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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 2015)
SPORTS WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 Sports shorts NHL receives expansion bid from Las Vegas (AP) Bill Foley has put his money down on an NHL expansion team in Las Vegas. And Quebec City is getting a second chance at being a pro hockey market. The two cities moved one step closer to joining the NHL as expansion teams after the league announced Tuesday it has received applications from prospective ownership groups in both markets, a day after a deadline for submissions. The Las Vegas bid was submitted by Foley, a billionaire businessman who has spent the past seven months exploring the level of interest for professional hockey in the gambling mecca. Montreal-based Quebecor, a Canadian media and telecommunications giant, submitted the bid for Quebec City, which previously served home to the NHL’s Nordiques. Quebecor also has ties to the NHL after its cable network, TVA Sports, won the rights to become the league’s of¿ cial French- language broadcaster last year. Peterson, Vikings agree to redo last 3 years of deal MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings have agreed to restructure the ¿ nal three years of the running back’s contract. The Vikings made the announced Tuesday, four days before players will report to training camp. Terms of Peterson the revamped deal weren’t disclosed. In a statement distributed by the Vikings, Peterson said he appreciates their willingness to address his contract to provide him “additional security.” Peterson’s existing deal called for a $12.75 million salary this season, but neither of the two years beyond that was guaranteed. Peterson was initially hesitant to rejoin the Vikings, but he said Tuesday that continuing his career in Minnesota was “important to me.” FACES “Once my board was gone I thought that was it. I was just waiting for it to come and take a leg or two. I guess I’m lucky it wasn’t my time.“ — Mick Fanning Professional surfer, on being attacked by two sharks on live television during the fi nals of a surfi ng competition in South Africa last week. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1963 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the ¿ rst round to retain the world heavyweight title. Liston took the title from Patterson with a ¿ rst-round knockout in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1962. 1998 — Jackie Joyner- Kersee ends her brilliant heptathlon career with a victory at the Goodwill Games. It’s her fourth consecutive Goodwill title. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS BMCC M’s survive wild ride hires Eighth-inning grand slam caps comeback win softball coach MLB By NOAH TRISTER AP Baseball Writer DETROIT — Franklin Gutierrez’s pinch-hit grand slam in the eighth inning lifted the Seattle Mariners to a wild 11-9 victory over the Detroit on Tuesday, pushing the Tigers one loss closer to a trade deadline that could have drastic conse- quences in Motown. The Tigers had come Eack from a -1 de¿ cit and led 8-6 when Neftali Feliz 1- allowed ¿ ve runs in the Baseball eighth. Feliz, who was picked up by Detroit on July 11 after refusing a minor league assignment from Texas, Seattle allowed a run on a wild pitch before giving up Gutierrez’s opposite-¿ eld drive. There was no activity in the Detroit bullpen as Seattle rallied. Detroit Joe Beimel (1-1) got the win in relief, and Carson Smith got four outs for his eighth save. Seattle’s Nelson Cruz and Detroit’s J.D. Martinez each hit long home runs to center ¿ eld in the third. Yoenis Cespedes and Nick Castellanos also homered for Detroit. The Tigers entered the game facing a four- game de¿ cit in the race for a wild card in the American League, leading to talk they might trade David Price, Cespedes and perhaps some other big-name players before the July 31 deadline. See MARINERS/2B East Oregonian 11 9 AP Photo/Duane Burleson Franklin Gutierrez celebrates as his hit clears the right fi eld wall for a grand slam home run during the eighth inning Tuesday in Detroit. Blue Mountain Community College has named its new softball coach. Steve Richards will start immediately. He has 16 years of coaching experience, including most recently as head coach of Newberg High School. He was named 2013-201 Paci¿ c Conference Coach of the Year while leading the school. “I’m extremely excited to get the opportunity to coach at BMCC,” said Richards. “I have high expectations that the softball program can be as successful as the other women’s programs on campus.” Richards attended BMCC for one year, on his way to earning a Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Oregon University. He is a retired ¿ reman with more than 30 years of service. Richards and his wife met in Pendleton and said they are exited to be returning to Eastern Oregon, according to a press release from BMCC. 0DULRWDVLJQVFRQWUDFWRI¿FLDOO\D7LWDQ By TERESA WALKER AP Sports Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota signed with the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday, becoming the last