Yankees Ride Sparkling Starters to a Sweep

Abstract: OAKLAND, Calif. — It was the starters on the Oakland Athletics who were supposed to dominate this three-game series, a fledgling and talented bunch, none older than 25, all ranking among the American League’s top 11 in earned run average. The Yankees countered with three pitchers, all 34 or older, none ranking in the A.L.’s top 30 in E.R.A. Reality did not match perception at Overstock.com Coliseum, where on Wednesday afternoon the Yankees completed an emphatic sweep. A three-run homer by Nick Swisher backed another solid start, this one by A. J. Burnett , as they coasted to a 4-2 victory , their fourth win in a row. He worked seven innings, allowing only one hit after the first, and afterward said he was motivated by the performances of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, who won the first two games. “You don’t want to be the guy that makes the winning come to an end,” said Burnett, who retired 13 of his final 14 hitters. “It’s your job to keep it going, it’s up to us to set the tone.” Since snapping a six-game losing streak on May 17, the Yankees have won 11 of their last 15 games. Driving that surge more than anything has been the consistency of their rotation. It has supplied distance — at least seven innings eight times — and excellence, going 8-2 with a 2.99 E.R.A and two complete games. Burnett lost the final game of that skid, but not since. As he did Friday night in Seattle, when control problems spurred his exit after five innings, Burnett labored early. He allowed a two-run homer in the first to Josh Willingham and issued three walks, driving his pitch count to 59 through three innings. “Ticked me off,” said Burnett, who made a crucial adjustment after realizing that his four-seam fastball was sailing high. Burnett opted for efficiency, throwing more sinking fastballs — to invite contact, to induce ground balls — and, to left-handed hitters specifically, changeups and curves. That approach helped him throw 44 pitches over his final four innings, giving way to Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera. It was Chamberlain who defused a potential rally in the eighth inning, spearing a one-out liner by Conor Jackson and then firing to first to double off David DeJesus. For a few seconds, DeJesus lay on the dirt stunned, in apparent disbelief. That image defined the series from Oakland’s perspective, a snapshot of the A’s offensive failures. They managed five runs in 27 innings, compared with the 19 scored by the Yankees, who battered Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and, on Wednesday, the left-hander Gio Gonzalez , whose 2.17 E.R.A. was fourth best in the A.L. “We beat three pretty darn good pitchers,” Alex Rodriguez said. “Our guys have been terrific, and I can’t say enough about the job that Colon and Garcia have done. Those guys have been godsends for us, and A. J. was terrific today.” An auspicious pattern emerged this series for the Yankees: Derek Jeter reached base to begin all three games, and he scored every time. On Wednesday, after lining a double to the base of the left-field fence, Jeter raced home when Rodriguez doubled over Ryan Sweeney’s head in right, putting the Yankees ahead, 1-0. The two Athletics involved in that play — Gonzalez and Sweeney — joined the team from the White Sox in January 2008, in a deal that sent Swisher to Chicago, where he endured a miserable 2009 season. This year has not been much better, but Swisher has shown signs this trip of snapping out of a two-month slump. A home run was yanked back from over the center-field fence Friday night by the Mariners’ Franklin Gutierrez, and he had hit safely in all five games, including a homer Sunday afternoon. When he batted against Gonzalez with two on and no outs in the fourth inning, Swisher thought he saw the third-base coach Rob Thomson signaling for him to bunt. So he squared once, taking a ball, and then twice, taking another ball, as the Oakland pitching coach Ron Romanick went to the mound. Swisher, unsure, ran over to Thomson. “What do you want me to do right here?” Swisher said. “I want you to let it loose,” Thomson said. “So I did,” said Swisher, who launched a three-run homer to the seats in left field. When he returned to the dugout, he learned the truth: the bunt sign was never on. Oh, well. “We wanted him to swing the bat,” Manager Joe Girardi said, smiling as he emphasized the word wanted. “So, it worked out really well for us.” INSIDE PITCH Phil Hughes threw about 55 pitches, including a simulated inning, before Wednesday’s game. If his progression continues during a batting practice session Saturday in Anaheim, Hughes said he would lobby to begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment. ... With his homer Tuesday, Curtis Granderson joined Babe Ruth in an exclusive club: They are the only players to hit 17 homers and 5 triples before June 1, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Baseball
New York Yankees
Oakland Athletics
Swisher Nick
Burnett A J


Higher Oil Prices Send Shares Tumbling

Abstract: Stocks tumbled yesterday in their steepest slide in nearly three years, after crude oil surged past $68 a barrel and several corporate giants reported disappointing earnings. Stocks fell early in the day after Citigroup and General Electric reported quarterly results that fell short of expectations or failed to exceed them. The selling continued after crude oil prices advanced to a four-month high as the standoff over Iran's nuclear program and threats to Nigeria's main oil region raised fears of shortages in supplies. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.96 percent yesterday, erasing its gains for the year. It was the sharpest one-day decline since May 2003. Of the 30 stocks that make up the average, 29 fell -- McDonald's was the lone gainer -- led by Citigroup, which fell 4.7 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 1.83 percent -- its worst day since September 2003 -- while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 2.35 percent, the worst since August 2004. Even the highflying shares of Google fell 8.5 percent yesterday, their biggest decline ever, after the company said it would fight federal prosecutors' demands for records on Internet users' search queries. For investors, who just two weeks ago were celebrating the Dow's climb above 11,000, there has been a marked shift in mood. The earlier optimism, fed by expectations that profit growth would remain strong as the Federal Reserve put the brakes on interest rate increases, has eroded in recent days. Market leaders like Intel and Yahoo have missed their earnings targets, and the rise in oil prices has revived concerns that higher energy costs could hold down economic growth. At the beginning of the year, "people were more focused on the pluses," said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief investment strategist at PNC Advisors, a money management firm. "And all of a sudden we were reminded of some of the minuses today." Crude oil futures rose 1.52 percent yesterday, settling at $68.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has gained 12 percent since Jan. 3, when the Iranian government said it would resume a nuclear research program suspended for 16 months. As the standoff between Iran and Western nations drags on, the concern among oil experts is that a diplomatic or military confrontation with a major Middle East oil producer will curb oil supplies at a time when all other producers are pumping at their maximum capacity. Unlike 2003, when Saudi Arabia and Kuwait increased their output to make up for the loss in production from Iraq after the American-led invasion, there is now little untapped production capacity left to make up for any loss of Iran's exports, which average 2.4 million barrels a day. "It's a very powerful bull market right now," said Thomas Bentz, an oil analyst with BNP Paribas in New York. "The real concern is whether OPEC can make up for any interruptions in supplies. The problem is that we've lost our security cushion. A potential loss in Iranian oil would be impossible to replace and could send oil to $100." In a sign of how it might use its influential position on oil markets for political ends, Iran indicated yesterday that it would seek an agreement from OPEC to cut the group's production by one million barrels a day starting in April, ostensibly to make up for a slowdown in demand in the second quarter. But analysts said the request was unlikely to be approved by other OPEC members at a time of rising uncertainty over supplies and continuing high prices. Samuel W. Bodman, the secretary of energy, told CNBC yesterday that he expected that OPEC would continue to supply the market adequately. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are scheduled to meet in Vienna on Jan. 31 to consider their policy for the first half of the year. Adding to these concerns, violence in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil-producing region, has escalated in recent weeks after attacks by armed militants on major pipelines and oil platforms, forcing oil companies to cut production and evacuate some workers. Royal Dutch Shell has cut its output by 221,000 barrels a day, or nearly 10 percent of Nigeria's total production of 2.4 million barrels, after four oil workers were kidnapped on Jan. 11. Nigeria accounts for 3 percent of global oil production. "Such is the momentum and rigidity in views surrounding the Iranian issue, and such is the intensity of the attacks in Nigeria that we would have to say that we believe the supply threats are credible in both cases," Barclays Capital analysts said in a note to investors yesterday. The analysts raised their price forecast for 2006 by $7 a barrel, to $68 a barrel to reflect "the sensitivity of the oil market to the situation in Iran, the strength of the global economy and demand for oil." Oil touched a high of $70.85 a barrel in August when Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf of Mexico. The storm shut the nation's top oil producing region and briefly led to gasoline lines in some places. The worries about oil supplies and the disappointing earnings news have got stock investors jittery, said William Gerlach, a senior portfolio manager at Gartmore Global Investments. "You add all those things together and it creates some uncertainty in a market that has done well for the last couple of weeks," he said. For the week, the Dow lost 2.67 percent, the S.& P. 500 was down 2.03 percent and the Nasdaq declined 2.99 percent. The Russell 2000 index closed the week down 0.54 percent. Yesterday, investors chose to focus on disappointing statements by a few big names. Shares of General Electric fell $1.31, or 3.8 percent -- its biggest one-day drop since March 2003. Citigroup fell $2.25, or 4.7 percent, to $45.69. Shares of other financial companies fell yesterday, including J. P. Morgan Chase, American Express and Goldman Sachs. The latest disappointment in technology was Motorola, whose quarterly sales fell short of forecasts. Its shares fell $1.87, or 7.7 percent, to $22.48. Despite those prominent misses, most of the companies that have reported earnings so far, about a fifth of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, have either matched or exceeded Wall Street's expectations, according to John Butters, an analyst with Thomson Financial. "When you have some of the big names lower numbers, it sets the mood for everyone," he said.

