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Thursday Soccer — Chico at Red Bluff, 6 p.m. Tennis — Anderson at Corning, 3:30 p.m. Tennis — Red Bluff at Chico, 3:30 p.m. Golf — Red Bluff at Wilcox, 1 p.m. Golf — Corning at Sevillano Links, Noon MLB— Orioles at A’s, 7:05 p.m., CSNCA Sports 1B Huff hits inside-the-park homer Red Bluff Tritons tryouts SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Aubrey Huff saw teammate Mark DeRosa spread out on the ground sig- naling him to slide into home, so he obliged. At last, Huff had the inside- the-park home run he’s long coveted. ‘‘I was already gassed, so I really didn’t need that,’’ Huff said. ‘‘He could have come in standing up,’’ teammate Eli Whiteside said with a grin. Huff made his first homer with the Giants an exciting one and Jonathan Sanchez struck out 11, leading San Francisco past the Pittsburgh Pirates 6- 0 on Wednesday. Whiteside hit a three-run shot later in the second inning and Aaron Rowand hit a two-run shot a few innings after them. Huff’s homer highlighted the day. He hardly considers himself a speed- ster — he tried to steal six times last year and was caught all six times. ‘‘When I hit it, I thought it was gone anyway. In most parks it is,’’ Huff said. ‘‘I saw it bounce off the wall and as soon as I rounded first I saw it took an amazing hop right. I’m like: ’Oh boy, here we go. If I am going to hit one out I’m going to try to get a cheapie.’’’ Sanchez (1-0) matched his career best with 11 Ks in eight scoreless innings. The Giants improved to 7-2, their best start since beginning 8-1 in 2003 — their last playoff season. Huff led off the second with a drive that hit the arch on the facade in right- center, known in the pitcher-friendly park as Triples Alley. The ball rico- cheted into right field and gave Huff ample time to round the bases. Huff slid into home, gratuitously, for his first homer of the year as San Francisco’s new cleanup hitter. He received plenty of warnings about how hard it is to clear the fences in AT&T Park. Huff’s sixth-inning double clanked off the wall just right of the first spot and caromed back toward center. He also hit a deep fly to center in the third that looked as if it might go out. Man- ager Bruce Bochy wasn’t sure Huff could have made it around a second time if he had to. ‘‘I’ve never had a three-home-run game. I’m going to go ahead and chalk that up as a three-home-run game in my mind,’’ Huff said. ‘‘I don’t know if I can hit a ball any better. I hit one to center for an out and the one to right- center was just ridiculous. If that don’t go out, I don’t know what you can do. Everybody in spring told me, ’You’ll see, you’ll see.’ I’m like, ’Come on, if you get it it’s going to go.’ ’Nah. ...’ ‘‘I get it now. I get it,’’ Huff said. WASHINGTON (AP) — After hounding Major League Baseball and its players union over steroids, Congress now wants the sport to ban smokeless tobacco. ‘‘Good luck,’’ San Fran- cisco Giants reliever Bran- don Medders said. ‘‘Guys do what they do. We work out- side. It’s been part of the game for 100 years.’’ At a hearing Wednesday, House Energy and Com- merce Committee chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, and Health Sub- committee chairman Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, called on baseball and its players to agree to bar major leaguers from using chew, dip or similar products during games. MLB executive VP Robert Manfred and MLB Players Association chief labor counsel David Prouty told lawmakers they agree that smokeless tobacco is harmful — Manfred said a ban in the majors is ‘‘a laud- able goal’’ — but both point- ed out that any ban would have to be agreed to through collective bargaining. They said their sides are willing to discuss the topic during future negotiations; baseball’s labor contract is due to expire in December 2011. ‘‘I can tell you, anecdotal- ly, there are plenty of players who are against it, who think, ’Of course it should be banned.’ There are plenty of players who use it. Do they think it should be banned? I don’t know,’’ the union’s Prouty said in an interview Thursday April 15, 2010 The Red Bluff Tritons will be hosting their first set of tryouts Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. to Noon on Sunday at the Tehama Family Fitness Center There is no charge to try-out and further registration information will be available. The Tritons swim team is for swimmers ages five to 18. Those wishing to tryout must be able to swim 25 yards and to swim a recognizable stroke. Further tryouts will be held in May. For more information e-mail mnb731@yahoo.com. Red Bluff Fire and Rage tryouts The Under -14 Red Bluff Fire and Under-12 Red Bluff Rage boys Division 3 competitive soccer teams are inviting any Tehama County boy ages nine to 13 to its tryouts on Friday and Saturday at the Red Bluff High School soccer park. The Under-12 tryouts will be held at 4 p.m. both days and the Under-14 tryouts will be at 5:30 p.m. For more details visit rbysl.org. American Legion Hall of Fame American Legion Baseball will be hosting a Hall of Fame Dinner and Auction on 5:30 p.m. May 1 at the Vet- erans Building in Red Bluff. The event will be emceed by Cal Hunter and Matty Maiocco, who covers the San Francisco 49ers for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat will be the featured speaker. Maiocco is a former Red Bluff Bulls player and has written two books, “Roger Craig’s tales from the 49ers sideline” and “San Francisco 49ers: Where have you gone.” The American Legion will be inducting Todd Ross, MCT photo Aubrey Huff rounds third base on his way to home plate. The Giants’ Nate Schierholtz hit the last inside-the-park homer here last June 14 against Oakland. Seattle’s Ichi- ro Suzuki had one during the 2007 All- Star Game at AT&T Park. It was the fourth inside-the-park homer in regular-season history at the ballpark, which opened in 2000. ‘‘Usually that ball’s supposed to kick toward center like the next one did,’’ Pirates manager John Russell said. ‘‘There’s no fault whatsoever. It hit the archway and kicked the other way.’’ Sanchez, who pitched a no-hitter against San Diego last July 10, held the Pirates to three hits. He allowed a sin- gle to Lastings Milledge in the first and not another hit until Ronny Cedeno’s double to start the sixth. Sanchez escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth on the way to his first career win over Pittsburgh in five appearances. It was his fourth career outing with 10 or more strikeouts. The left-hander received a rousing standing ovation when he walked off the mound after the eighth. ‘‘I feel more confident out there,’’ Sanchez said. ‘‘I can trust myself now.’’ after the 3 1/2-hour hearing. ‘‘We can go back to the players and say, ’Congress feels strongly about this. You ought to think about it. Look what’s happened on other issues Congress felt strongly about,’’’ Prouty said. Smoking cigarettes while in uniform and in view of the public is not allowed in the majors. Smokeless tobacco has been banned in the minors since 1993 but is allowed in the majors, and players and managers often can be seen using products during games or carrying a tin of dip in a back pocket. ‘‘For them to pull it off in the minors really surprised me,’’ Twins reliever Pat Neshek said after Minnesota played the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday. ‘‘We’ll see if that gains much traction.’’ Neshek, who said he’s never tried smokeless tobac- co but considers the notion of a ban ‘‘ridiculous,’’ remembers players in the minors skirting the rules. ‘‘People would still do it,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t know if they’d mix it in with their gum or something like that.’’ At the hearing earlier Wednesday, Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, won- dered aloud: ‘‘Why don’t they just chew gum if they feel the need to chew some- thing?’’ During his opening state- ment, Waxman said: ‘‘We don’t let baseball players go stand out there in the field and drink beer. Major League Baseball won’t allow them to step on the field and smoke cigarettes. So why should they be out Bochy turned to closer Brian Wil- son for the ninth because he needed work and Sanchez, who walked three, had thrown 109 pitches. Sanchez also had an infield single in the second for his first hit of 2010 and 10th of his career. San Francisco slug- ger Pablo Sandoval ended his 12-game hitting streak dating to last season. Charlie Morton (0-2) endured another rough day in his second start of the year. With a 21.60 ERA coming in, the right-hander was tagged for six runs and eight hits in six innings. NOTES: First-year Giants hitting coach Hensley Meulens was away from the team to be with wife, Gyselle, for the birth of their son, Elijah, on Wednesday morning. ... Whiteside started at C as starter Bengie Molina got the day off before Thursday’s off day. ... As the Giants hit the road to face the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Fri- day, Eugenio Velez now has a correct- ly spelled gray jersey. His uniform his read ‘‘San Francicso’’ during the sea- son-opening series at Houston last week. Longtime equipment manager Mike Murphy confirmed the new uni- form had arrived. Congress urges baseball to ban smokeless tobacco there on the field — in sight of all their fans on television and at the ballpark — using smokeless tobacco?’’ Waxman was one of the leaders of the House Gov- ernment Reform Committee when it held a series of hear- ings on performance- enhancing drugs in baseball with witnesses such as Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro and Roger Clemens in the same Ray- burn House Office building used for Wednesday’s ses- sion. Former major leaguer and longtime anti-tobacco advocate Joe Garagiola testi- fied, speaking for about 15 minutes, instead of the allot- ted five. ‘‘I would like the players ... who are role models; I don’t care what anybody says ... to quit carrying a can of dip in their uniform pock- ets,’’ Garagiola said. ‘‘Why can’t baseball and the players association right here get together and ban it? Take it off the field,’’ Garagi- ola said. ‘‘Tobacco is tobac- co is tobacco. ... Get it out of our game.’’ Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Debo- rah Winn of the National Cancer Institute testified about the links between smokeless tobacco and can- cer, and the addictiveness of smokeless tobacco. Pechacek said smokeless tobacco can cause oral can- cer, pancreatic cancer and has been linked to fatal heart attacks. Harvard professor Grego- ry Connolly said research shows about one-third of major leaguers report they use smokeless tobacco, and he says that contributes to use by youth in America. Los Angeles Angels out- fielder Torii Hunter wasn’t sure whether it’s fair to blame ballplayers for kids using tobacco. ‘‘Anything healthy is always good, but I wouldn’t put it on us. You know, there’s grandparents that do that, that dip and all that stuff,’’ Hunter said. Hunter said he doesn’t use dip and has tried to per- suade other players to stop. ‘‘I can see they don’t want kids to do it, which is good,’’ Medders said before San Francisco hosted Pitts- burgh on Wednesday. He also called the idea that smokeless tobacco, which he uses, could be banned, ‘‘just stupid.’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy is trying to quit his longtime smokeless tobacco habit, and he stops during each offseason. He’s down to about two dips a day; he says the tobacco makes him sharper in his decision-mak- ing during games. ‘‘I’ve dramatically cut back. I feel a lot better,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘It’s not as prevalent in the game as it used to be, which is a good thing. We know it’s not good for you, and I’m guilty. We are role models. Believe me, I made sure my two boys don’t do it. I don’t know if it should take an act of Con- gress to do it. Starting in the minor leagues, we’ve done a pretty good job.’’ Mike Weibling and Donnie Button into its Hall of Fame. The silent auction will feature items such as a trip to Cabo San Lucas. Last year a similar package valued at $4,000 went for $1,000 at the auction. For ticket information to the induction dinner contact Jim Bonomini at 529-3320 or 736-9968. or an American Legion baseball player. The dinner and auction will be presale only and seat- ing is limited to 225. The Bulls American Legion Club is also giving out scholarships in the amount of $1,200. Nominees for the scholarships are Red Bluff’s Danta Garaventa and EJ Stanton, Corning’s Cody Fox and Mercy’s Cameron Vietti. Bulldogs stay atop Mid-Valley League The Los Molinos golf team remained atop the Mid- Valley League standings after the third round of league play, Tuesday, although Esparto pulled into a first place tie. Los Molinos finished sec- ond in both the Front 9 and Back 9 at Oak Creek, to earn six points, pushing their sea- son total to 21. Esparto won both rounds for eight points and now also have 21 for the season. Williams is in third place with eight points for the season. Esparto’s Matt Muller led all golfers on Tuesday with an incredible 66. Bulldogs’ Zach Mathues and Wills Mathues came in sec- ond and third with 85 and 88 respectively. Andrew Ruiz shot a 100 for Los Molinos. Jared Hawker shot 114, Robert Harrigan 119 and Bris Castillo and Gaumel Murillo shot a 125. Things didn’t go as well for the Bulldogs on the diamond Tuesday. The baseball team lost 7-2 to East Nicolaus and the soft- ball team was held without a hit in a 16-0 loss to East Nico- laus. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Mercy’s Esteban Rodriguez tees off Wednesday at Wilcox Oaks. The event, like many around Tehama County, Wednesday, was eventually cancelled due to weather.