Thu, Mar 06, 2008 page19

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ 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.
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