Paw Prints Newsblog

by Robby Hiatt

On October 28^th, the first game of the World Series was played. The Philadelphia Phillies played and defeated the New York Yankees 6-1. The dominant pitching by Cliff Lee of the Phillies struck out ten batters en route to their victory.

The Philadelphia Phillies ended the regular season with a record of 93-69, while the Yankees ended with a record of 103-59, the best record in the league. To get to the World Series, the Phillies played the Rockies in a four game series and won it 3-1. The Phillies’ dominance continued when they played their series against the Dodgers, winning it 4-1, allowing them to play the Yankees in the World Series.

The Yankees had a similar path to the World Series. In the first round of the playoffs, they swept the Minnesota Twins, winning the series 3-0. In the next round, the played the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and won the series at 4-2.

During the World Series opener, Chase Utley of the Phillies had hit the first home run allowed in the new Yankees Stadium in the postseason, after allowing the highest amount in the league during the regular season of 237. Later on during the game, Utley would hit another home run, making it the second hit in the postseason at Yankees Stadium.

The Yankees and Phillies are built on the same virtues: power, patience, and good pitching. CC Sabathia of the Yankees was not as impressive as Cliff Lee; however, he still pitched for a 2.57 ERA, no where near as impressive as his previous marks of 1.13 and 1.35 in the two other series he had played in.

The rest of the series looks to be entertaining, with the Yankees hoping to decimate the Phillies like they had already done to them, and the Phillies looking to continue to win and hopefully win the 2009 World Series.

by April Ball

Tiger Woods was recently rumored to have cheated on his wife with Rachel Uchitel, a New York nightclub hostess.  She has denied having an affair with Woods. Last week, the National Enquirer published a story saying the world’s number one golfer had been seeing Uchitel.  They were recently together in Melbourne, coincidently where Woods won the Australian Masters.
On top of this, Tiger Woods also crashed his SUV into a tree in central Florida.  He was taken to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.  He hit a fire hydrant and then a tree.  Tiger’s wife heard the accident and immediately ran outside her home and used a golf club to break the window of the SUV and pull Woods from the vehicle.  Then she rendered first aid.
After Woods crashed his car outside his home early last week, he has been faced with a lot negative publicity, and this allegation only adds fuel to the fire.  Though all of this turmoil Tiger’s three major sponsors, Nike, Gatorade, and EA Sports have said they support and are committed to the golfer.  They said they have no plans to change their marketing campaigns because of the incidents; however, AT&T declined to comment.

by Melissa Reed

If you weren’t at the game a couple Fridays ago, boy you missed our best game yet. The West Hills Wolfpack going up against the Granite Hills Eagles was a suspense filled game. Within the first few minutes of the quarter, it was looking down when Granite Hills scored, leading 7-0. That didn’t even seem to faze our players: soon we were tied. Then it took a turn for the worse as Granite Hills scored again, leading the Wolfpack. Again we just picked ourselves up again and took the lead. At this point the crowd was convinced of the win. The environment was relaxed, just waiting for the clock to run down the long few minutes it held. The unspeakable occurred: Granite Hills scored again, leading us. The crowd went wild, booing the referees for any and every call against the Wolfpack. With only one minute left, the air was still and overflowing with nervousness. Some left the game convinced of a loss and others merely watched helplessly. Our team fought for one last point, encouraged every yard. Not even the crowd foretold the next incident: The Wolfpack threw the ball high and far. The crowd went wild, and the football didn’t seem to go any faster…… and it was caught!!!! The crowd roared (think I saw someone cry, but I don’t know). We had won within the last minute of the game with a last-chance “Hail Mary” pass.

by Robby Hiatt

The St. Louis Rams, a professional NFL football team, could possibly be on sale when owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez publicly began accepting offers for a new majority owner. The St. Louis Rams were owned by Georgia Frontiere for 28 years until her death in January of 2008. Rosenbloom and Rodriguez had inherited from her and were not interested in selling until they had received an inheritance tax bill involving the Rams. The bill would cost them $800 million unless they sell them.

The St. Louis Rams are one of the more interesting teams to own in the current NFL. While they are not as talented as any of the other teams in the league, and, in fact, may be the worst one, the ownership has a lot of options on what direction to take the franchise. They are considered one of the “relocate-able” teams, being moved multiple times in the past, and have an agreement with the city of St. Louis that could allow them to move if certain, undisclosed conditions are not met.

Another advantage to owning the Rams compared to other teams around the league is the lack of expectations placed around the franchise. The franchise has had one of the worst records in the league over the last few years, which could allow them to use a few years to rebuild without worry of major fan backlash.

