Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/64881
2B Daily News – Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Smoke takes his shots at Talladega Mickelson joins 5 others Tony Stewart's standards, his tongue- in-cheek assessment of NASCAR's latest wreckfest at Talladega was tame stuff. But his four-minute Q&A fol- lowing Sunday's race was vintage Smoke, and boy did he deliver. The three-time NASCAR champi- on deadpanned his way through a flur- ry of questions about his afternoon, which essentially ended when he was caught in a nine-car accident four laps from the finish. Before the accident, Stewart said he had twice run out of gas and spent the entire race keeping one eye on his gauges to make sure his engine didn't overheat because of NASCAR's rules at restrictor-plate tracks. ''I call it a successful day,'' a smirk- TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — By ing Stewart said. He never broke character, answer- ing each of the 13 questions with drip- ping sarcasm. Among the gems: —''I'm upset that we didn't crash more cars. I feel bad if I don't spend at least $150,000 in torn-up race cars going back to the shop. We definitely have to do a better job with that.'' —''I had a blast. It would have been a lot more fun if I could have gotten caught up in one more wreck. If I could have done that, it would have been per- fect.'' the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeed- way into a figure 8. ''That is going to be my vote next week, we make it a figure 8,'' he said. ''And/or we can stop at halfway, make a break, and turn around and go back- wards the rest of the way. Then with 10 to go, we split the field in half and half go the regular direction and half of them go backwards.'' Well, that would at least be exciting to watch. — ''The racing was awesome. It's fun to be able to race and have to watch the gauges at the same time. It makes us as drivers have to do so much more.'' —''I think if we haven't crashed at least 50 percent of the field by the end of the race, we need to extend the race until we at least crash 50 percent of the cars.'' Stewart saved his best material for his parting shot, which came as an answer to which style of racing — pack racing or the two-car tandem — he preferred for Talladega and Day- tona. His suggestion was redesigning GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — He's too good, and that's too bad. A 13-year-old New York boy who played field hockey growing up in Ireland has been told that after two years as a member of the Southampton High School girls' team, he is now too skilled to qualify for an exemption allowing him to compete with — and against — girls next season. Keeling Pilaro, whose 10 goals and eight assists earned him all-conference honors on suburban Long Island — he was the only boy in any league — is appealing the decision by the governing body for high school sports in Suffolk County, and a lawyer for his family suggests a court bat- tle could ensue if the ball doesn't bounce Keeling's way. An appeals committee said it looked only at his skills, not size or strength, when upholding the deci- sion to keep him off the field. That raises a question of discrimination. Keeling's fight appears to Stewart so upset. He's heard the grum- bling the last six weeks about the cur- rent state of NASCAR racing, which has been marked by uncharacteristical- ly clean races and long green-flag runs. Before Sunday, the last multicar accident was at Martinsville, five races ago. There have been very few yellow flags of late, and many of the caution periods have been for nothing more than debris. While that's actually racing at its purest form, it's missing the punch needed to spark fan interest. And so begins the debate over what fans really want to see: racin' or wreckin'? The very notion that fans want to see more accidents is offensive to dri- vers, and Stewart has made his position clear the last two races. He rebuked a reporter at Richmond for asking if Stewart was ''amazed'' there had been no accidents in three consecutive races. Although the dressing down was mild for Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still had to cover his face to conceal his laughter while Stewart spoke. So he was ready again on Sunday, And that's in large part what has derisively insinuating several times