It’s a hot ticket for what could be a very cold hockey game. It took less than 30 minutes Tuesday morning for fans to buy all 42,000 tickets made available for the NHL Winter Classic, an outdoor game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins to be played at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Jan. 1. “I don’t know if anybody anticipated that,” Sabres spokesman Michael Gilbert said, referring to the…
Australia will import 50,000 doses of vaccine to help efforts to contain and eradicate an outbreak of equine influenza. The vaccine is sufficient to protect 25,000 horses from the highly contagious illness which has heavily affected the Australian racing industry and halted horse movements in New South Wales and Queensland states, Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said Wednesday.
Above his locker, Victor Martinez proudly taped a poster showing the brackets of a baseball video-game tournament that he recently competed in against his teammates. He won it. And he and the Indians are close to winning something else. Travis Hafner hit a three-run homer, Martinez had a solo shot and Cleveland unloaded for four homers off Detroit ace Justin Verlander on Tuesday night in a 7-4…
The Minnesota Wild have found quiet in the net, in more ways than one. Niklas Backstrom is the unquestioned starter, taking his two-year, $6.2 million contract and NHL-best 1.97 goals-against average from last season into this campaign. Josh Harding is the backup, but there will be no wonder about who’s in what role — as has been the case through most of this franchise’s history.
NHL goaltender Sean Burke officially retired Tuesday after nearly 20 years in the league. Burke spent last season with the Los Angeles Kings, and played for nine teams during his career, which also included playing for Canada in the 1988 Olympics. Selected 24th overall in the 1985 draft, Burke reached the NHL near the end of the 1987-88 season with the New Jersey Devils.
Right guard Randy Thomas will have surgery Wednesday morning on his torn left triceps, the second major operation in two weeks on a Washington Redskins offensive lineman. Thomas, who underwent an MRI on Tuesday, will have to wear a splint or cast for at least six weeks and will likely need rehabilitation for several weeks thereafter.
The Atlanta Falcons signed former Jacksonville quarterback Byron Leftwich on Tuesday, giving the team immediate depth and a potential contender for the starting job. “First of all, I’m a football player and the last couple of weeks have been tough on me,” said Leftwich, who was cut the week before the season by the Jaguars.
Martha Gerry, who bred and owned three-time Horse of the Year Forego, has died. She was 88. Gerry, who was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, died Monday, the Hall of Fame said Tuesday. A member of The Jockey Club, Gerry was honored in August as an Exemplar of Racing by the Hall of Fame — the first woman to be selected for the award and first to…
Texas Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla was suspended Tuesday for seven games and Athletics outfielder Nick Swisher was given three games for an incident that occurred in the first inning of Sunday’s game in Oakland. Padilla was suspended for intentionally throwing at Swisher, who charged the mound. Both players also received undisclosed fines, a decision made by baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson.
Accolades can wait for Jeff Francis. The Colorado left-hander rebounded from a rare bad outing to lead the Rockies past the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 in the first game of a double-header Tuesday. So centered on keeping the Rockies’ slim playoff hopes alive, Francis didn’t realize until afterward that he’d struck out a career-high 10 batters or that he had set a franchise record for wins by a lefty.
