Portland

Oregon's largest city offers everything from Voodoo Doughnuts to nearby wineries and the Columbia River Gorge.

THE UNION will open its 2012 season in Portland, Ore. against the Timbers on Monday, March 12. Game time is 9:30 p.m Eastern at Jeld-Wen Field with coverage on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3. It will be just the 11th Monday game in the MLS' 17 seasons. The Union was 0-1-1 against the expansion Timbers last season, losing 1-0 in Portland and playing a 0-0 draw at PPL Park. The Union's home opener will be on Sunday, March 18; the opponent and time have yet to be announced by the league.

Run-scoring doubles by Chris Cliapinski and Luis Castillo keyed a three-run seventh as Portland came from behind to beat Reading, 10-8. TRENTON 12, BINGHAMTON 7 BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Walt McKeel had three RBIs and scored four runs and Lou Merloni added three more RBIs as the Thunder rallied past the Mets. WILMINGTON 4, FREDERICK 3

There was more intrigue than in the latest Robert Ludlum novel. There were more meetings than at the Pentagon, more rumors, gossip and whispering than at a political convention. It was just the Phillies going through the annual rite of spring known as the roster shuffle. But unlike in recent springs, when the period was marked by blockbuster trades, the Phils were tormented by indecision. The Phils did decide to send Jeff Stone back to Portland, but their anguish centered on their pitching staff.

The Portland Trail Blazers earned their 11th straight playoff berth the old-fashioned way: by going to Clyde Drexler with the game on the line against the New Jersey Nets. Drexler scored 25 of his season-high 34 points in the second half and hit five free throws in the final 26 seconds to lead Portland to a 109-105 win over the host Nets yesterday in East Rutherford, N.J. "Those are the situations you live for," said Drexler, who hit eight of 10 shots from the field after intermission.

As expected, Milt Thompson has been recalled from Portland and will be available for tonight's twi-night doubleheader against the Pirates. Seldom-used first baseman Francisco Melendez has been optioned back to the Beavers. The lefthanded hitter batted .250 in eight at-bats. Thompson, who batted better than .300 three times in his seven previous minor league seasons, was hitting .357 with 21 stolen bases in 40 games at Portland. The presence of Thompson could presage another wave of lineup juggling.

The Sixers tonight welcome the NBA's hottest team and hottest player to the Spectrum. The Portland Trail Blazers had won nine games in a row before last night's 127-117 loss to the host Detroit Pistons. They have won despite the fact that their starting center, Sam Bowie, is out for the season with a broken leg and their leading scorer, forward Kiki Vandeweghe, is out with a bad back. And they've won without any sort of contribution from their No. 1 draft pick, Jacksonville guard Ronnie Murphy, who just returned to the roster after a month-long suspension for being too fat. "How many teams have lost their starting center and another player who has averaged almost 30 points a game?"

On April 4, John Felske told Fred Toliver the good news: He had made it into the Phillies five-man rotation. On April 4, John Felske also told Fred Toliver the bad news: The first four members of that starting rotation were heading for Philadelphia. Guess who wasn't? Yes, it was Fred Toliver's great fortune to be able to return to the fabulous Pacific Coast League and pitch - as opposed to hanging around the big leagues and vegetating. That was the way it was explained to Toliver by John Felske, anyhow.

Team president Bill Giles says the Phillies are "90 percent certain" to move their triple-A franchise from Portland to Scranton, Pa., next season, a Portland newspaper reported yesterday. Giles, who was in Portland to scout the Pacific Coast League team, said he had made an oral commitment to Scranton that if the city built a stadium and was able to get into the triple-A International League, the Phillies would move their Portland club there. The Portland Beavers have been affiliated with the Phillies for four years.

It's been six years - six years - since Phoenix has won a basketball game in Portland. Eighteen times the Suns have tried and 18 times the Suns have failed to best the Trail Blazers on their home court. Their most recent attempt was on Monday, when the Blazers defeated the Suns, 100-98, in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. Portland now has won four of its six meetings with Phoenix this season, but all of the Blazers' victories have been close. Two were by two points, one was by one point and one was by eight in overtime.

