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Tuesday Volleyball — Oroville at Red Bluff, 7 p.m. Volleyball — Portola at Los Molinos, 5:30 p.m. Volleyball — University Prep at Mercy Volleyball — Yreka at Corning, 4:30 p.m. Tennis — Yreka at Corning, 3:30 p.m. NLCS—Phillies at Giants, 1 p.m., FOX Sports 1B Tuesday October 19, 2010 Calling in sick Lee fans 13 in gem Glad to be back. Actually, glad to be feeling better. I had to skip last week’s col- umn after coming down with some type of flu that made me feel as if I had a bar of soap lodged in my throat. I tried to fight the sucker off and learned in the process there’s not an abundance of places to buy medicine in Red Bluff at 3 in the morning. I hate calling in sick. My dad never called in sick. I always did the manly thing and wanted to tough it out like him. Rich Greene I say did, because after the whole swine flu scare and half dozen work memos that followed I had to change my mind. It’s kind of selfish to risk spreading your illness to others. It’s not fair to your co-workers. So alas, even with my pockets full of tissues and my mouth filled with pills, I had to admit defeat last Mon- day. Iwas mad. Iwanted to share this great story of an outstanding coaching effort I had just witnessed. So if you don’t mind climbing into the time machine with me — way to back to two weekends ago — I’d still like to share it. Back long ago, on Oct. 9, Iwas watching Mercy’s 8- man football team get pummeled in the second half by the Butte Valley Bulldogs. With just a couple minutes to go and down 24 points, the Warriors coughed up the football — trust me the story eventually gets good. After the fumble it was finally time to send in the backups. However, Mercy defensive coordinator John Thomas gave anything, but a second-string effort. He encouraged his players the entire Butte Valley drive, pushing them to hit the holes harder and get after it. It was solid positive encouragement. Butte Valley kept picking up big chunks of yards. Thomas didn’t let down coaching on his youngsters from the sidelines. Butte Valley ended up scoring yet another touchdown as time expired, but I was left impressed by a coach who didn’t give up on his players. Good coaches don’t give up on their teams — win- ning or losing. The last column I wrote before Iwas sick was about how some people have already started calling out the Red Bluff coaching staff. Back when I wrote it they were 0-5. Now, the Spartans are 0-7. There was a lot of feedback about the column, espe- cially in regards to playing time. One of the thoughts being if you’re an 0-for-the-sea- son team then the backups should be playing a lot more. That seems like a valid point. But it was the experience watching Mercy and Coach Thomas that made me understand something: coaches won’t admit when they have the flu. See as great of a site as it was to see Thomas coach- ing up his second string, until that final fumble they were an afterthought. The Mercy coaching staff was still trying to win that game — down 24 points with just minutes to play. Thomas was still scheming with his first string defense a new way to stop the Bulldogs’ offense until that last fatal fumble occurred. Finally the coaching staff realized it had to throw in the towel — almost forced kicking and screaming. Looking back on it, the second string could have been in the game a series or two earlier. However the coaches were doing something we want from them — believing in the kids. Just one stop, just one big play and we’re back in this thing, baby! You can see it in every coaching staff and in every sport, even on every level. Here’s a quote that was just in the Daily News from a coach after his team started the season 0-5: “It’s a tremendous opportunity that we have as a team. So I’m excited about where we are. When I look at the first five games we’ve had, a lot of different things have transpired, but through those things I think we have become a better football team. And as time goes on, we will show that.” No, it’s not John Miller. That quote is from Mike Singletary. Good coaches don’t give up on their teams — win- ning or losing. I think it’s hard for a coach to admit defeat and bring in the backups. It’s a sign he doesn’t think his players can do it and a sign he never wants to send them. It was nice to see the Spartans score twice in the fourth quarter, Friday, but could anyone have blamed Miller for bringing in the backups after the third quarter? At halftime? Did anyone truly believe the Spartans had a chance once they went down 21-0? Should the backups have just started the game? If you want to argue some of the backups should be starters and vice versa, well at some point you just have to trust the fact coaches evaluate every practice and are playing the kids they think give them the best chance of winning. If that means sticking with them, sometimes a bit too long in games, I’m alright with that. It’s a Catch-22 — which might be the same number Red Bluff has had all season. But me, I’m fine with a coach, who’s too stubborn to admit defeat for his players. Iwant a coach who believes his players are a broken tackle or funny bounce of the ball away from being back in the game. I don’t think if a coach is better at conceding games, he is a better coach. In sports, it’s not fair to the players if the coach has to give in and call in sick. MCT photo Texas pitcher Cliff Lee is all smiles after making an out at first base during Monday’s Game 3. Texas wins to take lead in ALCS Texas 8 Game 3 New York 0 TEX2-1 NEW YORK (AP) — Cliff Lee was even better than before in the post- season, and that was no small feat. The ace of October went through the New York Yankees like a buzzsaw again, striking out 13 and pitching the Texas Rangers to an 8-0 victory Mon- day night for a 2-1 