■ BASEBALL
Player traded for 10 bats
During three years in the low minors, John Odom never really made a name for himself. That sure changed this week — he’s the guy who was traded for a bunch of baseball bats. “I don’t really care,” he said on Friday. “It’ll make a better story if I make it to the big leagues.” For now, Odom is headed to the Laredo Broncos of the United League. They got him on Tuesday from the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League for a most unlikely price — 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black, 86cm, C243 style. “They just wanted some bats, good bats — maple bats,” Broncos general manager Jose Melendez said. The Prairie Sticks Web site says their maple bats retail for US$69 each, discounted to US$65.50 for purchases of 10 bats. “It will be interesting to see what 10 bats gets us,” Melendez said.
■ BASEBALL
Reds' Baker gets suspended
Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker was suspended for two games and New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and San Diego Padres hitting coach Wally Joyner were penalized one game on Friday after recent arguments with umpires. Major League Baseball also fined all three undisclosed amounts. Unlike players, managers and coaches cannot appeal suspensions. Baker made contact with umpire Eric Cooper during a dispute in Thursday’s 8-2 loss at San Diego. The suspension was set to start on Friday as the Reds continued their series against the Padres. Baker had gone onto the field after Cincinnati’s Edwin Encarnacion was ejected by Cooper for arguing a called third strike. Baker wound up getting ejected by Cooper, too.
■ BASKETBALL
Aussies take series win
Australia's women's basketball team beat Taiwan 90-58 on Friday in the second of a three-game series in Terrigal, New South Wales state. After losing the first game 100-57 on Thursday, Taiwan’s team performed well in the first three quarters, taking the lead several times and forcing Australia head coach Jan Stirling to call a time-out. At the beginning of the third quarter, Taiwan’s Chiang Feng-chun (姜鳳君) shot a three-pointer and narrowed the gap to 7 points. But Taiwan’s defense collapsed in the last quarter and they only scored 18 points in attack against Australia’s 33. Chiang top scored with 16 points for the visitors.
■ ICE HOCKEY
Konstantinov loses case
A federal jury rejected on Friday a request to award former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and a former team masseur nearly US$300 million for a 1997 limo crash that left them with disabling brain injuries. The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before deciding that Findlay Ford Lincoln Mercury, the Ohio dealership that sold the limo, was not responsible for the injuries the two sustained. James Feeney, an attorney representing the dealership, told the Detroit Free Press that the seven-person jury returned a “common sense verdict.”
■ SOCCER
Redknapp wins court case
Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has won his claim against police that a raid on his house as part of an inquiry into soccer corruption was illegal. The High Court in London ruled that City of London police carried out the early morning raid in November under a warrant issued unlawfully by the City of London Magistrates’ Court. The police were ordered to pay £1,000 (US$1,980) in damages to Redknapp and to pay his legal costs.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier