BASEBALL
A’s May tells owner to sell
Oakland Athletics reliever Trevor May on Monday ripped team owner John Fisher and implored him to sell the franchise while announcing his retirement in an impassioned video message. “Sell the team, dude... Sell it, man,” May said in a video posted on Twitch. “Let someone who actually, like, takes pride in the things they own, own something. There’s actually people who give a shit about the game. Let them do it. Take mommy and daddy’s money somewhere else, dork.” Fisher’s parents founded Gap Inc, and Fisher became majority owner of the A’s in 2005. He is attempting to relocate the team to Las Vegas after talks for a new stadium in the Bay Area fell through, prompting outrage and protests from fans in Oakland. The A’s have also routinely ranked near the bottom in MLB in payroll. The club finished 50-112 this season, by far the worst record in baseball.
ICE HOCKEY
Fleury mum on retirement
Marc-Andre Fleury on Tuesday would not say if it was his last in Montreal. If it was, it was a fitting finale in his home province for the 38-year-old from Sorel. He made 27 saves in his first start of the season, was selected the first star and received a standing ovation from the Bell Centre crowd, as his Minnesota Wild beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2. “It was a nice moment,” Fleury said, still wiping off the shaving cream teammate Marcus Foligno stuffed in his face during a postgame interview. Fleury told reporters on Monday it could be his final start in Montreal. After the game, he was focused on enjoying the moment. “I’m not sure if it’s done or not,” said Fleury, who had about 90 friends and family in the building. “I don’t want to talk too much of that side of it for today, the present moment was really a special night for me.”
FOOTBALL
NFL preparing for Olympics
NFL executive Peter O’Reilly on Tuesday said that the league would work with the players’ union on allowing current and former players to participate in the Olympics after flag football was among five sports officially added to the 2028 Los Angeles Games by the International Olympic Committee. “It is the pinnacle of sport globally,” O’Reilly said at the league meetings. “Ultimately, that decision on the makeup of Team USA is a decision of USA Football and the national governing body or the governing bodies around the world in similar roles because we are thinking about Team USA, but there are also a lot of other passports in the NFL — 113 foreign-born players on NFL rosters as of Week 5.”
SOCCER
Mainz suspends player
Dutch forward Anwar El Ghazi was suspended by FSV Mainz 05 on Tuesday for a social media post about the Israel-Hamas conflict that the Bundesliga club said was “unacceptable.” El Ghazi, who joined Mainz last month, has since deleted the post. Although the club wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it “clearly distances itself” from the post, it did not reveal the contents of the post. The former Aston Villa winger El Ghazi wrote in a separate post on X last week that he had “received some negative messages around my social media posts.” He said he stood for peace and called for “more empathy, deepening our knowledge about the history of this conflict.”
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946