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5540. wabbit - 5/14/2007 2:39:42 PM  In his third week with a new coach, Phil Mickelson suddenly looks as good as ever. Mickelson added a mini-major to his collection Sunday by winning The Players Championship with control that had been lacking the last three months, closing with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory that returned him to No. 2 in the world and pointed him in the right direction with the U.S. Open approaching. Sergio Garcia birdied four of his last five holes for a 66, but he was a ceremonial runner-up. The real victim was Sean O'Hair, and the familiar culprit was that island green on the par-3 17th at the TPC Sawgrass. O'Hair was two shots behind until his 9-iron flew the green into the water. He went to the drop area and watched another shot bounce over the green, and finally walked away with a quadruple-bogey 7. O'Hair bogeyed the final hole for a 76 and went from second place to 11th, the difference of $747,000. Mickelson finished at 11-under 277 for his second victory this year, and the 31st of his career. He earned $1.62 million from the $9 million purse, the richest in golf.
Suzann Pettersen became the first Norwegian winner in LPGA Tour history, making a 1 1/2-foot par putt after Jee Young Lee missed one from about 2 feet on the third extra hole Sunday in the Michelob Ultra Open. Both players parred the par-4 18th on the first two extra holes, and Lee seemed to have the upper hand the third time around when she hit her approach to about 12 feet while Pettersen's ball rested against the high grass at the edge of the fringe. Pettersen's putt rolled just past the cup on the right side, leaving 1 1/2 feet, and Lee's attempt at the victory missed to the right, leaving a short putt for the tie. Lee quickly went to knock her ball in, seemed to rush and it skated by on the right as the crowd gasped and she looked up, astonished. Pettersen, making her 82nd career LPGA Tour start, then stepped up, made hers for the victory and pumped her right fist as the ball disappeared in the hole, then doubled over in apparent disbelief.
South African teen golf star Ashleigh Simon turned professional Saturday and signed a management deal with IMG. Simon, the three-time South African Open winner who turned 18 on Friday, also announced an endorsement deal with Nike and received an invitation to the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship on July 19-22 at Wykagyl in New Rochelle, N.Y. "I can't wait to get out on the tour," Simon said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed my amateur career and feel I am absolutely ready for the next stage."
PGA news
5541. wabbit - 5/14/2007 2:39:58 PM  A day after setting a record for most victories on one surface, Rafael Nadal became the only player to win the Rome Masters three consecutive times. Then consider this: He hasn't been feeling all that well. Nadal beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-2, 6-2 in the title match Sunday. But before reaching the final, the No. 2-ranked Spaniard had to overcome a dizzy spell and an apparent stomach problem that forced him to go to the hospital. He also spent nearly four hours on the court against Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals. This was Nadal's fourth ATP title of the year. He also won in Indian Wells, Calif.; Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Barcelona, Spain. He has a 21-3 career record in finals. Rome is a key clay-court warmup for the French Open, which begins May 27. Thomas Muster and Jaroslav Drobny -- a Czech player in the 1950s -- also won in Rome three times, but not in succession. The last time Nadal lost on clay was to Igor Andreev in the quarterfinals in Valencia, Spain, in April 2005. Sunday's victory extended his winning streak on clay to 77 matches. By reaching the final, the 20-year-old Spaniard broke John McEnroe's record for most victories on one surface.
Mired in his worst slump in more than three years, Roger Federer is splitting from coach Tony Roche. The top-ranked Federer announced the change on his Web site Saturday, saying he and Roche mutually decided to end their arrangement. The move leaves Federer without a coach two weeks before the May 27 start of the French Open, the only Grand Slam tournament he hasn't won. Roche has worked with Federer part time for the past 2˝ years. The Swiss star won six of his 10 major championships in that span.
Ana Ivanovic's right foot hurt so much she tried to hit winners and end the rallies quickly. After the match, she was still hobbling. Ivanovic, however, preferred to think of more pleasant things than her pain: The 19-year-old Serbian was the German Open champion after beating Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) Sunday and was headed for a top-10 ranking. Ivanovic's foot was taped during the second set against Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, at this key French Open warmup. Ivanovic, who expects to play in Rome next week, didn't feel herself get injured.