OIL (PETROLEUM) AND GASOLINE
STOCKS AND BONDS


‘Les Militaribles,’ South Korean Video Spoof, Goes Viral

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — The “Gangnam Style” video has spawned seemingly endless remakes; there are even sites that allow viewers to insert photos of themselves onto the animated bodies of people performing the famous horse dance. Now the viral video has inspired another South Korean blockbuster, a parody of the movie musical “Les Misérables” featuring members of the air force. After just five days on YouTube, the video had been viewed almost three million times. (It probably did not hurt that one of the stars of the Hollywood movie,Russell Crowe, reposted a tweet with a link to the video.) The video , “Les Militaribles,” opens by spoofing the dramatic first scene of the movie version of Victor Hugo’s epic novel, set in a jail where men live under the tyranny of the guards. Les Miserables ROK Air Force Parody Les Militaribles / 공군 레미제라블 '레밀리터리블' Credit Credit Video by rokafplay In the 13-minute South Korean version, the nemesis is a taskmaster officer who keeps his exhausted conscripts clearing snow — a chore that many young South Korean men face while serving mandatory time in a military on guard against a militaristic North Korea. “Dig down, dig down, raise your shovels high. Dig down, dig down, and clear the snow below,” the airmen chant as they struggle to clear a runway. “There is no end to this accursed snow. Dig down, dig down, you still have two service years to go.” At first glance, the video — based on a novel about an often unfeeling bureaucracy — would appear to be the work of young men unhappy with their lot, serving in a hierarchical military that has been accused of sometimes brutal treatment of conscripts in the past. But “Les Militaribles” was produced by the South Korean Air Force’s official blog team, and is a celebration of sorts of airmen’s shared sacrifice during two years of service. “Clearing snow is especially important for the air force,” said First Lt. Chung Da-hoon, 26, who directed the video. “We must keep our runways free of snow so our jets can take off any time to deal with North Korean threats.” “Through this parody,” he said, “we wanted to tell our families, our girlfriends and the people that what we do in the military is hard work, but is necessary for national defense.” His boss, Maj. Cheon Myeong-nyeong, the planning officer for the air force’s Media Content Team, said, “Our ‘Les Militaribles’ triggered nostalgia among millions of people who have served in the military.” With nearly all male adults having served in the armed forces, there is a fair amount of nostalgia for time in the service, and the months spent in military barracks in remote parts of the country are a common theme in jokes and daily conversation. But public relations efforts like “Les Militaribles” also reflect the military’s increasing difficulty in inspiring a sense of duty among those who are serving or awaiting their call-up. After six decades of peace on the divided peninsula, many young men regard their service as an inconvenient interruption of civilian life, rather than a “sacred duty,” as their fathers’ generation did. The air force’s media team gathered talent for the video from air bases across the country. The director majored in video arts in graduate school and many of the singing airmen were music school students. The airmen said “Gangnam Style” (at 1.3 billion views) raised hopes that their video might gain at least a small international following, and they included subtitles in English to help it gain popularity. The creators also were careful to include a several-minute love story. In a divergence from the Hugo plot, “Airman Jean Valjean” can spend only 10 minutes with his girlfriend “Cosette,” a beauty who came to visit him despite a heavy snowfall. He begs for more time, but “Lieutenant Javert” says snow shoveling cannot wait. As it turns out, that plot twist has a foothold in South Korean reality: one of conscripts’ greatest fears is that their girlfriends will not wait for their return. With an eye toward the lovelorn, the makers of the video billed it as “a super military blockbuster” about “the choices Airman Valjean has to make between snow and love, the love story that the heavens forbid!”

Video
South Korea
Military
Les Miserables
Movies
YouTube


Assets and Subscriber Revenue Give ESPN an Edge in Rights Bidding

Abstract: At ESPN , it is called a beautiful business model: billions of dollars flowing from subscribers and advertisers combined with a gaggle of cable networks, online firepower, a magazine, a radio network and international operations to show the sports it acquires. The model does not make ESPN all powerful, but it gives it a major advantage over its competitors — the sports divisions of CBS, Fox and NBC, all of them traditional broadcast networks that derive revenue only from advertising. Last week, ESPN used its assets to outbid Fox by $100 million for the rights to carry college football’s Bowl Championship Series from 2011 to 2014. “We had only one chance to bid, and we bid without knowing Fox’s bid, so we had to calculate where they would walk away,” said John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president of content. The calculation was based not only on ad revenue from the games themselves, he said, but from televising the games in Spanish, driving user traffic to ESPNespn.com , breaking news on-line about B.C.S. standings and in sending mobile alerts. And Fox, with the right to match ESPN’s $495 million offer, did not. “This was the most unfortunate time to ask us to make a deal, and whatever we’d figured for the B.C.S., we reduced because of the reality of the economy,” said David Hill, the chairman of the Fox Sports Television Group. ESPN cannot ignore the deep recession’s impact on advertising. But its subscriber revenue gives it an extraordinary cushion. ESPN charges cable and satellite operators an average of $3.65 a month per subscriber, the most in television, according to SNL Kagan, a research organization. Multiply that by 98 million subscribers, over 12 months a year, and ESPN’s financial armor adds up to $4.3 billion. “What we have done is built a very successful business,” Skipper said. “But the last time I checked, we did it during a period of time that everybody had the opportunity to do so. We’ve got a plethora of critics who make it sound like this was bequeathed to us. All the people we compete with have cable assets.” Hill said: “That’s their business model. It is what it is. I can’t say it’s unfair.” Despite ESPN’s billions in subscriber fees, Skipper said that each deal must stand on its own. “It isn’t sitting in a pile in a drawer where I can reach in and use it,” he said. No surcharge will be added to subscriber fees to pay for the B.C.S. contract, he said. Still, said Ken Schanzer, the president of NBC Universal Sports: “If we bid against ESPN or any cable network, based on what we can generate from ad revenues — which represents the audience we think we can command — we would win every bid.” ESPN’s built-in advantages lead inevitably to what sport it will target next. Currently, it carries “Monday Night Football” (albeit without playoff games), the N.B.A., Major League Baseball, vast quantities of college football and basketball, a piece of all four tennis majors and a huge array of other sports. Earlier this month, it snared the rights to the British Open, taking what was on TNT and its sister network, ABC. Now after years of being shared by a broadcaster and a cable network, it is all on cable. “Where’s the ceiling?” asked Kevin O’Malley, a former B.C.S. adviser and also a former Turner and CBS Sports executive. “They have so much sports inventory, they can make sponsors happy and generate real advertiser premiums.” ESPN has voiced its desire to acquire Olympic rights for 2014 and 2016, which would probably put it up against NBC, the longtime incumbent, and Fox, which has craved them since losing out on the 2000 Sydney Games. The economic crisis will almost certainly delay the International Olympic Committee’s timetable, but when it asks for bids, will ESPN unfurl a bankroll no rival can match, or will the I.O.C. seek comfort with NBC? “We still have to make a calculation on whether it would drive up revenues,” Skipper said. “It does us no good to acquire something to drive our margin down.” The World Series would fit perfectly into ESPN’s matrix. Tim Brosnan, M.L.B.’s executive vice president for business, cagily told The Sports Business Journal last week that if the Series ever went to cable, “it means a lot of other sports have gone there first.” Broadcast networks regularly note that sports leagues and organizations like the I.O.C. risk losing viewers when a property moves to cable, simply because 114 million broadcast households can get broadcast TV and 98 million get ESPN. That gap is expected to narrow by February after the nationwide shift to digital from analog. But, O’Malley said: “Rights-holders aren’t looking askance at being on cable. ESPN is really institutionalized as a sports carrier.” Four years ago, he said, the B.C.S. did not care to see all the games on cable; this time around, it was not a concern. ESPN had the money. In sports television, it is rare for a league to take less than it had before. The N.C.A.A. can reopen its $6 billion men’s basketball championship deal with CBS three years before its conclusion in 2013 if more money is available, presumably from ESPN. Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports, can see keeping the Final Four and title game and the rest going to cable. But he said, “I applaud ESPN for acquiring the events they covet, but it doesn’t mean we’re throwing in the towel against them.” Barry Frank, the executive vice president of IMG Sports Media and the B.C.S.’s negotiator, said, “The money was pretty predominant” in ESPN’s winning bid. And at Fox, which stunningly outbid CBS in 1993 to acquire N.F.L. rights, Hill knows how he was beaten. “It’s all money,” he said. “It’s all about the size of the check.”

