Pedro Martinez has a new league to torment, Washington fields a new team and baseball has a new statistic to track -- violators of a toughened steroids policy.
Just hours before Randy Johnson took the mound for the first time in pinstripes and helped the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 9-2 in the opening game of the 2005 season Sunday night, Alex Sanchez was the most prominent name in baseball.
Sanchez became the first player publicly identified for testing positive under baseball's stricter drug policy. His 10-day suspension begins Monday when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays play the Kansas City Royals in one of 10 openers around the major leagues.
"I'm going to fight it, because I've never taken steroids or anything like that," said Sanchez, who was set to start in center field for the Devil Rays.
Martinez will throw his first pitch for the rebuilt Mets in Cincinnati -- and he'll have New York's other big free-agent acquisition, Carlos Beltran, patrolling center field.
"Pedro's the type of guy, he elevates everybody. He's one of the classic stopper guys," Mets catcher Mike Piazza said.
"More often than not, he's going to give you a way better than average chance to win that game," Piazza added. "That's just the way he battles. That's what we're looking forward to, and we want to get off to a good start."
Ken Griffey Jr., healthy after another injury interrupted season, is one player not looking forward to seeing Martinez back in the National League.
"You know the numbers," said Griffey, who is 0-for-12 against Martinez.
Washington will again be focused on baseball -- no, not members of Congress asking questions about steroids -- but on the Nationals, when the team that moved from Montreal after three years in limbo faces the Phillies in Philadelphia.
Sammy Sosa has a new home, too. He joins fellow 500-homer club member, Rafael Palmeiro, on the Baltimore Orioles, who face the Oakland Athletics. Palmeiro begins the season 78 hits shy of joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray in the exclusive 3,000-hit, 500-homer club.
After a bitter end to his stay with the Chicago Cubs, Sosa is ready to begin anew.
"I have to go out there and fight to win the fans," Sosa said, 26 homers short of 600.
Tampa Bay outfielder Alex Sanchez was suspended 10 days for violating Major League Baseball's new doping policy, the first player publicly identified under the league's tougher rules for steroids and other performance-enhancing substances.
The suspension begins Monday when Tampa Bay opens its season against the Toronto Blue Jays, the MLB commissioner's office said Sunday.
Under the new policy that took effect last month, steroids and other performance-enchancing substances are the only drugs to draw a 10-day suspension. MLB officials and the players' union agreed they would not disclose the exact substance for which a player tests positive.
The Cuban-born Sanchez said he was surprised by the suspension, adding that he uses milkshakes and multivitamins to build his energy -- and blaming the positive test on something he bought over the counter.
"I'm going to fight it, because I've never taken steroids or anything like that," said Sanchez, who was released by Detroit in March and signed by the Devil Rays.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but