THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MAY 7, 2007
SPORTS
MLB
3B
Jeff Zelevansky/ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens throws to the plate in the first inning against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium in New York on Friday June 29, 2001. Clemens returned to the Yankees on Sunday making a dramatic announcement to fans from the owner's box during a game against the Seattle Mariners.
Clemens returns to Yankees
BY RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Roger Clemens returned to the New York Yankees, making a dramatic announcement *to fans from the owner's box during 'Sunday's game against the Seattle Mariners.
At the end of the seventh-inning stretch, Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard told fans to turn their attention to the box, where Clemens was standing with a microphone. As the video scoreboard in right-center showed Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young award winner made the announcement himself.
"Well, they came and got me out of Texas and I can tell you it's a privilege to be back." Clemens said. "I'll be talking to vall soon."
Clemens, who will turn 45 in August, agreed to a minor league contract and most likely will join the Yankees after spending several weeks getting into shape. He hopes to be pitching in the major leagues by late May or June 1.
"I'm about at playing weight right now," he said. "I feel pretty good."
The Rocket pitched for New York from 1999-2003. He left the Yankees after the 2003 season, saying he
was retiring, but after Andy Pettitte signed with the Houston Astros. Clemens followed his friend to their hometown team.
Pettite returned to the Yankees this year, and Clemens followed on Sunday.
"It's another challenge," said Clemens, eighth on the career list with 348 victories. "I expect to do things at the age of 44, 45 like I did at 25."
He chose New York over two of his other former teams, the Astros and Boston Red Sox.
"Let's face it — these guys know how to win," Clemens said, adding that captain Derek Jeter pressed him to return as New York struggled early this season.
The Yankees have been beset by a rash of injuries to their pitching staff, contributing to a disappointing 14-15 start. But they beat the Mariners 5-0 on Sunday for their fifth victory in six games after losing eight of nine.
"Derek was on me once a week, especially when things weren't working out," Clemens said. "I see the problems with the pitching staff, too, the injuries are incredible."
Clemens said the entire process happened within the past 48 hours or so, and he didn't even tell Petitte or
Jeter that it was a done deal.
"Andy is going to be pretty upset with me!" Clemens said.
Clemens will have the same travel privileges he had with Houston last year, when he sometimes skipped road trips if he wasn't scheduled to pitch. Instead, he spent the time at home with his family or working with Astros minor leaguers.
Yankees manager Joe Torre ran that issue by several clubhouse leaders who signed off on the arrangement, general manager Brian Cashman said.
"It's time to go to work." Clemens said. "I've got a lot of work to do to get back up here."
Traded from Toronto to the Yankees before the 1999 season, Clemens helped New York win consecutive World Series titles in his first two seasons in the Bronx. He won the AL Cy Young Award with a 20-3 record in 2001 and was a member of pennant winners that year and in 2003.
"As I pledged just a few days ago, I will do everything within my power to support Brian Cashman, Joe Torre and this team as we fight to bring a 27th championship to New York," owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement.
MLB
BY R.B. FALLSTROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cardinals recall outfielder
ST.LOUIS — Persistent knee pain landed St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Preston Wilson on the 15-day disabled list Sunday, and the team replaced him with its best minor league hitter.
Outfielder Ryan Ludwick, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Memphis, was batting a team-leading .340 with eight home runs, and his 36 RBI and 27 runs led the Pacific Coast League. Manager Tony La Russa immediately plugged him into the struggling lineup that trailed the NL in runs, batting him sixth against the Houston Astros on Sunday. He played right field.
"He's playing well and that spot is open," La Russa said. "He's excited, ready to go, so let him go."
The team also purchased the contract of right-handed reliever Brian Falkenborg, who leads the PCL with nine saves and was 0-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 11 games.
Wilson was batting .219 with one homer and five RBI in 64 at bats. He had been getting a lot of playing time
with outfielder Juan Encarnacion on a rehab assignment following offseason wrist surgery, but La Russa said hed experienced persistent pain and swelling since spring training.
La Rusa also said Wilson has had arthritis in the knee for several seasons. The team felt that Wilson would need probably three weeks of rest and rehab.
"The doctors feel like he should get off of it for a couple of weeks and hopefully get it right," La Russa said.
"He's getting better, but if he's not ready we don't need him to come up here and struggle," La Russa said. "It takes a while to get your stroke."
'97. The 28-year-old Ryan Ludwick is in the majors for the first time since 2005.
La Russia said Encarnacion, who was batting .146 with two RBI in 41 at bats, needs more time.
Ludwick's brother, pitcher Eric Ludwick, played for the Cardinals in 1996-97 and was sent to Oakland in the deal for Mark McGwire in
"A lot of people could have given up," Ludwick said. "I didn't give up, I've been swinging the bat pretty well down there and I want to carry it
"He's playing well and that spot is open. He's excited, ready to go, so let him go."
TONY LA RUSSA
Cardinals manager on outfielder
Ryan Ludwick
for a 15.00 ERA
Dove had been a short-term call up, holding a spot for Chris Carpenter. Carpenter, whose elbow failed to respond to a rehab program and rest, will undergo surgery on Tuesday to shave bone spurs and will be sidelined three months.
