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6423. wabbit - 8/31/2009 1:37:54 AM 
Summer Bird isn't the other Bird anymore. The Belmont Stakes winner came charging off the far turn and splashed his way to victory in the $1 million Travers Stakes at rain-soaked Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, winning the same pair of races that his sire won. Now that Summer Bird is the only 3-year-old male with two Grade 1 wins, the son of Birdstone almost certainly moves to the head of his class. Of course, Rachel Alexandra is No. 1 3-year-old filly and leading contender for Horse of the Year. But Summer Bird is the word in the boy's world - ahead of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, who missed the Travers as he recovers from throat surgery, and ahead of Hold Me Back and Quality Road, who finished third in the slop as the 3-2 favorite, five lengths behind the winner. Charitable Man was fourth, followed by Warrior's Reward, Kensei and Our Edge. Jockeys who rode in the Travers pledged 10 percent of their earnings to establish a fund for 23-year-old apprentice rider Michael Straight, who suffered spinal injuries, including four broken vertebrae, in a spill during a race at Arlington Park on Aug. 26.
Capt. Candyman Can was declared the winner of the $300,000 King's Bishop Stakes after first-place finisher Vineyard Haven was disqualified by the stewards for interference in the stretch. Vineyard Haven, ridden by Alan Garcia, bumped Capt. Candyman Can several times as they dueled for the lead.
Rachel Alexandra will run next Saturday against older boys in the $750,000 Woodward Stakes.
6424. wabbit - 8/31/2009 1:38:18 AM  Mark Teixeira homered and drove in four runs, Johnny Damon also went deep and the New York Yankees polished off a three-game sweep of the struggling Chicago White Sox with an 8-3 victory Sunday. Alfredo Aceves (9-1) provided stellar relief pitching after Joba Chamberlain's abbreviated outing, and the streaking Yankees won for the 20th time in 26 games. Derek Jeter scored three times for the AL East leaders, who boosted baseball's best record to 82-48. They are 31-11 since the All-Star break, also the top mark in the majors. Teixeira is making a push for AL MVP honors. The switch-hitting slugger, in his first season with the Yankees after signing a $180 million, eight-year contract, has 32 homers and 101 RBIs. He has reached 30 home runs and 100 RBIs for six straight seasons, joining St. Louis star Albert Pujols as the only major leaguers to accomplish the feat.
Paul Byrd, making his first major league start since last September, pitched six shutout innings and the Boston Red Sox completed a three-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. The win was the sixth in seven games for Boston, which opened the day 2 1/2 games ahead of Texas in the AL's wild-card race. Byrd (1-0), out of baseball after finishing last year with the Red Sox, signed a minor league contract on Aug. 5. He gave up three hits and walked three. Scoring single runs in each of the first four innings, the Red Sox sent Roy Halladay (13-8) to his third consecutive loss for the first time since last April.
Edgar Renteria hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning and the San Francisco Giants pulled even in the NL wild-card race with Colorado, beating the Rockies 9-5 Sunday for a three-game sweep. The Giants moved into a tie in the NL West with Colorado, six games behind first-place Los Angeles. The Rockies lost their season-high fifth in a row. San Francisco swept the Rockies at home for the first time since April 8-10, 2005. Last week, the Giants lost three of four at Coors Field despite leading every game. Renteria homered with two outs to overcome a 5-2 deficit, connecting two pitches after Rafael Betancourt (0-1) relieved Franklin Morales. Renteria hit his eighth career grand slam and second in two years against Betancourt.
MLB news
6425. wabbit - 8/31/2009 1:38:47 AM 
California came up big late to win the Little League World Series. Bulla Graft's sharp single scored the go-ahead run in the fourth inning and Kiko Garcia pitched three-plus scoreless innings of relief to lead Chula Vista to a 6-3 victory over Taoyuan, Taiwan to take the tournament title.
With the U.S.-partisan crowd on their feet, Garcia closed out the victory by striking out Yu Chieh Kao. The California fans yelled "USA! USA."
The teams shook hands before California celebrated, then invited Taiwan to accompany them on the customary victory lap around Lamade Stadium on a sun-splashed afternoon. They celebrated the United States' fifth straight Little League championship...
