RealFAST LOCAL NEWS

Former “American Idol” contestant Corey Clark was arrested in Arkansas on Monday on drug charges and because of an outstanding warrant from Arizona, authorities said. Clark was accused of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

A warrant had been issued for Clark after he failed to appear in a Yuma court on a summons stemming from an arrest last year for violating a court order and on a charge of trespassing.

Clark was disqualified after reaching the finals in 2003 for failing to reveal a previous arrest. He later claimed to have had an affair with “Idol” judge Paula Abdul and said she paid some of his expenses. She denied that.

The Associated Press

Citizen Staff Writer

Tucson Unified School District’s board recently named three administrators.

Ramona Clinch is the new assistant principal at Lynn/Urquides Elementary School, 1573 W. Ajo Way.

Henry Veta, former principal at Carrillo Magnet School, 440 S. Main Ave., has returned to assistant principal of Maxwell Middle School.

Carol Trunnell, former coordinator of special education for Northwest Regional Education Service District in Hillsboro, Ore., is the new assistant director of Exceptional Education for the district.

MARY BUSTAMANTE
mbustamante@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Writer

BRYAN LEE

brylee@tucsoncitizen.com

More than 20 city and county road miles of bicycle lanes have been completed this year and will be in the new edition of the annual Tucson Metro Bike Map, to be published next month.

“The city completed 10.5 miles and the county the same,” said Matt Zoll, Pima County’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

These 21 miles could make riding in the metro area easier and safer because most connect current bike lanes.

For example, one of the smallest, yet most important pieces, is on the Broadway biking corridor, he said. Completed are 0.35 mile east of Park Mall and 0.25 mile between Prudence and Pantano roads, Zoll added.

Broadway bike lanes now extend from the Fourth Avenue underpass construction site to Ridgeside Drive, east of Houghton Road, a total of 11.5 miles.

The Tucson Metro Bike Map includes lanes in Tucson, South Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley, Sahuarita and Pima County.

Zoll said a big disappointment is the abandonment of plans to build a shared path in Marana on North Thornydale Road from Magee Road to Linda Vista Boulevard. Thornydale is one of the busiest thoroughfares on the Northwest Side.

“(Officials) pulled the path, and that affects whether (to install) road bike lanes,” he said. “We will probably have to wait for a road-widening project.”

Other bike lanes that have been or will be completed this year:

• The last mile of the Rillito River Path’s north side between north Campbell Avenue and Country Club Road;

• One mile of 22nd Street from north Alvernon Way to Venice Avenue and 0.7 mile farther east from South Kolb to Pantano roads;

• 1.5 miles of West Valencia Road from South Mission to Midvale Park roads;

• 0.7 mile of East Valencia and a stretch of 0.7 mile east of South Alvernon Way and west of the Pima Air & Space Museum;

• 1.5 miles of the new Palo Verde Bridge;

• 1.3 miles of Country Club Road south of East 36th Street;

• 0.4 mile of the connector of the shared path from Aviation Highway/Golf Links Road to Broadway;

• 0.4 mile of Anklam Road connecting St. Mary’s Road and Starr Pass Boulevard;

• 1.5 miles of Cortaro Farms Road from Hartman Lane to Interstate 10.

Citizen Staff Writer
RealFAST SCORES AND MORE

Tanisha Kendrick made her last race before college a memorable one Sunday at the U.S.A. Track and Field Junior Olympics.

But it was 11-year-old Ryan Silva who stole the show for the southern Arizona contingent at the national event with two gold medal performances in Walnut, Calif.

The pair were among 18 members of the Tucson Elite Athletic Club, coached by University of Arizona track coach Fred Harvey and his wife, Janet, who qualified for the national meet.

Silva, competing in the Midget Boys division (11-12-year-olds), ran away from the field in the 1,500-meter race Sunday with a gold-medal time of 4 minutes, 35.08 seconds.

Tucsonan Brandon Door finished ninth in 4:55.47.

Saturday, Silva won the 800 in 2:12.25.

Kendrick, from Tucson High, took the bronze Sunday in the Young Women’s division (17-18 years old) 400 race with a personal-best 55.3 seconds.

She has accepted an athletic scholarship to run track at Morgan State (Md.) University.

Kendrick and fellow Tucson-area sprinters Victoria Ochoa, Ashley King and Sophia Tekel also qualified for the Junior Olympics in the Young Women’s 4×100 meter race, but the team’s time of 51.22 in preliminary heats was not fast enough to make the championship heat.

GEOFF GRAMMER,

ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Writer

JOHN MOREDICH

jmoredich@tucsoncitizen.com

To counter poor graduation rates, the University of Arizona’s athletic department is more than doubling its tutoring staff as part of a new academic game plan.

UA, which lost seven football scholarships over the past two years under the NCAA’s tougher academic guidelines, will increase its tutors to 70 from 30 by late August and continue to place more responsibility on its student-athletes.

“It’s not our goal to hold somebody’s hands for four years, (but) we want to create independent learners and have them be on their own, functioning as strong as possible,” said Roger Grooters, the new director of the Commitment to an Athlete’s Total Success (C.A.T.S.) program.

The Wildcats ranked last in the Pacific-10 Conference among football students enrolling from 1996-99, graduating 39 percent. Overall, 65 percent of UA athletes enrolling during that time graduated within six years – 12 points lower than the national average.

Football coach Mike Stoops said UA’s new academic strategy helped his team hold a 2.37 grade-point average in the spring, the “best” since he took over in 2004.

Besides the extra tutors, the athletic department has:

• Added a third full-time learning specialist to its C.A.T.S. program.

• Installed an up-to-date monitoring system to oversee class schedules, tutoring and study hall times, athletic events and practices.

• Instituted a code of conduct policy to penalize students who fail to attend classes, study halls and tutoring sessions, realizing that could ultimately cost them playing time or their scholarships.

“There are so many people helping you out,” said baseball player and senior-to-be Colt Sedbrook, who missed the first couple of weeks of the 2007 season because of academic eligibility issues.

“You go (to the academic offices) and say, ‘I’m having trouble with my history class and my math class.’ The next day they will (give) you a history tutor and a math tutor,” he said.

The new tutors are UA students who are paid, but each team also has athletes, such as linebacker Ronnie Palmer, who tutor teammates.

“When you come in to a recruiting trip, it might have been all about baseball, baseball, football, football, basketball, basketball,” Sedbrook said. “(But) the recruiting trips we have had this year are like, ‘Check out our academic stuff. If you need the help, it is there.’ ”

Early results show progress. The number of student-athletes with 3.0 or higher grade-point averages rose to 285 from 254 from spring 2006 to spring 2007.

“Academics is the most important aspect of your program, and we have made virtually every change we needed to,” Stoops said.

Much of the focus has been on Stoops’ team, which will forfeit four scholarships in the next year after losing three a year ago under the first Academic Progress Report (APR).

UA was the only Pac-10 program and BCS conference team in 2007 to lose scholarships because of the APR, which focuses on eligibility and graduation issues.

Heading into the 2007 football season, however, the Wildcats have only three players on their 75-plus-player scholarship roster below a 2.0 average, Grooters said.

“Academically, we have taken some hits, but this is the best academically we have done since we have been here,” Stoops said. “I’m proud of the way they have handled themselves.”

The men’s and women’s basketball programs have no one under 2.0 heading into the fall, Grooters added.

“The students have responded well,” Grooters said. “What we are asking is not unreasonable. We are asking them to be students and be athletes and to fulfill your academic responsibilities.”

MORE IN TUESDAY’S CITIZEN

• Schools use UA’s past academic woes to recruit against Wildcats.

• Cats gain “bonus points” for athletes who return for degrees.

• Football team newcomers report.

INSIDE

• Athletes in academic trouble face stringent monitoring. 4C

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-day series examining the UA athletic department’s academic woes.

UA FOOTBALL TEAM LAGS

The UA football team is trying to improve its graduation percentage, which was last among Pac-10 football teams for players who enrolled from 1996-99*:

1. Stanford 94

2. Washington 66

3. Oregon State 60

4. UCLA 59

5. Oregon 59

6. Washington State 57

7. Arizona State 56

8. USC 55

9. California 44

10. ARIZONA 39

* Stats released in 2006.

