Hamilton’s HR slams website

Baseball: A Dallas carpet company has had trouble with its website much of the day, thanks to Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton.

The Rangers beat Cleveland on Wednesday night, helped by Hamilton’s grand slam. It just so happened that CC Carpet was offering free flooring and countertops to customers in September if the Rangers outfielder hit a grand slam.

Hamilton did his part and the company has to pay up.

Not long after the hit, the company’s website crashed and it continued to be spotty Thursday.

CC Carpet president Steve Fitzgerald says the promotion will cost his company about $500,000, but it’s covered by insurance.

Associated Press

‘Kraziness’ set for Oct. 22

Basketball: The 2011-12 Gonzaga University men’s basketball team will be introduced Oct. 22 in the McCarthey Athletic Center as part of the Bulldogs’ “Kraziness in the Kennel.”

The event starts at 4 p.m. and is free to the public with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.

More details are available at the university’s sports website, gozags.com.

Chiefs trade for goaltender

Hockey: The Spokane Chiefs used their blue-line depth to strengthen their goaltender competition, trading Tyler Vanscourt, 19, to Prince Albert for Luke Lee-Knight, 18, and a fifth-round pick in next summer’s bantam draft.

That opens the door for at least one rookie defenseman – Jason Fram, Tyler King or Cole Wedman – to make the team.

Lee-Knight joins second-year goalie Mac Engel and rookie Zach Rakochy, both 18, while 19-year-old Jacob Edwards was released.

General manager Tim Speltz said in a release that it strengthens the draft as well as the goaltending.

Through three games heading into Thursday’s preseason game with Tri-City, Engel had a 1.89 goals-against average while Rakochy was at 1.54.

In his only season with the Chiefs, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Vanscourt had four goals and 23 points in 57 games and was a plus-3 with 49 penalty minutes.

Dave Trimmer