SI Tennis
5542. wabbit - 5/14/2007 2:40:38 PM  Josh Beckett was forced to come out of the game. Jeremy Guthrie probably should have stayed in. Guthrie took a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning and came within two outs of his first complete game before Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo pulled him, only to watch the Boston Red Sox score six runs and beat the Orioles 6-5 on Sunday. Guthrie was cruising, having retired eight straight, when catcher Ramon Hernandez dropped Coco Crisp's popup near the third-base line for an error. Boston then got four hits, three walks and a hit batter against Danys Baez and Ray (3-3). J.C. Romero (1-0) struck out two in 1 1-3 scoreless innings for the win.
Perhaps it was the pink bats - or a shuffled lineup, or the rookie on the mound for the other team. Torii Hunter and the Minnesota Twins weren't worried about the analysis. They were just happy to have some fun at the end of a rough week. Hunter homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs, and the Twins ended a four-game losing streak with a 16-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday night. Ruining Tigers emergency starter Virgil Vasquez 's major league debut and racking up season highs in runs, hits (22) and homers (four), Minnesota salvaged the last game of this series and finished 3-6 on its homestand. The Twins won for only the fourth time in their last 13 games.
Four days after being called up from Triple-A Fresno, Fred Lewis became the 22nd player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. He went 5-for-6 and drove in four runs, three on his first major league home run. He's just the fourth major leaguer in history to hit his first home run as part of a cycle, and the game was his 16th major league game and just his fourth start. He doubled in the first, and hit 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall in the fourth off right-hander Taylor Buchholz (1-2). He greeted reliever Tom Martin with a run-scoring triple in the fifth and sent a Denny Bautista fastball into right field for a single in the seventh that sparked a six-run inning.
MLB scores
5543. wabbit - 5/15/2007 3:01:48 PM Scotland Yard investigators have concluded that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not strangled as local police have said, a Jamaican newspaper reported on Sunday. In London, Scotland Yard declined to comment on the report in the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper that Woolmer died of heart failure and said it would not discuss an analysis of toxicology tests that a British government lab conducted on behalf of Jamaican authorities. "This is an inquiry being conducted by the Jamaican authorities," said a Scotland Yard spokesman, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy. "It's down to them to comment on developments."
The report, which did not identify its source beyond saying it was in London, was the latest in the slew of conflicting media accounts since Woolmer was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room on March 18 and pronounced dead at a hospital. The previous day, his powerhouse team had lost to underdog Ireland in the World Cup, ensuring Pakistan's first-round exit. Jamaican police later said Woolmer had been strangled, after initially saying the cause of death was inconclusive. A barrage of unsourced media reports, especially in the British press, has said Woolmer was first drugged or poisoned before being strangled. Mark Shields, the lead Jamaican police investigator in the case, has refused to comment on the reports, saying he was awaiting independent verification in a British government-owned lab of toxicology tests that were done in Jamaica.
Australia's government Sunday barred the national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September, saying it wanted to avoid giving a propaganda victory to "grubby dictator" President Robert Mugabe. Prime Minister John Howard, who has repeatedly expressed concerns over the deteriorating situation in the southern African nation, said his government had taken the decision out of Cricket Australia's (CA) hands. Howard said it was not fair to leave foreign policy matters with sportsmen, preferring that the government accept responsibility. He urged other cricketing nations to follow suit. "We don't do this lightly, but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead there would be an enormous propaganda boost for the Mugabe regime," Howard told ABC television. "The Mugabe regime at present is behaving like the Gestapo towards its political opponents, the living standards of the country are probably the lowest of any in the world and you have an unbelievable rate of inflation. I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead it would be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator and whilst it pains me both as a cricket lover and as somebody who genuinely believes these things should be left to sporting organisations... it leaves me with no alternative."
Zimbabwe reacted angrily, describing the ban as "desperate" and "racist." "The Australians are mixing politics with sport and the decision shows how desperate the Howard government is to isolate Zimbabwe," junior information minister Bright Matonga told AFP. Australia is one of the worst human rights violators in this whole world. Look what they have done to the aborigines and yet they have the audacity to stand up and claim to have the moral authority to condemn us. This is also a racist ploy to kill our local cricket since our cricket team is now dominated by black players as we slowly transform cricket from being an elite sport."
