Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 58

41) i star-tolograincoin Star-Telegram I Friday March 28 2003 UPCOMING SCHEDULE itemed OttSTO OI'KMNGDW THE RANGERS IN SURPRISE Yesterday in camp The Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 a game that underscored a tough decision on a backup catcher for manager Buck Showalter Chad Kreuter started once again pairing with Chan Ho Park He came out after Park was done pitching and No 1 catcher Einar Diaz took over Todd Greene started at first He adds offense and versatility to the bench Pitchers like him Ijehind the plate Kreuter works well with pitchers but is limited offensively Greene might have Cie edge but Showalter said he might keep both Today in camp The Rangers with two exhibition games left are done in Arizona play the San Francisco Giants at Pacific Bell Park and the Seattle Mariners on Saturday at Raley Sacramento John Thomson against the Giants and Ryan scheduled to pitch against the Mariners The Giants are planning go with Kurt Ainsworth and the Mariners are pitching Joel Piniero They tonight Field in pitches Drese is 1 to all the Vietnam experience stuck with Triple-A manager RANGERS Bobby Jones a former Rangers third-base coach and now manager at Triple-A Oklahoma says after returning from the war in Vietnam "My outlook changed completely" CAMP LIFE RITES OF SPRING The first spring in Arizona is over Top three reasons to like Surprise: 1 Great weather There was an unusual amount of rain but there is little humidity That right there wins the matchup against humidity-soaked Florida 2 Great facility Surprise Stadium and the entire Rangers complex was everything they said it would be and more a tremendous place to watch spring baseball 3 Mountains Every ballpark in the Cactus League seems to have a view of the mountains in and around Phoenix and Tucson Most spectacular view is the Santa Catalina Mountains from Tucson Electric Park Top three concerns about Surprise: 1 just say the classic watering holes have yet to be established in the greater Surprise area 2 Travel This was supposed to be better in Arizona but not not when you're in the far northwest corner of the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan area and you have to fight city traffic to get to wherever you go Plus the location of Surprise means you drive east into the glaring desert sun in the morning and west into the sun at night 3 No osprey nesting in the upper left-field light tower But thank goodness no snakes were detected Apparently still too "chilly for the slimy little critters Good VIP TOUR Air Force Sgt Nelson Benjamin was a special guest of the Rangers on Thursday and was introduced to the team before batting practice Benjamin is stationed at Luke Air Force Base just to the south of Surprise He works in a medical unit that expects to be called to duty in Iraq in the near future don't really want to go but we're going to do what we have to do" Benjamin said He is originally from Puerto Rico and was a guest of Ruben Sierra and Juan Gonzalez THE BIG LEAGUES Erasmo Ramirez a left-handed minor-league reliever pitched in his sixth exhibition game Thursday for the Rangers even though he was never officially on their spring-training roster Nothing unusual about that pitchers are often called up from the minor-league camp to help out in exhibition games when no other pitchers are available What is unusual is that he pitched in more games than Doug Davis CJ Nitkowski Chan Ho Park Jay Powell Ugueth Urbina John Thomson Ismael Valdes or Todd Van Pop-pel None of them pitched in more than five exhibition games TR Sullivan knew all the guys on all the Each day they survived was a victory Each night brought terror one point we got hit for 45 days Jones said get hit with mortars and rockets during the day then the sappers would come at night day thinking going to do it again going to do it with you all the time But you have a job to do and you just do it I feel sorry for those guys over there in Iraq I know what going Thursday during a meeting with players before batting practice manager Buck Showalter told the Rangers a little about experiences in Vietnam just wanted these guys to know who this is and remind them what he has been Showalter said Jones come back bitter but he came back changed The life and death experience in Vietnam made him appreciate his opportunities more Carrying heavy artillery shells and swinging a 12-pound sledgehammer for exercise had put 25 pounds on his frame I gone to Vietnam convinced I would never have played in the big Jones said outlook changed completely When I came back my thinking was that I was going to give it all I had to make the big leagues but if I got both arms and legs alive find a job I can do something else tell these kids today a game not life or death Give it all got I tell my