that the fans were let down by not enough accidents to ''fill the quota for Tallade- ga and NASCAR.'' ''It's not fair to these fans for them to not see more wrecks than that and more torn-up cars,'' he said. ''We still had over half the cars running at the end, and it shouldn't be that way.'' It's not necessarily accurate to claim race fans want wrecks. As Nationwide Series driver Eric McClure was released from an Alabama hospital nity, including the girls on our field hockey team, embraced Keeling Pilaro and we couldn't be more proud of him.'' be a rare example of a young man seeking to take advan- tage of Title IX, a 40-year- old law enacted to provide women equal access to ath- letic opportunities. There are no boys' high school field hockey teams anywhere on Long Island, or, for that mat- ter, in most of the country. ''It's really annoying,'' the eighth-grader said in a recent interview. ''I'm just 4-foot-8 and 82 pounds, so I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to play. I don't real- ly care if I'm on a girls' team or a boys' team, I just want to play.'' to Edward Cinelli, the direc- tor of the organization that oversees high school athlet- ics in Suffolk County, is that state education law won't allow it. He cited a provision that says administrators are permitted to bar boys from girls' teams if a boy's partic- ipation ''would have a sig- nificant adverse effect'' on a girl's opportunity to partici- pate in interschool competi- tion in that sport. Officials say Keeling's skills are superior to the girls he plays against, creating an unfair advantage. Keeling's defenders say that while he has played well, his skills are not supe- rior to everyone else in the league, and also that his skill level should not be the final determining factor in whether he gets to play. In order to play with the girls in the first place, Keel- ing had to get permission from Suffolk's mixed-com- petition committee, which screens players who want to compete on teams of the opposite sex. Cinelli says there have been occasions where girls have been approved to play football, wrestle or compete in other traditional boys sports, but Keeling is the first in his memory to play alongside girls. The problem, according Southampton school administrators agree, but they don't have the final say. ''The decision to support him represents our commit- ment to provide meaningful opportunities to each of our students,'' Superintendent Dr. J. Richard Boyes said in a statement. ''Our commu- NHL PLAYOFFS CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS (Best-of-7) Monday's results N.Y. Rangers 3, Washington 2, OT N.Y. Rangers lead series 3-2 Nashville at Phoenix, late Phoenix leads series 3-1 Today's games New Jersey at Philadelphia, 4:30 p.m. New Jersey leads series 3-1 Other series Los Angeles beat St. Louis 4-0 varsity and a second season with the varsity, the commit- tee in March denied Keeling permission to play next fall. An April decision by the panel's appeals committee affirmed the original deci- sion, and said it did not con- sider his size and strength as potential criteria for being After a year on the junior NBA PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND (Best-of-7) Monday's results San Antonio 87, Utah 81 San Antonio wins series 4-0 Memphis at L.A. Clippers, late L.A. Clippers lead series 2-1 Today's games Orlando at Indiana, 4 p.m. Indiana leads series 3-1 Boston at Atlanta, 5 p.m. Boston leads series 3-1 Philadelphia at Chicago, 6:30 p.m. Philadelphia leads series 3-1 Denver at L.A. Lakers, 7:30 p.m. L.A. Lakers lead series 3-1 Other series Miami leads New York 3-1 Oklahoma City beat Dallas 4-0 after suffering a concussion and inter- nal bruising in an accident Saturday at Talladega, the very notion that anyone would root for crashes is particularly inappropriate. Yet wrecks are featured heavily in the marketing strategies of most track promoters, and a pit-road confrontation between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch at last year's race at Darlington has been used to advertise Saturday night's return to the South Carolina speedway. Neither Harvick nor Busch was impressed with the campaign. Purists — and particularly drivers — prefer clean racing, and Stewart is annoyed that some find this recent stretch of incident-free racing boring. It's part