Oakland News Blog @newzblogz.com

By TOM WITHERS AP Sports WriterArticle Launched: 06/25/2007 11:30:36 PM PDT

CLEVELAND—C.C. Sabathia's pager was inundated all day with text messages from trash-talking friends back in California. They were telling him that he was going to lose to the Oakland Athletics again. He sent them a nasty reply.

Sabathia joined Boston's Josh Beckett as the majors' only 11-game winners and finally beat his hometown team again, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 victory over the Athletics on Monday night.

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While C.C. Sabathia has been outstanding all season, Jeff Weaver is just beginning to reverse his early slide.

Emerging as a top-tier ace, Sabathia became baseball's second 11-game winner by pitching a complete game to lead the Cleveland Indians past the visiting Oakland Athletics 5-2 on Monday night.

The left-hander tied Boston's Josh Beckett for the major league lead in wins, extending an impressive run of pinpoint control. In his past 14 starts, Sabathia (11-2) has walked only 11 batters while striking out 89.

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MEYERS ? Residents of Lake Tahoe?s south shore huddled beneath a smoke-filled sky Monday after fleeing a raging forest fire that destroyed more than 225 homes and outbuildings and clouded the lake?s famously clear water with falling ash.

Light winds Monday gave firefighters a leg up on the blaze, and by late afternoon it was 40 percent contained, fire officials said. The U.S. Forest Service expects full containment of the blaze by Sunday, authorities said.

About 1,000 people have evacuated their homes in this popular resort area along the California-Nevada border while as many as 500 other houses remained threatened, authorities said. However, with the level of containment authorities said the threat against many of the homes has eased.

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Internet broadcasters around the country, including some public and commercial radio stations that broadcast on the Net, are observing a "Day of Silence" — muting all music on their sites — to protest and publicize increases in the fees they pay record companies and artists for playing songs. The fees, set to go into effect July 15, are so high, they argue, many of them will have to shut down their sites.

The battle is the latest grab for dollars in a war over who should be paid when music is distributed through online sites.

Record companies argue that this legislation is a way to ensure they and the artists get paid by companies that profit from broadcasting their work.

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With 6 teams in the Chicago area and 5 more possible, sport's popularity is surging

With the hometown Windy City ThunderBolts trailing 5-2 after seven innings, Michael Cole and his buddies sipped $3 beers as a group of youngsters down on the field scrambled into two pairs of King Kong-size underpants.

"I'm betting on the kid in the Oakland A's jersey," Cole said as he watched them stumble around the bases in the monster white shorts while 3,000 fans cheered. "It happens every time. Some kid falls and gets dragged."

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