BASEBALL
Facebook to stream games
Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with the MLB to air 25 weekday afternoon games in an exclusive deal. The games are to be available in the US on Facebook Watch, the company’s video feature announced in August last year, via the MLB Live show page. Facebook on Friday said that recorded broadcasts would also be available globally, excluding select international markets. The package, the MLB’s first digital-only national broadcast agreement, precludes teams from televising those games on their regional sports networks. Facebook’s selection is to come from among the nine games per season teams can lose from their local telecasts to national video partners, which include Fox and ESPN. Facebook last year had a package of 20 non-exclusive Friday night games that began in mid-May and used broadcast feeds from the participating teams.
SOCCER
Pep fined over ribbon
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on Friday was fined £20,000 (US$27,706) by the English Football Association (FA) for wearing a yellow ribbon in support of jailed pro-independence politicians in his native Catalonia. Guardiola has continually sported the ribbon in City’s Premier League matches, as well as games in domestic and European cup competitions. On Sunday last week, FA chief executive Martin Glenn spoke out strongly in defense of his organization’s decision to charge Guardiola. Glenn later apologized over comments he made regarding political and religious symbols in which he included the Star of David and the Nazi swastika among those that should be kept out of the game.
SOCCER
Teenage Tours player dies
An 18-year-old soccer player with the French second-division club Tours has died. Tours said midfielder Thomas Rodriguez died overnight from Thursday to Friday, adding that the club is “devastated by this drama, which plunges the club into an immense sadness.” No details were given as to the cause of death. Rodriguez joined in 2016 and progressed through the Tours youth academy before playing for the reserves. The French soccer league canceled the Tours-Valenciennes match scheduled for later on Friday. A minute’s silence is being held at all stadiums in the first and second divisions this weekend.
FOOTBALL
Tessitore on play-by-play
ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth is getting a total makeover. With longtime color analyst Jon Gruden already gone as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, the network has named Joe Tessitore as the series’ new play-by-play announcer, the New York Post reported. Tessitore is to replace Sean McDonough, who is reportedly moving back to college football broadcasts for ESPN after two seasons in the network’s top NFL play-by-play role. According to reports, the network has been trying to tempt Peyton Manning to fill Gruden’s shoes, with reports saying Manning could receive US$10 million annually if he is willing to become the network’s lead NFL analyst. The Post also reported on Friday that Manning would pass on the ESPN offer, although he has made no public comments. According to Sporting News, Manning has a similar offer from FOX for their new Thursday night football package.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with