Police in the Dominican Republic have arrested Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco after an altercation involving firearms.
ESPN reported that authorities held Franco and an unnamed woman for questioning on Monday after an incident in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Sunday “in which guns were drawn.”
Continue reading...Speculation about the country’s political future is competing for space with the fortunes of the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar in the World Series
The Monday morning headlines in Japanese newspapers will be dominated by the result of the previous day’s general election. But speculation about the country’s political future after a tightly contested vote will be competing for space with another event taking place thousands of miles away. And all because of one man: Shohei Ohtani.
On Tuesday in Japan, millions of people are expected to devour every pitch and hit in the next instalment of the seven-game World Series between Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees, with enthusiasm reaching levels usually reserved for the climax of domestic baseball, the Japan Series.
Continue reading...Snake appears in top of fifth inning of Dodger v New York Mets game before being wrapped in towel and removed
A snake slithered through the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dugout during game two of the National League Championship Series on Monday.
The reptile appeared in the top of the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss to the New York Mets. It wasn’t big enough to put a scare into anyone.
Continue reading...Jersey, worn by baseball player in his final home run in the series, is most expensive sports collectible sold at auction
The jersey that legendary baseball player Babe Ruth wore when he “called the shot” – and batted a home run – during game 3 of the 1932 World Series has sold for a record-setting $24.1m (£18.1m) with Heritage Auctions.
The sale makes the jersey the most expensive sports collectible to ever be sold at auction. The jersey in question, belonging to the late New York Yankees star, was last auctioned in 2005 for $940,000. But at the time the item was only linked to the 1932 World Series, and not directly to the famed episode where Ruth pointed his bat to the outfield stands before he hit a home run into center field off Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.
Continue reading...Ricky Alderete sentenced for three offenses before Kansas unveiling of new statue of baseball and civil rights pioneer
A man who stole a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson that was cut off at the ankles and found days later on fire in a trash can in a Kansas park will spend about 15 years in prison, though most of that sentence is related to a burglary a few days after the January statue heist.
A judge sentenced Ricky Alderete on Friday in three different cases he said in court stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.
Continue reading...Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani, will face up to 33 years in jail when he pleads guilty to stealing millions of dollars from his former friend.
Mizuhara has admitted to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. As well as a length jail term, he must also pay $16,975,010 in restitution to Victim A, assumed to be Ohtani. Mizuhara will enter his guilty plea in the coming weeks and is set to be arraigned on 14 May, prosecutors said.
Continue reading...The interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, the biggest star in baseball and one of the most famous people in Japan, has been fired after lawyers for the player said there had been a “massive theft” from the slugger’s account.
ESPN reported that several sources said Ippei Mizuhara had run up large debts to a Californian bookmaker. Initially a spokesperson for the player said Ohtani had transferred $4.5m to cover Mizuhara’s debts. But when ESPN asked further questions, the spokesperson backed away from their claim and said Ohtani’s lawyers would soon make a statement.
Continue reading...Effigy recovered in 2009 after being thrown into Osaka river by jubilant fans but is in poor state and will be disposed of
A plastic statue of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s founder, Colonel Sanders, that was a lucky charm for superstitious Japanese baseball fans has been “disposed of” 15 years after being dredged out of an Osaka river.
Jubilant supporters of Osaka’s Hanshin Tigers, known for being Japan’s most passionate baseball fans, flung the effigy – and themselves – into the Dotonbori River in 1985 after winning Japan’s version of the World Series.
Continue reading...The Japanese star is considered one of the most talented players in history. Now he finds himself in an unfamiliar role as a cultural ambassador
The sport is American, the venue South Korean. But when the LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the Major League Baseball season with two games in Seoul this week, all eyes will be on a Japanese superstar: Shohei Ohtani.
It says much about Ohtani’s singular appeal that South Korean baseball fans are as excited about his imminent presence in the batter’s box at Gocheok Sky Dome as his legions of admirers in Japan.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...Many in the city have put the Hanshin Tigers’ lack of success down to an unusual Colonel Sanders-based superstition, but it may be about to end
The last time the Hanshin Tigers were proclaimed the best baseball team in Japan, their fans celebrated by hurling themselves into a canal and carrying out an “abduction” that many believe placed their team under a curse that has lasted almost four decades.
On Saturday, the sleeping giants of Japanese baseball were forced to wait another day for the chance to banish the jinx by winning their first Japan Series title since 1985, after a defeat to local rivals Orix Buffaloes ensured that the season’s finale would go to a seventh and decisive game.
Continue reading...Furious Oakland Athletics fans came en masse with a single message to owner John Fisher. “Sell the team!” they chanted thousands of times during the A’s 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Friends Brian Guido and Scott Finney of Sacramento left work early on Tuesday because they did not want to miss the festivities a couple of hours away in Oakland.
Continue reading...Puerto Rico 0-0 Mexico, top 1st inning
Lindor is in the box against Urías and takes ball one to start the game. Urías gets ahead of Lindor 1-2, Lindor fouls off a pitch and then strikes out. Urías begins his outing with a k.
Continue reading...Pitcher who played for three major league teams before becoming Port Authority officer, was going to work at 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan
Anthony Varvaro, a former US Major League Baseball pitcher who retired in 2016 to become a police officer in the New York City area, was killed in a car accident Sunday morning on his way to work at the September 11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan, according to police officials and his former teams.
Varvaro, 37, was an officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He played baseball at St John’s University in New York before a six-year career in the majors as a relief pitcher with the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox.
Continue reading...The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has defended his veto of $35m in funding for a potential spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays, after the Major League Baseball team used social media to raise awareness about gun violence after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums,” DeSantis said on Friday, when asked about the veto of the sports complex funding.
Continue reading...The US Capitol was briefly evacuated on Wednesday evening after police identified an aircraft that they said posed “a probable threat” to the heart of American government.
The plane turned out to be members of the US Army Golden Knights, who parachuted into Nationals Park for a pregame display. The stadium, home of the Washington Nationals baseball team, is a little more than a mile away from the Capitol.
Continue reading...Only months after calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball, former US president Donald Trump did the tomahawk chop with Atlanta Braves fans at Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night.
Trump stood beside his wife, Melania, as he chopped away with fans before the game between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros from a private suite.
Continue reading...As his 80th birthday approaches, Neil Diamond reminisces about Pete Seeger, the Everly Brothers and how a baseball team’s desertion led him to the guitar
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and for me the most important aspect of growing up there was the Dodgers baseball team. Everybody in Brooklyn loved the Dodgers. They were the underdog but we were loyal. I followed the games closely, with dreams that they would win the World Series and be recognised as the champions I knew they were.
Continue reading...Donald Trump was booed loudly and a chant of 'lock him up' rose up against him when he was shown on the video screens in the Nationals Park stadium, where he attended game five of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros.
Trump left the game with one inning to go
Continue reading...Donald Trump once claimed he was courted by several major league baseball clubs in his youth but turned them down because they couldn’t offer him enough money. On Sunday, baseball got its revenge.
The President attended Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Nationals Park, a short journey from the White House. When Trump was shown on the video screens in the stadium he was loudly booed by fans. That, perhaps, was predictable: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and both Bushes were all booed while attending baseball games as President. What came shortly afterwards was a little more personal in a city that is heavily Democratic as cries of “Lock him up!” rang out, a reference to the chants about Hillary Clinton used at Trump’s rallies in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.
Continue reading...Former Boston Red Sox slugger was at an entertainment centre when the shooting took place
Former Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz has been shot and wounded in the Dominican Republic.
His father Leo Ortiz told ESPN that he was shot while at an entertainment centre in Santo Domingo on Sunday.
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