No replay yet: World Series umps reverse bad call

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell argues a call with umpire Dana DeMuth during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell argues a call with umpire Dana DeMuth during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright watches as umpires discuss a ruling during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the Boston Red Sox Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell argues a call with umpire Dana DeMuth during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny argues a call with umpire John Hirschbeck during the first inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the Boston Red Sox Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell argues a call with umpire Dana DeMuth during the second inning of Game 1 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

BOSTON (AP) — Just think how much we like to watch wild arguments in baseball, when a manager flaps his arms, throws his hat and hollers nose-to-nose at the umpire while the spit flies.

Gee, all that fun will soon be out.

A blown call that the umps reversed in the World Series opener Wednesday night steamed both the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, and gave fans a sort of preview of exactly what they'll be missing.

Starting next season, Major League Baseball is expected to expand instant replay to resolve almost every dispute except for decisions on balls and strikes.

"End of an era," longtime umpire Don Denkinger told The Associated Press by phone, right after a dropped throw set off the squabbling at Fenway Park. "But it's about time, isn't it?"

Denkinger was a distinguished umpire for three decades, but that's not why many remember him. His infamous wrong ruling at first base in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series revived the Kansas City Royals, who went on to beat the Cardinals for the crown.

"In those days, you made your call and hung with it," he said. "And then you suffered the consequences."

Fortunately for veteran ump Dana DeMuth, he got help. After he said Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma caught a throw for an out at second base — when he clearly didn't — the six-man crew huddled.

As those in the stands saw replays on smartphones and screamed louder and louder, the umps overturned the call and ruled Dustin Pedroia safe.

"Honestly, I was a little surprised that it happened," Boston manager John Farrell said Thursday.

Said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny: "It's a pretty tough time to debut that overruled call in the World Series."

Rare to flip a call on this stage, indeed. Unprecedented? Hardly.

At a key moment in the 2004 AL championship series, Alex Rodriguez swatted a ball out of the glove of Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo and wound up at second base. But the umpires conferred and reversed it, saying A-Rod was out for interference.

Commissioner Bud Selig liked the way this situation was resolved.

"If you took all the debates, instant replay there would have saved us a lot of time. So they made the right decision and I give them credit. I really give them credit," he said.

Getting the call right has always been the game's mantra. Yet for years, Selig touted the "human element" of baseball, which involved an occasional miss by the umpires. In fact, those mistakes often became part of the sport's lore.

So while the NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA and Grand Slam tennis all moved forward with increased use of video reviews, MLB lagged behind. Only after a series of high-profile foulups during the 2008 season did baseball begin limited looks on potential home-run balls.

That's about to change in a big way.

"I was talking to the guys about that on the drive over to the ballpark today," crew chief John Hirschbeck said a couple hours before the Series opener. "I was telling the umpires that these were probably going to be the last games they worked without replay for many calls."

"It will be different," he said.

MLB is working out the final details, and the owners, players and umpires have to be in agreement.

In the NFL, coaches throw red bean bags onto the field to contest a call. Next year, managers will be allowed to challenge one call in the first six innings, and two more after that.

A final ruling will come from a central office, the same way the NHL handles its replay.

Before Game 2, Farrell said he didn't know how things would work next year.

"Am I going to throw the red flag?" he said with a laugh Thursday.

DeMuth, meanwhile, was glad a wrong got righted.

He said after the game that he never actually saw Kozma drop the ball and was instead focused on the player's foot. "So I was assuming," he added.

Baseball rules say one umpire cannot simply change another's call. Instead, umpires silently indicate among themselves that there might be a mistake and the need to confer.

In DeMuth's case, the other umpires drifted closer to the middle of the diamond, rather than stand in their usual spots, while Farrell pleaded his case. They caught DeMuth's attention by moving toward him.

"With our crew signals, I had crewmates that were giving me the signal that they were 100 percent sure ... that they had it and I had the wrong call," DeMuth said.

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Indian And Chinese Leaders Sign Border Agreement At Summit

NPR's correspondents in Shanghai and New Delhi, Frank Langfitt and Julie McCarthy, talk with Steve Inskeep about a recent summit between Indian and Chinese leaders. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang signed an agreement on border cooperation, but had little else of significance to show at the end of their meeting.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And now let's turn to the world's two giants: China and India. China is the world's most populous country. India is projected to become the most populous country before long. Yesterday, their leaders met in Beijing and signed an agreement to ease tensions on the long border that they share. That agreement comes after an incident this spring when India accused Chinese soldiers of crossing the border.

We're going to hear now from both sides of the border. NPR's Frank Langfitt is on the line from Shanghai. Hi, Frank.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: And NPR's Julie McCarthy is in New Delhi. Hi, Julie.

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Hi there.

INSKEEP: And Julie, let's start with you. What do Indians think about when they peer across the 2500-mile border?

