Here’s another in my continuing saga of how the sports world intersects with Ashland.

Teen sensation Melanie Oudin, who was playing Wednesday for a chance to be in the U.S. Open semifinals, played right here in Ashland a couple of years ago as a 16-year-old.

Oudin was part of the Our Lady of Bellefonte Tennis Classic in 2007. She bowed out in the opening round after making it into the field through qualifying matches at the Ashland Tennis Center.

Oudin lost in the opening round to Ekaterina Shulaeva 6-4, 6-3 only three days after Oudin’s 16th birthday.

Now, here she is just shy of her 18th birthday and starring on the biggest stage in professional tennis.

Imagine that.

t

So, by now, everybody has probably watched replays of Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder blasting a walkoff home run against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.

Fielder pulled his jersey out of his pants while rounding second base and when he arrived at the plate, jumped up and stomped on it. His teammates were surrounding him at the plate and they, in unison, collapsed to the ground after Fielder landed.

While the Brewers should get points for choreography, I can’t imagine that little stunt sat too well with the Giants after the 2-1 loss.

The guess here is that Mr. Fielder may get a baseball to the ribs the next time the Brewers and Giants play — be it this year or next year.

Baseball has its unwritten code about not showing up opponents and the Brewers, while maybe not intending to, have probably upset the Giants with the well-timed celebration.

Nobody’s talking much but just watch and see what happens in the next meeting.

Fielder may not want to crowd the plate with Tim Lincecum buzzing fastballs.

t

A sign of the times? Could be.

But after three days the billboard that had South Bend spinning has been taken down.

Burkhart Advertising, which leases billboard space, last Thursday took down the controversial billboard poking fun at Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis.

The recently deleted 14-word message was written in gold letters on a blue background on a sign hovering over a well-traveled intersection in South Bend. It read: “Best wishes to Charlie Weis in the fifth year of his college coaching internship.”

The sign was replaced with a messaging promoting the U.S. Marine Corps.

A former Notre Dame reserve linebacker paid for the sign to be up for two weeks.

t

Former UK star and assistant coach Scott Padgett addressed the crowd for the area United Way campaign on Tuesday.

John Cannon covered the event for us and said Padgett had some interesting things to say about John Calipari’s first team at Kentucky.

Most notable was how impressive Darius Miller has looked and how he should thrive in Calipari’s dribble-drive offense.

Miller suffered from some brow-beating last year, Padgett said, that didn’t exactly build confidence. The former Mason County High School star and Kentucky Mr. Basketball has the kind of game that should shine in the dribble-drive.

Padgett called Calipari “the most amazing coach he’s ever been around” and that says a lot considering Padgett has been around some good ones, namely Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.