Thu, Aug 27, 2009 page19

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■BASEBALL

  Santana out for the season

  New York Mets ace Johan Santana needs surgery for bone chips in his left elbow and will be out for the season. Following an examination, the Mets said their 30-year-old ace was expected to be ready for spring training next year. “It’s not the worst,” Santana said on a conference call. “Believe me, I’m going to be ready.” Santana said he had the same operation after the 2003 season, and came back with a career-high 20 wins and the first of his two Major League Baseball pitcher of the year awards for Minnesota. The Mets had feared a major injury to Santana, who has four seasons left on his US$137.5 million, six-year contract. Instead, he will have arthroscopic surgery. Santana said if the Mets had a chance to make the playoffs, he would’ve tried to keep pitching. “I didn’t want to shut it down,” he said. That said, “you don’t want to go out there and blow it and make it worse.”

  ■BASEBALL

  Ichiro out longer than hoped

  Ichiro Suzuki’s quest to make Major League Baseball history has been stalled longer than expected because of his sore calf. Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said on Tuesday the nine-time All-Star would not play yesterday either, as the team had hoped. Suzuki did some light work on Tuesday and Wakamatsu said the Japanese star was improving. Yet Suzuki missed his second consecutive game and likely remained sidelined until late this week. “We’ve just got to make sure that on the first ball he hits he doesn’t pop [the muscle],” Wakamatsu said.

  ■BASKETBALL

  Donaghy back in jail

  Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was back behind bars on Tuesday, accused of violating his federal probation by not showing up for work, the US Marshals Service said. Donaghy, 42, was being held without bond a day after his arrest at a halfway house in Tampa, Florida, where he was finishing his 15-month sentence for gambling charges. “He was supposed to be at work and he was somewhere else,” said Deputy US Marshal Ron Lindbak, who didn’t know any more details. Jail records said Donaghy was in sales at the Sarasota-based beverage company ShotPak. Calls to company executives there were not immediately returned. A New York judge sentenced Donaghy last year after the referee, who said he was a gambling addict, admitted taking thousands of dollars from a professional gambler in exchange for inside tips on NBA games.

  ■CYCLING

  Australian star convicted

  Australian cyclist Chris Jongewaard was yesterday convicted over a hit-and-run driving accident that left his training partner fighting for his life. The four-time national mountain bike champion was found guilty in the South Australian District Court of aggravated driving without due care and leaving the scene of an accident. Judge Wayne Chivell dismissed another charge of serious harm by dangerous driving leveled at the 30-year-old over the 2007 incident, which resulted in cyclist Matthew Rex being placed in an induced coma with severe injuries. The court heard that Jongewaard had been at a party with Rex in February 2007 when his car crashed into his fellow cyclist’s bike as he was driving from the venue. Rex’s injuries included a broken back, broken hip, broken leg, punctured lung and internal bleeding. He recovered but the accident ended his career as a professional cyclist. Prosecutors said Jongewaard did not stop and drove on to a nearby resort where he was staying.
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