2B
SPORTS TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I'm just trying to hit the ball hard...
... Sometimes it goes out."
Casey Blake, Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman who went to Wichita State
FACT OF THE DAY
Wichita State won the College World Series championship and the school's first NCAA team championship in 1989.
GoShockers.com
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: At the end of the 2009 season, how many former Shockers were in the major leagues?
A: Five. Braden Looper (St. Louis), Casey Blake (Toronto), Nate Robertson (Florida), Mike Pelfrey (New York Mets) and Koyie Hill (Los Angeles Angels).
GoShockers.com
SCORES
NBA Basketball:
Orlando 99, Charlotte 90
Orlando wins series 4-0
Milwaukee 111, Atlanta 104 Series tied at 2-2
Portland, Phoenix, late Series tied 2-2
NHL Hockey:
Boston 4, Buffalo 3
Boston wins series 4-2
Montreal 4, Washington 1 Series tied at 3-3
Chicago 5, Nashville 3
Chicago wins series 4-2
MLB Baseball:
MLB Baseball:
Kansas City 3, Seattle 1
Florida 10, San Diego 1
Chicago (NL) 4, Washington 3
Detroit 8, Texas 6
Boston 13, Toronto 12
Pittsburgh 17, Milwaukee 3
St. Louis 4, Atlanta 3
Arizona 5, Colorado 3
Cleveland, Los Angeles (AL), late
Philadelphia, San Francisco, late
NHL
Boston beats out Buffalo in Game 6
BOSTON — David Kreci had two goals and one assist to lead Boston to a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series on Monday night and put the Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots for Boston, which will play either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh in the second round.
It's Boston's second playoff series victory — and first at home since 1999.
Associated Press
The mighty will (and did) fall
MORNING BREW
Crowning teams as all-time greats is always a tenuous proposition, but never more so than when the team in question still has games to be played. Then, a funny thing can happen, which throws a wrench in the whole coronation ceremony: They can lose.
It happened to USC, when Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush's Trojans were toppled by Texas.
It happened to the star-studded Lakers when the additions of Gary Payton and Karl Malone couldn't get Kobe and Shaq past the Pistons.
And now, half a world away, it's halfway done happening again. This time, in European soccer.
FC Barcelona, winner of every trophy it has been in contention for this past season, dropped the first of its two Champions League semifinal games last week to Inter Milan.
Normally, a team losing at the San Siro stadium to Inter Milan (even with a score line of 3-1) would not be particularly surprising. Inter boasts world class talent and a dominant home-field advantage. In Jose Mourinho, the Italian giants also have a manager widely considered to be the world's best. Don't believe me? Just ask him. Mourinho's skill is matched only by his hubris — and even then it's close.
But even giving Milan its due, Barcelona had to be considered the favorite. It's not just that Barcelona had been
BY ALEX BEECHER
abeecher@kansan.com
beating everyone — it's the attacking flair with which the victories have been hammered home.
That attack is powered by Lionel Messi, Soccer fan or not. Messi's superlative skill is impossible to miss. He's called the Little Wizard and, cliché though it may sound, some of his on-field exploits can only be explained via magic. Usually, when discussing the best players in any sport, the term "arguably" is used a lot. Not with soccer, and not right now. Messi is the best, and second place isn't very close.
Although neither Messi nor his teammates have used it, there is an excuse for Barcelona's defeat. Due to travel complications caused by Iceland's volcanic activity, the team had to drive to the game on a bus. The trip took the better part of three days to complete, and almost certainly left Barcelona's players feeling — if not outright beat — at least a little stiff
It's also worth noting that Barcelona's players have invoked the always popular "blame the officials" clause in explaining
the loss. It's worth noting, but not really considering. Milan plays a more physical brand of soccer than Barcelona is used to seeing in Spain, and officials will allow for such play in European games.
To borrow the always quotable Mourinho's words, what happened "was not a dream, it was reality." And no excuse suitable explains the result. Milan did deserve to win.
