Cincinnati

CINCINNATI - Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton, who had expressed curiosity about how he would be greeted in Cincinnati, received a warm ovation from fans here before the season opener between the Angels and Reds. Angels first baseman Albert Pujols, who starred for the rival St. Louis Cardinals, was booed loudly. Hamilton made his major league debut for the Reds on April 2, 2007, as a pinch-hitter. The Reds had acquired him four months earlier, in the Rule 5 draft. Hamilton had grown up in North Carolina and had spent the previous seven years of his career in the Tampa Bay organization.

WASHINGTON - Steven Miller, the top enforcement official at the Internal Revenue Service, thought he might have trouble on his hands. Election season was well underway in March 2012 when tea party organizations started to complain angrily of IRS harassment over their requests for tax-exempt status. The media was looking into it. Congress had picked up the scent. Miller dispatched an advisor to Cincinnati, where a field office handles applications from nonprofits, to figure out what was up. What he learned would blow up into a crisis that would damage the agency's reputation and lead to his ouster last week.

AT THE PLATE: Matt Kemp was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, dropping his spring average to .118. Kemp has struck out eight times in 17 at-bats. Kemp also didn't hit well last spring, when he struck out 26 times in 65 at-bats. But Kemp batted .417 with 12 home runs and 25 runs batted in last April. ON THE MOUND: Josh Beckett held the Reds to a run and two hits over 41/3 innings. He struck out five and walked two. The only run charged to him came on a third-inning home run by Shin-Soo Choo.

Former Notre Dame quarterback Gunner Kiel, whose decision to transfer was announced by Coach Brian Kelly in March, will become a Cincinnati Bearcat, according to a Cincinnati Enquirer report . "Cincinnati was the best fit for me because the relationship I have with [quarterbacks] coach [Darin] Hinshaw is like nothing else. He is a great overall person and is someone I know I can get coached by," Kiel said, according to ESPN . "The group of guys I'm going to be around is second to none.

Roger Federer finds a lot to like about Cincinnati - the big crowds for his matches, the quiet time away from the court, the way his game seems to come together on the fast, blue courts. It probably helps that he often takes home the trophy too. Make it five for Federer. The world's top-ranked player won a record fifth Cincinnati title Sunday, dominating second-ranked Novak Djokovic in an unprecedented way at the start of a 6-0, 7-6 (7) win for the Western & Southern Open championship in suburban Mason, Ohio.

No. 5 Cincinnati 28, at Syracuse 7: Zach Collaros threw four touchdown passes, the defense forced two critical turnovers and the Bearcats won on the road. Collaros connected with Armon Binns on scoring passes of 81 and 13 yards, Kazeem Alli for 16 yards off a fake field-goal attempt, and Adrien Robinson for four yards as Cincinnati won its 14th straight regular-season game to remain in contention for the national championship. Collaros finished 22 of 28 for 295 yards and no turnovers.

The headline attraction on the first week of the Angels' season is Josh Hamilton's return to Texas, but Hamilton says he is more curious about his return to Cincinnati. The Angels open the season there Monday, followed by a weekend series in Texas. Hamilton played his rookie season for the Reds, a coming-out party after a seven-year odyssey through drug abuse and the minor leagues. After that one season, in 2007, the Reds traded him to the Rangers for pitcher Edinson Volquez . Hamilton played for Texas for five seasons, including the only two World Series appearances in Rangers history.

Calabasas-based home builder Ryland Group Inc. said it would shut down operations in the Cincinnati area next year amid "sluggish" conditions. Ryland will complete about 100 lots in Cincinnati; Dayton, Ohio; and northern Kentucky before halting operations, the company said.

Kevin Lovell's 33-yard field goal with 8 minutes 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter lifted Cincinnati to a 27-24 victory over Western Michigan on Saturday in the inaugural International Bowl, the first college bowl played in Canada and first outside the United States since 1937. The game was played in front of a Rogers Centre crowd of 26,717. It was just under what the CFL's Toronto Argonauts averaged last season. The Bearcats led, 24-0, early in the second quarter.

Rodney Newsom made seven three-point shots and scored 23 points and Chris Garner made four free throws in the final 37 seconds to lead Memphis to a 74-69 overtime victory over No. 23 Cincinnati on Friday night. Memphis, 16-5 and 5-1 in the Great Midwest Conference, is in first place the the league. Cincinnati fell to 15-7, 5-2.

