Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/30218
2B – Daily News – Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Red Bluff tennis knocks off P.V. TENNIS es. The Spartans pulled off a huge win, Tuesday, in their quest for an Eastern Athletic League-South title, beating Pleasant Valley 6-3. Red Bluff won four singles match- Cody Yarbrough defeated Jeremy Schrader 7-6, 6-0. C.J. Varner knocked off Cole Kara- ba 6-1, 7-6. Paul Hendricks defeated Deven Rhodes 6-2, 6-1 and Arthur Germano came from behind to beat Ryan Schmidt 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. With the four singles wins, the By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Sports Writer Lockout has turned into limbo for NFL players and owners, and every- one is stuck there for the time being. ‘‘It drives me insane, that’s what it does,’’ said Chicago rookie J’Marcus Webb, who was told he and a handful of other Bears couldn’t use the team’s weight room Tuesday. ‘‘I’m trying to eat healthy and work out, do my job and right now I’m just stuck at home working out and watching cartoons all day. ‘‘What’s up with that? Let me get back to what I do best.’’ That could take a while. The 2011 season, and the business between 32 teams and their thousands of anxious players, is in a holding pattern. With more court fights and appeals expect- ed, the NFL said it needed ‘‘a few days to sort this out’’ and provide some rules for everyone to follow. ‘‘We are in the process of determin- ing throughout the league as to just how we’ll proceed and when we’ll open the new year across the league, the new football year,’’ Dallas Cow- boys owner Jerry Jones said. ‘‘We have not done that.’’ At least the draft will be held this week, even if free agency and person- nel swaps are up in the air. In one of the oddest days in NFL history, players showed up at their team headquarters and most were told that they were welcome to come inside as long as they didn’t participate in any sort of ‘‘football activities.’’ Most left in a matter of minutes with more questions than answers about where the $9 billion business is headed. And there was no consistency — some teams allowed players to work out (Giants) while others turned them away altogether (Bills). No rules, not yet. Just uncertainty. In a question-and-answer memo distributed by the NFLPA and obtained by The Associated Press, free agents were told they can contact teams and shop their services, putting pressure on the NFL to set up a free agency system that complies with antitrust laws. The document also told players that teams are responsible for care of any football-related injury, meaning it’s ‘‘safer for players to work out on club property.’’ U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson lifted the 45-day lockout late Monday, but that did nothing to clear this up. The NFL asked her to put her order on hold, and she agreed to weigh the request after the players’ response is filed Wednesday. That means the questions will linger at least another day and if the NFL loses again, it will place its hopes with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. With Nelson’s decision pending, NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash said it was too soon to tell exactly when free agency would begin and which play- ers would be eligible. ‘‘What we need to do is let the dust settle for a day or two and see if the stay is put in place, and then we’ll all know more and go from there,’’ Pash said. Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said the owners were concerned about restarting league operations — and then perhaps having another ‘‘un-start’’ in two months. ‘‘One of our lawyers described it as trying to unscramble an egg,’’ Murphy said. ‘‘I think that’s what we all want to avoid.’’ Little was clear Tuesday as both sides seemed to make up the rules as they went along. And the vast majori- ty of players simply stayed away. ‘‘It’s very chaotic for the teams right now,’’ agent Drew Rosenhaus said. ‘‘It’s not chaotic for the players. Our position is the lockout is over, free agency should begin, signings should begin, offseason workouts should begin, everything should be going on. The longer the NFL doesn’t do that and drags this out, the more there are concerns of collusion and violations of antitrust laws.’’ Cleveland wide receiver Josh Cribbs and a small group of Browns players showed up at the team’s train- ing facility and were greeted by Lew Merletti, senior vice president and director of security. Merletti handed them an official letter. ‘‘It basically told us to be patient,’’ Cribbs said. ‘‘It let us know we can’t go upstairs and can’t have any person- al contact with coaches or staff. It was kind of awkward because we don’t talk to our security staff unless there is a security issue, so the security issue was us.’’ Buffalo cornerback Leodis McK- elvin said he was turned away at the security gate, told to expect a call from his coach for clarity on when he could return. One concern, particularly for teams with new head coaches such as Ten- nessee’s Mike Munchak, is lost time for players learning the new schemes. Titans right guard Jake Scott left his team’s headquarters after 10 minutes, told no staff was available to meet with players. Then there is the issue of offseason bonuses built into existing contracts. Redskins linebacker Lorenzo Alexan- der is in that position, one reason he joined Armstrong in showing up for work. ‘‘I wanted to make sure I took full advantage to come up here and work out because I don’t want some techni- cality to happen later: ’You didn’t show up. You didn’t come.’ And then I’m out of my workout bonus,’’ Arm- strong said. Lawyers and leaders for the players accused the league of essentially fos- tering the confusion by not being clear or consistent about how players could use the facilities. ‘‘It was a little weird,’’ Washington Redskins wide receiver Anthony Arm- strong said after a brief stop at team headquarters. ‘‘It felt like you were sneaking into the club or something like that, and they knew you weren’t Ford scored on a fielder's choice in the 10th inning and came home with the tying run as a pinch runner in the eighth, helping the San Francisco Giants snap a season-high four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. RB (Continued from page 1B) and Henderson. Red Bluff coach Joe Gal- laty said the game hinged on his pitchers gave up too many walks. “They got their two-out knocks, they got timely hits and we gave them nine free passes,” Gallaty said. “We didn’t make errors, we had some great defensive plays in the outfield to start the game. It was quite the out- field show. But we can’t give a good club that many free passes.” Compounding matters for the Spartans was Pleas- The Giants scored all their runs on plays that did not involve a hit. Ford, a rookie without a hit in the majors, reached in the 10th when Nate Schierholtz — who led off with a dou- ble — was thrown out at third on Ford's sacrifice attempt. But Ford went from first to third on an errant pickoff throw by Joel Hanrahan (0-1). Spartans needed just one doubles match, but ended up winning two of them. Varner and Hendricks beat Karaba and Rhodes 10-6 and Germano and Curtis Twitchell beat Schmidt and Brendon McNulty 10-5. Red Bluff is 7-2 in league play and hosts Foothill, today and Paradise on Thursday. NFL, players struggle through lockout limbo supposed to be in there but they hadn’t done anything about it yet. Just a little awkward.’’ NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah blamed the league for ‘‘chaos.’’ ‘‘The owners didn’t seem to have a plan in place for an injunction. We were in a situation today where there were no uniform rules across the league,’’ Atallah said. Said New York Jets defensive line- man Mike DeVito after a fruitless visit to his team’s facility: ‘‘It was like a ghost town in there.’’ ‘‘I think it was a little bizarre today, given the fact that the players couldn’t work out, but that’s apparently what the NFL decided to do,’’ said James Quinn, a lawyer for the players from Weil, Gotshal and Manges in New York. ‘‘They will set up the rules, and if we think they’re reasonable and legal, then God bless. If not, then we’ll keep fighting about it in court.’’ Pash said the league had ‘‘some dialogue’’ with lawyers about the question of which rules would govern the launch of a new league year if the lockout remains in place. If Nelson’s injunction is upheld — by the judge herself or the appellate court — the NFL must resume busi- ness in some fashion. It could invoke 2010 rules requiring six seasons of ser- vice before players can become unre- stricted free agents when their con- tracts expire. There also was no salary cap in 2010, meaning teams could spend as much — or as little — as they wanted. Seth Borden, a labor law expert at McKenna, Long and Aldridge in New York, said he thinks the chaos could help the owners’ cause for a stay. ‘‘The confusion, about trades, free agency, signings, workouts, possibly provides the league with an argument that until the appeals can be heard, it doesn’t make sense to go forward with a new league year,’’ Borden said. Owners imposed the lockout after talks broke down March 11 and the players disbanded their union. Nelson ordered the two sides into mediation. The owners and players, who failed to reach consensus after 16 days of medi- ated talks earlier this year, met over four days with a federal magistrate without any sign of progress. They are not scheduled to meet again until May 16, four days after another judge holds a hearing on whether players should get damages in their related fight with owners over some $4 billion in broadcast revenue. With appeals expected, the fight seems likely to drag on through the