players I can stand getting beat 15-0 1 stand you not running hard to first base You have to be able to look in the mirror and ask yourself I give it all I had every single Life Jones said every day of it is so precious tell these guys look at the sunrise when you get he said at the clouds in the sky They say the hell you at clouds I tell because beautiful and because Jim Reeves (817) 390-7760 revostar-telegramcom manager Bobby Jones doesn't have to watch TV to know what war is like been there By JIM REEVES STAR TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER SURPRISE Ariz The photo is more than 30 years old and if Bobby Jones knows where it is today not saying In the picture a lean wellmuscled young man sits shirt-legs atop a bunker on a name-less hill in the middle of nowhere in South Vietnam a smile on his face' but the eyes that draw attention The eyes are haunted Jones said as he drew deeply on a cigarette in a stairwell at the spring-training complex at Surprise Stadium this week what you saw Jones manager of the Triple-A Oklahoma team has felt that fear flicker again over the past week as he watches the images of war on his television set He sees the faces of the young soldiers thousands of miles away in Iraq their eyes big and round and sees himself back on that hill near the Laotian border in 1969 hard to explain if you been Jones said see all the stuff on television in this war the cameras are right there with the units but if you been there you really have no idea what war is The 14 months Jones spent at Fire Support Base Siberia changed him in a multitude of ways physically and emotionally More than three decades later he remembers them vividly Jones was a 19-year-old outfielder languishing in the Washington low minors when Uncle Sam knocked on his door in July 1969 The induction notice told him to report for his physical There was basic training at Fort Bragg NC and artillery training at Fort Sill Okla The Army gave him a 29-day leave to go home and tell his family and friends goodbye then loaded him on a plane out of Oakland for Southeast Asia BASEBALL NOTES Astros put i Reynolds on waivers FROM WIRE REPORTS After focusing the entire spring on finding a fifth starter the Houston Astros surprisingly placed veteran Shane Reynolds on waivers Thursday to make room for young pitch ers Tim Redding and Jeriome Robertson in their starting rotation Reynolds who said he had fully recovered from a season-ending back operation last summer had been effective at times during spring training despite an 0-1 record and 587 earned-run average In 23 innings he allowed nine home runs 15 earned runs and 30 hits In a telephone interview with Houston television station KRTV Reynolds said he would have approached the exhibition season differently if he thought he was pitching for a job Redding is 1-1 this spring with a 331 ERA and Robertson is 2-0 with a 237 ERA Reynolds had emergency surgery June 13 to repair a pinched nerve in his back He went 3-6 with a 486 ERA in 13 starts before then I I Baylor facing cancer New York Mets coach Don Baylor has been diagnosed with cancer in his bone marrow but hopes the chemotherapy treatments cause him to miss any games know what I have to do and I plan to do Baylor said Thursday a good tinge to get it done and get it behind me treatable so why not treat it Baylor 53 will undergo four days of oral and intravenous chemotherapy beginning Tuesday the day after the Mets open the season against former team the Chicago Cubs to treat the multiple myeloma The treatment will be repeated once every 28-to-36 days as initial therapy Around the camps Royals: Kansas City outfielder Carlos Beltran was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained right oblique muscle Beltran hit 310 with 10 runs batted in before he was injured taking a swing in batting practice Athletics: Oakland reliever Jim Mecir had a simulated game canceled because of tightness in his left quad Mecir recovering from surgery to repair a tom patellar tendon expected to pitch in the major leagues until at least early May White Sox: Chicago has placed right-hander Danny Wright on the 15-day disabled list because of an inflamed right elbow The move was retroactive to Tuesday meaning Wright could return in time to start on April 11 against Detroit Padres: Outfielders Brady Anderson and Roberto Kelly failed to make the San Diego major-league roster Kelly 38 asked for and was granted his release as the Padres broke camp Anderson 39 accepted assignment to Triple-A Portland Diamondbacks: Curt Schilling allowed two runs in five innings in his last start before the season as an Arizona split squad played a 5-5 tie with the Chicago White Sox Angels: Mickey Callaway allowed three runs in six innings in his last start before face the Rangers on Tuesday EH He spent the next 14 months