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TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MLB
Cubs succumb to Brewers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — Marco Estrada pitched seven effective innings and doubled home a run Monday, helping the Milwaukee Brewers stop a five-game slide with a 7-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the first game of the season at Wrigley Field.
With a strong wind blowing out at the start of the game — a rare sight for an April date at the iconic neighborhood ballpark — Estrada allowed two runs and five hits while bouncing back from a lackluster season defeat against Colorado. The right-hander also drove in Alex Gonzalez with a drive into the gap in right-center during Milwaukee's two-run seventh.
Norichika Aoki collected three more hits and Ryan Braun had a successful return to the lineup as the Brewers won for the first time since opening day.
Aoki had a career-high four hits in Milwaukee's 8-7 loss to Arizona on Sunday and is batting .588 (10 for 17) in his last four games.
Welington Castillo belted a two-run homer for Chicago, which has dropped four in a row and five of six. Edwin jackson was hit hard in his first home game since he signed a $52 million, four-year contract over the winter, surrendering five runs and eight hits in six innings.
The Cubs rallied for two runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded when Dave Sappelt struck out and Starlin Castro flew out to the warning track in right to end the game.
Braun, who missed Milwaukee's weekend sweep by Arizona due to spasms on the right side of his neck, went 3 for 4 with two doubles before he was replaced by Logan Schafer in the eighth inning. The 2011 NL MVP has at least one hit in each of his four games this season.
It was Braun's first road game
since his name surfaced in records from the now-defunct Biogenesis of America LLC clinic alleged to have provided banned substances to several players. After his name was connected to the clinic, he issued a statement in which he said he used the clinic's operator. Anthony Bosch, as a consultant in appealing a positive drug test that was overturned last year.
As soon as Jenkins and Williams left the field, the Brewers jumped all over Jackson (0-2).
Braun was lustily booed by the crowd of 40,083, but he is the best player on one of Chicago's division rivals. And the fans hardly seemed to notice he was at the plate after they got done jeering struggling reliever Carlos Marmol when he came on to pitch the eighth.
The day began with a tarp over the infield as showers rolled through the area, but the grey clouds soon gave way to sunshine for an unusually warm opener at the 99-year-old ballpark. Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Billy Williams each threw out a ceremonial first pitch, and Ernie Banks led the crowd in the singing of the "Take Me Out to The Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.
With runners on first and second and two down, Jonathan Lucroy and Alex Gonzalez had consecutive walks to force home a run. Martin Maldonado then delivered a bases-clearing double into the right-field corner, lifting Milwaukee to a 4-0 lead.
The Brewers added another run in the second when Aoki reached on a leadoff double and scored on Braun's one-out double to center.
That was more than enough for Estrada (1-0), who struck out six and walked one. He was coming off a no-decision against the Rockies, when he allowed four runs and nine hits in five innings.
NFL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A pair of wrongful-death lawsuits over the suicide of New England Patriots Junior Seau have been consolidated with NFL concussion litigation in Philadelphia.
NFL sued for neglecting player safety
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHLADELPHIA — With perhaps billions of dollars at stake, a hearing Tuesday over concussion litigation filed against the NFL promises to be a contest between leal lions.
About 4,200 former players have sued the league. Some suffer from dementia, depression, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological problems. Others simply want their health monitored.
And a small number, including Ray Easterling and 12-time Pro Bowler Junior Seau, committed suicide after long downward spirals.
The players' lawyers accuse the NFL of promoting violence in the game and concealing known cognitive risks from concussions and
other blows to the head. They hope to keep the litigation in federal court so they can use the discovery process to access NFL files — and see what the league knew when.
"The NFL failed to live up to its responsibility: it negligently heightened players' exposure to repeated head trauma and fraudulently concealed the chronic brain injuries that resulted" the players' lawyers wrote in their latest brief, filed in January.
"The rule in our league is simple: Medical decisions override everything else," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a speech last month at the University of North Carolina.
The NFL, with $9.2 billion in annual revenues, argues that the complaints belong in arbitration under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The league insists it has always followed the best available science and made player safety a top priority.
The NFL will be represented Tuesday by Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush who has fought gay marriage, gun-control measures and President Barack Obama's state health care mandates before the Supreme Court.
Players' lawyer David Frederick, an Obama ally, has taken consumer protection fights over investor fees and prescription drug warnings to the high court.
Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody of Philadelphia will hear the case and decide whether the lawsuits stay in federal court or are "pre-empted" by the collective bargaining agreements. Scores of
related lawsuits around the country have been steered to her because she had been assigned the 2011 Easterling suit, the first to be filed.
If Brody sides with the players, she would then rule on some broader issues, which are expected to include hard-fought battles over the science of concussions and brain injuries, along with the players' claims of fraud and negligence. The cases would then be returned to their home states to resolve individual damage claims, based on each player's history.
If the NFL prevails, the players must seek individual arbitration awards. But no money is expected to change hands for years while the case plays out. Brody's ruling, which could take months, is likely to be appealed by the losing side.