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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2017
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O.J. Simpson triumphant as he gets parole
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal
Former NFL football star O.J. Simpson reacts after learning he was grant-
ed parole at Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev., on Thursday.
LOVELOCK, Nev. — Barring
any last-minute snafus, O.J. Simpson
will walk out of prison a free man in
about three months, having persuaded
a Nevada parole board the bungled
hotel-room heist he pulled nearly 10
years ago was a huge error in judg-
ment and one he will never repeat.
Although he still adamantly main-
tains he was trying to retrieve his per-
sonal property when he barged into
a hotel room with five other men in
September 2007, he acknowledged
repeatedly Thursday that it was some-
thing he never should have done.
“I thought I was glad to get my
stuff back, but it just wasn’t worth it,”
he told the board. “It wasn’t worth it,
and I’m sorry.”
After a nationally televised hear-
ing that clearly revealed the public’s
fascination with Simpson contin-
ues, four parole commissioners voted
unanimously to release him.
“Thank you, thank you, thank
you,” he said quietly as he buried his
head on his chest with relief.
Then, as he was led down a hall
and back to prison, the Hall of Fame
athlete and 1995 murder defendant
raised his hands over his head in a vic-
tory gesture and said: “Oh, God, oh!”
Some two hours earlier, Simpson,
gray-haired but looking trimmer than
he has in recent years, had walked
stiffly into a small hearing room of the
Lovelock Correctional Center in rural
Nevada dressed in jeans, a light-blue
prison-issue shirt and sneakers.
He chuckled as parole board chair-
woman Connie Bisbee began the hear-
ing by mistakenly giving his age at 90
before quickly correcting herself.
“Feels like it though,” Simpson,
70, said as laughter erupted.
Bisbee and three other parole
board commissioners were gath-
ered in another room about two hours
away in Carson City. They questioned
Simpson via video.
By turns remorseful, jovial and
defensive, he heatedly insisted the
items he and five others took during
the armed robbery in a Las Vegas
hotel room in September 2007 were
“my stuff.”
Asked what he planned to do if
released, Simpson said he would
move to Florida to be close to two of
his four adult children.
“I could easily stay in Nevada, but
I don’t think you guys want me here,”
he joked.
British Open
begins with
All-American
orientation
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Seattle Mariners’ Ben Gamel, right, tumbles after being tagged out on a run-down as New York Yankees second baseman Starlin
Castro looks toward first during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday in Seattle. Yankees beat the Mariners 4-1.
Severino, Gardner lead Yankees to win over M’s
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
UP NEXT: MARINERS
SEATTLE — In the past week, Luis Seve-
rino has tossed a gem at Fenway Park against
Chris Sale and outpitched Felix Hernandez in
Seattle.
The 23-year-old All-Star is becoming
the ace of the New York Yankees’ staff this
season.
“I enjoy it. I knew it was going to be tough
every time I face a guy like Felix,” Severino
said. “I just tried to bring my A stuff, tried to
make pitches, tried to get hitters out.”
Severino pitched out of trouble to throw
seven shutout innings, Brett Gardner hit a
solo home run off Hernandez, and the Yan-
kees added three unearned runs late for a 4-1
win over the Mariners on Thursday night.
Severino (6-4) was overpowering when he
• New York Yankees (49-45)
at Seattle Mariners (48-48)
• Tonight, 7:10 p.m. TV: RTNW
needed to be, striking out six and getting his
fastball to flash triple-digits on the stadium
scoreboard even in the seventh. He allowed
eight hits, but was outstanding in the big
moments. The right-hander escaped jams in
the first, second and most notably the fourth
inning when Seattle had runners at the corners
with no outs and was unable to score.
“It shows you he understands what he
needs to do,” New York manager Joe Girardi
said. “He has to get after it from the first hit-
ter and that’s exactly what he’s doing because
two runs could beat you when you’re facing
guys like that.”
Gardner took advantage of the one costly
mistake by Hernandez (5-4), driving a 2-1
pitch into the right-field seats with one out
in the sixth. Other than that, Hernandez was
as good as he’s been in 2017, striking out a
season-high nine and pitching at least seven
innings for the second time.
Aaron Judge added a broken-bat RBI sin-
gle in the eighth. It was just his fourth hit in 29
at-bats since the All-Star break. The Yankees
added a pair of runs in the ninth with two outs
on second baseman Robinson Cano’s throw-
ing error, allowing Didi Gregorius and Todd
Frazier to score.
Three of New York’s four runs were
unearned.
It was a vintage performance by Hernan-
dez, all the way down to the lack of run sup-
port — a staple of his career with the Mariners.