PAC-10 CELLAR

UA’s football team ranked last in the Pac-10 under the 2005-06 Academic Progress Report, losing seven scholarships in the past two years:

Rank, school APR

1. Stanford 984

2. California 965

3. USC 947

4. Washington 942

5. UCLA 931

6. Washington State 930

7. Arizona State 926

8. Oregon State 913

9. Oregon 912

10. ARIZONA 883

Note: Scholarship penalties can be assessed for scores below 925. Oregon State and Oregon were not penalized, because of squad-size adjustments.

Citizen Staff Writer

On Friday, the University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars Mission is scheduled to begin its nine-month journey to the red planet.

The mission, slated to land May 25, 2008, will search for evidence of water beneath the Martian arctic surface.

To learn more, visit www.tucsoncitizen.com/mars.

COUNTDOWN TO MARS 4 DAYS

• Graphic: Infographics of NASA’s spacecraft and plans for the Phoenix Mars Mission.

• Video: An interview with UA planetary scientist and artist William Hartmann

• Check back every day for more.

TUCSONCITIZEN.COM

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France – Ex-Arizona Wildcat Natalie Gulbis finally can be known for winning, too.

Famous mostly for her looks through five-plus seasons on tour, Gulbis broke through Sunday, winning her first LPGA Tour title at the Evian Masters with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff against Jang Jeong of South Korea.

Jang and the 24-year-old American finished the fourth round tied at 4-under 284. Gulbis had a final-round 70, and Jang birdied the last hole to finish with a 72.

“Obviously it was meant to be for me,” Gulbis said. “Before the playoff, I was very upset at myself because I felt like I had given away this tournament. I thought I needed to get to 7 under to win and I end up at, what, four?

“Going in today, I never thought that 4 under would have won this tournament.”

Jang, the 2005 Women’s British Open champion, birdied three of the last four holes to tie Gulbis.

The tall, blond Gulbis has been one of the best-known players on the LPGA Tour. She sells a calendar on her Web site featuring shots of her in athletic apparel and swimwear, has a reality show on The Golf Channel, and her digitized likeness appears in Tiger Woods’ eponymous video game.

But until Sunday, she was never a champion.

“What does it mean? How long do you have?” Gulbis said.

At the first extra hole, the 18th, Jang missed the green with her second shot, but Gulbis did not.

“I usually can’t reach that green in two,” Gulbis said. “I hit a really good drive and hit my rescue club in. It was about 25 feet, and I thought the eagle putt was in. Fortunately, it ended about a foot away, and I tapped it in. I wouldn’t have wanted it to be much farther than that.”

Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, also an ex-Wildcat, was one shot behind and tied for third place with Juli Inkster of the United States and Shin Ji-yai of South Korea. Ochoa had six birdies in her closing 68, but dropped a shot at the last hole. Shin finished with a 72.

Inkster, the leader by two shots after the first three rounds, finished with a 75. She had three bogeys in the last five holes and three-putted the par-5 18th after reaching the green in two.

Had she won, Inkster, 47, would have become the oldest player to win an LPGA Tour event.

Michelle Wie finished tied for 69th place with a 16-over 304, after a final-round 76.

Sophie Gustafson was in contention at 4 under until she dropped shots at the 17th and 18th.

FURYK WINS, TOO

Ex-UA Wildcat Jim Furyk wins the PGA Canadian Open for the second straight year, holding off Vijay Singh. Page 5C

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

So much has sprouted at Main Gate Square in recent years.

If you haven’t been down to University Boulevard in three or four years, you will be shocked to see that viable university district.

Even in the past two months or past two years, a slew of new merchants have popped up. Come back in another month or more and new businesses will have come on board.

Main Gate Square is the relatively new identity taking root for those two blocks of University Boulevard spilling off the University of Arizona’s west entrance.

That stretch has served as Tucson’s university district since Louise Marshall established the first retail foothold in 1922. Her namesake Marshall Foundation still owns nearly all the University Boulevard property between Park and Euclid avenues.

The street had a variety of ups and downs during the 20th century, and “then we did the greatest sin of all in the ’80s: We created an arcade (with covered sidewalk and streetside arches) and all the retail was hidden,” said Jane McCollum, the foundation’s general manager since 2003.

