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WWW.KANSAS.COM/SPORTS SPORTS SUNDAY

1D
JUNE 29, 2008
★

K-State’s kid goes all pro

„ When you’re Michael Beasley and the world is calling, it’s not so simple anymore to be a carefree,
family-oriented 19-year-old. Getting his due means jewelry, cars and his own party plans.

BY JEFFREY MARTIN
The Wichita Eagle
NEW YORK — Last call was
11:30 p.m., which is unheard
of in this, the city that suppos-
edly never sleeps.
Then again, it shouldn’t have
been an issue late Thursday
night, in the moments after
Kansas State’s Michael Beasley
was chosen No. 2 in the NBA
Draft. To be sure, years and
years of hard work culminating
in a new professional world —
well, who wouldn’t celebrate
that?
Problem was, Beasley and
most of his high-profile peers
— it was the first time that
three college freshmen were
picked 1-2-3 — are just 19.
None are legal, although
Thursday guaranteed all are
now millionaires.
So it made sense for a party
to be held at the ESPN Zone in
Times Square, the perfect fami-
ly-friendly compromise. A bar,
but a sports bar. Enough of the
normal distractions (booze,
members of the opposite sex)
but in a controlled (invite-only
for about 120 people), some-
what sanitized setting.
Which is how Fatima Smith,
Beasley’s mother, pictured the Associated Press
evening. Soft music, scattered Michael Beasley was full of cheer prior to Thursday’s NBA
Draft, but by midnight was worn down from a long, nerve-
Please see BEASLEY, Page 4D racking day.

Photo illustration by Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle

Curtis Whitten, 10, plays for the 12-year-old Wolf Pack in the Westurban baseball league. Few African-American players participate in the
city’s little leagues, choosing to concentrate on other sports.

DIFFERENT FIELD PLAYING ON A

„ With few opportunities and no one leading the

charge, the number of African-American kids
playing baseball continues to founder.
BY JONATHAN LONG
The Wichita Eagle

T
he sound is deceiving.
It’s a typical mid-summer day at the Lynette
Woodard Recreation Center in northeast Wichita.
The center’s doors are steadily swinging open with
kids and parents watching Summer Hoopin’ basket-
ball games. Outside, a group of young boys tries to
ignore the sweat descending from their foreheads,
concentrating solely on keeping rhythm as they clap to end their
final football drill before a coveted water break. Next door, at
the Atwater Neighborhood City Hall, a group of young girls
laugh as they learn how to express themselves through dance.
Through all that, a slight “ping” can be heard in the distance.
Anyone familiar with sports would assume that in an area full of
hustling and bustling young kids, it’s a baseball coming off an
aluminum bat.
Not in this predominately black area. The sound is coming
from a man using a hammer down the street. All-black youth baseba
ll
representing northeast teams no longer exist in Wichita. The 1979
Courtesy photo
Wichita’s MEFSEC (no Royals,
Please see BASEBALL, Page 7D Recreation Center), pla w
yed in the Sunnyside Le the Lynette Woodard
ague.

McAfee coached for more than wins Cardinals stop

„ The Wichita Sports

KC’s win streak

Hall of Fame inducts 10
individuals and a team.
BY JOANNA CHADWICK
The Wichita Eagle
When David Norwood was
asked to talk about Arthur
McAfee Jr., his former coach at
Morehouse College, Norwood
didn’t say one word about bas-
ketball.
He said nothing of McAfee’s
knowledge of the sport, about
McAfee’s 518 career victories.
Didn’t reference McAfee’s induc-
tion into the Wichita Sports Hall
of Fame on Saturday.
When Norwood talked about
McAfee, he spoke solely of him
as a person.
“Coach Mac, he gave me a
second chance. He was an indi-
vidual that really gave me a BY BOB DUTTON to three runs, but it was sim-
chance to be the person I am Kansas City Star pler than that, really.
today,” said Norwood, a 1990 They just had no answers for
Heights High graduate. KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It had Cardinals rookie Mitchell
McAfee allowed Norwood to to end some time, this longest Boggs, a right-hander making
walk on in 1992, less than a winning streak his fourth big-league start and
year after Norwood got out of CARDINALS 5 by the Royals wearing a number (68) that
jail for selling drugs. ROYALS 1 in more than suggests job security might be
“He gave me an opportunity five years. an issue.
to play for Morehouse and to When it ended Saturday night, Less of an issue now, probably.
straighten my life out and turn it did so in a sloppy 5-1 loss to “First time through (the line-
it around,” said Norwood, Larry Smith/Correspondent the St. Louis Cardinals at up), we drew three walks,” KC
who monitors the movement of Former Wichita State basketball coach Gene Smithson Kauffman Stadium. manager Trey Hillman said.
pauses during his speech at induction ceremonies The Royals made three costly
Please see HALL, Page 3D Saturday at the Museum of World Treasures. defensive misplays, which led Please see ROYALS, Page 9D