Work is supposed to be completed by January 2016, in time for the 58th Daytona 500, the Associated Press reports. International Speedway Corp, which owns the track, announced Tuesday it will undertake the project without public funding.

Every frontstretch seat will be replaced with wider and more comfortable seating, officials say. The stands will “appear more like a current NFL stadium with wide concourses featuring themed restaurants and gathering areas, a massive main entrance and the addition of 40 escalators,” according to the AP.

Seating capacity will be reduced to 101,000 from the current 147,000.

Officials said race dates through next year won’t be affected.

“Obviously if we’re going to do anything different than what we do (now), we’ll let everybody know,” DIS President Joie Chitwood III said, via the AP. “Right now, we’re just trying to get through ’14.”

Added ISC President John Saunders: “We will take great care of our loyal existing customers throughout this renovation. They can expect to receive additional direct communication as we proceed with construction.”

The widely held assumption regarding Penn State’s vacant starting quarterback job has been that though JUCO early enrollee Tyler Ferguson got a head-start in spring practice, blue-chip true freshman Christian Hackenburg would have a legitimate shot at the job once he arrived on campus.

As it turns out, that assumption was 100 percent correct. Despite Hackenburg reportedly still being more than a week away from even arriving in State College, he was listed as a co-starter on the Nittany Lions’ post-spring depth chart, which Bill O’Brien released Thursday. The depth chart is avaliable here as a PDF.

Ferguson is listed first, but with an “OR” beside his entry and Hackenburg underneath. O’Brien said in the wake of his team’s spring practice and Blue-White Game, per pennlive.com, that Ferguson’s experience in spring drills put him “ahead” of Hackenburg, but that he would let “the competetion” for the job “play out” over the summer and fall.

Sophomore Steven Bench’s decision to transfer to South Florida after he slipped behind Ferguson in spring leaves Ferguson and Hackenburg as the only two scholarship quarterbacks on the Nittany Lions’ projected 2013 roster.

Ferguson signed with Penn State this spring out of College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif., having thrown for 2,614 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2012, his only season at the school.

247Sports ranked Hackenburg, a consensus five-star, the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the class of 2013. The 247Sports composite player rankings also called Hackenburg the No. 13 player in his class at any position.

With neither boasting a snap of college experience, either one will have his work cut out for him filling the shoes of Matt McGloin after the former walk-on’s stunningly effective 2012 season. But after O’Brien’s success last fall, nearly anything seems possible.

Remember late in 2012 when Rose saved par on No. 16 at the Ryder Cup, then birdied No. 17 and 18 for Europe’s win while Mickelson looked on and handed out all the thumbs-ups he had in his bag for Rose?

Well, the same thing happened again at the 2013 US Open, except this time Mickelson didn’t have a front-row seat.

Rose hit the shot of his life on No. 18 with a one-shot lead at the Open this time — a hole nobody birdied in either of the last two days. Rose stroked an iron past the hole that missed the cup by inches.

He then two-putted for par to close out an even-par 70 that was enough to win the championship by two strokes.

A spectacular iron player, Rose didn’t have his putter leave him on this day as he birdied five holes (!) en route to the round of his life and his first major championship.

Mickelson battled hard — including an eagle from the rough on No. 10 — but two double-bogeys sunk him in the end as Rose brought England its first major since 1996 (Nick Faldo) and first US Open since 1970 (Tony Jacklin).

It was Rose’s 37th start in a major. He told Bob Costas of NBC after his round that he looked to Adam Scott after Scott’s Masters win.

“I took a lot of encouragement from Adam Scott,” Rose told Costas. “He said, ‘Your time’s coming soon.’ ”

Rose played with attitude all day, too. He was sneering at long par putts, fighting to stick his irons, and never really made that big mistake that sunk so many men on a wicked final day in Ardmore, Pa.

And oh, that iron he hit from the fairway on 18!

They’ll talk about that one in pubs throughout the English countryside for decades. Rose told Costas after his round he was lost in the zone when he hit his 4-iron to the green.

“I thought, ‘This is my moment.’ I’ve seen that Ben Hogan photograph a million times.”

Rose will likely be talking about the moment just after he sank the par. He pointed to the sky and the tears flowed. Even better, he broke down watching himself in the clubhouse shortly afterward with his wife.

As Trey Wingo of ESPN pointed out on Twitter, Rose lost his old swing coach and father, Ken, in 2002 to leukemia.

Rose mentioned it to Costas just after his round.

