■BASEBALL
Vazquez traded for Cabrera
Pitcher Javy Vazquez was traded back to the Yankees by the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday for outfielder Melky Cabrera, a move that pushed New York’s payroll for next season above US$200 million. New York also got left-hander Boone Logan as part of the deal, and the Braves obtained a pair of pitching prospects, left-hander Mike Dunn and right-hander Arodys Vizcaino, along with about US$500,000. The trade leaves New York with an opening in left field, allowing the Yankees to perhaps pursue Mark DeRosa. New York does not appear interested in re-signing Johnny Damon or going after free agents Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. Atlanta had six starting pitchers and felt free to deal Vazquez, who was 14-10 for the Yankees in 2004.
■SOCCER
MLS sues Black & Decker
Major League Soccer (MLS) sued Black & Decker Corp, which is being acquired by Stanley Works, for running ads that suggest to the Hispanic community that the company’s DeWalt power drills are associated with the sport. MLS, with 16 teams in the US and Canada, and Soccer United Marketing, which promotes US soccer matches, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against Towson, Maryland-based Black & Decker. The suit seeks unspecified damages and a court order barring the company from suggesting that its DeWalt drills are associated with the league. The complaint cites a flyer distributed by Black & Decker at an MLS game in 2007 that said, in Spanish, “Soccer with DeWalt” and contained the logo of DC United. DeWalt also tried to associate itself with a match last year promoted by Soccer United between the Mexican national team and Argentina that was played in San Diego, California, according to the complaint. Other examples of alleged infringement are cited in the complaint as well.
■SOCCER
Nakamura denies exit plan
Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura will not be demanding a transfer away from Spain’s Espanyol despite failing to cement a regular first-team place. The 31-year-old grumbled that he needed to “think about stuff” after being left out of Espanyol’s La Liga match against Almeria at the weekend. However, Nakamura sought to allay concerns he was about to walk out on the club just months after arriving to a “Galactico” billing and comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo. “I didn’t mean it that way,” Nakamura told Japanese media after his arrival from Spain for the Christmas break. “I meant I have to think about how to play more games,” Nakamura told the Nikkan Sports. “Everything went so well during my four years at Celtic, so it’s a good experience to have to worry sometimes.”
■CYCLING
Hoy chooses gold over titles
British cycling great Chris Hoy is ready to abandon the defense of some of his Olympic titles at the 2012 London Games if it increases his chances of adding to his gold medal collection. Hoy was one of the stars of the Beijing Games, where he added three gold medals, from the sprint, keirin and team sprint, to the gold he won in the kilometer at the Athens Games in 2004. Now one short of rowing legend Steve Redgrave’s British record of five gold medals, Hoy admitted he took a risk last year in Beijing by competing in three events, as he could have ended up with nothing. London is likely to be the 33-year-old Scot’s Olympic swansong and while he would like to defend all three of his Beijing titles, he will not do so unless he is sure he is on course for another winning treble.
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