Hall of Famer Molitor offers hitting tips at LLWS

Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor idolized Pete Rose while growing up in Minnesota, though he sides with Major League Baseball when it comes to the career hits leader's chances of joining him in Cooperstown.

Rose was banned for life in 1989 for betting on baseball games. The former Cincinnati Reds manager and player has petitioned MLB, but commissioner Bud Selig has given no indication he's leaning toward reinstating Rose, who amassed a record 4,256 hits

"It's a very controversial topic and will be. I agree with the commissioner and only because, my way of looking at it, the one rule that Major League Baseball reads to ever player every year in clubhouses across America is that if you gamble on baseball, it will be a lifetime ban from the game," Molitor said Thursday a news conference before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Little league World Series.

"So if they decide to let Pete in because he's the all-time hit leader, then every time (players) heard that rule, it would have no meaning," added Molitor in responding to a question about whether Rose belonged in the Hall of Fame. "Other people have done a lot of things that you can argue are possibly worse, but they weren't things that they had previously known if they did there would be a lifetime ban on baseball."

Molitor was pretty good at the plate himself, with 3,319 hits and a .306 average over a 21-year career that ended in 1998. But it was his pitching prowess that first got Molitor noticed on the baseball diamond while growing up.

A native of St. Paul, Minn., Molitor said parents of players on his youth teams asked coaches to move him up to the a higher division because the right-hander threw too hard.

"I don't think they had radar guns back then," said Molitor, who turns 55 on Aug. 22, "but for a long time my dreams of being a major league player were about being a pitcher."

Molitor was impressed with South Williamsport in his first visit to the World Series. His ceremonial first pitch was a strike down the middle of the plate.

"The key with hitting, even at a young age, is the ability to be patient in the batter's box," said Molitor, who met with Little Leaguers on Wednesday. "Hitting even at a young level, is about being able to see it before you decide what you're going to do with it."

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FIRST PITCHES: The families of the youngest victim of mass shooting in January in Tucson, Ariz., and a New York City firefighter killed in the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks will throw out the ceremonial first pitches before the Little League World Series championship game on Aug. 27.

Six people, including 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, were killed in the Jan.8 shooting in Arizona, and 13 were wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Green is the daughter of Los Angeles Dodgers scout John Green and granddaughter of former major league manager and pitcher Dallas Green.

Green, who was born on Sept. 11, 2001, played Little League ball in Tucson. Her parents and brother will be joined by the brother of New York firefighter Michael Cammarata, who was last seen entering the World Trade Center following the attacks that same day.

Ten years earlier, Cammarata wore No. 11 while playing right field at the Little League World Series for a team from Staten Island, N.Y. The number is retired from use in the World Series in his honor.

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SOFTBALL STARS: While the Little League Baseball World Series is just getting started, the Little League Softball World Series came to a close Wednesday night with Sterling, Ill., defeating Waco, Texas, 7-5. Alexis Staples went 5 1/3 winnings to collect her third win during the tournament for Illinois, which scored all its runs in the third inning of the title game played in Portland, Ore. The Midway league team from Waco had won 11 of the last 18 softball titles. ... The parents of Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino will be honored during the series as Little League Parents of the Year. Mike and Jocelyn Victorino volunteered for the Central Maui league in Wailuku when their sons played. ... Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett isn't scheduled to attend Friday night's game between LaGrange, Ky., and Clinton County, Pa., though Corbett is tentatively slated to attend the World Series championship game Aug. 28. The Clinton County team, which plays its home games just about 30 miles from South Williamsport, has turned into the hometown favorites.

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Casey Stoner conquers the Czech Republic

The Repsol Honda rider seized control of the MotoGP race at the Cardion ab Grand Prix České republiky race, with Dovizioso second and Simoncelli capturing his first podium of his premier class history.Casey Stoner captured his sixth win of the season in front of 155,400 fans at Brno for Sunday’s race, stretching his Championship lead to 32 points over Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing).

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) got the hole shot off from his first pole position of the season, with Lorenzo taking the lead from him on the second lap. Stoner then took second from the Yamaha rider, just as Pedrosa crashed out of the front of the field, handing the Australian the lead.

While Stoner lengthened the gap at the head of the pack, Lorenzo came under pressure from Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), the Italian passing the Spaniard to take and hold second position. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) then caught and passed Lorenzo, moving into the third podium spot and keeping it until the finish line, the first podium of his MotoGP class career.

Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) slowly moved in on Lorenzo, but the American was unable to get close enough to make a move for fourth position, finishing the race behind his team mate in fifth.

Valentino Rossi was the first Ducati Team rider across the line, finishing sixth off his best qualifying result of the season. The Italian’s team mate Nicky Hayden followed in seventh, with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) rounding out the top ten.

Cal Crutchlow crashed out in turn one, resulting in the fourth DNF of the season for the British rookie. Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) also had a fall; he rejoined the race but later retired with a mechanical failure. The two were joined in the pits in retirement by Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), who low sided trying to make a move on Rossi for sixth position.(From www.motogp.com)

MotoGP stars as Brno Test follows GP

Monday will see the majority of the premier class remain at the Czech Republic circuit for the official MotoGP Test, with Yamaha debuting their 2012 prototype.Brno will host an official MotoGP Test on Monday as the premier class remain at the Czech Republic track for an extra day, following the Cardion ab Grand Prix České republiky.

The Test will see the official on-track debut of Yamaha’s 2012 prototype, with factory team riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies experiencing the evolving machine for the first time, and also potentially running some new developments on their current 2011 YZR-M1 bikes.

Round 11 race winner Casey Stoner and his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa are due to continue the development of the Japanese factory’s 2012 prototype, Stoner having ridden the 1000cc machine once previously at Jerez whilst Pedrosa is preparing to jump on for the first time having missed the run out back in May due to injury. Andrea Dovizioso will also be present, with the Italian ready to continue working on the current RC212V.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow will work further on their M1 machines, and the Ducati Team will also be present with Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Rossi and his crew will hope to improve on the progress they made on the Desmosedici GP11.1 throughout the Brno weekend, whilst Hayden will dedicate time to fully testing out the GP11.1 having tried it out during the Laguna Seca GP weekend but deciding to continue racing the GP11 at the American and Czech Republic tracks.

Pramac Racing’s Loris Capirossi will take advantage of an extra day’s track time to continue his recovery from injury on board the GP11, with Toni Elías and his LCR Honda team working on their satellite RC212V.

The Marc VDS Racing team and Suter will also be in attendance, with the Moto2 outfit’s Finnish rider Mika Kallio on riding duty for the Swiss manufacturer as it continues the development of its 1000cc prototype for 2012. Bridgestone will also work further on its tyre specifications for 2012.

The Test schedule will see the track open from 9am-1pm and again from 2pm-6pm, with motogp.com providing full coverage of the day’s activities with a report for both sessions, video highlights and video interviews at the end of the day. from

Britain burns: Riots spread through UK cities

A wave of violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities Tuesday, as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

In London, groups of young people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers with bottles and fireworks. The spreading disorder was an unwelcome warning of the possibility of violence during London's 2012 Summer Olympics, less than a year away.

Police called in hundreds of reinforcements and volunteer police officers— and made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts — but still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool.

"The violence we have seen is simply inexcusable. Ordinary people have had their lives turned upside down by this mindless thuggery," police commander Christine Jones said. London's police said 14 people were injured, including a man in his 60s with life threatening injuries.

The riots appeared to have little unifying cause — though some involved claimed to oppose sharp government spending cuts, which will slash welfare payments and cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs through 2015.

But many appeared attracted simply by the opportunity for violence. "Come join the fun!" shouted one youth in the east London suburb of Hackney, where shops were attacked and cars torched. The crisis will be a major test of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government, which includes Liberal Democrats who had long suspected its program of harsh budget restraints could provoke popular dissent. Cameron cut short his summer vacation in Italy, rushing home for a crisis meeting Tuesday.

Cameron was expected to toughen the police response. Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May refused to outline what that might entail, but seemed to rule out more drastic measures. "The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon," she told Sky News. "The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities."

Rioters were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods and able to plunder from stores at will or attempt to invade homes. Restaurants and stores fearful of looting closed early across London.

Simon Dance, a 27-year-old marketing manager who lives in Camden in north London, called the riots outside his apartment last night "very frightening." "We locked all the doors, and my wife even packed a bag to flee. We had Twitter rolling until midnight just to keep up with the news. We were too afraid to even look out the window," he said Tuesday morning as he took pictures of a smashed Evans Cycles store and a looted Sainsbury's grocery store.

