The Lamigo Monkeys inched closer to the first-half season title yesterday when they downed the Uni-President Lions 7-4, while second-place Brothers Baseball Club edged past the Fubon Guardians 7-6 in extra-innings at New Taipei’s Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium.
Lamigo took the weekend series in Taoyuan with a three-game sweep and have won six-straight games.
US hitting coach Bill Springman has given media interviews criticizing the Uni-President Lions management and attitude of its players after the Lions terminated his contract after three months on the job.
Media reports said that the Lions management and coaches communicated problems with Springman, and that the team often did not take his advice.
Other reports said he did not get along well with Lions head coach Huang Kan-lin, who said Springman had strong opinions and that he had not seen much improvement in the hitters.
Lions general manager Su Tai-an told reporters that Springman had many years of coaching experience and he worked diligently to help the team with technical issues, “however, there were communication problems with other coaches about how to apply strategy during the game.”
“We still want to thank Spingman for providing good training and advice. Now that he has left, we do not want to say much more. We do have a new coaches who are still learning the ropes,” the team said.
Springman said in an interview with Website CPBL English that he was highly critical of the Lions “inexperienced coaching staff that is in over its head and does not have the strategic knowledge or fundamental know-how to coach successfully in the CPBL [Chinese Professional Baseball League]. It’s also a staff that is stuck in its archaic ways and is unwilling to learn or be progressive.”
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite