Sports
Tuesday May 8, 2012 DailyCardinal.com
Softball
Healy looks for strong finish to season By Rex Sheild the daily cardinal
In its final conference series of the season, the Wisconsin softball team (12-8 Big Ten, 33-17 overall) will travel to Lincoln, Neb., for a three-game series against Nebraska, with the winner having the opportunity to seize sole possession of second place in the Big Ten conference standings. “We know we’re in for a battle going to Nebraska on the road, being a new foe in the Big Ten and never having traveled there,” head coach Yvette Healy said during her Monday press conference. “They’re a great program, and I think it’s no better way for us to close out the season.” The upcoming series with the Cornhuskers is pivotal for the Badgers, not only to solidify their position in the final conference standings, but also for an NCAA tournament at-large berth. As Healy pointed out, the team controls its own destiny moving forward. “The big talk is postseason. We’re on the [NCAA tournament] bubble, and we’re excited about it,” Healy said. “I think our destiny is in our own hands, and the fact we’re still having conversations of what’s next
and are we still going to be playing, that’s an exciting thing.” However, despite the outside distractions and hoopla surrounding an NCAA tournament berth, Healy stressed that the team needs to keep its focus heading into the weekend. She is confident they will do so.
“The big talk is postseason. We’re on the [NCAA tournament] bubble, and we’re excited about it.” Yvette Healy head coach Wisconsin softball
“From a focus standpoint, [the upcoming series with Nebraska is] what the team’s focusing on. It’s been fun being in the conversation about winning the Big Ten, but there’s still a lot of exciting things that can happen,” Healy said. “The team is really focused just playing great on the road at Nebraska and giving ourselves a chance to keep playing.” Since Healy took over at Wisconsin in the summer of 2010, she has brought the program to new heights. Healy took the program from a
30-win season in 2011—a 10-win improvement from the previous season—to a team with 33 wins this season already. “We’re really pleased. I think that we’re in a great position right now, and it’s something that we have to keep kind of taking a step back and enjoying, because the more you win, the more you want to win,” Healy said. “And the better the team plays, the more quickly you want it all to happen. You have to kind of put it all in perspective of it’s the group that we’ve got here, and we’re getting a lot out of them.” The current success of the program can be attributed to breakout performances by junior infielder/outfielder Whitney Massey, who leads the nation in doubles, and sophomore infielder Michelle Mueller, who boasts a .268 batting average and a .967 fielding percentage. Despite the team’s success with Healy at the helm, the second-year head coach said the program would not have made the strides it has during her tenure without the determination and work ethic of the coaching staff and student-athletes. “For us in year two, we’ve worked our butt off just coaching and trying to improve the
wil gibb /the daily cardinal
Junior infielder/outfielder Whitney Massey’s improved play is a big reason why Wisconsin is in contention for an NCAA berth. current players, and they don’t always buy in and they’re not always on board,” Healy said. “And this group: They do, and they’re excited about it. And
I think their success really is about them wanting to be great. It would be a great story if we could pull it off and make the most of it.”
The Bryce Harper era in Major League Baseball has begun Ryan Evans not that one
T
he other day, as I was perusing around the “Truth and Rumors” portion of Sports Illustrated’s website, I came across a headline that caught my eye: “Harper’s call-up may not last long.” The blurb quoted Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo as telling The Washington Post, “there could be a step sideways to take a leap forward.” As baseball fans know, Bryce Harper—the baseball superprospect once labeled by Sports Illustrated as baseball’s “chosen one” and “the most exciting prodigy since LeBron” at age 17—has finally gotten his first taste of the big leagues with the Nationals, who drafted him No. 1 overall in 2010 on the promise of a once-in-ageneration, five-tool player. Since being called up from Triple-A in late April, Harper is batting .308 (8-for-26) with five doubles, three runs batted in, only four strikeouts and an on-base percentage of .424 to already earn the No. 3 spot in the Nationals’ batting order. He’s shown off an impressive arm and solid, sometimes spectacular, defense, from his converted outfield position (he was a catcher in high school). He even stole home Sunday against the Phillies when pitcher Cole Hamels made a pick-off throw to first base, a pretty ballsy move for the 19-year-old to make for his first career stolen base. Harper, as was expected of him, has taken Major League Baseball
by storm. At an age where most kids are still toiling in their second year of college trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, Harper seems perfectly comfortable in a major league lineup facing major league pitching. I mean, yeah, the guy came in with sky-high expectations, but didn’t we think there would be at least some adjustment period? Not for Bryce Harper I guess. So my question is, at this point, why would Rizzo and the Nationals even consider the idea of ever having the kid return to the minors? Harper should be here to stay because he’s exactly what the Nationals—and baseball as a whole—needs. There are a lot of parallels between Harper and the Nationals and Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. It may be hard to remember with them in their current state as one of the premier teams in the National Hockey League, but it wasn’t too long ago that the Penguins were a fledgling franchise languishing near the bottom of the standings. Then Sidney Crosby came along with the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft. Hockey’s “chosen one,” the one Wayne Gretzky predicted would break all of his records, Crosby re-energized the Penguins’ franchise and as soon as the next season—along with the also highly touted Evgeni Malkin—helped make Pittsburgh cup contenders. Crosby quickly established himself as hockey’s premier player. He recorded four 100-point seasons in his first five seasons, won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2006-’07, and led Pittsburgh to
its first Stanley Cup since 1992 two seasons after that. If you’re a hockey fan you either love or hate Sidney Crosby. He’s either the greatest thing that has ever happened to hockey or an overrated crybaby douche who gets far more attention than he deserves. But no matter what you think of Crosby, he’s good for the game of hockey. Fans pack road arenas to watch him when the Penguins come to town, whether to cheer or boo, and national TV ratings are never better than when he’s playing. His presence makes hockey more compelling and exciting to watch, in part because of the intense fan emotions he evokes. What Sidney Crosby has done for hockey, Bryce Harper can do for baseball. You’re probably going to hate Bryce Harper, in part because of all the hype surrounding him, or because he’s going to own your team’s pitching for the next 15-20 years. It might be because he carries a cocky swagger with him each trip to the plate, or maybe it’s because of whatever the hell that hairdo he’s rocking right now is. Whatever the reason is, Harper’s role as a polarizing presence in baseball was already evident as he was being vehemently booed in his first major league game at Dodger Stadium April 28. But if you’re a Nationals fan or a fan of compelling baseball, you’re going to love Bryce Harper. He’s the type of talent and personality that people will pack ballparks around the country for— something baseball hasn’t had in a long time—and he has the ability to make Washington a contender. The Nationals are in first place
in the NL East right now, and with pieces like pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg (think of him as Malkin in this analogy) already in place, the future of baseball looks bright in the nation’s capital, and with Harper playing a role in that potential success, the sport of baseball as a whole will be better off for it. This is Ryan’s final column for The Daily Cardinal. He would like to thank all of the people who have supported him during his five semes-
ters as a sports writer and three as sports editor at the Cardinal, including his two co-editors, Mark Bennett and Matthew Kleist, as well as Nico Savidge, Parker Gabriel and the rest of the Cardinal staff during his time there. Thanks for making the bowels of Vilas Hall feel like home. What are your thoughts on Bryce Harper and the future of baseball? Any final parting words for Ryan? Let him know via e-mail at rmevans2@dailycardinal.com or hit him up on Twitter @ryanmevans.