■ BASEBALL
Hideki Matsui on the mend
Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui has been slowed by neck stiffness and hoped to resume taking batting practice in Tampa, Florida, yesterday. Matsui hasn't hit since experiencing tightness in his neck while hitting on Sunday. "It's much better now," Matsui said through a translator on Tuesday. Matsui, recovering from right knee surgery in November, could make his Major League Baseball spring training debut next week. "The faster the better with the knee," Matsui said. "Probably another week or 10 days." Matsui expects to ready for opening day. "It's still not a setback," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I still expect him to play next week."
■ BASEBALL
League threatens boycott
The president of the Dominican Republic's baseball league said the nation will pull out of next year's World Baseball Classic (WBC) if it is not chosen as a host site. "If they do not give us the opportunity of being a host, like we have requested, the Dominican Republic will not participate," league president Leonardo Matos Berrido said at a news conference on Monday. The tournament is jointly run by US Major League Baseball and its players' union. Both declined comment. When the WBC began in 2006, the sites were Anaheim, California; Kissimmee, Florida; Phoenix; San Diego; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Tokyo. Tournament organizers have said next year's event will include the same 16 teams that contested the 2006 tournament, which was won by Japan.
■ SOCCER
Ramos gets off lightly
Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos was handed just a two-match ban despite one of the worst displays of abusing a referee in recent seasons, the Spanish soccer federation confirmed on Tuesday. Ramos turned on referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez after he received his second yellow card, and his marching orders, early in the second half during the Spanish league leaders' 3-2 win at Recreativo Huelva on Saturday. "Shit, you are a shit, you've been shit," yelled the Spanish international defender and he had to be restrained by his teammates from physically threatening Iturralde Gonzalez. However, Ramos and Real will consider they got off lightly. Most Spanish commentators were expecting between a three and six match ban for Ramos's astonishing display which was caught on camera by TV broadcasters.
■ RUGBY UNION
Argentina told to wait
Argentina, third at last year's Rugby World Cup, must wait at least four more years before they can join a major annual international tournament, an International Rugby Board (IRB) official said. The only top 10 nation not involved in either the Six Nations or Tri-nations, Argentina had long hoped to be included in the elite European tournament because the leading Pumas play their club rugby in the northern hemisphere. But Mark Egan, head of IRB Rugby Services, said in an interview that Argentina's likelier destination was the Tri-nations competition with world champions South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. "The natural fit is for Argentina, which lies in the south, to play in the southern hemisphere. Broadcast and commercial agreements really mean that the earliest mooted time would be post Rugby World Cup 2011. "It requires a transition period of planning and development and the first step is to increase the number of Tests the Pumas play while SANZAR reviews its tournament structures," he said.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
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