The three winners of the inaugural Bob Feller Act of Valor Award were announced today. Peter Fertig of New York man created the award in tribute to the former Cleveland Indians pitcher from Van Meter, who struck out 17 batters at the age of 17, and was a decorated World War Two anti-aircraft gunner. Fertig consulted with baseball executives, the U-S Navy and Feller’s widow. “I wanted to find a way to honor Bob Feller, a true American patriot and a hero,” Fertig says. He says it’s important to remember what Feller did on and off the baseball diamond.

“Bob was a major league baseball player, rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy, and he was a baseball Hall of Famer. My job is to keep his memory alive of what he did. If we forget shame on us,” Fertig explains. Fertig is the president of the award’s foundation which will choose the winners each year. The Act of Valor Award goes to a Hall of Famer, an active baseball player and a Naval officer — each representing a part of what Feller was.

“Bob Feller was a phenom at the age of 23, he had already pitched six years in the major leagues and on December seventh, 1941 he never hesitated, he never wavered, he joined the hardest hit part of our military at that time which was the United States Navy,” Fertig says. The inaugural winners of the award are Yankee’s legend Yogi Berra, Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander, and Chief Petty Officer Garth Sinclair. Berra is now 88, and is cited for his career with the New York Yankees and also for participating in the D-Day invasion in World War Two.

(Radio Iowa)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matt Holliday and pinch-hitter Shane Robinson hit the first home runs of the NL championship series, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup. In a series starved for offense, the Cardinals scored as many runs as they did in the first three games combined, when the teams totaled nine runs.

Hitless in his previous 22 at-bats at Dodger Stadium, Holliday sent a two-run shot off Ricky Nolasco an estimated 426 feet into left field, capping a three-run third that gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

Game 5 is this (Wednesday) afternoon at Dodger Stadium, with the Cardinals one win from the World Series. Zack Greinke is set to start for the Dodgers against Joe Kelly.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An attorney for Albert Pujols has discounted another lawyer’s suggestion that Pujols and former Cardinals slugger Jack Clark take lie-detector tests to settle Pujols’ defamation lawsuit over Clark’s claim that Pujols used steroids. Pujols is suing Clark, who played for the Cardinals from 1985 to 1987, for his comments on a local radio show accusing Pujols of using steroids. Clark’s lawyer, Al Watkins, suggested Monday both men take polygraph tests.

Pujols, a nine-time All-Star who played for the Cardinals from 2001-11, filed a defamation lawsuit against Clark in St. Louis County, seeking unspecified damages that would be donated to charity. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Martin Singer, Pujols’ lawyer in Los Angeles where the slugger plays for the Angels, says sworn testimony, “not inadmissible polygraphs and absurd publicity ploys — is what counts.”

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An accommodating schedule and a perfectly placed bye week put Iowa in position for a good start. The Hawkeyes won’t get many more breaks this season. Iowa (4-2, 1-1 Big Ten) will finish 2013 against opponents who are a combined 25-11, with nearly half of those losses coming from Purdue.

The Hawkeyes lost every game they played in the second half of 2012, and they might only be favored once in the final six games of this season. But Iowa is confident that the strides it has made so far will help it avoid another collapse.

The Hawkeyes kick off a grueling stretch on Saturday at fourth-ranked Ohio State (6-0, 2-0). You can hear the game on KJAN.

w/ Jim Field

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Hawkeye 10:

• (3-0) Kuemper Catholic 25-25-25, Clarinda 23-22-15

Western Iowa Tourney:

• (3-0) A-H-S-T 25-25-25, Logan-Magnolia 19-14-20
• (3-0) IKM-Manning 25-25-25, Audubon 18-14-19
• (3-0) Missouri Valley 25-27-25, Griswold 10-25-19
• (3-0) Treynor 25-25-25, A-H-S-T 14-10-6
• (3-0) Underwood 25-25-25, Tri-Center 20-15-14

Others:

• (2-1) Bedford 25-19-15, Nodaway Valley 22-25-12
• (2-0) Bedford 25-25, Pleasantville 19-17
• (3-0) Coon Rapids-Bayard 25-25-25, Glidden-Ralston 15-11-18
• (2-0) Southwest Valley 25-25, Lenox 11-11

The Top Ten teams in the Associated Press Iowa high school football polls of the 2013 season with first-place votes in parentheses and won-loss record, total points and position last week at right:

Class 4-A

1. West Des Moines Dowling (14) 7-0 149 1
2. Pleasant Valley (1) 7-0 133 3
3. Ames 7-0 123 4
4. Waukee 6-1 95 5
5. Cedar Rapids Xavier 6-1 68 6
6. Iowa City High 6-1 61 NR
7. West Des Moines Valley 5-2 57 8
8. Davenport Assumption 6-1 44 10
9. Bettendorf 6-1 42 9
10. Iowa City West 6-1 33 2

Others receiving votes: 11, Urbandale 15. 12, Sioux City East 4. 13, Southeast Polk 1.

Class 3-A

1. Sioux City Heelan (15) 7-0 150 1
2. Decorah 7-0 127 2
3. Pella 7-0 118 3
4. Clear Lake 7-0 108 4
5. Harlan 6-1 81 6
6. Boone 7-0 69 7
7. Washington 6-1 51 8
8. Spencer 6-1 35 9
9. Solon 6-1 29 10
10. Carroll 5-2 23 5

Others receiving votes: 11, Dallas Center-Grimes 18. 12, Webster City 10. 13, Grinnell 3. 14, Williamsburg 2. 15, Manchester West Delaware 1.

