SPORTS - Johnson's grand slam leads D-backs past Twins (AP)

SPORTS - Johnson's grand slam leads D-backs past Twins (AP)

AP – In this image provided by Global Football, Drake University athletic director Sandy Hatfield-Clubb interviewed …

By LUKE MEREDITH, AP Sports Writer Luke Meredith, Ap Sports Writer – Sat May 21, 4:35 pm ET

The fans lined up three hours before kickoff, awaiting their chance to see America's version of football played for the first time in Africa.

The locals in Arusha, Tanzania, weren't quite sure what, when or who to cheer for during the game between the Drake Bulldogs and an all-star team from Mexico. But the 12,000 or so who took in the college football game seemed to enjoy it.

Drake, a non-scholarship program from Des Moines, Iowa, beat the CONADEIP All-Stars, 17-7, in the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl on Saturday.

"It truly was a magical day," Drake coach Chris Creighton told The Associated Press by phone from Tanzania. "I think everybody had the sense that we were part of something way bigger than ourselves, just bigger than a football game. It was emotional, kind of the realization of something very special to all of us."

The trip grew out of a vision by Creighton and took more than a year of planning by Global Football, a company that's been taking U.S. college football teams around the world for 14 years.

The exhibition is part of a two-week trip organized by Drake that includes include youth clinics, a safari, an orphanage project and a five-day climb to the summit of the 19,340-foot Kilimanjaro.

Officials had hoped to fill the 20,000-seat Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium, which normally hosts soccer. But Creighton said tight security measures held up lines of fans and kept the stadium rather empty at kickoff.

However, the seats were quickly filled and the game turned out to be entertaining even for those who didn't know what they were watching. It also proved that turnovers will kill drives from Tijuana to Tanzania.

Jose Reyes gave CONADEIP its first and only lead in the fourth quarter on a TD run that put the Mexican team ahead 7-3. Drake freshman quarterback Nick Enis — making his college debut in Africa — answered with a crucial first-down toss to Joey Orlando and found Orlando with an 11-yard touchdown that gave the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead.

CONADEIP quickly drove to Drake's 2. But the Bulldogs defense raised its arms to pump up the crowd just like they'd do back at Drake Stadium. Bulldogs linebacker Tyler Moorehead said that got the fans as fired up as they'd been all day.

CONADEIP followed with its second botched field goal snap of the day to help Drake stay ahead.

"There were a lot of people there, but not a lot of people really understood the game," said Drake linebacker Tyler Moorehead, who led the Bulldogs with six tackles. "It was interesting to see them kind of just examining. It was unique. What was cool after the game was just how excited they were to meet the people that were on the field."

The Mexican all-stars fumbled once more for good measure, and Patrick Cashmore's touchdown run late in the fourth quarter sealed the win for Drake.

Reyes was the star of the day, rushing for 124 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

"No matter where you play, football's the same game. And these guys were good," Enis said of Drake's opponents from Mexico. "When you're on the field...it's back to football, back to getting the ball in the end zone."

Of course, the game itself was merely a footnote to the historical nature of the event. Creighton said he got emotional once the game was over, having seen his dream of taking the Bulldogs to Tanzania come to pass.

"Everybody has a dream. Everybody has a vision. But very few or seldom are reached," Creighton said. "I felt as though we part of history."

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SPORTS - Hopkins becomes oldest champion at 46 (AP)

SPORTS - Hopkins becomes oldest champion at 46 (AP)

AP – FILE - In this April 6, 2011 file photo, DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, …

By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist Tim Dahlberg, Ap Sports Columnist – Sat May 21, 2:29 pm ET

Just a few days after the owners regained the momentum in the NFL labor dispute, union leader DeMaurice Smith stood before graduating seniors at the University of Maryland and gave the kind of speech he should have reserved for rallying the troops for what figures to be a long and uncomfortable summer.

The message was passion, though it seemed somewhat lost on graduates who showed little of it in return.

"Go ahead, I dig it, you can clap," Smith implored them at one point.

Nothing wrong with Smith's speech, except perhaps the awkward moment when he tried to lead the students in a chorus of "You suck." They seemed more interested in grabbing a sheepskin and heading out to party than listening to the keynote speaker.

