■ BASEBALL
Hideki Matsui on the mend
Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui has been slowed by neck stiffness and hoped to resume taking batting practice in Tampa, Florida, yesterday. Matsui hasn't hit since experiencing tightness in his neck while hitting on Sunday. "It's much better now," Matsui said through a translator on Tuesday. Matsui, recovering from right knee surgery in November, could make his Major League Baseball spring training debut next week. "The faster the better with the knee," Matsui said. "Probably another week or 10 days." Matsui expects to ready for opening day. "It's still not a setback," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I still expect him to play next week."
■ BASEBALL
League threatens boycott
The president of the Dominican Republic's baseball league said the nation will pull out of next year's World Baseball Classic (WBC) if it is not chosen as a host site. "If they do not give us the opportunity of being a host, like we have requested, the Dominican Republic will not participate," league president Leonardo Matos Berrido said at a news conference on Monday. The tournament is jointly run by US Major League Baseball and its players' union. Both declined comment. When the WBC began in 2006, the sites were Anaheim, California; Kissimmee, Florida; Phoenix; San Diego; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Tokyo. Tournament organizers have said next year's event will include the same 16 teams that contested the 2006 tournament, which was won by Japan.
■ SOCCER
Ramos gets off lightly
Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos was handed just a two-match ban despite one of the worst displays of abusing a referee in recent seasons, the Spanish soccer federation confirmed on Tuesday. Ramos turned on referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez after he received his second yellow card, and his marching orders, early in the second half during the Spanish league leaders' 3-2 win at Recreativo Huelva on Saturday. "Shit, you are a shit, you've been shit," yelled the Spanish international defender and he had to be restrained by his teammates from physically threatening Iturralde Gonzalez. However, Ramos and Real will consider they got off lightly. Most Spanish commentators were expecting between a three and six match ban for Ramos's astonishing display which was caught on camera by TV broadcasters.
■ RUGBY UNION
Argentina told to wait
Argentina, third at last year's Rugby World Cup, must wait at least four more years before they can join a major annual international tournament, an International Rugby Board (IRB) official said. The only top 10 nation not involved in either the Six Nations or Tri-nations, Argentina had long hoped to be included in the elite European tournament because the leading Pumas play their club rugby in the northern hemisphere. But Mark Egan, head of IRB Rugby Services, said in an interview that Argentina's likelier destination was the Tri-nations competition with world champions South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. "The natural fit is for Argentina, which lies in the south, to play in the southern hemisphere. Broadcast and commercial agreements really mean that the earliest mooted time would be post Rugby World Cup 2011. "It requires a transition period of planning and development and the first step is to increase the number of Tests the Pumas play while SANZAR reviews its tournament structures," he said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
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