ESPN
Bowl Championship Series
Television


For World Cup Hopefuls Large and Small, the Future Is Now

Abstract: The 2010 World Cup starts, in a sense, here and now. There are 75 qualifying matches scheduled around the world for Saturday and Wednesday, and some of them have become eliminators. FIFA, the organizer and financial banker of the World Cup, is frantic with worry that some of the sport’s big marketing draws — Argentina, France, Germany, Portugal — are on the brink of failing to reach the finals in South Africa. A tournament without Lionel Messi, Michael Ballack, Franck Ribéry or Cristiano Ronaldo is not what FIFA or its sponsors want. In Europe, there might be a reprieve for that unprofitable situation. FIFA has suddenly introduced a seeding condition for the nations that finish runners-up in their European groups. This means that Germany or Russia, for example, would not face France in a playoff next month; instead they would meet the likes of Slovenia, Latvia, Norway or Croatia, who, the seedings reckon, they can beat. Seeding was not in the rules at the start of qualifying, and it reeks of protectionism. But soccer is business; money rules. We have enough genuine competition this weekend, however, and plenty of human drama. Will the Diego Maradona soap opera still be running after Argentina has played Peru in Buenos Aires on Saturday, and then the old enemy Uruguay in Montevideo on Wednesday? Maradona has gone through 60 players in his year as Argentina’s national team coach, and makes more changes this weekend, with Pablo Aimar in the playmaker role and Gonzalo Higuaín as a striker. Maradona hints of feeling let down by his staff, including Carlos Bilardo, who was his own coach when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986. Maradona now denies that he has preempted calls for his firing by saying he might quit, win or lose, if his conditions are not soon met. Ever impulsive, ever close to the edge, Maradona’s reputation as Argentina’s icon is on the line. He appears lonely but strong-willed, his defiance as hard as the diamond in his left ear. More people are rooting for Diego than are against him. But he has lost more matches than he has won, and time is running out. After three successive defeats, he must this time get the selection, the balance, the motivation right. Few in the world, even neutrals, wish to see a World Cup without Messi. For his club, Barcelona, Messi embodies class and sportsmanship. For his country, he runs and runs without joy or certainty. “We need to spoil their party,” said Peru’s 20-year-old winger, Carlos Zambrano. “If we beat Argentina, they’ll cry, and have to watch the World Cup on TV like we must.” Buenos Aires is full of rumor that the Peruvians, already out of the running, are being offered incentives to stop Argentina from qualifying. But if there is fever there, Honduras will seem hotter. The United States is to play not only a team but a nation inside Metropolitan Olympic Stadium in Tegucigalpa — a nation united for a couple of hours. Honduras hopes to reach its second-ever World Cup tournament. The first was in Spain in 1982. Then, as now, Honduras had a dream, and the individuals to chase it. Today it has Wilson Palacios, a tigerish ball winner employed by Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. It has David Suazo of Inter Milan, and Maynor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas, also in the Premier League. Can these players reach the World Cup finals? Can 11 men running with a ball make life seem a little more stable in a nation divided since its government was toppled by a coup in June? “Soccer is pain relief,” said the team’s former coach Ramon Maradiago. His successor, the man now trying to grasp the three points that would put Honduras level with the Americans, is Reinaldo Rueda. His priority is to send players out with cool heads. Cool heads, but racing pulses. It will feel like that in Dublin, where Ireland has “only” to defeat the reigning world champion, Italy, to stand a chance of topping the group. And that mood would melt ice in Copenhagen, where either Denmark or Sweden will gain automatic qualification. It will reach a crescendo in Bratislava, where Slovakia plays Slovenia and one point, the hardest the Slovaks have fought for in their lives, would be enough for the home side. In Belgrade, soccer ability suggests that Serbia has enough to beat Romania, and thus to qualify no matter what France, in second place in the group, achieves against the Faroe Islands. Serbia has been more consistent, more hungry and better coached than the French, so the outcome would be just. Yet it might not be final. FIFA has warned that if there is any repetition of the crowd violence that has marred games in Belgrade, culminating in the death of a French supporter last month, then Serbia could be docked points, and effectively barred from the World Cup. Milan Jovanovic, a Belgrade born winger quite capable of scoring the decisive goal with one of his special free kicks, pleads with the fans: “Get behind us, but understand that you will only help us if you don’t let your tempers get the better of common sense.” Cool heads, from Buenos Aires to Tegucigalpa to Belgrade, and right around the globe from Africa to Asia, too. There is one place where the dice, or rather the ground on which the players compete, is loaded. Either Russia or Germany will top their group, and the pitch beneath the players’ feet could be the decisive factor. Russia does not lose matches in Moscow’s vast Luzhniki stadium for three reasons. They were spelled out by Yuri Semin, the former Russian team coach, to Novosti news agency: “First, it’s a great atmosphere, with 84,000 of our fans. Second, the artificial pitch. Third, Russia passes the ball more attractively and more effectively than Germany.” The Russians are kindly letting the Germans practice on their plastic turf, but anyone who has seen matches there, seen the lack of physical challenges and the way the ball runs unnaturally, must know that this is no level playing field. FIFA allows it, so Russia’s opponents have no option but to grin and bear it. It’s just one game.

Soccer
World Cup (Soccer)
Messi Lionel
Maradona Diego
Argentina


Mets Hold Their Breath After Reyes Grabs His Hamstring

Abstract: For weeks now, Jose Reyes ’s name has been a fixture in sentences bursting with superlatives. The best shortstop. The fastest leadoff hitter. The most exciting player in baseball. But on a muggy Saturday afternoon, a chill went through Mets fans as Reyes was linked with a familiar and discouraging concern — a hamstring injury. In the midst of a transcendent season, Reyes exited the Mets’ 5-2 loss to the Yankees after two innings with tightness and cramping in his left hamstring. In good spirits as he walked around the clubhouse afterward, Reyes will learn the severity of the injury Sunday when he has a magnetic resonance imaging test. “I’m concerned about it, obviously,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “You sensed it not only in the dugout, you sensed it in the stands. The air came out of the bubble.” Reyes hurt his hamstring while running out an infield single in the first inning. He was not replaced by Ruben Tejada until the top of the third, but Mark Teixeira said he noticed that Reyes’s leads off first base were uncharacteristically short and tentative. Told to steal in the first with Carlos Beltran batting, Reyes stayed put because, he said, “I put something extra, my hamstring’s going to blow up.” At the very least, Reyes is expected to miss a few games. With the All-Star break a week away, the Mets could take a conservative approach, opting to shut him down for the West Coast trip that begins Monday in Los Angeles. Reyes, an authority on such matters, sensed enough of a problem to remove himself from the game, but he did not sound as despondent as he did in 2009, when he missed the final four months of the season with a right hamstring injury. “I’ve been through this before, so I know when it’s worse,” Reyes said. It was still enough to conjure flashbacks to the beginning of his career, when he missed long stretches of games and endured several lonely rehabilitations in Florida, saddling him with the reputation of being fragile and injury-prone. Now Reyes leads the majors in hits, multihit games, triples and batting average. Without their engine Saturday, the Mets could not handle Bartolo Colon , who pitched six scoreless innings in his return from a three-week stay on the disabled list. Dillon Gee matched Colon for the first five innings before allowing four runs in the sixth. The rally was ignited by Curtis Granderson’s one-out homer, as the Mets lost for only the second time in his 13 starts. Around the Yankees, who won their seventh consecutive game, Colon inspires the same sense of admiration as Reyes does with the Mets. Colon amazes his teammates daily, but nothing he does surprises them, not anymore. To prepare for Saturday’s start, he did not even need a rehabilitation outing in the minors. Just a 60-pitch simulated game Monday, and, voilà, he was fit to blitz the Mets with fastball after nasty fastball, retiring 13 in a row between Reyes’s leadoff single and Jason Bay’s one-out nubber in the fifth. Over all, Colon scattered five hits while striking out six and walking none. His earned run average dropped to 2.88. “We’re sure lucky to have him because there’s 29 other teams out there that would have loved to take a shot at him this off-season,” Teixeira said. This coming off-season, Reyes will be one of the prize free agents available, and his electrifying style of play and relentless production have sent his value skyrocketing, with only an injury potentially preventing him from securing a lucrative long-term deal. The Yankees have the resources to finance such a lavish contract, but they are not in the market for a shortstop. Not with Derek Jeter tethered to the team for at least two more seasons, and not with Eduardo Nunez, his possible heir, blasting hit after hit around Citi Field. After going 4 for 4 in his Subway Series debut Friday night, Nunez added three more hits Saturday — two doubles and a homer — and had a fourth taken away in the sixth on a splendid leaping catch by second baseman Justin Turner. “These two weeks, they’ve been good for me,” Nunez said. “A big chance to show I can play.” Jeter began a two-day rehabilitation assignment Saturday night in Class AA Trenton with an eye toward rejoining the Yankees — and resuming his chase for 3,000 hits — on Monday in Cleveland, although Manager Joe Girardi reiterated that he would continue to find ways to get Nunez at-bats. Over the last two days, Nunez’s average has soared 44 points, to .278. “All the Reyes talk I had yesterday, maybe he took it a little personally,” said Alex Rodriguez, who on Friday called Reyes “the world’s greatest player right now.” And just maybe, Reyes is its most irreplaceable, too. Not many players share Reyes’s ability, and those that might do not play baseball in Queens. Any absence, prolonged or not, “changes the look of the team for sure,” Collins said. Consider the last time Gee started, on Sunday in Texas. Reyes displayed the breadth of his talents, going 4 for 5 with a stolen base, a triple and three runs scored. On Saturday, his presence was sorely missed. INSIDE PITCH Brian Gordon, the converted outfielder who made his first career start at 32 years old, was sent to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to clear roster space for Bartolo Colon. ...The Yankees released the veteran right-hander Carlos Silva from his minor league deal. ...The Mets signed the 16-year-old switch-hitting catcher Jose Garcia, ranked among Baseball America’s top 10 Venezuelan prospects.

