SPORTS
Thursday, July 11, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Fans celebrate World Cup champs, rally for equal pay
By ALI SWENSON
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) —
Adoring fans packed New
York City’s Canyon of
Heroes on Wednesday amid
a blizzard of confetti to
praise the World Cup-win-
ning U.S. women’s national
soccer team as athletic lead-
ers on the field and advocates
for pay equity off it.
Crowds chanted “USA!
USA!” and workers sounded
air horns from a construc-
tion site as the hourlong
parade moved up a stretch
of lower Broadway that has
long hosted so-called ticker
tape parades for world lead-
ers, veterans and hometown
sports stars.
Co-captain Megan Rapi-
noe and her teammates
shared a float with Mayor
Bill de Blasio and U.S. Soc-
cer Federation president Car-
los Cordeiro. Rapinoe struck
her now-famous victory
pose, took a swig of Cham-
pagne and handed the bottle
to a fan. Goalkeeper Alyssa
Naeher held the World Cup
trophy aloft.
Aly Hoover, 12, of Glen
Ridge, New Jersey, stood at
the sidelines with a poster
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The U.S. women’s soccer team, Megan Rapinoe center, celebrates at City Hall after a ticker
tape parade on Wednesday in New York.
of the face of Alex Morgan,
another team star. “I just want
to be like them,” she said.
Garret Prather brought his
newborn son “to celebrate
how the American women
made us proud on and off the
field.”
The team sealed its sec-
ond consecutive tournament
win by beating the Nether-
lands 2-0 on Sunday. It will
get $4 million for winning
the World Cup from FIFA,
the international soccer gov-
erning body. The men’s
French team got $38 million
for winning last year.
The U.S. women’s team
has sued the U.S. Soccer Fed-
eration for gender and pay
discrimination. The feder-
ation will give the women
bonuses about five times
smaller than what the men
would have earned for win-
ning the World Cup. The case
is currently in mediation.
Kate Lane, who watched
the parade, called the pay
gap “massive” for the soc-
cer players and “across the
board” for most women.
“Especially in male-dom-
inated professions,” said
Lane, of Limerick, Ireland.
“Women put just as much
commitment into their work
as their male counterparts.”
She’s hopeful the younger
generation is soaking up the
message from the women’s
team, noting a girl about 7
years old wearing an “Equal
Pay” T-shirt.
Earlier Wednesday, team
members joined New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a
Democrat, as he signed a
bill that expands gender
pay equality in the state. He
said women’s soccer players
should be paid the same as
male players.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a
Democrat, introduced a bill
Tuesday that would bar fed-
eral funding for the men’s
2026 World Cup until the
U.S. Soccer Federation pro-
vides equal pay to the wom-
en’s and men’s teams.
At a City Hall rally after
the parade, de Blasio, also a
Democrat, honored the team
with symbolic keys to the
city, saying it “brought us
together” and “showed us so
much to make us hopeful.”
After chants for “Equal
pay!” from the crowd, Cor-
deiro said women “deserve
fair and equitable pay. And
together I believe we can get
this done.”
At the rally, Rapinoe
noted the diversity of the
team: “We have pink hair
and purple hair, we have tat-
toos and dreadlocks, we got
white girls and black girls
and everything in between.
Straight girls and gay girls.”
The parade is named for
the strands of ticker tape that
used to be showered down
from nearby office build-
ings. The tape has since been
replaced with paper confetti,
which drifted down from
office buildings throughout
Wednesday’s parade, along
with documents and spread-
sheets folded into paper
airplanes.
The Department of Sani-
tation said it has assigned 350
workers to parade cleanup,
with trucks, backpack blow-
ers and brooms at their
disposal.
The team had already
started celebrating its record
fourth Women’s World Cup
title. After touching down at
Newark Liberty International
Airport on Monday, players
shared a toast and sang “We
Are the Champions.”
Trade deadline looms as baseball resumes Rookie Wolff headlines
By JAY COHEN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Francisco
Lindor and the Cleveland
Indians, looking up at Nel-
son Cruz and the surpris-
ing Minnesota Twins. Matt
Chapman and the Oak-
land Athletics, trying to
run down José Altuve and
the Houston Astros. Max
Scherzer and the Wash-
ington Nationals, chasing
Ronald Acuña Jr. and the
Atlanta Braves.
Baseball ramps up again
this weekend, and a hand-
ful of contenders have a lot
of work to do.
Five of the majors’ six
divisions feature deficits
of at least 5½ games as
play resumes after the All-
Star Game, in which the
American League beat the
National League 4-3 Tues-
day night. Life is pretty
good for two iconic fran-
chises, with Cody Bell-
inger and the Los Angeles
Dodgers in control of the
NL West again and Aaron
Judge and the New York
Yankees looking down
on the rest of the AL East
despite a rash of injuries.
“This team is capable of
some great things,” Yan-
kees pitcher James Pax-
ton said. “You’ve got some
really talented players here,
guys with a lot of drive,
great leadership. We’re set
up really well to make a
good run the second half
here as well.”
The one exception at the
moment is the crazy NL
Central, where the Chi-
cago Cubs have a 4½-game
advantage — over last-
place Cincinnati. Yup,
that’s right, it’s just 4½
games from top to bottom,
with Christian Yelich and
Milwaukee a half-game
back of Javier Báez and the
inconsistent Cubbies.
“Nobody really wants to
run away with it,” Cardi-
nals shortstop Paul DeJong
said. “That gives us confi-
dence as a group to think
that we can run away with
it.”
It sets up for some very
tough decisions ahead of
the trade deadline after
trade waivers were elim-
inated in the offseason,
meaning no player can
be traded after July 31
through the end of the reg-
ular season. Players who
clear outright waivers can
still be claimed and will be
eligible for the postseason
if they are in the organiza-
tion before Sept. 1.
