Scorecard

College Beanball Shocker
A Purpose Pitch

As he warmed up to work the top of the first inning of an April 23 game, Wichita State pitcher Ben Christensen threw a ball at Evansville lead-off man Anthony Molina while Molina was still about 30 feet from the plate. The ball hit Molina in his left eye, fracturing the socket in three places and leaving his baseball future in doubt.

Christensen, a junior fireballer for the nationally ranked Shockers, had a chilling explanation. He said he thought Molina was trying to time his pitches. So Christensen threw at him—a tactic he says pitching coach Brent Kemnitz taught the team's hurlers. According to The Wichita Eagle, Kemnitz viewed the matter as a routine part of the game. "If the on-deck hitter is standing too close to home plate, you brush him back," he told the paper.

Molina, who wasn't looking at Christensen when the ball was thrown, was rushed to Wichita's Wesley Medical Center, where he received 23 stitches to close a one-inch gash. He filed assault charges against the pitcher. On April 30 the Missouri Valley Conference suspended Christensen and Kemnitz for the rest of the season. Christensen was also suspended from postseason play. He appealed the suspension, but last Friday the conference's executive committee upheld it, effectively ending his college career. Christensen has a 21-1 career record and is expected to be a first-or second-round pick in next month's major league draft.

His future is brighter than Molina's. The junior catcher had hoped to take part in Friday's appeal hearing but instead he was in Iowa City, where doctors examined his damaged eye. After four days during which his eye was swollen shut, Molina has regained some vision. "But there are still a lot of ifs," he says. If five different eyedrops and a daily pill fail to lower the pressure in his eye, Molina will need laser surgery. His doctors have told him to avoid strenuous activities and warned that even a strong sneeze or cough could be dangerous. "All I can do is watch TV," he says, noting that even that isn't easy with the vision in his left eye reduced from 20/10 before the beaning to 20/160.

One echo of the incident might survive as the dumb quote of the year. "Nobody intentionally hit someone else," said Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson, who went on to say of losing his star pitcher, "Hey, we're the ones who got hurt out of the deal."

Sydney Olympic Stink
Battler Headed For a Wipeout

Phil Coles broke down and wept last week while defending himself from a furious campaign waged against him in the Australian media. Coles, 67, one of two Australian IOC members, is under fire for allegedly helping Atlanta beat out Melbourne for the 1996 Summer Games. He's also being asked about dossiers he helped prepare on fellow IOC members. On Monday, Australia's sports minister, Jackie Kelly, called for Coles to step down. JUST WALK AWAY, PHIL read a recent headline in the Sydney Morning Herald. As of Monday night, though, Coles was standing firm, leaving organizers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics to wonder how they'll calm sponsors' nerves and raise the $106 million more they need to stage the Games.

Coles's woes began in February when he was accused of accepting $40,000 in clothing and lodging during four visits to Salt Lake City between 1993 and '98. He denied any wrongdoing, but the IOC issued what it called "the most serious of warnings" and threatened that further trouble could get him expelled.

In March, Coles denied receiving diamond jewelry worth $6,700 from a lobbyist for Athens's 1996 bid committee. His former wife, Georgina, however, contradicted him, and photos in Aussie newspapers showed her wearing what appeared to be the baubles. Then came last week's claims that Coles and an associate had drawn up crib sheets on IOC members' tastes (a Japanese delegate loved shoes, for example, and his wife fancied opals) to help Sydney's bid for the 2000 Games. Those crib sheets somehow made their way to Utah. (Coles denies giving such information to Salt Lake City bidders.) Backers of Melbourne's losing bid for the '96 Summer Games have also cast a skeptical eye on the 44 phone calls Coles made to Atlanta before that city was awarded the '96 Games and the letter discovered last week in which Atlanta Olympic organizers thanked him "for your time and your advice." (Other IOC members also received thank-you notes from Atlanta.)