Former MSU quarterback Jeff Smoker signed a three-year contract with the St. Louis Rams Tuesday, the day before the Rams' training camp was set to begin. The terms of the contract were not disclosed but Smoker said that he was happy with the deal and glad to be finished with negotiations. "It's kind of a relief to have the contract aspect finally complete," Smoker said.
MSU sophomore forward Delco Rowley will get a chance to showcase his skills this summer after being selected to play on the Big Ten Men's Basketball Foreign Tour Team. The Big Ten men's tour takes place Aug.
MSU sophomore forward Delco Rowley will get a chance to showcase his skills this summer after being selected to play on the Big Ten Men's Basketball Foreign Tour Team. The Big Ten men's tour takes place Aug.
Lansing - Fans decked out in Detroit basketball memorabilia lined up at about 9 a.m. on Thursday to catch a glimpse of not one, but two prestigious men's and women's professional basketball trophies at Lansing's Capitol Rotunda. In the middle of its trophy tours, the Detroit Pistons' Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy and the Detroit Shock's WNBA Championship Trophy were on display at the state Capitol last week.
Lansing - Eleven strike-outs against the Midwest League's leading strike-out team, the Dayton Dragons, and a solid start by its own batters had the Lansing Lugnuts staring at their fourth straight win on Sunday afternoon. However, strike-outs don't mean too much when the other team starts getting hits as Dayton did in a 8-4 win Sunday afternoon over the Lugnuts. "That's the way it goes with stats, you know they are struggling but there are two or three guys in their lineup who can hit and turn the score around at any time," Lansing manager Julio Garcia said.
Lansing - With temperatures in the upper 80s and the wind blowing toward the outfield, hitters for the Lansing Lugnuts took advantage of an ideal day for swinging the bats. Unfortunately the Lansing (12-14) pitching staff suffered as a result of the conditions, losing 15-10 to the South Bend Silver Hawks. "It's one of those hard days with the wind blowing out, any ball that was up in the air had a chance to go out," Lansing manager Julio Garcia said.
The MSU hockey team lost one of its forwards to the NHL this week but added another player to the 2004 recruiting class. In the same week that forward Brock Radunske signed a three-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers to forego his senior season, the Spartans signed forward Bryan Lerg to a National Letter of Intent. Lerg, 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, spent the past two years in Ann Arbor as part of the U.S.
MSU sophomore guard Shannon Brown is one of 13 finalists for the 12-man roster of the 2004 USA Basketball World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Team. The players will continue to practice at the New Jersey Nets facility in East Rutherford, N.J., until Friday, when the team will be finalized by cutting one player. "I think we'll have a pretty good team," USA and Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson said in a written statement.
MSU Basketball player, sophomore guard Shannon Brown, made the first cut for the USA Young Men's National Team. Sixteen finalists remain, but the team will eventually consist of only 12.
MSU sophomore guard Shannon Brown will compete for a spot on the 2004 USA Basketball World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Team this weekend. "It's great, the ability to go out and compete for your country," Brown said. Brown was originally not supposed to take this trip alone, as junior guard Maurice Ager was also selected as one of 24 players under age 20 to come try out for the 12-person team.
Lansing Lunguts catcher Jake Fox almost winces when he talks about the first time that he caught one of Clay Rapada's pitches in practice. Fox has caught many pitchers in his two years with the Chicago Cubs organization, but he said the first one from Rapada will forever remain ingrained in his memory. "It was just a little slider, but when I went down to block it, the ball moved and hit me in the chest," Fox said. "He's got that trajectory that moves the ball all over the place and makes him so tough to catch, but it's also what makes him so good." Rapada, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound relief pitcher, has become well-known around the league for his tough pitches.
Where has my SportsCenter gone? I remember a SportsCenter that showed highlights about sports.
MSU All-American Steve Manz advanced to the finals in the shot put at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials this weekend as he placed eighth in the qualifying round.
Oakland A's pitcher Mark Mulder, a former star at MSU, will start for the American League in the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at 8 p.m.
Lansing - The Lugnuts were seeking to split their series with the Burlington Bees on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Oldsmobile Park. They were able to accomplish the split with a combination of good pitching and even better hitting en route to a runaway 7-0 victory over the Bees. The pitching was phenomenal for the Lugnuts (8-10). Lansing starter Ronald Bay pitched a solid game as he went seven innings, giving up five hits, no earned runs, no walks while striking out seven.
MSU women's basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie announced Al Brown as her new assistant coach this weekend. Brown will be filling the void left by Darren Bennett, who is now the head coach at Skidmore College. Brown has been coaching college basketball for 27 years and has the unique prestige of being the only person to coach in a national championship game for both a men's team (Purdue 1969) and women's team (Tennessee 1996-98 and 2000). "I was interested in coming to Michigan State because I believe (McCallie) is one of the finest coaches in the women's game," Brown said.
MSU's track and field team will send three members, as well as a former member, to the 2004 U.S.
Lansing - Wearing his usual white Lugnuts cap and a faded gray baseball T-shirt Dexter Olsen takes his seat in Oldsmobile Park more than 30 minutes before game time, just as he has done for almost every game since 1996. Olsen, a retired autoworker, has only missed about 10 home games of his beloved Lugnuts in the ballpark named after one of the divisions of General Motors Corp.
A former Spartan assistant wrestling coach crashed his sport utility vehicle into a Florida airport terminal Sunday. Alexis Vila, a 33-year-old Cuban defector and Williamston resident, sustained no injuries and was detained by authorities after slamming through a wall, and into a ticket counter at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Before coming to MSU in 2000, Villa won a wrestling bronze medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics for Cuba.
The MSU men's basketball team has lost another player to transfer. Walk-on sophomore Justin Ockerman has decided to transfer to another school, according to MSU assistant sports Information director Matt Larson. The 6-foot-9, 265-pound center played in 15 games for the Spartans with season totals of six points, eight rebounds and 34 minutes of playing time. Ockerman had spent three years as a pitcher in the Seattle Mariners organization before coming to MSU.