A fan favorite from Northern Ireland climbed to the top of the leader board, but not the one everyone expected. While the newly crowned star Rory McIlroy continued muddling around the middle of the pack at one over through 11 holes, his compatriot Darren Clarke smiled his way through his round of 68, which included an eclectic collection: five birdies, three bogeys, an eagle and a double bogey.

“It was a little bit more adventurous today than yesterday,” Clarke said. “There was some good and some not so good, but, over all, 68 is very pleasing.”

He had the lead to himself for a while before being joined by the American Lucas Glover, who shot 70, and Miguel Ángel Jiménez of Spain, who was four under through 14 holes.

Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, a first-round co-leader, fell back early with three bogeys but rallied to push himself back into a tie for the lead for awhile, before settling back to three under with a round of 72.

The American Chad Campbell and Martin Kaymer of Germany were also in the clubhouse at three under.

They were all enjoying the San Diego-like weather on England’s southeast coast, where waterproof jackets gave way to cotton or linen shirtsleeves. The golf brightened with the weather, with a pileup of 35 players clustering within four shots of the lead. The brightest moment came on No. 6, where 61-year-old Tom Watson brought the crowd to its feet with a hole- in- one. The resulting roar reverberated across the links in a moment that will live forever on Open highlight films.

Watson seems to shed 10 years as soon as he touches British soil. He nearly collected his sixth British Open victory two years ago, just short of his 60th birthday. This year he is paired with the 20-year-amateur Tom Lewis, who was named after him, so this week Watson has been called Old Tom. Lewis held a share of the first-round lead but tumbled back to one under with a 74. Watson shot a 70 to sit at two over.

But Watson’s ace conjured images of him holing his sand wedge at the 17th hole at Pebble Beach, which all but sealed his United States Open victory over Jack Nicklaus in 1982. It also will be remembered alongside Gene Sarazen’s farewell ace at the Postage Stamp green at Troon in 1973 at the age of 71.

When his 4-iron shot hit the firm green about eight feet short of the flag, it bounced half the height of the flagstick and dived straight into the cup. Watson broke into a wide grin, spread his arms wide and said, “A one.” He then turned to celebrate with his group and bowed at the waist toward the grandstand. It was his 15th hole in one, he said, and his second in a major. Too bad, he said, he didn’t see the shot go in.

“You can’t see it go in,” he said. “I just saw it on the replay in there. It was a slam dunk. If it missed the flag it would’ve been 30 feet by. But it was lucky. They’re all lucky when they go in.”

Lewis had the impossible task of following that act, and responded with his first bad swing of the tournament, a pulled iron shot some 15 yards left of the green. He hit a good pitch that somehow checked up short on the green, and he missed about a 12-footer for par. Slightly unnerved, Lewis made another mediocre iron swing from the fairway at the par-five seventh, hitting his shot on the 50 feet past the front hole position. He three-putted for par.

His first-round co-leader, Bjorn, was also struggling with bogeys on three of the first four holes before birdies on Nos. 5 and 7 lifted him briefly back into a tie for the lead.

Clarke’s round had all of those thrills and more. His double bogey came on No. 4, which he followed three holes later with his eagle. He also needed a seat belt for his back nine: three bogeys, three birdies, three pars.

But Clarke thoroughly enjoyed the trip, greeted with rousing applause at every hole, which he accepted with smiles and waves. With his career having traveled some ups and downs, he knows at age 42 to enjoy the upswings. He has not seriously contended for a major since finishing third in the 2001 British Open.

“It’s been great, the support I’ve had the first two days has been fantastic,” he said. “The shouting and roaring, it’s been a while but it’s several been very enjoyable, and it’s definitely helped.”

The fans have been greeted by Clarke’s signature sense of humor, including one exchange at the first tee Thursday that sent the crowd into peals of laughter.

“That was somebody whistling at me when I was bending over stretching,” Clarke said. “I said, ‘I hope that was a lady.’ He whistled again, same guy. I’m doing something all wrong.”

Co-leader Glover was mostly business on the course Friday, sporting a new beard and trying to jump-start a game that seemed so promising when he won the United States Open at Bethpage in 2009 and finished fifth in the P.G.A. Championship later that summer. Since then, he hasn’t finished higher than 36th in a major and only has one tour victory.

But that came in May at the Wells Fargo Championship, just in time to lift his confidence for this tournament.

“First time I’ve played well in almost a year for four rounds,” he said of that victory. “First time I put four rounds together and did it under the gun. It meant a lot to execute and end up winning. Yeah, that was huge for me.”

Just as quietly — because he gets less attention here than in the United States — Phil Mickelson worked his way into the mix for the weekend. He shot a remarkably steady round of 69, with two birdies and a single bogey. He does not usually play well in the British Open, but was trying to embrace a new enthusiasm for links golf.

“It’s fun to be in contention heading into the weekend of the British,” Mickelson said. “One of the things I’m looking forward to is, actually, the bad weather. I hope that it comes in and that we get faced with that. I think it’s going to be a very difficult challenge, but the course is set up in a way that can accommodate some bad weather.”

It was hard to tell that Friday on a sun-dappled day that hardly looked Open-like at all.

Adam Jones has been down this road before.

Jones, the Bengals cornerback formerly known as Pacman, was reportedly jailed at 3 a.m. Sunday morning after being arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct. He is accused of resisting arrest while intoxicated.

Jones, who is in a neck brace while recovering from an injury he sustained last season, denied the charges in an interview with WCPO-TV after his release from jail Sunday morning. He said he was not drinking and was out celebrating his wife’s birthday.

“I just had surgery, so why would I be resisting arrest?” Jones told the station.

Jones also denied the reports on his Twitter account, and another prominent cornerback, Deion Sanders, defended Jones on Twitter.

Sanders said the “story ain’t what u think” in a text message on Twitter. According to Sanders, another woman struck Jones’s wife but was not questioned by the police. Instead, Jones’s wife was questioned and Jones was upset that the other woman was allowed to walk away.

Sanders continued over a series of messages on Twitter: “He said y’all gone let her leave? They said shut up! He repeated it Then police said if u keep on u going to jail. He placed his arms behind his back n said let’s go! He has a neck brace on people! Think about it.”

But Cincinnati news media outlets, citing court documents, said two officers had to restrain Jones to place handcuffs on him while he shouted profanities.

It seems unlikely that Jones will get the benefit of the doubt from either the N.F.L., which has said players are subject to punishment for their behavior during the lockout, or from the public.

Jones had previously been arrested at least six times and was given a one-year suspension by the N.F.L. in 2007.

In the WCPO-TV interview, Jones apologized to Bengals fans. “Only thing I can do is be me and do what I’m supposed to do, but I was not yelling at the police. I did not yell profanity at the police,” Jones said. “And at the end of the day … I’m the bad guy.”

A Bengals spokesman said the team had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press. Teams are not allowed to contact players during the lockout.

Do you think Jones should get the benefit of the doubt? Or is this the last straw?

July 11

Seeking Your Favorite U.S. Soccer Moment

Was your favorite U.S. Soccer moment produced by Landon Donovan, or Abby Wambach, or someone else?

Maybe Lionel Messi wasn’t the problem after all.

Argentina sailed into the quarterfinals of the Copa América with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica on Monday night, with Messi at the controls of a revamped and restructured lineup. Sergio Agüero scored off a rebound just before halftime, then Messi fed him for a second goal after the break and Ángel Di María on a nearly identical through ball for Argentina’s third.

After walking off to derisive whistles after Argentina’s first two games, and taking the blame for an offense that produced only one goal in them, Messi was serenaded by the fans in Cordoba on Monday night. Coach Sergio Batista’s decision to bench Carlos Tévez and Ezequiel Lavezzi was rewarded, though not by Gonzálo Higuaín, who wasted several chances before giving way to Javier Pastore.

Messi seemed to have more room to work and create danger against Costa Rica, which is fielding a second-string team in the tournament since its top players competed in last month’s Gold Cup in the United States. But even when Costa Rica packed eight or nine players behind the ball, playing for a tie, Messi still carved them up.

“Lionel knows how to overcome these situations, he has personality to overcome them and today he showed it on the field,” Batista said. “He played a tremendous match.”

That must have been exactly what Diego Maradona wanted to see when he gave Messi a pep talk over the weekend.

“I want to defend Messi,” Maradona told Ole. “The national team didn’t attack at all [in the 0-0 draw with Colombia] and we blame him. We are being very unfair to Messi when I hear all those idiots slamming him.”

Maradona revealed he had spoken to the 24-year-old and also compared the situation to his own problems prior to the 1986 World Cup.

“I spoke to him during the week and I told him to remain calm,” he said. “Before the 1986 World Cup, I was a disaster and I was criticised by 80% of the journalists [in Argentina]. Later, there wasn’t one who didn’t ask me for a story, so I can understand what’s going on.”

Argentina joined Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Peru in the quarterfinals. Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil are favored to grab the final three spots.

COLORADO SPRINGS — She has resisted the siren call of the L.P.G.A. Tour because she wants to finish her studies at the prestigious private university. Sound familiar?

So Yeon Ryu, who won the 66th United States Women’s Open on Monday in a three-hole playoff, is the Michelle Wie of South Korea. Like the 21-year-old Wie, who is juggling professional golf with her studies at Stanford, Ryu, also 21, attends classes when she isn’t competing in golf tournaments.

She is a second-semester junior majoring in physical education at Yonsei University, the oldest private university in South Korea. Her plan was to complete work on her degree in the next few months and then try to earn her L.P.G.A. Tour playing privileges at qualifying school at the end of the year.

Ryu, an 11-time winner on the Korean L.P.G.A. Tour, got into the Open because of her standing as one of the top earners on the K.L.P.G.A. tour. Her victory over her countrywoman Hee Kyung Seo at the Broadmoor’s East course is going to require her to rethink her plans. Along with the trophy, she gained automatic tour membership. It’s tempting, she said, to play more golf in the next few months to take full advantage of her status and spend less time in the classroom.

“Before I couldn’t decide if I play the L.P.G.A. or K.L.P.G.A.,” Ryu said, “but maybe today I must decide this situation.”

Ryu said juggling majors and a university major was not easy.

“I just practice golf and I’m going to university,” she said. “I think university is really good for me, because sometimes I really get stressed in golf. But if I’m going to university, I’m just studying and eating really delicious food together with my friends and just laughing. I love my school, yeah.”

As a child, Ryu said she aspired to be a professional violinist.

“But the problem with that for me was the violin, whenever I performed, there was a more subjective scoring,” she said. “There wasn’t a clear scoring, judging my performance that day, and I didn’t like that aspect of it. That’s what sort of turned me into golf instead.”

So Ryu replaced one lofty goal with another. Her new dream is to join her heroine, Se Ri Pak, in the World Golf Hall of Fame. And then put her degree to good use.

“My plan if I retire from being a golf player,” she said, “is I really want to try sports marketing or sports or golf clothes designer.”

PHOENIX — American League Manager Ron Washington said he added the Yankees’ Dave Robertson because of Robertson’s effectiveness against left- and right-handed hitters. Robertson said he was thrilled to make the trip, although it meant a 3:40 a.m. wakeup call on Monday and a commercial flight through Chicago.

“I was getting here, even if I had to rent a car and drive,” he said. “Woke up, bags were already packed, cabbed to Newark, Newark to Chicago, Chicago we were delayed, it rained, my bags were soaked. I’m sitting there thinking: ‘I’m going to miss everything. I better get there for the game.’ ”

Robertson was a few minutes late for his news media availability on Monday — but only, he said, because he needed a cold shower to escape the Arizona heat.

Here are the players at each position who have earned the most profit relative to their draft-day costs. All average draft position (ADP) data, courtesy of MockDraftCentral.com and based on standard 12-team mixed leagues. A player not taken in the top 188 picks is considered undrafted for purposes of this exercise.

Catcher Alex Avila (ADP not drafted), Russell Martin (ADP not drafted)
While Joe Mauer (19) and Buster Posey (38) have been derailed by injuries, Avila has posted a .286 batting average, .370 on-base percentage and .506 slugging percentage with 10 home runs, 46 runs batted in and three steals. Martin’s hitting only .220, but his 10 homers and seven steals are a huge bonus for a catcher available very late in most drafts.

First Base Paul Konerko (ADP 66)
Coming off a career year at age 34, Konerko was expected to regress to his previous norms, with some downward adjustment due to his advancing age. Instead, he’s hitting .319/.390/.564 with 22 homers, 67 R.B.I. and 47 runs scored. Justin Morneau (ADP 57) and teammate Adam Dunn (ADP 49) were each routinely taken ahead of him.

Second Base Danny Espinosa (ADP not drafted)
While Espinosa’s real life .242/.332/.460 line is merely solid for a middle infielder, his 16 homers, 52 R.B.I., 45 runs and 12 steals make him a star fantasy player. At age 24, and with only 429 career big league at-bats, he’s only likely to get better.

Third Base Jose Bautista (ADP 37)
Despite hitting 54 home runs last year, Bautista was drafted well behind third basemen like Ryan Zimmerman (24), Alex Rodriguez (15), David Wright (11) and Evan Longoria (7). Bautista leads the majors with 31 home runs, and is hitting .334/.468/.702, with 65 R.B.I., 73 runs and five steals. He might well be the best player in baseball after being a non-prospect just 15 months ago, making his ascension one of the best stories in the league.

Shortstop Jose Reyes (ADP 33)
His hamstring injury notwithstanding, Reyes is putting up a .354/.398/.529 line with 65 runs scored and 30 steals. He was taken well behind shortstops like Hanley Ramirez (2) and Troy Tulowitzki (4).

Corner Infield Mike Morse (ADP not drafted).
Morse started slowly, but has come on to post a .306/.351/.535 line with 15 homers and 49 R.B.I. at virtually no cost.

Middle Infield Asdrubal Cabrera (ADP not drafted)
Cabrera’s got 14 homers and 12 steals already, with 51 R.B.I., 55 runs scored and a .293 average.

Outfield Matt Kemp (ADP 21), Lance Berkman (ADP not drafted), Jacoby Ellsbury (ADP 63), Curtis Granderson (ADP 73), Melky Cabrera (ADP not drafted)
Kemp cost you a second-round pick this year, but he’s delivered No. 1 overall production with a .313/.398/.584 line and 22 homers, 67 R.B.I., 55 runs and a whopping 27 steals in 30 attempts. Kemp has a chance to be the league’s first 40/50 player. Berkman has outperformed teammates Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols with a .290/.404/.602 line and an N.L.-leading 24 home runs. When healthy, Berkman’s been a borderline Hall of Fame-level hitter, and he’s healthy this season — at least for now. Ellsbury is not only hitting .316 with 28 steals, he’s slugged 11 homers, driven in 49 runs and scored 62. At this rate, he’s a first-round pick next year. Granderson has 25 homers and 15 steals already, and he’s scored a major-league leading 79 runs. A 40-30 season with 140 runs scored is within reach if he stays healthy all year. Finally Cabrera, who was left for dead by many after an abysmal season in Atlanta, has managed 11 home runs, 12 stolen bases, 51 R.B.I. and 55 runs scored, while hitting .293.

