News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church

By Kent Larsen

Sports: Wally Joyner Retires

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- After 16 seasons in the major leagues, Wally Joyner has retired from the team where he started his career, the Anaheim Angels. His current season hadn't gone well, so on his 39th birthday, after Angels Manager Mike Scioscia pulled him from the starting lineup for good, Joyner decided to hang up his glove. His retirement isn't the only change among Mormons in the Majors, and, along with the end of the NBA's season, it marks something of a sports transition for the year.

In spite of being pulled, Joyner seemed to have suddenly broken his slump, going 2 for 5 (.400) in his final three games and adding an RBI. He ends his season with 3 homers and 14 RBIs and a .243 batting average.

The other two position players on our lists also didn't have anything to shout about. McKay Christensen, while he is now back in the majors, still isn't playing, getting just a single at bat in four games so far. Meanwhile last year's MVP, Jeff Kent, went 5 for 18 with 3 RBIs, about the same level he's averaged so far this year.

The Mormon pitchers on our lists have fared better. Shawn Estes gave up just 1 run over 7 innings to get a win and lower his ERA for the season to 2.41 and relief pitchers Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Fetters both had scoreless appearances of 2 innings and 1 2/3rds innings respectively. Baltimore's Jason Johnson had an off game, getting pulled after 4 1/3rd innings when he'd already given up 5 runs, 3 of them earned. Omar Olivares, who like Joyner has struggled this year, was put in the bull pen by the Pirates, where he seems to be performing much better. Olivares gave the Pirates 3 scoreless innings in two appearances.

Meanwhile, Mark Madsen actually got a chance to earn his championship ring as Laker coach Phil Jackson put him in briefly in two of the Laker's last three games. But Madsen didn't have to work too hard -- he only played for 3 minutes. The Utah Starzz' Natalie Williams was hot last week, scoring 25 points in the Starzz' only game during the 34 minutes she played. Kristen Rasmussen, in contrast, only played for 10 minutes in the Miami Sol's latest game, and didn't manage to score.

Mormon participation in the US Open last week was light. Jay Don Blake was cut after the second round, but three other players finished, Dan Forsman tied for 66th, Richad Zokol for 62nd and Mike Weir tied for 19th. On the pro tour, Bruce Summerhays tied for 16th in the Instinet Classic. Meanwhile, Soccer pro Maren Hendershot again filled a substitute role, getting 11 minutes playing time in the Carolina Courage's 0-2 loss to the Bay Area Cyberrays.

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Position Players:

McKay Christensen

Center Field

Chicago White Sox

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
YTD	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Wally Joyner

First Base

Anaheim Angels

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	3	5	0	2	0	1	0	0	0.4
YTD	53	148	14	36	3	14	13	18	0.243

Jeff Kent

Second Base

San Francisco Giants

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	6	18	3	5	0	3	6	2	0.278
YTD	69	250	34	70	9	50	33	46	0.28

Pitchers:

Shawn Estes

Starting Pitcher

San Francisco Giants

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	1	0	0	1.29	7	4	1	1	1	3
YTD	12	6	2	0	2.41	82	59	23	22	27	54

Kyle Farnsworth

Relief Pitcher

Chicago Cubs

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	3	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	1	2
YTD	32	0	1	0	2.73	33	27	10	10	13	56

Mike Fetters

Relief Pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0	0	1	0	1.7	0	0	0	0	2
YTD	24	2	0	1	3.97	22.7	17	11	10	8	19

* Omar Olivares

Starting Pitcher

Pittsburg Pirates

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	1	1
YTD	14	2	7	0	6.88	66.7	77	52	51	25	47

Garret Stephenson	Starting Pitcher	St Louis Cardinals
[On the Disabled List - out for the season]

Basketball

NBA

WNBA

Football

NFL

The NFL season has ended.

CFL

The CFL season begins June 20th.

Wide receiver Ben Cahoon of the Montreal Alouettes is LDS, but we don't yet have a source for statistics on him.

We have also identified the following possible Mormon players, based on the 2001 Rosters:

Player	Team	College
Chris Ellison	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Curtis Marsh	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	Utah
Omaar Morgan	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Rob Hitchcock	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Trevor Shaw	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Kevin Alexander	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Darnell Arceneaux	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Anthony Calvillo	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Josh Cochran	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Neal Fort	Montreal Alouettes	BYU
Chad Folk	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Profail Greer	Toronto Argonauts	Utah State
Errol Martin	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Morgan Welch	Toronto Argonauts	Weber State
Brandon Dyson	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	Utah State
Moe Elewonibi	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	BYU

Hockey

NHL

The NHL's regular season has ended, and the only Mormon player we know is not on a team playing in the playoffs.

Golf

PGA Tour

Senior PGA Tour

Soccer

WUSA

* Mormon News has enough information to make it likely that this athlete is either Mormon or has Mormon heritage. But we have so far been unable to confirm this suspicion.

(MH) - Mormon Heritage - This athlete is either an inactive LDS Church member, or has Mormon heritage.

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