2012 June at LinesMaker

San Deigo and Oakland Dig Deep for Today’s Pitching Matchup

Oak­land (MLB/Janes) — Prince­ton grad­u­ate Ross Ohlen­dorf knows a thing or two about the poten­tial value of a good start­ing pitcher. The 29-year-old righty has a degree in Oper­a­tions Research and Finan­cial Engi­neer­ing, and wrote a 126-page the­sis on the invest­ments made and returns reaped by Major League clubs with Draft picks from 1989–93. So Ohlen­dorf, who has been tabbed as the Padres starter for Saturday’s game in Oak­land, should under­stand just how valu­able a strong start would be to his team and its injury-riddled pitch­ing staff. The Padres have... 

Justin Blackmon DUI Arrest Video Hits the Web

Jack­sonville, Fla. (NFL/Newsfeed) — A 45-minute video chron­i­cling the after­math of Jack­sonville Jaguars rookie Justin Blackmon’s June 3 aggra­vated DUI arrest now is avail­able for viewing. First Coast News in Jack­sonville obtained the video from the Still­wa­ter Police Depart­ment in Okla­homa through a public-records request. Black­mon, cho­sen fifth over­all in this year’s draft by the Jaguars, dons a Kobe Bryant Lak­ers jer­sey as he attempts to answer ques­tions from author­i­ties inside a jail­house book­ing room. “I’m lit­er­ally not a drinker,”... 

Thunder’s Fisher Endures Taxing Year, Gets Title Shot

OKLAHOMA CITY (NBA/Newsfeed) — A long, tax­ing year is com­ing to a famil­iar fin­ish for Okla­homa City Thun­der guard Derek Fisher. It all started with him being front and cen­ter dur­ing the NBA lock­out as the pres­i­dent of the play­ers’ union. It grew more com­pli­cated when the Los Ange­les Lak­ers traded him away after he’d won five cham­pi­onships with the franchise. Fisher signed on with Okla­homa City, and he’s three wins away from achiev­ing his ulti­mate goal of win­ning a sixth title. Only 13 play­ers in NBA his­tory have been a part of that many cham­pi­onship... 

Rangers’ Lundqvist Already Eager for Next Season

NEW YORK (NHL/Rosen) — For the first time in a while, New York Rangers goalie Hen­rik Lundqvist’s expec­ta­tions don’t match those of his fans. The most faith­ful Blueshirts fol­low­ers will tell you that Lundqvist, with­out ques­tion, should win the Vez­ina Tro­phy at the annual NHL Awards Show on Wednes­day in Las Vegas. He’s a final­ist along with the Kings’ Jonathan Quick and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. Most of those same fans will also say he should win the Hart Tro­phy, despite the fact that just being a final­ist for the League’s MVP award along with Pittsburgh’s... 

Shrug Wins Betfair Hollywood Park Feature

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (HORSES/Newsfeed) — Shrug ral­lied to beat pace­set­ter Close to the Edge by 1 1/4 lengths and win the $ 55,350 fea­ture at Bet­fair Hol­ly­wood Park on Fri­day night. Rid­den by Gar­rett Gomez, Shrug ran 6 1/2 fur­longs on the syn­thetic Cush­ion Track in 1:15.97 and paid $ 7, $ 3.60 and $ 2.60. Close to the Edge returned $ 7.20 and $ 3.20, while Sinai was another neck back in third and paid $ 3.20 to show as the 9–5 favorite. It was Shrug’s third win in 13 career starts. He has earn­ings of $ 136,930. BetLM's sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted... 

Blistering Pace at a Blistering Place

BROOKLYN, Mich. (NASCAR/Newsfeed) — Michi­gan Inter­na­tional Speed­way proved to be blis­ter­ingly fast Fri­day, which isn’t nec­es­sar­ily a good thing. With prac­tice speeds once again top­ping 200 mph, sev­eral dri­vers expe­ri­enced issues with blis­ter­ing tires on the recently repaved 2-mile oval. It was so fast, indeed, that Goodyear will make a tire change for the race — a deci­sion that came after a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of cars ended up with blis­tered tires. To accom­mo­date the switch — a new, and “tougher” left-side tire from Char­lotte, accord­ing... 

Rafael Nadal Ousted From Gerry Weber Open

HALLE, Ger­many (TENNIS/Newsfeed) — Rafael Nadal lost in the quar­ter­fi­nals of the Gerry Weber Open on Fri­day, beaten by Philipp Kohlschreiber 6–3, 6–4 in the Spaniard’s first tour­na­ment since win­ning a record sev­enth French Open. Roger Fed­erer, a five-time win­ner of this grass-court Wim­ble­don tuneup, was taken to three sets but defeated Canada’s Milos Raonic 6–7 (4), 6–4, 7–6 (3). Kohlschreiber, who is seeded eighth, won this tour­na­ment last year. The 34th-ranked Ger­man ended Nadal’s 13-match win­ning streak. “It’s not the time to look for... 

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers Honor Joe Montana, Steve Young

San Fran­cisco (NFL/Newsfeed) — Two gen­er­a­tions of star NFL quar­ter­backs com­bined in San Fran­cisco on Fri­day night as Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady joined Joe Mon­tana, Steve Young and Jim Plun­kett at a char­ity event hosted by NBC’s Bob Costas. That’s eight Super Bowl MVP awards among the five of them, if you’re keep­ing score. Brady and Rodgers, who grew up in the Bay area, both talked of child­hoods spent idol­iz­ing Mon­tana and Young. “We were pretty high from the top of the sta­dium,” Brady said, accord­ing to CSNBayArea.com. “We needed binoc­u­lars...