“I couldn’t help but look up to the heavens and think that my old dad, Ken, had something to do with it.”

Turns out, it’s not just Lefty who has a beautiful Father’s Day story.

Date                       Day                         Opponent                             Airtime / Kickoff 

August 31              Saturday                vs. Syracuse                          2:00 pm / 3:30 pm

September 07      Saturday                EASTERN MICHIGAN             TBA

September 14      Saturday                Central Florida                      4:30 pm / 6:00 pm

September 21      Saturday                KENT STATE                           TBA

September 28        Saturday                Open Date                            

October 05           Saturday                at Indiana                               TBA

October 12           Saturday                MICHIGAN                             3:30 pm / 5:00 pm

October 19            Saturday                Open Date                            

October 26           Saturday                at Ohio State                         6:30 pm / 8:00 pm

November 02       Saturday                ILLINOIS                                 TBA

November 09       Saturday                at Minnesota                         TBA

November 16       Saturday                PURDUE                                 TBA

November 23       Saturday                NEBRASKA                             TBA

November 30       Saturday                at Wisconsin                         TBA

]]> http://stevejonesshow.com/aug-30th-psu-cuse-opener-330-pm/feed/ 0 http://stevejonesshow.com/3239/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3239 http://stevejonesshow.com/3239/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:44:13 +0000 kherr http://stevejonesshow.com/?p=3239 By Bill Brink / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“They were the best players available on our board that we really liked the upside of. I don’t know that there’s any safe player in any draft. These are the players that we liked best in each of our slots.”

Meadows hit .535 for Grayson High this season. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 5 prospect available in the draft. The 6-foot-2 outfielder added weight before this season.

“My goal was to gain 10, 15 pounds before the season as well as keep my speed and stay in center field,” he said.

Meadows played high school ball in the same Georgia town as Clint Frazier, another top draft prospect, who starred down the road from Grayson at Loganville High. The Cleveland Indians took Frazier with the fifth overall pick.

McGuire hit .436 this season with four home runs. He is known as a good defensive catcher with a strong arm. Baseball America ranked McGuire as the No. 12 player available.

McGuire said his father, uncle and grandfather were catchers as well, and his dad and uncle coached his Little League team. It was then, McGuire said, that he began calling pitches himself.

“I think it’s a tremendous aspect to have, being able to call my own game,” McGuire said.

“He’s called his own game forever, which is unique in this industry,” Huntington said. “Even in the high school levels, the coaches are calling games more frequently than not.”

The Pirates received the No. 9 pick as compensation for not signing Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, whom they selected with the eighth pick in the 2012 draft. The Houston Astros selected Appel first overall Thursday night.

The Pirates offered Appel a $3.8 million bonus, the most they could give him without forfeiting a future draft pick, but Appel returned to school.

MLB assigned the ninth pick in 2013 a value of $3,029,600, according to Baseball America, and the 14th pick a value of $2,569,800. The Pirates have a total of $8,884,600 to spend, according to Baseball America, on their 11 selections in the first 10 rounds or on bonus money in excess of $100,000 in the final 30 rounds.

Meadows is committed to Clemson, McGuire to the University of San Diego. McGuire said he favored signing with the Pirates at this point.

“San Diego is a great route as well, but I think in this situation, with everything that’s happened, I think I’m probably going to be leaning a little bit toward [the] professionals,” McGuire said.

“We’ve had good dialogue with them at this point in time,” Huntington said. “Until they’re signed, there’s always challenges. There’s no question about that. We’ve got two young men that love to play the game and are excited to be Pirates draft [picks].”

The Pirates took Blake Taylor, a California high school left-hander, with the No. 51 pick in the second round. The Miami Marlins took high school left-hander Matt Krook with the second pick in the competitive balance round, No. 35 overall. The Pirates traded that pick to the Marlins for Gaby Sanchez at the 2012 trade deadline.

Meadows has aunts and cousins in Pittsburgh and said he looks forward to the day when he can meet Andrew McCutchen.

J.P. Crawford said on MLB Network he hopes to learn as much as he possibly can from Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, then one day take his job.

That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

The Phillies selected Crawford on Thursday with the 16th overall pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft. Crawford is a 6-foot-2, 175-pound shortstop from Lakewood High School in California, the same school of former Phillies top picks Shane Watson (40th overall selection in 2012) and Travis d’Arnaud (37th overall selection in ’07). He also is the cousin of Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford.

“It means a lot especially coming from Jimmy Rollins down to me,” Crawford said on MLB Network, asked about the Phillies drafting him. “Hopefully I can learn something from him and take his place.”

The Angels, Brewers and Nationals did not have first-round selections.

With it’s second-round selection, Philadelphia selected catcher Andrew Knapp, who attends the University of California, Berkeley.

Knapp hit .350 with 16 doubles, eight home runs, 41 RBIs, a .544 slugging percentage and a .434 on-base percentage in 54 games this season.

Crawford has talent, has the pedigree, but it will be a while until he is in the Phillies’ lineup, if he successfully climbs the ladder to get there.

“He’s a little bit of an advanced defensive player at shortstop,” Phillies assistant general manager Marti Wolever said. “Offensively, he’s a little bit ahead of the game, too. We’re probably looking at three to four years before he’s knocking at the door here in Philadelphia.”

Of course, there is risk taking a high school position player. Since the Phillies selected Rollins in the second round in 1996, the most accomplished high school position players drafted by the organization are Nick Punto (21st round in 1998), Lou Marson (fourth round in 2004), Domonic Brown (20th round in ’06) and Anthony Gose (second round in ’08).

That is not a very long list.

“He’s certainly ahead of the curve compared to some of the other kids we’ve taken, but once again, you have to remember where some of the kids were taken,” Wolever said. “It’s contingent upon so many things, but he is further along than most high school players we’ve taken. I think he’s much more accomplished, being from Southern California and the competition level where he has played throughout his high school career and certainly some of the showcase events he’s participated in over the years.”

Crawford, 18, caught the Phillies’ attention last year when they scouted Watson. Crawford and Watson have been teammates since tee ball.

“I’m crying,” Watson tweeted.

Lakewood High School has developed more than its share of talent over the years. Lakewood coach Spud O’Neil told MLB.com recently that Crawford is the best all-around talent he has coached in 30 seasons there.

“You never know for sure,” O’Neil said, “but I’ve had Chris Gomez, Damion Easley, Travis d’Arnaud, who is with the Mets, Mike Carp with the Red Sox — J.P. fits right in there with all those guys.”

The Phillies certainly hope so. Wolever praised Crawford’s defensively abilities, and said he also can be a solid hitter.

“Physically, I think he’s just got to fill out a little bit and growing into his body a little bit more,” Wolever said. “We think down the road he’s a .280, .290 hitter in the middle of the infield with a chance to steal some bases. He’s got tremendous instincts for the game, which for a young guy is going to allow him to do some things others couldn’t do at this point in time. Maybe 10-15 possible more home runs, contingent on how strong he gets.”

Crawford has a college commitment to USC, but that should not be an issue. Crawford seems to want to get started on his professional career.

“Philly better be ready for it!!” he tweeted.

Crawford, who hits left-handed, hit .432 with eight doubles, two triples, two home runs, 10 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in 25 games this season with Lakewood. He also is the school’s all-time leader in hits (179), runs scored (162), stolen bases (73) and walks (72).

Day 2 of the Draft continues with Rounds 3-10, streamed live on MLB.com on Friday, beginning with a preview show at 12:30 p.m. And Rounds 11-40 will be streamed live on MLB.com on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.

In the Pipeline: Crawford is three to four years away before potentially competing for a spot on the Phillies’ 25-man roster, so it is virtually impossible to predict what will happen to him along the way or what path he will take to the big leagues, if he makes it at all.

One of the Phillies’ top prospects is shortstop Roman Quinn, who is playing with Class A Lakewood. Wolever said “it’s always great to have competition” and theoretically Quinn and Crawford could compete for a big league roster spot down the road. However, these things have a way of working themselves out. Somebody might develop faster than the other. Somebody might not develop at all. Somebody might get traded.

Only time will tell.

With the top overall pick of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, the Houston Astros selected Stanford right-hander Mark Appel.

Last year, the Pirates failed to sign Appel as the eighth overall pick.

The 21-year-old Appel has clocked in the mid-90s since early in his college career, and this season he refined his slider and changeup while showing more aggressiveness in his approach. Appel, listed at 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, went 10-4 with a 2.12 ERA and a 130/23 K/BB in 106 1/3 innings this year. He’s the best combination of polish and upside in the draft this season, and he’s a highly worthy top overall pick.

As for signing Appel, the Astros have a bonus pool of $11,698,800 to spend on all their draft picks, and Appel’s No. 1 slot has an assigned value of $7,790,400.

Coincidentally, Appel was born in Houston but relocated to San Ramon, Calif., at the age of 12. He’ll join an already quickly improved Astros farm system.