of an ongoing disconnect between the competitors in NASCAR and the people who drive attendance and television ratings. Very few drivers wanted anything changed at Bristol Motor Speedway, but track owner Bru- ton Smith is currently grinding the track as a response to fans not showing up to the March race. ''I've said all along that as a race car Sandy Lyle of Scotland, writer Dan Jenkins, British player- turned-broadcaster Peter Alliss, and four-time LPGA major champion Hollis Stacy. That brought membership in the Hall of Fame to 141, nearly half of them since it moved to the World Golf Village in 1998. It was the second straight year that a player still among the top 20 in the world ranking went into the Hall of Fame — Mickelson this year, Ernie Els in 2011. Lefty allowed himself to pause for a night to reflect on two decades of golf, starting with his first PGA Tour win while still at Arizona State. in Hall of Fame induction ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — Phil Mickelson loved golf before he was old enough to walk and swing a club. It took him on a thrilling ride of major championships and a few spectacular crashes, eventually leading to his induction Monday night into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Mickelson was inducted with two-time major champion ''They can attest that you can't start fulfilling your dreams until you dream big.'' Jenkins and Alliss provided the laughs. Jenkins, who has covered 210 majors dating to the 1951 U.S. Open, is the third writer in the Hall of Fame, but the first who was alive to give an acceptance speech — or as Jenkins said, ''I'm particularly pleased to be taken in as a vertical human.'' Mickelson congratulated the others in his class and said, driver, you walk a fine line between being a daredevil and a chess player,'' Brad Keselowski said after Sunday's victory. ''When we come here, we're probably more daredevils. You look at it as a whole. You hope that you can split the middle of the two. That's what racing is. ''I look at chess matches, not a lot of them on TV, sure as hell don't get 100,000 people to come to the match. So we've got to balance those things.'' The balance is in providing excite- ment, and if it doesn't come from wrecks, then it's got to come from story lines. The drivers must find a way to get people talking, whether it's through controversy and drama, or personalities and rivalries. All of it sells, and all of it leads to Monday morning chatter at the water cooler. So here's something to think about: Jenkins recalled a different era of golf, when there was not such a gap between the sportsman and the journalists. He said he wrote about 93 members of the Hall of Fame, drank with 47 of them and played golf with 24 of them, most of those rounds with his hero, Ben Hogan. He figured his best big moment would be his funeral, and he already knew what to put on his tombstone: ''I knew this would happen.'' MOTA (Continued from page 1B) and body builders use it to build muscle and burn fat. Sure, Stewart was involved in a wreck at Talladega. But it's his response to it — not the accident itself — that's got everyone talking. NYboy wants to stay on girls field hockey squad to play athletics. disqualified. ''Stick-play, quickness and agility are the ingredi- ents of superior play and those are the characteristics of Keeling Pilaro relative to those girls with and against whom he participated,'' the committee wrote. Another appeal hearing is set for May 15. Keeling also plays with an all-girls field hockey club team, his father, Andrew, said, contending that there have been no problems in club competition. Family attorney Frank Scagluso argued the county organization's ruling is faulty and promises legal action, if necessary. He said judging the boy's stick play is subjective, and the fact that Keeling has worked hard to improve his skills should not disqualify him. Scagluso argued there are many girls playing in Suf- folk County with superior skills to Keeling's. Keeling's chances of winning on a Title IX argu- ment are slim, said Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Hofstra University, because the law was estab- lished to benefit those who claim their opportunities to compete are underrepresent- ed. Most of the time that favors women or girls, because schools provide more opportunities