Sports Injuries
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Reyes Jose
Baseball
Colon Bartolo


Spaniard Barred for Two Years but Can Keep Vuelta Victory

Abstract: The Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde received a global two-year ban Monday for his connection to a blood-doping ring, but he was allowed to keep his victory in the 2009 Vuelta a España. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency, which wanted Valverde sanctioned for suspected doping revealed in a 2006 Spanish scandal known as Operation Puerto in which about 40 riders were implicated. Valverde, 30, cannot compete until January 2012, but plans to appeal. He never tested positive for a banned drug, but was linked to the ring by DNA evidence seized in raids on a Madrid doctor’s clinic. He will be disqualified from all events this season and asked to reimburse his prize money, the cycling union said. Those results include a victory in the Tour de Romandie and second place in the Paris-Nice stage race.

Valverde Alejandro
Doping (Sports)
Bicycles and Bicycling
Court of Arbitration for Sport
International Cycling Union
World Anti-Doping Agency
Madrid (Spain)


Jerry Pinkney’s Work to Be on Exhibit in Yonkers

Abstract: Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. THE artist Jerry Pinkney regularly wanders the 75 acres of wilderness surrounding his house here, and it is not uncommon for him to encounter foxes, eagles, skunks and opossums. Because he is “passionate and curious about animal life,” he said, he often stops to observe the creatures. And what he notices sometimes informs his work. “My curiosity leads to a kind of respect, and that evolves into ideas being generated,” said Mr. Pinkney, the subject of a soon-to-open retrospective at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers and the illustrator of more than 100 children’s books, including “The Lion and the Mouse” ( Little, Brown and Co. ), whose vivid watercolor images won him the 2010 Caldecott Medal . But as much as Mr. Pinkney, 72, admires his animal neighbors, he has cause to like a few of the human ones even better: In 2009, his next-door neighbors, Americo and Gabriel D’Adonna, built him a studio, which he rents from them. Ever since he started working there — a light-filled space with sturdy drafting tables, framed art and foliage — instead of at home, he said recently, “I’ve been doing some of the best work of my life.” The result has been “a huge bump in recognition,” he said. In addition to the Caldecott Medal, Mr. Pinkney was elected this year to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In the fall, he will join Hillary Clinton , Clint Eastwood and others in an induction ceremony. The retrospective, “Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney,” opens in Yonkers on Sept. 29 and will be on view there until Jan. 13. Its first stop was the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. The show culls roughly 150 of Mr. Pinkney’s images dating to the mid-1960s and covers not just his illustrations for children’s books but also works that throw a window open on interests for which he is not as well known, he said. “A lot of people who know me haven’t seen work I’ve done for National Geographic magazine and the National Park Service ,” Mr. Pinkney said. Those projects, which date from the 1980s, include watercolor and pencil-on-paper pictures, with subjects like the Underground Railroad and the Booker T. Washington National Monument (in addition to wildlife, African-American history is a recurring theme in Mr. Pinkney’s work). Earlier images include album covers and pictures of jazz greats from Mr. Pinkney’s days in advertising design, the career path he followed briefly after leaving the Philadelphia College of Arts (now the University of the Arts ) in the 1960s. “His later work is so famous, particularly that signature image of the lion” from “The Lion and the Mouse,” said Bartholomew Bland, 38, head of the curatorial department at the Hudson River Museum, which will capitalize on Mr. Pinkney’s proximity with expanded offerings, including visits and talks by Mr. Pinkney and items from his studio. “I was intrigued to see some of lesser-known works, like the album covers, because it’s not what I expected. It’s a tribute to his creativity and his great facility as a collaborator.” Collaborations — Mr. Pinkney’s most fruitful and well known may be with the author Julius Lester , with whom he has produced nine books, including “John Henry” ( Dial ), a 1995 Caldecott Honor Book — have been a hallmark not just of his career but of his personal life. His wife, Gloria Jean Pinkney, is the author of spiritual books, several of which Mr. Pinkney has illustrated. Images from her 1994 book, “The Sunday Outing,” are included in the retrospective. Having those illustrations, as well as many others borrowed from the studio, “makes this show special,” Mr. Pinkney said. Friends and neighbors will be able to visit. “This will be the first time that publishers I’ve worked with over the years in New York will be able to pop into a car and see images from these early, early stages — things they’ve never seen.” The Pinkneys, who have four grown children, have lived in Croton-on-Hudson since 1970; they met in high school in Philadelphia. Mr. Pinkney’s commitment to artistic expression goes back even further, to the days when he was in junior high, living with his parents and two brothers in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. “I took my first job at the age of 12, selling newspapers at a busy intersection. I’d have a drawing pad and pencils with me, and in between selling I would draw people and window displays,” he said. One of his customers was the cartoonist John Liney, the artist behind the syndicated “Henry” comic strip. He noticed Mr. Pinkney’s pictures and invited him to visit his nearby studio. “That was the first time I had the experience of being acknowledged as someone who had the potential to make art for a living,” he said, adding that his mother had been “very encouraging, the wind at my back.” Mr. Liney’s attention was also a diversion from Mr. Pinkney’s difficulties at school: “I had dyslexia. I wasn’t teased — that wasn’t the case for me — but it helped me recognize that this was something I could do, that others couldn’t do well,” he said. That realization propelled him through five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards and 30 one-man exhibitions, to where he is today. He recently finished a new adaptation of “Puss in Boots,” which will be released in November by Dial. Mr. Pinkney said he was looking forward to participating in the retrospective and collaborating on its setup. He said he expected to see his studio landlords, the D’Adonnas, at the opening reception. “They’re going to be there,” Mr. Pinkney said from the studio, where sunlight poured in through a pair of French doors and a jazz CD played. “And they should be. They have every reason to feel they’re a part of it.”