But now Main Gate Square is right at the flash point of achieving an “urban pedestrian experience for shopping, dining and services” that has taken nearly 20 years to assemble and some $12.5 million in Marshall Foundation investments since the heavy lifting started with the construction of the Marriott University Park Hotel in 1995.

The run of the 2000s, especially, have brought nonstop reshaping of the retail-dining corridor on University Boulevard.

Most notably, the arched arcades of the University Drug Co. are gone, as is University Drug itself and the building that stood at University and Park.

In its place stand two brick buildings that match the architectural design of Marshall’s first retail structure from 1922.

That’s part of a five-phase redevelopment that has rebuilt the entire block on the north side of University Boulevard from Park to Tyndall avenues and north to Second Street.

Still to come: Phase 5, a six- to eight-screen movie complex and plaza just east of the Marriott.

Across University, the look is entirely different, so much so that even neighboring storefronts have such different designs that it’s hard to believe it’s a single building.

If McCollum has brought nothing else to Main Gate Square, she has given the street a green lushness and all varieties of windows to businesses, many walls giving way to windows of all shapes and sizes. Check out American Apparel – two stories of window.

“I’m a very big believer in poking holes in walls,” McCollum said.

Each side of the street and each block have a distinct look.

Main Gate’s 34 percent vacancy rate from 2003 has dwindled to 6 percent and leases are signed on nearly all the remaining 8,570 square feet of Marshall Foundation’s 149,000-square-foot leasable holdings.

“We have people working to take everything we have,” McCollum said.

Since 2003, Main Gate has grown from 11 retailers to 20, from seven apparel shops to 16, and from 21 restaurants to 31.

Main Gate Square has become Tucson’s downtown shopping-dining-hangout place.

It offers the first Bakerzin restaurant in America, the first Life is Good clothing store west of the Mississippi River, the only Ed Hardy clothing store in Arizona and the only Johnny Rocket sit-down restaurant in Tucson.

“I tried to get developers not to think of it as a shopping center but think of it as an urban experience,” McCollum said. “Around every corner there is something new to enjoy.”

Martyn Meisner and Michael Foster moved from the coffee capital of Seattle to take a chance with Caffe Lucé at 845 N. Park Ave., where they roast coffee beans.

“With the coffee roasting, we’re already bringing in people going to other places on Speedway and Broadway,” Meisner said. “Down here (in Tucson) we have spas, country clubs and restaurants we want to roast for.”

Don Falk, an associate professor at UA’s Tree Ring Laboratory clear across campus from Main Gate, typically bicycles to Main Gate once a week.

“Often I sit down and have a coffee with a colleague,” Falk said. “I’d say the options are better. The food has gotten healthier. It’s a fairly friendly area to get around on a bicycle.”

Hallie Drake sat outside Espresso Art one morning reading.

“It’s really convenient to campus, especially since I’m an art student,” Drake said. “It’s a nice area to just relax after working on things all day. It’s an interesting mix of people you get in here.”

Along with the merchant mix and diverse architecture, McCollum has supplemented the existing trees with 82 large planters and 23 hanging plant baskets. The plants, grown at Torque Ranch in Dragoon, fare well in the desert climate, she said.

“Over the four years I’ve been here, I’ve been able to create a lush landscape,” McCollum said. “It creates a sense of wanting to be here.”

What’s the appraisal of all these recent changes from the vantage point of Mort Edberg, who has owned Landmark Clothing & Shoes and previously Franklin’s Mens Store on University Boulevard since 1959?

“I will tell you that the people who are running it now are by far the best that have ever been here,” said Edberg, whose property is one of only four at Main Gate not owned by the Marshall Foundation. “They know how to get tenants. Somebody’s out front picking up cigarettes right now. They know how to keep the streets clean. We used to have problems with panhandlers. Not any more.”

McCollum estimates 60 percent of Main Gate customers come from UA. She would love to see Tucsonans from across the metro area give Main Gate a try.

“We want to grow our pie immensely,” she said.

Main Gate Square sits six blocks from Fourth Avenue, which is a couple of blocks from Hotel Congress. The modern streetcar – a Rio Nuevo transportation project slated for 2010 – one day will link the three areas, which would create an interconnected patchwork of urban attractions.

