SPORTS
WEEKEND, AUGUST 6-7, 2016
1B
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OUR VIEW
Olympics
Has it been a Games open with green plea
year already?
W
hen I was
my sports horizons and
growing up,
knowledge, and taken me
I remember
places I never would have
everyone from my parents, imagined myself in. I went
to two rodeos within two
to grandparents, to aunts
months of being on the
and uncles, friends, and
job, which was two more
even neighbors always
told me how the years just than I had been to in all
run together when you get of my fi rst 22 years on
this earth. I experienced
older.
my fi rst Pendleton
I never
Round-Up
believed them,
adventure, which
though, because
ended up being
the years in school
both overwhelming
always felt like
and fun to cover.
they took as long
And it also has also
to complete as
given me my fi rst
it took dial-up
in-person experi-
internet to start up.
Eric
ences with sports
Well, until
Singer
such as motorcycle
now.
EO Sports
hillclimbing, prep
On Friday, I
rugby, prep trap
celebrated my
shooting, prep lacrosse,
one-year anniversary
and the madness that is
of working at the East
school bus racing at the
Oregonian even though it
Hermiston Super Oval.
felt more like just a few
months had passed. It’s
It also gave me the
said a lot, but I mean it
opportunity to watch,
when I say it felt like just
write about, and soak in
yesterday that my then-
the sheer dominance that
22-year-old self walked
some of the prep sports
through the glass front
teams displayed over the
doors of the EO’s head-
past year.
quarters for the fi rst time,
The Heppner Mustangs
with no clue what awaited were one of the most
me inside and around the
well-rounded prep football
schools of Eastern Oregon. teams that I’ve ever seen,
In one very short year,
See SINGER/5B
this job has expanded
AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris
Fireworks explode over the Maracana Stadium during the opening ceremony at the 2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 5, 2016.
Rio welcomes world with sultry music, call for conservation
By MAURICIO SAVARESE &
JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO —
With fi reworks forming
the word “Rio” in the sky,
hip-wiggling dancers and
supermodel Gisele Bundchen
shimmering to the tune of the
“Girl from Ipanema,” Rio de
Janiero welcomed the world
to the fi rst Olympic Games in
MLB
Hall of Fame done,
Griffey preps for
number retirement
Mariners to
shelve No. 24
after batting
practice
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Just as
much as the smile and the
backward hat, the sweet
swings and the 630 home
runs, the No. 24 became
synonymous with Ken
Griffey Jr.
Griffey chose it after
South America with a serious
message: Let’s take better
care of our planet.
After one of the rough-
est-ever rides from vote
to games by an Olympic
host, the city of beaches,
carnival, grinding poverty
and sun-kissed wealth lifted
the curtain on the games of
the 31st Olympiad with a
high-energy gala celebration
of Brazil’s can-do spirit,
biodiversity and melting pot
history.
The opening ceremony, a
cut-price but welcome moment
of levity for a nation beset
by economic and political
troubles, featured performers
as slaves, laboring with backs
bent, gravity-defying climbers
hanging from the ledges of
buildings in Brazil’s teeming
megacities and — of course —
dancers, all hips and wobble,
grooving to thumping funk
and sultry samba.
The crowd roared when
Bundchen sashayed from
one side of the 78,000-seat
Maracana Stadium to the
other, as Tom Jobim’s
grandson, Daniel, played his
grandfather’s famous song
about the Ipanema girl “tall
and tan and young and lovely.”
See CEREMONIES/3B
Horse Racing
hitting 24 home runs one
season between his high
school and summer base-
ball teams, and he wore it
throughout his 13 seasons
with the Mariners.
“Baseball is all about
numbers. Some of the
greatest players to play in
sports wore 24. It wasn’t
planned but it was defi -
nitely one of the things
when I signed my fi rst
contract that was one of
the things I asked for was
to be able to wear 24,”
Griffey said on Friday. “It’s
See GRIFFEY/5B
Sy Bean/The Seattle Times via AP
Ken Griffey Jr. looks out across the Seattle skyline af-
ter hoisting a fl ag with a number 24 in Mariner’s col-
ors on op of the Space Needle, Friday, Aug. 5, 2016.
Milton Freewater chasing Derby dreams
Patricica
Har-
rington
shows
Milton
Free-
water, a
horse she
bred and
named,
just be-
fore it en-
tered the
auction
ring and
sold for
$250,000.
Horse named
after Oregon
town in care of
top connections
BY TIM TRAINOR
East Oregonian
Meet Milton Freewater —
the horse, not the town.