Starting Pitchers Justin Verlander (ADP 59), Cole Hamels (ADP 61), Josh Beckett (ADP 172), James Shields (ADP 177), Michael Pineda (ADP not drafted), Alexi Ogando (ADP not drafted), Bartolo Colon (ADP not drafted)
Verlander didn’t come cheap, but at No. 59 he’s been a huge bargain, tying for the league lead in strikeouts, posting a 2.15 earned run average and 0.87 WHIP and winning 12 games. Hamels was two spots behind Verlander and has been nearly as good. Shields rebounded from a disastrous 2010 to be fifth in strikeouts (137) with a 2.33 E.R.A and 0.98 WHIP. The other four pitchers all were available late in mixed-league drafts and have produced excellent numbers, most notably Colon who pitches in hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium and has reprised his career against long odds.

Relievers Kyle Farnsworth (ADP not drafted), Sergio Santos (ADP not drafted)
Farnsworth was supposed to be part of a committee that included Joel Peralta and possibly Jake McGee. Instead Farnsworth established himself as the team’s sole closer with a 25:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a rate of 2.11 ground balls to fly balls. The results have been good — 17 saves, a 2.02 E.R.A. and a 0.90 WHIP. Santos took over the job after Matt Thornton struggled early and hasn’t yet given it back with 18 saves, and 56 strikeouts in just 42 innings.

Christopher Liss is the managing editor of RotoWire.com. RotoWire’s real-time player notes are available free for 10 days at RotoWire.com.

Roberts, who died June 30, wrote a trilogy of baseball songs: “Meet the Mets,” “It’s a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game,” which was heard at Dodger Stadium for decades; and “I Love Mickey,” a musical mash note sung by Teresa Brewer to Mickey Mantle recorded during Mantle’s 1956 Triple Crown season.

They are not great songs (were you expecting Sondheim to write an ode to Hot Rod Kanehl?), but they put listeners in a cheerful mood as if they were following the bouncing baseball with Mitch Miller.

“Meet the Mets” was designed to market the Mets after their inaugural 40-120 season in 1962; it invited fans to “bring your kiddies/bring your wife” to the Polo Grounds, then to Shea Stadium and now to Citi Field.

“It’s a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game” is not Dodger-specific or geared to reach a major league audience at all. “The fans are out to get a ticket or two,” it says, “from Walla Walla, Washington, to Kalamazoo.”

Released in 1960, it sounds unmistakably pre-Elvis, especially as sung by the Harry Simeone Songsters, a sister group to the Harry Simeone Chorale, which recorded “The Little Drummer Boy.” Its sound is as modern as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which was written in 1908. “We’re gonna cheer and boo and raise a hullabaloo,” it promises, and adds later, “It’s a beautiful day for the ladies/So throw all your dishes away.”

Roberts’s brother, Sam, said that his sister did not like to hear bad news and that her music was “upbeat and Pollyannish.”

She was, at first, a college football fan, a passion that led to writing “Mr. Touchdown, U.S.A.” Her brother added, “One year, I remember she demanded that we put the Rose Bowl on radio at home.”

A novelty song, “I Love Mickey” capitalized on Mantle’s great season and his sex appeal. Brewer was a close friend of Roberts’s, and they are credited with Katz for a song that swoons over Mantle.

“I wish that I could catch him and pitch a little woo!” Brewer sang. (They seemed to be pitching some woo, bats in hand, in the photograph used on the sheet music.) To her repeated declaration, “I love Mickey,” Mantle responded in his familiar drawl, “Mickey who?” In her perky voice, Brewer sang, “I’d sacrifice most anything to win his many charms/I’d like to be a fly ball and pop into his arms.”

In an article in The New York Times weeks after the song’s release, Gay Talese wrote that Brewer “shrills joyfully for most of a minute and forty-five seconds, ‘I LO-ve MICK-ey’ ” and described Mantle’s voice as a “solemn baritone.” Talese was not a fan of what he called songs about baseball heroes.

But “Meet the Mets” was not about any Met in particular. In 1963, they had no bona fide heroes.

The song struck 9-year-old Howie Rose, a future Mets play-by-play announcer, as a “peppy, happy, optimistic song that gave you the feeling that there were better days ahead.” Six years later, he was at Shea for Game 3 of the first National League Championship Series against the Braves. The Mets were leading Atlanta, 2-0, in the best-of-five series. And Jane Jarvis, the stadium organist, was playing “Meet the Mets.”

Rose said: “I’d always heard it as background music because it signaled that the game was about to begin. But that day, when she started playing it, I got an undeniable rush, you know, goose bumps. And all of a sudden, it sounded serious, and the realization hit: all those days when a day like this was a far-fetched dream led up to this moment. Oh my God, they’re coming out of the dugout to win a pennant today.”

Today, Rose views the Roberts-Katz composition as nothing less than the Mets’ defining anthem, not bad for a team that has not always delivered fans the “the time of your life,” as the song guarantees.

“I literally feel and see 50 years of baseball,” Rose said.

He said he had a personal affinity for one line — “ ’Cause we’ve got ourselves a ball club ” — from one of the rarely sung middle verses.

“That’s where you separate the men from the boys,” he said.

Before Jose Reyes was placed on the disabled list with a hamstring injury this month, he was having by far the best season of his career — and the best season of any player in the National League as well.

He ranks eighth in the league in on-base percentage at .398 and sixth in slugging percentage at .529, all while playing a solid shortstop and causing his usual havoc on the basepaths. According to Fangraphs.com, through the 80 games he played before getting hurt, Reyes improved the Mets’ record by 5.2 wins compared with a typical journeyman shortstop, a pace similar to the greatest years of the position’s elite.

Assuming his hamstring heals quickly, Reyes’s season for the ages will put Sandy Alderson, the Mets’ general manager, in a bind. The contract Reyes signed in his breakout 2006 campaign expires at the end of this year. If his second half is anything like his first, he will be in a position to demand a lucrative deal. Reyes is certainly a great player. But has he really taken another leap forward into the game’s inner circle of superstars just as his contract comes due? Or are the Mets setting themselves up for yet another long-term deal that will soon become an albatross?

There is no shortage of cautionary tales of players who posted their finest seasons in their “walk years.” Javier Lopez set the single-season home run record for catchers in 2003 with 43, his last year with Atlanta. Chone Figgins compiled a career-best .395 on-base percentage in 2009 before signing with Seattle and suffering an offensive collapse. Gary Matthews Jr. bested his previous best batting average by 38 points in 2006, his final year with Texas. Adrian Beltre has managed to compile two stellar walk years: he received a $64 million contract after a 2004 campaign that was perhaps the best season by a third baseman in history, then was rewarded with a $96 million deal last winter after a terrific year with Boston.

In many other cases, however, players simply happened to establish a new level of performance the year before they became free agents. Greg Maddux won his first Cy Young Award in 1992, his last year with the Cubs. He then signed with Atlanta and proceeded to win the award in each of the next three seasons.

Barry Bonds improved from being a most valuable player to one of the greatest players in history in 1992, and from that plateau to the best (possibly steroid-enhanced) hitter ever in 2001. San Francisco was amply rewarded by paying up for his contract-year heroics.

The overall evidence on whether players do better when they are playing for a contract is mixed. A number of studies, including one by Phil Birnbaum of the Sabermetric Research blog, have found that players do not perform significantly better in their contract years than in the seasons before and after. By contrast, an analysis of 212 “prominent” free agents by Dayn Perry in the 2006 book “Baseball Between the Numbers” showed a substantial boost, equivalent to about three extra home runs a year.

But even if Reyes’s season is discounted using Perry’s more aggressive estimate for the extra effort put in by players in their contract years, his numbers still look remarkable. That formula suggests that were Reyes not playing for a new deal, his batting average would fall from .354 to .346, which is still outstanding.

Nonetheless, while the contract-year argument against giving Reyes an eight-figure deal falls short, there is another reason to be wary of his 2011 statistics: they have been boosted by a substantial dose of good luck. According to Fangraphs.com, Reyes’s mix of ground balls, line drives and fly balls this year is no different from his career averages. Yet 37.5 percent of the balls he has hit into play have gone for hits, far above his career ratio of 31.4 percent. Reyes has certainly made some significant improvements this year; he has cut down his strikeouts to the lowest rate in the N.L. and he is hitting far fewer pop-ups than in the past. On the other hand, he has only three home runs.

A reasonable expectation for Reyes going forward would be a .350 on-base percentage and .450 slugging percentage, far below his current rates. That is still enough for him to be considered a star, and for Alderson to pay him the $20 million a year he will presumably seek.

But while his 2011 numbers may look like those of a late-1990s Nomar Garciaparra, he is still the same player Mets fans have known for the last five years.

For months, the Texas Rangers expected to savor this. The All-Star Game is a celebration for baseball, especially for the teams from the previous World Series. The manager and coaches and, usually, several players from each league champion crowd the stage with baseball’s best.

But on Monday, back in Brownwood, Tex., there was a funeral for Shannon Stone. Last Thursday, he was just another fan in the front row above left field at the Ballpark in Arlington, asking Josh Hamilton to toss him a ball for his son. Stone, a 39-year-old firefighter, caught the ball but fell over a railing. He tumbled 20 feet, headfirst, to his death.

Hamilton is in Phoenix, where he will play left field and bat fifth for the American League on Tuesday. He met the news media in a hotel ballroom on Monday, and said that because he did not know Stone, it was not his place to attend an intimate funeral. But Hamilton wants to meet Stone’s 6-year-old son, Cooper, and his widow, Jenny.

“I’d love to know what kind of man Mr. Stone was,” Hamilton said.

We have learned a lot the last few years about the kind of man Hamilton is. He is deeply flawed, but he is trying. A former No. 1 overall pick who nearly ruined his life with drugs, he fights temptation and talks a lot about family and faith.

“I think Josh realizes that some things are out of his hands,” Hamilton’s teammate Michael Young said. “Josh has done a great job of not internalizing what happened. Tragic as it was, it was an accident. Josh did nothing wrong. He shouldn’t change anything.”

Rationally, it seems, Hamilton understands Young is right. He meant no harm with his everyday act of kindness. He heard a fan yell for a ball, and he obliged. Yet Hamilton said he would be more cautious. He pledged to notice how high off the ground fans were sitting. He promised not to take things for granted.

You get the feeling that every time a stray ball comes to Hamilton, he will remember Shannon Stone. It is a horrible burden to carry, and a former teammate, Cliff Lee of the Phillies, said awareness should work both ways.

“I think fans need to be more careful, I really do,” Lee said. “It’s a sad deal and an unbelievable story, but sometimes fans lose sight of what’s going on when they’re so focused on getting a baseball. It’s just a baseball, you know what I’m saying?”

That sounds harsh, perhaps, but Lee makes a valid point. Spend any time in the first few rows of seats, and you will see what he means. A toss from a hero can make a lifelong memory. It also makes players uncomfortable.

“You’re kind of pigeonholed into doing it, because you don’t want to feel like a jerk,” said the Reds’ Jay Bruce, another former teammate of Hamilton’s. “If you throw it, you’re the best. If you don’t throw it, you’re the worst, and that’s the problem. Josh was just trying to make some guy’s day for his kid.”

Hamilton said he hoped to help Stone’s family through a foundation. He said he would never understand the deeper meaning of the accident — at least, he said, not in this lifetime. His faith would guide him, he said, as it has since he freed himself from addiction.

For Hamilton, life goes on. Two days after Stone’s death, wearing a black memorial ribbon on his jersey, he won a game with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Hamilton smiled as he crossed home plate, where joyful teammates mobbed him.

“It was a bit of an emotional release, not only for Josh but for the rest of us,” Young said. “It was a tough couple of days. Baseball was not our top priority for those games. We’re thinking about a wife and a son.”

The easy assumption is that baseball becomes an escape in tough times, a chance to separate grief from work. Hamilton disagreed. He said he had tried that before, when he was using drugs, and it did not work. There is no way to really break from life, no place where different rules or priorities apply.

“You deal with life, you deal with accidents, things that happen,” Hamilton said. “You don’t run to your job or anything else to help you deal with it.”

Three summers ago, Hamilton’s power electrified Yankee Stadium in the Home Run Derby. Last season, he was the most valuable player in the American League. Despite early-season injuries in 2009 and this April, fans have voted him a starting All-Star four years in a row.

Something about Hamilton keeps people rooting for him. Part of it is triumph over demons and admission of personal failings. What else endears him to fans?

“I don’t know,” Hamilton said. “Maybe I take time with them. I think they like that.”

For months, the Texas Rangers expected to savor this. The All-Star Game is a celebration for baseball, especially for the teams from the previous World Series. The manager and coaches and, usually, several players from each league champion crowd the stage with baseball’s best.

But on Monday, back in Brownwood, Tex., there was a funeral for Shannon Stone. Last Thursday, he was just another fan in the front row above left field at the Ballpark in Arlington, asking Josh Hamilton to toss him a ball for his son. Stone, a 39-year-old firefighter, caught the ball but fell over a railing. He tumbled 20 feet, headfirst, to his death.

Hamilton is in Phoenix, where he will play left field and bat fifth for the American League on Tuesday. He met the news media in a hotel ballroom on Monday, and said that because he did not know Stone, it was not his place to attend an intimate funeral. But Hamilton wants to meet Stone’s 6-year-old son, Cooper, and his widow, Jenny.

“I’d love to know what kind of man Mr. Stone was,” Hamilton said.

We have learned a lot the last few years about the kind of man Hamilton is. He is deeply flawed, but he is trying. A former No. 1 overall pick who nearly ruined his life with drugs, he fights temptation and talks a lot about family and faith.

“I think Josh realizes that some things are out of his hands,” Hamilton’s teammate Michael Young said. “Josh has done a great job of not internalizing what happened. Tragic as it was, it was an accident. Josh did nothing wrong. He shouldn’t change anything.”

Rationally, it seems, Hamilton understands Young is right. He meant no harm with his everyday act of kindness. He heard a fan yell for a ball, and he obliged. Yet Hamilton said he would be more cautious. He pledged to notice how high off the ground fans were sitting. He promised not to take things for granted.

You get the feeling that every time a stray ball comes to Hamilton, he will remember Shannon Stone. It is a horrible burden to carry, and a former teammate, Cliff Lee of the Phillies, said awareness should work both ways.

“I think fans need to be more careful, I really do,” Lee said. “It’s a sad deal and an unbelievable story, but sometimes fans lose sight of what’s going on when they’re so focused on getting a baseball. It’s just a baseball, you know what I’m saying?”

That sounds harsh, perhaps, but Lee makes a valid point. Spend any time in the first few rows of seats, and you will see what he means. A toss from a hero can make a lifelong memory. It also makes players uncomfortable.

“You’re kind of pigeonholed into doing it, because you don’t want to feel like a jerk,” said the Reds’ Jay Bruce, another former teammate of Hamilton’s. “If you throw it, you’re the best. If you don’t throw it, you’re the worst, and that’s the problem. Josh was just trying to make some guy’s day for his kid.”

Hamilton said he hoped to help Stone’s family through a foundation. He said he would never understand the deeper meaning of the accident — at least, he said, not in this lifetime. His faith would guide him, he said, as it has since he freed himself from addiction.

For Hamilton, life goes on. Two days after Stone’s death, wearing a black memorial ribbon on his jersey, he won a game with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Hamilton smiled as he crossed home plate, where joyful teammates mobbed him.

“It was a bit of an emotional release, not only for Josh but for the rest of us,” Young said. “It was a tough couple of days. Baseball was not our top priority for those games. We’re thinking about a wife and a son.”

The easy assumption is that baseball becomes an escape in tough times, a chance to separate grief from work. Hamilton disagreed. He said he had tried that before, when he was using drugs, and it did not work. There is no way to really break from life, no place where different rules or priorities apply.

“You deal with life, you deal with accidents, things that happen,” Hamilton said. “You don’t run to your job or anything else to help you deal with it.”

Three summers ago, Hamilton’s power electrified Yankee Stadium in the Home Run Derby. Last season, he was the most valuable player in the American League. Despite early-season injuries in 2009 and this April, fans have voted him a starting All-Star four years in a row.

Something about Hamilton keeps people rooting for him. Part of it is triumph over demons and admission of personal failings. What else endears him to fans?

“I don’t know,” Hamilton said. “Maybe I take time with them. I think they like that.”

Alexi Lalas, working in an ESPN truck in Oregon, immediately thought about that manic game in South Africa a year ago, when the ball came barreling out of the United States goal area, heading toward the Algerian goal, the whole world a pinball machine gone wild on the final try before tilt. Lalas was in the stands in Pretoria that day as the ball went bing-bing-bing.

“Surreal,” Lalas said Monday. “The soundtrack, the music that is in your head, that deep voice narrating the play. Very surreal.”

Lalas suggested there was something very American, something scrappy and self-reliant, about that rally. Then he added, “It doesn’t always come out that way,” which of course is very much true.

On Sunday, instead of the ball winding up at Landon Donovan’s racing feet, as it did in 2010, this time it wound up on Abby Wambach’s solid forehead.

No doubt most Americans watching the Women’s World Cup live in Germany or on television in the United States, thought of Algeria as soon as Ali Krieger intercepted the ball and forwarded it to Carli Lloyd, who advanced it to Megan Rapinoe on the left side. After the Algeria match, Americans were conditioned to react: there would be time for something, which is all a nation can ask.

After Wambach’s header tied Sunday’s match against Brazil — the United States went on to win on penalty kicks to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals — the Americans’ coach, Pia Sundhage, raved about the rally.

“Somebody’s writing this book, and it’s something about the American attitude that they find a way to win,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Sundhage added: “Well, just look at their faces and it’s contagious. I come from Sweden. I get the opportunity to coach this wonderful team. And it’s contagious, the great attitude. They bring out the best performances in each other.”

Sundhage’s comments reminded me of something Lalas told me in 1995. He had been a regular on the United States defense during the 1994 World Cup, then became the first American to play in Italy’s Serie A, at that time the best league in the world.

He was playing for Padova against teams so rich that they could afford not only superior players but sometimes venal officials, too. There was plenty of cynicism to go around, including in the Padova locker room.

Sometimes, when Padova would fall behind at halftime on the road, the players would slouch during the 15-minute intermission, accepting the deficit as the way things worked in the world, or at least in Serie A.

Don’t quit, Lalas said he told his teammates in his improving Italian. Don’t give up. Keep fighting. It did not always work, but he felt better for having said it.

Now, for the second time in two years, the United States had staged a dramatic rally — first the men in Pretoria, now the women in Dresden, two cities that ring even in the distant American ear.

Trying to remember everything Lalas had said about the American sporting psyche back in 1995, I tracked him down in an airport, after he had called Sunday’s Portland-Seattle regional derby in Major League Soccer.

“It is in the American culture, whether the ice hockey team of 1980, images we are bombarded with, on the athletic field,” Lalas said. “Sometimes, it’s called a sports thing, but it exists in all walks of American life.

“Frankly, that does not exist everywhere. For some people, it’s not a part of what they are. They have a resignation to fate. The American way is that your fate can be changed by your beliefs and your actions.”

Lalas, who lived in Greece with his father for a few years as a child, said the gritty attitude applied particularly to soccer, “where you are often the underdogs.”

He added, “It seems it comes from a real organic belief in change.”

That belief does not often work against great teams like Spain, Brazil and Argentina, or teams from the Americas that have reason to dig into their own national psyche when they play El Gigante. Mexico, the de facto home team in the Rose Bowl, staged a four-goal comeback for a 4-2 victory in the recent Gold Cup final. Resourceful? The Mexicans, not the Yanks, are the nation that developed Chicharito.

On Sunday, American women won a match as thrilling as anything the fabled teams of Akers and Hamm and Foudy ever did.

“I was in the ESPN truck with some pretty jaded guys,” Lalas said, “and I can tell you, we were high-fiving each other.”

•

The American women come from soccer clubs and development programs. They did not develop their newly displayed resourcefulness in some ghetto, some Brazilian favela. Lalas is from the posh Detroit suburbs, but he says he used to make forays to play ball in the inner city.

“I hope we never lose it,” Lalas said of the inner drive that he detects. “It’s a powerful tool. It’s part of our DNA.”

The United States does not always dominate in men’s basketball (see: 2004 Olympics) or baseball (see: World Baseball Classic) and is hardly a factor in men’s tennis anymore, either. The whole inner-courage theory can turn into pure poppycock at any moment in soccer against Mexico. But that magnificent pass from Rapinoe to Wambach made Lalas — and me — think about that forlorn locker of Padova back in 1995, and an American outsider screaming, “Don’t quit, don’t quit!”

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

Alexi Lalas, working in an ESPN truck in Oregon, immediately thought about that manic game in South Africa a year ago, when the ball came barreling out of the United States goal area, heading toward the Algerian goal, the whole world a pinball machine gone wild on the final try before tilt. Lalas was in the stands in Pretoria that day as the ball went bing-bing-bing.

“Surreal,” Lalas said Monday. “The soundtrack, the music that is in your head, that deep voice narrating the play. Very surreal.”

Lalas suggested there was something very American, something scrappy and self-reliant, about that rally. Then he added, “It doesn’t always come out that way,” which of course is very much true.

On Sunday, instead of the ball winding up at Landon Donovan’s racing feet, as it did in 2010, this time it wound up on Abby Wambach’s solid forehead.

No doubt most Americans watching the Women’s World Cup live in Germany or on television in the United States, thought of Algeria as soon as Ali Krieger intercepted the ball and forwarded it to Carli Lloyd, who advanced it to Megan Rapinoe on the left side. After the Algeria match, Americans were conditioned to react: there would be time for something, which is all a nation can ask.

After Wambach’s header tied Sunday’s match against Brazil — the United States went on to win on penalty kicks to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals — the Americans’ coach, Pia Sundhage, raved about the rally.

“Somebody’s writing this book, and it’s something about the American attitude that they find a way to win,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Sundhage added: “Well, just look at their faces and it’s contagious. I come from Sweden. I get the opportunity to coach this wonderful team. And it’s contagious, the great attitude. They bring out the best performances in each other.”

Sundhage’s comments reminded me of something Lalas told me in 1995. He had been a regular on the United States defense during the 1994 World Cup, then became the first American to play in Italy’s Serie A, at that time the best league in the world.

He was playing for Padova against teams so rich that they could afford not only superior players but sometimes venal officials, too. There was plenty of cynicism to go around, including in the Padova locker room.

Sometimes, when Padova would fall behind at halftime on the road, the players would slouch during the 15-minute intermission, accepting the deficit as the way things worked in the world, or at least in Serie A.

Don’t quit, Lalas said he told his teammates in his improving Italian. Don’t give up. Keep fighting. It did not always work, but he felt better for having said it.

Now, for the second time in two years, the United States had staged a dramatic rally — first the men in Pretoria, now the women in Dresden, two cities that ring even in the distant American ear.

Trying to remember everything Lalas had said about the American sporting psyche back in 1995, I tracked him down in an airport, after he had called Sunday’s Portland-Seattle regional derby in Major League Soccer.

“It is in the American culture, whether the ice hockey team of 1980, images we are bombarded with, on the athletic field,” Lalas said. “Sometimes, it’s called a sports thing, but it exists in all walks of American life.

“Frankly, that does not exist everywhere. For some people, it’s not a part of what they are. They have a resignation to fate. The American way is that your fate can be changed by your beliefs and your actions.”

Lalas, who lived in Greece with his father for a few years as a child, said the gritty attitude applied particularly to soccer, “where you are often the underdogs.”

He added, “It seems it comes from a real organic belief in change.”

That belief does not often work against great teams like Spain, Brazil and Argentina, or teams from the Americas that have reason to dig into their own national psyche when they play El Gigante. Mexico, the de facto home team in the Rose Bowl, staged a four-goal comeback for a 4-2 victory in the recent Gold Cup final. Resourceful? The Mexicans, not the Yanks, are the nation that developed Chicharito.

On Sunday, American women won a match as thrilling as anything the fabled teams of Akers and Hamm and Foudy ever did.

“I was in the ESPN truck with some pretty jaded guys,” Lalas said, “and I can tell you, we were high-fiving each other.”

•

The American women come from soccer clubs and development programs. They did not develop their newly displayed resourcefulness in some ghetto, some Brazilian favela. Lalas is from the posh Detroit suburbs, but he says he used to make forays to play ball in the inner city.

“I hope we never lose it,” Lalas said of the inner drive that he detects. “It’s a powerful tool. It’s part of our DNA.”

The United States does not always dominate in men’s basketball (see: 2004 Olympics) or baseball (see: World Baseball Classic) and is hardly a factor in men’s tennis anymore, either. The whole inner-courage theory can turn into pure poppycock at any moment in soccer against Mexico. But that magnificent pass from Rapinoe to Wambach made Lalas — and me — think about that forlorn locker of Padova back in 1995, and an American outsider screaming, “Don’t quit, don’t quit!”

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

Eun-Hee Ji, left, and Jin Young Pak sprayed So Yeon Ryu of South Korea with Champagne after Ryu won a playoff against Hee Kyung Seo of South Korea to win the United States Women’s Open in Colorado Springs.

Ryu beat Seo by three shots in a three-hole playoff and became the fourth South Korean to win the Open in the last seven years.

Eun-Hee Ji, left, and Jin Young Pak sprayed So Yeon Ryu of South Korea with Champagne after Ryu won a playoff against Hee Kyung Seo of South Korea to win the United States Women’s Open in Colorado Springs.

Ryu beat Seo by three shots in a three-hole playoff and became the fourth South Korean to win the Open in the last seven years.

WELLINGTON — The pieces of the jigsaw have at least been laid out, though not yet put together, as the Southern Hemisphere giants Australia, New Zealand and South Africa begin their preparations for the Rugby World Cup.

While their Northern Hemisphere counterparts are in training camps and playing warm-up matches before rugby’s global showpiece starts in September, the southerners will be contesting the Bledisloe Cup (matches played between New Zealand and Australia) and a shortened Tri-Nations series.

South Africa coach Pieter de Villiers has already made clear where his priorities lie, with 21 of his leading players omitted from the squad that will travel to Australia and New Zealand for the opening two rounds of the six-match Tri-Nations series on July 23 and 30.

Schalk Burger (thumb) and Duane Vermeulen (knee) would definitely not be fit to play in two weeks, but for other stalwarts — like Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers — it is more a case of being given the opportunity to rest and repair their bodies after a long Super Rugby season rather than make the trip to Australasia.

Jake White, the previous Springboks coach, set the precedent in 2007 when South Africa won the World Cup; he rested his leading players during the away leg of the Tri-Nations that year. It seems de Villiers is happy to follow that strategy again, although privately the Tri-Nations governing body, Sanzar, may not be too happy. Both the Australian Rugby Union and New Zealand Rugby Union have publicly expressed their disappointment at the second-string nature of the Springboks’ travelling party.

Captain John Smit and flyhalf Morne Steyn are the only regular starters named in a 27-man squad that includes six newcomers — Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies, Sharks scrumhalf Charl McLeod, Cheetahs loose forward Ashley Johnson and three props: Coenie Oosthuizen of the Cheetahs and the Bulls duo of Werner Kruger and Dean Greyling.

Of the 21 players missing, none has yet been ruled out of the World Cup, and the squad that arrives in New Zealand at the start of September will have a vastly different look from the one arriving in Wellington later this month.

Injuries have also seen Robbie Deans name an enlarged 40-man Australia squad for the series. Those dealing with injuries but named in the group include captain Rocky Elsom, prop James Slipper, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, scrumhalf Luke Burgess and loose forward Wycliff Palu.

Coaches can take only 30 players to the World Cup, and squads must be named by Aug. 22, hence Deans’s decision to name an expanded group now so players who may need to step in for the World Cup are kept fully involved.

Not surprisingly of the 40 men named, 15 are from the new Super Rugby champion Queensland Reds, whose fairy tale season came to an enthralling close Saturday with an 18-13 triumph over the Crusaders in Brisbane, Australia.

That group of 15 includes two newcomers — flanker Beau Robinson and hooker James Hanson — and Reds captain James Horwill, star flyhalf Quade Cooper and the impressive Will Genia, plus the 35-year-old Radike Samo, who last played for the Wallabies seven years ago but who has been in outstanding form lately.

But of all the coaches, it is probably New Zealand’s Graham Henry who has shown his hand the most, and he is adamant that the Tri-Nations remains an important series to win, even in a World Cup year.

“Obviously we’ve got a mind on the Rugby World Cup, but we want to play good rugby in the Tri-Nations and try and win it,” he said. “We won’t change our tack on that. It will be the same as what we normally do.”

He has named a 30-man squad that, injuries aside, should closely resemble the one hoping to end the years of underachievement at the World Cup.

It is no surprise that the core of that group comes from the Crusaders.

WELLINGTON — The pieces of the jigsaw have at least been laid out, though not yet put together, as the Southern Hemisphere giants Australia, New Zealand and South Africa begin their preparations for the Rugby World Cup.

While their Northern Hemisphere counterparts are in training camps and playing warm-up matches before rugby’s global showpiece starts in September, the southerners will be contesting the Bledisloe Cup (matches played between New Zealand and Australia) and a shortened Tri-Nations series.

South Africa coach Pieter de Villiers has already made clear where his priorities lie, with 21 of his leading players omitted from the squad that will travel to Australia and New Zealand for the opening two rounds of the six-match Tri-Nations series on July 23 and 30.

Schalk Burger (thumb) and Duane Vermeulen (knee) would definitely not be fit to play in two weeks, but for other stalwarts — like Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers — it is more a case of being given the opportunity to rest and repair their bodies after a long Super Rugby season rather than make the trip to Australasia.

Jake White, the previous Springboks coach, set the precedent in 2007 when South Africa won the World Cup; he rested his leading players during the away leg of the Tri-Nations that year. It seems de Villiers is happy to follow that strategy again, although privately the Tri-Nations governing body, Sanzar, may not be too happy. Both the Australian Rugby Union and New Zealand Rugby Union have publicly expressed their disappointment at the second-string nature of the Springboks’ travelling party.

Captain John Smit and flyhalf Morne Steyn are the only regular starters named in a 27-man squad that includes six newcomers — Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies, Sharks scrumhalf Charl McLeod, Cheetahs loose forward Ashley Johnson and three props: Coenie Oosthuizen of the Cheetahs and the Bulls duo of Werner Kruger and Dean Greyling.

Of the 21 players missing, none has yet been ruled out of the World Cup, and the squad that arrives in New Zealand at the start of September will have a vastly different look from the one arriving in Wellington later this month.

Injuries have also seen Robbie Deans name an enlarged 40-man Australia squad for the series. Those dealing with injuries but named in the group include captain Rocky Elsom, prop James Slipper, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, scrumhalf Luke Burgess and loose forward Wycliff Palu.

Coaches can take only 30 players to the World Cup, and squads must be named by Aug. 22, hence Deans’s decision to name an expanded group now so players who may need to step in for the World Cup are kept fully involved.

Not surprisingly of the 40 men named, 15 are from the new Super Rugby champion Queensland Reds, whose fairy tale season came to an enthralling close Saturday with an 18-13 triumph over the Crusaders in Brisbane, Australia.

That group of 15 includes two newcomers — flanker Beau Robinson and hooker James Hanson — and Reds captain James Horwill, star flyhalf Quade Cooper and the impressive Will Genia, plus the 35-year-old Radike Samo, who last played for the Wallabies seven years ago but who has been in outstanding form lately.

But of all the coaches, it is probably New Zealand’s Graham Henry who has shown his hand the most, and he is adamant that the Tri-Nations remains an important series to win, even in a World Cup year.

“Obviously we’ve got a mind on the Rugby World Cup, but we want to play good rugby in the Tri-Nations and try and win it,” he said. “We won’t change our tack on that. It will be the same as what we normally do.”

He has named a 30-man squad that, injuries aside, should closely resemble the one hoping to end the years of underachievement at the World Cup.

It is no surprise that the core of that group comes from the Crusaders.

Bryant senior, who previously served as Sparks head coach from August 2005 until the end of the 2006 season, will replace Jennifer Gillom in the role.

“Joe’s familiarity with the Sparks organization puts us in the best possible position to compete going forward, and should make for a seamless transition,” Sparks General Manager Penny Toler said in a statement.

Bryant, who led the Sparks to the Western Conference Finals in 2006, competed in the NBA for eight years before spending almost a decade as a player in Italy.

Before returning to Los Angeles earlier this year, he was head coach of Raru Kamuy Hokkaido, a Japanese first division men’s team, and also taught at a private basketball academy in Japan.

In March, he was hired as an assistant coach with the Sparks, one of 12 teams in the U.S. professional basketball league that started play in 1997.

“I enjoyed working with Jennifer, and it’s never easy to replace your friend and respected colleague,” Bryant said.

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

Bryant senior, who previously served as Sparks head coach from August 2005 until the end of the 2006 season, will replace Jennifer Gillom in the role.

“Joe’s familiarity with the Sparks organization puts us in the best possible position to compete going forward, and should make for a seamless transition,” Sparks General Manager Penny Toler said in a statement.

Bryant, who led the Sparks to the Western Conference Finals in 2006, competed in the NBA for eight years before spending almost a decade as a player in Italy.

Before returning to Los Angeles earlier this year, he was head coach of Raru Kamuy Hokkaido, a Japanese first division men’s team, and also taught at a private basketball academy in Japan.

In March, he was hired as an assistant coach with the Sparks, one of 12 teams in the U.S. professional basketball league that started play in 1997.

“I enjoyed working with Jennifer, and it’s never easy to replace your friend and respected colleague,” Bryant said.

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — ESPN has sued Ohio State University, alleging the school violated state public records law by denying requests for items related to an NCAA investigation that has led to the loss of football coach Jim Tressel and star quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

The lawsuit filed Monday in the Ohio Supreme Court asks justices to order the university to release the records and pay attorney fees and court costs. Among records sought are correspondences referring to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a mentor of Pryor in his hometown Jeannette, Pa.

Tressel forwarded emails to Sarniak regarding accusations that players had sold game memorabilia in violation of NCAA rules.

Among its arguments, ESPN says the university cited an inapplicable federal student-records privacy law in denying records.

Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch says the university believes it has followed applicable law. He says ESPN has received a “voluminous amount” of information.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — ESPN has sued Ohio State University, alleging the school violated state public records law by denying requests for items related to an NCAA investigation that has led to the loss of football coach Jim Tressel and star quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

The lawsuit filed Monday in the Ohio Supreme Court asks justices to order the university to release the records and pay attorney fees and court costs. Among records sought are correspondences referring to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a mentor of Pryor in his hometown Jeannette, Pa.

Tressel forwarded emails to Sarniak regarding accusations that players had sold game memorabilia in violation of NCAA rules.

Among its arguments, ESPN says the university cited an inapplicable federal student-records privacy law in denying records.

Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch says the university believes it has followed applicable law. He says ESPN has received a “voluminous amount” of information.

After a rough night of sleep, Hoogerland said Monday, a rest day on the Tour, that he planned to keep riding when the race resumed on Tuesday — even though, with 33 stitches in his legs and more than 16 minutes of time lost to the crash, his prospects are fading. Meanwhile, fallout from the bizarre collision on Sunday, which also brought down another rider, Juan Antonio Flecha, is spreading.

Prosecutors in Aurillac, where the stage finished, said Monday that they were investigating what they described as “a traffic accident with bodily injuries.” In the incident, a car carrying officials of France Télévisions, the French public broadcaster, veered into Flecha and Hoogerland as it attempted to pass them and three other riders.

Kris Dent, a spokesman for Flecha’s team, Sky, said the team had not ruled out any options, including possible legal action.

“We are still assessing what happened, in an ongoing dialogue with the A.S.O.,” he said, referring to Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour. “There’s an inherent risk of crashes in the sport; everybody understands that. But what happened yesterday shouldn’t happen.”

Frank Kwanten, commercial manager of Hoogerland’s team, Vacansoleil, said the team had decided against taking legal action, after officials of Amaury and France Télévisions visited the team’s hotel to apologize.

“We appreciate that and we naturally accepted the apologies,” he said.

The race organizers banned the driver of the France Télévisions car from the Tour, saying he had ignored an order, issued on an internal radio system, to pull over and allow a team car to pass.

Instead, the France Télévisions car, which was providing “technical assistance” to the coverage, appeared to speed up and then to swerve as the driver tried to avoid a leaning tree.

The presence of dozens of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles chasing, passing or cruising alongside the nearly 200 cyclists, sometimes at speeds of 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, per hour or more, is a curious feature of the Tour and other long-distance road races.

The entourage is needed because of the logistical challenges of staging a race that unfolds across daily stages that are sometimes more than 200 kilometers in length, with a total distance of more than 3,400 kilometers this year. It would be impossible to mount television cameras and to place race officials at fixed locations along such a route, so everything and everyone that is needed has to come along.

Even within this rolling sports arena, cars and motorcycles are constantly moving back and forth among the racers. Camera operators pursue breakaway riders and try to vary their angles. Team directors follow their riders, sometimes passing stragglers or even the main pack of riders, delivering replacement bicycles or water bottles to racers farther along the road.

There have been crashes involving Tour vehicles and riders in the past. In 1977, for example, Lucien Van Impe, a Belgian who had won the Tour the year before, was knocked over by a car on the fabled climb to Alpe d’Huez. In 1968, Raymond Poulidor, a favorite, was sent tumbling by a Tour motorcycle that swerved to avoid a spectator.

Last year, in a separate competition, the one-day Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in Belgium, a French rider, Sylvain Chavanel, ran into the back of a team car that braked suddenly ahead of him, fracturing his skull.

Yet this year there have already been two such incidents. Before the crash involving Hoogerland and Flecha, another racer, Nicki Sorensen of Saxo Bank-Sungard, was sent flying by a motorcycle carrying a photographer during Stage 5 last week. The driver of the motorbike had also tried to pass on a narrow road.

Some riders say this is not merely a coincidence; drivers have been more reckless than normal during the Tour this year.

“Even before the accident a lot of cars brushed right past us,” Luis León Sanchez, who won the Sunday stage after deftly avoiding the crash that took out Hoogerland and Flecha, told reporters afterward. “I understand that guests want to have a close look at the race, but we need to get a message across to the organizers so that the drivers are more careful.”

Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour, described the crash Sunday as a “scandal.”

“There have now been two incidents involving the media on the roads of the Tour de France, and it’s two accidents too many,” he told Reuters.

In a statement, France Télévisions apologized to the racers, to the teams and to Amaury, saying it would “fully support measures being taken by A.S.O. to further strengthen security in and around the race.”

The race organizers have not yet detailed any additional security measures, and a spokesman did not return calls.

Kwanten, the manager of Hoogerland’s team, said he had discussed the issue with other team managers, who had agreed to raise the issue of driving safety at the next meeting of the Aigcp, an international organization of bicycle racing teams.

In the meantime, he called for a bit of common sense in situations like the one that toppled Hoogerland, a 28-year-old rider from the Netherlands, and Flecha, a 33-year-old Spaniard.

“Everyone with any experience should understand that this was not an opportunity to overtake,” Kwanten said. “Whether you have 100 cars or 1,000 cars, you sometimes have to wait.”

After a rough night of sleep, Hoogerland said Monday, a rest day on the Tour, that he planned to keep riding when the race resumed on Tuesday — even though, with 33 stitches in his legs and more than 16 minutes of time lost to the crash, his prospects are fading. Meanwhile, fallout from the bizarre collision on Sunday, which also brought down another rider, Juan Antonio Flecha, is spreading.

Prosecutors in Aurillac, where the stage finished, said Monday that they were investigating what they described as “a traffic accident with bodily injuries.” In the incident, a car carrying officials of France Télévisions, the French public broadcaster, veered into Flecha and Hoogerland as it attempted to pass them and three other riders.

Kris Dent, a spokesman for Flecha’s team, Sky, said the team had not ruled out any options, including possible legal action.

“We are still assessing what happened, in an ongoing dialogue with the A.S.O.,” he said, referring to Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour. “There’s an inherent risk of crashes in the sport; everybody understands that. But what happened yesterday shouldn’t happen.”

Frank Kwanten, commercial manager of Hoogerland’s team, Vacansoleil, said the team had decided against taking legal action, after officials of Amaury and France Télévisions visited the team’s hotel to apologize.

“We appreciate that and we naturally accepted the apologies,” he said.

The race organizers banned the driver of the France Télévisions car from the Tour, saying he had ignored an order, issued on an internal radio system, to pull over and allow a team car to pass.

Instead, the France Télévisions car, which was providing “technical assistance” to the coverage, appeared to speed up and then to swerve as the driver tried to avoid a leaning tree.

The presence of dozens of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles chasing, passing or cruising alongside the nearly 200 cyclists, sometimes at speeds of 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, per hour or more, is a curious feature of the Tour and other long-distance road races.

The entourage is needed because of the logistical challenges of staging a race that unfolds across daily stages that are sometimes more than 200 kilometers in length, with a total distance of more than 3,400 kilometers this year. It would be impossible to mount television cameras and to place race officials at fixed locations along such a route, so everything and everyone that is needed has to come along.

Even within this rolling sports arena, cars and motorcycles are constantly moving back and forth among the racers. Camera operators pursue breakaway riders and try to vary their angles. Team directors follow their riders, sometimes passing stragglers or even the main pack of riders, delivering replacement bicycles or water bottles to racers farther along the road.

There have been crashes involving Tour vehicles and riders in the past. In 1977, for example, Lucien Van Impe, a Belgian who had won the Tour the year before, was knocked over by a car on the fabled climb to Alpe d’Huez. In 1968, Raymond Poulidor, a favorite, was sent tumbling by a Tour motorcycle that swerved to avoid a spectator.

Last year, in a separate competition, the one-day Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in Belgium, a French rider, Sylvain Chavanel, ran into the back of a team car that braked suddenly ahead of him, fracturing his skull.

Yet this year there have already been two such incidents. Before the crash involving Hoogerland and Flecha, another racer, Nicki Sorensen of Saxo Bank-Sungard, was sent flying by a motorcycle carrying a photographer during Stage 5 last week. The driver of the motorbike had also tried to pass on a narrow road.

Some riders say this is not merely a coincidence; drivers have been more reckless than normal during the Tour this year.

“Even before the accident a lot of cars brushed right past us,” Luis León Sanchez, who won the Sunday stage after deftly avoiding the crash that took out Hoogerland and Flecha, told reporters afterward. “I understand that guests want to have a close look at the race, but we need to get a message across to the organizers so that the drivers are more careful.”

Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour, described the crash Sunday as a “scandal.”

“There have now been two incidents involving the media on the roads of the Tour de France, and it’s two accidents too many,” he told Reuters.

In a statement, France Télévisions apologized to the racers, to the teams and to Amaury, saying it would “fully support measures being taken by A.S.O. to further strengthen security in and around the race.”

The race organizers have not yet detailed any additional security measures, and a spokesman did not return calls.

Kwanten, the manager of Hoogerland’s team, said he had discussed the issue with other team managers, who had agreed to raise the issue of driving safety at the next meeting of the Aigcp, an international organization of bicycle racing teams.

In the meantime, he called for a bit of common sense in situations like the one that toppled Hoogerland, a 28-year-old rider from the Netherlands, and Flecha, a 33-year-old Spaniard.

“Everyone with any experience should understand that this was not an opportunity to overtake,” Kwanten said. “Whether you have 100 cars or 1,000 cars, you sometimes have to wait.”

Jeff Haynes/ReutersThe Yankees’ Robinson Cano hit 20 home runs in the first two rounds of Home Run Derby before edging Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez in the finals, 12-11.

PHOENIX — Jose Cano pitched six games for the Houston Astros at the end of the 1989 season. Chances are, though, that his most gratifying pitches in a major league park came Monday night in the Home Run Derby at Chase Field.

Cano pitched to his son, Robinson, who won the event with 12 home runs in the final round to beat Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox. Robinson Cano drilled the winning shot over the fence in right-center field, lifted his arms in the air, and found his father, wrapping him in a bear hug.

