The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page C5

www.tennessean.com THE TENNESSEAN Monday, September 6, 2004 5C CYANMAGYELBLK TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 5C SPORTS Why keep writing checks when The EZPay system makes bill-paying easier? With just a call to 242-NEWS, we'll set up an automatic bank draft or credit card charge, so your subscription bill will 'pay When you switch today, we'll give you a $10Kroger gift card Keep getting The quit getting the bills. And if not already a subscriber, call 242-NEWS and get The Tennesseandelivered to your home. still get a $10 gift card when you sign up with EZPay. the easiest $10you ever made! Call 242-NEWS today! Promo code: KRO KENTUCKY DOWNS located 3o miles North of Nashville. Exit 2 off I-65 in Franklin, Ky.

270-586-7778 Labor Day Racing Forget work and come play today at Kentucky Downs simul- casting. Watch and wager on 11 top tracks. Feature races today include the $750,000 Penn Derby and the $400,000 Del Mar Derby. miss closing day at Saratoga. Gates open at 10:30 a.m.

Make plans to attend Thoroughbred at Kentucky Downs Sept. 18, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28 Sept. 25: The $500,000 Kentucky Cup Turf Fesival. For More Info check out: www.kentuckydowns.com MINOR LEAGUES MEMPHIS 9, SOUNDS 7 NashvilleabrhbiMemphisabrhbi Thompson cf4220Prieto cf5221 Shumpert 2b4100Hart ss4232 Alvarez lf5222Seabol 3b5121 Truby 3b2010Witt 1b3111 LFigueroa 3b2111Reyes p0000 Rivera 1b3113Haynes lf4000 House c4020Paronto p0000 Allen rf4000Rodriguez p0000 de la Rosa ss4020Burnham 1b0000 Martin p1000Gall lf4021 Mahomes ph1000Mahoney c3021 Boyd p0000Motte Sheldon ph1000Colina 2b3100 Crudale p0000Rust p1200 Jarvis ph1000Stemle p0000 Hackman p0000Porter rf1000 Totals367116Totals349127 Memphis 2. 5, Memphis 7.

(7), Prieto (17), Seabol (26). (6). (14), LFigueroa (5), Rivera (17). (41), Hart (8). iphrerbbso Nashville Martin 0-1497730 Boyd110002 Crudale222211 Hackman100000 Memphis Rust Stemle0.231100 Paronto123311 Rodriguez100002 Reyes 23100002 Crudale.

(by Crudale), Shumpert (by Rust). Memphis 9, Nashville 7 Next: Today at Memphis When: 1:05 p.m. PCL standings AMERICAN CONFERENCE Central DivisionWLPct.GB x-Iowa Col. Springs Omaha Albuquerque Eastern DivisionWLPct.GB x-Oklahoma Memphis New Orleans Nashville PACIFIC CONFERENCE Northern DivisionWLPct.GB x-Portland Tacoma Edmonton Salt Lake Southern DivisionWLPct.GB x-Sacramento Tucson Las Vegas Fresno x-clinched division PCL schedule results Edmonton 6, Fresno 5 Memphis 12, Nashville 7 Colorado Springs 9, New Orleans 5, 8 innings, rain Oklahoma 2, Albuquerque 1 Iowa 14, Omaha 0 Sacramento 9, Portland 0 Las Vegas 4, Salt Lake 2 Tucson 2, Tacoma 1, 1st game Tacoma 2, Tucson 0, 2nd game results Iowa 8, Omaha 4 New Orleans 12, Colorado Springs 5 Las Vegas 8, Salt Lake 7 Tucson 11, Tacoma 2 Portland 4, Sacramento 2 Memphis 9, Nashville 7 Albuquerque 9, Oklahoma 2 Fresno 5, Edmonton 3 games Edmonton at Fresno Nashville at Memphis New Orleans at Colorado Springs Oklahoma at Albuquerque Omaha at Iowa Sacramento at Portland Salt Lake at Las Vegas Tucson at Tacoma End of regular season Game at a glance Losing pitcher: Greg Martin (0-1). Big sticks: Carlos Rivera, 1-for-3, 3-run HR; Tony Alvarez, 2-for-5, 2-run HR; Luis Figueroa, 1-for-2, solo HR.

How they lost: Greg Martin, making his first start of the season, allowed seven runs in four innings as the Sounds fell behind quickly. homer brought the Sounds to 7-4, but the Redbirds plated the eventual winning run in the bottom of the sixth on a passed ball by catcher J.R. House. Former Sound Al Reyes picked up his PCL-best 23rd save for Memphis. The Sounds must win season finale in order to avoid the worst season in team history.

The 2000 Sounds went 63-79. pitchers: Sounds TBA vs. Memphis RHP Alan Benes (8-9, 5.60 ERA). REPORTS By ELIZABETH BETTS HICKMAN StaffWriter SHELBYVILLE The Black Night Shade, a 6-year-old black Tennessee Walking Horse who took top honors Saturday night to win the World Grand Championship class at the Celebration, has come a long way since he was foaled in Lawrenceburg. Breeder Mack Chandler recalled that when the colt was born, his mother, Call Girl, only lived a few days, so the orphaned foal went to Shelbyville to be cared for by Bobby Mulvey and Judy Stephens.

likes said Chandler about the horse, who was sired by Poison. used to drive to Fayetteville and get milk for The handsome black colt thrived and eventually went into training with veteran trainer Jimmy McConnell at Formac Stables in Union City. And it was McConnell, 57, who earlier Saturday night was named 2004 Trainer of the Year by the Tennessee Walking Horse Association, who rode the horse to his unanimous win in the grand championship for owners Tom and Judy Waite of Milton, Fla. At the Celebration a team of five judges scores each class, and not every class has a unanimous winner. But The Black Night Shade also took the unanimous blue in the Division of the Aged Stallions Class last weekend, which was a preliminary to the championship.

been really consistent all year and every time we showed him he got a little said a clearly thrilled McConnell, who finished second in the big stake with The Black Night Shade last year at the Celebration and has finished second in the class on two other occasions. was just slow developing and taken him this long to get really The stallion came into the Celebration this year off a successful summer show season with grand championship wins at the National Show, The Gulf Coast Charity Show and the Germantown Charity Show. Co-owner Tom Waite, 61, a residential real-estate developer in Milton, which is in the panhandle, first got hooked on Tennessee Walking Horses when he took an equitation class on a walking horse as a student at MTSU. never left he said. When they had the opportunity, the Waites got into the business.

And they had nothing but high praise for the trainer who took them to the pinnacle of the Tennessee Walking Horse year. (McConnell) is the most wonderful said Judy Waite, a retired teacher. relationship with him has been almost like Elizabeth Betts Hickman is a reporter for The Tennessean Reach her at 259-8045 or Finishing in the Black Orphaned colt takes grand championship ALAN POIZNER Jimmy McConnell, named trainer of the year, rides The Black Night Shade during their victory lap following the World Grand Championship class competition at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. WALKING HORSE If you listen closely to the words of Tim latest single Live Like You Were Dying and know anything about local runner Ray Kordek, swear Kordek had written the song. It tells of a young man who starts to live life after been told going to die.

Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman actually penned the words, but Kordek, 39, has lived them. Four years ago, life was falling into place with a loving wife, an 18-month old son and a job as a bank loan officer in South Dakota. His sights were set on training for the Chicago Marathon. A few weeks into it, Kordek kept getting weaker and weaker. would go out to run 5 or 6 miles, something I had always done, and suddenly I I started getting very tired, very said Kordek who was diagnosed with non- lymphoma.

dropped of my normal body weight, very quickly. first my wife and I thought I was going through some kind of depression because we had not lived in South Dakota very long and I never really liked living there and I crazy about my Kordek said. After one trip to the doctor, Kordek was found to be anemic. doctor said, have to get some blood in you which he did that day. Then he ordered a bone marrow biopsy and they found the said Kordek, who was told he had three months to live when he was diagnosed Sept.

2, 2000 birthday. was diagnosed at a stage four, with five being the most severe form of cancer. They started chemotherapy that night. was given until Christmas to get my affairs in order and I just kept thinking about my 18-month- old son. You become afraid your child will lose their memory of you.

You want to see your children grow up and you want to be there for them if they make the wrong choice just hard to swallow when you think about To ensure his son would know his father, Kordek began to write down everything. wife and I took pictures and videotape so he he said. Then surprisingly good news came Dec. 22, 2000. After six cycles of chemotherapy, one cycle every 21 days, no cancer cells seemed to be present.

