News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church

By Kent Larsen

Sports: Batter's Off, Pitchers Steal Show

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The two Mormon position players in baseball, McKay Christensen and Jeff Kent both had off weeks last week, with Christensen managing a paltry .077 batting average while Kent didn't do much better at .118, but in their place the Mormon pitchers had a great week, with only Giant's pitcher Shawn Estes recording an ERA over 4.00. Leading the pack were Toronto's Roy Halladay, with a 1.13 ERA in 8 innings and Cubs reliever Kyle Farnsworth, who didn't give up a run in 3 2/3rds innings over three games.

Christensen's quiet bat has apparently relegated him to a backup role for the moment, since he didn't play in the Dodger's games against the Cubs this past weekend. Among the pitchers, Farnsworth currently has the best record for the season, a 2.80 ERA built over 54 2/3rds innings, although as a relief pitcher he has a record of just 1-3 in 54 games. Among starters, Baltimore's Johnson has the best record, a 3.18 ERA for the season and a 9-6 won-loss record.

As the WUSA's first season comes to an end in the next few weeks, Maren Hendershot's participation continues to slide. Again she went a week without playing in the Courage's games. The schedule shows just two games remaining, but barring injury to another player, Hendershot's season seems over. In women's basketball, Natalie Williams and Kristen Rassmussen kept up their contributions to their teams, with Rasmussen scoring 9 points over three games with 11 boards and Williams continuing her staring role with 37 points and 23 rebounds over the Starzz' three games last week.

On the PGA tour, Jay Don Blake, Dan Forsman and Mike Reid entered The International, with Blake performing best, a tie for 18th that netted him $58,000 for the weekend. Reid was cut and Forsman tied for 67th. On the senior tour, Bruce Summerhays tied for 21st in the Lightpath Long Island Classic, earning $17,996.

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Position Players:

McKay Christensen

Center Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	4	13	1	1	1	1	1	4	0.077
YTD	18	43	6	15	1	6	3	11	0.349

Jeff Kent

Second Base

San Francisco Giants

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	5	17	1	2	0	2	3	2	0.118
YTD	109	408	56	116	14	76	46	66	0.284

Pitchers:

(MH) Shawn Estes

Starting Pitcher

San Francisco Giants

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0	1	0	10.39	4.3	6	5	5	4	3
YTD	21	8	6	0	3.56	131.3	121	57	52	66	86

Kyle Farnsworth

Relief Pitcher

Chicago Cubs

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	3	0	0	0	0	3.7	2	0	0	0	3
YTD	54	1	3	0	2.8	54.7	41	17	17	18	77

Mike Fetters

Relief Pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	3	0	0	1	3.38	2.7	4	1	1	1	3
YTD	36	2	1	2	6.03	31.3	36	24	21	14	28

Roy Halladay

Relief Pitcher

Toronto Blue Jays

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	1	0	0	1.13	8	6	1	1	1	2
YTD	6	1	1	0	4.36	33	38	16	16	13	32

Jason M. Johnson

Starting Pitcher

Baltimore Orioles

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0	0	0	3.86	7	7	4	3	2	2
YTD	22	9	6	0	3.18	138.7	124	61	49	44	75

* Omar Olivares

Relief Pitcher

Pittsburg Pirates

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0	0	0	2.25	4	2	1	1	0	3
YTD	28	5	7	0	6.85	89.3	104	73	68	33	61

(MH) 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	1	0	2.25	4	4	1	1	0	2
YTD	51	1	2	11	3.21	47.7	39	19	17	22	45

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.

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