Art
Yonkers (NY)
Pinkney Jerry
Hudson River Museum
Books and Literature


Neglect May Do What ISIS Didn’t: Breach Iraqi Dam

Abstract: WASHINGTON — More than 16 months after Iraqi and Kurdish forces reclaimed Mosul Dam from Islamic State fighters, the structure faces a new threat: the danger that it may collapse because of insufficient maintenance, overwhelming major communities downstream with floodwaters. In the worst-case scenario, according to State Department officials, an estimated 500,000 people could be killed while more than a million could be rendered homeless if the dam, Iraq’s largest, were to collapse in the spring, when the Tigris is swollen by rain and melting snow. The casualty toll and damage would be much less if Iraqi citizens received adequate warning, if the dam collapsed only partially or if it were breached in the summer or fall, when the water level is lower. President Obama underscored the need to make emergency repairs in a call Wednesday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, in which the two also discussed recent advances by Iraqi security forces against the Islamic State in Ramadi, in western Iraq, the White House said. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated the urgent need to maintain the dam during a meeting with Mr. Abadi in Baghdad on Thursday, according to a senior Defense Department official. Worried that repairs might not come in time, American officials have urged the Iraqi government to begin warning its citizens, including those who live under the control of the Islamic State in Mosul, about precautions to take and where to flee if the dam starts to fail. A State Department official who is part of an interagency team assembled last year to focus on the problem cautioned that spring brings heightened risk. The official said the administration’s assessment was that absent energetic efforts to repair the dam, it would collapse — although he did not predict when. At the heart of the problem is a major engineering challenge: reinforcing a massive dam built during the Saddam Hussein era on a weak foundation of gypsum, chalky limestone and clay. But the problem is political, as well. The growing risks described by American officials come as Mr. Abadi contends with budget shortages, the ongoing conflict with Islamic State fighters and challenges to his authority from hard-line Shiite politicians prone to see American proposals as a conspiracy to expand Western influence in Iraq. An Italian company, the Trevi Group, has been negotiating with the Iraqi government to make emergency repairs to the dam, at an estimated cost of more than $380 million, according to Iraqi officials. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy said in December that he would deploy 450 Italian troops at the dam to safeguard company workers if they began operations there. But negotiations, including on security arrangements, have yet to be completed. Lukman Faily, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, said on Sunday that the Iraqi government understood the risk to the dam and would meet with the Italian company this week to continue the negotiations. As for security for any Italian engineers sent to make repairs, the ambassador said on Sunday that “the dam is protected by Iraqi forces, but we have no objection in the provision of additional security expertise from Italy or other coalition nations.” But reflecting Iraq’s fractured politics, Mohsin al-Shammari, the head of Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources and a political supporter of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said last month that Iraq did not need any “foreign support” in guarding the dam. “There is no need for Italian forces to protect the dam,” Mahdi Rasheed, an adviser to Mr. Shammari, said Sunday in a telephone interview. Image A failure of Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest, could kill 500,000 and leave a million homeless. Credit Ahmad al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mosul Dam, which was completed in 1984 by a German and Italian consortium and is 30 miles upstream from the city of Mosul, has long been a maintenance nightmare. Before fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, swept across northern Iraq in 2014, approximately 600 Iraqis worked at the dam. Because the water was eating away at the gypsum base under the dam, Iraqi teams drilled holes in that foundation and filled them with a cement grout mixture. That work was carried out three times a day, six days a week. The Islamic State controlled the dam for a little more than a week in August 2014, but its fighters did not damage the structure. After it was retaken later that month, however, many of the Iraqi workers never returned and the Iraqi government did not resume regular maintenance. The Iraqis also lost their usual source of grouting material, which was produced by a factory in Mosul, now under the control of the Islamic State. As worries about the dam mounted, the Obama administration formed an interagency team and installed 92 instruments to measure, among other things, the pressure on the dam and the sediment in the water nearby — one way of assessing the rate at which the gypsum base was disintegrating. The Obama administration ruled out undertaking the costly repair project itself, and the Pentagon has been reluctant to set up a base near the dam to protect the repair efforts. So the Obama administration has sought to help the Iraqis defray some of the cost by urging the World Bank to agree that $200 million of a $1.2 billion loan for Iraq would be for Mosul Dam repairs. International companies were informed by American officials that they would need to negotiate directly with the Iraqis and make their own security arrangements. The period of greatest risk is from the end of February to mid-May, when the Tigris is at its highest and the pressure on the dam is the greatest. The worst-case scenario is a total collapse in the spring for which no public education campaign has been carried out on where citizens should flee or what precautions they should take. State Department officials said the danger would be the greatest in Mosul, where rushing water would be funneled in a powerful current along the Tigris through the center of the city. Residents might have as little as two hours’ notice that the dam to the north had given way, and the wall of water could be as high as 80 feet. The water would continue along the Tigris, which runs by Tikrit and Samarra down to Baghdad, potentially knocking out bridges along the way, according to the administration’s analysis. As the water traveled south, debris, pesticides and corpses would become part of the flow, threatening the country’s supply of clean water and its irrigation system. The Iraqi capital would have several days’ notice before the water reached there. But some areas in Baghdad near the Tigris, including the American Embassy compound and prominent Iraqi government buildings, could be flooded with water as high as 13 feet. Educating Mosul’s residents about the danger is complicated. Residents could avoid the main rush of water by heeding warnings to move to the outskirts. But the Islamic State, which controls the city, might see such warnings as a gambit to clear the way for an offensive backed by the United States and order citizens to stay. “Right now, there is no alert system in place,” said the State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations with the Iraqis. Mr. Faily, the Iraqi ambassador, asserted that the Iraqi government was determined to have the dam fixed but was ready for all eventualities. “We have an emergency plan in the event of collapse,” he said.

Levees and Dams
Iraq
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Mosul
Terrorism
US Foreign Policy
State Department
Haider al-Abadi
US


Giving the Gift of Carbon Dioxide

Abstract: What says holiday cheer better than a ton of carbon dioxide? Rebecca Young of Mountain View, Calif., recently opened her mail to find a gift from an old friend in New York City. “ Carbon reduction certificate ,” it read. It is good for three tons of carbon emissions that will be “retired” in her name so that no power plant will ever release them into the atmosphere. To some people, the certificate may be as welcome as a lump of coal. But Ms. Young, a marketing manager for the environmental Web site Care2.com , was delighted. “I don’t need stuff,” said Ms. Young, 37, the mother of 3-year-old twins. “And as someone who cares about the environment, I thought it was a very kind gesture. It obviously showed that he knew me.” Carbon reduction certificates are the latest hot eco-gift, suitable for the environmentally aware, hard-to-shop-for loved one who already has an adopted humpback whale or some symbolic rainforest acreage. They are sold by the Adirondack Council , a nonprofit group that watches over New York’s 9,300-square-mile Adirondack Park and sells $25 certificates for carbon emissions that it obtained at carbon trading auctions. The auctions are held four times a year by the only cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide operating in the country, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . Popularly known as RGGI (pronounced Reggie), the program sets a ceiling on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in New York and nine other Northeastern states to combat global warming . (Carbon dioxide is the dominant heat-trapping gas linked to climate change.) Under the state-regulated system, a utility must buy and hold permits, or “allowances” — one per ton of carbon dioxide — that are equal to its monitored emissions . It can resell any allowances it doesn’t need when it lowers its emissions, or buy leftover ones from other companies if it exceeds its cap. The auctions where allowances are bought and sold are open to the public and require a minimum purchase of 1,000 allowances. The price fluctuates from about $2 to $3.50 apiece. Last year, the Adirondack Council began bidding at the auctions and selling certificates for the allowances it retired from the market. Each certificate represents three allowances and sells for $25 through the council’s Web site at www.adirondackcouncil.org . Unlike a so-called carbon offset, the group said, the carbon certificate is a reliable way to counter emissions. In purchasing an offset, a person pays a fee to cancel out the emissions generated by, say, air travel. The money, in theory, goes to a program that reduces emissions elsewhere by using measures like tree planting. But there is often no way to verify whether a tree was planted, much less whether emissions were reduced. When a consumer buys a carbon certificate, said John F. Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondacks Council, “you know you’re preventing three tons of smokestack pollution.” Still, even some people buying the carbon certificates are not entirely sold on cap-and-trade programs as the best mechanism for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Dawn Rawls of Del Mar, Calif., who had just purchased some certificates as Christmas gifts for relatives, said the payment approach “doesn’t emphasize enough that we have to work harder to reduce our carbon footprint.” This is the second year that the Adirondack Council has promoted the certificates for the holidays. It is believed to be the nation’s only organization routinely “retiring” carbon allowances, albeit in small amounts — 10,000 one-ton allowances so far out of 170 million that have been traded at the RGGI auctions, which began in the fall of 2008. The certificates are akin to the sulfur dioxide allowances that several nonprofit organizations around the country started buying in the 1990s from the federal acid rain program . Alan Chartock, president and chief executive of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, said his station offered 600 carbon certificates donated by the council for a minimum of $100 per certificate during a fund drive earlier this year. He said he was “astounded” by the response. “We were inundated with telephone calls,” he said. “Some people wanted one for each grandchild.” Mr. Chartock said the certificates drew donations of up to $1,000 each and were just as popular as conventional items like CD recordings of interviews with the singers James Taylor and Pete Seeger. (The station received pledges for another 278 carbon dioxide certificates during a second fund-raiser in the summer.) “The appeal is fear,” he said. “People are really concerned about what’s happening in the planet.” But are givers concerned that the gift could be misinterpreted or even offend someone? That the environmental message relayed is not so much “Because you care,” as, “Here, to make up for your big fat carbon footprint”? “If it helps any, I also sent her a box of maple candy from a small farm in the Adirondacks,” said Joseph Sanlei, who mailed the certificate to Ms. Young in California. Mr. Sanlei, an anthropologist and auxiliary sergeant with the New York Police Department, said that carbon dioxide is a highly appropriate gift for Ms. Young, who attended Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “I’m sure she hopes that the children inherit a better world,” he said. And as a bonus, he said, “I didn’t have to explain it.” In Del Mar, Mrs. Rawls was filling stockings this week with eight carbon certificates she had bought. She said her two grown daughters have grown accustomed to their parents’ environmental and philanthropic gifts. Over the years, she said, she has given them retired sulfur dioxide allowances, acres of threatened rainforest adopted on their behalf and, as the main present, donations to a cause or charity of their choice. “They’re all self-sufficient now, so we figure that if they need something, they’ll buy it for themselves,” Mrs. Rawls said. The apples do not fall far from the tree. Her daughters’ gifts to her, which have already arrived, are a favorite fruitcake that will be eaten rather than disposed of and a wreath of living succulent flora that Mrs. Rawls planned to replant.

