Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Urlacher 'excited' seeing Game 6

NEW YORK -- Injured Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher wishes he was with his team preparing to face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

Still, the World Series is pretty cool.

Urlacher was a guest of Yankees manager Joe Girardi for Game 6 on Wednesday night. The two got to know each other when Girardi played for the Cubs.

"I just like to watch sports," said Urlacher, who dislocated his right wrist in the Bears' season opener at Green Bay on Sept. 13 and is out for the season. "They're great athletes and I'm excited to see it up close like this."

Urlacher played baseball growing up - "Everything but right field," he said with a grin. He also paid tribute to his buddy Girardi, who led the Yankees to the best record in baseball this season.

"He's very even-keeled. He doesn't really get too high or too low," he said before the Yankees faced the Phillies.

Penn. Gov. Rendell takes first visit to new stadium

NEW YORK Pennsylvania's first fan, Gov. Ed Rendell, took some time away from helping find a resolution to the Philadelphia transit strike to attend Game 6.

Rendell was visiting the new Yankee Stadium for the first time since it opened this year. He was impressed with the $1.5 billion palace but had hoped it would more closely resemble the ballpark he remembered from growing up in New York.

Swish was in, Hairston was out for Game 6

New York Nick Swisher was in the Yankees' lineup Wednesday night after being benched for Pedro Martinez's previous World Series start.

New York manager Joe Girardi set aside the stats for Game 6 and went with Swisher instead of Jerry Hairston Jr., who got the start in right field last Thursday.

Hairston was 10 for 27 against Martinez entering Game 2 - but hadn't faced him since 2004. He went 1 for 3, singling in the seventh before being lifted for a pinch runner.

Swisher was batting just .114 (4 for 35) in the postseason when Girardi gave him the night off.

"Swish has been our everyday right fielder. We thought it was important that Swish just sit down for a day," Girardi said. "His at-bats have been very good since we sat him down. We don't always look at how many hits you get. We look at the at-bats, and does he hit the ball hard, and does he square ball up and is he seeing pitches? That's what we look at."

The fun-loving Swisher is 2 for 9 with a solo homer in Game 3 since he was benched.

For Charlie Manuel, taking over was win-win

Charlie Manuel fully expected to win when he agreed to be the Phillies manager five years ago Wednesday.

"I had gone through our minor league system and I knew the players that we had," Manuel said before Game 6. "I knew (Ryan) Howard was there, I knew (Chase) Utley was there, guys like that, and I knew (Ryan) Madson had a chance to be a good pitcher because I had seen him in Triple-A baseball and things like that, and he put all that together at the major league level. I could see if we kind of tweaked our team some and got the right pieces that we definitely could have a winner."

Boy, was he right. Manuel took over on Nov. 4, 2004, for a team that went 86-76 and finished second in the NL East, 10 games back. Larry Bowa was fired with two games remaining in the season.

And the Phillies have not finished lower than second place in his five years at the helm, winning the NL East three straight years and the World Series title in 2008.

Dodgers' Padilla shot in leg by instructor

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla is recovering from a bullet wound in his leg after a target shooting instructor accidentally shot him.

Dr. Eduardo Reguera said Padilla, who signed with the Dodgers in August, didn't need surgery after spending time at Managua's Metropolitan Hospital. Police spokesman Vilma Reyes said Wednesday that Padilla's pistol apparently jammed during a target shooting session late Tuesday.

Padilla handed the pistol to a shooting instructor, a former police captain, who didn't realize there was a bullet in the chamber and shot himself in his hand, Padilla's legal adviser Roberto Calderon told The Associated Press. The bullet also grazed Padilla's leg.

The account contradicts Padilla's agent, Adam Katz, who said it was a "hunting accident."

Padilla went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA for the Dodgers the final two months of the regular season. He allowed one run in 7 1-3 innings in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series, but was battered for six runs in three innings in a season-ending loss to the Phillies

Tigers All-Star Inge has surgery on both knees

DETROIT Detroit Tigers All-Star third baseman Brandon Inge has undergone surgery on both knees. The team said the procedure at the Detroit Medical Center addressed chronic patellar tendinitis that plagued Inge last season.