Buying or selling will
be one tricky call for sev-
eral teams, all the way to
the final days of July. The
hard deadline also could
affect the prices for some
of the top players on the
market, possibilities like
San Francisco pitchers
Madison Bumgarner and
Will Smith, Toronto right-
hander Marcus Stroman
and Detroit lefty Matthew
Boyd.
“I know something
could happen, but I don’t
take a peek at what peo-
ple are saying,” Smith said.
“There’s so much out there,
and you don’t know what’s
true.”
Cleveland could inject
some drama into the AL
Central as soon as this
weekend, when Minnesota
comes to town for a three-
game series. The Indians
hit the All-Star break with
the majors’ longest active
win streak at six in a row,
improving to 21-6 since
June 1 and moving within
5½ games of the divi-
sion-leading Twins.
“In the beginning it
seemed like we were good,
John Deere Classic field
By LUKE MEREDITH
Associated Press
AP Photo/John Minchillo
American League’s Joey Gallo, left, of the Texas Rangers,
is congratulated by American League teammate Francisco
Lindor, of the Cleveland Indians, after Gallo hit a solo home
run during the seventh inning of the MLB baseball All-Star
Game on Tuesday in Cleveland.
then all of a sudden in May
we had that stretch where
we weren’t playing as good
as we wanted to play,” Lin-
dor said. “But right now, we
continue to play the game
right and we’re enjoying it,
we’re all having fun. We
all get along, we love each
other, we back each other
up. We’re having a blast.”
Washington also is hav-
ing some fun again, mov-
ing into position to shake
up the NL East after a ter-
rible start to the season.
Led by a resurgent Scher-
zer, the Nationals have won
15 of 19 to pull within six
games of the division-lead-
ing Braves.
Washington
plays
Atlanta 14 times in the last
half of the season, includ-
ing seven games in July.
“When we can go out
there and play our best
baseball and play mis-
take-free baseball, we’re
a tough team and we can
compete with anybody in
this league,” Scherzer said.
The Nationals have
seven players with at least
11 homers, led by Anthony
Rendon with 20. But every-
one is going deep these
days.
Beginning with Thurs-
day night’s Astros-Rang-
ers game in Arlington, the
game’s top sluggers resume
their assault on an array of
home run records. Yelich
leads the way with 31 so
far, putting together an
appropriate encore to his
NL MVP performance a
year ago.
The majors are on pace
for 6,668 homers, which
would smash the record
6,105 hit in 2017, and the
real heat of the summer,
when hits pick up, is only
just beginning.
“Guys are working year
in and year out on their
swings,” Pittsburgh first
baseman Josh Bell said
during the All-Star break.
“We’re just focused on try-
ing to put a show on for
you guys.”
Matthew Wolff made a
name for himself by win-
ning the 3M Open in his
fourth PGA Tour start after
turning pro.
The 20-year-old who
starred at Oklahoma State
will try to make it two in
a row this weekend at the
John Deere Classic in Silvis,
Illinois.
Wolff was the tour’s
youngest winner since Jor-
dan Spieth won at TPC
Deere Run at age 19 in 2013.
And like Spieth, he’s being
hyped as a future star as he
arrives in the Quad Cities.
Many of the world’s best
players are either taking the
week off or playing the Scot-
tish Open in preparation for
next week’s British Open.
That makes Wolff as good a
bet as any to make a run at
the title at a venue known for
low scores.
“My caddie kind of told
me that this course is a lit-
tle bit like last week, just
the driving aspect and kind
of the way it sets up,” Wolff
said. “I played it for the
Monday pro-am, and I kind
of realized that it was more
of a course that suited my
eye pretty well and I like the
look of it.”
Wolff’s victory last week
at TPC Twin Cities took care
of a lot: It earned him instant
membership and a two-year
exemption on the PGA Tour
and invitations to next year’s
Masters and PGA Champi-
onship. But it didn’t get him
a spot in the field at the Brit-
ish Open. That, too, is a pos-
sibility this week: The top
finisher not already exempt
who finishes in the top 5 at
TPC Deere Run will qualify
to play next week at Royal
Portrush — and get a seat
on the charter flight that the
John Deere Classic provides
to players making the trip to
Northern Ireland.
If he doesn’t get there
this year, there appear to
be plenty of major champi-
onship starts in the future
for Wolff, who has always
shown huge potential.
Wolff, who grew up
in Southern California,
earned freshman All-Amer-
ica honors for the Cowboys
in 2017-18 before winning
the NCAA individual title
in May. After missing the
cut at the Rocket Mortgage
Classic, Wolff shot 62-65
over the weekend at the 3M
Open, securing the win with
a 25-foot putt for eagle from
the collar of the 18th green.
That made him the sev-
enth player in the past 80
years to win a PGA Tour
event before turning 21, and
the other six — Spieth, Tiger
Woods, Seve Ballesteros,
Phil Mickelson, Raymond
Floyd and Rory McIlroy
— went on to win multiple
majors.
Wolff and his assistant
Cole Spradlin rented a van
and drove straight from Min-
nesota to the Quad Cities,
arriving around 2:30 a.m.
Monday.
“It’s a dream come true.
I’ll say that over and over
again. My life changed as
soon as that putt went in,”
Wolff said. “But it only lasts
so long, and my goal is to
become the No. 1 player in
the world.”
He’s now 135th, but that
figures to change soon, too.
The John Deere Classic
has long made up for its lack
of star power by using spon-
sor exemptions to lure some
of the game’s brightest pros-
pects to its event.
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