■BASEBALL
Yankees to sell sod, seats
The New York Yankees on Tuesday announced one of sport’s biggest yard sales, with artifacts at the old Yankee Stadium, from seats, sod and dirt to foul poles, home plate and lockers, going on offer to the public. “This is a chance to own a piece of history, a piece of Yankee Stadium,” Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost told a news conference. A pair of stadium seats is priced at US$1,499. A single bleacher seat costs US$399 with a pair priced at US$699. A clump of freeze-dried grass in a small display case goes for US$80, and sections of sod range from US$120 to US$280 depending on size. Demolition of the old Yankee Stadium — the 1923 “House That Ruth Built,” across the 161st Street from their new US$1.5 billion home — is expected to begin next month, Trost said. All pieces sold will be authenticated by the Yankees and Major League Baseball and are available through numerous Web sites, including yankees.com and mlb.com. The Yankees’ memorabilia partners, Steiner Sports, said only about 40,000 seats would probably be sold after they are treated to abate dangers of lead paint.
■BASKETBALL
Granger most improved
Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger was named the National Basketball Association’s most improved player on Tuesday. Granger had a career best season in 2008-2009, averaging 25.8 points per game and finishing as the league’s fifth-highest scorer. He averaged 5.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game and played in his first career all-star game. Granger joined Jermaine O’Neal (2001-2002) and Jalen Rose (1999-2000) as the only Indiana players to win the award. New Jersey guard Devin Harris finished second in the voting by sportswriters in the US and Canada, while Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City placed third.
■FORMULA ONE
Todt to promote Malaysia
Scuderia Ferrari’s ex-boss Jean Todt is in the hot seat to get tourists racing to Malaysia, a Tourism Ministry official said yesterday. Todt, whose fiancee is Malaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊), will become Malaysia’s “tourism ambassador” for a year to help promote the country worldwide. Malaysian Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen will hand the appointment letter to Todt in Paris this weekend, the official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to make public statements. She did not immediately have details of what Todt’s activities would be. Todt, 63, resigned all his positions with Ferrari in March, concluding a 16-year career with the automaker highlighted by his direction of the Formula One team. Todt is a frequent visitor to Malaysia with the Hong Kong-based Yeoh. He recently joined a Malaysian government program that provides benefits in immigration, housing and taxes to attract foreigners to live or invest in the country.
■SOCCER
Refs get anti-racism powers
Referees will be given the power to take players off the field for as long as they see fit if there is racist behavior at club or international matches organized by UEFA. The Executive Committee of European soccer’s governing body ruled on Tuesday that referees will be allowed to take “strong and decisive action” if matches are marred by racist jeering from fans. The idea will now be examined more closely and new guidelines will be given to referees after the next Executive Committee meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the beginning of July. Whether matches could be forfeited as a result of racist abuse has yet to be decided.
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