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StaffReport Great West League owners have voted to utilize a unique format for the league's 2017 All- Star Game. Rather than select two All-Star teams to meet in the game, the owners have decided to have one All-Star team and the team will play the host Chico Heat. "We felt it made sense to be more selective in putting our All- Star team together and the idea of the host team playing in this great event seems like an appeal- ing idea for local fans," said owner Bill Yuill of Consolidated Sports International. The 2017 GWL All-Star team will be made up of 25 players, fea- turing 10 pitchers. The team will be selected by league managers, with additional players selected by major league scouts. The All-Stars will be managed by the skipper from the team in first place just prior to the game, which will be played Monday, July 24, at Nettleton Stadium in Chico. The All-Star manager will pick two additional league managers to serve on his staff for the game. "The All-Star Game is a pre- mier event for our league and this format has the potential to be a huge hit," said league president Ken Wilson. Details of the festivities sur- rounding the All-Star Game will be announced as the game draws nearer. The 2016 GWL All-Star Game was played in front of a crowd of 2,467 in Medford, Oregon, as the North All-Stars defeated the South All-Stars 6-5. BASEBALL Chicotoface25GWLAll-Stars Heat will host this summer's All-Star Game at Nettleton, take on league's lone All-Star team By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press SAN DIEGO Tiger Woods had a rough return to the PGA Tour on Thursday. A slow one, too. Woods, playing in a PGA Tour event for the first in 17 months, fell apart on the back nine of the South course at Torrey Pines and wound up with a 4-over 76, leaving him in danger of miss- ing the cut at the Farmers Insur- ance Open. He was 11 shots behind Jus- tin Rose, who shot a 65 on the shorter North Course. Along with fighting his swing — he didn't hit a fairway after No. 7 — and coping with thick rough he had not seen in some time, Woods said he had a hard time adjusting to the pace of play from being in threesomes for the first time since he last played a PGA Tour event at the Wyndham Championship in Au- gust 2015. "Honestly, it was just weird waiting that much," he said. "Not used to doing that. At home, I guess we're flying a lit- tle quicker than this. It was just a different rhythm." His game was a greater con- cern than having to wait. This was a battle from the start, when his opening tee shot went into the right rough and he hit a big cut closer to the gallery than the green. Woods did well to keep his score from getting out of hand early, with four tough par saves on the front nine to limit the damage. He started the back nine with 10-foot birdie putts on the 10th and 11th holes, and with two par 5s ahead of him, starting to be- lieve this could be a strong start. "And it went the other way," Woods said. "I hit bad tee shots and made a bad three-putt and laid up from the rough into rough. I just kept compound- ing problems and mistakes out there." Starting with No. 12, he played the next six holes in 6 over, with a double bogey on the 15th hole the biggest blow. Woods snap-hooked his tee shot over the crowd and into a deep ravine, letting the driver fall from his hands in disgust. He couldn't immediately find his ball amid sand dunes and ice plants, instead finding a spot to take his penalty drop. He hooked a long iron through eu- calyptus trees into more rough and couldn't get it closer than 20 feet. At least he ended with a birdie and a smile, which looked to be more of a relief — not only for Woods, but for Jason Day and Dustin Johnson. The star group sure didn't play like one, with all three players frustrated at times by the bumpy poa annua greens in the afternoon. Day, the No. 1 player in the world, missed five putts from the 4-foot range. He opened with a 73. Johnson made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 72. None of them ever were bet- ter than 1 under at any point in the round. GOLF TIGER RETURNS TO PGA BUT SCUFFLES Rose takes lead with 65 on North Course as Woods cards 76, sits in danger of missing cut GREGORYBULL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the second hole of the South course during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open on Thursday in San Diego. By Paul Newberry The Associated Press FLOWERY BRANCH, GA. Kyle Sha- nahan is trying to keep the next 10 days as normal as possible. Good luck with that. The Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator is heading to his first Super Bowl — a game his father won twice. Once the season is over, Sha- nahan is expected to become the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He'll have his second inter- view with 49ers officials on Sat- urday, which appears to be little more than a formality since he's the only candidate remaining for the job. After that, Shanahan and the rest of the Falcons will board a