“I think of San Francisco,” McCollum said. “You go from place to place and you get a different experience, but it’s all San Francisco.”

Said John Sedwick, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association: “I use the term city center – the warehouse district, them, us, downtown.”

Main Gate Square and the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association are keeping each other in mind for future joint projects. McCollum wants to get the three-year-old Main Gate Square identity firmly in place first.

“I think the upgrades and renovations (at Main Gate) improved the whole area,” Sedwick said. “At the same time, it accentuates the difference between them and us. It made them more a university district.”

MAP: WHAT’S AT MAIN GATE SQUARE?

* new since 2003

1. UA building

2. Marriott University Park Hotel

3. future movie complex and plaza

*4. Arizona Bookstore

5. Paradise Bakery (under construction)

6. vacant

7. U.S. Post Office

8. Johnny Rockets

*9. Fashion Eye

10. Penguins Frozen Yogurt

*11. La Salsa Mexican Grill

12. Pei Wei Asian Diner

13. Princeton Review

14. Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co.

*15. Wells Fargo ATM

16. Spring Nail Salon

*17. Alltel

*18. Pita Pit

*19. Kababeque

20. Urban Outfitters

21. Arizona Wildwear

*22. Ed Hardy

23. Chipotle Mexican Grill

24. proposed future building

25. Sultan Palace (under construction)

*26. The Cereal Boxx

*27. Caffe Lucé

*28. Jamba Juice

*29. Hollywood Tan

30. Which Wich (under construction)

*31. Pitaya

*32. Lids

*33. Style America

*34. Salud Spa Bar

35. Wilko (under construction)

*36. The Joint

*37. Auld Dubliner Pub

38. Sunglasses and Spectacles

39.-40. Brightstar Tutoring

41. Starbucks

42. Blades Hair Design

*43. Joel’s Bistro

*44.-45. The Real Estate Group 42

46. Sinbad’s

47. Café Paraiso

*48. Ben’s Bells Open Studio

49. Marshall Foundation

50. No Anchovies

51. Frog & Firkin

52. Landmark Clothing & Shoes

53. Boss Shears

54. Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins

55. Divaz

*56. Blue Monkey Trading Co.

57. Grand Central Clothing (under construction)

58. Campus Athletic

*59. Bakerzin

*60. Espresso Art

*61. Panizza Italian Bistro

*62. American Apparel

63. Cost Cutters

64. Fat Greek, moved since 2003

*65. Jimmy John’s

66. Silvermine Subs

67. vacant

*68. Peter Glenn Ride Shop

*69. American Apparel

70. Oriental Express

*71. Makenna Kali & Associates

*72. Gerald Todd

*73. Threshold Inc.

*74. Sanctity Tattoo

*75. Daggwood Café 2

*76. Villa Thai

MANY CHANGES SINCE 2003

• Creation of the Main Gate Square identity

• Demolition of the University Drug Co. building, which was replaced by a brick building matching the design of the original 1922 structure at that location at the northwest corner of University Boulevard and Park Avenue.

• Restaurants have to do something beyond just being a restaurant, such as offering live music or coffee roasting.

• Valet parking added.

• Two-hour visitor parking offered in UA’s Tyndall Garage.

• All merchants validate parking from 4 to 8 p.m. Fridays in Tyndall Garage.

• New storefront facades installed on the south side of University Boulevard for Fat Greek, Campus Athletic, American Apparel, Espresso Art and Blue Monkey Trading Co. This created a distinctive “building” for each tenant, even though they are in the same building.

• Dozens of new businesses added.

• Tenants have to upgrade signage as leases come up for renewal.

• Benches installed east of Tyndall Avenue.

• Partnership with Fourth Avenue Merchants Association to launch the Big AZ Music Festival.

• Partnership with ASUA for Family Weekend, UA Votes, Bear Down Fridays and Homecoming.

FIVE PHASES

The Marshall Foundation is at the tail end of a five-phase redevelopment for the north side of University Boulevard between Park and Tyndall avenues:

• Phase 1 – Urban Outfitters opened February 2000 at University and Tyndall

• Phase 2 – Three-store strip built next to Urban Outfitters, also in 2000 but not fully occupied until 2002.