spring. The closer it gets to August, when training camps and the presea- son get into full swing, the more likely it becomes that regular-season games could be lost. ——— AP Sports Writers Tom Withers, Jimmy Golen, Rachel Cohen, Chris Jenkins, Joseph White, Jon Krawczynski, Dennis Waszak, John Wawrow, Jaime Aron, Steven Wine and AP freelance writers Gene Chamberlain and Terry McCormick contributed to this report. Giants snap losing streak, beat Pirates in 10 innings PITTSBURGH (AP) — Darren Walker threw to first before taking off for home and forcing an errant throw by first baseman Lyle Overbay. In the eighth, Ford entered as a pinch runner and went from first to third on Sanchez's single. He scored two batters later on Buster Posey's sac- rifice fly to tie the game at 2. The Giants' first run also came on a He scored on Freddy Sanchez's grounder to second, waiting until Neil ant Valley’s ability to get production from the bottom half of its batting order, including Michael Sander- son, who went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI to lead LOCAL REC Coed 2 Softball WL Pct GB Pritchard Logging 1 0 1.000 — St. Elizabeth Up In Flames 0 1 .000 1 1 0 1.000 — 1 0 1.000 — Cornerstone 0 1 .000 1 Rub a Dub Tehama Angus 0 1 .000 1 ————————————————— Monday’s results Pritchard Logging 9, Cornerstone 8 St. Elizabeth def. Rub A Dub, forfeit Up in Flames 7, Tehama Angus Ranch 3 May 2 games — Frey Field Up in Flames at Cornerstone, 6:30 p.m. Tehama Angus Ranch at St.E’s, 7:30 p.m. Rub a Dub at Pritchard Logging, 8:30 p.m. sacrifice fly — Aubrey Huff drove in Aaron Rowand in the sixth. the Vikings at the plate. Nick Wilson is a sports NBA PLAYOFFS First Round Best-of-7 Tuesday’s results Chicago 116, Indiana 89 Chicago wins series 4-1 Orlando 101, Atlanta 76 Atlanta leads series 3-2 New Orleans at L.A. Lakers, late Series tied 2-2 Today’s games Philadelphia at Miami, 4 p.m., TNT Miami leads series 3-1 Memphis at San Antonio, 5:30 p.m., TNT Memphis leads series 3-1 Denver at Oklahoma City, 6:30 p.m., TNT Oklahoma City leads series 3-1 Other series Boston beat New York 4-0 Dallas leads Portland 3-2 writer for the Chico Enter- prise-Record. NHL PLAYOFFS First Round Best-of-7 Tuesday’s results Montreal 2, Boston 1 Series tied 3-3 Philadelphia 5, Buffalo 2 Philadelphia wins series 4-3 Chicago at Vancouver, late Series tied 3-3 Today’s games Montreal at Boston, 4 p.m., VS Series tied 3-3 Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., VS Series tied 3-3 Other series San Jose beat Los Angeles 4-2 Detroit beat Phoenix 4-0 Nashville beat Anaheim 4-2 Washington beat N.Y. Rangers 4-1 Sharks outlast Kings; move on to 2nd round SAN JOSE (AP) — It took three overtime wins and a memorable comeback for the San Jose Sharks to get past a short-handed Los Angeles Kings team in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The journey figures only to get more dif- ficult in the second round for the Sharks, who are hoping this will be the year they finally make it to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in franchise history. San Jose had a day off Tuesday following the 4-3 over- time win in Game 6 the previous night in Los Angeles. The Sharks had to kill a five-minute major penalty just before Joe Thornton scored the game-winner. That followed overtime wins in Game 1 at home and Game 3 in Los Ange- les, when they became the fourth team to overcome a four- goal deficit to win a playoff game. ‘‘We don’t do anything easy,’’ coach Todd McLellan said. ‘‘There is some resiliency in the locker room. The leadership showed through when it had to. The belief in the goaltenders we have is very important. We learned a lot about each other. It’s just a small part of what we hope is a long journey.’’ The players got a chance for some needed rest as they await the result of Game 7 between Chicago and Vancouver to learn who their second-round opponent will be. The Sharks will open at home either against the defending cham- pion Blackhawks if Chicago wins or longtime nemesis Detroit if Vancouver prevails. San Jose knocked Detroit out in five games in the second round a year ago before being swept in the Western Confer- ence final by Chicago. The Sharks won three of four regular season games against both teams this season. ‘‘It’s going to be a grind,’’ forward Dany Heatley said. ‘‘This series was a grind and it’s only going to get tougher. We’ll take the days (off) when we can get them and come out harder in Game 1 of round 2.’’ There were some issues that arose in the first round that San Jose will have to solve. The Sharks were outscored 8-1 in the opening period by a Kings team missing leading scor- er Anze Kopitar all series. Starting goalie Antti Niemi got pulled twice in a three- game span and had a pedestrian 4.00 goals-against average and .863 save percentage for the series. The power play, which was the second-most effective in the regular season, managed just two goals in 23 chances against Los Angeles with both tallies coming from the second unit. There were plenty of positives, most notably the depth of scoring that will make the Sharks a difficult team to match up with in later rounds. Each of the top three lines scored at least five goals, led by the eight from Logan Couture, Heatley and Ryane Clowe. The defense also got into the action with two goals and 14 assists in the series, giving the Sharks plenty of scor- ing options even if the opposition takes out Thornton’s top line. Thornton also showed he can contribute in ways other than the score sheet this series. His 64.2 winning percentage on faceoffs is second in the league in the postseason among players who have won at least 20 draws. After leading the league in takeaways in the regular sea- son, Thornton had six more against the Kings as his play on the defensive side has shown vast improvement this season as he has become the team’s captain. Thornton has often gotten blame when the Sharks fol- lowed up a dominant regular season with an early playoff exit. The Sharks got knocked out in the second round in Thornton’s first three seasons in San Jose before following up a Presidents’ Trophy in 2008-09 with a first-round deba- cle against Anaheim. Thornton then had only one point and a minus-5 rating in the conference final sweep against the Blackhawks last sea- son LM (Continued from page 1B) East Nicolaus sent 16 runners to the plate in the fifth inning, including 11 after recording their sec- ond out. The Spartans two-run lead ballooned to 14-2 after a myriad of Bulldog errors, hit batsmen and infield singles kept pro- longing the inning. MLB West Division Texas American League WL Pct GB Angels 13 10 .565 1 A’s 14 9 .609 — 11 12 .478 3 Seattle 9 15 .375 5.5 East Division WL Pct GB New York 12 8 .600 — Tampa Bay 11 11 .500 2 Toronto 11 12 .478 2.5 Boston 10 12 .455 3 Baltimore 9 12 .429 3.5 Central Division WL Pct GB Cleveland 14 8 .636 — Detroit 12 11 .522 2.5 Kansas City12 11 .522 2.5 Minnesota 9 12 .429 4.5 Chicago 10 14 .417 5 ————————————————— Tuesday’s results Oakland at Los Angeles, late Baltimore 4, Boston 1 Chicago 3, New York 2 Cleveland 9, Kansas City 4 Seattle 7, Detroit 3 Toronto 10, Texas 3 Tampa Bay at Minnesota, ppd., rain Today’s games Oakland (T.Ross 1-2) at L.A. (Haren 4-1), 4:05 p.m.,CSNC Boston (Beckett 2-1) at Baltimore (Guthrie 1-3), 4:05 p.m. Chicago (Buehrle 1-2) at New York (Colon 1-1), 4:05 p.m. Kansas City (Francis 0-2) at Cleveland (Tomlin 3-0), 4:05 p.m. Seattle (Bedard 0-4) at Detroit (Verlander 2-2), 4:05 p.m. Toronto (Jo-.Reyes 0-2) at Texas (Holland 3-1), 5:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (W.Davis 2-2) at Minnesota (Liriano 1-3), 5:10 p.m. Thursday’s games Seattle at Detroit, 10:05 a.m. Tampa Bay at Minnesota, 10:10 a.m. Toronto at Texas, 11:05 a.m. Boston at Baltimore, 4:05 p.m. Chicago at New York, 4:05 p.m. Kansas City at Cleveland, 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay at Minnesota, 5:10 p.m. Monday’s late result Los Angeles 5, Oakland 0 Michael Kling and Wagenfuhr each drew walks to open up the fifth inning, but East Nicolaus reliever Justin Ozcan mowed down the final three hitters to seal the game. Points had a single for the Bulldogs in the third inning. Los Molinos fell to 3-4 on the season with the loss. MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB Colorado 16 7 .696 — GIANTS 11 11 .500 4.5 Dodgers 12 13 .480 5 Arizona 9 12 .429 6 Padres 9 14 .391 7 East Division WL Pct GB Florida 15 7 .682 — Philadelphia15 7 .682 — Atlanta 11 13 .458 5 Washington 10 12 .455 5 New York 10 13 .435 5.5 Central Division WL Pct GB Milwaukee 12 11 .522 — St. Louis 12 11 .522 — Cincinnati 12 12 .500 .5 Chicago 10 13 .435 2 Pittsburgh 10 13 .435 2 Houston 9 14 .391 3 ————————————————— Tuesday’s results San Francisco 3,Pittsburgh 2,10 innings Colorado 4, Chicago 3 Florida 4, Los Angeles 2 Houston 6, St. Louis 5 Milwaukee 3, Cincinnati 2 New York 6, Washington 4 Atlanta at San Diego, late Philadelphia at Arizona, late Today’s games San Francisco (Bumgarner 0-3) at Pitt (Ja.McDonald 0-2),4:05 p.m.,CSNB Los Angeles (Billingsley 2-1) at Florida (Ani.Sanchez 1-1), 9:10 a.m., MLBN Cincinnati (LeCure 0-1) at Milwaukee (Gallardo 2-1), 10:10 a.m. Colorado (Chacin 3-1) at Chicago (C.Coleman 1-1), 11:20 a.m. Atlanta (Hanson 2-3) at San Diego (Latos 0-3), 12:35 p.m. Philadelphia (Hamels 2-1) at Arizona (J.Saunders 0-2), 12:40 p.m. New York (Dickey 1-3) at Washington (Gorzelanny 0-2), 4:05 p.m. St. Louis (Lohse 3-1) at Houston (Happ 1-3), 5:05 p.m. Thursday’s games San Francisco at Pittsburgh, 9:35 a.m. New York at Washington, 4:05 p.m. St. Louis at Houston, 5:05 p.m. Chicago at Arizona, 6:40 p.m. Monday’s late results Arizona 4, Philadelphia 0 San Diego 5, Atlanta 3, 13 innings San Jose Sharks Pleasant Valley 3 Red Bluff 6 NFL Pittsburgh 2, 10 inn Giants 3