■ Baseball
Jeff Reardon gets busted
Jeff Reardon, one of the top relief pitchers in Major League Baseball history, was charged with robbing a jewelry store, then blamed his arrest on medication he was taking for depression. The 50-year-old Reardon, retired since 1994 and sixth in career saves, walked into Hamilton Jewelers at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida on Monday and handed an employee a note saying he had a gun and the store was being robbed, police said Tuesday. Reardon fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police found him at a nearby restaurant, recovered the stolen money and charged him with armed robbery. Reardon made a brief appearance in court Tuesday and was to be released on US$5,000 bail, said his attorney, Mitchell Beers. "He asked me to apologize to his fans and friends," Beers said. "This bizarre incident is completely uncharacteristic of Jeff Reardon."
■ Soccer
Pele's son put in program
Pele's son will enter a drug rehabilitation program while he awaits trial on drug-related charges, media in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil reported on Tuesday. Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, 35, was released from prison on Dec. 17 and decided to seek treatment after consulting with Pele and his family, the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported. Nascimento, a former professional soccer player known as Edinho, was among 50 people arrested on June 6 when police dismantled a drug gang based in Santos, a port city 300km southwest of Rio de Janeiro.
■ Soccer
US adds players to roster
Kansas City midfielder Chris Klein and MetroStars goalkeeper Zach Wells were added on Tuesday to the roster for the US national team training camp that starts Jan. 4 in Carson, California. The pair replaced Chicago midfielder Justin Mapp and Columbus goalkeeper Jonny Walker, who are injured, the US Soccer Federation said. The US team, which will play in its fifth straight World Cup in June, is preparing for friendlies against Canada on Jan. 22 at San Diego; Norway on Jan. 29 at Carson; and Japan on Feb. 10 in San Francisco.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday said that she hoped she would be able to play tennis under the Belarusian flag after the International Olympic Committee lifted its ban on the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics. World No. 1 Sabalenka has had to compete under a neutral banner as a consequence of her country’s support for Russia following its ally’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC earlier on Thursday lifted its ban on Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics, although restrictions on Russian athletes remain in place. Asked whether the women’s tour would drop the ban on her representing her country, Sabalenka said:
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
Real Madrid announced on Friday they had fined Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde 500,000 euros (US$588,000) each after a training ground clash that saw Valverde transported for medical care. The club did not impose any sporting sanctions on the two players, saying in a statement that the fine “thereby concludes the internal procedures” launched against them. Valverde is going to miss today’s Clasico against Barcelona as a result of the head injury he suffered during the altercation. The club said he would be out for up to two weeks. Tchouameni took part in training on Friday and could feature at Camp
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