So far, Smith's players have listened better. They've formed a unified front behind him as the union that technically is no more tries to fight off the NFL's efforts to slice up the lucrative deal that has made many of them rich.

Just as the 2011 graduates at Maryland will now find, though, the easy part is over. Flush with its early success in court, the union now finds itself playing defense as the league settles into the lockout that owners wanted all along.

It's not going to get any easier in the upcoming weeks. Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of summer, is but a week away and pressure on the players is starting to build. Training camps are supposed to open in just two months, and players soon will have to adjust to the reality of losing both bonus checks and paychecks to the impasse.

By then, Smith may need his best oratory skills to keep them from cracking.

"The players have had great solidarity to this point, but that will get tighter as players go longer and longer without their workout and signing bonuses and get closer to the season," said Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University's Tisch Center. "The longer we go without any kind of sense of when they will get paid again, the more their internal resolve is tested and the harder it becomes to hold them together."

That's true in almost any labor dispute, though this one is different from most. Players are widely viewed as millionaires, but a large portion of the decertified NFL Players Association toils for a lot less than most people would think.

Even at, say, $500,000 or so, they are well paid compared to the average American. But their contracts aren't guaranteed, careers are notoriously short, and there are many players — rookie free agents and veterans alike — whose job prospects depend on who they can impress in training camp.

Without an agreement in the next few months, they may not get that shot. And the fact their earning power declines with each lost day means they will begin worrying even more as the weather warms and thoughts turn to the traditional opening of training camps around the country.

It's those kind of players the NFL will be counting on to crack first, and it will take all of Smith's skills to keep them from bolting the ranks. No union chief has to serve more diverse constituents than Smith, who must balance the needs of multimillionaires like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning against those of players simply hoping to make as many paychecks as they can before being drummed out of the league.

Attorneys for players returned to court Friday, trying to convince a federal appeals court to lift the lockout. This time, though, it was with what seemed to be a renewed sense of urgency, with attorneys arguing the lockout threatens players with career-ending harm and may deprive the public of the 2011 NFL season.

The urgency is well-placed. Training camps are supposed to open in just two months, the first preseason game is Aug. 7, and the regular-season opener in Green Bay is Sept. 8. While talk about real games being missed seemed to be just abstract speculation a few months ago, it now is beginning to seem like an increasing reality.

All that could change of course if the two sides return to the bargaining table for real, though that won't happen until sometime after the June 3 hearing before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the validity of the lockout. Should the players lose — an outcome many expect — their options will narrow considerably and the pressure from within will begin to grow exponentially.

The wild card here is the union doesn't even technically exist anymore. Players voted to decertify so they could go to court to block the NFL from imposing a lockout.

That means there can't be any real talks until after the appeals court makes a final ruling. Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking.

And Smith may soon find himself needing a speech that really counts.

____

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or follow at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

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SPORTS - Germany claim record fifth tennis World Team Cup (AFP)

SPORTS - Germany claim record fifth tennis World Team Cup (AFP)

AP – IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani, of Canada, dances his wife Bronte after he qualified with an average speed …

By MICHAEL MAROT, AP Sports Writer Michael Marot, Ap Sports Writer – Sat May 21, 10:34 pm ET

INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Tagliani broke up the monopoly in the top-heavy IndyCar series and became the first Canadian to earn the pole for the Indianapolis 500.

On a day each of the series' three top teams — Andretti Autopsort, Target Chip Ganassi and Team Penske — made big mistakes, it was a 37-year-old Canadian who got it right twice with a four-lap average of 227.472 mph on the day's final run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday.

One of Ganassi's drivers, Scott Dixon, will start next to Tagliani on the front row. Defending champ Dario Franchitti could have joined them had he not run out of fuel on the final qualifying lap. Spain's Oriol Servia will start third.

"I'm getting tired of the Penske and Ganassi domination, here especially at the 500," Tagliani said after the morning run that gave Sam Schmidt Motorsports the provisional Indy pole. "I think a lot of people are craving for it, and if we can do it, it would be nice."

He did it twice Saturday — once in the morning and again in the evening.

Meanwhile, the big boys struggled to keep up with Tagliani.