Disorder flared throughout the night, from gritty suburbs along the capital's fringes to central London's posh Notting Hill neighborhood. Police said 450 people had been arrested over three nights. All of London police holding cells were full and prisoners were being taken to surrounding communities. At least 69 people have been charged with offenses.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer left hospitalized after being struck by a car in north London early Tuesday. After dawn, the unrest appeared to calm, either quelled by police or when rioters drifted away.

Violence first broke out late Saturday in the low-income, multiethnic district of Tottenham in north London, where outraged protesters demonstrated against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday.

A brief inquest hearing into Duggan's death will take place Tuesday, though it will likely be several months before a full hearing is convened. Duggan's death stirred old animosities and racial tensions similar to those that prompted massive riots in the 1980s, despite efforts by London police to build better relations with the city's ethnic communities.

But, as the unrest spread, some pointed to rising social tensions in Britain as the government slashes 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the huge deficit, swollen after the country spent billions bailing out its foundering banks.

A massive blaze ravaged a 100-year-old family run furniture store in Croydon and sent thick plumes of smoke into the air, forcing nearby homes to be evacuated. In the Clapham Junction area of south London, a mob stole masks from a party store to disguise their identities and then set the building on fire.

Sony Corp. said a major blaze had broken out at its distribution center near Enfield, north London, damaging DVDs and other products. So many fires were being fought in the capital that Thames Water warned that some customers could face water pressure drops.

Dozens of people attacked shops in Birmingham's main retail district, and clashed with police in Liverpool and Bristol. In London's Hackney neighborhood, hundreds of youths left a trail of burning trash and shattered glass. Looters ransacked a convenience store, filling plastic shopping bags with alcohol, cigarettes, candy and toilet paper.

East London's diversity was on display amid the charred hulks of cars and the smell of burning plastic. Some looters were young women with manicured nails and customized BlackBerry smart phones. Others wore dreadlocks and stained shirts or appeared to be homeless.

"This is the uprising of the working class. We're redistributing the wealth," said Bryn Phillips, a 28-year-old self-described anarchist, as young people emerged from the store with chocolate bars and ice cream cones.

Phillips claimed rioters were motivated by distrust of the police, and drew a link between the rage on London's street and insurgent right-wing politics in the United States. "In America you have the tea party, in England you've got this," he said.

Some residents called for police to deploy water cannons to disperse rioters, or call on the military for support. They questioned the strength of leadership within London's police department — particularly after a wave of resignations prompted by the country's phone-hacking scandal.

Youths used text messages, instant messaging on BlackBerry phones and social media platforms such as Twitter to coordinate attacks and stay ahead of the police. Police were also monitoring Twitter, and warned that those who posted messages inciting the violence could face arrest.

About 100 young people clashed with police in the Camden and Chalk Farm areas of north London. In the Peckham district of south London, where a building was set ablaze along with a bus — which was not carrying passengers — onlookers said the scene resembled a conflict zone. Cars were torched in nearby Lewisham, and in west London's Ealing suburb the windows of each store along entire streets had been smashed.

"There's been tension for a long time. The kids aren't happy. They hate the police," said Matthew Yeoland, a 43-year-old teacher watching the unrest in Peckham. "It's like a war zone and the police weren't doing anything. There were too many people and not enough police."

Police said Duggan was shot dead last week when police from Operation Trident — the unit that investigates gun crime in the black community — stopped a cab he was riding in. The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said a "non-police firearm" was recovered at the scene. But the Guardian newspaper reported that a bullet in the officer's radio was police-issue, indicating Duggan may not have fired at the officer.

Duggan's partner, Semone Wilson, insisted Monday that her fiance was not connected to gang violence and urged police to offer more information about his death. But she rejected suggestions that the escalating riots were linked to protests over his death.

"It got out of hand. It's not connected to this anymore. This is out of control," she said. The past year has seen mass protests against the tripling of student tuition fees and cuts to public sector pensions. In November, December and March, small groups broke away from large marches in London to loot. In the most notorious episode, rioters attacked a Rolls-Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to a charity concert.

However, the full impact of spending cuts has yet to be felt and the unemployment rate is stable — although it remains highest among youth, especially in areas like Tottenham, Hackney and Croydon. Some people caught up in the unrest insisted that joblessness was not to blame. "It's just an excuse for the young ones to come and rob shops," said Brixton resident Marilyn Moseley, 49.

An 11-year-old boy was charged with burglary by police, and at least 100 of those arrested were aged 21 or younger. About 35 police officers had been injured in the violence, police said. May, the minister responsible for policing, and London Mayor Boris Johnson also cut short summer vacations to deal with the crisis.