for boys MLS WESTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA QUAKES 72 1 22 21 11 Salt Lake 7 3 1 22 18 12 Seattle 6 1 1 19 11 3 Vancouver 5 2 2 17 9 7 Colorado 5 5 0 15 15 12 FC Dallas 3 4 3 12 10 14 Galaxy 3 5 1 10 11 14 Chivas USA 3 6 0 9 5 11 Portland 2 5 2 8 9 13 EASTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Kansas City 7 2 0 21 12 5 D.C. 5 3 3 18 20 15 New York 5 3 1 16 19 14 Chicago 3 2 2 11 9 9 Montreal 3 5 2 11 11 15 N. England 3 6 0 9 8 12 Houston 2 2 2 8 7 8 Columbus 2 4 2 8 6 10 Philadelphia 2 5 1 7 5 9 Toronto FC 0 8 0 0 6 18 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. —————————————————— Wednesday's games Houston at New York, 4 p.m. Real Salt Lake at Chicago, 5:30 p.m. Seattle FC at FC Dallas, 5:30 p.m. Saturday's games Los Angeles at Montreal, 1 p.m. D.C. United at Houston, 1:30 p.m. FC Dallas at Columbus, 4:30 p.m. Vancouver at New England, 4:30 p.m. Kansas City at Chicago, 5:30 p.m. Real Salt Lake at Seattle FC, 7 p.m. Sunday's games New York at Philadelphia, 9:30 a.m. Chivas USA at San Jose, 4 p.m. But, she said, he could successfully argue that he is the victim of discrimination because officials already granted him permission to play and may now be hold- ing him to a higher standard than girls. Ramirez served a 50- game suspension while with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2009, then retired rather than serve a 100-game ban while with Tampa Bay last year. Because Ramirez sat out nearly all of 2011, his penal- ty was cut to the first 50 games of this season under an agreement between man- agement and the union that allowed him to end his retire- ment. He agreed to a minor league contract with Oak- land. The Giants filled the ros- ter spot by activating out- fielder Aubrey Huff, who was on the disabled list The United States is one of the rare places in the world where boys do not regularly play field hockey, said Chris Clements, the national men's coach for USA Field Hockey. He said there are some leagues for boys in California, places on the East Coast where men and boys play, and club teams. But he conceded the opportunities for boys to learn the sport are rare. ''Even the girls don't pick up the sport until high school, or middle school.'' He said USA Field Hockey is working on initia- tives aimed at getting more boys involved. Some on the national team played on girls high school teams when they were younger; others have also developed skills playing in Europe, he said. BRANCH (Continued from page 1B) Getting Branch signed and with the team was important for the Raiders, who are counting on him to be one of the defensive lead- ers under a new defense run by head coach Dennis Allen and coordinator Jason Tarv- er. Branch, a fourth-round pick in 2008, has started every game the past three seasons and led the Raiders in tackles the past two years. He had 78 solo tackles, one sack, one interception, four passes defensed and one fumble recovery last season. over the past three seasons are the second most of any NFL defensive back, trailing only Indianapolis' Antoine Bethea, who has 340. Branch's 327 total tackles He said Keeling's age and skill sets should not dis- qualify him from playing with the girls next season. NASCAR Sprint Cup Points Leaders 1. Greg Biffle 2. Matt Kenseth 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4. Denny Hamlin 5. Kevin Harvick 6. Martin Truex Jr. 7. Tony Stewart 8. Jimmie Johnson 9. Kyle Busch 10. Clint Bowyer 11. Carl Edwards 12. Brad Keselowski 13. Ryan Newman 14. Paul Menard 15. Joey Logano 16. Jamie McMurray 20. A J Allmendinger 21. Marcos Ambrose 22. Aric Almirola 23. Jeff Gordon 24. Mark Martin 25. Kurt Busch 26. Bobby Labonte 27. Regan Smith 28. Casey Mears 29. David Ragan 30. David Gilliland 31. David Reutimann 32. Travis Kvapil 33. Dave Blaney 34. Landon Cassill 35. David Stremme 36. J.J.Yeley 37. Brian Vickers, 38. Michael McDowell 39. Brendan Gaughan 40. Ken Schrader 41. Terry Labonte 42. Tony Raines 43. Josh Wise 44. Michael Waltrip 45. Hermie Sadler 46. Scott Riggs 47. Stephen Leicht 48. Bill Elliott 49. Robby Gordon 50. Scott Speed 378 371 369 351 333 332 328 324 308 302 300 299 286 277 259 253 17. Juan Pablo Montoya 252 18. Jeff Burton 19. Kasey Kahne 249 246 242 239 237 232 218 215 211 208 187 172 165 154 148 140 135 81 73 66 57 50 47 42 41 39 26 13 13 