Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/37174
Friday MLB— Athletics at Yankees, 4 p.m., CSNC MLB —Brewers at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNB Tour de France — Stage 19, 5 a.m., VERSUS Senior British Open — 2nd Round, 9 a.m., ESPN2 PGA —Canadian Open, Noon, TGC Softball — Australia vs U.S., 5 p.m., ESPN Sports 1B Friday July 22, 2011 All-Stars win Section Tournament Courtesy photo The California Section 2 Champion Red Bluff Little League All-Stars (Deonte Antolin, Blake Blocker, Kolby Button, Michael Chapman,Taylor Chapman, Wesley Clawson, Dimitre Kent, Lane Pritchard, Bode Parks, Nicholas Rodriguez, Evan Tanner, Tanner Tweedt and Austin Youngblood) celebrate with friends and family in Eureka after the tournament. Red Bluff defeated Sutter Buttes in a dramatic final,Wednesday night in Eureka.Wesley Clawson was at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning, with a full count when he launched a walk-off two-run homer to score himself and Kolby Button and give Red Bluff their first trip to the Northern Cali- fornia Divisional Tournament since 1996. The 11-and 12-year-old boys open play Sunday at noon at Chico Eastside Little League. Voeckler keeps tour lead NFL owners vote for tentative deal LE MONETIER-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Andy Schleck led a daring attack in the Alps to win the 18th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday, putting him within sec- onds of the yellow jersey and quashing Alberto Contador’s hopes of a fourth title. France’s Thomas Voeckler, in a show of grit of his own, narrowly kept the lead by muscling up a punishing final climb to limit the damage at the end of the 125-mile trek from Pinerolo, Italy, to the Galibier Serre- Chevalier ski station in France. Contador started the stage trailing Voeckler by several minutes after a rough start to the three-week race and finished it with a dismal final climb. ‘‘Victory is impossible now,’’ he said. ‘‘I had a bad day. My legs didn’t respond and I just hit a wall. It was a very dif- ficult day right from the start.’’ Schleck began the day in fourth place and is now 15 sec- onds behind Voeckler. He attacked on the second of three grueling climbs and held on all the way on the fabled Gali- bier pass to the highest-altitude finish in the race’s 108-year history. ‘‘I told the team yesterday that I had this in mind. I was- n’t going to be fourth in Paris,’’ Schleck said. ‘‘I said I’d risk it all. ... It’s my character: I’m not afraid to lose.’’ Standing next to Schleck, Voeckler — who has repeated- ly insisted that he can’t win when the race finishes Sunday in Paris — said: ‘‘You’ll get it.’’ Frank Schleck was second Thursday, trailing his brother by 2 minutes, 7 seconds. Cadel Evans of Australia was third. Voeckler was fifth on Thursday, 2:21 behind. Frank Schleck is third overall, 1:08 back. Evans is fourth, 1:12 off the pace. Contador was the day’s biggest loser, trailing in 15th place — 3:50 behind. Overall, he trails the French leader by 4:44 in seventh place. ‘‘Please, let me breathe,’’ an exhausted Voeckler said at the finish, mustering the strength to raise a fist in joy once he saw he’d kept the yellow jersey. ‘‘At 2,650 meters, the oxy- gen is thin.’’ ‘‘I limited the damage,’’ he added. ‘‘I went all out.’’ Schleck, the Leopard Trek team leader, came in knowing that he would need to gain time on rivals ahead of Saturday’s time trial — a discipline that’s not his specialty. On Friday, the pack faces the last of three days in the Alps. It again features an uphill finish at the renowned and dreaded Alpe d’Huez. Ahead of the stage, Contador tweeted in Spanish about ‘‘What leg pain!’’ awaits on three climbs so tough they defy cycling’s rating climbs: Col d’Agnel, Col d’Izoard and Col du Galibier. The pack scaled more than 37 miles of total climbs, about one-third of which had a gradient of more than 9 percent. Tour director Christian Prudhomme called the 15-mile Col d’Agnel (9,000 feet) the hardest climb in this race. Agnel, the day’s first big climb, wasn’t the site of the showdown. At one point there, Contador drifted back to the race doctor. ‘‘The start of the stage didn’t get off well,’’ he said. ‘‘I had to drop back to the medic car for an anti-inflammatory.’’ Andy Schleck took his chance on Col d’Izoard. After rid- ing behind Leopard Trek teammate Stuart O’Grady, the Luxembourg rider sped from the main pack about midway up, with 13 breakaway riders ahead. Contador moved up to the front of the pack but didn’t chase. Neither did Voeckler or Evans, possibly a tactical error that could cost them victory in Paris on Sunday. The stage showed how teamwork and strategy can be essential. Leopard Trek sent out two riders in the breakaway so they’d be available to escort Schleck in case he could shake his rivals. He did. With 34 miles left in the stage, Schleck jumped out to a lead of more than a minute against the contenders and caught his teammate Joost Posthuma, one of the breakaway riders who welcomed Schleck into his wake to go up Izoard. With less than 20 miles left, nearing the foot of the final climb, Schleck and four other breakaway riders caught Maxim Iglinsky of Kazakhstan, who had rid- den solo at the front for much of the stage. At the foot of 14- mile Galibier ascent, Schleck and the five others in the break- away had a lead of 3 1/2 minutes ahead of the pack. COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — NFL owners voted overwhelmingly in favor of a tentative 10-year agree- ment to end the lockout, pending player approval. Thursday’s vote was 31- 0, with the Oakland Raiders abstaining from the ratification, which came after a full day of meetings at an Atlanta-area hotel. While owners pored over the terms, Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke on the phone several times with NFL Players Associa- tion head DeMaurice Smith, including filling him in on the results of the vote before it was announced. ‘‘Hopefully, we can all work quickly, expeditious- ly, to get this agreement done,’’ Goodell said. ‘‘It is time to get back to football. That’s what everybody here wants to do.’’ Players still had to sign off on the deal — and they must re-establish their union quickly for the agreement to stand, the NFL said. Players didn’t vote on a full pact Wednes- day because there were unresolved issues; they planned to have a confer- ence call later Thursday. However, Smith wrote in an email to the 32 player representatives shortly after the owners’ decision: ‘‘Issues that need to be col- lectively bargained remain open; other issues, such as workers’ compensation, economic issues and end of deal terms, remain unre- solved. There is no agree- ment between the NFL and the players at this time. I look forward to our call tonight.’’ Several players took to Twitter, expressing opposi- tion to the proposal passed by the owners. Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark wrote: ‘‘The owners want u to believe that they have been extremely fair every- where and this is their ’olive branch’ to finalize it.’’ The four-month lockout is the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987. One game was taken off the schedule Thursday: The exhibition opener — the Aug. 7 Hall of Fame game between Chicago and St. Louis — was canceled. ‘‘The time was just too tight,’’ Goodell said. ‘‘Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to play the game this year.’’ Team facilities will open Saturday, and the new league year will begin Wednesday, he said — pro- viding the players approve the agreement, too. Owners exercised an opt-out clause in the old collective agreement in 2008, setting the stage for the recent labor impasse. The new deal does not contain an opt-out clause. ‘‘I can’t say we got everything we wanted to get in the deal,’’ New York Giants owner John Mara said. ‘‘I’m sure (players) would say the same thing. ... The best thing about it is our fans don’t have to hear about labor-management relations for another 10 years.’’ The old CBA expired March 11, when federally mediated negotiations fell apart, and the owners locked out the players hours later. Since then, teams have not been allowed to communicate with current NFL players; players — including those drafted in April — could not be signed; and teams did not pay for players’ health insurance. The basic framework for the league’s new eco- nomic model — including how to split more than $9 billion in annual revenues — was set up during nego- tiations last week. ‘‘These things, by their bargaining very nature, aren’t sup- posed to make you neces- sarily happy when you walk out the door. It was a negotiation,’’ Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. ‘‘I don’t mean to sound nega- tive, but it isn’t exactly like Christmas has come along here.’’ Final issues involved how to set aside three pend- ing court cases, including the antitrust lawsuit filed against the NFL in federal court in Minnesota by Tom Brady and nine other play- ers. NFL general counsel Jeff Pash said the owners’ understanding is that case will be dismissed. One thing owners origi- nally sought and won’t get, at least right away, is expanding the regular sea- son from 16 games to 18. That won’t change before 2013, and the players must agree to a switch. ‘‘We heard the players loud and clear. They pushed back pretty hard on that issue,’’ said Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, chairman of the league’s competition com- mittee. Goodell also announced that owners approved a sup- plemental revenue-sharing system, something Smith noted in his email to team reps. ‘‘Obviously, we have not been a part of those dis- cussions,’’ he wrote. Even after all acceptable terms are established, a deal would lead to a new CBA only if NFLPA team reps recommend re-estab- lishing the group as a union, which must be approved by a majority vote of the 1,900 players. NFL cancels Hall of Fame game COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — The NFL canceled its Hall of Fame game between St. Louis and Chicago on Thursday despite owners voting in favor of a tentative deal to end the lockout, pending player approval. The Rams and Bears originally were scheduled to open their training camps this weekend and play in the game to open the preseason schedule on Aug. 7 in Canton, Ohio. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the game had to be dropped because the Rams and Bears wouldn’t have ample time to prepare. ‘‘The time is just too short,’’ he said. ‘‘Unfortunately, we will not be there to play the game there this year.’’ Goodell added that the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will go on as planned on Aug. 6. This year’s class of inductees includes Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Shannon Sharpe and Richard Dent. The Pro Football Hall of Fame said in a statement Thursday night that it was ‘‘disappointed’’ by the decision, which will have ‘‘a signifi- cant adverse economic impact’’ on both the hall and city of Canton. The hall added that it appreciated ‘‘the effort that was made on our behalf by the league and players right up until the last minute,’’ and that the long- term effects of a new agreement would be beneficial to all involved. The game would have been tele- vised nationally on NBC. Although it’s an exhibition, it was a major draw last year, boosted by an intriguing matchup between the always popular Dallas Cowboys and former receiver Terrell Owens’ Cincinnati Bengals. That game was the highest-rated TV show of the week among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 18-49 and a close second overall to the season finale of ‘‘The Bachelorette’’ with 11.4 million viewers. ‘‘We will be working with the NFL to determine how to complete our preseason package,’’ NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said in a statement. The hall said it would issue full ticket refunds for fans who already purchased seats for the game. The Bears were supposed to open camp Friday, but team president Ted Phillips said it was going to be diffi- cult for the team to prepare to play the game because of the delay in getting back to work. ‘‘Because we have Richard Dent being enshrined, it’s disappointing from that standpoint,’’ Phillips said, ‘‘but probably the most fair given the circumstances of the offseason that every team starts training camp on the same day.’’ NFL