The best retort, perhaps, is the one offered by Barcelona's manager, Pep Guardiola. He said simply: "We'll see them next week."
And indeed, the two European superpowers will face off again on Wednesday, with work still to be done for Milan. A giant, even half slain, is still difficult to fell.
Edited by Cory Bunting
Torre buys stake in horse, anticipates Derby
KENTUCKY DERBY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Joe Torre sat in the third base dugout at Citi Field watching the rain fall. As much as he was looking forward to another three-game series in New York, he was thinking ahead to the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
Someone asked him about Homeboykris, suggesting he was a 50-1 choice.
"My horse? 72-1," Torre quickly corrected, reminding everyone
that ouds on
boyovkiris
had risen
from 40-1 in
December.
He may be used to managing favorites in the dugout, but at the track he's a long shot.
diversion. He attended the Breeder's Cup twice at Santa Anita, but can't find time during the baseball season to go to the track because he gets to the ballpark so early.
He grew fond of horses because of his Yankees bench coach, Don Zimmer. Torre remembered back to his first season managing the Yankees, when Zimmer invited him to Pimlico on a trip to Camden Yards.
"I said, 'No. Here's a couple hundred bucks,'" Torre
"She didn't get out of the gate, and I knew there was nothing there."
Torre's next
JOE TORRE
Dodgers manager
While the pressure of managing the Yankees became a grind from 1996-07, especially when he failed to win the World Series after leading New York to four titles in his first five seasons, Torre is more relaxed since taking over the Dodgers before the 2008 season.
tortres next game in New York was pushed back when the Los Angeles Dodgers' matchup with the Mets was postponed by rain Monday night. The teams will play a traditional single-admission double-header Tuesday, with the first game starting at 4:10 p.m.
Horse racing is a pleasant
Torre had co-owned Vineyard Haven with trainer Bobby Frankel and Lazzinnaro, who owns restaurants in Queens and Saratoga Springs. Vineyard Haven was sold to Godolphin Racing in 2008 for $12 million.
recalled.
"A n d
I don't
know if it
was calculated or not — he
brought me back more than I gave him.
So he sort of hooked
Torre visited Homeboykris last week for the first time, making a trip to Churchill Downs when the Dodgers were in Cincinnati. He purchased a 10 percent stake in the horse shortly after Homeboykris won the Champagne Stakes for 2-year-olds at Belmont Park last October. Louis Lazzinnaro and Jack Mandato, a supporter of Torre's Safe at Home Foundation, had owned Homeboykris, so Torre bought in.
When Torre first became manager of the Dodgers, he lived in California for three months with Frankel, a Hall of Fame trainer who died of cancer last November at age 68.
Torre had high hopes for Sis
me at that point in time."
City, a filly he owned who was a 3-5 favorite in the 2005 Kentucky Oaks. Sis City, like Homeboykris trained by Rick Dutrow Jr., was ridden by Jerry Bailey and finished fourth.
"She didn't get out of the gate, and I knew there was nothing there," Torre said. "Jerry Bailey did apologize for beating my horse. I said, 'Well, you and three other ones beat my horse.' So it wasn't only you."
Baseball vs. Wichita State, 7 p.m
WEDNESDAY
Softball vs. Wichita State, 5 p.m., 7 p.m.
THURSDAY
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, all day
FRIDAY
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Baseball
at Oklahoma State,
6:30 p.m.
Track at Arkansas Twilight, Fayetteville, Ark., all day
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, all day
SATURDAY
Baseball at Oklahoma State, 2 p.m.
Softball at Oklahoma, 2 p.m.
Rowing
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, all day
Rowing at big 12 Championships, Oklahoma City, Okla., TBA
SUNDAY
Softball at Oklahoma, 12 p.m
Baseball at Oklahoma State, 1 p.m.
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, all day
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Ellie Krae, a senior from Wichita, forehands the ball in a game of racquetball Monday. "I like to play tennis but when it is too cold and the weather is bad I come here to play racquetball instead." Kraft said.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN