Filename: AL BASEBALL LOGOS

Date filed: 3/08/94

Story slug: None
Artist: Mike Leary
Color: Process, separations
Size: various

Mexico, U.S. square

erican
League
off in Gold
Cup / B3

C
Y

Section

SPORTS

Associated
Press
Graphics
M
K

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sports editor:Dan Ruthemeyer 360-416-2133 / sports@skagitpublishing.com

MLS fans Volstad helps Marlins top Ms

now able
to study
statistics

Boston
Red Sox

Kansas City
Royals

The Associated Press

Cleveland
Indians

Chalkboard tool
charts players in
Texas
various Rangers
categories
x

SEATTLE Chris Volstad

drove in a run in an AL ballpark
and pitched into the seventh
inning to win for the first time
SATURDAY
Seattle 4 since April in the Florida Marlins
Florida..........
Seattle.........
Mariners 2 4-2 win over the Seattle Mariners
TODAY
Saturday night.
Florida (Ani.
Sanchez 6-1)
In the game moved from Miami
at Seattle (Fis- because of an upcoming concert
ter 3-8), 7:10
at the Marlins stadium, Volstad
p.m. (ROOT
(3-7) batted for himself because
TV, 1430 AM,
102.1 FM)
the game was played under NL
rules.
Minnesota
He also kept the ice-cold
Twins

By Don Ruiz
The (Tacoma) News Tribune

Sounders FC coach Sigi

Schmid says the statistic
most relevant to determining the winner of a soccer
rk
game is time of possession.
es
But maybe not in the
way youd expect.
syThe
of GraphicsBuilders
team that has the
most possession usually
loses, Schmid said. Thats
what has historically happened in our league.
The appropriate use and
reading of soccer statistics
became a fresh topic for
Major League Soccer fans
this week as the MLSsoccer.com website introduced
what it calls Chalkboard,
a statistical tool that reveals
what each
team and
each individual player
did through
e v e r y
moment of
the match.
TODAY
Te a m s,
New England at
Seattle, 1 p.m.
individual
(KONG 6)
players or
TUESDAY
selected
U.S. Open Cup
Seattle vs.
groups of
Kitsap, 7 p.m.
players can
be charted
in seven categories, including shots, passes, set pieces,
fouls and goalkeeper movements. Then each category
can be subdivided: Shots,
for example, can be finedtuned to goals, shots on or
off target, shots blocked,
etc.
And all that can be isolated for any period of the
game: before and after a
specific substitution, for
example; or to chart the
specific buildup leading to
a particular goal.
The goal is really to
allow fans who are interested to really dive into the
game and do analysis, said
Chris Schlosser, general
manager MLS Digital. Not
just on, Oh, Seattle had
however many shots last
night, but where were they
taken, what was the result,
who was creating the most
actual dangerous chances,
not just shooting 60 yards
out over the goal.
Th i s n e w s t a t i s t i c a l
resource will give fans the
same kind of information
MLS coaching staffs use
to determine their game
tactics. So, assistant coach
Brian Schmetzer was asked
Friday what info is most
useful to Sounders FC
though its Match Analysis
data.
Part of his answer (edited for length and clarity):
When I do the pregame
editing ... I can find out the
possession percentage for
See SOUNDERS, Page B3

C
Y

Mariners to two runs on five hits

before leaving with two outs in
the seventh.
It was Volstads first victory
since April 26 and only the third
Florida victory in the month of
June.
Leo Nunez pitched a perfect
ninth inning for his 21st save of
the season.
Jason Vargas (5-5) gave up four
runs and eight hits in six innings
for Seattle.
Volstad hit his RBI single in the

Kevin P. Casey / AP

Seattle Mariners pitcher Jason Vargas bats in the

See SEATTLE, Page B3 sixth inning Saturday against the Florida Marlins.