Carbon Dioxide
Cap-and-Trade
Adirondack Council
Gifts
Nonprofit Organizations
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Adirondack Park (NY)


Economic Reports This Week

Abstract: ECONOMIC REPORTS Data will include the ISM nonmanufacturing index for November and factory orders for October (Monday); consumer credit for October (Wednesday); weekly jobless claims and wholesale trade inventories for October (Thursday); the trade deficit for October and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for December (Friday). CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies reporting results will include Dollar General (Monday); Toll Brothers (Tuesday); and Costco Wholesale and Smithfield Foods (Thursday). IN THE UNITED STATES On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee will conduct a hearing about the oversight of the Wall Street Reform Act, the House Financial Services Committee will conduct a hearing about legislation aimed at preventing members of Congress from making investments based on insider knowledge, and a Senate judiciary subcommittee will conduct a hearing about the merger of Express Scripts and Medco. On Wednesday, a Senate banking subcommittee will conduct a hearing about supervision of large financial institutions. On Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee will conduct a hearing about the MF Global bankruptcy. IN EUROPE On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France will meet in Paris to discuss the euro zone crisis. On Thursday, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will issue decisions about interest rates. On Friday, European leaders will meet to discuss fiscal integration of the euro zone and potential changes to treaties.

Economic Conditions and Trends
Company Reports


U.N. Council May Rebuke North Korea

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — The major players on the United Nations Security Council reached a compromise Saturday to chastise North Korea for launching a rocket while avoiding tough new punishments that Russia and China had feared would drive the North away from negotiations over dismantling its nuclear program. The Council may vote as soon as Monday on the American draft of a presidential statement, a step less forceful than a resolution, that would tighten existing sanctions by singling out specific North Korean organizations and expanding the list of banned goods related to its nuclear and missile programs. After haggling all week, the five permanent members plus Japan agreed to the compromise in order to project unity, although the United States and Japan had initially pushed for a stronger response. Russia and China, in calling for a measured reaction, publicly avoided characterizing the rocket launching as a ballistic missile test, and the word missile never appears in the statement. But it condemns North Korea for the event and warns the country against any further launchings. “What the Council can do, and we hope will do, through the adoption of this statement is to send a very clear message to North Korea that what they have done under the guise of a satellite launch is in fact a violation of their obligations and indeed that there are consequences for such actions,” said Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador. Much of the world viewed the launching as an effort by North Korea to prove it is edging toward the capability to shoot a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile. North Korea has said the rocket was designed to propel a satellite into space. A presidential statement must be passed by all 15 members of the Council. Although the United States considers it legally binding internationally, others deem it more of a recommendation. Given the weight of those backing it, passage is almost assured. But Libya, a Council member, expressed reservations Saturday since it maintains that launching a peaceful satellite is the right of all nations. American officials have said the satellite fell into the Pacific. The Council imposed sanctions against North Korea in Resolution 1718 in 2006, after the North conducted a nuclear test and a missile launching. But the major powers focused less on enforcing the sanctions than on negotiations with North Korea, called the six-party talks, to try to dismantle the country’s nuclear program. Those talks remain the major powers’ priority. The North had threatened to walk out of the talks if the United Nations punished it for the launching. But it has been silent on the subject recently, and analysts said Saturday that the Council response was measured enough that the North would likely continue to negotiate.

United Nations
North Korea
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Nuclear Weapons
International Relations


Hat Trick in U.S. Women’s Field Hockey’s Shutout of China

Abstract: The United States moved to the top of its women’s pool at the field hockey World Cup in The Hague, beating China, 5-0, behind a hat trick by Katie O’Donnell.


Senators Keep Lid Rangers’ Top Scorers

Abstract: The cry of coaches in the Stanley Cup playoffs is for the best players on the team to actually play like the best players. After losing to Ottawa, 2-0, in Game 5 on Saturday to fall behind by three games to two in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, the Rangers can search for a lot of reasons for their struggles. But the failures of Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards surely lead the list. For the fourth game in a row, Gaborik and Richards did not score a goal. Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, who stopped 41 shots, stymied the Rangers. Gaborik landed only two shots on Anderson, none in the first two periods. With their top sniper struggling — Gaborik scored 41 goals during the regular season — the Rangers are facing an abbreviated spring and a much longer off-season than they anticipated. “We created a lot of scoring chances,” Gaborik said. “But we’ve got to score some goals.” Over the last 261 minutes 39 seconds of the series, the Rangers have scored two goals at even strength. The power play has not been any better. The Rangers were 0 for 4 with the man advantage on Saturday. “We’ve got to be better on the power play,” Gaborik said. “We have to get more shots on net and get a lot more traffic in front of their goalie.” Gaborik and Richards are not alone in their struggles. Brandon Dubinsky and Derek Stepan do not have a goal or an assist in the series. Other than the surprise contribution of a pair of goals from Anton Stralman, the Rangers’ defensemen have mustered little offensively. But more is expected of Gaborik and Richards, who signed lucrative, long-term contracts. The Senators have made a point of shadowing them and taking the body, and the strategy has been effective. “That’s what you have to do against a team’s best players in the playoffs,” said Senators center Jason Spezza, who scored Ottawa’s goals. “I’m really proud of the way we’ve handled their top guys. It’s been a team effort.” With three minutes left in the second period, Gaborik was hit by Ottawa forward Colin Greening with a hard, clean check. While Gaborik needed a few seconds to collect himself, the Rangers’ captain, Ryan Callahan, stood up for Gaborik by challenging Greening to fight. The Ottawa tough guy Chris Neil stepped in to restore the peace. But the sequence illustrated the Senators’ success all series at punishing the Rangers’ finesse forwards. “The Rangers are doing it to us,” Spezza said. “We’re doing it to them.” The Rangers’ lineup will get a needed injection of speed for Game 6 in Ottawa on Monday when Carl Hagelin returns from his suspension. Hagelin was suspended for three games by the N.H.L. for a high hit in Game 2 that gave the Senators’ captain, Daniel Alfredsson, a concussion. Although a rookie, Hagelin is one of the Rangers’ most important forwards. His speed and tenacity cause turnovers by opponents. His absence is a big reason Ottawa had possession of the puck for long stretches of Games 3, 4 and 5. And it was only after Hagelin joined Richards and Gaborik that the line started to jell. “He was a big part of our success down the stretch of the regular season,” Gaborik said of Hagelin. “Having Hags back will be a big boost for us.” Even with Hagelin’s return, Gaborik and Richards still must find ways to battle through the Senators’ tight defense and physical play and get on the scoreboard. “It’s frustrating,” Gaborik said. “But we’ve got to keep our heads held high, win in Ottawa and bring the series back to New York.”

