2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DARYL KANSAS
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"It's heightened the awareness of the program and the kids. It's been a great platform for these kids to play on."
Coach Bonnie Henrickson
Kansas (22-14) won at least 20 games for the first time since the 1999-00 season despite losing freshman guard Angle Goodbrick to an ACL injury before the ack began.
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: What percent of Kansas' scoring returns next season?
A: 94 percent. The Jayhawks bring back the bulk of their offensive numbers despite losing four players (ivana Catic, Marija Zinic, Katie Smith and Rebecca Fiekert).
MLB
MLB
Royals add former KU third baseman to roster
CHICAGO — The Kansas City Royals claimed third baseman Travis Metcalf on waivers from the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
Metcalf, 26, was added to the Royals' 40-man roster and assigned to Triple-A Omaha. The University of Kansas product batted.249 with 11 homers and 35 RBIs in 217 at-bats with the Rangers over the last two seasons.
NASCAR
'Spinning Sam' Hornish keeps nickname intact
FORT WORTH, Texas — Smoke billowed from the rear tires when Sam Hornish Jr. lost control of his No. 77 car on the backstretch at Texas Motor Speedway.
While replays showed Jimmie Johnson narrowly avoiding the latest Hornish mishap, one commentator called him "Spinning Sam" on national television. That's probably not the nickname Hornish had in mind when the former IRL champion made the move to NASCAR, but his spin with about 100 laps to go in Sunday's Samson 500 kept intact a statistic that seems like a misprint. Hornish hasn't had a top-10 finish in any of his 43 Sprint cup races.
Gear heads can rub their eyes all they want. The stat is right. Funny thing is, Hornish isn't all that surprised.
"I would have thought we would have had a little more success by this point, but it's not been a thing where I'm going,' Man, this is so much harder than I thought it was," Hornish said last week.
It would have been easy to decide otherwise. Hornish was a rock star on the IRL circuit.
Races like Texas fit Hornish better because they're similar to the oval racing that dominates the IRL schedule. But the Sprint Cup races are much longer, another area where he's had to adjust. His Texas spin, from which Hornish recovered to salvage a 17th-place finish, came just about the time IRL races end at TMS.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
FRIDAY
Tennis
Tulane, 2 p.m.
lawrence
Baseball
Oklahoma State,
6 p.m.
Lawrence
Softball
Oklahoma, 7 p.m.
Lawrence
Men's Golf River Landing Inter collegiate, All Day Wallace, N.C.
Associated Press
SATURDAY
Women's Rowing Kansas State, 11 a.m. Kansas City, Kan.
Softball
Oklaahoma, 1 p.m.
Lawrence
Soccer
Arkansas, 2 p.m.
Lawrence
Baseball
Oklahoma State,
2 p.m.
lawrence
Men's Golf River Landing Intercollegiate, All Day Wallace, N.C.
Track & Field John Jacobs Invitational, All Day Norman, Okla.
SUNDAY
Baseball
Oklahoma State,
1 p.m.
Lawrence
Tiger Woods' birthday will age me,too
The world's greatest golfer made me feel really old on Wednesday.
*OK, here's the thing: When you're a senior in college, and you are about to graduate, you start to get a little reflective. You start to think about the four years that have just barreled past you. And really, everything makes you feel old.
You start to think about classes you had when you were a little pup freshman, and old faces you've long forgotten, and the gallons and gallons of discount light beer you've downed.
And then you look at the little-pup freshman, who gets to live three more years of this glorious anti-reality called college, and you feel old again.
But on Wednesday, Eldrick "Tiger" Woods made me feel old in a totally different way.
Today, of course, is the first round of The Masters. And Tiger Woods, perhaps the most dominant athlete in the universe, will play his first major since winning the U.S. Open on a torn ACL and a fractured leg last June.
Woods
And Tiger Woods, who can maneuver a golf course in the same manner that Michelangelo could maneuver a chapel ceiling, will turn 34 this
year.*
*You know, nothing makes you feel older than watching your childhood sports heroes age. Did you realize Derek Jeter turns 35 this summer? Carlos Beltran turns 32 this month. Jacque Vaughn just turned 34.
His hair is thinning. His face is beginning to wrinkle. He is no longer a kid.
Tiger is no longer the kid who shook up the world at the 1997
Masters. He's no longer the kid who stalked the back nine with that baggy red sweater hanging off his thin frame. He's no longer the kid who buried his tearful face in the chest of his father after he had won by 12 strokes.
So yes, Tiger Woods is no longer a kid. But today, he'll again step foot on the grass at Augusta National, the azaleas blooming in the background, and he'll be a little wiser and his leg will be healthy. And Tiger will once again climb onto the No. 1 teebox with his otherworldly stare intently focused toward the green. And then he'll pull out his driver and nuke a moonshot down the right side of the fairway.
And you'll hear that ferocious whipping sound as the ball leaves the clubface and the crowd will hush. And then someone will yell,
And maybe for a second, we won't feel so old.
... AND A BOY SHALL LEAD THEM
Here's a quick story about Josh
Pastner
Pastner, the 31-year-old boy wonder, who was hired to replace John Calipari at Memphis. When I was
When I was a freshman
at Shawnee Mission South High School, I went to our high school summer basketball camp.
One of our coaches was just a young 20-something aspiring college coach, and he had heard a story about a young 20-something who had just been hired as an assistant at Arizona.