lead in the best-of- seven AL championship series. Josh Hamilton hit an early two-run homer off Andy Pettitte and started a six-run outburst in the ninth with a leadoff double. Lee allowed only two singles in eight innings and became the first pitcher to reach double digits in strikeouts three times in one postsea- son. Mr. Automatic improved to 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight postseason starts. Three of those wins have come against the power-packed Yankees, including two in last year’s World Series for Philadelphia. New York won the other four games to take home its 27th champi- onship, but now faces a tall task if it plans to repeat. The Yankees must win three straight against the resilient Rangers to advance without facing Lee in a decisive Game 7 at Texas. Game 4 is Tuesday night and the Yankees say they will start struggling right-hander A.J. Burnett, who hasn’t pitched since Oct. 2. Tommy Hunter goes for Texas in his first career start at Yankee Stadium. Pettitte, the ol’ pro seeking his 20th postseason win, did his best to match Lee. But the longtime New York left- hander hung a first-inning breaking ball that Hamilton yanked over the short porch in right for his second homer of the series. See ALCS, page 2B Titans win battle of backup QBs Tennessee 30 Jacksonville 3 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tennessee’s Vince Young watched from the sideline. Jacksonville’s David Garrard was in the locker room. Both starting quarter- backs were knocked out of Monday night’s game, turn- ing things over to veteran Kerry Collins and recently signed Trent Edwards. The backups performed as expected, with Collins leading the Titans to a 30-3 victory and Edwards look- ing mostly like a guy who joined the team three weeks ago. Collins completed 11 of 16 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown, directed five consecutive scoring drives and put the Titans (4-2) atop the AFC South. Tennessee, which also got 111 yards rushing and a late score from Chris Johnson, moved into a three-way tie with Indianapolis and Houston. The Jaguars (3-3), mean- while, were left in a familiar position. They finished last in the division the last two years and are again in chase mode. Young threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Britt on the opening drive, then left the game with a sprained left knee when he fumbled a snap on the next series. Collins replaced him and threw a short TD to Bo Scaife and led the Titans on time-consuming drives to keep control. Jacksonville was plagued by turnovers for the second straight week. Coach Jack Del Rio’s team was able to overcome three mistakes against winless Buffalo. No such luck against Tennessee, which has won six of the last eight in the series. The Titans turned three short fields into 13 points, taking advantage of two interceptions and a short punt. Making matters worse for Jacksonville, tight end Marcedes Lewis fumbled at the Tennessee 10-yard line in the second quarter and receiver Tiquan Underwood let Vincent Fuller rip a pass out of his hands in the end zone in the fourth. The Jaguars finished with four turnovers. Garrard, hit several times early, completed 7 of 12 passes for 49 yards, with an interception. He was knocked out in the second quarter with a concussion after getting rocked by Will Witherspoon. Edwards, the former Buffalo starter who was claimed off waivers three weeks ago, stepped in for his first action with the Jaguars. He was 11 of 20 for 115 yards, with two inter- ceptions. Jacksonville finished with 225 yards, as Ten- nessee’s defense stuffed Maurice Jones-Drew, blan- keted Mike Sims-Walker and kept steady pressure on whoever lined up at quarter- back. The Titans moved the ball with relative ease all night, with Young and Collins at the helm. They finished with 324 yards, including a 35-yard touch- down run by Chris Johnson on his final carry of the night. Jones-Drew and Johnson set an NFL record the last time they shared a field. Jones-Drew ran for a career- high 177 yards and two touchdowns, Johnson fin- ished with a career-high 228 yards and two scores. Together, they gave the league its first game with at least four TD runs of at least 50 yards. Tennessee won that one 30-13 last November. The rematch was nearly as lopsided. Rob Bironas kicked three field goals, plenty for Ten- nessee’s stifling defense. The Jaguars only got into Tennessee territory twice. The first one ended shortly before halftime when Lewis caught a short pass from Edwards, turned and let the ball slip out of his hands that the Titans recovered. Down 20-0 early in the third quarter, Edwards hit Mike Thomas for 21 yards. Cortland Finnegan was called for defensive pass interference and Edwards again found Thomas on third-and-8 from the 18 to get down to the 7. But on third down, Jacob Ford sacked Edwards, and the Jaguars had to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Josh Scobee. Late goal does in Lady Cardinals FIELD HOCKEY Bethany Vader made six Corning 0 Chico 1 A late Chico goal, Mon- day, ruined was otherwise a strong defensive perfor- mance from the Lady Cardi- nals on the road. saves in net for Corning and Katlyn Huntley made one save. Claudia Lopez, Silvia Diaz and Rachelle Zuppan had strong games marking Chico players. Karlie Jennings held her composure and had several block tackles to steal the ball. Corning had an opportu- nity to tie the game with six seconds remaining on a short corner, but Anna Nel- son’s hard shot on goal was cleared out of the circle. Nelson, Nicole Mason, Samantha Bobadilla and Yasmeen Lomeli worked well together as Corning’s forwards. Mason had three shots and Nelson a pair. “We played with intensi- ty,” coach Teresa Lamb said. Mayra Diera and Shelby Long played the line well for the Lady Cardinals.