Ledecky prepares for another big week at world swim crown
By PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Katie
Ledecky shrugs off the notion that
she’s doing anything special over the
next week.
For the 20-year-old American
star, the improbable has become the
expected.
“It’s really just putting in the work,
putting in the training,” Ledecky said
today, sounding so nonchalant that she
might as well have been describing a
leisurely afternoon swim in one of
those thermal baths along the Danube.
Of course, there’s nothing restful
about her plans for the world champi-
onships in Budapest, where the swim-
ming competition begins on Sunday.
Ledecky will race every day for
seven straight days, a total of 6,300
meters if all goes according to plan.
That’s nearly 4 miles in total, encom-
passing freestyle races that range from
200 meters (essentially, a sprint) to
1,500 (the grueling metric mile).
To add a little perspective, Michael
Phelps put in 3,300 meters — roughly
half the distance of Ledecky’s pro-
gram — on his way to a record eight
gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
No one is aware of a pool swimmer
AP Photo/Nick Wass
Olympic gold-medal swimmer Katie Ledecky talks to the media before
a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington
Nationals, in Washington in August. Ledecky shrugs off the notion
that she’s doing anything special. Ledecky will race every day for sev-
en straight days at the world championships in Budapest.
ever covering so much distance within
the confines of a single major meet.
For anyone else, it would seem
ludicrous to even consider such a
daunting plan.
But Ledecky did 6,200 meters at
the last world championships, two
years ago in Kazan, Russia, where she
won five gold medals. She’s added
the 4x100 free relay to her repertoire
since then.
At the Rio Olympics last summer,
Ledecky captured four gold medals
and a silver. That must have seemed
like a breeze, a mere 3,300 meters for
the week since the 1,500 wasn’t part
of the women’s program.
That will change at the 2020 Games
in Toyko, so this will be the first test of
what her program will probably look
like at the next Olympics.
“I feel like I’m really prepared,”
Ledecky said. “I was confident two
years with what that schedule would
be like and how I could handle it
and manage it so I would have good
energy throughout the week.”
Life has changed quite a bit since
her triumphant performance in Brazil.
A native of the Washington, D.C.,
suburbs, she moved away from home
for the first time to attend Stanford,
an experience that has given her a
whole new balance and perspective.
The change of scenery forced her
to change coaches, as well. She left
Bruce Gemmell and is now working
with her college coach, Greg Meehan,
who is serving as the head U.S. wom-
en’s coach in Budapest.
Meehan knew he was inheriting a
special talent.
He tweaked a few things in her
training regimen, and worked to make
her stroke a bit longer and more effi-
cient, but Ledecky certainly didn’t
need a major overhaul.
“She knows how to handle that
racing load,” Meehan said. “Nothing
prepares you for that other than expe-
rience and hard work. She did a great
job with Bruce Gemmell. Bruce pre-
pared her in that regard. We’ve just
taken the ball and continued to run
with it. She’s in a great spot.”
SOUTHPORT, England —
The wind off the Irish Sea pushed
away the rain clouds and bathed
Royal Birkdale in sunshine, Stars
and Stripes.
The British Open began
Thursday with an All-American
flavor.
Jordan Spieth, chomping
away on gum as he watched one
putt after another pour into the
center of the cup, worked some
bunker magic late in the round
to keep his card filled only with
birdies and pars for a 5-under 65.
He was tied for the lead with U.S.
Open champion Brooks Koepka
and Matt Kuchar.
Koepka, with no competi-
tion and barely any practice since
capturing his first major a month
ago, ran off three straight birdies
and holed a tough shot from a pot
bunker for eagle on the par-5 17th
hole.
Kuchar, who first endeared
himself to these British fans as
a 19-year-old amateur in 1998 at
Royal Birkdale, tied the course
record with a 29 on the front nine,
only to fall into a routine of pars
the rest of the way. He still shot
65, his best score ever in a major.
They were a stroke ahead of
Paul Casey and Charl Schwart-
zel on a day that started nasty and
ended with 39 players breaking
par. The biggest question after a
long day on the links was what
was in store for Friday, when
high wind and occasional show-
ers were in the forecast.
“I thought today’s round was
extremely important, as they all
are,” Spieth said, atop the lea-
derboard at a major for the first
time since last year’s Masters.
“But given the forecast coming
in, I thought you really needed to
be in the red today. You can cer-
tainly make up ground in a round
tomorrow, and we’ll see it hap-
pen. But being able to kind of
play with shots, or play a little
more conservative because you
don’t try to do too much on a day
like tomorrow, that’s nice and
very helpful.”
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Jordan Spieth of the United
States plays a shot on the 18th
hole during the first round of
the British Open Golf Cham-
pionship, at Royal Birkdale,
Southport, England Thursday.