TCU Women finish in Top 25 for first time in history

The TCU Lady Frogs accomplished another one of their season’s goals by finishing the 2001-02 campaign rated in the nation’s Top 25.

TCU held onto the No. 25 position in the year-end USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll to close the season nationally ranked for the first time in school history.

“One of the goals that we set before the season was to finish the year ranked in the Top 25,” Head Coach Jeff Mittie said. “We’re happy that we have achieved that goal, and hopefully it will give us some momentum heading into next year.”

TCU finished the campaign with a 24-7 record, which was the second-highest win total in school history and the best winning percentage in the program’s annals (.774).

The Lady Frogs also advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, claimed their second consecutive conference championship and have now posted back-to-back 20-win seasons. After winning the Conference USA regular season title with a 12-2 record in their first season in the league, the Lady Frogs defeated Big Ten Tournament champion Indiana 55-45 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to halt the Hoosiers six-game winning streak.

Eighth-seeded TCU’s season came to an end when top-seeded Duke defeated the Frogs by a 76-66 count on the Blue Devils’ home court. Duke won its three other games in the tournament by an average of 24 points per game en route to a Final Four appearance.

Barry Bonds starts season off on homer record pace

LOS ANGELES (AP) — At this rate, Barry Bonds will break his own home-run record this year.

Bonds homered twice and drove in five runs Tuesday to lead the San Francisco Giants to a season-opening 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After hitting 73 homers last year to topple the record set by Mark McGwire in 1998, Bonds hit a two-out, three-run shot off Kevin Brown on his second swing of the season, a drive that capped a five-run second inning.

Bonds had an RBI single off Brown in the fourth, then sent a 1-1 pitch from Omar Daal just inside the right-field foul pole in seventh, becoming the 10th player to reach the loge level at Dodger Stadium.

The home runs gave Bonds five on Opening Day and 569 overall, moving four behind Harmon.

Killebrew, who ranks sixth on baseball's career list. Bonds has 57 multihomer games, including 10 last season, and is fifth in the category. He became the 25th player to homer twice on Opening Day.

Bonds, who popped to second on Brown’s first pitch in the opening inning, took a called strike before hitting an 0-1 pitch into the left-field stands in the second.

Bonds, who came out of the game after hitting his second homer, ended last season by hitting his final three against the Dodgers at Pacific Bell Park.

Commissioner: Forbes’ report of profit is ‘fiction’

SEATTLE (AP) — Commissioner Bud Selig criticized a Forbes magazine report that major league teams had an operating profit of $75 million last season — a marked difference from the $232 million in operating losses that he detailed to Congress in December.

The magazine reported in its April 15 issue that 20 of the 30 teams were profitable last season — more than double what Selig said.

“There is no way. Those numbers are fiction, they are pure fiction,” Selig said of the magazine’s statistics.

Forbes senior editor Mike Ozanian said Tuesday he stands by the report.
In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in December, the commissioner said the industry had $232 million in operating losses last year, and only nine teams had an operating profit.

Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president of labor relations, discussed baseball's finances with the magazine, Selig said Monday.

“I don’t give any validity to it,” Selig said of the Forbes report. “It’s so disappointingly wrong, and they knew it. I think it's a very sad day for journalism in America when somebody knowingly writes something that is not only not true but has been told it is not true.”

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002