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TODAY'S LOCAL SPORTS

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

UPDATED: Yi shoots 61, leads Jamie Farr Classic
7/4/2009 9:41:22 PM
SYLVANIA -- No one was more surprised to find Eunjung Yi leading the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic through three rounds than, well, Eunjung Yi.

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Local Sports UPDATED: Yi shoots 61, leads Jamie Farr Classic
By RUSTY MILLER

AP Sports Writer

SYLVANIA -- No one was more surprised to find Eunjung Yi leading the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic through three rounds than, well, Eunjung Yi.

“I'm the leader?” she repeated, incredulous, when asked how it felt to be leading the pack. “Really? I didn't know that. By four strokes?”

She was apparently so into just taking care of the shot in front of her, it never dawned on Yi that she was running away with the Farr.

She recorded eight birdies and an eagle in a 10-under 61 to build a four-shot lead Saturday over Song-Hee Kim (64) and Morgan Pressel (67).

The 21-year-old Yi, who has never finished better than a tie for 11th in her 23 LPGA Tour events, was at 18-under 195 after putting up the lowest third-round score in the tournament's 25 years.

“I like this course. I can shoot very good,” she said, disdaining a translator. “We have more holes tomorrow. I'll stay focused.”

Yi grew up in South Korea but now spends summers at a rambling 9-bedroom, 4½-bath home in the San Diego area with her father, mother, two brothers and a sister -- who joined her in the States two years ago. Her father runs a Korean restaurant.

“If I win, my dad will give everyone a free meal,” she said with a laugh.

After starting the day tied for seventh and three shots back of Sarah Kemp and Laura Diaz, Yi birdied four holes on the front side and then started the back by holing a 110-yard pitching wedge from the fairway for eagle.

“I thought it was a little short but it went in the hole,” she said.

The eagle was nothing new for Yi, who wears a knee brace on her left leg. Playing in the Corning Classic earlier this season, she eagled the first, second and fifth holes on the way to a 3-under 69, becoming the fifth LPGA player to collect three eagles in the same round.

Continuing to pour it on Saturday, she had birdies at holes 12, 13, 16 and 17 -- and barely missed a couple of other birdie putts. She could have matched defending champion Paula Creamer's course- and tournament-record 60 set in last year's first round but her 5-foot birdie putt on the closing par-5 lipped out.

The previous low third-round score was Karrie Webb's 62 a year ago.

Yi, never known for her putting, needed just 22 putts to break her previous scoring low on tour by five strokes.

“My putting is always bad, but today was different,” said Yi, who earned a spot in her first Women's British Open during qualifying over the opening 36 holes of the Farr.

Like many of the South Koreans on the LPGA Tour, she picked up golf in earnest after seeing fellow countrywoman Se Ri Pak rocket to stardom in the U.S. Yi said the turning point for her was Pak's win at the U.S. Women's Open in 1998 at Blackwolf Run.

She also has noticed Pak's five victories at the Farr. As well as one of the small but meaningful benefits that come with a victory at the tournament -- having the street outside Highland Meadows Golf Club named after the winner.

“I want my name on the street, too,” she said with a smile.

The highlight of Kim's round was an eagle at the 17th that helped her pick up her second 64 of the week.

“I didn't have any bogeys today,” she said. “It was a very clean round.”

Pressel, seeking her third career win and first of the year, also avoided any bogeys. She played steadily throughout, continually burning the edges of the hole on birdie putts. She figured she was one of many who could still take the $210,000 first-place check.

“There are more people than just me who have a chance (to win),” she said. “We've seen that three days in a row, where someone has gone crazy and made a lot of putts.”

Sweden's Mikaela Parmalid, who teed off more than 4 hours before the last group, shot a 62 to jump from a tie for 54th through 36 holes to the lead by herself until she was caught and passed by Yi.