Cano became the third Yankee to win the derby, after Tino Martinez in Cleveland in 1997 and Jason Giambi in Milwaukee in 2002. Joe Torre, Cano’s former manager with the Yankees, presented Cano with the winner’s trophy.

“The best thing is not my swing, it’s the gentleman that was throwing B.P., my dad,” Cano said on the field, adding later, “I want to tell him he’s one of the best fathers, thank him for the support and making me who I am today.”

Jose Bautista, Matt Holliday, Matt Kemp and Rickie Weeks were eliminated in the first round, and Prince Fielder and David Ortiz lost in the second round.

Jeff Haynes/ReutersThe Yankees’ Robinson Cano hit 20 home runs in the first two rounds of Home Run Derby before edging Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez in the finals, 12-11.

PHOENIX — Jose Cano pitched six games for the Houston Astros at the end of the 1989 season. Chances are, though, that his most gratifying pitches in a major league park came Monday night in the Home Run Derby at Chase Field.

Cano pitched to his son, Robinson, who won the event with 12 home runs in the final round to beat Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox. Robinson Cano drilled the winning shot over the fence in right-center field, lifted his arms in the air, and found his father, wrapping him in a bear hug.

Cano became the third Yankee to win the derby, after Tino Martinez in Cleveland in 1997 and Jason Giambi in Milwaukee in 2002. Joe Torre, Cano’s former manager with the Yankees, presented Cano with the winner’s trophy.

“The best thing is not my swing, it’s the gentleman that was throwing B.P., my dad,” Cano said on the field, adding later, “I want to tell him he’s one of the best fathers, thank him for the support and making me who I am today.”

Jose Bautista, Matt Holliday, Matt Kemp and Rickie Weeks were eliminated in the first round, and Prince Fielder and David Ortiz lost in the second round.

The tour included games against the European powers Juventus, A.C. Milan and Manchester United.

“He looked at the schedule and said, ‘Three friendlies, but this is ridiculous, I might get fired before the season even starts,’ ” said Charlie Stillitano, who organized two summer tours under the ChampionsWorld banner.

Rijkaard may no longer be the Barcelona coach and Stillitano may no longer be running the defunct ChampionsWorld, having moved to Creative Artists Agency, but some of the biggest and best international clubs are back in the United States for the World Football Challenge. This time around, it is soccer diplomacy at its best because Stillitano and Creative Artists are working with the marketing arm of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing, to put on 14 games — 5 involving M.L.S. clubs — between Wednesday (when Manchester United opens the tournament against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.) and Aug. 6 (when Barcelona plays Club América of Mexico at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.).

In a busy soccer off-season, a period that has included the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Women’s World Cup, the Copa América and the U-17 World Cup (not to mention the M.L.S. regular season), the World Football Challenge has evolved.

“A number of things have changed, beginning with the credibility of M.L.S.,” Commissioner Don Garber said. “In the past, the superclubs came to the U.S. just to build their brands and expand their global footprints, and in many ways exploit their soccer opportunities in the U.S. Now that the league has become better connected to the world, the clubs are coming not only to build their brands, but they are contributing to building the sport in the U.S. Things we have done have given M.L.S. a bounce in its step and resonated with the international football community.”

After its match against the Revolution, Manchester United, the reigning English Premier League champion, will spend time in the Pacific Northwest, training at the facilities used by the N.F.L.’s Seattle Seahawks. After a game in Chicago against the M.L.S. Fire on July 23, United will face the M.L.S. All-Star team at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., on July 27.

The matches against M.L.S. teams enable North American fans to see their local clubs, who might not have had their attention in the past, play some of the best in the world. In that way, M.L.S. hopes to increase its appeal.

Real Madrid, coached by the mercurial José Mourinho, was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Monday before it plays David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

The other international clubs in the tournament are Manchester City, Juventus, Club América, Chivas Guadalajara and Sporting Club of Lisbon. The other M.L.S. clubs involved are the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Philadelphia Union.

Instead of playing in the tournament, the Red Bulls decided to accept an invitation from Arsenal to play in the Emirates Cup (with Paris St. Germain and Boca Juniors) on July 30 and 31 — probably something to do with the Red Bulls having Thierry Henry, a former Gunners star, on the roster.

The World Football Challenge has a novel setup: 3 points for a win in regulation, none for a loss in regulation. If a match is tied after 90 minutes, it will go to penalty kicks, with the shootout winner getting 2 points and the loser 1. And in a nod to the points system used in the North American Soccer League, each goal (up to three) will be worth an additional point in the standings. The results of all five M.L.S. clubs in the competition will be combined and count as a single entry. All of the matches will be televised by ESPN and Univision.

“We have to make it worth something,” Stillitano said. “And I know the first question José, who likes to be out in California, is going to ask me because he’s so darn competitive: What does the trophy look like? Forget hello. It’s all about the trophy.”

Understandable, since it has been a few years since Real Madrid has claimed any major silverware.

This year, games will be played in large N.F.L. stadiums and in some of the new buildings constructed for M.L.S. teams. Two of the matches (Manchester City-Vancouver on July 18 and Juventus-Sporting in Toronto on July 23) will be played in Canada. One game (Juventus-Club América on July 26) will be in a baseball stadium — Citi Field, the home of the Mets. Perhaps the biggest game of the tournament, a rematch of May’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, will be played at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on July 30. That game is already sold out.

The top teams in the tournament, including United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, will earn $1 million to $2 million a game. Clubs like Manchester City and Juventus are due to receive up to $1 million, while the other international teams make $200,000 to $300,000 for each game.

It might be easy, however, to forget that the international clubs are involved in their preseason preparations. The Manchester clubs have scheduled their games earlier in the tournament because the Premier League season begins early in August, while Barcelona does not play its first match until July 30, with a later start to La Liga’s season.

“What these clubs are really after, besides making money of course and expanding their brands, is a chance to unwind, take walks outside the hotel and not be bothered as they walk around Beverly Hills,” Stillitano said. “Here, it’s a combination of training and environment that is really second to none. The smarter clubs realize the facilities are excellent. Juventus looked at the Eagles’ facility and were blown away.”

While some skeptics will always say that the international clubs come to the United States only to make some money, sell some gear and then head home, to elite teams and players there never really is a meaningless friendly match. Not when there is pride on the line, 70,000 fans in the seats and great players on the field.

The tour included games against the European powers Juventus, A.C. Milan and Manchester United.

“He looked at the schedule and said, ‘Three friendlies, but this is ridiculous, I might get fired before the season even starts,’ ” said Charlie Stillitano, who organized two summer tours under the ChampionsWorld banner.

Rijkaard may no longer be the Barcelona coach and Stillitano may no longer be running the defunct ChampionsWorld, having moved to Creative Artists Agency, but some of the biggest and best international clubs are back in the United States for the World Football Challenge. This time around, it is soccer diplomacy at its best because Stillitano and Creative Artists are working with the marketing arm of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing, to put on 14 games — 5 involving M.L.S. clubs — between Wednesday (when Manchester United opens the tournament against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.) and Aug. 6 (when Barcelona plays Club América of Mexico at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.).

In a busy soccer off-season, a period that has included the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Women’s World Cup, the Copa América and the U-17 World Cup (not to mention the M.L.S. regular season), the World Football Challenge has evolved.

“A number of things have changed, beginning with the credibility of M.L.S.,” Commissioner Don Garber said. “In the past, the superclubs came to the U.S. just to build their brands and expand their global footprints, and in many ways exploit their soccer opportunities in the U.S. Now that the league has become better connected to the world, the clubs are coming not only to build their brands, but they are contributing to building the sport in the U.S. Things we have done have given M.L.S. a bounce in its step and resonated with the international football community.”

After its match against the Revolution, Manchester United, the reigning English Premier League champion, will spend time in the Pacific Northwest, training at the facilities used by the N.F.L.’s Seattle Seahawks. After a game in Chicago against the M.L.S. Fire on July 23, United will face the M.L.S. All-Star team at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., on July 27.

The matches against M.L.S. teams enable North American fans to see their local clubs, who might not have had their attention in the past, play some of the best in the world. In that way, M.L.S. hopes to increase its appeal.

Real Madrid, coached by the mercurial José Mourinho, was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Monday before it plays David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

The other international clubs in the tournament are Manchester City, Juventus, Club América, Chivas Guadalajara and Sporting Club of Lisbon. The other M.L.S. clubs involved are the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Philadelphia Union.

Instead of playing in the tournament, the Red Bulls decided to accept an invitation from Arsenal to play in the Emirates Cup (with Paris St. Germain and Boca Juniors) on July 30 and 31 — probably something to do with the Red Bulls having Thierry Henry, a former Gunners star, on the roster.

The World Football Challenge has a novel setup: 3 points for a win in regulation, none for a loss in regulation. If a match is tied after 90 minutes, it will go to penalty kicks, with the shootout winner getting 2 points and the loser 1. And in a nod to the points system used in the North American Soccer League, each goal (up to three) will be worth an additional point in the standings. The results of all five M.L.S. clubs in the competition will be combined and count as a single entry. All of the matches will be televised by ESPN and Univision.

“We have to make it worth something,” Stillitano said. “And I know the first question José, who likes to be out in California, is going to ask me because he’s so darn competitive: What does the trophy look like? Forget hello. It’s all about the trophy.”

Understandable, since it has been a few years since Real Madrid has claimed any major silverware.

This year, games will be played in large N.F.L. stadiums and in some of the new buildings constructed for M.L.S. teams. Two of the matches (Manchester City-Vancouver on July 18 and Juventus-Sporting in Toronto on July 23) will be played in Canada. One game (Juventus-Club América on July 26) will be in a baseball stadium — Citi Field, the home of the Mets. Perhaps the biggest game of the tournament, a rematch of May’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, will be played at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on July 30. That game is already sold out.

The top teams in the tournament, including United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, will earn $1 million to $2 million a game. Clubs like Manchester City and Juventus are due to receive up to $1 million, while the other international teams make $200,000 to $300,000 for each game.

It might be easy, however, to forget that the international clubs are involved in their preseason preparations. The Manchester clubs have scheduled their games earlier in the tournament because the Premier League season begins early in August, while Barcelona does not play its first match until July 30, with a later start to La Liga’s season.

“What these clubs are really after, besides making money of course and expanding their brands, is a chance to unwind, take walks outside the hotel and not be bothered as they walk around Beverly Hills,” Stillitano said. “Here, it’s a combination of training and environment that is really second to none. The smarter clubs realize the facilities are excellent. Juventus looked at the Eagles’ facility and were blown away.”

While some skeptics will always say that the international clubs come to the United States only to make some money, sell some gear and then head home, to elite teams and players there never really is a meaningless friendly match. Not when there is pride on the line, 70,000 fans in the seats and great players on the field.

“I think anybody can,” Stricker said Monday.

Though that might sound like lip service at many tournaments, the Open’s recent history supports Stricker’s hunch. Long the domain of the great and the grand, the Open honor roll has taken a sharp turn for the democratic in the last 12 years. An unexpected victory is now almost routine, and that trend was underscored Monday when Louis Oosthuizen, the defending champion, and Ben Curtis, the last man to win at Royal St. George’s, were ushered into the press tent to reminisce.

“I think everybody loves an underdog,” Curtis said.

Golfing underdogs do not come much bigger than Curtis did in 2003. He arrived at this quirky, historic course having never played in a major championship or, for that matter, a links tournament. He was a 26-year-old from Ohio with a strong amateur record but a world ranking of 396th.

While much more experienced men cracked, above all Thomas Bjorn, who held a two-shot lead with three holes to play, Curtis was the only player to break par in the rough-and-tumble final round and thereby became the first man to win in his major debut since Francis Ouimet at the 1913 United States Open.

Curtis recalled a conversation with his wife-to-be, Candace, on the eve of the final round as they lay in bed in their modest English cottage (the Curtises have upgraded this year).

“She goes, ‘How do you feel about tomorrow?’ ” Curtis said. “And I just kind of looked at her and said, ‘I’m going to win.’ She never talked to me until after the round on Sunday. I mean, it wasn’t cocky or anything, just felt comfortable.”

Oosthuizen hardly looked overwrought himself last year at age 27 as he started the final round at St. Andrews with a four-shot lead and — despite the grandeur of the course and the utter lack of comparable experiences to draw on — coolly built on it to win by seven strokes.

True, Oosthuizen had shot an attention-demanding round of 57 as an amateur at home in South Africa and had won his first European tour event earlier in 2010. But he had missed the cut in seven of his previous eight major appearances and was on no one’s short list of potential champions except perhaps his own after some strong early practice sessions at the Old Course.

A year later, he has won one other tour event but has not yet become a consistent threat or a household name, or at least not according to how he pronounces it in his household: WUHST-high-zin.

“It’s not an easy surname,” he said, flashing the gap-toothed grin Monday that came so easily last year. “You know, it’s probably more annoying when they say, ‘I’ve been practicing it for a month,’ and they still get it completely wrong.”

Stricker says the Open produces surprises because links golf remains a rare form of competition for most professionals, particularly those based on the United States tour. There is also the infamous British weather.

“Here, it can be very extreme, so you can really get a bad deal here where one side of the draw has a distinct advantage,” Stricker said.

While Curtis and Oosthuizen have gone on to win tournaments since their stunning Open victories, Todd Hamilton, the American who was the surprise Open champion in 2004, has yet to win another tour event since he held off Ernie Els in a playoff. In the six British Opens Hamilton has played since he won at Royal Troon, he has missed the cut four times and finished in a tie for 32nd and a tie for 68th.

Paul Lawrie, the last Scotsman to win the claret jug, has never cracked so much as the top 40 at another British Open since beating Jan Van de Velde and Justin Leonard in 1999 at Carnoustie in the playoff that capped one of the wildest rides in the history of a tournament that was first staged in 1860.

Lawrie, a journeyman from Aberdeen, was 10 shots back at the start of the final round and won only because Van de Velde inexplicably gambled and then threw away a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole.

Unexpected indeed, and though Lawrie, Hamilton, Curtis and Oosthuizen did all manage to prevail against the odds, there have been other Opens in the last decade that nearly produced unlikely outcomes with well-known protagonists. Greg Norman led the 2008 Open after three rounds at age 53 before fading; Tom Watson led the 2009 Open after 71 holes at age 59 before generating groans of disappointment worldwide and losing to his fellow American Stewart Cink.

“There’s probably 130 guys that could win this week, have a legitimate chance,” Curtis said of the 156-man field. “You’re going to take here and there 20 that may not be feeling well or their game is really bad or whatever coming in, but pretty much anyone in the field can win this week. It’s just a matter of having the right things go your way and making a few putts here and there.”

Other major championships have had their share of unheralded winners, too, in what was known as the Tiger Woods era. Consider Lucas Glover, the winner of the 2009 United States Open, or Charl Schwartzel, Oosthuizen’s fellow South African and boyhood rival, at this year’s Masters.

But no major has made the surprise as unsurprising as this major, and though Stricker — among the favorites — is hardly hoping for more of the same, he is bracing for it.

“They get it going for a week and get the confidence rolling and enjoy the course and have all the things going for them,” he said. “I really do think anybody can win.”

“I think anybody can,” Stricker said Monday.

Though that might sound like lip service at many tournaments, the Open’s recent history supports Stricker’s hunch. Long the domain of the great and the grand, the Open honor roll has taken a sharp turn for the democratic in the last 12 years. An unexpected victory is now almost routine, and that trend was underscored Monday when Louis Oosthuizen, the defending champion, and Ben Curtis, the last man to win at Royal St. George’s, were ushered into the press tent to reminisce.

“I think everybody loves an underdog,” Curtis said.

Golfing underdogs do not come much bigger than Curtis did in 2003. He arrived at this quirky, historic course having never played in a major championship or, for that matter, a links tournament. He was a 26-year-old from Ohio with a strong amateur record but a world ranking of 396th.

While much more experienced men cracked, above all Thomas Bjorn, who held a two-shot lead with three holes to play, Curtis was the only player to break par in the rough-and-tumble final round and thereby became the first man to win in his major debut since Francis Ouimet at the 1913 United States Open.

Curtis recalled a conversation with his wife-to-be, Candace, on the eve of the final round as they lay in bed in their modest English cottage (the Curtises have upgraded this year).

“She goes, ‘How do you feel about tomorrow?’ ” Curtis said. “And I just kind of looked at her and said, ‘I’m going to win.’ She never talked to me until after the round on Sunday. I mean, it wasn’t cocky or anything, just felt comfortable.”

Oosthuizen hardly looked overwrought himself last year at age 27 as he started the final round at St. Andrews with a four-shot lead and — despite the grandeur of the course and the utter lack of comparable experiences to draw on — coolly built on it to win by seven strokes.

True, Oosthuizen had shot an attention-demanding round of 57 as an amateur at home in South Africa and had won his first European tour event earlier in 2010. But he had missed the cut in seven of his previous eight major appearances and was on no one’s short list of potential champions except perhaps his own after some strong early practice sessions at the Old Course.

A year later, he has won one other tour event but has not yet become a consistent threat or a household name, or at least not according to how he pronounces it in his household: WUHST-high-zin.

“It’s not an easy surname,” he said, flashing the gap-toothed grin Monday that came so easily last year. “You know, it’s probably more annoying when they say, ‘I’ve been practicing it for a month,’ and they still get it completely wrong.”

Stricker says the Open produces surprises because links golf remains a rare form of competition for most professionals, particularly those based on the United States tour. There is also the infamous British weather.

“Here, it can be very extreme, so you can really get a bad deal here where one side of the draw has a distinct advantage,” Stricker said.

While Curtis and Oosthuizen have gone on to win tournaments since their stunning Open victories, Todd Hamilton, the American who was the surprise Open champion in 2004, has yet to win another tour event since he held off Ernie Els in a playoff. In the six British Opens Hamilton has played since he won at Royal Troon, he has missed the cut four times and finished in a tie for 32nd and a tie for 68th.

Paul Lawrie, the last Scotsman to win the claret jug, has never cracked so much as the top 40 at another British Open since beating Jan Van de Velde and Justin Leonard in 1999 at Carnoustie in the playoff that capped one of the wildest rides in the history of a tournament that was first staged in 1860.

Lawrie, a journeyman from Aberdeen, was 10 shots back at the start of the final round and won only because Van de Velde inexplicably gambled and then threw away a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole.

Unexpected indeed, and though Lawrie, Hamilton, Curtis and Oosthuizen did all manage to prevail against the odds, there have been other Opens in the last decade that nearly produced unlikely outcomes with well-known protagonists. Greg Norman led the 2008 Open after three rounds at age 53 before fading; Tom Watson led the 2009 Open after 71 holes at age 59 before generating groans of disappointment worldwide and losing to his fellow American Stewart Cink.

“There’s probably 130 guys that could win this week, have a legitimate chance,” Curtis said of the 156-man field. “You’re going to take here and there 20 that may not be feeling well or their game is really bad or whatever coming in, but pretty much anyone in the field can win this week. It’s just a matter of having the right things go your way and making a few putts here and there.”

Other major championships have had their share of unheralded winners, too, in what was known as the Tiger Woods era. Consider Lucas Glover, the winner of the 2009 United States Open, or Charl Schwartzel, Oosthuizen’s fellow South African and boyhood rival, at this year’s Masters.

But no major has made the surprise as unsurprising as this major, and though Stricker — among the favorites — is hardly hoping for more of the same, he is bracing for it.

“They get it going for a week and get the confidence rolling and enjoy the course and have all the things going for them,” he said. “I really do think anybody can win.”

Kentucky Speedway on Monday offered a ticket exchange to fans who were stuck in traffic and missed the inaugural Sprint Cup Series race.

Speedway Motorsports Inc. president Marcus Smith said fans can swap their unused Kentucky tickets for entry into events at any 2011 race at an SMI track. The tickets can also be swapped for entry into the 2012 race at Kentucky.

“We felt like this was a situation we wanted to roll out all the stops, and go above and beyond,” Smith told The Associated Press. “All the plans we made and all the effort we put forth didn’t produce the results we wanted, and we want to try our best to make it right with fans who are understandably frustrated.”

Fans were stuck in traffic for hours as they tried to get into Saturday night’s race at the track in Sparta, Ky. Many fans said once they did get to the gate, they were turned away by police because the track had no more parking spaces. The track announced a week before the race that it had sold out all of its 107,000 seats for a Cup race the region had been hoping to host for more at least a decade.

SMI spent millions on capital improvement and updating the infrastructure to the speedway, which was acquired in 2008. Smith said speedway officials in hindsight needed far more shuttles running from remote lots, malls and hotels to reduce the number of cars heading into the speedway.

“The traffic was anticipated. We knew it was going to be bad. We have been saying for a couple of years we need more roads,” he said. “We did make plans, the plans clearly didn’t work. We don’t want to point fingers and make excuses, but in hindsight, there are a lot of things we have to do differently.

“There were tens of millions of dollars spent on parking lots and trying to make it better for the fans, and it’s really frustrating that it wasn’t enough.”

The SMI ticket exchange offer also came with a firm apology from both Smith and general manager Mark Simendinger. It was the first apology offered in three statements from the speedway.

“To those fans that were not able to attend the Quaker State 400, we offer our sincerest apologies,” Simendinger said in a statement. “We’d also like to apologize to all of our fans who endured challenging conditions during our event weekend. As we said earlier, we’re committed to working with NASCAR, state and local officials and traffic experts to address Saturday’s traffic issues to ensure that we never have this type of experience again.”

Meantime, rival tracks are pouncing on the opportunity to take shots at Kentucky and SMI.

The president of Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday assured fans “his staff is well prepared to handle the influx of more than 100,000″ at the track’s October race, and Michigan International Speedway president Roger Curtis said the Kentucky problems hurt all track operators.

“As a track promoter, I am saddened and embarrassed about what happened this weekend … that speedway, having been open for racing since 2000, should have known the challenges it would face when it tripled in size,” Curtis wrote in a blog Monday.

“It appears the mentality at some other racetracks today is to see how much money they can make off a fan. Their line of thinking is to ban coolers, have fire sales on last-minute tickets, build, build, build without thinking, thinking, thinking, and blame others for their mistakes.”

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, meanwhile, said fans who present a Kentucky ticket can receive free track admission on Friday, July 29, or $5 admission on Saturday, July 30. Kentucky ticketholders can also park for free in designated IMS lots.

“We have easy, efficient access to and from the track that allows our fans to participate in activities at the track and, in just a matter of minutes, enjoy all that the city of Indianapolis has to offer or be well on the road toward home or the hotel,” said IMS president Jeff Belskus, who contrasted Kentucky’s remote location.

Smith declined to comment directly on the comments from his rivals, but said SMI prides itself in top notch facilities with continued focus on capital improvements and creating outstanding fan experiences.

“It’s heartbreaking when something like this happens, and you hope people give you some grace and the benefit of the doubt,” Smith said.

___

Follow Jenna Fryer on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JennaFryer

I quickly installed a pro-style offense and focused on controlling the ball and clock with a running game and short passes. We played conservatively on defense, hoping to limit big plays. We consistently got strong performances from our halfback, the unimaginatively named “HB #9.” We got road wins at U.C.L.A. and Colorado State, and finished the season 5-7. I felt we’d turned a corner, a sentiment validated on signing day when, after spending hours and hours working the phones, we signed a five-star wide receiver who obviously appreciated my pitch stressing program stability.

This fantastical sequence of events happened over the course of 72 hours thanks to EA Sports’ new video game NCAA Football 12, out Tuesday. As a sports simulator, NCAA Football 12 is entertaining and immersive, and more than just a version of EA Sports’ popular Madden NFL game with marching bands digitally inserted.

Besides cheerleaders and, yes, marching bands, various mascots and field-entrance traditions have been included. (When you play a game at Auburn, for instance, an eagle soars across the stadium as the team runs onto the field.) These flourishes certainly add to the realism and evoke the spirit of the college football experience.

Unfortunately, they happen at the exact point in the game when most gamers take full advantage of it being a video game and simply press a button to skip directly to kickoff.

It is hard to find room for improvement in a game that has more than a decade of refinement built in.

EA Sports introduced the NCAA Football franchise in 1998, and has been continuously upgrading ever since. In this newest iteration, the most noticeable on-field advance is probably the tackling, which has multiple new animations. It is also easier to have success running the ball between the tackles, and defenders playing zone defense have a better grasp of zone principles.

Just as obvious are the cosmetic tweaks, like dreadlocks that swing from the back of some players’ helmets, and the blades of grass that fly up from players’ cleats on slow-motion replays as they run and cut.

EA Sports has added “custom playbooks,” which allow users to build diverse playbooks for their teams with up to 40 different formations. This is fun in a video game, but in reality would probably require a quarterback to wear a telephone-book-size flip card on his wristband. You can also realign conferences, trimming the Big Ten to 10 teams.

With its myriad modes and online capabilities, NCAA Football 12 is clearly designed to be played again and again. For instance, Road to Glory allows users to create a player, and then attempt to develop him into a college football star. That journey begins with a senior season in high school, where you replicate the experience of many elite prep athletes and play both offense and defense for your team. After each game, as your stats accrue and signing day approaches, colleges express their interest.

My eponymous character was most successful as a quarterback, quickly drawing scholarship offers from football factories like Ohio State and Florida. I was evidently less desirable as a middle linebacker — my best bids came from three Sun Belt Conference programs.

The game hits close to reality on many levels. I found that the maxims we hear analysts carp about week after week when watching games on television (e.g. don’t throw across your body) are actually effective advice. When my quarterback was injured in one contest, Erin Andrews, part of the game’s broadcast team, reported that team doctors suspected he had a concussion. Kirk Herbstreit, the color commentator, then quickly lectured me about the dangers of trying to play through head injuries.

As realistic as NCAA Football 12 is — it looks as crisp as a Pixar film —I still found myself wondering about ways the game can expand in the future. For all that is in the game, there is plenty about college football that may never translate digitally.

Despite my undeniable success as a coach, there was no opportunity to hold a fiery news conference after a bad day of practice to motivate my players; my coach could not sign up for Twitter and defuse his detractors with a signature brand of self-deprecating humor; and I wasn’t able to deliver a heartfelt speech to my school’s boosters, convincing them of my commitment to turning San Jose State into a true contender.

But maybe none of that matters. As long as I keep winning, I should keep my job.

And if I’m not getting the job done, I can always hit “restart.”

The tour included games against the European powers Juventus, A.C. Milan and Manchester United.

“He looked at the schedule and said, ‘Three friendlies, but this is ridiculous, I might get fired before the season even starts,’ ” said Charlie Stillitano, who organized two summer tours under the ChampionsWorld banner.

Rijkaard may no longer be the Barcelona coach and Stillitano may no longer be running the defunct ChampionsWorld, having moved to Creative Artists Agency, but some of the biggest and best international clubs are back in the United States for the World Football Challenge. This time around, it is soccer diplomacy at its best because Stillitano and Creative Artists are working with the marketing arm of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing, to put on 14 games — 5 involving M.L.S. clubs — between Wednesday (when Manchester United opens the tournament against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.) and Aug. 6 (when Barcelona plays Club América of Mexico at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.).

In a busy soccer off-season, a period that has included the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Women’s World Cup, the Copa América and the U-17 World Cup (not to mention the M.L.S. regular season), the World Football Challenge has evolved.

“A number of things have changed, beginning with the credibility of M.L.S.,” Commissioner Don Garber said. “In the past, the superclubs came to the U.S. just to build their brands and expand their global footprints, and in many ways exploit their soccer opportunities in the U.S. Now that the league has become better connected to the world, the clubs are coming not only to build their brands, but they are contributing to building the sport in the U.S. Things we have done have given M.L.S. a bounce in its step and resonated with the international football community.”

After its match against the Revolution, Manchester United, the reigning English Premier League champion, will spend time in the Pacific Northwest, training at the facilities used by the N.F.L.’s Seattle Seahawks. After a game in Chicago against the M.L.S. Fire on July 23, United will face the M.L.S. All-Star team at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., on July 27.

The matches against M.L.S. teams enable North American fans to see their local clubs, who might not have had their attention in the past, play some of the best in the world. In that way, M.L.S. hopes to increase its appeal.

Real Madrid, coached by the mercurial José Mourinho, was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Monday before it plays David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

The other international clubs in the tournament are Manchester City, Juventus, Club América, Chivas Guadalajara and Sporting Club of Lisbon. The other M.L.S. clubs involved are the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Philadelphia Union.

Instead of playing in the tournament, the Red Bulls decided to accept an invitation from Arsenal to play in the Emirates Cup (with Paris St. Germain and Boca Juniors) on July 30 and 31 — probably something to do with the Red Bulls having Thierry Henry, a former Gunners star, on the roster.

The World Football Challenge has a novel setup: 3 points for a win in regulation, none for a loss in regulation. If a match is tied after 90 minutes, it will go to penalty kicks, with the shootout winner getting 2 points and the loser 1. And in a nod to the points system used in the North American Soccer League, each goal (up to three) will be worth an additional point in the standings. The results of all five M.L.S. clubs in the competition will be combined and count as a single entry. All of the matches will be televised by ESPN and Univision.

“We have to make it worth something,” Stillitano said. “And I know the first question José, who likes to be out in California, is going to ask me because he’s so darn competitive: What does the trophy look like? Forget hello. It’s all about the trophy.”

Understandable, since it has been a few years since Real Madrid has claimed any major silverware.

This year, games will be played in large N.F.L. stadiums and in some of the new buildings constructed for M.L.S. teams. Two of the matches (Manchester City-Vancouver on July 18 and Juventus-Sporting in Toronto on July 23) will be played in Canada. One game (Juventus-Club América on July 26) will be in a baseball stadium — Citi Field, the home of the Mets. Perhaps the biggest game of the tournament, a rematch of May’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, will be played at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on July 30. That game is already sold out.