Seven drivers from the vaunted Andretti, Ganassi and Penske teams failed to make the field. Among them are three top Americans — Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Graham Rahal. Ryan Briscoe, one of two Aussies expected to contend for the pole, also failed to lock up a spot for the May 29 race.

The biggest bungle Saturday was Ganassi's fuel miscalculation.

After running three straight laps over 227 mph, Franchitti suddenly slowed down and wound up coasting back to pit lane. Ganassi threw his arms up in disgust just as Dixon, the 2008 winner, was about to take the track. Dixon also ran out of fuel in the final turn.

"He (Dario) ran out in one and I ran out just getting to turn four. I think that cost us the pole," Dixon said. "It was frustrating, and I think Dario's a little more ticked off than I am. You come so close and not quite get it, it was real frustrating."

A few minutes later, Tagliani capitalized by reclaiming the top spot he had held for nearly 6 hours. Dixon completed the four-lap run at 227.340 and was little consolation to Franchitti, who dropped from the front row to the outside of Row 3.

Franchitti wasn't the only member of the tough-luck club Saturday.

Brazil's Helio Castroneves missed out on an unprecedented third straight pole and wasn't even fast enough to make the day-ending shootout with the nine fastest qualifiers. Castroneves will start 16th, the inside of Row 6, his worst starting spot in 11 career races at Indy.

For Michael Andretti, it was even worse. He watched disbelievingly as all five of his drivers qualified near the back of the top 24 and then got bumped from the field. Some fans cheered when Patrick was knocked off the starting grid.

Patrick, Marco and John Andretti all failed to requalify on their second attempt, and it wasn't until John Andretti's third and final attempt of the day that the team finally put someone in the race by going 1 for 10.

Andretti's other four drivers will try to fill the remaining nine spots on the 33-car grid.

"It wasn't a Hail Mary," said John Andretti, who qualified 17th with an average of 224.981. "It was more like 'Here are the adjustments we made and the rain is at I-465, so let's go.'"

Tagliani was one of the few who followed the script.

He was among the fastest drivers all week, got a favorable draw and had the best qualifying attempts in both rounds.

Tagliani will now have the most prestigious achievement of his career — leading the centennial celebration field into the first turn at Indy. It comes just two years after he was bumped out of the field on the weekend's last qualifying attempt. He later took over for Bruno Junqueira in the cockpit of another car, started 33rd and was named Indy's 2009 rookie of the year.

"To do it here, and at this particular time, if you start here for the 100th, you won't do the 200th, it's special," Tagliani said.

Tagliani's jump to the top seemed fitting given how wacky the day turned out.

Australian Will Power is the only Penske driver starting in the top 15 but failed to win a fifth consecutive pole. He'll start fifth, the middle of Row 2.

Townsend Bell and Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indy winner, will make their season debuts alongside the points leader. Bell will be on the inside, Wheldon on the outside.

Ryan Briscoe, thought to be a pole contender, may have had the worst day of all. He wrecked his primary car Saturday morning, then scrambled to get a backup car ready and was one of 16 drivers to get bumped. Three of them requalified.

Rookie Ho-Pin Tung also may have lost his chance at becoming the first Chinese driver to start the race because of a crash on his final qualifying lap. He was released from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis with a concussion but hasn't been cleared to drive. Jay Penske's team also does not have a backup car for Tung.

The day included drama, too.

Swiss driver Simona De Silvestro, who sustained burns on both of her hands in a crash Thursday, received a standing ovation when she finally put the No. 78 car on the grid on her third and final attempt. Then, after moving back to the 24th spot, showers washed out the rest of qualifying except for the final attempts by the nine fastest drivers.

"My body was shaking," she said. "I was pretty nervous out there. A day ago, I wasn't sure if I wanted to get back in the car. This morning, I felt pretty good."

By the end of the day, it was Tagliani — not the drivers from the high-profile teams — who was feeling best.

"Everyone that came and cheered for us and bet on us, I'm happy we didn't make them lose money," Tagliani said. "But I've felt the pain and the sacrifice of this musical chair, pulling out of line and not going again. Here, I think it's a very good place to show that the team is strong."

