Transactions
Baseball
American League
Baltimore Orioles
Named Juan Samuel 3B coach, Sam Mejias 1B coach, Tom Trebelhorn bench coach and Rick Dempsey bullpen coach. Activated LHP Kurt Birkins, LHP John Parrish and RHP Aaron Rakers from the 60-day DL.
Boston Red Sox
Named Allard Baird assistant to the general manager.
Iraq coaches, players not immune to violence
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen abducted a man who coached blind athletes and the head of Iraq’s national basketball federation on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a wave of kidnappings targeting sports figures.
Lt. Ali Mohsin said men driving four SUVs drove up to a youth club on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad Wednesday afternoon, and seized Khalid Nejim, the basketball federation chief who also was a coach for the national basketball team, and Issam Khalef, who coached blind athletes.
News & Notes
Pro Football
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Chargers must play their next four games without outside linebacker Shawne Merriman, who decided not to appeal his suspension for testing positive for steroids.
Merriman, who’s tied for the NFL lead with 8 1/2 sacks, and his attorney have blamed a tainted supplement for the player’s positive test for the steroid nandrolone.
Rams’ new coach bounces into new season
VCU led its basketball team in a new direction in April when the university hired the ninth coach in the program’s history, Anthony Grant.
Grant finished his 10th year as an assistant for the University of Florida Gators. The Gators won the national championship last year, with coach Grant as the assistant head coach to Billy Donovan.
Rams lose in first round to Dukes
Monday night’s game against James Madison University ran like a bad sequel for the Rams. The Dukes cruised to a 5-0 victory in the CAA tournament, following up on their regular season win Friday. It was VCU’s first first-round exit since a 4-5 loss to the Dukes in 2002.
Weird News
Homeless man robs bus using rats
In Bogota, Colombia, a homeless man attacked a public bus full of people on Friday. With two large street rats in tow, the man caused the bus passengers to go into a frenzy, resulting in several female passengers panicking and losing consciousness.
‘Tis the season for.sequels?
In 1994, “The Santa Clause” entertained audiences with the rather witty concept of a man who, by fate, circumstance and a touch of tragedy, came called upon to take the reigns and be the one and only Santa Claus. Tim Allen’s portrayal of Santa, A.K.A. Scott Calvin, brought laughs that appealed to both children and adults in the time of such great Disney feature films as “Iron Will,” “Angels in the Outfield” and “The Rocketeer,” not to mention countless classic animated films.
Want to talk politics? Come join the Wilder School for dinner and a movie
Are you looking to earn extra credit in some of your tough political science classes? If so, the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs has your free ticket to a better grade: “Dinner and a Movie.”
Last month, the school kicked off the first “Dinner and a Movie” with Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr.
Audiences fall for “At the Edge of Grace”
VCU Dance’s “At the Edge of Grace” kept audiences smiling, and it wasn’t just because many of the cast members always had a smile on their faces while dancing. The tempo was mesmerizing, and the funny stories and antics of the dancers kept watchers wanting more.
NaNoWriMo kicks off all November
The biggest piece of advice a writer receives is to make time to write every day. But what about when a word of wisdom becomes a month-long goal toward a bigger project?
November is National Novel Writing Month, and Nov. 1 marks the start of NaNoWriMo, the program in which people from all over the world try to complete a 50,000-word (175 pages) novel by midnight Nov.