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Weekend SAT—NASCAR— Quaker State 400, 4:30 p.m., TNT Red Bluff Triton Invitational, 9 a.m., at RBHS MLB—Mets at Giants, Sat, 6 p.m., CSNB, Sun, 5 p.m., ESPN MLB —Athletics at Rangers, Sat, 5 p.m., Sun, Noon, CSNC Tour de France — Saturday and Sunday, 5 a.m., VERSUS SUN—World Cup — Brazil vs United States, 8 a.m., ESPN Sports 1B Game turns tragic Little League Updates LITTLE LEAGUE Red Bluff held onto their lead to beat East Redding 4-3, Thursday, and advance to the district championship. Wesley Clawson singled in the second inning and came around to score to give Red Bluff a 1-0 lead. Red Bluff picked up three more runs in the third inning as Kolby Button, Lane Pritchard and Clawson all scored. Clawson doubled in the inning and Button and Nicholas Rodriguez each had singles. East Redding picked up two runs in the fourth inning and scored again in the fifth inning inning to pull within 4-3. But from there Button closed the door for the win and Pritchard came in for the save. Evan Tanner also had a single for Red Bluff. The championship is set for Saturday at 6 p.m. at Cald- well Park in Redding. Since Red Bluff reached the championship undefeated they would have to be beaten twice not to become district champions. If Red Bluff loses Saturday, Game 2 is scheduled for Sun- day. LITTLE LEAGUE MCT photo Texas Rangers fans look down, Thursday, after a fan fell 20 feet onto concrete below during the Rangers-Athletics game as he was trying to catch a ball tossed to him by Josh Hamilton. ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Nolan Ryan would always try to accommodate kids clamoring for a baseball when he was pitching. And the new owner of the Texas Rangers has had a goal of helping create cher- ished memories for families, for fathers and sons attending games together. A Texas firefighter's trip to a Rangers game with his 6-year-old son turned tragic when Shannon Stone tumbled over a railing after reaching out and catching a foul ball tossed his way by reigning AL MVP Josh Hamil- ton, his son's favorite player. Stone plunged about 20 feet onto the concrete below Thursday night and died about an hour later. The accident stunned players and fans alike, and it left a 36-year-old widow worried about how the boy, Cooper Stone, will recov- er from watching his father fall. Shannon Stone's mother, Suzann Stone, told The Associated Press that her son and young Cooper had gone to the game in hopes of catching a ball in the stands. They even stopped on the way to Arlington to buy a new glove for the boy. "That's what they were there for was to catch a ball," the 63-year-old mother said Friday, choking back sobs. "Coop- er loves baseball and he's a big Josh Hamilton fan. Had his jersey." A moment of silence was planned before the Rangers and Oakland Ath- letics played the second game of their four-game series Friday night, and players for both teams were planning to wear black ribbons on their uni- forms. "This just happens to be a situation that turned into a great tragedy," Ryan said Friday, the flags at Rangers Ball- park at half-staff and a black tarpaulin covering the gap where Stone fell. "It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen at the ballpark. ... As a father and a grandfather, my heart goes out for that family." At the request of the Stone family, MLB.com has not posted video of the accident. Ryan said he spoke by tele- phone Friday with Jenny Stone, the firefighter's widow in Brownwood, about 150 miles away from Arlington. "She's very concerned about her son and the impact that this is having on him," Ryan said. "She asked if I could do anything about the video footage that is being shown." Replays showed the boy watching his 6-foot-3 father stretch and reach out to grab the ball and then falling through a gap of several feet between the left- field seats and the 14-foot-high outfield wall that has a video scoreboard on it. Suzann Stone said she was watch- ing the game. "Cooper told me where they were sitting so I could look for him on tele- vision," she said, adding that she was not watching when her son fell. "I missed it. I didn't see it." City officials said the building code requires the guardrails to be at least 26 inches high. Ed Dryden, Arlington's building official, said railings through- out the park are 33 inches high. Dryden and Jim Parajon, the city's director of community development and planning, said they made sure on Friday that the railings where Stone fell were up to code. "It is a very tragic situation and we feel for the family of the victim," Para- jon said. Major League Baseball promised a review of the incident "to ensure a safe environment for our fans." John McHale Jr., MLB's executive vice president of administration, said there is no centralized process for over- seeing safety at ballparks and Stone's death may change that. "I think the enormity of this tragedy requires we create a process, if there isn't one already," he said. "I think we're going to communicate as closely as we can with the Rangers to find out what happened and to share that infor- mation with the other clubs." He said most safety issues are left to the clubs. "There are building codes, there are local ordinances and the clubs are responsible with complying," he said. "We have a history of trying to control balls thrown in the stands centrally and I think that probably didn't work, so we rely on the clubs to make their own decisions on how that should be done or not done in their ballpark." The accident was similar to one almost exactly a year earlier. Tyler Morris, a firefighter from the Lake Cities Fire Department near Dal- las, fractured his skull and sprained an ankle on July 6, 2010, after falling about 30 feet from the second deck of seats down the right-field line while trying to catch a foul ball. "The fact that we've had two in the last year is disturbing," Ryan said. "As an organization we are going to look- ing into this because our No. 1 concern is the safety of our fans. We'll do what- ever we have to do to make this stadi- um as safe as we possibly can for our fans." After the accident last year, Ryan