5544. wabbit - 5/15/2007 3:02:22 PM  Former Olympic medalist and World Cup champion Bode Miller is leaving the U.S. ski team, ending his contentious relationship with the federation that oversees the sport in this country. The fiercely independent Miller has been at odds with the association for years, and there long had been rumblings that he would leave the team. U.S. officials have been unhappy with Miller's late-night partying and his outlandish public comments. But he was by far the best skier on the team. The 29-year-old Miller won two silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, but was shut out at the 2006 Turin Games despite being a favorite in nearly every Alpine discipline. He was criticized for spending too much time in local clubs. The announcement of his departure came as the U.S. team opened its training camp in Park City, Utah, on Saturday. Miller told U.S. men's coach Phil McNichol of his decision to leave the team following a meeting at the headquarters of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association in Park City.
Miller has been a part of the U.S. team for 11 years, but will have to travel and train on his own if he competes in the 2008 World Cup season as expected. His super-giant slalom title last winter was his fourth World Cup championship. He won the overall World Cup title in 2005. Miller, who lives in Bretton Woods, N.H., has 25 World Cup victories, two shy of Phil Mahre's U.S. record. In an interview last month, Miller said he expected to break Mahre's record next winter.
Liko Kenney, a cousin of Miller, had at least two confrontations in 2003 with Bruce McKay, the local police officer he killed Friday night in a shooting that left both men dead. Records released Monday by the Grafton County attorney’s office showed that Kenney was convicted of assaulting McKay when McKay and three other police officers tried to detain him in January 2003. About three months after that scuffle, McKay responded to a call concerning Kenney’s violation of the conditions of his bail. The shootings Friday took place less than a mile from where the Kenney family lives and where Miller grew up.
5545. alistairConnor - 5/15/2007 11:31:06 PM Louis Vuitton cup semi-final is well under way.
I expected Oracle to be on top of Luna Rossa, probably winning the first-to-five match in 7 or 8 races. Now I think they'll go the whole nine rounds. One all so far.
I still think that Oracle will win, just as soon as they stop making mistakes. Larry Ellison should hire me as his tactician : sitting behind my computer yesterday I picked the wind shifts better than they did on the water... either that or the Italians got lucky. Or perhaps the shifty wind conditions suited their characters.
Today, Luna Rossa had them beaten several times... James Spithill is the meanest helmsman on the seven seas, he humiliated them at the start and then again at the third mark. But the Oracle boat is so fast with the wind behind her, she stole the race.
The other match, Team NZ / Desafio Espanyol, is as unappetising as I feared, and will almost certainly end in a 5-0 whitewash. It's nice for the Spaniards to be there, but they are not yet in the same class as the big boys.
The final is scheduled for the first half of June. Then the winner (Team NZ or Oracle?) gets to take on the Swiss team in the actual Americas Cup, in the second half of June. 5546. robertjayb - 5/18/2007 3:51:46 AM LeMond accuses Landis camp of blackmail...(HouChron)
MALIBU, Calif. — The Floyd Landis hearing took a chaotic twist Thursday when fellow American Tour de France champion Greg LeMond revealed he had been sexually abused as a child and claimed the Landis camp tried to use it as blackmail to keep LeMond from testifying.
5547. jexster - 5/18/2007 5:37:10 PM Ten Strikeouts!!
05-18) 04:00 PDT Houston -- Roy Oswalt is Tim Lincecum's role model and body double. In his third big-league start Thursday night, Lincecum engaged Oswalt in a duel worthy of the best gunslingers who yelled "Draw!" in these parts a century and a half ago, and the kid did not blink.
Lincecum had just one "wow" moment.
"The only time I really thought about it was when I was hitting against him," Lincecum said after the Giants scored a fluky run in the 12th inning and beat the Astros 2-1. "I thought, 'God, it's coming in pretty quick.' I didn't think I was going to touch it. I fouled two off. That's points for me."
HAPA Cutie!! 5548. wonkers2 - 5/18/2007 7:50:21 PM 5-18 Luna Rossa led BMW Oracle all the way in race #4 giving the Italian boat a commanding lead in the Louis Vuitton semi-finals. The Emirates New Zealand team won decisively over Desafio, the Spanish boat. Emirates New Zealand also has a 3-1 lead. 5549. wabbit - 5/18/2007 9:52:12 PM The Floyd Landis case is turning into a major soap opera. Time will tell whether or not team Landis can recover from what happened on Thursday. Geez Louise.
