Braves

Lions and tigers and bears -- they all came, along with about 400 guests, to do a little "Jammin' in the Jungle" at Zoofari 2005. The annual event at the Santa Ana Zoo -- chaired by Roseanne Bye -- was an enormous success, raising more than $142,000 to benefit and beautify the treasured zoo. As in years past, the Newport Mesa crowd was front and center for the summer celebration, enjoying what was certainly a lively evening...

The teenage girls from the first “Sisterhood” movie are now young women of college age. They’re off on a new set of life adventures as their paths take them farther apart. The close relationships they all shared are now stretched to greater limits that strain the intimacy they once had. Still, their mutual friendship survives despite many trials and tribulations. Blake Lively, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel are the cute babes of the story. But the plot really revolves around the character played with verve by America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame.

Chad Lundahl, a junior infielder for the UC Irvine baseball team last season, has signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves and is playing with the Rookie League Gulf Coast Braves. Lundahl, who hit .271 with 10 doubles, 18 RBIs and two stolen bases as a shortstop and third baseman for the Anteaters last season, made his professional debut Friday. He entered his first professional game as a late-inning defensive replacement and did not get an at-bat. Lundahl started Monday's game at shortstop and went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

As Sandy Ryan lay on the table Wednesday morning, with her arm being prepared for its first blood donation, she remembered a young donor she worried would die. With that fear still lurking in her mind, the Costa Mesa resident looked out the window from the Newport Beach Police Department. “At least I have a view,” she said. As she may have envisioned her last moments, Ryan made a donation that will likely keep up to three other people from experiencing theirs.

Last summer when Brooke Baum and her family went to their cabin in Big Bear a bat flew in. A debate ensued about whether you needed to get rabies shots after encountering a bat. So Baum whipped out her iPhone, went browsing and found out that, indeed, rabies shots are a must because the critters can bite you while you’re sleeping and you won’t even know it, Brooke’s mother, Jude Lipps said. That’s how Baum was. Fearless. Quick-thinking. Responsible.

Jordan Kurtz slammed an inside-the-park home run to help lead the Newport Beach Little League's Angels past the Braves, 9-7, in Majors Division action. The Angels (10-4) attacked the Braves early, scoring five runs in the top of the first inning. But the Braves answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame. However, the Braves weren't able to over the Angels' timely hitting and solid pitching. Shane Boras, Michael Page, Scott Ely and Andy Rovzar contributed the hits for the Angels.

Hundreds of spectators came to the Wedge on Friday with their cameras and kids in tow as one growling wave after another lashed the shore and body surfers tried to mount the towering columns of water. The spectators inched forward until the waves chased them back. Large swells were greeted with collective gasps as some beachgoers whipped out cell-phone cameras to snap pictures. “It’s just mesmerizing. We can’t take our eyes off of it,” said Clovis resident Sara Sanchez, who was visiting her mother in Newport Beach on Friday with her two children, Conner, 11, and Lucas, 7. The family saw the large waves breaking at the Wedge from Balboa Pier and came down to the beach for a closer look.

Heather Thomson scrambled up the sand on the south side of the Newport Pier after a 1,000-meter swim through the chilly waters Sunday. Grabbing a flat wooden stick with her finishing number penned on it, the 16-year-old shuffled off the beach with scores of local teens who came out to audition for a spot on the 2007 Newport Beach summer lifeguards. Heather, a Newport Harbor High School Junior who holds a spot on the school's varsity swim team, did not take the competition lightly.

NEWPORT BEACH - Lifelong surfer Billy Lewis stood on Balboa Pier watching the waves Thursday afternoon. Spots of water from the splashes shooting upward dotted his face, shirt and hat. "I had to take a look at it. I'm a surfer," the Newport Beach resident said. Hundreds joined Lewis on the pier because no one around there was up to experiencing Mother Nature first hand. Waves were up to 8 feet on average, with some peaking as high as 12, lifeguards said. The sand around the pier was absent of any people braving the waves, and only a few tried dipping their feet in the shorebreak.