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SPORTS - UFC a knockout as Couture gets rousing send off (Reuters)

SPORTS - UFC a knockout as Couture gets rousing send off (Reuters)

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SPORTS - Drake wins 1st college football game in Africa (AP)

SPORTS - Drake wins 1st college football game in Africa (AP)

AP – Atlanta Thrashers season ticket purchasers record the sights from inside Philips Arena on Saturday, May …

By GEORGE HENRY, Associated Press George Henry, Associated Press – Sat May 21, 7:59 pm ET

ATLANTA – About 200 Atlanta Thrashers fans gathered on Saturday to tailgate outside Philips Arena for perhaps the final time.

With the Thrashers reportedly close to being sold and moving to Winnipeg, fans blamed the team's ownership group, the Atlanta Spirit, for the club's seemingly imminent departure next week.

The annual "select-a-seat" event, that the Thrashers debuted in 1999, is staged for current and potential season-ticket buyers to come and check out the seats, look at the ice and talk about the upcoming NHL draft.

Now the future is uncertain, at best.

"We've been lied to for six years," Jenn Peters, 30, said while choking back tears as she flipped through a collection of ticket stubs. "It's hard to watch as a fan because there's nothing you can do but show up. You can voice your opinion and you can show up, but that's all you can do."

It hardly helped the mood that Harry the Hawk, the mascot of Atlanta's NBA club that is also owned by the Atlanta Spirit, rode up on a scooter, hopped off and handed out some high-fives before stopping to put his mouth over the head of Zanna Huff, a bystander wearing a Thrashers jersey.

"Now he's trying to eat my girlfriend's head, which is disgusting," said Bryce McNeil, a 33-year-old professor at Georgia State. "Having Harry the Hawk here — it's not that I have anything against the Hawks, but it's the Atlanta Spirit shoving their other asset in our face, which is just deplorable."

Thrash, the hockey team's mascot, didn't make it out in the 90-degree heat until three hours into the event, but no players or members of the front office were in attendance. On the Internet, atlantathrashers.com didn't mention the gathering, but salespeople were inside the arena processing credit card orders.

Howard Baron, a 54-year-old CPA and investment adviser, blamed the Spirit for all that went wrong, but also held out hope while holding up a small sign that read, "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Baron had just walked into the arena with his son, Michael, to buy four more season tickets and push his total to 16.

"This city will support a team," Baron said. "You've just got to get rid of the management. It's a very poorly run organization and what (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman said the other night was true — that it's a funny way to show it by not buying tickets — but the problem is if you come and buy tickets you're stuck with this ownership group forever. It's a double-edged sword."

It seemed appropriate that the team had no promotional presence at the "Gulch," the local nickname for the poorly paved parking lot outside Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome.

This get-together was all about the fans and ownership's betrayal, said Deborah Petersen, a 36-year-old massage therapist.

She and her husband, Joe, were engaged at a December 2006 game. Those were great days for the Thrashers, who were legitimate playoff contenders and had two compelling scorers in Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa.

"There it was on the scoreboard scroll, 'Deborah, will you marry me?'" Petersen said. "We haven't missed a game in six years. It's a big deal to us."

Blame also spread to the NHL and Bettman for seemingly being complicit in rushing the team's sale and move. Around the parking lot, a Bob Dylan quote from the 1965 song, "Desolation Row," was posted in several spots — "And here comes the blind commissioner. They've got him in a trance."

"If this goes through, I can promise you I will never go to another hockey game or an NHL event as long as I live," Peters said. "I won't give them another dime of my money. They have not stood up for this team. They stand by and watch everything go down. If they hadn't touched Phoenix (to keep the Coyotes from moving to Winnipeg), we wouldn't be in this mess. They wouldn't be rushing to sell to this group."

It won't be the first time for NHL ownership to betray Bill Sengstacken, a Thrashers season-ticket holder every season and a local marketing and branding executive. He was a Hartford Whalers fan when they moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes.

The Thrashers' potential move is more hurtful to Sengstacken, who oversees a fan group called Nasty Nest in the 300 section of Philips Arena. The group often travels together to support the team on the road.