CINCINNATI - Manager Mike Scioscia had the matchup he wanted. Reliever Scott Downs made the pitch he wanted. First baseman Albert Pujols got the ground ball he wanted. For so much that seemed to go right for the Angels on the decisive play of Wednesday night's game, so much went wrong, the net effect a 5-4 walk-off loss to the Cincinnati Reds in Great American Ball Park. With Shin-Soo Choo - who was hit by a Downs pitch to start the ninth - on second, one out and first base open, Scioscia had Downs, the veteran left-hander, pitch to one of baseball's most prolific sluggers, left-handed-hitting Joey Votto, the 2010 National League most valuable player.

— Of all the numbers dotted on a scorecard and drizzled around its margins as opening day extended into opening night, the most compelling number for the Angels might be this one: Number of times Jered Weaver hit 90 mph: zero. There might be no pitcher in the major leagues more crucial to the fortunes of his team. There might be no radar gun readings more unsettling that the ones at Great American Ball Park on Monday, the ones that tracked Weaver's fastball most often in the range of 84-87 mph. What matters most is getting outs, and Weaver got them.

CINCINNATI - An Angels club that was supposed to bludgeon opponents with its bats, smother them with its gloves and duck and cover when its relievers entered the game seemed to suffer a little identity crisis Monday. Either that, or this team's bullpen is a lot better than most thought. Forging an all-pitch, no-hit - except for Chris Iannetta - and no-field attack, the Angels outlasted the Cincinnati Reds in Great American Ball Park, Iannetta's two-out, two-run single in the 13th inning lifting them to a 3-1 victory in a grueling 4-hour 45-minute marathon, the longest season opener in franchise history.

CINCINNATI - Mike Scioscia has managed enough games in National League ballparks to have pulled off dozens of double switches and even a few triple switches, but this was the first time the Angels skipper could remember a quadruple shift. It came in the 11th inning of the Angels' 3-1, 13-inning, season-opening win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, a game in which Scioscia exhausted his bench and used six of his seven relievers. First baseman and No. 3 hitter Albert Pujols, who is recovering from knee surgery and has been slowed by a sore left foot, led off the 11th inning with a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Andrew Romine.

CINCINNATI - Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton, who had expressed curiosity about how he would be greeted in Cincinnati, received a warm ovation from fans here before the season opener between the Angels and Reds. Angels first baseman Albert Pujols, who starred for the rival St. Louis Cardinals, was booed loudly. Hamilton made his major league debut for the Reds on April 2, 2007, as a pinch-hitter. The Reds had acquired him four months earlier, in the Rule 5 draft. Hamilton had grown up in North Carolina and had spent the previous seven years of his career in the Tampa Bay organization.

CINCINNATI — The Angels' season-opening trip to Cincinnati and Texas is doubling as a Josh Hamilton reunion tour. Hamilton, a 31-year-old outfielder who signed a five-year, $125-million deal with the Angels in December, made his major league debut in Great American Ball Park almost exactly six years ago, appearing as a pinch-hitter for the Reds against the Chicago Cubs on April 2, 2007. His first big league hit, a home run at Arizona, came eight days later. Hamilton went on to hit .292 with 19 home runs and 47 runs batted in as a rookie for the Reds, who traded him to Texas for pitcher Edinson Volquez the following winter.

President Reagan will travel to Cincinnati on Thursday to tour a 100-year-old soap-manufacturing plant and talk with businessmen about his tax-overhaul program, the White House announced Monday.

University of Cincinnati athletic director Rick Taylor is trying to add DePaul to Cincinnati's non-conference basketball schedule in his effort to upgrade it. Two weeks ago, Taylor announced that Minnesota of the Big Ten Conference would be Cincinnati's basketball opponent in opening the new Shoemaker Center campus arena in November. Taylor said he has had talks with DePaul about starting a two-or four-year series. He said it was too late to include DePaul on the 1989-90 Cincinnati schedule, which is nearly complete.

The headline attraction on the first week of the Angels' season is Josh Hamilton's return to Texas, but Hamilton says he is more curious about his return to Cincinnati. The Angels open the season there Monday, followed by a weekend series in Texas. Hamilton played his rookie season for the Reds, a coming-out party after a seven-year odyssey through drug abuse and the minor leagues. After that one season, in 2007, the Reds traded him to the Rangers for pitcher Edinson Volquez . Hamilton played for Texas for five seasons, including the only two World Series appearances in Rangers history.

AT THE PLATE: Matt Kemp was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, dropping his spring average to .118. Kemp has struck out eight times in 17 at-bats. Kemp also didn't hit well last spring, when he struck out 26 times in 65 at-bats. But Kemp batted .417 with 12 home runs and 25 runs batted in last April. ON THE MOUND: Josh Beckett held the Reds to a run and two hits over 41/3 innings. He struck out five and walked two. The only run charged to him came on a third-inning home run by Shin-Soo Choo.