Fare impact from airline mergers It's laughable to hear US Airways chief Doug Parker say that Philadelphia will benefit from the merger with American Airlines ("In Phila., extolling airlines' merger," March 27). I've been flying twice a year for business to Portland, Maine, for more than 20 years. Tickets for a 52-minute nonstop flight once cost in the $300 range at a time when there was competition on that route. But now it's in the $800 to $1,000 range. The reason? Southwest Airlines in the last year or so decided it was only flying in a southwest direction from Philadelphia.

PORTLAND - Over the last two games, 76ers coach Doug Collins has turned to veteran point guard Royal Ivey with more consistency. In the Sixers' win at Memphis the day after Christmas, Collins counted on Ivey to fill in for Jrue Holiday, and Ivey responded with six points, making both of his three-point shots in almost 11 minutes. In a 96-89 loss to Golden State on Friday, Ivey logged more than 25 minutes. And while he scored just five points, Collins said that foes are going to see more of Ivey as the coach tightens his rotation.

New York's Carmelo Anthony and three others were thrown out of a foul-filled game, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Knicks for the second time this season, 110-106, on Friday night in New York. Knicks center Tyson Chandler and Bulls counterpart Joakim Noah were tossed after a fourth-quarter altercation, shortly after New York coach Mike Woodson was ejected following his second technical. Anthony finished with 29 points on 10-of-25 shooting, ending his streak of four straight 30-point games.

PORTLAND, Ore. - A gunman opened fire in a Portland-area shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding one as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said. Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as a gunman wearing some sort of camouflage outfit and what looked like a hockey mask fired rounds from a military-style rifle near the food court at Clackamas Town Center. Parents with children joined other shoppers rushing to stores' back rooms for safety as teams of police officers began entering the mall to find the shooter.

Court-martial set in alleged hazing NEW YORK - Chinese Americans decrying the suicide of an Army private who allegedly was hazed because of his ethnicity left Monday for the North Carolina court-martial for one of eight U.S. soldiers accused of pushing Pvt. Danny Chen to the edge. Dozens of supporters of Chen's family held a news conference in Manhattan before some boarded a van for the 10-hour trip to Fayetteville. Military officials said Chen, 19, shot himself last year in Afghanistan after weeks of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of fellow soldiers.

Peter N. Kyros, a Democrat who represented Portland, Maine, in the U.S. House for four terms, died July 10 - the day before his 87th birthday - at George Washington University Hospital of respiratory failure. Kyros was a lawyer in private practice in Portland before serving in the House from 1967 to 1975. In Congress, he helped oversee legislation involving conservation and wildlife protection, and he promoted the passage of a law establishing a 200-mile offshore commercial fishing boundary.

THE INITIAL BUZZ at the NBA Combine in early June was about Syracuse's Dion Waiters and reports that one team had given him a guarantee that he would be selected in the lottery. Waiters, a Philadelphia native, immediately left the combine and canceled all of his remaining workouts and interviews on the advice of his agent, Rob Pelinka. That only increased the buzz. Speculation focused on Toronto at No. 8, Portland at No. 11 or Phoenix at No. 13. The Raptors immediately denied such a promise existed.

Danny Mwanga heard the rumors and saw the signs — but was surprisingly OK with all of it.  Mwanga was traded Wednesday to the Portland Timbers for speedy Colombian striker Jorge Perlaza. But to hear Mwanga speak of a move that returned the Union's first MLS SuperDraft pick to the city where his career began, one might have thought he won the Powerball jackpot. "There were rumors here and there, and I knew this might be something that was going to happen," Mwanga said on a teleconference held by the Timbers Wednesday night.

NEW YORK - The New Orleans Hornets, recently sold by the NBA to Saints owner Tom Benson, won the NBA's draft lottery and the No. 1 pick overall. The Hornets, after a difficult season in which they traded All-Star Chris Paul, have a shot to add another superstar, with Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis considered the best player available. The Hornets moved up from the fourth spot to earn the pick. The Charlotte Bobcats, after the worst season in NBA history, fell to the No. 2 pick.

The Union's world is in turmoil, but it's nothing a win, a clutch goal, or possibly a new starting lineup wouldn't solve. For the first time in their three-year history, the Union have started a season 0-2 with Sunday's 2-1 Major League Soccer loss to the Colorado Rapids in the home opener at PPL Park in Chester. A sellout crowd of 19,074 watched the loss, a number just slightly more than the scoring chances the Union failed to cash in on. Even Mayor Nutter was at the game, wearing a retro Union 2011 jersey, which made him look old-school, since the Union have new, bright-blue uniforms.