David Brower is blogging about the case at Trust But Verify. Lots of info and links. 5550. wabbit - 5/20/2007 2:35:59 AM  Postseason underachievers no more, Daniel Alfredsson and the Ottawa Senators are in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time. The Senators captain scored 9:32 into overtime to seal a 3-2 win over the top-seeded Buffalo Sabres, sealing the Eastern Conference finals in five games on Saturday. The Senators rallied from a 1-0 deficit and rebounded after Maxim Afinogenov forced overtime with a power-play goal with 9 minutes left in regulation. Dany Heatley had a goal and two assists, and Jason Spezza also scored for the new and very improved Senators that had known only frustration in nine previous postseason appearances.
The Presidents' Trophy-winning Sabres were knocked out in the semifinals for the second straight year. Ottawa will now wait to face Anaheim or Detroit, and will start that series on the road. The Western final series is tied at 2, with Game 5 at Detroit on Sunday.
NHL scores
5551. wabbit - 5/20/2007 2:37:32 AM  No triple crown winner this year. Curlin nipped Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense on the final stride and won the Preakness Stakes in a riveting finish Saturday, ending a chance of a Triple Crown for this racing season. Street Sense seemed to have the race won after another of his patented rallies, taking the lead in the stretch. But the colt was unable to hold off Curlin's late charge thanks to an expert ride by Robby Albarado.
Three races earlier, Albarado was thrown from his mount but walked away unhurt and came back for the ride of his life. Mending Fences was euthanized on the track after breaking down in the Dixie Stakes, a preliminary to the Preakness Stakes that was Barbaro's downfall a year ago, said Dan Dreyfuss, a Maryland veterinarian who also treated Barbaro. Mending Fences, a 5-year-old stallion with seven wins in his career, had sustained a compound fracture of his right front leg.
Curlin came into the Preakness with just four career starts, including a third-place finish in the Derby just two weeks ago. Still, trainer Steve Asmussen was confident in his lightly raced colt, and believed the 3-year-old son of Smart Strike would improve after his first defeat. Did he ever. Curlin won his first three races by a combined 28-1/2 lengths, and was well back in the field of nine.
As Hard Spun swung into the lead with a three-wide move, Street Sense started to roll under Calvin Borel. Street Sense went to the outside in the stretch and moved into the lead, and the crowd began to cheer in anticipation of a Triple Crown bid in the making. He passed Curlin at the 1/8 pole and looked like the winner. But Curlin came back along the far outside, and took dead aim at the Derby winner. He caught him on the final jump and, just like that, Street Sense was a beaten horse. But just barely. Hard Spun, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, finished third, four lengths behind Street Sense.
It was a very good race, the early fractions were blazing and Curlin and Street Sense tied the race record of 1:53.4. Now let's see who shows up in NY in three weeks.
Earlier in the day, Michael Matz, the trainer of Barbaro, won the inaugural Barbaro Stakes on Saturday and was presented the trophy by the co-owners of the horse. On Dec. 20, officials at Pimlico Race Course renamed the Sir Barton Stakes (the first winner of the Triple Crown) to the Barbaro Stakes. The plan was to have Barbaro parade on the track before the race, but he never got the chance. The symbolic moment Saturday instead occurred afterward, when the Jacksons presented Matz with a trophy for winning the race named in honor of the horse all three cherished. The bittersweet reunion occurred after Chelokee, arguably the finest 3-year-old in Matz's stable, won easily as the overwhelming favorite. Edgar Prado, aboard Barbaro in the Preakness last year, finished second on Silver Express. Minutes after the race, Matz entered the winner's circle, smiled and hugged Roy and Gretchen Jackson.
5552. wonkers2 - 5/20/2007 1:47:18 PM Louis Vuitton Cup Report 5-19 Luna Rossa leads 4-1 over BMW Oracle 5553. wabbit - 5/20/2007 6:19:52 PM  Finally! Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 Sunday to win his fourth Hamburg Masters title and end Nadal's record winning streak on clay at 81 matches. Nadal, ranked No. 2 in the world behind Federer, had been unbeaten on the surface since April 2005, a run that included 13 titles. "If I have to lose against anyone, then he is the man," Nadal said. Federer's come-from-behind win was his first over Nadal on clay in six matches. Nadal leads the overall series 7-4. The win ended Federer's drought after he failed to win a title in his last four events, his worst run since he became world No. 1 in February 2004.