Playoff Games
Ottawa Senators
New York Rangers
Hockey Ice
Spezza Jason


Durant: A Sweet Tooth and a Sweet Jumper

Abstract: During the final minute of Seattle’s 117-110 victory over the Knicks Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Seattle rookie Kevin Durant had the ball with a 4-point lead and drove the lane against two defenders to try to secure the victory. “I was trying to go up and get fouled, but I saw the rim and I wanted to finish,” Durant said. So he completed the play with a two-handed dunk to pretty much end the tension, the final 2 points of his game-best 30 to go with 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. “I guess I’ve got to start doing that more now,” Durant said of the forceful dunk. It was the first professional appearance in New York for Durant, at 19 the youngest player in the N.B.A. “I was very nervous,” Durant said. “But it was fun. My heart was kind of beating fast. I think that was a good vibe.” Durant is sending out similar vibrations on his first professional tour after one season at Texas, where he was the college player of the year. Before the game, Sonics Coach P. J. Carlesimo compared Durant’s enthusiasm to that of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan at the same stage. Earlier this season, Jermaine O’Neal of Indiana compared Durant to Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. “That’s an honor,” Durant said, “but I’m nowhere near to where they are. I might be halfway there.” Perhaps the most flattering comparison came from George Gervin, a member of the Hall of Fame and who now will be officially a mentor to Durant under a new N.B.A. program that matches young players with stars of previous generations. “He kind of reminds me of myself,” Gervin said in a telephone conversation from San Antonio. “He’s got a sweet jumper. That kid can just flat-out play.” Gervin was not at the Garden Wednesday, but the audience included Durant’s parents and his agent, part of his extensive adult support system. His mother, Wanda Pratt, moved for the season to Seattle from Maryland in part to cook for her son as he tries to add weight to his wispy frame. Her name is tattooed above her son’s heart. Durant’s father, Wayne Pratt, was pleased to learn of Gervin’s role as Durant’s mentor. “It’s an honor,” he said. “George Gervin is the first player people compared Kevin to. They have similar builds and they’re scorers. They can score any kind of way.” The Supersonics chose Durant with the second pick in the N.B.A. draft last summer behind Greg Oden, who was talen by the Portland Trail Blazers. With Oden out for the season after knee surgery, Durant is a candidate for rookie of the year. Durant is listed as 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds but said this week he weighs “probably 220 now” after eating his mother’s baked chicken and rice. “We’re trying,” she said before Wednesday’s game. “Pot roast and salmon, too. He likes seafood.” Durant also loves sweets, particularly the chewy, fruity candy called Starburst, an appropriate brand for Durant’s style. He can score on step-back jump shots from 3-point range or on drives down the lane. He can pass and run among the best. “I’m getting better and better, but I’m far from where I need to be,” Durant said. With Texas last season, Durant’s nickname was K-Smoove. Even as a freshman, he had the knack of favorably impressing people on the other bench. After the Longhorns lost to Southern California in the N.C.A.A. tournament, Coach Tim Floyd told Durant, “I don’t want you to change.” Floyd said Durant was the sort of player who learned the game in a structured way, from coaches inside a gymnasium, rather than picking up the bad habits some players develop from peers on playgrounds. As a professional, Durant has bonded with his fellow rookie Jeff Green and with Kurt Thomas, a 13-year veteran. “He’s very humble,” Thomas said. “You can tell his parents did an outstanding job raising him.” Thomas described Durant as “a really good listener who’s always asking for advice.” Carlesimo called Durant “a gym rat” who can be found in the weight room when not doing extra work on the floor. The only thing Durant lacks, Carlesimo said, is strength. “You kind of wish you could fast-forward him,” Carlesimo said. “He’s going to get bigger and stronger. That will take him to another level.” But where he will play is an open question. The team wants a new arena and was sold to businessmen from Oklahoma City, who might move it there. When Durant arrived in Seattle last summer, the former Sonics star Slick Watts said Durant would “save the Sonics,” a job description Durant shuns. “That’s not my mission at all,” Durant said. “I’m just trying to get better. I wouldn’t say I’m the savior.” His thought before his Garden debut as a professional could describe his overall approach as a rookie. “You can’t come out there and be scared,” he said.

Durant Kevin
Basketball
Seattle SuperSonics
National Basketball Assn


Ending Conspicuous Silence, Palin Makes Her Case

Abstract: Republican delegates holding up “Palin Power” signs greeted Wednesday’s speech as a Norma Rae moment, but for viewers it came closer to Garbo Speaks. Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska spoke and did it forcefully, confidently and with humor, and that was plenty, because the most damaging part of the last 48 hours was her silence. Throughout the whirlwind referendum on experience, motherhood and family values, Ms. Palin was cast by her party as a victim of sexism, partisan politics and tabloid exploitation. She used the speech to shrug off the mantle of running mate in distress and recast herself as a tough-talking, liberal-bashing supermom. She took her story back, talking about her children, her husband, Todd (“he’s still my guy”), as well as her reform efforts in Alaska, energy policy and Russian intentions in the Caucasus. She made many of the same points party elders like Fred D. Thompson and Rudolph W. Giuliani made on her behalf, but in her own disarmingly flat “Fargo” voice. She not only praised John McCain, she also repeatedly mocked Barack Obama’s career ( “This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn’t just need an organizer”) and gleefully attacked the Washington elite. “Here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion; I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.” Until she spoke up for herself, no defense, no matter how spirited or well-argued, could fully make up for Ms. Palin’s conspicuous absence from the screen. It wasn’t just the endless discussion on cable news programs or the heated debates on “The View” that made her seem in quarantine. Mr. McCain inadvertently compounded the impression on Wednesday with a tableau he created to signal his loyalty for the news cameras. The entire Palin family was assembled on the tarmac to greet Mr. McCain. He hugged Governor Palin, shook hands with her husband, then hugged their pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, before turning to her boyfriend, Levi Johnston, 18, shaking his hand, patting his shoulder and rubbing his arm, then wrapping his arms around the two teenagers as if blessing their union. All the touching was meant as a kindness — and to reassure voters that the unwed pregnancy doesn’t bother him one bit. But the scene was long and a little too pastorly, more like an absolution than a friendly photo op for the running mates’ families. Ms. Palin spoke about her special-needs newborn, but did not mention her daughter’s pregnancy. That was left to Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii, who earlier in the evening noted that Ms. Palin had “five beautiful children and a grandchild on the way.” Ms. Lingle added that Ms. Palin was facing the “same issues that moms and dads do every single day in our country.” Cindy McCain sat between Mr. Palin and 14-year-old Willow, who cradled her baby brother, Trig, in her lap. Ms. McCain also held the baby, but handed him to Mr. Palin once his wife began her speech. Ms. Palin showed little wear from an ordeal that Ms. McCain likened on CBS News to “drinking from a fire hose.” After the speech, Mr. McCain, looking pleased and perhaps relieved, joined Ms. Palin on stage and asked the crowd, “Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States?” Before she made her own case, his campaign didn’t always reassure the doubters. Many of the attacks on Ms. Palin’s qualifications were heated, but so were the rebuttals, and those did little to convey serene confidence in the candidate. Carly Fiorina was one of many McCain surrogates who huffily declared that Ms. Palin had been “demeaned and belittled” by liberals and the news media. And some of the fiercest conservative pundits sounded a bit patronizing, though not solely at Ms. Palin’s expense. “I know this lady,” Dick Morris, a Republican strategist who once served as a consultant to the Clintons, said on Fox News. “I met her in Alaska, and spent some time with her, which is more than McCain ever did.” Ms. Palin’s feisty speech is not likely to quiet her critics or shut down scrutiny of her record, but voters at last got a chance to hear the Alaska governor speak for herself.

Presidential Election of 2008
Palin Sarah
Republican Party
Conventions National (US)


