Cyclone baseball players, swimmers blown away by economics.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

AMES, Iowa _ Turns out there "is crying in baseball.''

Last month, when Iowa State's players learned the university's baseball program was being eliminated, some of them sobbed.

The reaction was similar from the doomed men's swimming team. When that successful program's final postseason banquet took place last week, it wasn't chlorine that caused all the red eyes.

Iowa State, coming off perhaps the most successful sports year in its history, cut those two programs earlier this month because its athletic department faced a $1.4 million deficit. Travel, fuel and scholarship costs had soared. Alumni were indifferent. The administration couldn't help because the state slashed the university's appropriations.

Blame came quickly, much of it directed at the recently renegotiated contracts for the school's football and basketball coaches. Football coach Dan McCarney's compensation was doubled to $600,000, while Larry Eustachy's annual package rose to $1.1 million, even though the basketball coach had nine years left on a 10-year deal.

"Obscene," State Rep. Ed Fallon, a Des Moines Democrat, said.

Meanwhile, soon-to-be-unemployed baseball coach Lyle Smith earned $58,000 last year, and swim coach Trip Hedrick $40,000.