Police in Birmingham, 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of London, confirmed that officers had arrested 35 people amid widespread vandalism. In Bristol, police urged residents to avoid the city center after 150 rioters went on the rampage.

Tottenham was the site of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, a series of clashes that led to the fatal stabbing of a police officer and the wounding of nearly 60 others, an event that underscored tensions between London police and the capital's black community.

West Ham, a team in east London, canceled its match Tuesday as a precaution. However, a scheduled international friendly soccer match between England and the Netherlands is going ahead at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.

The International Olympic Committee insisted it had confidence in British authorities. "Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC," spokesman Mark Adams said.(From LONDON (AP)

Olympic Test events Go ahead amid London riots

Despite three days of rioting and looting in London, Olympic organizers were going ahead with a series of events to prepare for the 2012 Games.

A women's beach volleyball tournament began as scheduled at Horse Guards Parade, with players in bikinis competing on a specially made sand court a short distance from Prime Minister David Cameron's 10 Downing Street residence.

The competition, which runs through Sunday, is a test event for the Olympic tournament that will be played at the same venue next summer. A wave of violence and looting has raged across London, as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. More than 400 arrests have been made so far.

The volleyball court was bathed in bright sunshine for the start of the 24-team tournament. The stands, which will be boosted from their current 1,500 capacity to 15,000 for the Olympics, were about half full for the opening three matches.

"You'll have incidents anywhere you are in the world," U.S. player Brittany Hochevar said after a win over a Chinese team. "It doesn't matter. If you're in a big city, this could happen anywhere in the world, so this doesn't change my perception of London for 2012 or give me concern for the Olympics. That's the world."

Other scheduled test events this week include a marathon swimming competition at Hyde Park on Saturday and a cycling road race that will go through the streets of London on Sunday. "A lot of detailed work has taken place regarding security plans for the games and we will continue to review them together with the Met Police and the Home Office over the coming year," LOCOG, the local organizing committee, said in a statement.

British Olympic Association spokesman Darryl Seibel expressed confidence the games would go safely. "It makes an Olympic Games and a Paralympic Games all the more important," he said on Sky TV. "We need a reason to come together. What better city to do it in than London. This is not a reflection of London, this is a reflection of the world we live in today."

Hundreds of Olympic delegates from around the world were gathering Tuesday at a luxury hotel in Park Lane, near Hyde Park, to check on logistical preparations for the games. The chefs de mission, or team leaders, from more than 200 national Olympic committees were scheduled to tour the venues on Wednesday.

"We know that security has been a top priority in the planning and preparation for London 2012, and we have full confidence in the work being done to prepare for the games," Seibel said in a statement.

Across town, in the Canary Wharf business district, top International Olympic Committee officials huddled with LOCOG leaders for a regularly scheduled "project review" of preparations for the games. LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe and his team were meeting with a delegation led by Denis Oswald, the IOC executive board member who heads the coordination commission for the games.

The IOC reiterated its confidence in security planning for London. "Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC," spokesman Mark Adams told the AP. "While we are not responsible for security, we're happy with how local organizers are dealing with the issue and we are confident they will do a good job."

Groups of young people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers with bottles and fireworks into early Tuesday.

The unrest started Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London following the fatal shooting of a local man by police. It spread closer to the Olympic complex Monday when scattered violence broke out in the Hackney area of east London.

Hackney is one of the five boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park, a square-mile site that will be the centerpiece of the games. Monday's violence took place about 4 miles from the park. The unrest, which has affected some of the boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park, comes less than two weeks after London celebrated with great fanfare the one-year countdown to the opening of the games on July 27, 2012.

Cameron cut short his summer vacation in Italy and returned to London to deal with the crisis. He recalled Parliament from its summer recess and said 16,000 officers would be on the streets of the capital Tuesday night — almost tripling the number on the streets Monday night.

Britain was already preparing a massive security operation for the Olympics, but most of the attention has been on the threat of international terrorism. About 12,000 police officers will be on duty each day of the games, which have a security budget of at least $770 million.

A day after London was awarded the games in 2005, suicide bombers attacked London's transport network, killing 52 people. The British government is planning for the national terror threat to be "severe" during the Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is highly likely.

"It's not a great thing to be happening to London, but most of us can see past that to what a great city London really is and all the preparation going into this great event," said Heather Bansley, a Canadian beach volleyball player. "It shows how ready they are for the games." (From -LONDON (AP)