of the NFL’s ¿ rst-round draft picks to ¿ nalize his deal. The former Oregon quarterback is expected to start immediately, with the timing of the contract keeping the No. 2 overall pick on track to open the season Sept. 13 at Tampa Bay against Jameis Winston — the No. 1 overall selection from the draft. The Titans started three quarter- backs while going 2-14 in coach Ken Whisenhunt’s debut season. They were so excited about adding Mariota that Whisenhunt began tweaking his offense to ¿ t the quarterback’s skills weeks before the draft. “I am very grateful and honored to have this opportunity,” Mariota said in a statement. “I look forward to the future with my teammates, and I’m truly excited to be part of this team.” Mariota left Oregon after his redshirt junior season. In 2014, the 6-foot-4 222-pounder from Hawaii directed the most ef¿ cient offense in the country and led all quarterbacks with a 90.9 rating. Mariota threw for 4,454 yards and 42 touchdowns, while rushing for 770 yards and 15 scores. He was only intercepted four times last season. That combination of size, AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File In this June 18 fi le photo, Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota passes during the team’s minicamp in Nashville, Tenn. Mariota signed with the Titans on Tuesday, becoming the last of the NFL’s fi rst-round draft picks to fi nalize his deal. mobility and ef¿ ciency prompted the Titans to make him their third quarterback drafted within the ¿ rst eight selections since 2006, and a franchise with only one winning record in the past six seasons has been busy selling Mariota since the moment he was announced as their newest player. But the timing of Mariota’s contract caused a bit of apprehen- sion for fans of the team. Whether or not the Titans would have Mariota signed in time for the ¿ rst practice of camp July 31 had been a hot topic on talk radio the past few weeks. “We look forward to him starting his career on time with his team- mates when we open camp next week,” general manager Ruston Webster said. “This is an exciting time for the Tennessee Titans orga- nization, and we look forward to a bright future.” Froome releases data as Tour de France enters ¿ nale SISTERON, France (AP) — The team of Tour de France leader Chris Froome bowed to pressure Tuesday and released data about his riding power, heart rate and pedaling rhythm, hoping to quell speculation about doping ahead of an increas- ingly likely victory in Paris. On the Tour’s second rest day, Team Sky presented the ¿ gures after comments on French TV raised questions about Froome’s performance and incidents in which spectators have booed, spat upon and thrown urine on the rider and his teammates — behavior attributed in part to the unfounded speculation about his speed on the way to victory in Stage 10. With a 3 minute, 10 second lead on his closest rival, and his mountain-climbing nearly unpar- alleled, Froome said he’s in “a great place” as the three-week race resumes Wednesday with Stage 17’s 161-kilometer (100-mile) jaunt over four climbs from Digne-les-Bains to an uphill ¿ nish at Pra Loup mountain resort. It’s the start of four grueling days in the Alps. The climax comes Saturday with an uphill ¿ nish at AP Photo/Peter Dejong From bottom left at the table, a technical data performance ana- lyst, Britain’s Chris Froome, team director Sir Dave Brailsford, and Britain’s Geraint Thomas, attend a press conference Tuesday at the Tour de France. Alpe d’Huez, a day before a largely ceremonial ride for the race winner on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. “The third week of the Tour is always unpredictable. You never know how anyone is going to respond,” said American rider Tejay van Garderen, the BMC team leader who is third overall, 3:32 behind of Froome. Van Garderen said the British race leader, who won the Tour in 2013 and has never tested positive for doping, has had to deal with “the aftermath” of doping cheats of the past. “It was clear that he dealt with the heat and dealt with the (¿ rst) rest day better than other people did,” Van Garderen said of Froome’s Stage 10 victory. “I think it’s very unfair for him to have to deal with all the scrutiny.” Froome, a Kenya-born Briton, said his team wants to address doubts about Sky’s performances with the release of his rider data. “I’m not sure if numbers are going to ¿ x everything, but certainly I feel as a team and myself, we’re de¿ nitely trying to be as open and transparent as possible,” he said. Sky performance analyst Tim Kerrison presented ¿ gures including Froome’s power output, cadence and heart rate on the climb to the Stage 10 ¿ nish. The ¿ gures showed the rider’s ability to generate vast amounts of power, hitting a top speed of 27.7 kph going uphill. Kerrison said Froome produced 414 watts and a pedal cadence of 97 revolutions per minute on average on the climb. Froome’s heart rate hit 174 beats per minute the highest rate that the team has tallied from him in any recent Grand Tour race and Kerrison called that a sign that Froome had arrived “very fresh” at the foot of that ascent.
