Sanders the all-star
Jonathan Sanders will be the first foreign player to participate in the Super Basketball League (SBL) All-Star game on Feb. 25, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday. Players for the tournament were selected through a combination of fan and coach votes, the results of which were released on Thursday. The "red" team will be made up of players from the Yulon Dinos, Bank of Taiwan, ETTV Antelopes and Azio Eagles, and the "white" team of players from the Videoland Hunters, Dacin Tigers and Taiwan Beer.
Sanders will serve as a reserve on the white team, and says he is excited to participate in the All-Star game during just his first year playing in Taiwan.
All five starters for the red team will come from the Yulon Dinos, which has dominated the league since its founding in 2003 by winning the championship each year.
The SBL is currently on break for the Lunar New Year.
Wang impresses Japanese
With Yankees pitchers and catchers having reported to spring training, Taiwan is gearing up for another season of Wang Chien-ming (王建民) mania. While no one is sure how the right hander will fare in his third major league season, the United Evening News reported yesterday that one thing is already sure: Wang is very attractive.
According to the story, the informal consensus among all the Taiwanese and Japanese media at the Yankees spring training camp in Florida is that Wang is better looking than his Japanese teammate, lefty starter Kei Igawa. The Japanese press were apparently quite struck by Wang's chiseled physique when he arrived at camp in short shorts and a t-shirt, leading one Japanese reporter to remark, "I still don't know whether Igawa or Wang will be better on the field. But I'm certain of one thing: their personalities are very similar, but Wang has a nicer face."
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB