Vonn ready to defend latest World Cup title

NEW YORK — Lindsey Vonn is in a good place heading into the World Cup season — a "really happy place" as she's fond of calling it.

Collecting hardware: Lindsey Vonn hopes to add more World Cup trophies to her collection this season. AP

Just a year ago, her personal life was turned upside down when she separated from her husband of four years.

Since then, the U.S. skier has put the split behind her and rekindled relationships with teammates. She's also feeling as strong as ever after taking a different training approach this offseason to save wear and tear on her balky left knee.

And sure, defending her overall title this season remains at the top of her to-do list. So is this: eclipsing the 2,000-point plateau after finishing just 20 away last season. She would like nothing more than to join Austrian great Hermann Maier as the only skiers to attain that lofty mark.

"I want to try to improve on what I did last year," Vonn said in an interview from Portillo, Chile, where she's training with the U.S. squad. "That may not be possible. But that's what I'm going to try and do."

In the midst of her personal strife last season, Vonn found solace in the one place that's always been her sanctuary — the slopes. Once she clicked into her skis, Vonn was all business as she captured 12 World Cup races, putting her within striking distance of becoming the all-time winningest female skier. She has 53 career victories, trailing only Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria (62) and Vreni Schneider of Switzerland (55).

"She has raised the bar as to what is capable for a female ski racer," women's speed coach Chip White said. "The scary thing now is she is showing no signs of slowing down."

What helped last season was having family and friends constantly around, taking her mind off any problems away from the race course. This year, her younger sister, Laura, will take a year off from school and travel around the circuit with her.

"Life is very, very different for me right now," said Vonn, a four-time World Cup overall winner from Vail, Colo. "But I am in a really happy place. This is a new chapter. I'm ready for it."

She wasn't ready for this — intense tabloid speculation.

Vonn is used to making headlines for wins, not over whom she may be dating. It's been a difficult adjustment, especially since most of the rumors have been way off the mark. None more than reports linking her with quarterback Tim Tebow after "Tebowing" following her super-G win in Beaver Creek last December.

"I guess that's a new part of my life, too," she said. "It seems like whoever I'm friends with, people start to think I'm dating them. It's all crazy to me. I'm just happy being single."

By Vonn's standards, this summer was a low-key break from the snow. There were no trips down the red carpet or guest appearances on "Law & Order."

Instead, she traipsed through Europe with her sisters, culminating with a visit to the luxurious beaches in the southern French resort town of Saint Tropez, attended a Rascal Flatts concert in North Carolina and ventured over to London for the Olympics.

While there, she watched Gabby Douglas win the gymnastics all-around, saw Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps capture gold in the pool, caught a few Team USA men's basketball games and was in the stands when her favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, fell in the Olympic final to Andy Murray.

"It's so different when you're actually there to watch — you get to see more emotion," Vonn said. "I actually knew the stories behind all the athletes, instead of just being in my own bubble and focusing on my own competition."

Being there, though, made her antsy for the 2014 Sochi Games.

"I was wondering why I wasn't competing," said Vonn, who captured the Olympic downhill gold medal in Vancouver. "I'm ready to race."

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Sakaguchi injury latest blow for underperforming Buffaloes

Buff luck: Tomotaka Sakaguchi's injury against the Giants last Thursday was typical of the Orix Buffaloes' bad fortune this season. KYODO

Tomotaka Sakaguchi separated his shoulder making a catch, and the run still scored.

It's one of the cruelest ironies of a play that could impact what's already been a tough season for the Orix Buffaloes.

Had the speedy four-time Golden Glove-winning center fielder's momentum not taken him forward so forcefully after an impressive catch on the move — with a Yomiuri Giants runner on third — he wouldn't have hit the ground so awkwardly or been carried off on a stretcher after a few painful minutes of writhing on the Tokyo Dome surface. He would've simply made the out and (probably) prevented the run from scoring. Had he gotten to the ball late, the run would've scored, but Sakaguchi would presumably still be in good health.

It's partially because he's a such a good fielder that things unfolded the way they did. That's just the way the season has been for the Buffaloes. Even when something goes right, the end result is inexorably flawed.

Sakaguchi's injury on Thursday (he may miss several weeks) was just the latest blow. The Buffaloes took a pair of games from the Tokyo Yakult Swallows over the weekend, but have lost six of their last nine and are bringing up the rear in the Pacific League. To be fair, Orix wasn't doing so hot with Sakaguchi, but losing one of your top players isn't going to help get things on track.

What's frustrating for Buffaloes fans, and probably the team itself, is Orix should be better. This is a team with some talented pitchers and a few good position players that should be playing better.

Adding insult to injury, Orix (which finished fourth in 2011) is seeing last season's cellar-dwellers, the Chiba Lotte Marines, sitting pretty in first place, and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (fifth last year) staying afloat in third — even without ace Masahiro Tanaka.

Injuries have played a big role in Orix's slow start, as has just plain old bad luck, but the current state of affairs is hardly new.

The Buffaloes have finished outside the top three each year since their formation in 2005, the exception being 2008's partially spite-fueled run to second place under Daijiro Oishi after manager Terry Collins quit midseason.

There have been misses on draft days, in free agency, on the farm, and not a good enough performance in the manager's chair. Even when the roster was flush with talent (2009, 2011 particularly), Orix finished in the B-Class.

The franchise needs to figure out how to get out of its own way long enough to foster the type of success the Marines are currently enjoying.

It's only May and too early to start abandoning ship, but nothing in the team's recent history inspires much confidence.

There were no smiles and little small talk as the players filed out of Tokyo Dome after losing to the Giants Thursday. Frustration was evident on their faces as they quietly trudged through the hallway, the funk of another loss hanging thick in the air.