The Cardinals optioned reliever Dennis Dove, who allowed a grand slam in Saturday's 13-0 loss to the Astros. In three games Dove allowed two homers and five earned runs in three innings
Right-handed reliever Brad Thompson will fill Carpenter's spot in the rotation on Tuesday.
Golfer wins playoff for first victory of this year
BROKEN ARROW, Okla.
— Mi Hyun Kim won a playoff on the first extra hole with Hall of Famer Juli Inkster to capture the SemGroup Championship on Sunday, the South Korean's first LPGA Tour victory of the year.
BY MURRAY EVANS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kim missed a 5-footer for par on the 18th to force the playoff with Inkster, who had birdied the hole minutes earlier. On her second try at No. 18 in the playoff, Kim sank a 4-foot putt for par after Inkster made bogey.
Kim started the round one shot behind the leaders and won for the eight time on the tour. Inkster, who will turn 47 next month, would have been the oldest player to win an LPGA Tour event. She closed with a 2-under 69 in regulation.
》LPGA
Kim, who shot a 71, and Inkster finished regulation one shot ahead of Ai Miyazoto and Angela Stanford. Three others were at 1 under, including Lorena Ochoa and Stephanie Louden, who began the day in a four-way tie for first.
Kim, whose last tour victory in 2006 came after a three-hole playoff with Natalie Gulbis in the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, hit her second shot in the playoff to the fringe on the back of the green, about 35 feet from the hole, and two-putted.
Six players held the lead at some point on a cloudy, humid day. The par-71 Cedar Ridge Country Club course was soggy from storms that hit Oklahoma the past week.
Inkster's second shot sailed over the green. She chipped 8 feet past the hole but missed the par putt right.
Moments after Inkster had bogeyed No. 17 to fall out of the lead, Kim curled in a breaking 15-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to take a two-shot edge. Inkster hit a 6-foot
Kim hit her tee shot into the rough on the par-4 17th, but salvaged par, knocking a 5-foot putt into the center of the hole. On the 18th, her tee shot landed in the middle of the fairway but she hit into a greenside bunker and two扑uted for bogey.
The round started with four co-leaders — Nicole Castrale, Reilley Rankin, Louden and Karin Sjiodn — and none having won on the tour. One by one, they all fell back.
Castrale, who led after the opening round, was still at 4 under through five holes, but bogeyed four of the next eight. Louden had four bogeys in her first six holes.
Sjdin's drive went into the deep rough and rolled into a ravine to the right of the fairway. Instead of trying to punch out, she tried an approach shot to the green that caromed off a tree at a 90-degree angle. Her ball ended up in tall grass by a tree adjacent to the 12th fairway, and she kicked her golf bag after seeing where her ball landed.
After taking a drop about 20 yards behind where her ball landed, she reached the green with her next shot, but three-putted from 70 feet for a triple bopge.
Sjodin, who played collegiately at nearby Oklahoma State, was tied with Inkster for the lead after a 3-foot birdie put on No. 6, but big trouble followed on the 405-yard, par-4 eighth hole.
Inkster birdied the first two holes, chipped in for par at No. 4 and took the lead with a birdie on No. 6. She held at least a share of it until the bogey at No. 17.
Tour officials moved up Sunday's tee times by two hours and used threesomes instead of twosomes in a successful effort to avoid weather problems.
Warriors look to upend one more
birdie putt on No. 18 to close the gap to one shot.
BY BRIAN MAHONEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
No. 4 UTAH JAZZ (51-31,
4-2) vs. No. 8 GOLDEN STATE
WARRIORS (42-40, 4-2)
A look at the Utah-Golden State matchup in the second round of the NBA playoffs, which begins Monday:
Season Series: Tied, 2-2, though two meetings came back in November, long before the Warriors remade their team and their style in their trade with Indiana. Stephen Jackson averaged 22 points in the two games he played for Golden State. Carlos Boozer had three double-doubles for Utah, including a 25-point, 21-rebound game in one Jazz victory, but was held to four points and 10 boards in a loss.
Storyline: After knocking off the Dallas Mavericks, who had the league's best record, in perhaps the biggest upset in NBA playoff history, the eighth-seeded Warriors move on to face the Northwest Division champions, who are in the second round for the first time since 2000.
Key matchup: Deron Williams vs. Baron Davis. Williams, who nearly made the All-Star team, will have a chance to make the U.S. national team, and had 20 points and 14 assists in Utah's Game 7 victory against Houston. Davis has been perhaps the best all-around player in the playoff while scoring 25 points per game.
X-factor: Al Hartington. Shot only 26 percent in the first round. But he scored 27 points in one game and had 15 points and 11 boards in the other against Utah after Golden State acquired him.
NBA
Attention all Tradition Keepers!
FREE
FINALS DINNER
for Tradition Keepers members
Monday, May 14 Adams Alumni Center Stop by anytime between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
We'll dish up an awesome gourmet buffet that is sure to cure your finals woes! Relax with a free shoulder massage, win prizes, and enjoy many other FREE perks. Plus a FREE KU drawstring bag from the KU Credit Union!
Please rsvp to traditionkeepers@kualumni.org by May 10th.
Stop by the Adams Alumni Center if you would like to become a Tradition Keeper member - Finals Dinner is just one of the many benefits of student membership in the KU Alumni Association. Luck on finals!
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION The University of Kansas
1266 Oread Avenue · 864-4760 · www.kualumni.org
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