M
K

Photos by Jordan Stead / Skagit Valley Herald

Skagit Valley Horse Shoe Club member Nick Nickolson (right) of Sedro-Woolley practices his throw during a tournament
Saturday at Skagit River Park in Burlington. Nickolson has been part of the Skagit Valley Horse Shoe Club for two years.

Close
counts
... unless youre these guys
Skagit Valley horseshoe tournament
features worlds No. 1 senior
John Byfield Memorial Open
today in hopes of attracting
more people who will stay in
URLINGTON
the area for two days of horse Darrel Jones
shoe.
and Reidar Ytgard
Jones and Ytgard said
started pitching horseshoes
pitchers typically get started
in the 1940s, as neighbors and on their family farms, but the
schoolchildren in Sedro-Wool- sport attracts people from all
ley, using shoes they found at
sorts of backgrounds.
their family farms.
There is a rural connecDecades later, still friends,
tion with horseshoes, but a lot
they play competitively with
of the people that lived in the
the Skagit Valley Horseshoe
city started picking up horseClub. They were among the 44 shoes during picnics, Jones
pitchers from Washington and said.
Canada aiming for ringers
Everson resident Gene
at the clubs Strawberry Open Kuiken, a member of the
Saturday.
Bellingham Horseshoe Club,
For the first time, the club
got started using the water
is hosting two tournaments in pipes in his backyard as a
one weekend at Skagit River
child, from the time I was old
Park the second being the
enough to fling a horseshoe.
By LYNSI BURTON
Staff Writer

Darryl Olson, of Abbotsford, B.C., Canada, gauges his

next toss during a tournament hosted by the Skagit Valley
Horse Shoe Club. Olson has played competitively for more
than twelve years. Once I hit 65, I started losing all control in my throw, Olson said, so I started throwing at the
30-foot mark instead of the 40-foot. Some guys have too
much pride to do that.

Information
What: Skagit Valley
Horseshoe Club
When: 6 p.m. Tuesdays
Where: Skagit River Park
in Burlington, the horseshoe court off Whitmarsh
Road
Features: Extra horseshoes available. Attendees
play five games of 30
shoes apiece.

Or, like club President Jon

Turnbull of Day Creek, some
people discover their knack
for pitching a horseshoe more
serendipitously.
Turnbull attended a local

cultural fair in 2005 with

exhibits hosted by seventhand eighth-graders. One
student presented his grandfathers horseshoe hobby, and
the grandfather invited Turnbull to join the Horseshoe
Club.
Ive been incredibly
hooked ever since, he said.
Within two years of competitive pitching he ranked
among the top three in the
state. Now hes even a horseshoe salesman.
The horseshoes used in
competition are different
from those used by Jones and
Ytgard as kids on the farm.
See HORSESHOES, Page B4

Serena Williams leads past champs into 4th round

By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer

WIMBLEDON, England Serena Williams has been known to

say she isnt satisfied with this or
that aspect of her game, even after
easily winning a match, say, 6-3, 6-2.
So it was somehow refreshing to
hear Williams actually praise herself
after a victory by that very score

over 26th-seeded Maria Kirilenko

at Wimbledon on Saturday.
Yes, only five matches since
returning to the tour after nearly a
full year off because of a series of
health scares, Williams produced a
performance worthy of the 13-time
Grand Slam champion that she is.
And then Williams talked the talk
of someone finally ready to concede that British bookmakers might

very well have been right to make

her the pre-tournament favorite.
Asked whether she was surprised
by the odds, the seventh-seeded
American smiled widely and said:
I wouldnt bet against me.
After hitting 10 aces and compiling a 32-9 edge in winners against
Kirilenko, Williams termed the
showing her best Ive played since
I came back.

I was a little more consistent,

and I played my game more, said
Williams, trying to become the first
woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93
to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles. Wasnt as tight and nervous and uptight. I was able to relax
more today.
She was part of a parade of past

Alastair Grant / AP

Serena Williams reacts

See WIMBLEDON, Page B2 Saturday at Wimbledon.