A run scoring on Sakaguchi's injury is emblematic of the Buffaloes' trouble taking a step forward without first taking two steps back.

A two-game sweep of the Swallows over the weekend was a good start, but the Buffaloes have to build upon it and figure out how to put their best foot forward during the remainder of the year.

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'Boomer' came up short in latest bid for Hall of Fame

It was a good week for the Hiroshima Carp family as two former pitchers were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Manabu Kitabeppu and the late Tsunemi Tsuda garnered enough votes to enter Tokyo's version of Cooperstown. Their induction ceremony will take place at an All-Star Game at Kyocera Osaka Dome this coming summer.

Kitabeppu picked up 257 votes, while Tsuda got 237, one above the minimum 236 required to get in. The third-place vote-getter pulled in 223, just 13 shy of the cutoff line, and who do you suppose it was?

Former Hankyu Braves, Orix BlueWave and Fukuoka Daiei Hawks slugger Greg "Boomer" Wells was No. 3.

Gregory DeWayne Wells was a prolific slugger, one of those "4A" players too good for Triple-A, but not able to crack a major league team's lineup, usually because a star player mans the position he plays. Wells was ready to break into the big leagues in the early 1980s but for whatever reason just did not make it after brief stints with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1981 and the Minnesota Twins in '82.

Instead, the Pacific League Hankyu Braves brought him, at the age of 29, to Japan in 1983, and he went on to play 10 seasons with Hankyu, the Orix Braves and BlueWave and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, retiring after the 1992 season.

Wells was one of many foreign players in Japan who went by his first name or a nickname, and he was registered simply as "Boomer." Most Japanese fans who saw him play during his stellar decade-long PL career probably don't know his real name.

Boomer was made to play in Japan, from his 213-cm frame to his picture-perfect swing to his skill at playing the first base position to his attitude about playing ball in the Far East. He loved living in western Japan and was never intimidated by Japanese pitchers and the breaking balls they threw, though the opposing hurlers may have been intimidated by him.

One of his trademarks was the habit of hitching up the short sleeves on his jersey for better comfort while swinging, but it also exposed the muscles that made him one of the strongest power hitters in Japanese baseball history.

I can recall seeing him play a game against the Lotte Orions one hot summer night in August of 1984 in Fukuoka, where he absolutely crushed three line drive home runs, one of which carried completely out of Heiwadai Stadium.

He did not try to out-think the opposing hurlers but just went up to the plate hacking away, and hack he did. Over his 10-year career in Japan, Boomer won the Triple Crown in '84, his second year in the country, helping the Braves win the PL pennant by hitting .355 with 37 home runs and 130 RBIs and being named the league MVP.

He also won league RBI titles in 1987 with 119, in 1989 with 124, and 1992 with 97, and another batting championship, hitting .322 in '89. There were three 40-homer seasons as well; he hit a career-high 42 in 1986, and 40 in '87 and again in '89. His lifetime-in-Japan statistics include a .317 batting average, 277 homers and 901 RBIs.

Boomer might have played an 11th season in Japan in 1993, but the Hawks, about ready to move from Heiwadai Stadium into the newly constructed Fukuoka Dome, decided to clean house, changing managers and foreign players.

"Tabuchi wanted me back," said Boomer, referring to Koichi Tabuchi, the Daiei manager in 1992. "But they let him go, and they let me go." Wells did return to Japan, however, spending the 1994 season with his old Orix BlueWave as a batting coach, giving advice to — among others — some guy named Ichiro Suzuki.

A native of McIntosh, Alabama, Boomer now lives in Cartersville, Georgia, and spoke to us by phone last week. He had no idea he had narrowly missed gaining entrance to the Japanese HOF and expressed some disappointment.

"I hadn't heard about it," he said. "But I always thought I would have a chance to make it. I was the first foreigner to win a Triple Crown in Japan, I left as the best foreign right-handed batter of all-time and set a lot of team records that are still standing, except for those broken by Ichiro."

Asked what he's doing now, Boomer said, "I'm retired, just cutting my grass and taking care of my 85-year-old mom and other family members. I visit my daughter, Mika, in Chicago. She's a grad student and working there."

He does stay in touch with the game, too. "Sometimes I do a baseball clinic for kids with (former Nankai Hawks player, 1986) Danny Goodwin," he said.

Unfortunately, according to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum located at Tokyo Dome, this was Wells' final year of eligibility for election by the Players Selection Committee, because he has been inactive as a player for 20 years. However, he may be considered in 2012 in the Expert Section if selected by the Screening Committee to be included among the 10 candidates in that section.

Wells played during an unforgettable time in Japanese baseball history when each team was allowed only two non-Japanese players, and there were some great ones: Randy Bass, Warren Cromartie, Leron and Leon Lee, Bobby Marcano, Ken Macha, Ralph Bryant, Bob Horner, Brad "The Animal" Lesley, Reggie Smith, Cecil Fielder, Bill Gullickson, among others.

If there was a Baseball Bullet-In Hall of Fame, they would all be members.

Maybe we should start one.

Contact Wayne Graczyk at Wayne@JapanBall.com

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Barcelona celebrates latest triumph

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona players rode through the Catalan capital in an open-top bus Sunday, showing off the Champions League trophy they won by beating Manchester United in the final.

Thousands of fans greeted the players as the bus — decked out in the club's red and blue colors with the word "Champions" on the sides — wound its way through the city.

The players later were introduced one by one before a packed crowd of more than 90,000 fans at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium, with coach Pep Guardiola carrying the trophy onto the field.

Lionel Messi, who scored in the 3-1 win at Wembley on Saturday night, told the crowd: "I don't have much to say other than to thank you all for your support during this amazing year. Hopefully, there will be many more to come. Long live Barca and long live Catalunya."

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