A 2-year-old thorough-
bred, Milton Freewater has
the opportunity to be a major
player on the road to the 2017
Kentucky Derby. And, along
the way, he just may raise
the profi le of the Umatilla
County town of 7,000.
The colt was bred in
California by the husband-
wife team of Mike and Patty
Harrington, who each have
a connection to the city of
Milton-Freewater.
Mike attended both
Oregon State University
and
Washington
State
University. At OSU he
roomed with Bobby Ten
Eyck, a Milton-Freewater
kid. Patty’s fi rst husband was
Richard Grieb, who lived in
Walla Walla. The couple had
a daughter together and the
family would often travel
Photo courtesy
Patricia Har-
rington
across the state line to party
and rope.
“My fi rst husband was a
cowboy,” said Patty. “Well,
this husband is a cowboy too.
And Milton-Freewater is a
cowboy town right?”
Mike and Patty met later,
when both were working at
Longacres Racetrack outside
of Seattle. Their career led
them to California, where
they now have a breeding
and training operation.
The couple didn’t have
a name picked out for the
offspring of Creative Cause
— a horse Mike campaigned
to a fi fth-place fi nish in the
2012 Kentucky Derby — and
their broodmare Lovehi. But
while looking at the newborn
foal, Milton Freewater came
tumbling out of Patricia’s
mouth.
“She said ‘There’s that
little Milton Freewater,’”
remembered Mike.
“I don’t know why I said
it,” said Patricia. “It just has a
nice rhythm.”
It was kind of an unoffi -
cial, around-the-barn name
for awhile, but when it came
time to register the horse
with the Jockey Club, both
Mike and Patricia agreed the
gray colt couldn’t be called
anything else.
As he progressed through
his training, the Harringtons
thought they might have a
pretty good horse on their
hands. He was well-bred,
healthy and fast. Milton
Freewater quickly proved it
on the track. The horse won
his fi rst race, breaking his
maiden and the track record
in an April 22 stakes at Los
Alamitos in Cypress, Calif.
“He was spectacular,”
See MF HORSE/5B
Sports shorts
Yankees slugger ready to retire
NEW YORK (AP) Mark Teixeira plans to
retire at the end of the season, announcing his
decision during a tear-fi lled news conference
Friday at Yankee Stadium.
“I gave you everything I had,”
FACES he said to Yankees fans in the
televised announcement.
Slowed by injuries, the
36-year-old switch-hitting fi rst
baseman is batting .198 with 10
homers and 27 RBIs. A three-time
All-Star and fi ve-time Gold Glove
winner, he is in the fi nal season of
Teixeira
a $180 million, eight-year contract.
His 404 home runs are fi fth among switch-hit-
ters, trailing only Mickey Mantle (536), Eddie
Murray (504), Chipper Jones (468) and Carlos
Beltran (415).
Teixeira made his decision around the time of
the All-Star break.
“My body can’t do it anymore,” he said.
“This has been so weird
not to be at the track. It’s
frustrating ... I just want
to get better. Nothing
else is a priority. Our
intentions are to get
cleared and get back to
racing. I’m not ready to
quit.”
— Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The ultra-popular NASCAR
driver made his fi rst public
appearance to speak about his
recovery from the concussion that
has forced him to miss the past
three races and will keep him out
for at least two more.
Athletics suspend coach after
hidden camera discovered
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) The Oakland
Athletics say a team employee has been
suspended after it was discovered he hid a
camera inside the weight room at
the Coliseum.
Strength and conditioning
coach Mike Henriques was sent
home when the A’s were on a
recent road trip. Henriques said
he set up the camera to watch players working
out and rehabilitating from injuries. He is in his
fi fth year with the team.
The A’s said Friday that there is an ongoing
investigation. Yahoo Sports fi rst reported the
story and said an independent law fi rm is
handling the investigation.
The camera was discovered by a player on
July 25, one day after the A’s left on a nine-
game road trip.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1926
—
Nine-
teen-year-old
Gertrude
Ederle of New York City
becomes the fi rst woman to
swim the English Channel as
she crosses the waterway in
14 hours and 31 minutes.
1999 — San Diego Padres
star Tony Gwynn becomes
the 22nd major leaguer to
reach 3,000 hits.
2006 — Tiger Woods
wins his 50th PGA Tour title,
shooting his fourth-straight
6-under 66 for a three-stroke
victory over Jim Furyk in the
Buick Open. Woods is the
seventh member of the PGA
Tour’s 50-win club.
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