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5623. wabbit - 6/21/2007 1:42:14 PM  Coming off the shortest start of his career five days ago, Robert Woodard shut down Rice for six-plus innings Wednesday and North Carolina stayed in the College World Series with a 6-1 victory. Rice had 29 runs and 33 hits in its first two CWS games, one of which was a 14-4 victory over the Tar Heels on Sunday. Woodard and two relievers limited the Owls to one run on six singles and a double on Wednesday, and Dustin Ackley broke open the game with a three-run homer to help the Tar Heels force another meeting with Rice on Thursday. The winner meets UC Irvine or defending national champion Oregon State in the best-of-three championship starting Saturday. Rice (56-13), at No. 2, and 2006 national runner-up North Carolina (56-14), at No. 3, are the only remaining national seeds in the CWS.
In one month, Oregon State has gone from uncertainty about making the NCAA tournament to taking the final step toward playing for a second straight national championship. The Beavers are back in the College World Series' championship round after a 7-1 victory over UC Irvine on Wednesday night that ended the Anteaters' dramatic postseason run. Oregon State (47-18), looking to become the first repeat champion since LSU in 1997, plays the winner of Thursday's Rice-North Carolina game in the best-of-three finals starting Saturday.
Rice coach Wayne Graham said Wednesday that the record number of players getting hit by pitches at this year's College World Series is more than a coincidence. Five batters were hit in Wednesday's game between North Carolina and Rice, bringing the CWS-record total to 45 in 12 games. There have been five hit batsmen with the bases loaded, and 11 players have scored after being hit. Cal State-Fullerton tied a CWS record on Monday when it hit five batters in a game against UC Irvine. The Anteaters finished with 12 HBPs in four games, a CWS record.
NCAA Men's Baseball
5624. wabbit - 6/21/2007 1:42:31 PM  Playing for the Texas Rangers after a year out of baseball, Sammy Sosa became the fifth member of the 600-homer club Wednesday night when he connected against his former team, the Chicago Cubs. After driving a 1-2 pitch to right-center for a solo shot in the fifth inning of Texas' 7-3 victory, Slammin' Sammy bounced out of the batter's box with his trademark hop and thrust his right fist into the air before reaching first base. He was mobbed at home plate by his teammates while the scoreboard showed pictures of all five members of the elite club: Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sosa.
Four pitches into the game, the Boston Red Sox provided a glimpse of what was to come. J.D. Drew led off with a homer and the Red Sox went deep four more times to back seven sharp innings by Julian Tavarez, who had it easy in Boston's 11-0 rout of the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday night. Before the Braves even batted, Coco Crisp hit a three-run homer to give the Red Sox a 5-0 lead. David Ortiz added a two-run shot in the second, while Manny Ramirez and Eric Hinske chipped in late. The Red Sox tied their season high, having also homered five times April 22 against the Yankees. For good measure, Boston also had five doubles in a 15-hit outburst that helped extend its AL East lead to 10 games over New York.
The New York Yankees lost their second straight to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night, this time 6-1 as left-hander Jeff Francis matched Josh Fogg's seven-inning, one-run dominance from 24 hours earlier. The Yankees are getting a firsthand look at how much Denver's downtown ballpark and the Rockies' pitching staff have changed from five years ago. Last time the Yankees came to town in 2002, they scored 41 times in three games. This time, they've pushed across just two runs and have just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
MLB scores
5625. wonkers2 - 6/25/2007 1:56:54 PM Emirates New Zeeland Ties Alinghi 1-1 in race two in the best of nine America's Cup competition 5626. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 2:38:46 PM Yes I thought it was all over about half way through Race 2 : Alinghi cleaned up in the first race, and led around the first two marks in the second.
I think Alinghi let them off the hook by not covering properly, I am not yet convinced that TNZ can win this match.
We'll see about that in today's race. 5627. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 2:49:22 PM The race is postponed for the moment, not enough wind, but the sea breeze is building, 8 to 9 knots, so we should get a start soon.
 5628. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 4:35:01 PM Woo-hoo!
Team NZ made themselves convincingly the underdogs by losing that first race...
But now they've got 350 metres on Alinghi going around the first mark! Brilliant weather divining in light, shifty conditions... they only need to keep it tight now surely, to turn it into 2-1... 5629. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:12:50 PM But yes, they manage to blow it! Horror show at the bottom mark : the spinnaker drop was disastrous, got it all wrapped round the jib and possibly under the keel too, they had to cut it up into pieces and they let Alinghi back into the race!
