m Palmer. But Fidrychs success on the diamond would be short lived. H

LIENZ, Austria -- Overcoming several injury-plagued seasons, Marlies Schild of Austria finally set the best mark for most World Cup slalom victories Sunday by winning her 35th race to overtake Switzerlands Vreni Schneider on top of the all-time list. The 32-year-old Schild is a four-time World Cup slalom champion, but she missed a host of races after breaking a leg in 2008 and then tore ligaments last year. That meant she was stuck on 33 slalom wins for close to two years until winning in Courchevel, France, this month. "My 34th win was a weight off my shoulders," Schild said. "Suddenly everything got easier in training though racing is still something different." Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. Brittany Phelan of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was 11th to lock up a spot for the Sochi Olympics. "As much as it would have been nice to be on the podium Im still happy with fourth," said Gagnon, who has been racing slalom, giant slalom and super-G this year. "By the end of the second run my legs were shot. Im doing all the disciplines and I think its finally catching up to me. "Im going to take a little break and then get back to business." Phelan needed a top-12 result to meet the alpine qualification criteria for Sochi. "It started off shaky and then I got faster and faster down the course," she said. "For the second run I knew I had to clean up the top and I think it went pretty well. I just kind of went for it." Schild got her record-setting win in impressive style. Lying 0.69 seconds behind in sixth after the opening leg, she used a blistering second run to finish in one minute 55.63 seconds and beat American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin, who led the competition after the first run. Shiffrin finished 0.41 behind. Olympic slalom champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany was third, 0.63 behind Schild. "It was tough for me," said Schild, who celebrated her fourth career win in a Lienz slalom. "I had not a good feeling in the first run. In the second, my skiing felt really well and I just tried to point my skis down." The victory was Schilds 54th career podium in slalom. She is now tied with fellow Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (downhill) for the second most podiums in one discipline. Only another Austrian skier, Renate Goetschl, has more, with 59 top-three finishes in downhill. Shiffrin has never made a secret of her admiration for Schild, making her defeat by the Austrian bearable. "I always want to win but she skied better and was faster," Shiffrin said. "I am OK with taking second place. If she skies better, I am all for it. She is still one of my idols and she keeps inspiring me. As long as I am on the podium with her, I am happy." Shiffrin lost out on the chance to become the youngest winner of five slaloms in one calendar year. At 18 years and 291 days old, the American would have been 67 days younger than Janica Kostelic when the Croatian standout won five slaloms in 2000. However, the missed record didnt bother Shiffrin too much. "I am happy with a podium," Shiffrin said, adding "its a bit disappointing" to lose her first-run lead after failing to find her rhythm in the second. In two years since getting her first podium here in 2011, Shiffrin has 12 top-three finishes including five wins. She looked set for her sixth when she took the lead after the first run. In an increasingly heavy rain, Shiffrin was slowed by a mistake as she almost skied out four gates from the finish but still beat the field by 0.22. "I felt really good and the snow was awesome, so all good," said Shiffrin, who has been dominating slalom racing in 2013, winning the world title and the World Cup discipline title. Shiffrin maintained her lead in this seasons slalom standings with 202 points, two clear of Schild. Hoefl-Riesch went top of the overall standings with 611 points, edging Liechtensteins Tina Weirather by two as well. Many racers struggled with the rainy conditions, with Maria Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden and Kathrin Zettel of Austria, who were second and third respectively after the opening run, failing to finish. Hoefl-Riesch, fourth after the opening run, took full advantage. "Its a nice feeling," the German said. "Of course I benefited from others not finishing but I am just happy to get to the podium." Having won the overall title in 2011, Hoefl-Riesch is again one of the main contenders for this seasons crystal globe, with four-time champion Lindsey Vonn suffering from a knee injury and defending champion Tina Maze struggling to match her outstanding results from last season. The Slovenian finished more than three seconds off the lead in 15th. "The chance to compete for the overall title hasnt been as good for a long time as it is now," said Hoefl-Riesch, who is considering Weirather, Austrias Anna Fenninger en Switzerlands Lara Gut as her main challengers. "Regarding the overall title, its good to earn points here as my rivals dont do slalom." The womens World Cup continues with another slalom next Sunday in Bormio, Italy. Custom Seattle Mariners Nike Jerseys .com) - Former foes from the Mountain West Conference battle in the 23rd annual Las Vegas Bowl, as the 23rd-ranked Utah Utes clash with the Colorado State Rams at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday. Custom Pittsburgh Pirates Nike Jerseys . Future Hall of Famer Ricky Ray is in his prime and back for a third season in double blue. 