Weekday Morning Sports – 10/23/14

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Sports Radio 1400 WSJM     @wsjmsports      wsjmsports.com     Thursday, October 23, 2014

MLB – 2014 World Series
Last Night
Kansas City Royals 7, San Francisco Giants 2                              (Series tied 1-1)

Royals 7, Giants 2 – Royals knot series
Omar Infante belted a two-run homer while the Kansas City Royals scored five times in the sixth inning to beat the San Francisco Giants 7-2 and even the World Series at a game apiece. Billy Butler sparked the rally with a tiebreaking single and scored on a two-run double by Salvador Perez before Infante went deep off reliever Hunter Strickland. Butler had two hits and two RBIs, and Lorenzo Cain went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Friday
Game 3: Kansas City (Guthrie 13-11) at San Francisco (Hudson 9-13), 8:07 p.m.

MLB – Ratings for game 1 less than stellar
Major League officials are hoping Wednesday’s World Series game drew a better rating that Game 1. According to fast national ratings by Nielsen Media Research, San Francisco’s 7-1 win over Kansas City drew a 7.3 rating and 12.2 million viewers Tuesday night on Fox. That broke the previous low for a World Series game, a 7.6 rating and 12.2 million for the Giants’ 8-3 victory over Detroit in 2012.

NHL – National Hockey League
Tonight
Pittsburgh Penguins at Detroit Penguins, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Blackhawks at Nashville Predators, 8:00 p.m.

NHL – NHL postpones Leafs/Sens because of shootings
The NHL postponed Wednesday’s game between the Maple Leafs and Senators in Ottawa following the shootings in the Canadian Capital earlier that day. A gunman shot and killed a Canadian soldier standing guard at a war memorial before entering Parliament, where dozens of shots rang out, according to police and witnesses. The Pittsburgh Penguins played “O Canada” before their game against Philadelphia in tribute to the soldier, corporal Nathan Cirillo.

NFL – National Football League – Week 8
Tonight
San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos, 8:25 p.m.

NFL – Goodell could testify in Rice appeal
A person familiar with the case has told The Associated Press that an arbiter has ruled that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should testify in Ray Rice’s appeal of his indefinite suspension. Since this isn’t a criminal case, it’s uncertain whether Goodell will actually testify in a private arbitration.  Rice initially received a two-game suspension from Goodell for hitting his then-fiancee in an elevator, but he was later suspended indefinitely Sept. 8 and released by the Baltimore Ravens for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy after a video of the incident was released publicly.

NBA – National Basketball Association Preseason
Tonight
Philadelphia 76ers at Detroit Pistons, 7:30 p.m.

NBA – Owners shoot down changes to draft lottery
NBA owners have voted down proposed changes to the league’s draft lottery system, thus keeping the existing system in place for now.  The team with the worst record will still have a 25 percent chance at getting the top pick and cannot drop lower than fourth. Earlier in the week there appeared to be enough support for reforms that would make it more difficult for teams with the worst records to secure the top pick in the draft.

NCAA Football – Spartans soar amid Michigan’s seasons-long slump
Brady Hoke’s arrival at Michigan was supposed to signal a return to the program’s roots: power football and physicality. In its fourth season under Hoke, Michigan has had a hard time recapturing that identity. Never was that more apparent than when they lined up against Michigan State last year. Michigan lost 29-6, and the underlying stats were more alarming. The Wolverines allowed seven sacks, finished with minus-48 yards rushing and were shut out in the second half. For 60 overpowering minutes, Michigan State demonstrated just how drastically this rivalry has shifted. The eighth-ranked Spartans host Michigan again this weekend and were a 17-point favorite as of midday Wednesday.

NCAA – Academic fraud found at North Carolina
An investigation released Wednesday says the scale of an academic scandal involving bogus classes and inflated grades at the University of North Carolina was far more widespread than previously reported. The investigation says the scandal included about 1,500 athletes who got easy A’s and B’s over a span of nearly two decades. Most of the athletes involved were football players or members of the school’s cherished basketball program.  The report says about 3,100 students enrolled in classes they didn’t have to show up for in what was deemed a “shadow curriculum” within the former African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department from 1993 to 2011. Nearly half of those students were athletes. The NCAA reopened an academic-misconduct probe at UNC in June because new information was available. The new investigation said it was done in cooperation with the NCAA.

NCAA – The NCAA may be out some big cash
The bill has come in for former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon’s successful court challenge of the NCAA, and it’s a whopper. Lawyers for O’Bannon want more than $50 million from the NCAA in attorney fees and other costs as part of the price of winning an antitrust lawsuit that took five years to make its way to trial. The proposed award means individual lawyers would end up with far more than the $5,000 a year the judge in the case ruled that football players in FBS schools and Division I men’s basketball players could receive as compensation for the rights to their names, images and likenesses. The lead attorney alone has asked for payments of up to $985 an hour for senior attorneys in the case, including $15.5 million for his firm alone. Hausfeld said a total of 41 law firms were involved in the case and were owed a total of $50.2 million in pay and expenses.

NCAA Basketball – Women’s – Irish the favorite to win ACC women’s hoops title 
Defending champion Notre Dame is the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball title.  The ACC announced its preseason honor roll Wednesday during media day, and the Fighting Irish were the pick by both league coaches and a panel of school representatives and media members.  Notre Dame received 38 of 41 first-place votes from panel members and 14 of 15 votes from the coaches.  Both groups had Duke second, followed by newcomer Louisville and North Carolina.  Notre Dame guard Jewell Loyd was picked by both groups as the preseason player of the year.  The Fighting Irish have yet to lose an ACC game, rolling to a 16-0 conference mark and a league tournament title in their first year in the ACC in 2013-14.

ECHL – East Coast Hockey League
Last Night
Kalamazoo Wings 5, Indy Fuel 4 – OT

K-Wings 5, Fuel 4 
Eric Kattelus scored his second goal of the game 1:10 into overtime to give the Kalamazoo Wings at 5-4 win over the expansion Indy Fuel Thursday night in Indianapolis.

MHSAA – High School Sports
Last Night
Girls Volleyball
Portage Central 3, St. Joseph 0
Lakeshore 3, Niles 1
Portage Northern 3, Benton Harbor 0
Mattawan 3, Kalamazoo Central 1

Today
Girls Volleyball
Countryside Academy at Michigan Lutheran, 6:00 p.m.
Edwardsburg at Coloma, 6:00 p.m.
Dowagiac at Berrien Springs, 6:30 p.m.
South Haven at Paw Paw, 6:30 p.m.
Lake Michigan Catholic at Lawrence, 7:00 p.m.