MLB:
In baseball, in the American League, the New York Yankees lost starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell to a line drive to the face, but held on to beat the Minnesota Twins 8-7 in 10 innings last night., Cleveland topped Boston 8-2, Baltimore doubled up Oakland 4-2, Texas edged Seattle 4-3, Tampa Bay bested Houston 9-2, and it was the Angels over the White Sox 2-1.
In the National League, Arizona won against Pittsburgh 4-1, St. Louis edged San Francisco 2-1, Miami tripled up Milwaukee 6-2, and it was San Diego over Atlanta 5-3.
Major League Baseball has announced the schedule for post-season play and once again the World Series will be contested in November. The Fall Classic will start on Tuesday, October 27 in the American League city with the seventh game, if needed, on Wednesday, November 4. The playoffs will begin Thursday, October 8.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona said he plans to accompany his longtime friend — Red Sox manager John Farrell — to his first chemotherapy treatment for lymphoma TODAY Farrell announced last Friday that he has a "highly curable" form of cancer and is taking a medical leave for the rest of the season. Francona, who managed Boston from 2004-11, had Farrell as his pitching coach for the 2007 World Series champions.
NFL:
New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall has come to Geno Smith's defense, saying the injured quarterback was not at fault in last week's locker-room fight. In an interview yesterday with ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" show, Marshall says he saw then-teammate Ikemefuna Enemkpali punch Smith and break his jaw. Marshall says Smith didn't stick a finger in Enemkpali's face, as some reports suggested.
Washington Redskins president Bruce Allen says the franchise will not reconsider whether to change the team's name if it becomes a political barrier to building a new stadium. The team had played at FedEx Field since 1997 and wants a new facility. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has told Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser that the National Park Service, which owns the land where the team's former stadium sits in the city, won't grant a new lease if the team's name remains.
The Buffalo Bills continue shuffling cornerbacks by signing free agent Ellis Lankster and releasing Lavelle Westbrooks. Lankster is back with the Bills after being selected by Buffalo in the seventh round of the 2009 draft. He spent his rookie season in Buffalo before being cut the following year.
Westbrooks was released less than a week after signing with the Bills.
In other news involving the Bills, coach Rex Ryan says backup linebacker Ty Powell sustained a potentially season-ending injury to his right knee during a joint practice with the Cleveland Browns. Ryan said the initial prognosis is that Powell tore a ligament, which would require surgery followed by a lengthy recuperation process.
Former NFL players who object to terms of the potential $1 billion concussion settlement are filing appeals with a federal court in Philadelphia. About a dozen appeals are expected on behalf of about 90 ex-players. They are likely to be argued this fall and delay payments until 2016.
Some appeals challenge the exclusion of future cases of CTE, the brain decay that some link to football concussions.
Negotiators who forged the deal say the science on CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is still evolving.
Tennis:
Four-time Champion Caroline Wozniacki has been added to the field of next week's Connecticut Open. The former top-ranked player in the world was granted a wildcard into the tournament yesterday along with Wimbledon Finalist Garbine Muguruza and French Open finalist Lucie Safarova.
NCAA:
College football players won't be forming a union anytime soon.
The National Labor Relations Board has unanimously voted to dismiss the controversial ruling from last year by a regional NLRB director that led Northwestern football players to vote on whether they wanted to unionize or not.
The school appealed the decision and the votes were sealed. Those votes will now be destroyed and those that favored unionization cannot appeal the decision by the full NLRB.
The ruling by the five-member board concluded that letting Northwestern football players unionize could lead to different standards at different schools, from amounts of money players receive to the amount of time they can practice. According to the NLRB, that would lead to competitive imbalances.
Advocates have said unionization would help athletes protect their health and financial interests.
The NCAA recently cleared the way for the five biggest conferences, including the Big Ten, to add player stipends to help athletes defray some of their expenses. Southeastern Conference schools, for example, will give some athletes $3,000 to $5,500 each on top of a scholarship that pays for tuition, room, board and books.
NHL:
Danny Briere is calling it quits after 17 NHL seasons that included stops with the Coyotes, Sabres, Canadiens, Flyers and Avalanche. Briere spent the bulk of his career with Buffalo and Philadelphia and earned All-Star nods playing for both franchises. He was the MVP of the 2006 All-Star game, the same year he helped lead the Sabres to the Eastern Conference finals. Briere scored 307 goals and 696 points in 973 games.
Veteran center Mike Santorelli has agreed to a one-year, $875,000 deal with the Anaheim Ducks. He had 12 goals and 21 assists last season while splitting time between Toronto and Nashville. The Ducks are the sixth NHL team for the 29-year-old Santorelli, who also has played for Vancouver, Winnipeg and Florida.
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