"We've been like the redheaded stepchild of Atlanta sports," Sengstacken said. "(The Atlanta Spirit puts) money into the Hawks, and I appreciate that for the basketball team, but hockey is a great game, too, and in this market in particular you've got to market."

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SPORTS - New boxing champ Cleverly stops Kuziemski (AFP)

SPORTS - New boxing champ Cleverly stops Kuziemski (AFP)

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SPORTS - Edwards rolls to easy win in All-Star Race (AP)

SPORTS - Edwards rolls to easy win in All-Star Race (AP)

AP – Carl Edwards celebrates after winning he NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race in Concord, N.C., …

By JENNA FRYER, AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer, Ap Auto Racing Writer – 1 hr 13 mins ago

CONCORD, N.C. – The race was billed as a throwback to the Wild West, and track officials practically promised scores would be settled in the $1 million Sprint All-Star Race.

Only the knock 'em down action never came, and the only fireworks were those in Saturday night's post-race show at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The only drama came after Carl Edwards took the checkered flag during his celebratory slide through the grass.

Although he appeared to hit either a manhole cover or a drainage device, his car instead seemed only to dip hard into the grass — contact that crumpled the front of his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

After his trademark celebratory backflip, Edwards needed a tow truck to take him to Victory Lane. He left behind a deep rut in Charlotte's infield grass.

"You never know what comes from misfortunes and it was definitely unfortunate," Edwards said. "Pretty wild twist of fate that we tore it up, but I'm going to have faith something good will come from it."

Edwards had a sheepish grin as he climbed out his window for his customary celebratory backflip, and he apologized to crew chief Bob Osborne for wrecking the car.

"That's a million dollars. We just won a million dollars," Edwards said from Victory Lane. "I feel so bad about tearing up the car. But I'm sure Bob's got a better one."

Edwards won three of the four segments in the 100-lap race, but still had one last pit stop and a 10-lap sprint to the finish before he could claim his first All-Star victory. NASCAR brought the field in for a 10-minute break following the third segment, then sent the cars back to the track for parade laps before they were required to return to pit road for a four-tire stop.

The stop is where the pit crews have their chance to shine in this event, and Edwards' team delivered. He came in as the leader and left as the leader, beating Busch back onto the track.

Edwards then got a terrific jump on the restart and easily pulled away.

"As far as he jumped out on me really surprised me," Busch said. "He took off so far, I was like `Damn, there ain't no way I am going to be able to run him down in this short period of time.'"

Edwards praised his Roush-Yates engine for the speed he had throughout the race, and for the restart that helped him pull away from Busch.

"The restart was good, and man, that thing, it really runs," Edwards said.

Busch, who has a history of wrecking cars capable of winning the All-Star race, settled for second in a Toyota and will bring the car back next week as his backup for the Coca-Cola 600.

"Considering our fleet has been getting a little bit low, this is pretty good," Busch said of his second-place finish. "I didn't put a scratch on it. It was a good one."

Edwards had little time to celebrate. He was off after the race to catch a flight to Iowa to run the Nationwide Series race on Sunday.

"I really can't wait to go," he said. "The most enjoyable thing I can do is go race another car."

Most everyone else will have to wait for next week's Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the NASCAR season. The All-Star race is usually the warm-up act for the 600, and the final 10 laps of Saturday night have always been billed as a wild, dash for the cash.

But the excitement never came, as the drivers raced clean and caution free.

"This was a pretty tame night, at least from the All-Star perspective," Tony Stewart said.

David Reutimann was third in a Toyota and followed by Stewart, who celebrated his 40th birthday a day earlier.

Greg Biffle was fifth, Matt Kenseth was sixth and RFR teammate David Ragan was eighth to put all four of the team's car inside the top eight. Ragan won the Sprint Showdown qualifier earlier Saturday to earn his spot in the field.

Denny Hamlin was seventh. Kevin Harvick was ninth and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10.

Kurt Busch's struggles continued Saturday night and he sounded despondent over his team's performance for much of the event. He finished 13th. His teammate, Brad Keselowski, finished 18th after moving into the All-Star race with a second-place finish in the qualifier.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., made his way into the race by winning the fan vote that puts a third driver from the Sprint Showdown into the main event. But he had nothing for the contenders in the All-Star race and finished 14th.

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