News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church

By Kent Larsen

Sports: Another LDS Pitcher Added, Christensen called up

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- An article in Sunday's Baltimore Sun indicates that Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jason Johnson is an LDS Church member, lading Mormon News to add him to our weekly compilation of statistics on Mormons playing in profession sports. He was joined this week on the listing by McKay Christensen, the Chicago White Sox outfielder who was called up from the minor leagues last week. Meanwhile, golfer Richard Zokol won the Buy.com tour's Samsung Canadian PGA Championship, more than tripling his earnings to date, and making his plan to get back on the PGA tour much more credible.

Johnson is a native of Santa Barbara, California who apparently went straight to professional baseball instead of going to college. In the Sun article he credits his spiritual progress at Church with helping his baseball game. Meanwhile, Christensen comes back to the majors after starting the season in the minor leagues because the White Sox didn't have a place for him. The team has now brought him up because outfielder/third baseman Jose Valentin is injured and has been placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Meanwhile, Wally Joyner seems to have fallen into a full-blown slump, going 0 for 10 last week and dropping his average below .250. In contrast, the Giant's Jeff Kent hit .350 last week, including 7 RBIs and his nineth home run. Among pitchers, the Giant's Shawn Estes led the Mormon players with a 1.59 ERA for the week, giving up just 3 runs in 17 innings while striking out 10. Jason Johnson also pitched well, giving up 3 runs over 16 1/3 innings. But Omar Olivares continues to struggle, and recorded a horrendous 15.42 ERA over 4 2/3rds innings in his only start last week, raising his season ERA to 7.21. Relief pitchers Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Fetters both pitched well, Farnsworth giving up 1 run over 3 2/3rds innings while Fetters gave up 1 run over 2 2/3rds.

In the NBA, Mark Madsen is the only Mormon player in the championship series, but viewers looking for Madsen on the court have so-far been disappointed, since coach Phil Jackson has yet to put him in one of the games. But in the WNBA, both Kristen Rasmussen and Natalie Williams have seen action, with Williams continuing to be an important part of the Utah Starzz, contributing more than 10 points per game while playing at least half of each game. Rasmussen is playing about 10 minutes a game, and manages to score once during that time.

Richard Zokol's 3-stroke win in the Samsung Canadian PGA Championship, meanwhile, led the Mormon pro golfers for the week and earned him an $81,000 purse. But senior pro Bruce Summerhays also brought in more than $30,000 after taking nineth place in the NFL Golf Classic. And the Carolina Courage's Maren Hendershot played a complete game again as the Courage lost to the New York Power. Hendershot, a forward, made two shots on goal.

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Position Players:

McKay Christensen

Center Field

Chicago White Sox

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
YTD	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Wally Joyner

First Base

Anaheim Angels

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	4	10	0	0	0	0	2	1	0
YTD	50	143	14	34	3	13	13	18	0.238

Jeff Kent

Second Base

San Francisco Giants

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	7	23	4	8	1	7	5	5	0.348
YTD	63	232	31	65	9	47	27	44	0.28

Pitchers:

Shawn Estes

Starting Pitcher

San Francisco Giants

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	1	0	0	1.59	17	8	3	3	4	10
YTD	11	5	2	0	2.52	75	55	22	21	26	51

Kyle Farnsworth

Relief Pitcher

Chicago Cubs

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0	0	0	2.45	3.7	2	1	1	1	6
YTD	29	0	1	0	2.9	31	26	10	10	12	54

Mike Fetters

Relief Pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	3	0	0	0	3.37	2.7	2	1	1	0	1
YTD	23	2	0	0	4.29	21	17	11	10	8	17

* Omar Olivares

Starting Pitcher

Pittsburg Pirates

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0	1	0	15.42	4.7	7	8	8	3	1
YTD	12	2	7	0	7.21	63.7	76	52	51	24	46

Garret Stephenson	Starting Pitcher	St Louis Cardinals
[On the Disabled List - out for the season]

Basketball

NBA

WNBA

Football

NFL

The NFL season has ended.

CFL

The CFL season begins June 20th.

Wide receiver Ben Cahoon of the Montreal Alouettes is LDS, but we don't yet have a source for statistics on him.

We have also identified the following possible Mormon players, based on the 2001 Rosters:

Player	Team	College
Chris Ellison	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Curtis Marsh	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	Utah
Omaar Morgan	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Rob Hitchcock	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Trevor Shaw	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Kevin Alexander	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Darnell Arceneaux	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Anthony Calvillo	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Josh Cochran	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Neal Fort	Montreal Alouettes	BYU
Chad Folk	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Profail Greer	Toronto Argonauts	Utah State
Errol Martin	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Morgan Welch	Toronto Argonauts	Weber State
Brandon Dyson	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	Utah State
Moe Elewonibi	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	BYU

Hockey

NHL

The NHL's regular season has ended, and the only Mormon player we know is not on a team playing in the playoffs.

Golf

PGA Tour

Senior PGA Tour

Soccer

WUSA

* Mormon News has enough information to make it likely that this athlete is either Mormon or has Mormon heritage. But we have so far been unable to confirm this suspicion.

(MH) - Mormon Heritage - This athlete is either an inactive LDS Church member, or has Mormon heritage.

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