You guessed it, that assistant was Pastner, who was just 24 or 25 at the time. Pastner's story has turned into somewhat of a college basketball legend. He walked on at Arizona, became the Wildcats' video coordinator a few years later, and then became one of the youngest assistants in the country under Arizona's Lute Olson. I even remember a story of how Pastner, in his early 20s, sent in a resume to an NBA team that had a head
coaching vacancy.
Anyway, during our summer basketball camp, my high school coach set up a speaker phone in a classroom, and Pastner took the time to talk to talk to us about basketball, dreams and a few life lessons.
We don't know how Pastner will do at Memphis. We can't yet. He could be the next Calipari, or he could be the next Quin Snider.
MLB
But I know Pastner has been preparing his whole life for this moment, and as a great sports-writer once said, you always root for the good story.
And I think Pastner has a pretty good story.
Edited by Carly Halvorson
Royals beat White Sox 2-0 Greinke's solid start helps Kansas City gain first victory
AP Sports Writer
ANDREW SELIGMAN
CHICAGO — Zack Greinke pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Kansas City bullpen was perfect Wednesday night, giving the Royals a 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Royals catcher Miguel Olivo, left, acknowledges the six innings of shutout pitching by Zack Greinke, right, as Greinke leaves the game in the seventh inning of their baseball game against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Wednesday, April 8, 2009.
Greinke (1-0) struck out seven and walked three, winning for the first time in seven career decisions at U.S. Cellular Field.
Relievers Juan Cruz and Joakim Soria retired all nine batters to preserve the Royals' first victory of the season. In Tuesday's opener, Chicago rallied to win when Jim Thome hit a three-run homer in the eighth innning off reliever Kyle Farnsworth.
Mike Aviles doubled and scored in the third inning, then singled and scored in the fifth for the Royals. That was enough for Greinke, who simply outpitched Gavin Flovd (0-1).
A 13-game winner last season,
Greinke left after Jermaine Dye led
off the seventh with a single. Cruz set
down Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski
and Alexei Ramirez before retiring
the side in the eighth.
Soria pitched the ninth for his first save after converting 42 of 45
opportunities last year.
earned runs in 28 1-3 innings during spring training.
The White Sox wasted a solid performance by Floyd, who allowed six hits and struck out nine in seven innings. The team leader with 17 wins last season, he retired the first eight batters before Aviles doubled off the center-field wall and Coco Crisp drove a ground-rule double to the warning track in center.
The only hits he allowed were two singles by Dye and one by Pierzynski. Not bad, considering Greinke was 0-6 with a 7.78 ERA in his first eight appearances — including six starts — at U.S. Cellular Field. Then again, expectations are high in Kansas City. And Greinke is a big reason why. He went 13-10 last season while setting career highs in strikeouts (183) and innings (202 1-3) and posting the best ERA (3.47) by a Royals starter in 11 years.
It became 2-0 when Aviles led off the fifth with a single and scored from third on Mark Teahen's single.
BY RONALD BLUM Associated Press
MLB
Teams cut payrolls for their active rosters and disabled lists by $47 million from opening day in 2008 to the first day of this season, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. That comes out to a drop of 1.7 percent.
NEW YORK - The recession has hit baseball salaries.
The 25-year-old Greinke eased any concerns after allowing 29
"Clubs were cautious all winter with regards to the economy and were concerned the economy might have an impact on club revenue," said Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. "The spending reflected that for many clubs."
The drop is the first since 2004 and just the second since the 1994-95 strike.
Looking at payroll team by team, 16 of the 30 major league clubs cut payroll. Among those who lowered spending — the mighty New York Yankees.
While the Yankees led the major leagues with a $201.4 million payroll, they trimmed salaries by $7.6 million from the start of last season. The difference is that they added high-priced free agents CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, they also let Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu and Carl Pavano leave, watched Mike Mussina retire and more than halved pitcher Andy Pettitte's guaranteed pay.
Others cut more, led by San Diego ($30,9 million), the Chicago White Sox ($25.1 million).
Detroit ($23.6 million) and Seattle
($19.1 million).
The 14 who increased salaries were led by AL champion Tampa Bay ( $19.5 million ), the Chicago Cubs ( $16.5 million ), Florida ($15.0 million ), and World Series champion Philadelphia ( $14.7 million ).
"The company would have had every right to reduce the payroll until the new owner came," said Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, whose team is in the process of being sold from Sam Zell's Tribune Co. to a group headed by Tom Ricketts, a member of the founding family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.
Instead, the Cubs invested in switch-hitter Milton Bradley to try and break their more than century-long streak without a World Series title.
And while the 10 highest spenders lowered payroll by an average of $7.8 million, the 10 lowest raised spending by an average of $4.5 million, a small step toward commissioner Bud Selig's goal of closing the gap between rich and poor teams.
"We're seeing a continuation of the trend of mid- and small-market teams developing their own talent and keeping their own talent," DuPuy said, "and I think that's reflected in the totals that you see."
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The slow free-agent market, meanwhile, has drawn the attention of the players' association, but it has not yet decided whether to file a collusion grievance.
"Obviously, there were a lot of economic conditions going on," union head Donald Fehr said. "My guess is not the same factors were considered by everyone, but I don't know that to be the case."
On the highest payroll list, the Yankees were followed by the crosstown rival Mets at $135.7 million. Both teams move into revenue-boosting new ballparks this season.
The Cubs are third at $135.1 million, followed by Boston ($123 million), Detroit ($115 million), the Los Angeles Angels ($113.7 million) and Philadelphia ($113 million).
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