The Enquirer and wire reports

West Hi’s Rhodes belts 300th homer in Japan

Western Hills High grad Tuffy Rhodes hit his 300th career homer in Japan Sunday. Rhodes connected for a solo homer to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning at Tokyo Dome, where his Yomiuri Giants lost to the Hiroshima Carp 4-3. It was his 12th homer of the season.

Rhodes, who joined the Giants in the offseason after eight seasons with the Kintetsu Buffaloes of the Pacific League, has the most home runs of any foreign player in Japanese baseball history.

Rhodes, who tied Japan’s single-season home run record of 55 in 2001, played for the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs before coming to Japan.

He became the 28th player to hit 300 homers in Japanese pro baseball, reaching the milestone in his 1,106th game. The Cincinnati native won the home run title three times and the RBI title twice while with the Buffaloes.

Golf

Rosales wins first on LPGA Tour: Filipino Jennifer Rosales, 25, shot a 7-under-par 65 for her first LPGA Tour victory in the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship at Stockbridge, Ga. Aree Song, 18, attempting to become the youngest women's winner in the history, fell apart in the spotlight, soaring to a 78 that put her nine strokes behind Rosales' 14-under 274.

PGA TOUR: Masters champ Phil Mickelson moved into position to make it two in a row today at the HP Classic in New Orleans. Mickelson shot a 69 in the third round to move into a tie for second with Charles Howell III , two strokes behind leader Joe Ogilvie who shot a 66 Sunday for a 17-under 199.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Bruce Fleisher shot a 4-under 68 and coasted to a seven-stroke victory at the Bruno’s Memorial Classic in Hoover, Ala., largest winning margin in tournament history.

NATIONWIDE TOUR: Ryuji Imada won his second tour title , outlasting Paul Gow in a five-hole playoff at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Travelers Rest, S.C. Oak Hills High grad Brett Wetterwich finished tied for 26th at 11-under 276, six strokes back.

Tennis

VENUS WINS AGAIN: Venus Williams beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-4 in the J&S Cup final in Warsaw, Poland, for her second straight WTA tournament title and 11th consecutive victory. The streak is Williams’ longest since she took 19 straight matches in 2002.

Colleges

Wildcats brass in Fort Wright: Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith, football coach Rich Brooks and athletic director Mitch Barnhart will meet fans and sign autographs from 9-10 a.m. today at the Bob Sumerel Tire in Fort Wright (476 Orphanage Road). The event is free and open to the public.

NKU BASEBALL: Sophomore right-hander Derrick Moeves (6-3) set a school season record for strikeouts with 96 after tossing a one-hit shutout and striking out 12 in the Norse’s 1-0 win over Southern Indiana.

MT. ST. JOE BASEBALL: Chuck Murray recorded his 200th coaching win in the Lions’ 5-2 second-game victory over Manchester (Ind.).

High schools

BASEBALL CANCELED: The Best of the West tournament at Western Hills was cancelled because of soggy field conditions. The tournament will not be rescheduled. It was the first time since the event expanded from four to eight teams three years ago that a champion was not crowned.

Media

DERBY TV RATINGS: Smarty Jones’ win in the Kentucky Derby produced an 8.3 overnight rating, tying the 2001 and 2002 races for the highest-rated since 1992.
The rating for NBC’s broadcast of Saturday’s race was up 8 percent from last year’s Kentucky Derby, which was won by Funny Cide and produced a 7.7 rating. The rating for Saturday’s race peaked from 6-6:30?p.m., the half hour that featured the running of the race. That time slot had an 11.9 rating, up 20 percent from last year’s 9.9 for the same segment.

Smarty Jones became the first undefeated winner of the Kentucky Derby since Seattle Slew in 1977 and the first winner with a first-time Derby trainer (John Servis) and jockey (Stewart Elliott) since Spectacular Bid in 1979. Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets in the United States, covering nearly 70 percent of the country. Each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 TV homes.

Pro Basketball

KG is NBA MVP, gets award today: Minnesota's Kevin Garnett (above) has won his first NBA Most Valuable Player award, sources told the Associated Press. Garnett will receive the award today at Target Center.