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10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com SPORTS IN BRIEF Warriors ready for third straight NBA Finals appearance Associated Press SAN ANTONIO — Kevin Durant does not need to be told that Golden State should have a muted celebration after winning the West- ern Conference Finals. Durant is fully aware a tough challenge waits for them. It’s why Durant signed with the Warriors and why Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green embraced him at the expense of their own stats. “We have a bigger goal in mind,” Durant said. Golden State has a chance to earn their second championship in three years after sweeping the San Antonio Spurs with a 129-115 vic- tory Monday night. The Warriors became the first team in league history to open the playoffs 12-0, which provides them with a week of rest prior to their third straight finals appearance. Golden State will host Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 1 against either Cleveland or Bos- ton. The Cavaliers hold a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, but Curry alluded the Warriors are expecting a rematch with LeBron James and company. “We all know, obviously, who we’re going to play,” Curry said. “We’ll be watching the Eastern Conference Finals to see how that unfolds. But it will be easy to start this new chapter and really just lock in on what’s in front of us.” Mariners clear spot for Cano’s comeback Associated Press SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners have recalled catcher Mike Zunino and pitcher Emilio Pagan from Triple-A Tacoma and optioned three players to help clear a spot for the expected return of second baseman Robinson Cano. The Mariners made the ros- ter moves Monday, an off day before the start of a three-city road trip today. The Mariners optioned pitcher Chris Heston, catcher Tuffy Gosewisch and infielder Daniel Vogelbach with the expec- tation that Cano will be able to come off the disabled list today after missing time with a strained quadriceps. Zunino started the season with the Mariners but was sent down earlier this month after batting .167 in the first 24 games of the season. Zunino hit .293 and had five home runs in 41 at-bats with Tacoma. UP NEXT: MARINERS • Seattle Mariners (20-25) at Washington Nationals (26-17) • Today, 4:05 p.m. TV: RTNW, MASN SCOREBOARD PREP SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY Baseball — 4A State Playoff: Astoria at Estacada, 5 p.m.; 2A/1A State Playoff: Lost River at Knappa, 4 p.m. SOFTBALL Northwest All-League Player of the Year: Kaitlyn Truax, Knappa Coach of the Year: Michael Fetch, Vernonia First Team Kaitlyn Truax, Jr., Knappa Taylor Bassel, Jr., Gaston Julia Clark, Jr., Gaston Pearl Cook, Sr., Vernonia Joyce Everett, So., Vernonia Hannah Grider, Jr., Neah-Kah-Nie Maddie Lambert, Jr., Neah-Kah-Nie Yatzari Ozuna, So., Nestucca Allegra Poetter, Jr., Vernonia Madelynn Weaver, Fr., Knappa Payton Wolf, Sr., Vernonia Abbey Zawadney, Sr., Gaston (Knappa selections) Second Team Laicee Hendrickson, So., Knappa Jaden Miethe, Jr., Knappa Hailey Murray, Sr., Knappa Paris Vanderburg, Jr., Knappa Honorable Mention Alisha Murphy, Sr., Knappa AP Photo/Tony Dejak Boston Celtics’ Jonas Jereb- ko, top, from Sweden, defends against Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James in the second half of Game 3 of the NBA bas- ketball Eastern Conference fi- nals on Sunday in Cleveland. The Celtics won 111-108. Submitted Photo Knappa catcher Kaitlyn Truax was selected as the Northwest League’s Player of the Year, as voted on by the league’s coaches. A total of seven Lady Loggers made the All-League roster. TRUAX IS NWL SOFTBALL MVP The Daily Astorian League champion Vernonia had 10 play- ers selected to the Northwest All-League softball team, which was voted on by the league’s coaches and announced last week. Gaston had eight players selected. Meanwhile, the league’s Player of the Year award went to Knappa junior catcher Kaitlyn Truax. Truax batted .679 this season. Knappa landed seven players on the all-league squad. In addition to Truax, pitcher Madelynn Weaver was the only freshman on the first-team. Selected to the second-team were senior Hailey Murray, juniors Jaden Miethe and Paris Vanderburg, and sophomore Laicee Hendrickson. Senior Alisha Murphy was named honorable mention. Big league’s founding documents to be auctioned off in California By ANDREW DALTON Associated Press LOS ANGELES — In 1876, a group of owners and team officials gathered at a New York hotel to draft and sign the constitution that cre- ated baseball’s National League and would ultimately have ramifications far beyond the diamond. The principles the document laid out, largely the work of Chicago White Stockings owner William Hul- bert, would provide the basic model for every major team sports league in the world that followed. The constitution is getting a pub- lic airing for the first time in more than a century when it’s put up for sale by SCP Auctions of Laguna Niguel, Cali- fornia, starting Wednesday. It offers a glimpse into a time when nearly half the teams in the league had “stockings” in their names, 50 cents for a ticket was considered a steep price, and getting paid to play sports was deemed dirty. “The idea that grown men would pick up a bat and ball and put on cos- tumes was suspicious,” said John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball. Not to mention the “residue and foul odor of drunken- ness” thought to permeate the game. Many fans were convinced the out- come of games was determined in advance. Occasionally they were cor- rect, Thorn said. The NL’s immediate predecessor was the National Association of Pro- fessional Baseball Players, known casually as the National Association or NA. It was plagued with problems in its short life including weak central organization, teams constantly fold- ing, and East Coast teams refusing to travel west. Players just split up the gate receipts as though they were a small- time rock band playing a nightclub. One team, the Boston Red Stockings, was utterly dominant. (The Red Stockings are not, as one might suspect, the modern Boston Red Sox, but the modern Atlanta Braves. Similarly, Hulbert’s White Stockings are not the modern Chicago White Sox, but became the Chicago Cubs.) The league’s demise after the 1875 season gave Hulbert, a man of the West who did not like the dominance of East Coast teams, an opening to found something new and lasting. Coach defends LeBron following ‘weird’ loss By TOM WITHERS Associated Press INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — LeBron James was nowhere to be seen, staying behind the scenes, keeping a low profile. Just as he did in Game 3. James did not address the media Monday, hours after one of the worst postseason games of his career, an 11-point, six-turn- over, head-scratching atrocity in a 111-108 loss to the Boston Celt- ics that — for the time being — has made the Eastern Conference finals interesting. As is always the case with Cleveland’s superstar, the poor per- formance prompted the usual spec- ulation and suspicion: Is he hurt? Was he sending a message to his teammates? What in the name of Red Auerbach happened? UP NEXT: GAME 4 OF NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS • Boston Celtics (53-29) at Cleveland Cavaliers (51-31) • Today, 5:30 p.m. TV: TNT AP Photo/Reed Saxon Dan Imler, vice president of SCP Auctions, with the bound volume of the 1876 constitution that founded the National League of Profession- al Base Ball and the modern business of big league sports, that is going up for sale at SCP Auctions in Laguna Niguel, Calif. A replica of a period baseball is at left; a modern ball is at right. SCP Auctions ex- pects the papers to draw millions when the auction starts Wednesday. Central principals On Feb. 2, 1876, in a meeting at the Grand Central Hotel in New York that included other early baseball luminar- ies like Harry Wright and Al Spalding, the new constitution of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was drafted and signed. It listed on its opening page its cen- tral principles, including: • “To encourage, foster and elevate the game of base ball.” • “To enact and enforce proper rules for the exhibition and conduct of the game.” • “To make base ball playing respectable and honorable.” But it did something far more rev- olutionary in sports. It created a strict division between capital and labor. Owners and their officers ran the business end, and paid wages to the players. “Hulbert was a genius in the model he created with the National League,” Thorn said. “It is this model that gave birth to every professional sports league that followed, from football to basketball to European football. Pro- fessional sports teams owe everything to Hulbert.” The new league had eight teams: Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Cincinnati Reds, the Hartford Dark Blues, the New York Mutuals, and the St. Louis Brown Stockings. The documents themselves have been held privately for decades by the family of an old National League executive that is now putting them up for sale. The auction house is not mak- ing their names public. “Everything is in great condition. It’s been preserved in a bound volume since 1925,” said Dan Imler, vice pres- ident of SCP auctions. Last year, SCP auctions sold a sim- ilar document, 1857’s “Laws of Base Ball,” which laid out the rules of the modern game. That went for $3.26 million. This prize could easily surpass it. Imler said he expects both institutions and individuals will be among the bidders. While its 74 pages have the ink- and-parchment dignity of old gov- ernment documents, there are also cross-outs and other signs of mistakes, changes and corrections. “It’s highly dramatic because it’s the first draft of history,” said Thorn, who has studied the documents but is not involved in the auction. “This is sloppy. This is messy. This is what his- torians love.” “It was a weird game,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “A weird-feeling game.” And it was an uncharacteristi- cally passive performance by James, who had scored at least 30 in eight straight playoff games and imposed his will on the overmatched Celtics in the series’ first two games. But James wasn’t himself Sun- day night, not by a long stretch. He passed up shots and made men- tal and physical mistakes normally reserved for others. For a superstar who regularly seizes the biggest moments and makes them his own, it was strange to see James basically look like one of Cleveland’s reserves. He took just three shots and didn’t attempt a free throw in the fourth quarter. Incredibly, he went scoreless over the final 16 minutes. James accepted responsibility afterward, saying simply “I didn’t have it” during a postgame news conference that was preceded by a run-in with a heckling fan in the hallway. If James’ play wasn’t stunning enough, Cavs forward J.R. Smith said his celebrated teammate lacked confidence. What’s that? A three-time cham- pion, four-time MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist, global icon, billion-dollar-business-in-sneakers, wasn’t confident? “He’s got to be aggressive, get downhill, play like he’s been play- ing, play confident,” Smith said. “That’s what I always think, when people of his stature or people like him, you’ve got to play confident the whole night and play aggres- sive. It’s the Eastern Conference finals. It’s not enough for him. For what he does, what he brings, it’s not enough.