MCCARTHY: Well, it's changed rather dramatically in recent years. The recent polling shows that Indians have shifted their attitude, and see China really as a potential security threat, even more so than Pakistan. And so that is a significant difference.

That said, I think the Indian government doesn't consider China as a friend. It doesn't look to it as a friend, but nor does it want it as a rival, Steve, so there needs to be this fine balance that you have to strike here and all that, you know, so you've got economics and how they're going to finesse India's yawning trade imbalance with China.

You've got water wars about rivers being dammed in China. You've got the Chinese diplomatic embrace of Pakistan, which is all very troubling to them. So there's a lot on their plate as they move forward and increasingly they're wary.

INSKEEP: Okay. The two largest countries in the world and a lot of complex issues. And Frank Langfitt, do the Chinese see India in any way as a threat?

LANGFITT: To some extent, yeah. I mean since we're talking polls, there was a Pew poll last year that saw a rise in which about a quarter people in China saw India as their - the growth of their economy as a bad thing. But you know, you've got to remember, the gap between these countries is really big. We often talk of them maybe in the same sentence, but China's the world's second largest economy. India is the 10th largest. China more than four times the size of India's economy. Also, India has a growing trade deficit with China. It's now over $40 billion. And I know we often harp on this, but the infrastructure difference between the two countries is really staggering. I routinely now report by bullet train, and certainly when I have some Indian friends who come to visit, they see a huge difference.

INSKEEP: You mentioned Indian friends coming to visit. How much traffic is there going back and forth? How much tourism? How much business between the two countries?

LANGFITT: There's not that much, but I - when I talk to Indian friends, they often ask me a lot about China and they always make comparisons. And they despair, frankly, that in China the infrastructure is pretty extraordinary, as you know. And they still feel that India is lagging behind.

INSKEEP: Julie McCarthy, is that part of the reason that India would see China as a threat? Its economy is more advanced at this point.

MCCARTHY: Well, you know, it's interesting. I often encounter Indians who believe very fervently that India is on par in just about every arena with China, and then you ask them if they've been there. And the answer is invariably no. So there is this huge disconnect between what people see as themselves and how they project themselves and what really is a rather stark difference between the two.

INSKEEP: This 2,500 mile border, can you give me a picture of it? It's mostly in the mountains, is that right?

MCCARTHY: Well, it's the Himalayas, so yes. A great deal of it is in mountainous regions and other conflicting areas where you've got rivers that the two countries share, and then you have a whole issue of damming water. So along the border there are these very tricky places, and you know, since 1962, where there was a small war between the two, you get these incursions and disputed territory and a disputed border that still needs to be settled.

INSKEEP: Can I just ask, Frank Langfitt, because the United States has sometimes seen India as an ally and a potential counterweight to China in Asia. Does the United States have anything to worry about when India and China get together and sign cooperation agreements as they've done here?

LANGFITT: China is definitely concerned that India can be a counterweight to China in terms of its relationship with the U.S. India isn't entirely convinced that the U.S. can be counted on. There's a concern that because the economic between China and the U.S. is so strong that push comes to shove, actually the U.S. will throw in with China.

So everybody, as they look across this region, they're kind of hedging. They're watching. They're trying to put chips on different parts of the table to try to cover themselves, depending on how things turn out.

INSKEEP: Frank, thanks very much.

LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Steve.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Frank Langfitt in Shanghai. NPR's Julie McCarthy is in New Delhi. Julie, thanks to you.

MCCARTHY: You're welcome.

INSKEEP: And you hear both of them right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Morphosys raises 2013 profit expectations on cancer programme

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German biotech company Morphosys raised its profit expectations for this year again due to higher revenues and lower costs at its cancer treatment alliance with U.S. partner Celgene.

Morphosys now expects earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of between 7 million euros ($9.7 million) and 10 million euros, after previously predicting EBIT of 2 million euros to 6 million euros, it said on Thursday after stock markets closed.

Revenues will come in at the upper end of the predicted range of 74 million to 78 million euros, it said.

($1 = 0.7245 euros)

(Reporting by Peter Dinkloh; Editing by Anthony Barker)

• Finance
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/morphosys-raises-2013-profit-expectations-cancer-programme-182155593--finance.html
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Tom Hanks Meets a Fan with Autism Backstage

Going backstage to share a few hugs, stories and laughs, the multi-talented Tom Hanks met with a lifelong fan after one of his Lucky Guy performances in New York in March.

Sarah Moretti, autistic superfan of Hanks, met with the 57-year-old in a video interview, showing him a scrapbook collection of his career. He saw the book, telling her, "Sweetie! How wonderful is it to meet you?"

Rifling through the pages of Sarah's photo album, Hanks was overwhelmed, saying, “Sarah, this is so great! You know, my mom doesn't even have something like this!”

He made her day by telling her stories about his exploits and his family, personally signing several pages of her book and giving her a big hug. Watch the video interview below!

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/tom-hanks/tom-hanks-meets-fan-autism-backstage-949171
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10 Things to See: A week of top AP photos

IN this image taken with a fisheye lens, Boston Red Sox players take batting practice as a rainbow appears in the sky above Fenway Park Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox are scheduled to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

IN this image taken with a fisheye lens, Boston Red Sox players take batting practice as a rainbow appears in the sky above Fenway Park Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox are scheduled to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Guatemalan clown Tonito poses for a portrait at an international clown convention in Mexico City, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Wearing oversized shoes, wigs and rubber noses, the clowns lined up to register on the first day of the 17th International Clown Convention at a theater in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

An Indian boy jumps to catch a ball at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, India, Friday, Oct.18, 2013. Shivaji Park is the largest park in Mumbai and has been a training ground for several Indian cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Pakistani boys, who were displaced with their families from Pakistan's tribal areas due to fighting between the Taliban and the army, pose for a photograph, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

George Mendez, foreground, a 55-year-old recovering alcoholic, sits in front of a drunk woman in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 23, 2013. The area, originally agricultural until the 1870s when railroads first entered Los Angeles, has maintained a transient nature through the years from the influxes of short-term workers, migrants fleeing economic hardship during the Great Depression, military personnel during World War II and the Vietnam conflict, and low-skilled workers with limited transportation options who need to remain close to the city's core, according to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

This week's collection includes a portrait of a clown in Mexico City, a rainbow over Red Sox players taking batting practice at Fenway Park in Boston, children playing ball in Mumbai and a powerful punch landed during a boxing match in Leipzig, central Germany.

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This gallery contains photos published Oct. 17-24, 2013.

Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://apne.ws/XZy6ny

The Archive: Previous "10 Things to See" galleries: http://apne.ws/13QUFKJ

___

See other recent AP photo galleries:

A slice of life at clown convention: http://apne.ws/166dgHk

Clowning serious business at convention: http://apne.ws/1a9KaKn

30 years after Marine barracks blast: http://apne.ws/1a9KgBG

Argentines worry about agrochemicals: http://apne.ws/17LRVAq

Indigenous fashion show in Bolivia: http://apne.ws/1adApav

Georgia Bull Run draws 3,000 daredevils: http://apne.ws/1a9KsB4

Skid Row, a battle of misery and hope: http://apne.ws/19AdCqg

Yosemite reopens after shutdown: http://apne.ws/1adARW8

___

Follow AP Images on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Images

Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com

___

This gallery was curated by news producer Caleb Jones. Follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/CalebAP) and Instagram (http://instagram.com/calebnews)

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Samsung hit with fine in Taiwan, probe into failing devices in China

Bogus online comments land Samsung with $340k fine in Taiwan; Chinese investigation into dead phones results in apology and warranty extensions

A double-whammy of bad news for Samsung this morning. In Taiwan, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) hit the Korean company with a NT$10 million ($340,000) fine after finding that it organized an online campaign to post critical comments on HTC products, while praising its own. The commission found that through local marketing companies, Samsung hired "a large number of writers" to leave the comments on Taiwanese discussion forums, in violation of fair-trade laws. The marketing companies involved were also given smaller fines.

And in China, an investigation into failing Galaxy S3 and Note 2 handsets by state TV criticized the company's warranty arrangements. The issue concerns certain handsets dropping dead out of the blue, apparently due to faulty NAND chips in some devices. In response, Samsung's Chinese arm has issued a apology, saying the issues were the result of a "management problem" and that it welcomed the media scrutiny. The firm also promised to extend the warranties of devices made before Nov. 30, 2012 for an additional year.

Source: AP via SamMobile; Engadget

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Ladies’ Choice

Women frequently change their names for marriage or divorce, leaving their identification out of date.

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Last June the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act, resulting in several states, among them Texas and North Carolina, racing to enact draconian new voter ID laws. While the first wave of attention focused on the ways such laws disproportionately impact minority voters, young voters, and the elderly, a slew of articles this past weekend point out that voter ID laws may also significantly suppress women’s votes. Indeed some have even suggested that this is the next front in the war on women, and suppressing female votes is part of the GOP’s concerted effort to ensure victories in states like Texas, where women like Wendy Davis threaten to topple the GOP with the support of female voters. It’s beyond disputing that women have ensured that Democrats, up to and including President Obama, have achieved major wins in recent elections. Female voters decided 22 of 23 Senate races in the 2012 election.

Dahlia Lithwick writes about the courts and the law for Slate. Follow her on Twitter.

