It’s one thing to have your bats turned into kindling by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff.

A Pinal County couple played drinking games with two teenage girls and lured the intoxicated teens into the couple's bedroom to have sex with them on separate occasions in September, according to police.

Rockabilly influenced singer and songwriter Chris Isaak garnered mainstream fame for rolling in the sand with model Helena Christensen in the sexy black-and-white video for the hit song “Wicked Game,” but he’s also hosted a TV show, starred in a Showtime sitcom and been in movies, including “The Silence of the Lambs.” Isaak, who may yet wind up as a judge or mentor on the next season of “American Idol,” is touring in support of his latest album, last year’s “Mr. Lucky.”

Some call them a hybrid. Others say they’re a crossover. Urs Buhler, the group’s Swiss tenor, prefers to just be Il Divo — the divine ones.

September 2, 2004

A slow release was my downfall.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — There's no shortage of stages in the Entertainment Capital of the World, although residents have long found it easier to find a celebrity impersonator than a Tony Award-winning musical.

The outcome was not what Poston Butte coach Mike De La Torre had hoped.

West Virginia will enter Wednesday’s Fiesta Bowl in an unfamiliar role — that of the underdog. The current line is Oklahoma by 7 1/2 points.

A wicked hop saved them and then Jimmy Patterson did. Once Chaz Contreras scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Kyle Heckathorn in the 10th inning, there couldn’t have been a more deserving state champion.

On a night where ghouls and goblins roam the streets in search of goodies and black-caped vampires bob for apples, one local church plans on putting a positive spin on a decisively wicked holiday.

To survive and compete in the age of Game Boys, modern literature seems to offer young people a trade: We’ll let you play a little nasty and gross — if you’re willing to read about it.

The little things added up to a 5-1 Arizona State victory Sunday that gave the Sun Devils the weekend series against Tulane.

Learn about the numerous poisonous animals that live in the desert, including Gila monsters, scorpions, centipedes and more, at 'Venomous Creatures of the Desert' on Saturday at San Tan Mountain Regional Park.

Chicago resident Emily Wickness and her two close girlfriends were saddled with a true baseball fan’s dilemma Friday night.

No doubt many of the 30,738 spectators at Bank One Ballpark on Friday had watched the predictable — Ross and Rachel reuniting on the “Friends” series finale — just 24 hours before.

It was a night of firsts at Peoria High School. Like most every other high school volleyball team in Arizona, Tuesday marked the first match of the 2007 season. For Peoria the evening had more meaning. After a year playing their matches in the school's practice facility, while the main gym was renovated, it was a home coming for the Panthers players. The game also marked the program's first home contest in 4A since Peoria made the jump to 5A following the 1998 season. With all that as a backdrop the game also served as the first match of rookie coach Teresa Fuller's career. But just to make sure the evening wouldn't be easily forgotten the host Panthers and visiting Paradise Valley Trojans tangled for a bizarre yet entertaining five-game match that eventually went to the home team. In a battle in which neither team could win consecutive games Peoria finally earned the victory 25-20, 16-25, 25-13, 16-25, 15-5. "It was good to get that first win," Fuller said. "Despite everything that went on during the match I really felt confident heading into that final game. I just told the girls enough is enough it's time to finish this team off. You could just see it in the girl's eyes that we wanted it." The Panthers were battling more than the Trojans in the final game. They had to exercise the curse that seemed to be afflicting whichever team found their way to the north side of the court. Through the first four games the two teams alternated performing their best Jekyll and Hyde impression. The team on the south side of the court appeared confident, controlled play at the net and passed well, while the team on the north side of the net lacked communication, had a terrible time with serve receive, and saw their hitters shoot kill attempts long and wide throughout the first four games. "It was strange," Fuller agreed. "Just when you felt like you had the momentum really going with you it would go ahead and disappear. I think we learned a lot about ourselves tonight though. We kept fighting." Following four long games, which were continuously bogged down by a Paradise Valley team that inexplicably was unable to substitute and rotate correctly, needing to be corrected time and again by the officials, Peoria stepped forward to give the evening a conclusion, and their coach her first win. Having alternated through the first five points Peoria junior Hillary Toone took the serve with her team leading 3-2. "Hillary was really consistent for us all night, in all facets," said the coach of her junior. From 3-2 Toone and her teammates would make it 10-2 before Paradise Valley could stop the 8-0 run. With an array of hard deep serves the Trojans had trouble keeping Toone's efforts in play much less produce an effective attack. That opened the door for setter Lisa Ramirez to setup her teammates offensively. Junior Tatum Carlson stepped to the forefront as did seniors Leah Orth and Jordan Corder. While the group all recorded at least one clean kill in the final game they also won the battles at the net on multiple 50-50 balls at the net coming up with the winners to give their team the momentum. "I think we were feeling the butterflies before the game," said Ramirez who featured a wicked jump serve in addition to her duties setting up her teammates. "Especially for the seniors though it felt really good being back in our gym. We've played together for a long time and we didn't want to let them beat us on our floor." Corder would give the Panthers their first match point with her third kill of the deciding game. She would then serve the final point. When an arrant pass sailed off course the Panthers were able to celebrate their first of what Ramirez said should be many victories. "We know Cactus (the defending champion) is in our region, but that lets us know who we have to shoot for," she said. "Coach expects a lot out of us and we do too. We communicate well. We've got a good group of seniors and if Tatum steps up and plays as aggressively as she did tonight we're going to be real good. We want to play in the state finals." After one win Fuller was a bit more measured in her optimism. "We've got some things we can build on. We tried a look with two setters and I think we probably learned that we're better off going with a 5-1 so we can keep Leah concentrating on being one of our main hitters. It's a good group. Hopefully we'll keep getting better," said the coach following the first of what she hopes will be many post victory interviews.

Stephanie Brown was prepared to play softball all night if she had to.

After U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last month revealed the extent of Iraq's obstructionism and deceit in response to the United Nations effort to remove the threat of its malign weaponry, French President Jacques Chirac opined that the inspection process must nonetheless go on because “War is always an admission of failure and the worst solution.”

Heisman Watch: Adrian Peterson: The Oklahoma running back (below) had three more touchdowns last week, and — thanks also in part to pedestrian statistics put up by Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith in recent games — is the new Heisman front-runner.

BOSTON - All that was missing was Mark Bellhorn lingering at home plate, trying to wave the ball fair.

Cardinals fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo arrived at University of Phoenix Stadium a few hours before Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks and noticed the retractable roof was closed. “I was like, ‘What the hell?’ ” Ayanbadejo said. “Why is the roof closed today?”