• Phase 3 - the five-story building with Arizona Bookstore opened in 2004.

• Phase 4 – the building replacing the University Drug Co. opened in 2006.

• Phase 5 – entertainment complex, awaiting preleasing; hope to start construction in fall 2008

WHAT’S GROWING?

There are 82 planters and 23 hanging plant baskets gracing University Boulevard:

They contain asparagus ferns, oleanders, jasmine, potato vines, trumpet vines, Texas ranger, bottlebrush, orange jubilee, Arizona rosewood, heavenly and golden bamboo, nandina, holly, hearts and flowers, bougainvillea, peppermint willow and privet.

Grown at Torque Ranch in Dragoon.

SOUTH SIDE OF SIXTH STREET: WHAT ARE THE POSSIBILITIES?

What about the south side of Sixth Street? Could it become another Main Gate-like destination?

Not any time soon.

First, that stretch is not in the possession of a single owner, like nearly all of Main Gate Square.

Second, the University of Arizona has a memo of understanding with the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association to support the existing commercial enterprises for an indefinite period.

Right now, there’s a string of homes between Euclid and Park avenues. UA owns two or three of them with a long-term desire to build a research building at Sixth Street and Park Avenue, said Mercy Valencia, UA’s assistant vice president of real estate administration.

Between Park Avenue and Warren Avenue, Sixth Street offers a random collection of laundromats, restaurants, a tattoo parlor, a couple of bars, a bike shop, Mansfield Middle School and the UA Student Recreation Center. UA owns the Circle K at Cherry Avenue.

Another string of homes sits between Warren Avenue and Martin Avenue. The final block to Campbell Avenue offers a sub sandwich shop, a pizza parlor and a hair salon.

“Long term we hope to develop Sixth Street,” Valencia said.

That could include open space by the recreation center and the research building at Park. Valencia said retail could come into play, but the university has not yet mapped out a long-term vision for the south side of Sixth Street.

Citizen Staff Report

The Sidewinders-Round Rock game at Tucson Electric Park was canceled Friday because of rain. The game will not be rescheduled.

Tucson opens a four-game series against Albuquerque at 7 p.m. Saturday at TEP.

Citizen Staff Report

Citizen Staff Report
RealFAST LOCAL NEWS

In six days the University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars Lander mission is scheduled to take off and begin its nine-month journey to the red planet.

The mission, slated to land on Mars on May 25, 2008, will search for evidence of water beneath Martian arctic surface.

To learn more on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission visit www.tucsoncitizen.com/mars.

COUNTDOWN TO MARS 6 DAYS

• Video: The University of Arizona previews its Phoenix Mars Lander mission.

• Photos: View a slide show of mission preparations and images from Mars.

• Check back every day for more

TUCSONCITIZEN.COM/MARS

The Arizona Republic and The Associated Press

Carlos Quentin is back in the majors just in time for his bobblehead night.

On a busy Friday for the red-hot Arizona Diamondbacks, the team called up Quentin from Triple-A Tucson, traded outfielder Scott Hairston to San Diego for minor league pitcher Leo Rosales, and announced pitcher Randy Johnson would miss the rest of the regular season.

The D’backs beat visiting Atlanta 8-7 in 11 innings Friday for their seventh straight win. Arizona moved within a game of the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West.

Quentin, 24, was hitting .210 with five homers for Arizona before being he was sent down to the Sidewinders three weeks ago.

Fans attending the D’backs game against Atlanta in Phoenix Saturday will receive a bobblehead doll of Quentin, and would have even if he was still in the minors.

Quentin was 0 for 4 Friday night, batting eighth for the D’backs. He hit .415 (17 of 41) with five doubles, a triple and two home runs with Tucson, with 11 RBIs.

“Quentin had been swinging the bat real good,” said Tucson manager Bill Plummer. “He got some key hits for us the last couple of days.”

Quentin gave credit to players and coaches in Tucson for “almost forcing me to have fun again.”

“No one likes to get sent down,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t fun. But those guys were real key to me having success and staying positive. I can’t thank them enough.”