Jelena Jankovic defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1 Sunday to win the Italian Open and join Justine Henin as the only three-time winners on the women's tour this year. Jankovic also won at Auckland, New Zealand, to open her season in January and took a clay-court title in Charleston, S.C., last month. This title -- also on clay -- established her as one of the favorites for the French Open, which begins next weekend. Kuznetsova dropped to 0-4 in finals this year. She was also runner-up in Doha, Qatar; Indian Wells, Calif., and Berlin last week. Both players struggled to hold serve -- Jankovic because her serve deserted her for long stretches and Kuznetsova because she committed too many baseline errors once she put the ball in play. Jankovic's foot speed enabled her to make Kuznetsova play more balls than she wanted in several long rallies.
Martina Hingis, a runner-up at Roland Garros in 1997 and '99, pulled out of the French Open because of a hip injury. The five-time Grand Slam winner will be replaced by Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, said French Open organizers on Wednesday. The French Open is the only major the 26-year-old Hingis hasn't won. Evgenia Linetskaya withdrew for personal reasons and was replaced by Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland. On the men's side, Nicolas Kiefer of Germany and Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand are out because of wrist injuries. They will be replaced by Chris Guccione of Australia and Andreas Seppi of Italy, respectively. The clay-court tournament runs from May 27 to June 10.
5554. jexster - 5/23/2007 6:02:55 AM Another AWESOME performance!
Just back from the game. It is a joy to watch this boy pitch. 22 years old...nothing rattles him...two wins against his idol - Roy Oswalt...
SAN FRANCISCO - MAY 22: Tim Lincecum #55 of the San Francisco Giants celebrates at the end of the eighth inning against the Houston Astros during a game on May 22, 2007 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) 5555. wonkers2 - 5/23/2007 2:36:52 PM The U.S. was eliminated from America's Cup competition by Luna Rossa, the Italian boat 5-1. Chris Dickson BMW Oracle CEO and skipper was broomed by Larry Ellison and watched the last race on Television. Dickson's starting line screw-ups aside, it appeared to me that Luna Rossa was significantly faster upwind than the Bruce Farr designed BMW Oracle.
Meanwhile, Desafio Espagnol held on against Emirates New Zealand with a win on Sunday? leaving the score 4-2 in favor of Emirates. Nevertheless, the final match-up is likely to be Luna Rossa versus Emirates. 5556. jexster - 5/23/2007 3:58:18 PM Pretty damned pathetic. what do we have to do to convince the world we don't sail like girls? 5557. jexster - 5/24/2007 4:26:14 PM It all went to script. As Rice left the park in the eighth inning mostly to jeers -- she should have walked out with Mays --
Giants Sweep Astros 5558. wabbit - 5/25/2007 1:01:05 AM This shit really fries me. If you want to go out and get drunk off your ass, fine, it's your brain (or lack thereof), but don't get behind the wheel of a car. If you do, and you kill yourself, too damn bad, and thanks for taking yourself out of the gene pool. If you get pulled over and fail a breathalizer, your ass should be thrown in jail. There is NO excuse for driving drunk. NONE. I will not entertain anyone's bullshit about how they are an alcoholic and can't help it. Turn in your friggin driver's license. You do not, DO NOT, have the right to put anyone else at risk for your own problems. I have not one whit of sympathy for anyone who finds themselves in a bind because they CHOSE to drive drunk, or to get into a car with someone who was intoxicated. Boo hoo. What a load of crap. The father of Josh Hancock filed suit Thursday, claiming a restaurant provided drinks to the St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher even though he was intoxicated prior to the crash that killed him.
The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., does not specify damages. Mike Shannon's Restaurant, owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s, is a defendant in the case along with Shannon's daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager... WTF? Does nobody have the character and integrity to accept responsibility for their own choices and actions? I am so sick of people who blame everyone and anyone for their own mistakes, who refuse to stand up and be accountable and accept the consequences of their actions, who spend every waking moment whining and feeling sorry for themselves and complaining and lying to anyone they can con. I can only hope that their lousy karma comes back to bite them in the ass. You'll notice that the lawsuit doesn't include anyone who can afford to hire an expensive lawyer. Scumbags who think they've won the legal lottery. Where were they the last time Josh Hancock was driving under the influence? May they reap what they sow. 5559. jexster - 5/25/2007 2:43:32 AM David Welles, serial DUI, actually BRAGGED the other day that, during his prime, he often pitched when three (maybe 2) sheets to the wind
Just like Wonk sails!
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