There have been a few bids for the majority ownership of the Rams, such as Rush Limbaugh and Dave Checkett’s combined bid. Rush Limbaugh is a conservative radio speaker, who is also extremely controversial and under normal economic circumstances, would not have even been considered for the majority ownership. Dave Checketts, Limbaugh’ partner, is a veteran sports-team owner, owning the St. Louis Blues. If he is the one to buy the Rams, he could bring a new feeling to the team. He would be a perfect candidate for the new ownership if he had the money to bid by himself. However, the NFL rejected the two well-known bidders. Chances are, the Rams will not be sold for the next few years, unless an unrefuseable offer comes to the table.

by  Wes Finnestad
Phillip Rivers proved to everyone Monday that he deserved every bit of his new $93 million contract by helping the Chargers survive a disappointing start to the 2009 season. The Chargers escaped Oakland Coliseum Monday night with a 24-20 victory over their hated rivals the Oakland Raiders. The win was the 12th in a row for the Bolts against the Black and Silver in the 100th meeting of these two teams. But 20 didn’t come easy as they had to rally with 2:34, left down 20-17. Who better to go than their franchise quarterback Phillip Rivers? Rivers then led a 9 play, 89 yard TD drive that was capped off by a Darren Sproles five-yard TD run with 18 seconds left. Rivers was 6-7, 79 yards on the final drive, proving he could be clutch and drifting San Diego away from an almost crucial loss to the Raiders, starting out 1-0 heading home, ready to face the Baltimore Ravens Sunday.

by Kyle Tonkyro

Not the shot heard around the world but around the NBA and the maybe even the nation. It came from the hands of LeBron James in game two of the Eastern Conference championships of the NBA playoffs.
It started with the Cavaliers down by two with one second left on the clock. A player from the Orlando Magic made a dunk to make it 94 to 92 with the Magic having the lead. After the dunk, the Cavaliers immediately called a time-out to make exactly one second on the clock. The Cavs had to immediately come up with a plan to try to get the game to overtime. When the timeout ended, the suspense began. The original plan was for Lebron to go through his guy, get the ball and get the dunk for overtime. That plan failed, so he went to plan B. LeBron went to the back of the arch, got the ball and threw it up for dear life. While the ball was in the air, the buzzer went off to show the end of the game. Everybody was looking at the ball. Then the shot swished right into the basket, and everybody was jumping for joy.
No one thought that LeBron was going to make that shot in the clutch. But at the news conference after the game, LeBron James said, “It was the biggest shot of my career.”

by Lorianne Hoover

There’s some big news in the golf world right now. San Diego native Phil Mickelson has suspended his PGA Tour after learning his wife has breast cancer. This could have been a big year for him; he is currently number two in the world and was hoping he could beat Tiger Woods to become number one.
Amy Mickelson is scheduled to have more tests and begin major surgery within two weeks. Luckily, doctors believe they caught it early enough, and this should not be life-threatening. Phil will stay off the golf course and by Amy’s side until she gets well; hopefully that is very soon. As of right now, there is no word on how long he believes he will be out of the PGA Tour, but let’s hope that he and his wife are all right.

by Lea Morgan

After weeks of narrowing down the field to finally get to the most deserving team of one of the most coveted trophies in all of sports history, the Stanley Cup, four teams have out-shined the competition and have given it their all to be in the Conference Finals: the Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Detroit Red Wings.
The Carolina Hurricanes are facing off against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Chicago Blackhawks against the Detroit Red Wings, all in hopes of becoming the conference champions and then being able to take the ice versus the other conference champions. The favorites to play each other in the final game have definitely been the Penguins and the Red Wings. Out of a best of seven series for each playoff match-up, both the Penguins and Red Wings have won two out of two games so far.
Personally, I would love to see this pair fight for the Stanley Cup. They have both showed tremendous skill and willpower throughout the entire season, and their stats are incredible. With the Penguins being led by fan favorite Sidney Crosby, and the Red Wings being one of the hockey fans’ favorite teams since the club’s first season, it would be great to watch not only the game but the team’s crazy fans in the stands as well!

by Natalie Skinner

The varsity gymnastics team at West Hills has had many intense practices and meets that have led up to the strong season ending. Although there have been off days and sore muscles, the girls on the team have worked their hardest to get to where they are.
On Wednesday, May 13, West Hills gymnasts competed at Valhalla for leagues. South and North league both attended, with Valhalla winning South league, and our own West Hills winning North league. Since winning league means competing in CIF, the gymnastics team will be working hard to get a much practice in as possible before next Friday. CIF will be hosted and held at West Hills, so our team needs to make sure to do its best for the big meet. After all this hard work and determination, the gymnastics team will be ready for the big day.
Come support our girls in their final gymnastics meet of the year next Friday, May 22, at West Hills High School!