• Hairston, 27, is hitting .222 in 76 games for the D’backs this season, with three home runs and 16 RBIs. He has a .238 career batting average with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs since making his debut with Arizona in 2004.

The 26-year-old Rosales was 1-1 with 14 saves and a 3.28 ERA at Triple-A Portland before going on the disabled list June 7 because of a broken right hand. He had 27 strikeouts and 10 walks in 24.2 innings.

The Padres said Hairston will arrive Saturday and they will make a corresponding roster move at that time to make room for him.

• Johnson will have season-ending back surgery and intends to be back for the team at spring training next year.

“I have no intention at this time of retiring,” he said at a news conference Friday. “I’ll cross the bridge of surgery and be willing to go through the process of rehabilitation again because I know I can still pitch. And I love pitching. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was 7 years old.”

It marks the second year in a row that the Big Unit will have an operation on his troublesome back. It will be the third back operation of his career.

“He tried to work his way through it,” Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said, “but it just didn’t get any better.”

The 43-year-old left-hander was traded to the Diamondbacks from the New York Yankees in the offseason, signing a $26 million, two-year contract with Arizona, the franchise where he experienced his greatest success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The five-time Cy Young Award winner made his way back to the rotation after extensive rehabilitation. He had several strong starts but struggled in his later outings, then he was diagnosed with a herniated disk.

Johnson went on the disabled list, worked his way through a pair of bullpen sessions, then threw 42 pitches in a simulated game on Tuesday. Afterward, he felt the effects of the injured disk, pain that he feels all the way down his right, or landing, leg.

Johnson ranks third in all-time career strikeouts with 4,616, behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Roger Clemens (4,641).

Citizen writer Ken Brazzle contributed to this article.

• Ex-Cat Clark lifts D’backs to win, 5C

D’BACK NO MORE

Scott Hairston’s stats with Arizona:

2007 – Career

AVG. .222 .238

HR 3 16

RBI 16 47

R 21 62

H 39 131

AB 176 550

SB 2 5

G 76 201

Citizen Staff Writer
GIMINO COLUMN

Anthony Gimino

Sports Columnist

Look at Arizona State’s football schedule, and there appears to be the possibility the Devils could be undefeated and probably in the top 10 in late October.

But what is it that coaches and players always say, especially at this time of year?

Oh, yeah . . . something about taking it one game at a time.

Arizona State opens Sept. 1 against San Jose State, which puts new Devils coach Dennis Erickson up against old foe and good friend Dick Tomey.

Their teams played last season when Erickson was at Idaho. The Spartans won 28-13 and finished 9-4, beating New Mexico in a bowl game. SJSU returns senior All-American cornerback Dwight Lowery and 14 other starters.

“They’re pretty good,” Erickson said of San Jose State.

“I know these guys don’t know it yet,” he said, referring to his players, “but they will.”

The well-traveled Erickson is 5-4 as a head coach against Tomey, including one game at Sun Devil Stadium – the site of this year’s meeting. The previous matchup was the 2004 Fiesta Bowl, where Tomey’s Arizona team blasted Miami 29-0.

Erickson has the upper hand this time around, and the Devils figure to be favored in their next six games as well – Colorado, San Diego State, Oregon State, at Stanford, at Washington State and Washington.

Then comes an Oct. 27 home game against Cal to begin a rugged closing stretch that will define ASU’s season.

But, first, San Jose State.

“Dick has been one of my close friends, and he has done a great job there,” Erickson said.

• • •

A few good quips from Pac-10 media day Thursday:

Washington State coach Bill Doba on LSU’s Les Miles, who, now famously, recently disparaged the strength of the Pac-10 by saying USC had an easier road to the national title than his team: “C’mon, Les. Jump in here and try it one year.” . . .

Erickson on the fact that five of his top six offensive linemen already have earned degrees: “It took me three years after I played to graduate. And that was at Montana State, the Harvard of the mountains.” . . .

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen on expansion: “The Big Ten is trying to get to 12 so it won’t be 11. We have no plans to expand at this time.”

• • •

Salpointe Catholic grad Kristofer O’Dowd, the city’s top recruit last season when he was one of the top high school linemen in the country, has been going through informal workouts at USC.