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The Spurs signed Parker to a multi-year contract extension on Friday, ensuring that the six-time All-Star point guard will be in the fold whether Duncan and Ginobili are able to continue their careers or not.October 1st of 1980 wasnt a particularly special day in Blue Jays history. It was the final home game of the regular season at old Exhibition Stadium. The Jays were days away from wrapping up a 67-95 season. On this day, there were but 12,426 fans in the stands to watch the culmination of a fifth straight losing season. The fans on hand probably didnt even realize they were witnessing something special, something unique. Not the final score. Detroit out slugged the Blue Jays 11-7. So what was it about this game? Well it was the final start of the incredible, yet semi tragic career of Mark Fidrych. On this day the man-child they called the "Bird" went five innings giving up five runs, four of those earned. The Jays effectively ended his day by scoring four runs in the fifth. Ernie Whitt keying the rally with a three run homer, the last "Round Tripper" Fidrych would ever surrender. Fidrych gutted it out through that fifth inning and managed to get the win, to finish his season at (2-3). The starter for the Blue Jays that day was a 23-year-old Dave Stieb. He got torched for seven hits and six earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings and took the loss to fall to (12-15). Greatness was yet to come for Stieb who was in just his second season in the Majors, his first full campaign. For Fidrych, we were just left with memories and the lingering question of how great he might have been. Flash back to May 15th of 1976. The Tigers were home to Cleveland. Their scheduled starter that day had the flu. The manager, Ralph Houk "the Major" of Yankees fame, handed the ball to a 21-year-old long lanky right hander, who reminded a minor league coach of his at Lakeland of the legendary Sesame Street character "Big Bird". All Fidrych did was pitch a complete game two-hitter as he out-dueled Clevelands Pat Dobson in a 2-1 Tigers victory. There were 14,583 people on hand for the game. Remember that number. There were some great Blue Jays and Canadian baseball connections in that game. Rusty Staub was in right field for Detroit. Alan Ashby, a Blue Jay a year later was catching for Cleveland and the two DHs - the Tigers Willie Horton and the Indians Rico Carty - played with the Jays as well. For Fidrych this was only the beginning of one of most magical seasons in baseball history. After losing his next start at Fenway in yet another complete game, 2-0 to the great Luis Tiant, Fidrych would go on to reel off seven straight victories He was more than just a pitcher though, he was a fun loving unassuming kid who just loved playing the game. He would talk to the ball and carefully groom the mound before every inning. He caught the baseball world by sttorm.dddddddddddd. Fidrych appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice and was the first athlete ever to appear on the cover of "Rolling Stone" Magazine. In his first 13 starts, Fidrych worked an unbelievable 120 1/3 innings. If you do the math, thats over nine innings per start. How is that possible? Well three times over that span Houk let him go 11 innings. On June the 28th, he was featured in a Monday Night baseball national telecast, Fidrych beat the Yankees 5-1 in just an hour and 51 minutes. Fidrych would go on to start the All-Star game for the American League in his 12th Major League start. He would go on to finish the season at (19-9) for Detroit with a 2.34 ERA. But it was some of his other numbers that were truly astounding. Fidrych made 29 starts from mid-May till the end of the season. He pitched 24 complete games including four shutouts and pitched 250 1/3 innings. Pitchers today are proud just to hit 200 innings. On May 31st, he pitched a game that lasted one hour and 48 minutes. Then in his next start, he bested that taking just one hour and 46 minutes. Another unusual thing about Fidrych was he had his own personal catcher. He was 24- year-old Bruce Kimm, a rookie who played his first game with the Tigers just two weeks before Fidrych made his first start. They worked so well together in that first start Houk kept them as a battery all season. I dont know if that would ever happen today. As great as he was for Detroit that season, the Tigers still finished up the track at 74-87. Somehow, though he was voted Rookie of the Year, he didnt win the Cy Young too. That honour went to the Orioles Jim Palmer. But Fidrychs success on the diamond would be short lived. He injured his knee in the spring of 1977, and later in that season damaged his shoulder. Times being what they were, and medical advances in the treatment of arm injuries were still in their infancy, it wasnt discovered till 1985 that the "Bird" had a damaged rotator cuff. He finished his career with a (29-19) record and 3.10 ERA and 34 complete games in just 58 starts. This is the really incredible number. When Roger Clemens, one of the All-time greats pitched for the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998, attendance barely increased on days he was on the mound at Rogers Centre. Yet in 1976, a year in which the Tigers drew 1,467,020 fans, more than half of that number showed up for the 18 games Fidrych pitched in. That is incredible. So if you were one of the few who were at Exhibition Stadium on Oct. 1, 1980 consider yourself lucky. You saw the final appearance of one of the most unique talents and colourful characters the baseball world has ever seen. ' ' '