THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2007
SPORTS
9B
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ashkan Dejagah of Wolfsburg celebrates his first goal during the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between Hertha BSC Berlin and VFL Wolfsburg in Berlin, Germany on Sept. 1, 2007. Dejagah, a German from Iran descent, refused to participate in Friday's under-21 soccer match between Germany and Israel for "political reasons."
German player refuses to compete
SOCCER
Iranian-born Dejagah cites 'political reasons' for refusal to play in Israel
BY KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN — An Iranian-born German soccer player's refusal to play in Israel has sparked a public outcry in Germany, with some Jewish leaders calling Tuesday for his exclusion from the German national team.
Ashkan Dejagah, who moved to Germany as a child, pulled out of Friday's game in Tel Aviv — a qualification match for the European Under-21 Championship — citing "political reasons."
"I have more Iranian than German blood in my veins. I am doing it out of respect. After all, my parents are Iranian," the 21-year-old midfielder told the Berlin daily tabloid B.Z.
The German soccer federation has accepted his decision.
"I have accepted the coach's decision because he explained to me
that the player has personal reasons," President Theo Zwanziger
said in a statement posted to the federation Web site. He did not immediately return repeated calls for comment Tuesday.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, called Dejagah's Dejagah.
The vice president of the Central Council, Dieter Graumann, told
"I have more Iranian than German blood in my veins. I am doing it out of respect. After all, my parents are Iranian."
ASHKAN DEJAGAH Soccer player for Germany
behavior "deeply unsportsmanlike."
Germany is "aware of its historical responsibility ... and it would be a big affront if this anti-Israeli behavior would be tolerated," Knobloch said in a statement. "I therefore expect the (soccer federation) to exclude the player from the German national team."
Spiegel Online it was unthinkable for a German national player to wage a private boycott against Israel.
It is not the first time an Iranian athlete has refused to compete in Israel, a country whose existence the hard-line Islamic regime
in Iran has refused to recognize. In recent months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn international criticism for publicly questioning the Nazi Holocaust and for calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
In 2004, Bayern Munich played a Champions League game against
Maccabi Tel Aviv without a key Iranian player who had been warned by his country not to travel to the Jewish state.
The Iranian sports federation had said striker Vahid Hashemian would face consequences at home if he traveled to Israel.
Hashemian's official reason for not attending the game was a back injury.
During the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens, an Iranian judo champion reportedly said he wouldn't fight an Israeli opponent, then claimed he was too overweight for the bout with Israel's Ehud Vaks.
He was disqualified. The International Judo Federation later concluded that he was not overweight.
At the 2001 judo world championships, Mahed Malekmohammadi of Iran did not compete against Yoel Razvozof of Israel.
>> NHL
Carolina beats Toronto with 7-goal onslaught
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO — Matt Cullen scored for the first time since returning to the Hurricanes, and six others added goals in Carolina's 7-1 rout of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Cullen, traded back to Carolina during the summer after one season with the New York Rangers, scored a power-play goal that gave the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead in the second period.
Justin Williams, Cory Stillman, Ray Whitney, Scott Walker, Jeff Hamilton and Eric Alsa also scored against goalie Vesa Toskala. Williams, Stillman, Cullen and Rod BrindAmour each had two assists.
Bryan McCabe scored the only Toronto goal.
Mats Sundin's assist on McCabe's goal was his 916th point with the Maple Leafs, tying him with Daryl Sittler for the club record.
The thoughts of both teams and the announced crowd of 19,224 were with Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake, who played his first game since going public with the news Monday that he is battling chronic myelogenous leukemia — a rare
form of the disease.
He is being treated with medication and doesn't expect to miss any playing time. Blake looked strong when he checked Tim Gleason against the end boards in the game's opening minute.
Toronto had a two-man advantage when McCabe opened the scoring at 4:21. Sundin sent a cross-ice pass into the circle to the left of the net to McCabe, who smacked the puck behind goalie Cam Ward.
Williams tied it at 6:46 by sending a wrist shot past Toskala as the goalie dropped to his knees.
Blake nearly scored his first goal as a Leaf when he tipped a pass, but Ward made the save.
Stillman put Carolina up 2-1 with a power-play goal 23.8 seconds before the end of the period. Stillman made his season debut after missing three games following a car accident.
Cullen made it 3-1 at 11:41 of the second period. He was a few feet in front of Toskala when he deflected in Stillmans pass as Darcy Tucker served an interference penalty.
Whitney made it 4-1 when he slipped a shot between Toskala's legs on a breakaway at 17:23.
CLEVELAND — Ray Chapman's spirit could be floating the Cleveland Indians through a season unlike any other in their history.
Strange, unexplainable, improbable, head-scratching events have surrounded this team for months, beginning almost from the moment the Indians rediscovered a lost piece of Chapman's legacy.
Unexpected snowstorms, thrilling comebacks, unlikely heroes, invading bugs who swarmed the New York Yankees in the playoffs.
It's been downright eerie for the Indians, who play their home games a few tape-measure home runs from the shores of Lake Erie.
Improbable haunts Indians
And Chapman, a popular short-stop killed by a pitch that struck him in the head on Aug. 17, 1920, has hung around to witness it all.
BY TOM WITHERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
MLB
In March, when the Indians opened Heritage Park, a walkthrough exhibit beyond the center-field wall at Jacobs Field honoring the club's storied history, a forgotten plaque of Chapman was unveiled and mounted on a wall
Last week, millions of tiny insects called "midges," descended upon the Jake in Game 2 of the playoffs and buzzed Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain, who threw two wild pitches in the eighth inning to help the Indians tie it 1-1 in a game they'd win 2-1 in 11 innings.
On Sept. 26, the Indians, who will meet the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS starting Friday, were the "home" team at Seattle's Safeco Field — three home games in three cities.
the season. More bad weather sent the Indians to Milwaukee to play their next "home" series against the Los Angeles Angels under Miller Park's roof.
Raymond Johnson Chapman's grave sits under a giant maple tree at historic Lake View Cemetery, where President James A. Garfield, famed detective Eliot Ness and industrialist John D. Rockefeller are among the other famously interred.
Cleveland didn't take over first place in the AL Central for good until Aug. 17 — the 87th anniversary of Chapman's death.
"This team," manager Eric Wedge said, "has seen it all."
The club's home opener on April 6 was postponed when a freak spring storm dumped more than 2 feet of lake-effect snow on Cleveland, which until that point had been enjoying a rare, mild winter.
9-week and 17-week sessions sterting soon. Most general education courses transfer to Kansas Regent schools.
Chapman's tragic saga had been reborn,
"Weirdest thing I've ever seen," said Jim Folk, the club's vice president of ballpark operations. "By far."
The snow started falling on a Friday and didn't stop for three days, forcing the club to reschedule a fourgame series with Seattle throughout
Things haven't been the same for the Indians since.
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Years of neglect had made the plaque's text illegible, but it was refurbished and placed alongside those honoring Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Larry Doby, Lou Boudreau and other Cleveland baseball greats.
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The gorgeous bronze memorial had been stashed away inside a crate when the Indians moved from Municipal Stadium to the Jake in 1994. Workers discovered it while cleaning out a storage room.
facing home plate.
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