And now they cross and they are neck and neck! A leg and a half to race 5630. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:48:29 PM So Alinghi rounds the last mark ahead, they have an 8à metre lead and they have the faster boat downwind... they just need to cover...
Unbefeckin'lievable! Ed Baird allows TNZ to get a kilometre of lateral separation, they pick a wind shift ant they're back in the race! 5631. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:51:20 PM They are only a km from the finish, and more than a km apart! They will be converging on the finish line on opposit gybes...Anyone's race, the wind gods will decide. 5632. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:55:45 PM I'm not going to say who won... watch it on TV if you can... A classic for the ages. 5633. wonkers2 - 6/26/2007 6:15:18 PM Great coverage. Now to my Tivo! 5634. alistairConnor - 6/26/2007 10:36:46 PM Woo! Americas Cup defender Ernesto Bertarelli is furious that the race was held at all in today's light, changeable conditions :
I didn’t come to the America’s Cup to do this sort of racing. It’s match racing at the end of the day. It’s not offshore racing where you just have to see whether the wind decides the regatta. I don’t think the wind should decide the regatta, the competitors should decide it on their ability. The wind should be way more stable than it was today for the race to take place. I’m sure for those who are watching it is exciting for sure, but you can go to Las Vegas for that. It’s not exactly what sailing should be about.
Boo fuckin' hoo. Heads will roll, mark my words.
5635. wonkers2 - 6/27/2007 12:57:32 AM Today's race was one of the most interesting America's Cup race in memory. The lead changed six times, with the sixth change coming at the finish when NZ came from behind to break into the lead 2-1. NZ blew a big lead at the first leeward mark when the spinnaker got sucked into the starboard jib fairlead. This mishap allowed Alinghi to pass NZ on the second windward leg. Very exciting racing. I bet the odds in Vegas now favor NZ. At least that's where I'd put my money, but not a whole lot. 5636. wonkers2 - 6/29/2007 9:40:58 PM NZ should have won today. They blew a big lead with a monumental spinnaker snafu. Now they trail 3-2. America's Cup--Alinghi leads 3-2 in best of nine series. 5637. alistairConnor - 6/30/2007 11:29:19 PM And today, after leading in the first two legs, NZ got overtaken near the top mark...
4-2. Alinghi have three match points. I can't see Team NZ coming back from there, I just hope they win tomorrow to keep the match alive. 5638. wabbit - 7/2/2007 12:24:14 AM  Jack Cust sat at his locker while most of his teammates chowed down at a table in the visitors locker room at Yankee Stadium. He sheepishly admitted to being tired after a rare full day in the field. Cust slugged his way to the finish Sunday, hitting a three-run homer in Oakland's seven-run second inning against Andy Pettitte and finishing with four RBIs in the Athletics' 11-5 victory over the slumping New York Yankees. Dan Haren (10-2) pitched 5 1-3 innings to win his career-best 10th straight decision and improve to 4-0 in seven career starts against the Yankees. He allowed a season-high five runs in his shortest outing since he lasted only five innings in a no-decision against New York on April 13.
Kameron Loe won his fourth consecutive start, and Michael Young had a pair of hits on Sunday to lead the Texas Rangers over the Boston Red Sox 2-1. Loe (5-6) allowed one run, six hits and two walks in six innings. He hasn't lost since being sent to Triple-A after winning just once in his first 15 starts; he was in the minors so briefly that he didn't have a chance to pitch there. Josh Beckett coughed up a four-run lead, giving up Sammy Sosa's 602nd career homer to break a fifth-inning tie as the Texas Rangers beat Boston 5-4 on Saturday night. The loss prevented Beckett (11-2) from keeping pace with C.C. Sabathia, who won his 12th game for Cleveland.
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 585th homer Sunday, a three-run shot that left him one behind Frank Robinson for sixth on the career list. The 37-year-old outfielder reached for a down-and-away pitch from St. Louis left-hander Mike Maroth in the third inning and sent it off the base of the batter's eye in center field, his 22nd homer of the season. The Cincinnati Reds outfielder has been on a hitting tear since he overcame a broken left hand that wiped out most of his spring training and two other medical problems. He missed time in April with an inflamed digestive tract and inflammation around the lungs. Since June 1, Griffey has hit 11 homers and put himself in position for his 13th All-Star selection in the fan voting.