Parmalid was at 12-under along with the world's No. 2 player, Yani Tseng (65), Kemp (70), Shanshan Feng (65), Suzann Pettersen (67), Jiyai Shin (68), and Seon Hwa Lee (68).

Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa birdied three of the first five holes before racking up 13 consecutive pars in a 67 that left her at 202 with Natalie Gulbis.

Michelle Wie, bidding for her first win since getting her tour card late last year, hit 16 greens in regulation but was near the bottom of the field in putting. She shot a 70 and was at 204. When she finally rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole, she raised both arms in mock celebration.

Now they'll all be chasing Yi.

Asked what a victory would mean to her, she briefly consulted with a translator. He relayed her response:

“If I win, I will feel like I own the world.”

Forbes Field was baseball's first palace
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Roberto Clemente's first hit and Babe Ruth's parting shot occurred within the confines of the most spacious ballpark any major league baseball team called home.

So did Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series Game 7 homer, one so improbable, so magical that it seems certain to live in baseball's memory bank as long as the sport exists.

The first fireworks night and last tripleheader? Chuck Noll's first home game as the Steelers' coach? The first live broadcasts of major league baseball and college football? Forbes Field was home to all of that and much more during 61 eventful years that helped launch not one but, eventually, two ballpark-building construction binges.

Baseball's modern ballpark era was ushered in 100 years ago Tuesday when Forbes Field was christened in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Today, its treasures live on in a modern-day gem named PNC Park that copies much of Forbes' coziness, charm and quirkiness.

Named for British Gen. John Forbes, who forces captured Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War in the mid-18th century, it was the National League's first modern concrete-and-steel park, a massive-for-its-era structure that towered above a picturesque city park and was so innovative that many of its touches can still be found in ballparks from coast to coast.

While the Philadelphia Athletics' Shibe Park (later, Connie Mack Stadium) predated Forbes by two months, nothing in baseball's relatively brief history to that time rivaled the two-tiered palace that Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss dedicated before a Cubs-Pirates game on June 30, 1909. Fittingly, the Cubs will honor the anniversary by playing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Built so the Pirates could abandon flood- and fire-prone Exposition Park, Forbes cost approximately $2 million for land and construction -- about $48 million today -- or more than three times Shibe's estimated cost. The opening day crowd of 30,338 was five times larger than for Game 5 of the Cubs-Tigers World Series the year before.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Dreyfuss said then, albeit he was initially criticized for building his baseball showplace a 10-minute trolley ride away from downtown.

Five days later, Dreyfuss invited fans attending an Independence Day doubleheader to stay for a post-game fireworks show. More than 40,000 did, and another tradition was born.

To preserve baseball's best grass playing field, Pirates manager Fred Clarke designed and patented the first infield tarp. The ballpark also was the first with elevators and padded outfield walls, later, and the batting helmet was invented there by Pirates executive Charlie Muse.

Dreyfuss disliked the long ball, and it showed in every one of Forbes' nooks and crannies.

The left-field line was 360 feet from home plate, center field was nearly a bus ride away at 457 feet. The grandstands towered 85 feet above the right field wall, a huge scoreboard had to be cleared in left.

The Pirates were so certain no player could hit a ball out to center, the batting cage was stowed inside the playing field during games. It remained there even after Dick Stuart carried it with a 1959 drive.

As cavernous as a national park, 35,000-seat Forbes Field didn't play host to a single no-hitter during the more than 4,700 major league games played there, including the last tripleheader in 1920, when the Reds took two of three. All that open space helped the Pirates' Chief Wilson hit a record 36 triples in 1912.

Forbes' first tape-measure drive was Ruth's 714th and last, a May 26, 1935, shot for the Boston Braves that was his third of the day and the first to clear Forbes' right-field roof.

“I didn't think anyone could hit a ball that hard,” Pirates pitcher Guy Bush said.

He should have known better. Ruth and Lou Gehrig put on such a home run exhibition during a 1927 World Series workout that it clearly intimidated the home team, and the Yankees promptly swept the Pirates.