9 7 6 2 improved in pass coverage, cutting his completion per- MLB West Division Texas A's Angels Seattle East Division Baltimore New York Boston American League WL Pct GB 19 10 .655 — 15 14 .517 4 13 17 .433 6.5 13 17 .433 6.5 WL Pct GB 19 10 .655 — Tampa Bay 19 10 .655 — Toronto Central Division Cleveland 17 11 .607 — Detroit Chicago Kansas City 9 19 .321 8 Minnesota WL Pct GB 14 13 .519 2.5 13 17 .433 5 7 21 .250 10 —————————————————— Monday's results Boston 11, Kansas City 5 Cleveland 8, Chicago 6, 1st game Cleveland 3, Chicago 2, 2nd game Los Angeles 8, Minnesota 3 Texas 14, Baltimore 3 Detroit at Seattle, late Today's games Toronto (R.Romero 4-0) at Oakland (Parker 1-0), 7:05 p.m. Chicago (Danks 2-4) at Cleveland (Masterson 1-2), 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (Shields 5-0) at New York (Nova 3-1), 4:05 p.m. Texas (Feliz 1-1) at Baltimore (Arrieta 2-2), 4:05 p.m. Boston (Bard 2-3) at Kansas City (Duffy 2-2), 5:10 p.m. Los Angeles (Haren 1-2) at Minnesota (Diamond 0-0), 5:10 p.m. Detroit (Verlander 2-1) at Seattle (Millwood 0-3), 7:10 p.m. Wednesday's games Toronto at Oakland, 12:35 p.m. Chicago at Cleveland, 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay at New York, 4:05 p.m. Texas at Baltimore, 4:05 p.m. Boston at Kansas City, 5:10 p.m. Los Angeles at Minnesota, 5:10 p.m. Detroit at Seattle, 7:10 p.m. 16 13 .552 3 15 13 .536 3.5 12 16 .429 6.5 Branch also was much West Division Dodgers GIANTS Arizona Colorado Padres East Division Washington 18 10 .643 — Atlanta New York Miami St. Louis Philadelphia 14 16 .467 5 Central Division WL Pct GB 17 11 .607 — Cincinnati 15 13 .536 2 Houston Pittsburgh 12 16 .429 5 Chicago 13 16 .448 4.5 12 17 .414 5.5 Milwaukee 12 17 .414 5.5 —————————————————— Monday's games San Francisco at Los Angeles, late Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 1 Miami 4, Houston 0 New York 5, Philadelphia 2 Colorado at San Diego, late St. Louis at Arizona, late Today's games San Francisco (Vogelsong 0-2) at Los Angeles (Kershaw 2-0), 7:10 p.m. New York (Batista 0-1) at Philadelphia (Blanton 3-3), 4:05 p.m. Washington (E.Jackson 1-1) at Pittsburgh (A.J.Burnett 1-2), 4:05 p.m. Atlanta (Delgado 2-3) at Chicago (Dempster 0-1), 5:05 p.m. Miami (A.Sanchez 2-0) at Houston (A.Rodriguez 0-0), 5:05 p.m. Cincinnati (Bailey 1-2) at Milwaukee (Estrada 0-1), 5:10 p.m. St. Louis (Westbrook 3-2) at Arizona (I.Kennedy 3-1), 6:40 p.m. Colorado (Undecided) at San Diego (Suppan 1-0), 7:05 p.m. Wednesday's games San Francisco at Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m. Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 10:10 a.m. Miami at Houston, 11:05 a.m. Atlanta at Chicago, 11:20 a.m. Colorado at San Diego, 12:35 p.m. New York at Philadelphia, 4:05 p.m. Washington at Pittsburgh, 4:05 p.m. St. Louis at Arizona, 6:40 p.m. WL Pct GB 18 12 .600 1 16 13 .552 2.5 15 14 .517 3.5 because of an anxiety disor- der that began in his New York hotel room early on April 23 before the Giants played a doubleheader with the Mets. doval sidelined for four to six weeks after undergoing surgery Friday on a broken hamate bone in his left hand, the Giants are short-handed offensively, too. And Bochy believes Huff can give the team a lift. With top hitter Pablo San- Aubrey is, too,'' Bochy said. ''He gives us an experienced bat and a guy that can hit in the heart of the order, but we've got to get him going. ... He got out of synch his last two or three games, but if we can get him going, he gives this club what we need — a guy that can drive in runs.'' ''I'm excited, and I think centage against from 67.4 percent in 2010 to 55.7 per- cent last season, according to STATS LLC, as the Raiders often used him as a corner- back in nickel packages. Branch and free safety Michael Huff will anchor an overhauled secondary in Oakland this year. After years of running a defense premised on aggressive man coverage under late owner Al Davis, the Raiders are expected to use more blitzes and zone coverages this sea- son. season's starting corner- backs, Stanford Routt and Chris Johnson, and signed free agents Ron Bartell and Shawntae Spencer. The team let go of last The Raiders are still wait- ing for fullback Marcel Reece to sign his exclusive rights tender. MLB National League WL Pct GB 18 10 .643 — 14 14 .500 4 14 15 .483 4.5 12 15 .444 5.5 9 20 .310 9.5