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.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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