“That World Series was over before it started,” Ruth said.

The 1960 Series was much different. Led by the Ruth and Gehrig of the day, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, the Yankees were big favorites who flashed their prodigious power during victories of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates countered by winning all the close games, and Mazeroski finished it off on Oct. 13, 1960, with the only homer to end a World Series Game 7.

Forbes Field was more than baseball, although the Negro Leagues' Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords also occasionally staged games there. The Steelers played there from 1933 until the mid-1960s, returning for a Noll-coached 1969 exhibition against the Bengals. Pitt football and the pro soccer Phantoms also briefly called it home.

For all of Forbes' charms -- seats close to the action, no playing field signage, a right field screen that Clemente peppered for 15-plus seasons with line drives -- the so-called House of Thrills was showing its age when it closed on June 28, 1970. Fittingly, Mazeroski made the final putout during a doubleheader sweep of, yes, the Cubs.

The entrances were narrow and dimly lit, the bathrooms tiny, onsite parking was nonexistent and, remarkably, a ballpark located near the Pitt and Carnegie Mellon campuses did not sell beer.

Still, Clemente marveled as Forbes shut down, “I spent half my life there.”

Not long after Forbes was razed to make way for the Pitt Law School, Pittsburghers who initially embraced Three Rivers Stadium's spacious concourses and comfortable seats began longing again for a baseball-only park with grass, fewer seats and better sight lines.

Once baseball's retro-era ballpark boon began with Baltimore's Camden Yards in 1992, nearly every one of the 21 ballparks built since has incorporated qualities first seen in Forbes Field and Shibe Park. PNC Park, opened in 2001, copied Forbes' rectangular light towers, picturesque skyline, left-field bleachers and expansive outfield. The section of left-field wall over which Mazeroski's homer traveled was erected behind PNC's right-field stands.

In Oakland, Forbes' center-field wall still stands, and home plate is preserved under glass. A historical marker denotes Mazeroski's homer.

Pittsburgh gave up once on Forbes Field. It's much more reluctant to let go of baseball's first crown jewel this time.

'Fridge' improving with help of family,friends
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Michael Dean Perry knows the day is coming when his good-natured, gap-toothed older brother nicknamed “The Fridge” will be back to his old, affable self.

But that will take some time and William Perry understands that, Michael Dean said. William, the former NFL defensive lineman famous for his smile and 360-pound size, spent more than a month at Aiken Regional Medical Center this spring, suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease where the body's immune system attacks its peripheral nerves.

Now each day Michael Dean visits William at the North Carolina rehab center -- sometimes to encourage him and sometimes to participate in his lengthy recovery.

“Baby steps I call them,” he said Wednesday, adding that William still was not up to granting interviews. “But we can see improvement.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, Guillain-Barre syndrome causes “...the loss of reflexes ... and paralysis of respiratory muscles also can occur. A small proportion of patients die, and 20 percent of hospitalized patients can have prolonged disability.”

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says on its Web site that there's no known cure for Guillain-Barre.

Perry's Chicago Bears coach, Mike Ditka, saw something wrong in February when his former lineman showed up for an autograph session at Rosemont, Ill. Perry needed a wheelchair to get around and was 150 pounds lighter than when Ditka last saw him, said Ken Valdisieri, the Bears spokesman during Perry's time in Chicago and now president of the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.

Perry “did not look very good,” Valdisieri said.

Charlie Timmerman, Perry's friend from Aiken, says Perry had been hospitalized before. This time, though, doctors thought it was much more serious.

In April, one of Perry's brothers, Daryl, stopped in to check on him and found his famous sibling weak and dehydrated. William was listed in serious condition when he was taken to the hospital, where he remained.

Michael Dean says his brother, always outgoing and friendly, was reticent to complain or ask for help. As a former athlete, Michael Dean said it's difficult to give in to the idea you are no longer invincible and perhaps that's what kept the 46-year-old William from seeking treatment sooner.