The top teams in the tournament, including United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, will earn $1 million to $2 million a game. Clubs like Manchester City and Juventus are due to receive up to $1 million, while the other international teams make $200,000 to $300,000 for each game.

It might be easy, however, to forget that the international clubs are involved in their preseason preparations. The Manchester clubs have scheduled their games earlier in the tournament because the Premier League season begins early in August, while Barcelona does not play its first match until July 30, with a later start to the La Liga season.

“What these clubs are really after, besides making money of course and expanding their brands, is a chance to unwind, take walks outside the hotel and not be bothered as they walk around Beverly Hills,” Stillitano said. “Here, it’s a combination of training and environment that is really second to none. The smarter clubs realize the facilities are excellent. Juventus looked at the Eagles’ facility and were blown away.”

While some skeptics will always say that the international clubs come to the United States only to make some money, sell some gear and then head home, to elite teams and players there never really is a meaningless friendly match. Not when there is pride on the line, 70,000 fans in the seats and great players on the field.

Jeff Haynes/ReutersTeam mascots had their moment on the field at the All-Star Game festivities in Phoenix, which began with the Home Run Derby on Monday night.

PHOENIX — Jose Reyes took batting practice when the All-Stars worked out on Monday, even though he is on the disabled list. So did Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers. Both players were elected to start but unable to play because of injury.

“Every time I get a chance to come, I want to come, no matter what happens,” said Reyes, the Mets’ shortstop.

Of course, Reyes has never been through the exhaustion of a chase for 3,000 hits, and he does not know how it feels to be 37 and coming off a calf injury. The Yankees’ Derek Jeter, who does, is skipping the All-Star festivities despite being on the active roster and voted to start by the fans.

Asked if he believed Jeter had an obligation to be here, Reyes said: “I don’t think so. It’s good to be here. I like it. As a baseball player, you want to be in the All-Star Game. But you have to understand Jeter. He’s coming back from an injury, and it’s good for him to take a break.”

The Mets’ Carlos Beltran, who will bat second as the National League’s starting designated hitter, said he did not know Jeter’s situation and how badly the calf bothered him.

“Jose is on the D.L., but he decided to come,” Beltran said. “I do believe, as a ballplayer, if you have no injuries, you should be here. The fans are the ones that vote for you and want to see you here. For players with injuries, sometimes they prefer to get the rest, take treatment and try to get better for the season.”

Eighty-four players are recognized as All-Stars: 68 who will be active on Tuesday, and 16 who were replaced. Of those, six are on the disabled list, six are pitchers who are ineligible because they started on Sunday, and four declined because of nagging injuries.

Besides Jeter, that group includes the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera (triceps), Tampa Bay’s David Price (turf toe) and Philadelphia’s Placido Polanco (back). But Price and Polanco are here.

“It’s a personal decision people have to make, and you have to respect that decision,” said Diamondbacks Manager Kirk Gibson, an N.L. coach who never played in an All-Star Game. “I’m not judgmental. I declined two times — not saying it was right, it’s the decision I made. Some people aren’t here, for whatever reason, but the people who are here are honored to be here; they’ll take the experience and represent us well.”

With so many players recognized as All-Stars, few can complain about being snubbed. But there were still a few notable omissions, including Atlanta starter Tommy Hanson and the slugging first basemen Albert Pujols of St. Louis and Ryan Howard of the Phillies.

Hanson is 10-4 with a 2.44 earned run average, but N.L. Manager Bruce Bochy said he gave the last fill-in pitching spot to Hanson’s teammate Craig Kimbrel because he needed a reliever more than a starter. Bochy said he chose Arizona’s Miguel Montero for another fill-in spot because he already has three first basemen and wanted to take a third catcher.

Bochy did not spend much time debating who should be his starting pitcher, choosing Roy Halladay of the Phillies. “That was really an easy one for me,” Bochy said.

The Los Angeles Angels’ Jered Weaver will start for the American League.

And here is the reality: The taxman may own a piece of your windfall. And not in tickets, either. He takes only cash.

For Christian Lopez, the 23-year-old fan who came up with Mr. Jeter’s 3,000th hit at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, the ramifications of his gift from above are as American as baseball, hot dogs and taxes.

As in Las Vegas, the house always wins.

“There’s different ways the I.R.S. could try to characterize a ball caught by a fan in the stands,” said Andrew D. Appleby, a tax associate at the Sutherland Asbill Brennan law firm in New York who has written about the tax implications of souvenir baseballs. “But when the Yankees give him all those things, it’s much more clear-cut that he owes taxes on what they give him.”

Mr. Lopez, of Highland Mills, N.Y., was seated with his father, Raul, in the left field stands when Mr. Jeter drove a 3-2 curveball over the wall. The ball bounced off Raul Lopez’s hands and rolled to the floor, where his son, a former defensive tackle in college, pounced on it. The blast made Mr. Jeter only the 28th player to have 3,000 hits, and the first to do so as a Yankee.

Stadium security guards, who had been prepared for the event, whisked Mr. Lopez and his father to the office of the team president, Randy Levine, where officials asked his intentions, according to a team spokeswoman.

“He goes, ‘What do you want?’ ” Mr. Lopez said Monday at a Verizon store in Middletown, N.Y., where he works in customer service. “I was like, ‘How about a couple signed balls, some jerseys and bats.’ He said, ‘O.K., I can definitely do that.’ ”

Fans have not always been as generous with their windfalls. In 2006, a San Francisco man named Andrew Morbitzer, who recovered Barry Bonds’s record-breaking 715th home run ball, sold the ball on eBay for $220,100. The ball Mark McGwire hit for his record-breaking 70th home run in 1998 sold for around $3 million.

Mr. Lopez, who told reporters later that he owed more than $100,000 in student loans, said he felt the ball rightfully belonged to Mr. Jeter.

“To have someone come up to you and say, ‘Hey, my kid is looking up to you now’ or ‘You’re a really stand-up guy, I wish there were more people like you in the world,’ it’s very meaningful stuff,” he said at the store, where he had already been interviewed nine times before work. “You can’t put a price on something like that.”

In lieu of such price-setting, the Yankees gave Mr. Lopez four Champions Suite tickets for their remaining home games and any postseason games, along with three bats, three balls and two jerseys, all signed by Mr. Jeter. For Sunday’s game the team gave him four front-row Legends seats, which sell for up to $1,358.90 each.

In such gratitude begins tax liability, said Paul Caron, a tax professor at the University of Cincinnati law school and author of Tax Prof Blog.

He recalled a 2004 incident in which Oprah Winfrey gave 276 cars to the audience of her show, who were surprised to discover they incurred tax obligations of around $7,000.

“Pretty clearly he’s going to have to report as income the value of all the stuff he got for the ball,” Professor Caron said.

So break out your pencils.

On SportsMemorabilia.com, an auction site, baseballs signed by Jeter were being sold for up to $600, jerseys for close to $1,000 and bats for $900.

The tickets to the 32 remaining home games (after Sunday) have a combined face value of $44,800 to $73,600, according to the team’s Web site. The tickets could be worth a lot more if the Yankees play deep into October. Steven Bandini, a tax partner at the accounting firm Zapken Loeb, said that if the items were valued modestly at $50,000, they would probably carry a tax burden of about $14,000.

Michael J. Graetz, a law professor at Columbia University who advised the I.R.S. on how to treat the McGwire ball, questioned whether the booty was not a gift, and therefore not taxable.

“The legal question of whether it is a gift or prize is whether the transferor is giving the property out of detached and disinterested generosity,” Professor Graetz said. “It’s hard for me, not being a Yankee fan, to think of the Yankees as being in the business of exercising generosity to others, but there’s a reasonable case to be made that these were given out of generosity.”

An I.R.S. spokesman, Grant Williams, said the agency would not speculate on Mr. Lopez’s tax liabilities.

Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the Yankees, declined to say whether the team would give Mr. Lopez money to meet any tax liability, saying only, “Yankee partners and partnership always comply with the tax laws.”

Mr. Lopez said if he had to pay taxes, he hoped he could borrow from his parents rather than sell his memorabilia.

He did, however, plan to give a bat and a jersey to his girlfriend, he said.

“She’s the one who bought the tickets,” he said. “Jeter said I quote-unquote owe her a lot. I’m going to take his words as advice.”

Tim Stelloh contributed reporting from Middletown, N.Y.

After a rough night of sleep, Hoogerland said Monday, a rest day on the Tour, that he planned to keep riding when the race resumed on Tuesday — even though, with 33 stitches in his legs and more than 16 minutes of time lost to the crash, his prospects are fading. Meanwhile, fallout from the bizarre collision on Sunday, which also brought down another rider, Juan Antonio Flecha, is spreading.

Prosecutors in Aurillac, where the stage finished, said Monday that they were investigating what they described as “a traffic accident with bodily injuries.” In the incident, a car carrying officials of France Télévisions, the French public broadcaster, veered into Flecha and Hoogerland as it attempted to pass them and three other riders.

Kris Dent, a spokesman for Flecha’s team, Sky, said the team had not ruled out any options, including possible legal action.

“We are still assessing what happened, in an ongoing dialogue with the A.S.O.,” he said, referring to Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour. “There’s an inherent risk of crashes in the sport; everybody understands that. But what happened yesterday shouldn’t happen.”

Frank Kwanten, commercial manager of Hoogerland’s team, Vacansoleil, said the team had decided against taking legal action, after officials of Amaury and France Télévisions visited the team’s hotel to apologize.

“We appreciate that and we naturally accepted the apologies,” he said.

The race organizers banned the driver of the France Télévisions car from the Tour, saying he had ignored an order, issued on an internal radio system, to pull over and allow a team car to pass.

Instead, the France Télévisions car, which was providing “technical assistance” to the coverage, appeared to speed up and then to swerve as the driver tried to avoid a leaning tree.

The presence of dozens of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles chasing, passing or cruising alongside the nearly 200 cyclists, sometimes at speeds of 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, per hour or more, is a curious feature of the Tour and other long-distance road races.

The entourage is needed because of the logistical challenges of staging a race that unfolds across daily stages that are sometimes more than 200 kilometers in length, with a total distance of more than 3,400 kilometers this year. It would be impossible to mount television cameras and to place race officials at fixed locations along such a route, so everything and everyone that is needed has to come along.

Even within this rolling sports arena, cars and motorcycles are constantly moving back and forth among the racers. Camera operators pursue breakaway riders and try to vary their angles. Team directors follow their riders, sometimes passing stragglers or even the main pack of riders, delivering replacement bicycles or water bottles to racers farther along the road.

There have been crashes involving Tour vehicles and riders in the past. In 1977, for example, Lucien Van Impe, a Belgian who had won the Tour the year before, was knocked over by a car on the fabled climb to Alpe d’Huez. In 1968, Raymond Poulidor, a favorite, was sent tumbling by a Tour motorcycle that swerved to avoid a spectator.

Last year, in a separate competition, the one-day Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in Belgium, a French rider, Sylvain Chavanel, ran into the back of a team car that braked suddenly ahead of him, fracturing his skull.

Yet this year there have already been two such incidents. Before the crash involving Hoogerland and Flecha, another racer, Nicki Sorensen of Saxo Bank-Sungard, was sent flying by a motorcycle carrying a photographer during Stage 5 last week. The driver of the motorbike had also tried to pass on a narrow road.

Some riders say this is not merely a coincidence; drivers have been more reckless than normal during the Tour this year.

“Even before the accident a lot of cars brushed right past us,” Luis León Sanchez, who won the Sunday stage after deftly avoiding the crash that took out Hoogerland and Flecha, told reporters afterward. “I understand that guests want to have a close look at the race, but we need to get a message across to the organizers so that the drivers are more careful.”

Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour, described the crash Sunday as a “scandal.”

“There have now been two incidents involving the media on the roads of the Tour de France, and it’s two accidents too many,” he told Reuters.

In a statement, France Télévisions apologized to the racers, to the teams and to Amaury, saying it would “fully support measures being taken by A.S.O. to further strengthen security in and around the race.”

The race organizers have not yet detailed any additional security measures, and a spokesman did not return calls.

Kwanten, the manager of Hoogerland’s team, said he had discussed the issue with other team managers, who had agreed to raise the issue of driving safety at the next meeting of the Aigcp, an international organization of bicycle racing teams.

In the meantime, he called for a bit of common sense in situations like the one that toppled Hoogerland, a 28-year-old rider from the Netherlands, and Flecha, a 33-year-old Spaniard.

“Everyone with any experience should understand that this was not an opportunity to overtake,” Kwanten said. “Whether you have 100 cars or 1,000 cars, you sometimes have to wait.”

Still, the fact is Richards, 31, has played that role twice, leading his Quebec league team to the Canadian junior championship in 2000 and being named most valuable player in the playoffs when his Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Can Richards do the same thing for the Rangers? Can he overcome the precedent of Bobby Holik, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, high-priced centers signed by General Manager Glen Sather to contracts worth a combined $132 million, then jettisoned after failing to perform to expectations? Can he apply the lessons of hard work learned from his parents, who still work their lobster traps in the swells of the North Atlantic?

“He is a great professional,” said Ruslan Fedotenko, his teammate on the Lightning and now with the Rangers. “I think he will fit perfectly.”

There is evidence pro and con. Richards is exactly the kind of center the Rangers have sought to unlock the pent-up scoring skills of Marian Gaborik. But there is no guarantee the two will click. Gomez and Jaromir Jagr certainly did not when they were put together on the Rangers’ first line in 2007-8.

Richards is 12th among active N.H.L. players in points per game, and 7th in assists per game. And he has scored a whopping 42.4 percent of his career points with a manpower advantage, a good sign for the Rangers’ inconsistent power play.

But he is minus-73 for his career — making him one of only two players among that top 12 to be in the red in career plus/minus.

“Forget about what the stats are, forget about what on-ice is,” said John Tortorella, Richards’s coach with the Lightning and the Rangers. He believes Richards’s “mentoring” and “teaching” are important “with such a young crew that we have.”

Either way, there is no questioning Richards’s commitment, or his pedigree.

Richards first demonstrated that commitment at 14, when he went to school 2,500 miles from home to hone his hockey skills.

“That was pretty hard,” Richards’s father, Glen, said from his home in Murray Harbour, Prince Edward Island, recalling the three years Brad spent at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan.

“Brad had just turned 14 and went to the other side of Canada,” he said. “He’d only get home for Christmas, and we’d basically never see him till summertime.”

Brad Richards remembered that time as one in which he used to lay in his bunk, “so homesick we were crying — it was so isolated and so cold.”

But he had a goal, his father said. “He found it hard the first few weeks, wanting to be home, but he beared down, never said he wanted to go,” Glen Richards said. “He toughed it out. Them are the sacrifices you have to make if you want to get to the N.H.L.”