Class 2-A

1. Kuemper Catholic (11) 7-0 146 1
2. Waukon (4) 7-0 129 2
3. West Marshall 7-0 104 3
4. Albia 7-0 100 4
5. Mediapolis 7-0 83 5
6. Boyden-Hull-RV 6-1 75 7
7. New Hampton 7-0 71 6
8. Spirit Lake 6-1 39 9
9. Central Lyon-GLR 6-1 38 8
10. Cascade 6-1 14 10

Others receiving votes: 11, Alleman North Polk 10. 12, Waterloo Columbus 9. 13, Sioux Center 5. 14, Camanche 1. 14, Wellman Mid-Prairie 1.

Class 1-A

1. Iowa City Regina (14) 7-0 149 1
2. St. Albert (1) 7-0 128 2
3. Dike-New Hartford 7-0 114 3
4. North Fayette 7-0 99 5
5. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 7-0 89 6
6. Maquoketa Valley 7-0 65 7
7. Wilton 6-1 63 4
8. Van Meter 7-0 63 8
9. South O’Brien 6-1 15 NR
10. Mount Ayr 6-1 14 10

Others receiving votes: 11, Guttenberg Clayton Ridge 11. 12, Calmar South Winneshiek 10. 13, Ogden 2. 14, Ridge View 1. 14, Jewell South Hamilton 1. 14, Manson-NW Webster 1.

Class A

1. West Lyon (10) 7-0 144 1
2. BGM (3) 7-0 133 2
3. Wapsie Valley (2) 7-0 126 3
4. AGWSR 8-0 100 4
5. A-H-S-T 7-0 97 5
6. Pekin 6-1 72 8
7. Hinton 5-2 42 10
8. Montezuma 6-1 40 6
9. Algona Garrigan 5-2 23 NR
10. Gladbrook-Reinbeck 5-2 20 NR

Others receiving votes: 11, Lisbon 15. 12, Lawton-Bronson 8. 13, East Mills 3. 14, Grundy Center 2.

Class 8-Man

1. Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton (8) 7-0 138 1
2. Gilbertville-Don Bosco (5) 8-0 132 2
3. Newell-Fonda (2) 7-0 110 3
4. West Bend-Mallard 8-0 101 6
5. Adair-Casey 7-0 99 4
6. Springville 7-0 91 5
7. Janesville 6-1 45 8
8. MMC 6-1 39 NR
9. HLV 7-1 27 9
10.  Glidden-Ralston 6-1 22 NR

Others receiving votes: 11, Correctionville River Valley 10. 12, Lamoni 8. 13, Bussey Twin Cedars 2. 14, Fremont Mills, Tabor 1.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hyun-Jin Ryu outpitched Adam Wainwright with seven innings of three-hit ball, Adrian Gonzalez’s RBI double ended a 1-for-17 drought for the Dodgers with runners in scoring position, and Los Angeles got back into the NL championship series with a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez also had run-scoring hits for the Dodgers, who trail the best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 is Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, followed by Game 5 on Wednesday. Retired Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, whose 1988 team won the franchise’s last World Series title in 1988, stood up and waved his white rally towel in the eighth to raucous applause.

St. Louis third baseman David Freese left Game 3 of the NL championship series in the fifth inning Monday night with an apparent ankle injury. Pinch-runner Daniel Descalso then made a major mistake in his place, getting doubled off second base to hurt a St. Louis rally. Freese singled to lead off the fifth with the Cardinals’ first hit off Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, but the Cardinals’ training staff came out to meet him at first base.

After Freese advanced to second on Matt Adams’ single, Descalso emerged from the St. Louis dugout to replace Freese. Descalso then took off for third base on Jon Jay’s tailing fly to shallow left field, and Carl Crawford doubled him up. The Cardinals failed to score in the inning and trailed 2-0.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former women’s rowing participant who claimed that intense training workouts left her with debilitating leg injuries.  The settlement avoids trial in the case of Margaret Krusing, who argued that former coach Mandi Kowal imposed excessive training requirements. It was approved Friday and released to The Associated Press under the public records law.

Krusing joined the team in 2007 and was unprepared for the running and biking regimen Kowal required. She soon started complaining of burning in her legs and numbness in her feet. She developed exertional compartment syndrome, a condition that made it hard for her to walk and required numerous surgeries.

Both sides say they’re pleased to settle the lawsuit, which was filed in 2010.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State junior Jarvis West was lauded by the Big 12 and the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) for his performance vs. Texas Tech on Saturday. A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., West earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honors and national kickoff returner of the week accolades by the CFPA.

West returned Iowa State’s first non-onside kickoff return for a touchdown since 1994 (Troy Davis) at Texas Tech, going 95 yards for the score on ISU’s first touchdown of the afternoon. The 95-yard kickoff return ties for the third-longest in school history.

West also had four punt returns for 46 yards, including a career-long 38-yarder in the third quarter.

West is one of the most prolific kickoff returners in school history. His career 26.10 average on kickoff returns ranks second all-time in school history behind Luther Blue (26.47; 1973-76).