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                         May 24, 2002

Some of the beautiful things about sports

Commentary by Jim Fox
Staff Writer

While watching the Colorado Avalanche’s Chris Drury coolly slip the puck past prone Detroit Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek Monday night to secure a 4-3 overtime win I was reminded that there are still some aspects of sport that are beautiful to watch.

If you can get past the arrests, the whiny over-paid athletes, threats of team relocation and impending work stoppages and just focus on why we truly enjoy sport it comes down to wanting to see gifted athletes do incredible things.

Some things in sports are just pleasing to the eye.

Like Mike Piazza’s swing at a high fastball.

Or, Barry Bonds’ swing, period.

Derek Jeter’s jump throw to first from the hole.

Brett Favre throwing on the run.

Kurt Warner dropping a precision pass into the arms of any number of his receiver’s arms.

The Oakland Raiders getting jobbed in the snow at Foxboro.

Kobe Bryant letting a jumper go at the very top of his leap.

Jason Kidd leading a fast break.

Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic working the give-and-go.

These are the things that come to mind when thinking about great professional athletes doing what they do best.

But on another level that exists right here.

For the past four years three Army athletes have entertained us with their athletic prowess. We will lose them to graduation June 1 when they go on to bigger and better things as officers in the U.S. Army.

No longer will Army Lacrosse’s Tim Pearson tantalize us as he weaves his way between enemy defenders flailing in their attempts to deny him yet another scoring opportunity.

We won’t see softball’s Shauna Evans whistle pitches past opposing batters whose only hope is that she tires and then maybe they can make contact.

From the beginning Army softball coach Jim Flowers told anyone who would listen that Nicki Robbins was special. From the beginning back in 1999 she began to show us why.

The rest of the league wised up to her pretty quickly. The majority of her career was spent waiting for enemy pitchers to slip up while they nibbled around the plate.

Watching Robbins wait for her pitch was maddening. Sometimes her one pitch took an entire day’s worth of doubleheader-action to appear.

"Just pitch to her," was a standard cry of Army softball fans everywhere.

She waited with Bonds-like patience this year as she drew 34 walks in 51 games. Biding her time, waiting for the chance to make the opposition pay.

She came through with a hit 42.2 percent of the time; almost 42 percent of those were of the extra-base variety. She was simply a pure hitter.

These three Army athletes leave us with pleasant memories of how sport can truly be beautiful to watch.