BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, GOLF 4C www.hpe.com THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2010 THE HIGH POINT ENTERPRISE
Giants tweak pitching
AP
Texas Rangers grounds crew employee Don Crymes puts the final touches on the AL championship series logo at Texas Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers will host the New York Yankees on Friday and Saturday in the first two games of the series.
ALCS: Old hands vs. tenderfoot Rangers ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Now that the Texas Rangers have finally won a postseason series for the first time, they get to play the team that has won more than any other. Bring on the New York Yankees, who have 27 World Series titles and 40 pennants. “We feel like we can play baseball with anyone,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said Wednesday. “We only can blaze our own trail right now, and every time we do something that’s good, it adds to the history of the Texas Rangers.” Game 1 of the AL championship series is Friday night at Rangers Ballpark. Things are much different for the Rangers than in the last half of the 1990s, when in their only three previous playoff appearances they were knocked out in the first round by the Yankees. New York went on to win the World Series each time, and has a nine-game postseason winning streak against Texas. “This is a different group of guys, and they have a lot of confidence,” Washington said.
BURNETT HITS TWO
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NEW YORK (AP) — A.J. Burnett got on the mound and plunked Greg Golson on an arm. Then he whacked Austin Kearns. Burnett’s simulated game was a hit — twice — on Wednesday as he prepared for his start against Texas in the AL championship series. “It’s different when they’re our guys. They know I didn’t mean to do it. But it’s still not a good feeling,” Burnett said.
“We’re not shocked by anything. We’re here because we believe and belong here.” These Rangers can run. They can pitch. And they can still slug. Texas clinched the AL division series against Tampa Bay with a 5-1 victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night. Twice, runners scored from second base on infield grounders. Nelson Cruz stole third with two outs in another inning and scored on a throwing
error, and ace left-hander Cliff Lee finished a six-hitter after Ian Kinsler’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth. “We’re confident. We don’t care who we go up against,” said Michael Young, the longest-tenured Rangers player in his 10th season. “We know we’re good and we believe in ourselves.” New York and Texas split eight meetings during the regular season, but the Rangers won four of five at home with a three-game sweep last month. The AL West champions have home-field advantage over the wild-card Yankees in the league championship series. “The three games we played them here in September,” Washington said, “proved that we could play with those guys.” New York worked out Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, trying to stay sharp four days after wrapping up its division series with a three-game sweep of Minnesota. The Twins, like Texas, have lost nine straight postseason games against New York. “We played the Yankees well and so I think that we can meet
the Yankees head on and compete with them. Normally in this league you pretty much have to go through New York if you’re going to go somewhere past this,” said Rangers president Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher who became part-owner this summer. “So, I think our guys anticipated that and I think they’re ready for it.” Texas players got the day off, but there was still plenty of activity at Rangers Ballpark. Colby Lewis, the scheduled starter for Game 2, tossed a few balls in the outfield with his 3 1/2-year-old son. Stadium workers painted AL championship series logos on the field in foul territory along the first- and third-base lines. Outside, some fans were already lined up near a box office waiting for World Series tickets to go on sale Sunday. The Rangers have to get past the Yankees for those tickets to be useful. Lee was acquired from Seattle on July 9 for games just like Tuesday night, when the lefthander struck out 11.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Giants manager Bruce Bochy is planning to tweak his rotation for the NL championship series, moving up left-hander Jonathan Sanchez to go Game 2 against the Philadelphia Phillies following ace Tim Lincecum. Bochy said he would do so to break up the two right-handers — Lincecum and Matt Cain, who now is set to pitch Game 3 back in San Francisco on Tuesday. “It gives Matt the home opener here,” Bochy said Wednesday before his team’s workout at AT&T Park on an unseasonably hot 90-degree fall day in the Bay Area. “That’s the way we’re leaning right now. We have confidence in both of them but we really think to break up the righties and lefties there is a better way to go.” Game 1 is Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park with the highly anticipated matchup between Lincecum and Roy Halladay, who pitched a no-hitter in the division series. “It’s going to be fun,” Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval said. “They have one of the best pitchers in the National League and we have one of the best pitchers on our team.”
Thomas provides another project at receiver for Panthers CHARLOTTE (AP) — Devin Thomas is known for appearing in a music video with Fantasia, for his modeling work and for a picture that made the rounds on Twitter showing him sleeping in a Washington Redskins film room. One thing Thomas hasn’t done is become a reliable NFL receiver. He’ll get another shot with the desperate and winless Carolina Panthers. A week after the Panthers waived receiver Dwayne Jarrett, a disappointing former secondround pick whose work ethic was questioned, they’ve replaced him with another disappoint-
ing former second-round pick whose work ethic has been questioned. Thomas is even wearing Jarrett’s old No. 80. Oh, and Charlotte is where Fantasia lives these days. But the 23year-old Thomas insists his focus is not on modeling or music, but football and proving Redskins coach Mike Shanahan wrong for waiving him last week. “I think I was in the doghouse just because of that situation,” Thomas said Wednesday. “It wasn’t because of my skills or my ability to run routes or knowing the playbook.” Just like Jarrett, the 45th overall pick in 2007
who was let go following his second arrest for a driving while impaired charge in three years, Thomas was accused of being a bad route-runner and not knowing the plays after being the 34th pick in 2008 out of Michigan State. The 6-foot-2 Thomas managed just 40 catches for 445 yards and three touchdowns with the Redskins, scarily similar to Jarrett’s 35 catches for 428 yards and one TD. When the old-school Shanahan took over in Washington in the offseason, he was turned off by Thomas’ effort on the field and his modeling and music video work of it.
Transgender woman sues LPGA SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lana Lawless, a former police officer who underwent a sex change operation five years ago, is challenging the LPGA’s ban on transgender players. She filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday in San Francisco federal court claiming the LPGA’s “female at birth” requirement for competitors violates a California civil rights law. Lawless is seeking to prevent the LPGA from holding tournaments in the state until the organization changes its policy to admit transgender players. She is also seeking unspecified damages. Lawless, 57, also sued three LPGA sponsors and the Long Drivers of America, which holds the annual women’s longdrive golf championship.
Lawless won the event in 2008 with a 254-yard drive but was barred from competing this year after organizers adopted the LPGA’s gender rules. “I am, in all respects, legally, and physically female,” Lawless said in a statement Wednesday. “The state of California recognizes me as such and the LPGA should not be permitted to come into California and blatantly violate my rights. I just
want to have the same opportunity to play professional golf as any other woman.” LPGA spokesman David Higdon declined to comment because the organization hasn’t seen the lawsuit. A spokesman for the Long Drivers of America also declined to comment. Lawless said the LPGA is one of the few athletic organizations to bar transgender competitors.
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