Glen Richards, who speaks in the cadences and syntax of the Atlantic provinces, was a lobsterman then and still is, despite the millions his son has made. So is Brad’s mother, Delite Richards. They made the trip to New York last week for Brad’s introduction to the Rangers having just finished two months on the water pulling lobster traps.

“It’s a hard-labor kind of thing,” Glen Richards said of the life of a commercial fisherman. “Brad went in a different direction and we’re glad. When he was real young it kind of opened his eyes to go out on the boat. He said, ‘This is not for me.’ ”

Richards is one of 28 N.H.L. players to have come from Prince Edward Island, but the only one not from Charlottetown or Summerside, its two cities. Murray Harbour is a fishing village of about 350 people.

“It’s a small town,” Brad Richards said. “You can imagine, they’re proud of anything anybody from there does that’s big.”

Richards may not have gone in for the hard labor of lobstering, but he applied what he learned about dedication into being a hockey player.

In 1998 Pak became the first golfer from South Korea to win the United States Women’s Open. Thirteen years later, she watched her compatriots Hee Kyung Seo and So Yeon Ryu make another kind of history as they squared off in the first all-international playoff at the 66th Open.

Ryu, who started playing golf seriously the same week Pak won the 1998 title in Wisconsin, made two birdies in the three-hole playoff to defeat Seo by three strokes. After the last putt dropped, Ryu was squirted with Champagne by Pak. It had the effect of making her first major title — indeed, her first victory on the L.P.G.A. Tour — all the more intoxicating.

“Se Ri is my hero,” Ryu said. “Now she show up for me and congratulations for me, it’s unbelievable.”

Seo, 25, had gone to sleep Sunday night with a one-stroke lead over Ryu, who had three holes left in her fourth round when play was suspended because of darkness. Ryu returned to the course and could have secured the victory in regulation.

Her birdie attempt on No. 17, a 603-yard par 5, grazed the cup. On the finishing hole, Ryu hit a perfect 6-iron approach shot to 6 feet and drained the putt for a closing two-under-par 69 and a 72-hole total of three-under 281.

The Americans Cristie Kerr and Angela Stanford also hoped to force a playoff, but fell short. Kerr closed with a 71 and finished two strokes back. Stanford finished with a 284 after shooting a  72 in the final round.

The playoff began with Ryu and Seo two-putting for pars on No. 16. On the next hole, Ryu made a routine birdie while Seo scrambled for a bogey after her drive found a fairway bunker.

At 18, Ryu hit her approach to 4 feet and birdied the hole for the second time in an hour, seemingly oblivious that the hole had yielded an average of only 6.5 birdies in the first four rounds.

“I remember yesterday, the caddie of So Yeon said, ‘We’re going to be chasing you,’ ” Seo said. “And then the result is they were chasing me, and unfortunately I couldn’t win this time.” She added, “I feel very happy for Korean fans that a South Korea player won this great, big tournament.”

Ryu, 21, became the fifth South Korean to win the Open and the fourth in seven years. But there was nothing ho-hum about her victory.

Coming into the Open, South Koreans had been shut out of the winner’s circle this year on the L.P.G.A. Tour. It was no inconsequential drought for a country that has averaged nearly three champions a year on the tour over the last decade.

The South Koreans’ lack of success caused great consternation at home, where a couple of theories took root. The first was that the golfers had become complacent, losing their “hungry spirit” amid all their success. The second was that the tour was lengthening its courses with the aim of Korean-proofing them.

There are no South Koreans in the top 10 in driving distance, that much is true; Pak is the highest-ranked player at No. 11 with a 263.8-yard average. But the air went out of the conspiracy theory with the success of Ryu and Seo on the East Course, which played at 6,860 yards for the fourth round and the playoff and 7,047 the rest of the week.

Pak, a 25-time winner on the L.P.G.A. Tour, was asked if she thought she would see a day like this, with two South Koreans vying for the Open championship.

“I never expect that,” said Pak, who completed her fourth round Monday and was tied for 45th at 297.

During the postplayoff celebration on the 18th green, Pak told Ryu and Seo that they had done “a really great job” and that she was “very proud” of them.

Pak’s words were a salve that relieved some of the pain of defeat for Seo, who said, “She is legend for us.”

Seo added: “Second place is amazing. But, you know, sports is always about winning, so that’s a little bad. But I’m happy for the result. I learned many things from this week.”

Pak’s 1998 Open victory came on the heels of her win at the L.P.G.A. Championship and was televised in South Korea. Among those who watched, transfixed, was an 8-year-old Ryu.

“When I was young, my goal is violinist,” Ryu said. “I really like music. Until Se Ri really won the tournament, I was only enjoying golf as a hobby. But I really enjoyed as much coverage that she was receiving through the network TVs in Korea. Seeing that made me want to play more.”

Pak, 33, said: “Everybody say that I just kind of open the door for them. I don’t know. They are not afraid to come out and play. They can handle the pressure, which is the biggest thing.”

Ryu said she did not sleep well Sunday night because she could not stop thinking about the 16th hole, where she would be resuming the biggest round of her young career when the sun came up.

“So my condition is not great this morning,” she said, “but I made a birdie on 18 and I have more energy.”

The advantage Seo had of finishing on Sunday — of not spending all night playing any remaining holes in her mind — apparently became a disadvantage in the playoff.

“Yeah, is good for me,” Ryu said, “because Hee Kyung just practice but I play the three holes in the same conditions. Yeah, it’s really huge benefit.”

More than an hour after her victory, Ryu said it still felt like a dream. It amazed her that her name had joined Pak’s on the United States Open trophy.

“Se Ri started it,” she said. “I just followed.”

“I think anybody can,” Stricker said Monday.

Though that might sound like lip service at many tournaments, the Open’s recent history supports Stricker’s hunch. Long the domain of the great and the grand, the Open honor roll has taken a sharp turn for the democratic in the last 12 years. An unexpected victory is now almost routine, and that trend was underscored Monday when Louis Oosthuizen, the defending champion, and Ben Curtis, the last man to win at Royal St. George’s, were ushered into the press tent to reminisce.

“I think everybody loves an underdog,” Curtis said.

Golfing underdogs do not come much bigger than Curtis did in 2003. He arrived at this quirky, historic course having never played in a major championship or, for that matter, a links tournament. He was a 26-year-old from Ohio with a strong amateur record but a world ranking of 396th.

While much more experienced men cracked, above all Thomas Bjorn, who held a two-shot lead with three holes to play, Curtis was the only player to break par in the rough-and-tumble final round and thereby became the first man to win in his major debut since Francis Ouimet at the 1913 United States Open.

Curtis recalled a conversation with his wife-to-be, Candace, on the eve of the final round as they lay in bed in their modest English cottage (the Curtises have upgraded this year).

“She goes, ‘How do you feel about tomorrow?’ ” Curtis said. “And I just kind of looked at her and said, ‘I’m going to win.’ She never talked to me until after the round on Sunday. I mean, it wasn’t cocky or anything, just felt comfortable.”

Oosthuizen hardly looked overwrought himself last year at age 27 as he started the final round at St. Andrews with a four-shot lead and — despite the grandeur of the course and the utter lack of comparable experiences to draw on — coolly built on it to win by seven strokes.

True, Oosthuizen had shot an attention-demanding round of 57 as an amateur at home in South Africa and had won his first European tour event earlier in 2010. But he had missed the cut in seven of his previous eight major appearances and was on no one’s short list of potential champions except perhaps his own after some strong early practice sessions at the Old Course.

A year later, he has won one other tour event but has not yet become a consistent threat or a household name, or at least not according to how he pronounces it in his household: WUHST-high-zin.

“It’s not an easy surname,” he said, flashing the gap-toothed grin Monday that came so easily last year. “You know, it’s probably more annoying when they say, ‘I’ve been practicing it for a month,’ and they still get it completely wrong.”

Stricker says the Open produces surprises because links golf remains a rare form of competition for most professionals, particularly those based on the United States tour. There is also the infamous British weather.

“Here, it can be very extreme, so you can really get a bad deal here where one side of the draw has a distinct advantage,” Stricker said.

While Curtis and Oosthuizen have gone on to win tournaments since their stunning Open victories, Todd Hamilton, the American who was the surprise Open champion in 2004, has yet to win another tour event since he held off Ernie Els in a playoff. In the six British Opens Hamilton has played since he won at Royal Troon, he has missed the cut four times and finished in a tie for 32nd and a tie for 68th.

Paul Lawrie, the last Scotsman to win the claret jug, has never cracked so much as the top 40 at another British Open since beating Jan Van de Velde and Justin Leonard in 1999 at Carnoustie in the playoff that capped one of the wildest rides in the history of a tournament that was first staged in 1860.

Lawrie, a journeyman from Aberdeen, was 10 shots back at the start of the final round and won only because Van de Velde inexplicably gambled and then threw away a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole.

Unexpected indeed, and though Lawrie, Hamilton, Curtis and Oosthuizen did all manage to prevail against the odds, there have been other Opens in the last decade that nearly produced unlikely outcomes with well-known protagonists. Greg Norman led the 2008 Open after three rounds at age 53 before fading; Tom Watson led the 2009 Open after 71 holes at age 59 before generating groans of disappointment worldwide and losing to his fellow American Stewart Cink.

“There’s probably 130 guys that could win this week, have a legitimate chance,” Curtis said of the 156-man field. “You’re going to take here and there 20 that may not be feeling well or their game is really bad or whatever coming in, but pretty much anyone in the field can win this week. It’s just a matter of having the right things go your way and making a few putts here and there.”

Other major championships have had their share of unheralded winners, too, in what was known as the Tiger Woods era. Consider Lucas Glover, the winner of the 2009 United States Open, or Charl Schwartzel, Oosthuizen’s fellow South African and boyhood rival, at this year’s Masters.

But no major has made the surprise as unsurprising as this major, and though Stricker — among the favorites — is hardly hoping for more of the same, he is bracing for it.

“They get it going for a week and get the confidence rolling and enjoy the course and have all the things going for them,” he said. “I really do think anybody can win.”

At least that’s the routine in the men’s game. Viewers of the Women’s World Cup semifinals Wednesday may notice that, by comparison, the fake collapses are scarce — a curious distinction between the two games that raises tricky questions. Do female players compete with more integrity? Or has the women’s game simply not caught up with the men yet?

“I actually think women don’t like that side of the game,” said Julie Foudy, a former United States national team captain. “But my cynical side tells me that as women get more sophisticated and watch the game more and the stakes get higher, it will become more prevalent.”

The act of diving, as the fake falls are called, is crafty or cynical, artful gamesmanship or outright cheating, depending on one’s view. Although the use of the ruse was clearly evident on Sunday during the United States’ riveting World Cup quarterfinal victory over Brazil, the relative lack of this tactic in women’s soccer was captured in a study conducted at Wake Forest University. Researchers determined that women were much less likely than men to dive and fake injuries, an act also known as simulation.

The study reviewed video of 47 matches from the 2003 and 2007 Women’s World Cups and compared injury rates with men’s matches in regional tournaments. Apparent injuries were divided into two categories. They were considered “definite” if a player was replaced within five minutes or was visibly bleeding. Otherwise, the injuries were considered “questionable.”

Researchers found that an average of 11.26 apparent injuries occurred in men’s matches, compared with 5.74 in women’s matches. Those considered “definite” involved 13.7 percent of injuries for women and 7.2 percent for men.

“We can say that men writhe on the ground looking like they’re injured more than women, almost twice as often,” said Dr. Daryl Rosenbaum, the lead author of the study, which was published in the July issue of the journal Research in Sports Medicine. “And when players are apparently injured, the percentage when it was authentic by our criteria was twice as high with women. You could trust more that they were injured.”

Still, the study did find evidence of diving in women’s soccer, and it played a key role in the outcome of Sunday’s match.

Late in overtime, the Brazilian defender Erika dropped to the turf in front of her goal with no American player nearby. She was placed on a stretcher, only to climb off and soon return to the field. It was a clear act of feigning injury to kill time, as Brazil was trying to protect its 2-1 lead. Erika was given a yellow-card warning for stalling, which extended the game and allowed the Americans to tie the score. They won in a penalty-kick shootout.

“It’s frustrating to play against that,” said Christie Rampone, the captain of the American team, which will face France in the semifinals on Wednesday.

At the same time, Rampone said before the match, “When you see the calls being made, you ask, ‘Why aren’t we doing it?’ You start questioning yourself.”

The Wake Forest researchers found six apparent injuries per match during the 2007 Women’s World Cup, while team physicians reported only 2.3 injuries per match. For the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, the rate of “definite” injuries was .78 per match, compared with 4.96 “questionable” injuries per match.

“It looks like there may be some simulation in the women’s game,” said Rosenbaum, a sports medicine physician at the Wake Forest School of Medicine who also serves as a team doctor for the United States Soccer Federation.

But with the rates so different between men and women, questions arise about whether simulation is part of the nature of soccer or reflects inherent differences among the participants.

Rosenbaum offers two theories. One is that the greater visibility and higher financial stakes in men’s soccer leads to more gamesmanship.

Robert Michael/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHope Solo saved a penalty kick shot by Brazil’s defender Daiane.

Sometimes coaches know stuff. Sometimes they get it wrong.

I started second-guessing Pia Sundhage (one of the most interesting coaches I have come across) on Sunday as soon as she sent in Megan Rapinoe in the 55^th minute with a 1-0 lead. Rapinoe is athletic and aggressive but she cannot control play very well, which is what you need with a lead.

Rapinoe reminds me of Jana Novotna, who looked like a ballerina on a tennis court, but to my eyes, Rapinoe was still something of a loose cannon as the game started skittering away.

Then in one marvelous athletic burst, Rapinoe fired a left-footed diagonal ball directly to the frontal lobe of Abby Wambach, and everything changed.

All it takes in soccer is one play. Ask Paul Caligiuri, who fired the 25-yard boomer in 1989 that sent the United States to the next World Cup and put the host, Trinidad and Tobago, in a 16-year funk. Rapinoe’s desperate missile was that kind of play — which obviously was why Sundhage put her in.

On the other hand, Kleiton Lima, the Brazilian coach, had a part in his team’s downfall, first by letting his players blatantly dawdle in the closing minutes, thereby earning three minutes of added time from the ref, who by that time might have been getting the sense she had overreacted on the retake of the Brazil penalty kick an hour earlier. The Rapinoe-Wambach express happened in the second minute of added time.

Then Lima somehow sent Daiane out to take the third penalty kick with the game on the line, despite the fact that she is a defender who had clumsily booted in the own goal in the second minute of the match.

I don’t claim to know the dynamics of how Lima came up with his lineup, but Daiane did not exude confidence as she trudged toward the spot. In fact, Julie Foudy was saying she wasn’t so sure about that selection just before Hope Solo smothered Daiane’s weak ball.

The moral to this story is, don’t ever doubt Pia again. Ever. And of course no soccer fan ever will.

Your thoughts on this?