Perry, a rookie lineman, rose to stardom during the Bears' 1985 Super Bowl run. Perry was on TV screens everywhere, a smiling, gap-toothed pitchman for McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken. He made a guest appearance on the hit television show, “The A-Team.”

Perry played 10 NFL seasons before retiring.

“Someone of his stature, you always think of your vitality,” said Michael Dean, who followed William to the NFL and became a six-time Pro Bowler with 61 sacks for Cleveland and Denver. “This opens your eyes.”

Perry's doctors in Aiken saw his condition improve enough to release him in late May.

Valdisieri said Ditka and others in the Gridiron Greats organization attempted to bring Perry to Northwestern University's Memorial Hospital. However, it would've cost Perry about $350,000 for 8-to-12 weeks of necessary therapy.

Valdisieri says Northwestern helped secure a place for Perry at Carolinas Rehabilitation near Charlotte -- at no cost, Valdisieri says -- where Michael Dean and sister Patsy can monitor their brother and cajole him into sticking with his rehab.

William must undergo six to seven hours of speech and physical therapy each day to improve his deteriorated motor skills, Michael Dean says.

Once frail-looking at 200 pounds, “The Fridge” has found his appetite and is back up around 275, his brother said. “I don't know if that's a good thing,” Michael Dean said with a laugh.

William will need another two to three weeks at the rehab center, then move to a nearby assisted living facility -- Michael Dean declined to identify the location because of William's popularity -- to continue his recovery. Michael Dean also wasn't sure when William might return to his life in Aiken.

Gridiron Greats has continued to monitor Perry's progress and used its medical assistance fund to help the Perrys with incidentals, Valdisieri said.

Timmerman, an Aiken veterinarian who grew up playing sports with the Perrys, began The Fridge Fund where well-wishers and fans could drop a note or donate to defray medical costs.

Valdisieri says people can also donate to the fund through Gridiron Greats.

Michael Dean vows his brother won't be left alone in making it back. “We're going to keep a good eye on him,” he said.

Tigers' Laird uses three-finger throw
DETROIT (AP) -- In the duel between catcher and base runner, success and failure are separated by fractions of a second. Detroit Tigers catcher Gerald Laird may have found an edge by using an unorthodox, three-finger throwing grip.

“I can get it out a little quicker because I don't need to find the seam,” Laird said. “I just get it in my hand and go.”

Laird, who leads the American League in caught stealing percentage, said he developed the three-finger method after childhood frustration with the traditional, two-finger throwing style.

“As a kid, I had small hands,” Laird said. “When I threw it, the ball tended to cut a lot so I grabbed it with three fingers and it went straight.”

A typical baseball throw involves the index and middle fingers.

Laird's grasp, in comparison, can be compared to pitcher's change-up grip, with the pads of his ring, middle and index fingers across the seams of the baseball as he throws. Although doctors have told him that his finger configuration may be more taxing on his shoulder, Laird said his light grip on the baseball makes the point moot.

Plenty of coaches have tried to break Laird's atypical hold.

Cypress College head coach Scott Pickler gave it a halfhearted try while Laird was on his roster in the late 1990s.

“I assumed that somebody would break him of it, but they've got better coaches than me up in the big leagues so if they can't get him to change then there was no way I was going to get him to change,” Pickler said.

Laird's .381 caught stealing percentage trailed only St. Louis Cardinal Yadier Molina's .455 rate and Houston Astro Ivan Rodriguez's .385 heading into Tuesday night's games. Laird, however, had thrown out 16 runners to Molina and Rodriguez's 10 each.

“It doesn't bother me as long as he keeps throwing guys out,” Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander said of his catcher's unique grip.

