News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church

By Kent Larsen

Sports: Christensen, Back in Majors, Explodes at Bat

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- McKay Christensen, the highly-touted center-fielder who has spent nearly five years in the Chicago White Sox's organization waiting for a spot on the team, got a big chance this week -- with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Christensen was traded from the White Sox recently, and called up last week by the Dodgers from their Las Vegas AAA affiliate, the 51s. Given a chance, Christensen exploded at the plate last week, getting hits in 7 of 9 at bats, and scoring four runs over two games.

While Christensen is unlikely to keep up that rate over more than a few games, if he can continue to play well he may be able to earn a spot on the team. Christensen was called up when Dodgers outfielder Tom Goodwin was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Meanwhile fellow Mormon Jeff Kent seems to be a little off his game, hitting just .250 last week, and managing just 2 RBIs, one of which came from a home run.

Among pitchers, starters Jason Johnson and Shawn Estes both pitched near shut-out ball in games last week, but Estes had to settle for a no-decision instead of a win. Meanwhile relief pitcher Omar Olivares also pitched shut-out ball in four innings over 2 games while Dave Veres gave up just 1 run in 3 2/3rds innings.

In basketball, both the Utah Starzz' Natalie Williams and the Miami Sol's Kristen Rasmussen didn't get as much playing time as they have in previous weeks. Williams played just 28 minutes in two games, half her average for the season, while Rasmussen played 28 minutes over 3 games. Both players seemed off in their games as a result. Meanwhile, Maren Hendershot of the Carolina Courage in the WUSA remained on the bench and failed to get in the game.

On the PGA tour, Jay Don Blake, Keith Clearwater, Dan Forsman both placed well, tied for 27th and 17th respectively, in the B.C. Open, while Jay Don Blake and Mike Reid took the week off. Mike Weir was cut at the British Open, while Senior Pro Bruce Summerhays tied for 32nd in the SBC Senior Open.

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Position Players:

McKay Christensen

Center Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	2	9	4	7	0	4	1	1	0.778
YTD	9	13	4	8	0	4	1	3	0.615

Jeff Kent

Second Base

San Francisco Giants

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	6	24	5	6	1	2	2	4	0.250
YTD	98	366	52	108	13	68	43	64	0.295

Pitchers:

(MH) Shawn Estes

Starting Pitcher

San Francisco Giants

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0-0	0	0.00	7	4	1	0	6	7
YTD	18	7-4	0	3.27	113	101	44	41	55	71

Kyle Farnsworth

Relief Pitcher

Chicago Cubs

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	3	1-0	0	4.50	4.0	2	2	2	1	4
YTD	47	1-3	0	3.06	47.0	35	16	16	15	69

Mike Fetters

Relief Pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0-0	0	10.80	1.7	4	2	2	1	1
YTD	31	2-1	1	6.75	26.7	30	23	20	12	23

Roy Halladay

Relief Pitcher

Toronto Blue Jays

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0-1	0	4.22	10.7	13	5	5	7	11
YTD	4	0-1	0	6.63	19.0	27	14	14	10	22

Jason M. Johnson

Starting Pitcher

Baltimore Orioles

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	1-0	0	0.00	6.7	6	1	0	3	7
YTD	20	9-6	0	3.18	124.7	113	54	44	39	71

* Omar Olivares

Relief Pitcher

Pittsburg Pirates

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	1-0	0	0.00	4.0	1	0	0	1	2
YTD	24	4-7	0	6.69	82.0	94	66	61	30	55

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

(MH) Dave Veres

Relief Pitcher

BSt Louis Cardinals

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	4	0-0	0	2.46	3.7	2	1	1	3	4
YTD	43	0-1	11	3.35	40.3	32	17	15	21	40

Basketball

NBA

The NBA' season has concluded.

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.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]