Mike Hargrove resigned as manager of the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, saying his "passion has begun to fade" for baseball even though his team is the hottest club in the majors. Hargrove was to manage Sunday's game against Toronto and will be succeeded by John McLaren, his bench coach. McLaren's first game as manager will be Monday against Kansas City. The Mariners have won seven straight games, and Hargrove's startling resignation came hours before the team tried to extend its longest winning streak in more than four years.
MLB scores
5639. wabbit - 7/2/2007 12:24:32 AM  Showers wiped out most action at the All England Club on Saturday, and it was drizzling when 2004 champion Maria Sharapova finally finished her 6-3, 6-3 victory despite the No. 26-seeded Ai Sugiyama's animated protests it was too slick to play. In the only other singles match completed, defending champion Amelie Mauresmo beat No. 28 Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in 57 minutes to reach the fourth round. Mauresmo's serve was right on target. She hit 11 aces. Playing serve-and-volley tennis more than half the time, she won the point on 10 of 11 trips to the net in the first set.
Seven men's and women's singles matches were suspended in progress, and seven men's matches were postponed entirely until Monday -- when the forecast calls for more precipitation. The two-week tournament traditionally takes the middle Sunday off, and while rain-created backlogs in the past forced organizers to schedule matches on that day -- most recently in 2004 -- the referee's office announced Saturday that wouldn't be necessary this year, even though five of six days so far have been interrupted.
Three-time champion Venus Williams has time to ponder her second-set struggles against 71st-ranked Akiko Morigami of Japan. Williams won the first set 6-2 but was trailing 1-4 in the next when play was halted. The winner meets Sharapova for a quarterfinal berth. In other matches carried over to Monday, French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 11 Nadia Petrova, No. 12 Elena Dementieva and No. 14 Nicole Vaidisova each was up a set.
No. 7 Tomas Berdych took the first set of the only men's match that got under way. Among those who didn't play a point in their third-round matches Saturday: three-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt. Roger Federer got a bye into Wimbledon's quarterfinals when his fourth-round opponent, Tommy Haas, withdrew from the tournament Sunday with a torn stomach muscle. The 13th-seeded Haas and four-time defending champion Federer were scheduled to play in the fourth round Monday.
Vehicle blockers were set up in front of gates to the All England Club on Sunday as part of efforts to tighten security at Wimbledon after two foiled car bombings in London and a fiery attack on Glasgow's airport. Tournament organizers already had stepped up measures in recent days, including more stringent searches of bags carried by people onto the grounds.
Wimbledon
5640. alistairconnor - 7/2/2007 5:13:27 PM The Tour de France kicks off on Saturday with the prologue in central London. (Official site)
Jörg Jaksche has joined the whistleblowers team : Jaksche said that he had used drugs throughout his nine-year career, which included spells at the Polti, Telekom, CSC and Oncé teams. During the 1998 Tour de France the French police seized the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormone and steroids from the Festina team; according to Jaksche his Polti team, sponsored by a manufacturer of home appliances, appropriately hid their supply of EPO in a vacuum cleaner.
This year's favourite Alexander Vinokourov comments that "it is easy to be a witness when there is a fat cheque at the end of it", a reference to the fact that the German is apparently being paid for his story (by German paper Der Spiegel). Which is true enough, but doesn't actually undermine the credibility of the story.
So, will this year's tour be dope-free?
Does a bear use a public toilet? 5641. alistairconnor - 7/3/2007 3:13:59 PM OK so the Americas Cup stays in Europe.
Race isn't over yet -- another twenty minutes or so -- but Alinghi are clear out in front, and Team NZ copped a penalty in an astonishing kamikaze move -- they call it a dial-down -- at the top mark.
Oh well. I'd just like to point out that Alinghi are my home team, based in Geneva just a couple of hours' drive east of here. 5642. alistairconnor - 7/3/2007 3:36:31 PM Goddam! Just when you thought it was over...
The Swiss seem to have buggered themselves with the spinnaker pole, a few hundred metres out from the line. While they are flapping around helplessly under a flaccid kite, Team NZ powers past, and gets an 80 metre lead before Alinghi are powered up again. The Kiwis do their penalty turn... they are still ahead, a few metres out from the line, but downspeed... will they make it?
I'm not going to tell you.
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