While Laird has struggled some with the bat, hitting .235 through Monday, he has filled a void at the catcher position left when the Tigers traded Rodriguez to the Yankees last year. After experimenting with Brandon Inge, now the team's third baseman, the Tigers turned to Laird.

When the Tigers acquired Laird in a December trade, they assumed he would provide solid leadership behind the plate and good defense.

“Everything that we were told about him has been reconfirmed as far as his leadership skills, the great teammate, the great defensive catcher,” said Al Avila, Detroit's vice president and assistant general manager. “All those things have come to fruition.”

The grip, Avila said, was “trivial.”

Brandon Laird, a first baseman with the Class A Tampa Yankees, didn't inherit his big brother's extra-digit grip.

“I throw the right way,” he said.

Rookie QBs help each other prepare for NFL life
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) -- Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez are set to become rich beyond comprehension long before throwing their first official NFL pass.

The quarterbacks will be anointed as saviors -- Stafford for a Detroit team that went winless in 2008, and Sanchez for a New York Jets club that hasn't tasted the Super Bowl in 40 years.

The accompanying pressure can be overwhelming.

So Stafford and Sanchez often find themselves seeking someone who understands their situation. They call each other.

Already linked as the top two quarterbacks in this year's draft, Stafford and Sanchez have forged a separate bond. They go back and forth as a sounding board for the other while attempting to turn potential into performance.

“We're just learning, playing football,” said Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick who went off the board four slots ahead of Sanchez. “Obviously, during the season, you want to win football games. That's the No. 1 priority. But at this point, we're just trying to learn and give ourselves a chance to be competitive during training camp and get a chance to get on the field.”

The friendship started last summer, when they were counselors at the same camp for elite high school quarterbacks. They've kept in contact regularly since, talking about practically every imaginable topic.

On Tuesday, at the NFL rookie symposium, they were on the same field together -- throwing footballs around with dozens of kids brought in to interact with the game's newest professionals. But in down moments during this mandatory event for first-year NFL players -- which offers education on how to handle subjects like personal conduct, finances and security -- the two young quarterbacks tend to huddle together.

“We talk so much about how's the playbook coming, what are the guys like in the locker room, have they treated you OK,” Sanchez said. “Both of our situations have been very similar. Obviously, we're in different markets, but you're a rookie quarterback, you just signed your contract, you and your family are financially secure. There's a dynamic to that. It means a lot to be able to talk to someone.”

The biggest lesson many of the rookies took from the symposium, Stafford included, was that they'll have to say “no” a lot -- especially when it comes to people asking for money, gifts or favors from the new millionaires.

“I've had to do it for a while,” said Stafford, who spent most of last season at Georgia being touted as the possible No. 1 pick.

Of course, neither Stafford nor Sanchez is all that removed from being a kid, either, so they fit right in with the high schoolers.

“All about the kids, today,” said Sanchez, who posed for photos, signed countless autographs on the backs of T-shirts and has been known to keep a Sharpie marker on his keychain in case the mood strikes to scrawl his name. “All about the kids.”

Sanchez, who starred at USC, is already a huge name in the massive market that is New York. He's gotten to meet Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter, both of whom offered their advice on how to handle all the attention that he'll draw playing in the Big Apple.

“You've got to be smart,” Sanchez said. “You've got to protect yourself and protect your team.”

Stafford hasn't quite commanded that sort of Woods-and-Jeter attention, even though he was the top pick.

Even on Tuesday, when they walked onto the converted flag-football field -- it's typically a driving range at the PGA National compound -- within moments of one another, cameras and heads started turning quickly toward Sanchez. Stafford, meanwhile, seemed almost invisible by comparison, and didn't mind that whatsoever.

“We're both pretty similar, easy-going guys,” Stafford said. “Pressure really doesn't get to us too much. We just talk about how much fun it is to be living the dream.”

The Courier Electronic Edition

TODAY'S LOCAL SPORTS

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

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The Courier Electronic Edition

TODAY'S LOCAL SPORTS

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

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