jet for Houston, where they'll try to win the first championship in franchise history when they face the New England Patriots on Feb. 5. "It's worked out pretty good," Shanahan insisted after practice Thursday. "Getting this bye week before the Super Bowl, thank God you have two weeks to prepare for it." For the 37-year-old Shanahan, the chance to work in the Super Bowl — and then, in all likelihood, move on to his first head coaching job — is what he's been preparing for most of his life. Granted, Mike Shanahan didn't necessarily want his son to follow him into coaching. But once that was the path Kyle chose, he certainly benefited from being around the family business. While serving as a ball boy for the 49ers, where his father was an assistant coach, he got to hang out at training camp with players such as Jerry Rice, Steve Young and John Taylor. When playing in high school, he worked out along- side plenty of NFL stars, giving him a chance to study their rou- tines and poke their brains for ad- vice. "I've been sitting in draft meet- ings since high school," Shana- han said. "Not because I always wanted to coach. Just because I loved watching football and hear- ing about players and trying to be a player. "I never realized it was a big deal, but once I got in the NFL and some things come a little quicker, you're like, 'Maybe it did help be- ing around it my whole life.'" Shanahan also had to deal with the inevitable complaints that his path into the coach- ing business came easier than it does for most because his father won two straight Supers Bowls with the Denver Broncos during the 1990s (and, in an interesting twist, beat the Falcons for the sec- ond of those titles). The grumbling only intensi- fied when Kyle spent four years as Washington's offensive coor- dinator while his father was the head coach, a partnership that produced only one playoff appear- ance and a record of 24-40 before the Shanahans were fired. "When you work for your dad and things don't go well, you're going to get a lot of junk for it," he said. "I learned that the hard way, but I think that's life and I think that's anybody's situation. It's just when you're in the NFL, it's a lit- tle bit more in front of the whole public. But I wouldn't take my life back for anything. It's been great." This season, especially. After a rocky first season as the Falcons' coordinator, when the of- fense was plagued by turnovers and it seemed as though quarter- back Matt Ryan was not on the same page, Atlanta blossomed into the highest-scoring team in the league. Shanahan has been given the bulk of the credit for the transfor- mation as the team became more comfortable with his outside zone scheme, which spreads the ball all over the field. Ryan had the best season of his nine-year career and is a leading candidate for the MVP award. NFL Fa mi ly b us in es s: S ha n ah an f ol lo ws f at he r to S up er B ow l By Tom Withers The Associated Press CLEVELAND The Indians made it back to the World Series last year for the first time since 1997. They're about to connect with another moment from their past. Cleveland will host the All- Star Game in 2019, a person fa- miliar with the decision told the Associated Press on Thursday. The team will hold a news con- ference on Friday at Progressive Field to formally announce the event, last held in Cleveland in 1997. The person spoke on con- dition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made. Hosting the mid-season's show- case is another boost for the Indi- ans, who won their first AL pen- nant since '97 last season and pushed the Chicago Cubs to seven games before losing the Series. When the Indians hosted the game in '97, Indians catcher Sandy Alomar hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh in- ning and was selected as the All- Star Game's Most Valuable Player. The city also hosted the game in 1935, 1954, 1963 and 1981 at Municipal Stadium, which was torn down in the 1990s. Cleveland.com first reported that the Indians will be hosting the 2019 game, which will end a four-year run by NL ballparks. Cleveland will be the first AL host since Minnesota in 2014. The All- Stars will be in Miami this year and Washington, D.C., in 2018. The AL champion Indians have made significant changes to their downtown ballpark since last hosting the All-Stars. Back then it was called Jacobs Field. The team has removed thou- sands of seats in the right-field upper deck and the club has cre- ated open social areas and bet- ter viewing for its fans with the installation of bar rails. The club also upgraded its concessions, using numerous local food ven- dors. Cleveland's attendance has been among the majors' lowest in recent years, but the Indians have gotten a recent increase in ticket sales after signing free agent slug- ger Edwin Encarnacion, a three- time All-Star who has averaged 39 homers during the past five seasons. BASEBALL Cleveland will host All-Stars in 2019 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, January 27, 2017 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B2