said the team did a study of the railings. He said the team felt the safety was adequate, but wasn't prepared to say if any changes might be made now. It was the second fatal fall at a major league stadium this season. In May, a 27-year-old man died after he fell about 20 feet and struck his head on concrete during a Colorado Rockies game. Witnesses told police that the man had been trying to slide down a staircase railing at Coors Field and lost his balance. Ryan said grief counseling was available for players if they needed to talk to anybody about what happened in the second inning of the Rangers' 6- 0 win over Oakland. Players were informed of the fan's death after the game, when the Texas clubhouse was closed to reporters. "This is really just one of those freak accidents that happen, it's definitely an accident," Ryan said. He also said the Rangers Founda- tion was setting up a memorial account for Stone and are making a significant donation to start it. Corning beat Cottonwood 12-4, Thursday night, to earn a rematch with Redding in the championship. Corning would have to beat Redding twice. Summer Camps BASKETBALL Looking for something beyond the basic day camp? Former REd Bluff Spartan and current Feather River men’s basketball coach Randy Rick is the camp director at Feather River College’s Shooting Camp July 17-22. The overnight camp for sixth through 12th graders features instruction, games, activities, training, leadership skills and strength and condi- tioning programs as well as full room and board accommodations, an official camp reversible jersey and camp photos. The camp is designed to focus on shooting fun- damentals. Players learn the intricacies of getting their form right. being on balance and working on scoring form the triple threat position. Campers will take at least 500 shots per day. The camp costs $275 and includes food, t-shirt and a shooting dvd. Lodging options for family members are available at $10 per night. As a Spartan, Rick was named to the All-NSCIF first team. He went on to Butte Community College and helped his team reach the California State Final Four. At Chico State University he led the Wildcats to a victory over Stanford and holds the school’s all- time career field goal percentage. Rick played professionally in Australia where he led the nation in free throw percentage (91 percent). For more information about the camp visit frc.edu or e-mail Coach Rick at rrick@frc.edu. Cavendish wins 7th stage of crash-marred Tour CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — Mark Cavendish captured the crash-marred seventh stage Fri- day in the same town where three years ago he won a Tour de France stage for the first time. Thor Hushovd kept the leader’s yellow jersey. A pileup toward the end of the 135-mile course across the Loire River valley cost British champion Bradley Wiggins any shot of a top- three finish in Paris. Team Sky’s leader crashed out of the race with what the team said was a broken collarbone. Cavendish, who rides for HTC- Highroad, sprinted out of the speeding pack in the last few hun- dred yards, beating fellow sprint specialists Alessandro Petacchi and Andre Greipel to the finish. Cavendish also won the sprint in Chateauroux in 2008, the first of his 17 Tour de France stage victo- ries. ‘‘It’s a very special day for me ... it’s a very sentimental moment,’’ Cavendish said. ‘‘I have to thank the guys for all their work today, it was a hard windy day, and the guys rode hard for me all the way through. They were marvelous.’’ Wiggins went down along with a few dozen other riders, 23 miles from the finish. Twenty-four hours earlier Wiggins and his Sky team- mates were celebrating Norwegian Boasson Hagen’s stage victory, the first in team history. Wiggins was competing in his fifth tour and, after winning the pre-tour warm up Criterium du Dauphine in June, had been con- sidered a top contender for the Tour. ‘‘He was in the form of his life, I really believe he would have done something here,’’ Cavendish said of his fellow countryman. Cavendish has now taken 27 stage wins in major Tours, includ- ing two stages of the Giro d’Italia in 2011, as well as 68 wins on the road since turning pro in 2007. HTC-Highroad has racked up 42 victories this season alone, making them the most successful ProTour team. Britain’s Team Sky suffered a cruel reversal of fortune, losing their leader and main contender. Wiggins went down along with a few dozen other riders, 38 kilome- ters from the finish. Only 24 hours earlier Wiggins and his Sky team- mates were celebrating Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen’s stage victory, the team’s first ever. Sky manager Dave Brailsford said the crash that took out Wig- gins was caused by a sudden slow- ing by some riders in the peloton. ‘‘I think the guys were moving Bradley up, he went into a tail- wind, they knew it was coming. Somebody apparently slammed the brakes on, the whole peloton skidded and then powered into the back of him at a great speed. There’s a lot of guys (who) hit the deck,’’ Brailsford said. Rounding out the disappointing day for Team Sky was Geraint Thomas’ loss of the young rider’s white jersey, after he finished the stage in a group 306 behind Cavendish. There was no change at the top of the standings, with Cadel Evans still in second place, just one sec- ond behind, and Frank Schleck still in third place, four seconds behind Hushovd. Race favorite and three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador finished the stage safely in the lead group, maintaining the Saxo Bank-SunGard rider’s 1:42 deficit in the overall standings. Red Bluff was playing East Redding in the championship, Friday night. Just like the 12-year-olds, Red Bluff could lose once and have a second chance. LITTLE LEAGUE Corning was playing East Redding Friday night in a bat- tle of the Northern and Southern bracket undefeated teams. The winner heads to the championship, while the loser has to earn its way there with another win. LITTLE LEAGUE Weekend July 9-10, 2011 Baseball Division (11, 12) Little League Baseball Division 11-year-old 9-and 10-year-old Baseball Division Baseball Division Junior