater Heroes, and you o-ften remembered them by name. You d i d well in school; ^ome, o-f you made^ the deans list, others will walk, away with degrees and readily admit that, sports notwithstanding, education was the Noelle Plkus-Paee Kyle Brlggs Amanda Olsen Allna Wallauer Nlchole Averett Catherine Keeker Michael Vlck Kylle Irwln Parren Cooper Mitch Morgan Keilen Tsoste r e a l m.a^?on y o u ^ame, to s?ckxock. You ^^oreA. c^oa\^>, bask.ets, shot under far, beat fex^ana\ and re*c-ord best^, hit homeruns, pitched shutouts, f%nne*d offon&nt^?, and fracX-xce-d, fracXsi&e^d, and fract i c e d some more,. ^ut this i s what you have done, that i s most important, at least -from a spfort*? fejr^fe.diA^e.-) you have made, me and my -pam%\y Wolverine -fans. And when all those octogenarian E?YU -fans crot^? the veil, (Jv^C will be "the" •*?fort*? tictcet in town. The McKay Center will be -full. The ballpark, wont have an empty seat. The soccer and tracfc teams will have beauti-ful -facilities. Teams that dont even exist right now will win ^on-^exexs&e. cY\amf%an*?hxf'p. td?W will talk, about the Cinderella team -(ram Ore~m, Utah. And you will be the ane^? to thank.. I hope to be in the crav/d that homecoming day when we wel comtz- ycxj back, and g i v e you the standing ovation you de^e^ and many times d i d n t get. Your -fellow Wolverine, ^achary ¥ra&e~r Wayne Watts Amanda Kendzlor JeffBroadhead Brady Drake Crystal Young Jed Jensen Adam frames Not Pictured: Klrslen Barney Krysta Young Sondra Anderson Markham Hyde Emily Fenwlck Jeremy Harris KelH Wllklnt |