6426. wabbit - 9/12/2009 3:35:39 PM I am way behind here!
On October 5, Rachel Alexandra made history at Saratoga Race Course by becoming the first female to win the prestigious Woodward Stakes, holding off Macho Again by a head. The sensational three-year-old ran an electrifying race against the older boys for her ninth consecutive victory and all but clinched Horse of the Year honors. Rachel Alexandra dueled early with 2008 Belmont Stakes winner Da’Tara before taking the lead along the backstretch. She set a blistering early pace on the way to running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.29. On the turn for home, it looked for a brief moment as though the filly would be caught, but regular rider Calvin Borel wasn’t bashful about using the whip, first left-handed, then right-handed to keep her in the lead. As they crossed the finish line, Borel raised his right hand in a No. 1 salute and pointed to racing’s biggest star. Despite the lure of an extra $1 million by the Breeders' Cup, Rachel Alexandra's co-owner said his sensational 3-year-old filly won't run in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 7. Earlier Friday, in an effort to lure Rachel Alexandra to the Breeders' Cup to run against undefeated Zenyatta, the Breeders' Cup said it would add $1 million to the winner's share of the Classic if both horses ran in America's richest race. Jackson put an end to that possibility quickly, reiterating his dislike of Santa Anita's synthetic surface. 6427. wabbit - 9/12/2009 3:36:00 PM  With one of his classic, inside-out swings, Derek Jeter sent a sharp grounder skimming through the infield. And there it was, the record-setting hit that pushed him past Lou Gehrig. Jeter broke the New York Yankees' hit record held by Gehrig for more than seven decades on Friday night with an opposite-field single against Baltimore. It gave Jeter 2,722 hits, one more than Gehrig, whose Hall of Fame career was cut short by illness in 1939. The captain kept right on going, too, with an RBI single in the fourth that put New York up 4-1. He left the game after a 67-minute rain delay in the top of the seventh when manager Joe Girardi pulled most of his starters with the Yankees trailing 10-4.
Hiroki Kuroda figures if he got hit with both a ball and a bat within a month he might need to quit pitching and walk away from baseball all together. Kuroda dodged the barrel of a broken bat that flew in his direction and retired 19 straight during one stretch, Casey Blake homered and the Los Angeles Dodgers matched their 2008 win total by beating the archrival San Francisco Giants 10-3 on Friday night. Los Angeles (84-58) maintained a two-game division lead over Colorado, which rallied to win at San Diego. The Rockies extended their NL wild-card lead to 5 1/2 games over the Giants. Kuroda (6-6), making just his second start since missing three weeks after sustaining a concussion Aug. 15 when hit in the head by a line drive, quickly ducked out of the way and off the mound when Matt Cain 's bat splintered on his third-inning groundout and sailed onto the dirt past second base. That had to be a scary moment for the right-hander, who gave up two hits to start the second then got 19 straight outs before John Bowker's one-out triple in the eighth.
MLB news
6428. wabbit - 9/12/2009 3:37:35 PM 17-year-old Melanie Oudin from Marietta, Ga., kept erasing big deficits and upsetting older, taller, higher-ranked players at the U.S. Open, generating more and more interest in her magical ride. Her gutsy play, aw-shucks approach and those pink-and-yellow sneakers with "BELIEVE" on the heels carried Oudin all the way to the quarterfinals at the American Grand Slam tournament. That's where her surprising story ended Wednesday night with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 9-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Wozniacki will play her first Grand Slam semifinal against another 19-year-old, Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. The 50th-ranked Wickmayer -- never before past the second round at a major tournament -- beat Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 7-5, 6-4. The other women's semifinal features two far more familiar names: defending champion Williams against 2005 champion Kim Clijsters.