“He looks good,” said Trojans senior quarterback John David Booty. “Physically, he looks ready to play. Now, he just has to learn the offense.”

USC doesn’t have a returning starting center. O’Dowd, listed at 6 feet 5 and 300 pounds, enters camp fourth on the preseason depth chart behind Matt Spanos, Nick Howell and Jeff Byers (also a projected starting guard).

• • •

News flash: Ex-Wildcat Tedy Bruschi is alive and well.

This wasn’t such a given earlier this week.

Some of New England was in a panic Tuesday when a rumor was floated – and spread like a virus through Internet message boards – that Bruschi, the popular New England Patriots linebacker, had died.

His Wikipedia page was edited to reflect a date of death.

By Tuesday night, with phone calls coming into Boston area media and much hand-wringing on the message boards, the rumor was finally officially debunked, first by Tom Curran of NBC Sports.

Whether this was a prank or some kind of honest mistake, it was plenty scary in that Bruschi suffered a stroke in 2005 and underwent surgery to repair a hole in his heart. It’s also scary how quickly a rumor like this multiplies and creates a mushroom cloud of speculation.

The Internet. Gotta love it.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Writer

RYN GARGULINSKI

rynski@tucsoncitizen.com

A man accused of mugging and nearly killing University of Arizona graduate student Francisco Baires last month has been arrested, a Tucson police spokesman said Friday.

Police arrested Ryan Robert Baker, 27, on Thursday after they received a number of tips following extensive media coverage that included a police sketch of Baires’ attacker, spokesman Sgt. Mark Robinson said.

Baker, from Tucson, was booked into the Pima County Jail on one count of aggravated assault and two counts of attempted armed robbery.

Baires, 29, was walking with his girlfriend near Sixth Street and Stone Avenue around 2:30 a.m. June 26 when a man got out of a white, “boxy” car, asked for money and jewelry, then hit Baires on the head with a baseball bat.

Baires and his girlfriend continued on their way, thinking he was fine. Later that night he was rushed to a hospital for treatment of bleeding in the brain. He’s been recovering in a rehabilitation center with his mother, who flew in from Florida, by his side.

“I really don’t know what to say,” Baires’ mother, Pamela Schultz, 55, said of Baker’s arrest. “I’m relieved, scared. I’m relieved because I hope that takes care of (Baker) not being able to hurt anybody else, but I really don’t know.

“Francisco is feeling the same way with these mixed emotions,” she said.

Baires is recovering, though it will take months, she said. His girlfriend, whom the family did not want to name, remains supportive, as are other family members who flew in from their out-of-state homes when Baires slipped into a coma after the surgery, she said.

Baires hopes to do graduate studies in anthropology and continue his volunteer work with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, where he measured skeletons of the dead found in the desert, Schultz said.

Tips helped police find the white, “boxy” car Friday, though they wouldn’t identify the make. After obtaining a search warrant for the vehicle, they found a baseball bat they believe was used in the assault.

Citizen Staff Report
RealFAST LOCAL NEWS

The books are out. The secrets are known, and Harry Potter has come to an end.

What surprised you most about “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”? Did you like the ending? How would you have ended the series? What will you read now that the series is over?

E-mail your thoughts to familyplus@tucsoncitizen.com. Include your name, age, telephone number and photo. Or mail it to:

Gabrielle Fimbres

Tucson Citizen Family Plus

P.O. Box 26767

Tucson, AZ 85726

Citizen Staff Writer

Oro Valley Country Club may undergo some golf course changes, courtesy of Mother Nature.

The severe storm and winds this week downed some 60 trees on the 7,023-yard, par-72 course off North Oracle Road. Angles of play may be redirected, head pro Scott Schultz said.

“It’s a little too early to tell exactly what will change until the cleanup is complete,” Schultz said. “The cleanup is going well.”

Where trees once created an elbow or bend on some of the course’s holes, there will be gaps straightening them.

Schultz said the 327-yard, par-4 No. 7 hole with lanes of trees lining the fairway may change the most. Many of the trees were torn away, which could alter the approach on a dogleg right to the green.

BRYAN LEE
brylee@tucsoncitizen.com

• Photos: www.tucsoncitizen.com