Where Mud Is Archaeological Gold, Russian History Grew on Trees

Abstract: VELIKY NOVGOROD, Russia — The note, from father to son, was the sort of routine shopping list that today would be dashed off on a smartphone. In 14th century Russia, it was etched into the bark of a birch tree and curled into a scroll. “Send me a shirt, towel, trousers, reins, and, for my sister, send fabric,” the father, whose name was Onus, wrote to his son, Danilo, the block letters of Old Novgorod language, a precursor to Russian, neatly carved into the wood with a stylus. Onus ended with a bit of humor. “If I am alive,” he wrote, “I will pay for it.” The scroll and a dozen others like it were among the finds from this year’s digging season, adding to a collection of more than 1,000 birch-bark documents uncovered here after being preserved for hundreds of years in the magical mud that makes this city one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites on earth. “Novgorod for Russia is like Pompeii for Italy,” said Pyotr G. Gaidukov, the deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology. “Only Novgorod is still alive.” Written in conversational language, on everyday topics, the birch-bark documents provide a remarkable human soundtrack to accompany a vast — and still growing — trove of artifacts including coins, official seals, kitchenware, jewelry and clothing. Each year, thousands of items are found amid buildings and streets, once paved with wooden logs, buried in the soil. There are records of business transactions, demands for payment of debts, inventories of goods, accusations of crimes, convoluted discussions of legal disputes, personal letters among family and friends, even love letters. “Marry me,” a man named Mikita wrote to a woman named Anna in a birch-bark letter dated to between 1280 and 1300. “ I want you, and you me .” Image The archeologist Sergei Yazikov at the digging site, where labels marked different centuries. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times Archaeologists say the documents, once deciphered by linguists, breathe life into all of their other findings. “They open a road for us, a window in the everyday life and relations,” said Sergei Yazikov, who led a dig on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street where many of this year’s birch writings were found. “The people of ancient Novgorod are talking to us through these scrolls.” Nestled in a curve of the Volkhov River, with the crenelated brick walls of its Kremlin-fortress and the sparkling gold and silver domes of its churches, Veliky Novgorod looks like the setting of a medieval fairy tale. In a way, it was. The city was founded, according to legend, by Rurik, a Varangian chieftain, in 859. It is a place where democracy once flourished, where benevolent princes ruled with the consent of a parliament of local elites called the Veche, where markets hummed and international trade thrived, where women were empowered to participate in business and other aspects of public life. It was a place where children began attending school around the year 1030. Among the most poignant of the birch documents are writings by a boy named Onfim, believed to be 6 or 7 years old. Dated to around 1260, they included school exercises and doodles. In one drawing, Onfim seems to envision himself as a warrior, writing his own name next to a figure on horseback who has slain an adversary. In another, there is a four-legged creature with a tail, and the words, “ I, beast .” In an interview in his office, the city’s mayor, Yuri I. Bobryshev, glowed with pride as he described its history as a major trading post of the medieval Hanseatic League , with strong ties to the European centers of Lubeck, Bruges, Ghent and London. “It was a union of merchants and the decisions taken by that union were unconditionally carried out by the rulers of all European states,” Mr. Bobryshev said, adding with a sly smile, “Of course, at that time there was no trace of the United States.” He then boasted about Novgorod’s role, along with Kiev, as one of the two principal cities of Kievan Rus — the original Russian Federation — adding that Moscow could lay no claim to national prominence until Ivan III made it the capital in the 15th century. “That’s why we speak of Novgorod as the motherland of Russia,” Mr. Bobryshev said. “In Novgorod, the first customs office appeared. The ruble appeared in Novgorod. The first school was in Novgorod, in 1030 by Yaroslav the Wise, our Novgorod prince. It was founded not only for the children from rich families, but for everyone. So Novgoroders were absolutely literate people in the Middle Ages.” “It’s not something I made up,” he said. “Here, I move to the subject of archaeology: all of this has been confirmed by findings.” The city and its outskirts are dotted with excavation sites, including the Troitsky dig, which has been underway since the 1970s. The first birch-bark scrolls were found in 1951. At the huge pit on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street, which yielded some of the most important finds this summer, Mr. Yazikov bounded down a ramp, descending through hundreds of years of Russian history (with every few steps). Small white pieces of paper marked the layers in the soil corresponding to the different centuries. Image Pyotr G. Gaidukov, the deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology, with newly found birch scripts. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times Coins, seals and jewelry point to a merchant’s home being on the site for much of its history. There is evidence that in the 10th century the area was mostly used for gardens and an apple orchard. In the 12th century, the city was flourishing, with evidence of large wooden buildings. Experts say the wet, clay soil that lies under Novgorod, and contains little or no oxygen, has the unusual chemical quality that preserves both hard artifacts made of metal and items made of softer material like leather. Jos Schaeken , the dean of Leiden University College The Hague, who is a professor of Slavic and Baltic languages, said that Novgorod had not received sufficient notice in the West given its importance to archaeologists, linguists and historians. “It is revolutionary in the sense that it gives you inside knowledge of a medieval city that had international ties with the East and the West, how it was organized and functioned, and how people communicated with each other,” he said. The birch-bark documents date from the 1000s through the 1400s, when paper became more readily available. In Russia, Novgorod is the place where archaeology students hope to apprentice and professionals seek to make their careers. And the newest birch-bark findings often create a sensation, with hundreds of students and members of the general public attending lectures by Prof. Andrey A. Zaliznyak, a noted linguist, at Moscow State University, summing up the major discoveries. Dmitri Sitchinava, a linguist who has attended the lectures for the past decade, said they were a theatrical event attracting hordes of fans, professionals and amateurs alike. “We have the voices of people who lived a thousand or so years ago, and they have exactly the same issues to discuss as we do,” he said. But Mr. Sitchinava said that medieval Novgorod was idealized, and the archaeological findings proved this to be the case. “There is a conception that the early medieval Russia was much more European,” he said, adding that there was an idea that Novgorod then “was kind of like a paradise lost. It is presented as a democratic or republican alternative lost during the Middle Ages.” But, he said: “We know there were slaves, there were serfs in old Novgorod. There were some political troubles, and the democracy was very, very different from what we understand now. But this myth lives and it’s very vital. It fosters the interest in this place.”


Beau Biden’s Death Triggers an Outpouring of Grief

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In a town where few events ever truly break through the thick layer of partisanship, the death of Joseph R. Biden III on Saturday night unleashed an outpouring of sorrow. Mr. Biden, the son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and known as Beau, died Saturday night after battling brain cancer for nearly two years. His death at the age of 46 ended a promising political career in Delaware and left his wife and two children without a husband and father. In an unusually lengthy and emotional statement on Sunday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry, a longtime friend of the Biden family, eulogized Mr. Biden as a “class act, period, ingrained with integrity, compassion, a sense of moral obligation to help others, and especially people who were hurting.” Mr. Kerry’s statement echoed the sense of deep sadness for the vice president that flowed through most of the reaction. The elder Mr. Biden lost his first wife and young daughter in a car crash in 1972, and now must lay his eldest son to rest. Similar expressions came quickly from top Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, and Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate. Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, each shared their anguish on Twitter. “Hillary & I mourn the loss of Beau Biden — so full of life, love, honor, and service — and we pray for the strength of his wonderful family,” Bill Clinton wrote shortly after Mr. Biden’s death was announced by the vice president’s office Saturday night. President Obama said in a statement Saturday that Mr. Biden had been a “good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man.” On Sunday, out of respect for Mr. Biden’s family, the White House canceled a reception that Mr. Obama was scheduled to hold on behalf of Ford’s Theater. The sense of grief came from Republicans, too. Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and a likely presidential hopeful, offered his prayers for the vice president and his family. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, extended the family’s “deepest sympathy and heartfelt prayers.” Donald Trump offered condolences to the vice president for “the loss of his wonderful son, Beau. Met him once, great guy!” And Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, noted Mr. Biden’s service in the Iraq war and said she had enjoyed spending time with his family when she debated his father during that campaign. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer,” Ms. Palin wrote , quoting the Bible’s Psalm 18:2. “My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Celebrities, too, used Twitter to communicate their emotions, often directing their support to the vice president. “My heart is broken 4 Vice President of the United States,” wrote Cher , the singer and actress. “The 1 thing I know about Joe is, He prizes family above all else.” She ended her post with emoji pictures of a heart and two hands pressed together. Mia Farrow, the actress, wrote : “So sad for the Biden family. Everyone loved Beau.” The surge of reaction on Twitter was a virtual testament to the cheer and good will that the elder Mr. Biden has earned over decades in the public spotlight. Where some politicians earn reputations for playing hardball politics, Mr. Biden has long been seen as a kind of happy warrior, always smiling. That seemed to make the loss harder to comprehend, according to many Twitter messages in the hours after the announcement of Mr. Biden’s death. “Just awful for Mr. Biden to have 3 family losses so young. My heart is heavy for him,” one person wrote. Another said: “VP Biden is the epitome of family.” A third said: “No one should have to bury two children in their lifetime. My condolences and prayers to the Biden family.” Many people on Twitter posted links to a graduation speech that the vice president gave at Yale University earlier this month. In it, Mr. Biden reflected at length about the tragedies that he had endured and the ways in which they made him stronger. “Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever,” he said, describing the horror of finding out about the crash in 1972. He said he found redemption by focusing on his sons. “I can remember my mother — a sweet lady — looking at me, after we left the hospital, and saying, ‘Joey, out of everything terrible that happens to you, something good will come if you look hard enough for it,’” Mr. Biden told the Yale graduates. “She was right.” Mr. Biden reflected on his decision to travel home to Delaware each night even as he served in the Senate. Some said it reflected a lack of ambition, he noted, an indication that he wasn’t really serious about success as a national politician. “But looking back on it,” Mr. Biden said, “the truth be told, the real reason I went home every night was that I needed my children more than they needed me.” In his statement Sunday morning, Mr. Kerry quoted the vice president as once saying that after losing a loved-one “there is a black hole you feel in your chest, like you’re being sucked back into it.” But Mr. Kerry added that “Joe has also said there comes a day ‘when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes.’” “As usual,” Mr. Kerry wrote, “Joe said it better than anyone else could.”