less six days for in Hawaii after the first nine months on top of that hill at Firebase Siberia scared all the time hut somehow you learn to live with Jones said theory was if going to get killed then because your time to go had guys get killed with three weeks to go incountry I was one of the lucky ones I never got a scratch the whole time I was over Which is not to say he came home unscathed As an artilleryman on a 105 mm howitzer crew the constant pounding of nightly fire missions gradually cost Jones partial hearing in both ears especially the left He wears two hearing aids today Jones learned what life at Firebase Siberia would be like on his first night Viet Cong sappers carrying satchel bombs attacked the hill in force came through the wire and tried to overrun the Jones said was pitch black They carried these homemade bombs called satchel charges and when they came across the hill start throwing them They want to get you disoriented and start shooting at anything that moves come through one side throw their charges and then go out the other side we were lucky we caught beforehand in the wire We killed 14 of them With the hill virtually surrounded by the enemy in the encroaching jungle Jones said the six US howitzers on the hilltop were basically aimed straight up in the air in an effort to lob shells at the base of the hill The Viet Cong supported by regular troops would counter with mortar and rocket fire shoot a couple of rounds then send the mortars in and hit the Jones said they stopped scramble up and start firing The US troops would roll the bodies of the dead enemy back down the hill Some were picked up and carried away Others lay there for months rotting away The helicopters would come periodically to bring in fresh troops and supplies and to carry away the body bags the guys were close like being with a baseball Jones said live with these guys for 14 months There were only about 40 of us on the hill in the artillery unit Then we had infantry around us We had six guns I was on the No 2 gun but you NOTES Rangers pondering final cuts box score Rangers 7 Royals 5 Nix goes west Laynce Nix is with the Rangers in San Francisco as Buck Showalter continues to ponder the possibility of including Nix on the Opening Day roster as an extra outfielder while Kevin Mench is sidelined with a strained left oblique muscle Briefly The Rangers drew 71324 fans for 14 games as home team at Surprise Stadium They drew 44256 as lame duck tenants in Port Charlotte Fla last year Pitchers Victor Santos and Brian Shouse were returned to the minor-league camp Pitcher Rudy Seanez sidelined with a strained groin muscle will also remain in Arizona until the Rangers resolve his situation' with Colby Lewis as their fourth starter and Ryan Drese in the fifth spot although keep an eye on the waiver wire not putting on the full-court general manager John Hart said of what trying to do is take a look at younger guys But not going to walk away from a potential guy that might gives us a little The Rangers have 30 players still on the active springtraining roster They still made a decision on pitcher Doug Davis who has not made the rotation but is out of options Lewis goes fourth Colby Lewis will pitch fourth in the rotation instead of being the fifth starter an important distinction according to manager Buck Showalter A fifth starter can be skipped in the rotation He can be sent to the minors He can be used out of the bullpen on occasion The Rangers want to do that with Lewis came in here not expecting anything but everything came out Lewis said going to take the ball and prove I can stay Ryan Drese has been slotted for the fifth spot He could make two starts for Double-A Frisco in preparation for April 12 the first time the Rangers will need a fifth starter Joaquin Benoit was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma on Thursday He was 0-3 with a 686 ERA in six games including four starts this spring By Tib SULLIVAN STAR TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER SURPRISE Ariz The Rangers are done in Arizona but two games remain before the start of the regular season and the 25-man roster is not set All over baseball teams are making final cuts and the Rangers will see who is available The Houston Astros released pitcher Shane Reynolds on Friday a sign that some of the cuts might be significant The Rangers will talk about Reynolds but club officials had mixed reviews He was 3-6 with a 486 earned-run average in 13 starts last year and coming off a back injury was 0-1 with a 587 ERA this spring His fastball was about 85-86 mph The Rangers want to go DP Texas 1 LOB Kansas City 9 Texas 7 2B Espino Ibanez Lopez Gotay Johnson Bianco Sierra Gonzalez B'aiock Oar 3B- Johnson SB- Teixeira 0) RoGarcia pitched to four baiters the sixth HBP by MacDouqai (Lamb ffTjj T-Z53 A-4J8.