But a closer look at whether voter ID laws will invariably harm liberal women and Democratic candidates at the polls suggests that something more interesting, and more complicated, may be going on here. We don’t actually have very good data to support the claim that voter ID laws will disproportionately disenfranchise progressive women. In fact some election law experts tell me the opposite may be true: These laws may hurt conservative women instead.

The problem around women and voter ID is neither new nor complicated: Women often change their names when they marry and divorce. Men don’t. Because some of the new voter ID bills frequently demand that a voter’s name correspond to her most up-to-date, legally recognized name at the polls, they erect a barrier for women who haven’t kept their ID current to reflect changing marital status. And since, at least according to one source, American women change their names about 90 percent of the time when they marry or divorce, they are at significantly higher risk of being unable to provide an ID that matches their current legal name.

If the slew of new voter ID laws may hit divorced women hardest, consider that women in red states in fact have much higher divorce and remarriage rates.

As the many articles considering the problem suggest, in some states that is about to get even worse. As Think Progress reported last week, the new Texas voter ID law demands that “constituents show original documents verifying legal proof of a name change, whether it is a marriage license, divorce decree, or court ordered change.” Photocopies will not be accepted. If you don’t have those original documents, you must pay a minimum of $20 for new copies. So in some states, female voters face two hurdles—showing they are who they claim to be and producing original documents indicating that they really are married and divorced.

Interestingly, almost everyone arguing that progressive women will be disproportionately harmed by these laws cite a single study done in 2006 by the Brennan Center for Justice. According to that study, only “48% of voting-age women with ready access to their U.S. birth certificates have a birth certificate with current legal name—and only 66% of voting-age women with ready access to any proof of citizenship have a document with current legal name.” The survey concluded that “using 2000 census citizen voting-age population data, this means that as many as 32 million voting-age women may have available only proof of citizenship documents that do not reflect their current name.” (Emphasis theirs.)

But the Brennan study looked only at proof of citizenship documents, not photo IDs, so it may not in fact prove the argument being advanced here. The Brennan study made no findings with respect to a gender differential on current photo IDs. I asked around, but I was unable to find many good studies that showed whether women would be disproportionately disenfranchised by Texas-style voter ID laws. That doesn’t mean that photo ID laws won’t disproportionately affect women. But it does mean the Brennan study doesn’t quite prove it.

Moreover, when I spoke to several election law experts about the problem, more than one of them confirmed my suspicion that women who change their names may tend to skew more conservative than women who don’t. Or as Sam Issacharoff, a professor at NYU law school, explained it to me, “During the 2012 presidential election, I thought the Pennsylvania [voter ID] law was unlikely to have any partisan effect because the way the ID law was drafted there was likely to have an impact on more Republican than Democratic voters, in part for the reasons you identify. Women in particular who are married and change their name I thought were likely not Democratic voters.”

Something else to consider: If the slew of new voter ID laws may hit divorced women hardest, consider that women in red states in fact have much higher divorce and remarriage rates. And women in the South have especially high remarriage rates. So it’s not at all clear that liberal women will be disenfranchised in greater numbers than their conservative counterparts. I’m told that women generally get hassled more at the polls because they rarely resemble the image on their photo ID in the first place.

The truth is that if Republicans want to scuttle Wendy Davis’ electoral chances, there are demonstrably easier ways of getting the job done. After all, the same Texas Legislature that passed the restrictive voter ID law was found by a federal court to have intentionally tried to pass a redistricting plan that would have redistricted Wendy Davis out of business. And, overall, there is good data to suggest that voter ID laws will clearly disenfranchise Hispanic and African American voters, poor voters, students, and other groups that skew Democratic. But the issue of women and voter ID is less clear-cut.

Ultimately, the data is still fairly bad on both sides of the voter ID debate, although it’s pretty much delusional on the vote fraud side. NYU’s Issacharoff sums it up this way: “Republicans think as a matter of deep faith that there is a lot of in-person, election day voter fraud. Many Democrats believe that the id laws and the like have resulted in a lot of voter suppression. But there is precious little empirical evidence of either. The in-person vote fraud stuff is nonsense. But the ID laws seem to target populations that are isolated from mainstream society and do not participate. Mean, offensive, hopefully unconstitutional, and all that. Just not all that effective, best I can tell.”

All this ambiguity in the data is why Judge Richard Posner stirred up such a hornet’s nest last week when he admitted to HuffPost Live’s Mike Sacks that he made a mistake when he wrote the decision in 2007 upholding Indiana’s voter ID law. He now believes the dissenters in the voter ID case had it right. But beyond questions about whether judges should recant their own decisions in the media, Posner’s mea culpa forces all of us to contend with our assumptions about the motivations behind voter ID laws and the proof we have to support them. And when it comes to female voters, it may be that what looks like everyday Republican voter ID deviousness, will prove to be the sound of them shooting themselves in the foot.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/10/how_voter_id_laws_might_suppress_the_votes_of_women_republican_women.html
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