The Morningwood News

The East Valley Tribune
By Mike Branom

Camaraderie, competition and money makes fantasy football real. The National Football League kicks off its season in less than two weeks, which means this is crunch time for “owners” preparing to select their “teams” of actual flesh-and-blood pro players.

Valley taverns are hosting draft parties, where the bragging and insults fly like the ball in a run-and-shoot offense.

“Edgerrin James, gone,” said Jesse Kessler, manager of Duke’s Sports Bar and Grill in Scottsdale. With that matter-of-fact statement, Kessler performed his duty as commissioner of the bar’s fantasy league, taking a marker to a dry-erase board and scratching out the name of the Arizona Cardinals running back.

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Compiled by John Ryan
Mercury News

59-YEAR-OLD DECIDES TO USE UP ELIGIBILITY AT A D-III COLLEGE

Sul Ross State, an NCAA Division III school in Alpine, Texas, is going to have some serious senior leadership this season.

Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old grandfather and AARP member, is back to play out his eligibility.

“I think it was Carl Yastrzemski who used to say, `How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?’ I’d be in my late 20s or early 30s, because that’s how I feel,” Flynt told the Associated Press. “That’s been my approach to this whole thing. I feel that good. I’m just going to find out if I can perform and make a contribution to the team.”

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WCVB TV/DT

2005 Mercedes Up For Bid

BOSTON — Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is offering Sox fans a piece of team history: the 2005 Mercedes he bought as a gift to himself to celebrate the Red Sox World Series win in 2004.

Big Papi has put the car up for sale on eBay and is offering to deliver the car himself to the winner at Fenway Park.

The car is a 2005 Mercedes-Benz, SL-Class, SL65 AMG.

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The Rocky Mountain News
By Marilyn Robinson
Special to The Rocky

2 Lakewood men accused of plan to kill poker host

Two Lakewood men have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill a Texas Hold’em poker game operator by putting him in a box with rattlesnakes because he allegedly owed one of the men $60,000.

Herbert Paul Beck, 56, was arrested Thursday night in Raton, N.M., and Christopher Lee Steelman, 34, was arrested Wednesday night in Lakewood after a probe by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Beck is accused of hiring Steelman to kill Matthew Sowash, owner of Amateur Poker Tour in Wheat Ridge.

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The Boston Globe
Associated Press

HARRISON, Maine –A lake collision in which one boat was sliced in two by a large, high-powered speed boat is spurring a discussion about whether steps need to be taken to better protect boaters on Maine’s lakes and ponds.

Investigators haven’t determined the cause of the fatal collision a week ago on Long Lake, but the size of one of the boats raised eyebrows.

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The Chicago Tribune
By Larry O’Dell
Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. - It’s up to Michael Vick now. His last two co-defendants pleaded guilty Friday and implicated Vick in bankrolling gambling on dogfights. One of them said the Atlanta Falcons quarterback helped drown or hang dogs that didn’t do well.

With his NFL career in jeopardy and a superseding indictment adding more charges in the works, that left Vick with a hard choice: Cutting his own deal to hold jail time under a year or go to trial and sit through detailed descriptions of the ghastly operation known as “Bad Newz Kennels.”

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The Boston Globe
Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. –Harvard wants to reschedule a football game against Brown next month because it conflicts with the start of Yom Kippur.

Harvard had scheduled the game against Brown for September 21 at 7:30 p.m. The Jewish holiday begins at sundown that day.

Harvard fans complained — and the university has asked Brown to move the game to September 22, after Yom Kippur ends.

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Conta Costa Times

LIVERMORE — A golf cart crash Friday night at Wente Vineyards golf course in Livermore left three employees in critical condition and two with lesser injuries.

One man and five women, all in their 30s, lost control of their packed golf cart as they drove down a hill near the seventh hole of the course about 6:47 p.m., said Contra Costa County Fire Battalion Chief Dan O’Hara.

The cart flipped over and pinned the passengers against a nearby guardrail, O’Hara said.

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International Herald Tribune
Sports
The Associated Press

TRAVELERS REST, South Carolina: Tiger Woods plans to design his first American course in the mountains of North Carolina.

The Cliffs at High Carolina will be located near Asheville, North Carolina, and will allow only walkers, something Woods said was key to the deal.

Woods wants to let the scenic land dictate the layout and hopes the course gives golfers a fair test and a chance to connect with nature.

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Mercury News
By Jeff Thomas

San Jose war hero played in the New Almaden hills

Dutch Mapes had already been at it for three hours when the heat of the day began to bear down about 11:30 a.m. He kept a steady pace, deftly troweling a dollop of cement onto a loose brick and more onto the wall of bricks already set.

It was strenuous work, but at age 91, Mapes was used to it. He spent 60 years laying bricks all over the South Bay, including in New Almaden, where his current project was going up at the corner of Almaden and Bertram roads.

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Yahoo News
UK & Ireland
AFP

BEIJING (AFP) - One of the world’s hairiest men Yu Zhenhuan, a rock singer who calls himself “King Kong,” has launched a campaign to run in next year’s Olympic torch relay, Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

The hirsute Yu, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, says he is a perfect candidate.

“The Olympics belong to everyone — those with abnormalities included,” Yu was quoted as saying.

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Star-Telegram
By The Associated Press

DENVER — A Colorado Rockies minor league coach died after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach’s box during a game in North Little Rock, Ark.

Tulsa batting coach Mike Coolbaugh was knocked unconscious by Tino Sanchez’s line drive during the ninth inning of Sunday night’s game against the Double-A Arkansas Travelers, according to a statement on the Drillers’ Web site. Coolbaugh, 35, was taken to Baptist Medical Center-North Little Rock, where he was pronounced dead.

The Drillers said Monday night’s game against the Wichita Wranglers in Kansas has been postponed, and baseball teams and executives expressed sadness over the former major leaguer’s death.

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