■ Soccer
St. Mirren's woes increase
Dunfermline defeated fellow relegation-threatened club St. Mirren 1-0 on Monday in the Scottish Premier League. Tom McManus sidefooted the ball past St. Mirren 'keeper Chris Smith in the 58th minute. Dunfermline remained last with 29 points, but climbed within one point of St. Mirren with three games remaining. The bottom club in Scotland is automatically relegated.
■ Soccer
Reading Mascot sent off
Reading mascot Kingsley -- a giant lion who wears the club's blue and white hooped shirt -- was sent off by the referee in their Premier League match against Newcastle United on Monday because he was confusing him. "I can see where the referee was getting confused, you know he does look like so many of my players," manager Steve Coppell told Sky Sports with a grin. The mascot's dismissal from the side of the pitch before halftime did not appear to hurt the team's luck as they still won 1-0. It was unclear whether he would miss the next match through suspension.
■ Cricket
Teenager beaten to death
A teenager was beaten to death with a cricket bat in the east Indian city of Calcutta after two groups of teens clashed over a playing field, police said yesterday. Mohammed Imran, 17, was playing soccer at a city park with friends when another group of teenagers arrived and wanted the soccer players to leave the field so they could play a game of cricket, police officer S. Karan said. "Both sides had heated exchange of words and one of the members of the cricket team suddenly started beating the victim [Imran]," Karan said. The incident took place on Monday. Cricket is the most popular sport in India, however, Calcutta is one of the few regions in India where soccer is also played. Karan said no arrest has been made, but police were searching for the assailants.
■ Soccer
Too many foreigners?
Italy national coach Roberto Donadoni said on Monday that there were too many foreigners playing in Serie A. The former AC Milan and Italy star -- who replaced Marcello Lippi at the helm of the world champions after they won the World Cup last year -- had already started the debate last week when he congratulated Inter Milan on winning the domestic title but regretted that there had been just one Italian player who started the match. "Maybe I am going to make some enemies but honestly in Italy there are too many foreign players," Donadoni said. "When I was playing, there were three per team, and maybe that wasn't enough. But there shouldn't be more than five per team as there is now," the 43-year-old added.
■ Horse racing
US$1 million bonus on offer
There will be a US$1 million bonus at the Kentucky Derby in Louisville on Saturday if the first-place horse wins by more than six-and-a-half lengths -- the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent, it was announced on Monday. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund. The so-called Yumfecta will be paid by Yum! Brands, the Derby's presenting sponsor for the second consecutive year and parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and A&W restaurants. To pay the bonus, the Louisville company took out an insurance policy.
■ Football
Ex-Redskin Mitchell dies
Former Washington Redskins linebacker Kevin Mitchell died on Monday. He was 36. Mitchell died at his home in Ashburn, Virginia near the Washington Redskins' training facility. An autopsy was performed on Monday by the Virginia state medical examiner's office with no cause of death announced. A second-round pick in 1994, Mitchell started his NFL career with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played with New Orleans (1998-99) before finishing his career with the Redskins (2000-2003).
■ Basketball
China needs NBA: Stern
NBA commissioner David Stern sees more of a need for new pro basketball teams in China than in North America. "I think 30 teams is a nice, round number, and I would not be recommending to the NBA owners to expand," Stern said on Monday before Game 4 of the first-round playoff series between the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers. "We will see in the next couple of years, coming out of the Beijing Olympics, the possibility of some joint venture between the NBA and someone in China about an NBA-sponsored and branded league in China."
■ Football
Tank pleads guilty
Chicago Bears defensive tackle Terry "Tank" Johnson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge on Monday as part of an arrangement with prosecutors that will keep him from serving additional time in jail. The 25-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm without an owner's identification, said Mary Stanton, chief of the Lake County Court's misdemeanor division. He was ordered to serve 45 days in jail, which will be served concurrently with a four-month sentence he's already serving in the Cook County Jail for violating his probation for having a gun in his car, she said.
■ Basketball
NBA names defensive stars
San Antonio forward Tim Duncan made his 10th straight NBA All-Defensive first team and Spurs teammate Bruce Bowen was the top vote-getter in being selected for the seventh time on Monday. Bowen, also a forward, received 42 votes, six more than Duncan. Denver Nuggets center Marcus Camby, the Defensive Player of the Year, was chosen for the first time after making the second team for the last two seasons. Rounding out the first team were guards Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, who earned his seventh selection, and Raja Bell of the Phoenix Suns, making his first appearance on the team.
■ Baseball
Players hit with drug bans
Minor league pitchers Matt Roney and Sendy Vasquez were suspended for 50 games after positive doping tests. Roney, a 27-year-old right-hander, is 2-0 with an 0.90 ERA in five relief appearances at the Toronto Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate Syracuse. He signed with Toronto last November and was sent outright to the minors on March 22. He was penalized for testing positive for a drug of abuse under Major League Baseball's minor league drug-testing program and his suspension began on Saturday, the commissioner's office said on Monday. In addition, Detroit right-hander Vasquez, from the Dominican Republic, was penalized for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance under the minor league program and was suspended for 50 games, starting last Friday.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
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