Whenever the rain lets up, the men's semifinals will feature Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic, and either Rafa Nadal or Fernando Gonzalez vs. Juan Martin del Potro. The Nadal-Gonzalez match is still on hold with Nadal up one set 7-6(4), 6-6(3). 6429. wabbit - 9/13/2009 12:32:38 AM Whatever respect I had for Michael Jordan as a basketball player will be forever tarnished by his "speech" at his induction into the NBA Hall of Fame. What a petty, small, bitter 'guy' he is. ...Worst of all, he flew his old high school teammate, Leroy Smith, to Springfield for the induction. Remember, Smith was the upperclassman his coach, Pop Herring, kept on varsity over him as a high school sophomore. He waggled to the old coach, “I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.”... Jerk. He should never be in basketball again, in any capacity. Not the front office, certainly not in coaching and definitely not in PR. He may well have been the best basketball player ever, but what an asshole he is as a person. He was introduced as a role model — I sure hope not.6430. wabbit - 9/13/2009 2:45:44 PM Serena Williams turned what had been a scintillating US Open women’s match into an ugly and improbable spectacle that gave Kim Clijsters, an unseeded wild-card entry making a joyful return to Grand Slam tennis, a 6-4, 7-5 victory she could not even celebrate.
Clijsters, a 26-year-old from Belgium who is the mother of a toddler, had frustrated and dominated Williams all night. After Clijsters won the first set, Williams slammed her racket to the court twice, mangling the frame in disgust. She walked to her chair, whacking the net with her racket on the way, and earned a warning for racket abuse.
Clijsters stayed composed. She had a 6-5 lead in the second set, and Williams was serving to send the set into a tiebreaker. At 15-30, a lineswoman called Williams for a foot fault on her second serve. Williams argued angrily, then walked back to the baseline. But she could not let it rest. She approached the judge and appeared to threaten her, shaking a ball in her face, according to reporters courtside and television replays.
The chair umpire, Louise Engzell of Sweden, asked the lineswoman to approach and explain what happened. Engzell then assessed Williams a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, with Brian Earley, the tournament referee, in agreement.
But Williams had no point to give — the penalty ended the match, and the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, which was only about half-full after two days of rain delays, was stunned. So, too, was Clijsters, who had not even played in the Open since she won it in 2005. Suddenly, and strangely, she found herself in the final once again.
Clijsters will play ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who romped over Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, 6-3, 6-3, in the other women’s semifinal, which was played simultaneously on Louis Armstrong Stadium before barely 300 fans... 6431. wabbit - 9/15/2009 9:20:03 PM Kim Clijsters made history Sunday night, capping a comeback from two years out of tennis to become the first unseeded woman to win the US Open -- and the first mom to win a major since 1980 -- with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki. When it was over, Clijsters collapsed to the ground and started crying -- tears of joy, probably mixed in with a little bit of shock, too. Her 18-month-old daughter, Jada, watched from a suite with a pacifier in her mouth, but later came down to the court to take part in the celebration. Clijsters beat both Williams sisters and two players seeded in the teens. She matched Venus and Serena power shot for power shot and showed she could play Wozniacki's patient game -- and play it better. Clijsters didn't even have a ranking coming into this tournament because she hadn't played enough tournaments to get on the list. She'll come in at around No. 20 when the new rankings are released this week, but probably won't try to improve on that right away.
One day after the biggest win of Juan Martin del Potro's career, the 20-year-old Argentine managed to one-up himself. With a shocking 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 victory Monday night, del Potro snapped Roger Federer's streak of five straight U.S. Open titles in dramatic fashion. Federer, who had lost just one match since April, was trying to become the first man to win six consecutive American championships since Bill Tilden in 1920-25. The top-ranked Swiss had won 40 consecutive matches here, dating back to a semifinal loss to David Nalbandian in 2003. But with a thunderous serve and punishing forehand, the 6-foot-6 del Potro pounded both streaks into history. Having upset third-ranked Rafael Nadal in straight sets in Sunday's semifinal, Del Potro became the first player to defeat both Federer and Nadal -- the era's two most decorated players -- in the same Grand Slam tournament...At four hours and six minutes, Monday's match was the second-longest final in U.S. Open history after John McEnroe's classic five-set victory over Bjorn Borg in 1980. 6432. wabbit - 10/4/2009 12:58:04 AM For weeks, the United States Olympic Committee and the national sports governing bodies it oversees had settled into an uncomfortable truce. Despite a year of upheaval and conflict, the parties had agreed to set aside their differences in solidarity for Chicago’s bid to win the 2016 Summer Games.
The truce ended as quickly as Chicago was dispatched from the race won by Rio de Janeiro. In surprisingly frank terms, a number of influential people in American Olympic sports questioned the performance of the U.S.O.C.’s new management team and said its two top executives were ill-equipped to navigate the insular world of international sports.
Chicago’s last-place finish in the I.O.C. voting on Friday in Copenhagen was the latest blow in a year marked by the departure of major sponsors, layoffs at U.S.O.C. headquarters, controversy over the salary of the acting chief executive, and the failed plan for an Olympic television network... So did we not pay off someone who needed their palm greased? Did we insult someone who had a lot of influence? If the IOC votes based on favoritism, or on whose Olympic Committee they like the best, then maybe the USA should stop wasting money trying to get the Olymipics held in the USA. If it was more that the people of the US are lukewarm at best to having the Olympics held here, then we deserved to lose.
There was a lot of doubt about having the Olympics held in Athens, and there were some problems, but maybe Rio will have learned a thing or two. If they can get their crime problem under control, at least to the point of making travel on the roads from the airport reasonably safe, then good for them. I think they'll put on quite a show.6433. wabbit - 11/8/2009 5:40:07 PM  ZENYATTA!! I know I wasn't the only one watching at home who was on my feet when Zenyatte came down the stretch. If she doesn't get Horse of the Year, all the voters should be investigated. There is no way Rachel Alexandra, good as she is, deserves it more than Zenyatta. RA's connections have avoided every opportunity they had to run against Zenyatta, and that says it all for me. RA is 8 for 8 and has beaten the boys three times this year - great, fantastic, but not good enough. Zenyatta's people took a chance yesterday, risking her perfect record to give her the chance to prove she really is all that she seems. She would have won the Distaff without question. They put her in the Classic, a race at a distance she had never run, against a loaded international field of colts and stallions she had never run against (and that RA will probably never meet). Despite some drama at the start, she mowed them down. She beat Gio Ponti, a colt who has been getting some HotY support. If that isn't Horse of the Year material, I don't know what is.
With Zenyatta out of the race, her stablemate Life Is Sweet got her chance to shine, and she won the Distaff. The little filly She Be Wild, who's owners kept her when they were unable to sell her for $19,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales spring 2-year-old in training sale, won the Juvenile Fillies and may end up as the 2-year-old Filly of the Year.
Goldikova scored her second victory against the boys in the BC Mile. Her trainer, Freddy Head, won this same race two years in a row as a jockey on Miesque, a filly who was the first to win the same race in consecutive years in the BC. I don't usually pick favorites to win, but I had the exacta in this race, with Courageous Cat as my place horse.
It was a good year at the Breeder's Cup. No horses were injured, discounting Quality Road cutting himself a bit at the gate for the Classic and being withdrawn. The Sprint had a four-way photo finish, with 25-1 shot Dancing in Silks getting the win. Dancing in Silks was one of three geldings to win a big race. Favorite California Flag won the $1 million Turf Sprint, and longshot Furthest Land won the $1 million Dirt Mile a year after being claimed for $35,000 at Belmont Park. Never underestimate the eye of a handicapper when he decides to put his money down to actually buy a horse!
6434. alistairconnor - 11/14/2009 3:50:31 PM 
Unexpectedly, New Zealand have qualified for the World Cup in South Africa next year (the one that counts : soccer, my dears.) They beat Bahrein 1-0 for the privilege. The last time, indeed the only other time they qualified, was Spain in 1982.
At least I'm guaranteed a team to cheer for. France (champions 1998, lest we forget) aren't even qualified... yet. They have to knock out Ireland to make the cut. First leg in Dublin tonight, second in Paris next week.
6435. alistairConnor - 11/19/2009 12:11:15 AM Soccer again tonight. Lots of cars honking in the streets earlier, I look at the flags: it's Algeria who's qualified.
France won 1-0 in Dublin on Sunday. And now we have the return match : 1-0 to the Irish at full time, so now we're having extra time. Electric. From what I've seen, the Irish deserve to qualify... for balls and determination alone. 6436. alistairConnor - 11/19/2009 12:13:52 AM And while I was typing that... France scores! A head by captain Thierry Henry.
And the goal is contested... the Italian coach of the Irish is going ballistic...
But it's 1-1 for the moment, which qualifies France for the World Cup... but there's another quarter of an hour to go... 6437. alistairconnor - 11/19/2009 1:57:51 PM 
Well! I overlooked it last night (I was cooking dinner at the time), but Thierry Henry apparently took himself for God, or for Diego Maradona...
France's winning goal was set up by a deliberate handball by our national Titi... as depicted unequivocally above...
The Irish armed forces are rumoured to be mobilising, to come and teach us a lesson. Or more reliably :
The Irish justice minister demanded a rematch today after a blatant handball put France into the World Cup finals. Dermot Ahern lashed out at the governing body Fifa after the Republic of Ireland were beaten by a controversial extra-time goal illegally set up by the France captain, Thierry Henry.
Come on fellas. It's only a game, you know.
6438. vonKreedon - 11/19/2009 5:59:10 PM Any chance that they get a rematch? 6439. alistairConnor - 11/20/2009 1:10:22 AM Fifa told the Irish to get stuffed. They've got the result they wanted.
It hurts me to be cynical about the French football team. I don't know if you remember, I waxed lyrical about the 1998 team, I became French in identifying with them. Thierry Henry is the last survivor of that glorious era... 6440. wabbit - 11/21/2009 1:56:03 AM from SI: FIFA rejected Ireland's request to replay its World Cup qualifier against France on Friday, but Thierry Henry said a rematch would be "the fairest solution" to resolve the furor over his extra-time hand ball that set up the deciding goal.
Turning down an appeal by the Football Association of Ireland as well as pressure from lawmakers and football figures in both countries, FIFA said it could not interfere and the referee's decision to allow the goal stands.
"The result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed," FIFA said in a statement. "As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final."
Henry used his left hand to keep the ball from going out of play, then passed to William Gallas, who headed in the decisive goal. At the time of Henry's handball, which went unpunished by Swedish referee Martin Hansson despite fervent appeals by Ireland players, the match was 17 minutes from reaching a penalty shootout.
The 1-1 draw at Stade de France put the French through to next year's World Cup in South Africa 2-1 on aggregate... Henry should ask them to rewrite their statement so it reads WILL not, not CAN not.6441. wabbit - 11/21/2009 2:05:05 AM Ok, the Patriots screwed the pooch last Sunday. Tom Brady had to waste a time out because the wrong guys were on the field. But I'm not convinced Bill Belichick made the wrong call. He gambled, yes, but Brady might have pulled it out. Not the call I would have made, but it isn't my call to make. It didn't play out. Oh well. Nobody died, it's a FOOTBALL (American style) GAME, not brain surgery. We won't have home field advantage during the playoffs. Deal with it.
Week 10 recaps. 6442. wabbit - 11/21/2009 2:13:33 AM Good for her - the Michelle Wie era has, at long last, begun. After years of injury and controversy, too much hype and money and not enough birdies, Wie won her first pro tournament Sunday afternoon at the LPGA's Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Typical of Wie's highly melodramatic career, the win didn't come easily, as she survived a final round dogfight with a half-dozen of the game's biggest names, ultimately making five straight nerve-jangling pars and then a gorgeous birdie on the final hole to close out a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer.
Along the way Wie displayed both her awesome talent and her enduring star power, reminding everyone what all the fuss was about in the first place. It was a deeply personal triumph, capping a period of tremendous maturation on and off the golf course.
Padraig Harrington is an Irishman and a sportsman, so it's no surprise he has an opinion on France's controversial win over Ireland in the final World Cup qualifying match this week...
At the Euro Tour's Dubai World Championship finale, reporters asked Harrington how he felt about Henry's handball considering Harrington plays a sport where players routinely call penalties on themselves.
"Golf has a different attitude," Harrington said. "If somebody makes a mistake and ... putting your hand out as a reaction is a mistake, the great thing in golf is if we do do something wrong, we hold our hand up and say, 'Hey, hang on a second, didn't mean to do that, sorry.' You go back and you take your penalty."
Soccer is obviously a different sport and Harrington said he understood that players don't call penalties on themselves. (Although Henry did say a rematch would be "the fairest solution" to the controversy.) It was what happened after the game that really irked him.
"Celebration of the cheating was particularly galling, and that's as far as it goes," Harrington said.
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