Then, two weeks later, unbearable pain in his right leg coupled with paralysis sent him back to the doctor. A biopsy confirmed the cancer was back in the form of two small tumors at the base of his spine and they were getting bigger every day. In a last ditch effort to save his life, doctors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center administered two different sets of almost lethal chemotherapy drugs twice a day for six consecutive days. That was followed by a peripheral stem cell transplant in April 2001. He was given a 20 percent chance to live.

Needless to say, any marathon attempt and almost all running was pushed to the side while Kordek fought for his life. told my wife if I made it through this I wanted to do two things participate in a triathlon and work for the Red Cross because they had provided me with the blood for the initial transplant and then they assisted during the stem cell This weekend, son will get to watch his dad tackle the Music City Triathlon (swim, bike and run) at Cook Recreation Area on Percy Priest Lake. Coming up: Today Franklin Classic 7 a.m., Franklin, Marty Blair 791-5219 or www.franklinclassic.org; Saturday Run With The Eagles 5K, 8 a.m., Ezell-Harding Christian School, Antioch, Anita Keith 367-0532; Together We Can Running Festival 5K, p.m. races, 7 p.m. 5K, Belmont University, Nashville.

Info: www.racenashville.com; Run 5K 8 a.m., Wilson Bank Trust, Lebanon. Info: Scott Jasper 443-6630; Sunday Music City Triathlon, 8 a.m., Cook Recreation Area, Percy Priest Lake, Info: 244-1713. Kim Swint covers running for The Tenn- essean Contact her at Brush with death motivates Kordek Kim Swint Running GOLF Associated Press Vijay Singh leads the PGA money list by an ever- widening margin. He is running away with the player of the year award. And yesterday he moved within 18 holes of another big prize.

Singh shot 68 to widen his lead over Tiger Woods at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, putting him one round from his sixth victory of the year and the No. 1 ranking in the world. At 14 under, Singh leads the top-ranked Woods by three strokes going into their head-to-head matchup on Monday. think it should be a lot of fun a lot of fun to go out and compete against Woods said. think it will just be a Woods shot 69 to improve to 11 under and kept pace until Singh made birdie on 18 after missing a 25-foot putt for eagle.

Woods has eight career come-from-behind wins, but none since 2001. better to be three up than two up; that gives me even more of a Singh said. shot in front of Tiger is Singh and Woods were the only players to break 70 in every round, and just 12 players broke par yesterday. Shigeki Maruyama was 8 under after shooting par, and Jay Williamson and defending champion Adam Scott were another stroke back, seven behind Singh. Singh has won the last eight tournaments he led going into the final round, including four this year.

He needs only to finish ahead of Woods to convince the computers what many humans have known for some time: playing the best golf in the world. (The computers factor in performance over the past two years, taking the strength of field into account; Woods held a 12.09-11.91 lead heading into this week.) Woods has held the No. 1 ranking for a record 264 consecutive weeks. Singh had made the No. 1 ranking a goal earlier in the year but decided to concentrate on winning individual tournaments.

pretty the big Fijian said. not one to lay down. just go out there and play my Kerr posts one-stroke win: Cristie Kerr claimed her third tournament of the year, overcoming a shaky final round and a challenge from Christina Kim to win the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill. Kerr, who held a four-stroke lead entering the final round, squandered her advantage but regained the lead with a birdie at the 17th. She recovered from a bad tee shot at No.

18 by getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker, finishing at 3-under 69 for a tournament record total of 24-under 264. one is definitely unique and a different way to Kerr said. feel like I had the lead and came from behind to Mi Hyun Kim closed with a 5- under 67 and finished third at 18- under 270. Pat Hurst was fourth at 15-under 273 after a 67. Lorena Ochoa, coming off a win last week, shot a 70 and was among five players at 14-under 274.

Stadler cruises to First Tee title: Craig Stadler won his second straight tournament and fourth of the season, firing a 6-under 66 for a three-stroke victory over Jay Haas at the inaugural First Tee Open in Pebble Beach, Calif. Stadler, coming off a win at the Tradition last week, finished at 15- under 201 and matched his career best for wins in a season. Haas, added to the U.S. Ryder Cup team as a pick, closed with a 68 for a 12-under 204 total. Hale Irwin and Tom Kite shot final-round 70s and tied for third at 209.

Singh set to take on Woods No. 1 ranking in grasp as pair tees offtoday SINGH WOODS.