Thursday, April 25, 1996
Conference misses point of Adams’ beanball protest
For all the provincially-informed out there, the UCLA baseball
team has been making national headlines this week for its play. .
.foul play that is.
It all began in March, in a harmless Six-Pac showdown between
the Bruins and Arizona State in Tempe, when Sun Devil Ryan Bradley
threw a pitch at UCLA’s Troy Glaus. Glaus was beaned in the head,
and subsequently missed three games with a severe concussion, while
Bradley was suspended for four games.
The story resumed last weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium, when
Bradley again plunked Glaus, presumably on purpose. UCLA head coach
Gary Adams retaliated the following day, having Pete Zamora bean
the first batter he faced in Sunday’s game.
The final score on Sunday: Zamora  four-game suspension.
Coach Adams  one-game suspension. Bradley and ASU head coach
Pat Murphy  an ill conscience and some choice words from the
crowd.
However, as Adams disclosed Sunday night, the most scrutinized
managerial maneuver of his career wasn’t simply a case of
tit-for-tat strategy. Adams was livid about the inadequate
punishment levied on coaches by college baseball’s ruling body,
importuning the powers that be to hand down a suspension at least
tantamount to a player’s and preferably more.
Suspend me, Adams told the league. It wasn’t a dare. It was a
demand.
NCAA rules stipulate that a head coach is liable for one quarter
of the suspension time of his player. Consequently, Adams received
the one-game suspension, which he found so absurd that he formally
announced he would sit out UCLA’s next four games concurrently with
Zamora.
On Tuesday, the Pacific 10 accepted Adams’ plea and released a
statement prohibiting him from the next four regularly scheduled
games. But since the Bruins scheduled two additional games to make
up for this season’s five rainouts, Adams and Zamora were ordered
to miss those as well. Effectively, the Bruins lost player and
coach for six games.
The real problem with the ruling was that it did not suitably
address nor satisfy Adams’ appeal for a more stern penalty for the
coach. One way or the other, Adams would have halted his coaching
duties for four games.
"I wanted them to suspend me longer than they suspended Pete,
because I feel that a coach is completely responsible for his
players’ actions on the field,"Adams said in a meeting just beyond
the confines of Jackie Robinson Stadium, where he is not allowed to
be during his suspension. "I’m real disappointed. They didn’t get
my point."
In other words, the punitive costs for a coach should minimally
be greater than for that of a player, since ultimately it is the
coach who is in charge of his players.
When asked about the incident, Zamora explained that he had no
problem following his coach’s orders on Sunday  for which he
will miss his next start against Stanford  since he had
already planned to bean some unfortunate Arizona State batter later
in the game.
"I’m disappointed just because I can’t play," Zamora said. "But
ASU wasn’t giving us any respect, thinking that they could do
whatever they want to us and we weren’t going to do anything about
it. I think we got the point across and that’s what matters."
Both Adams and Zamora will remain suspended through this
weekend’s three-game series at Stanford. Adams will accompany the
team to Palo Alto, although he is prohibited from having any
involvement in the games thereof. UCLA may not pay for Zamora to go
north with the team, although he can go independently if he
wishes.
ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin
Pitcher/first baseman Pete Zamora will not play this weekend due
to a four-game suspension.