Off the wire

— FOOTBALL

Receiver Blackmon arrested

Oklahoma State star wide receiver Justin Blackmon was arrested early Tuesday on a suburban Dallas highway on a misdemeanor DUI complaint and his status with the Cowboys was unclear headed into the final weeks of the season. Blackmon was arrested at 3:45 a.m. after officers used radar to determine he was driving 92 mph in a 60 mph zone along Interstate 35 in Carrollton, Texas, police spokesman Dustin Bartram said. The officer performed a field sobriety test on the 20-year-old Blackmon. Under Texas law, drivers younger than 21 can be arrested for having any detectable amount of alcohol in his or her system and Blackmon fell into that category, Bartram said. Blackmon was bonded out of jail in Carrollton shortly after 8 a.m. for $375, Bartram said. Denton County assistant district attorney Jamie Beck said the DUI charge is a Class C misdemeanor, “like a traffic ticket.” She said it’s a fineonly offense and that Blackmoncould be fined up to $500 in city court. Blackmon ranks No. 1 in the Football Bowl Subdivision in receiving yards per game at 158.9. He has 62 catches for 1,112 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Mississippi State linebacker Chris Hughes has been suspended one game by the SEC for his hit to the head of a defenseless player during Saturday’s 29-24 victory over Alabama-Birmingham. After reviewing tape from the game, the SEC determined Hughes’ hit on receiverFrantrell Forrest with 26 seconds left in the second quarter was “flagrant” and “unsportsmanlike.” There was no penalty called on the play and Forrest returned to the game. Hughes, a 6-0, 215-pound freshman, has appeared in seven games this season as a backup, making five tackles, including one for a loss. No. 21 Mississippi State (6-2, 2-2 SEC) hosts Kentucky (4-4, 1-4) on Saturday.

BASEBALL

Nationals keep Riggleman

Jim Riggleman will be the Washington Nationals’ manager in 2011. Riggleman signed a twoyear deal with the club before last season, and the team needed to notify him if it was going to buy out the second year. But the Nationals announced Tuesday that Riggleman will be back after the team increased its victory total from 59 to 69 in 2010, which still resulted in a third consecutive last-place finish in the NL East.

Bill Shannon, a baseball historian, author and an official scorer at New York Yankees and Mets games for decades, died in an early morning house fire Tuesday in West Caldwell, N.J. West Caldwell fire chief Charlie Holden said the three-alarm fire was called in just before 9 a.m. Eastern and brought under control within an hour.Holden identified Shannon, 69, as the only fatality. Shannon became an official scorer for the American League in 1979 and the National League one year later, and in recent seasons was the senior official scorer for games of the Yankees and Mets. He also contributed stories to The Associated Press.

The Chicago White Sox have picked up club options on All-Star left-handed reliever Matt Thornton and backup catcher Ramon Castro. Thornton, who will have a base salary of $3 million next season, went 5-4 with a 2.67 ERA with 8 saves and 81 strikeouts in 61 relief appearances year ago, when he made his first AL All-Star team. Castro, who will get a base of $1.2 million, batted .278 with 8 home runs and 21 RBI in 37 games. He started 31 games, serving as the backup to A.J. Pierzynski, who is a free agent.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have added Alan Trammell as bench coach and Don Baylor as hitting coach. Arizona also named Eric Young as first base coach and Charles Nagy as pitching coach Tuesday.

BASKETBALL

Bucks extend contracts

The Milwaukee Bucks have exercised the option on General Manager John Hammond’s contract and extended Coach Scott Skiles’ original four-year contract through the 2012-13 season. Hammond was hired by the Bucks near the end of the 2007-08 season. He won the NBA Executive of the Year award last season when the Bucks went 46-36 and reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Skiles was Hammond’s pick to run the Bucks and received an initial fouryear contract. Milwaukee’s 12-victory improvement last season was the biggest in the Eastern Conference and Milwaukee’s best record since the 2000-01 season.

The woman convicted of trying to extort millions from Louisville Coach Rick Pitino is proclaiming her innocence to a federal judge. In an unusual letter publicly released Tuesday, Karen Sypher told U.S.District Judge Charles R. Simpson III that she is “faced with a conviction for something I did not do” and asked the judge to force her former attorney to release her case file to new counsel. A jury convicted Sypher in August of extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliating against a witness. Prosecutors said Sypher demanded millions in cash, cars and a house from Pitino to stay quiet about their one-night stand at a Louisville restaurant in 2003. Sypher had been scheduled for sentencing Wednesday, but the hearing was postponed because of the change in attorneys. The letter is dated Oct. 23, just days after Sypher fired attorney James Earhart, who represented her at trial.

Roy Skinner, the quiet and dapper basketball coach at Vanderbilt as the Commodores emerged as a SEC power to rival Kentucky, has died. He was 80. The school said Tuesday that Skinner died at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital Monday of respiratory failure. In the mid-1960s, Skinner made the decision to recruit Perry Wallace, integrating the SEC with its first black player. Skinner was just 28 years old when he became acting coach of the Commodores in 1958, then took the job permanently in 1960 and coached until 1976, compiling a 278-135 record (.673) and leading Vanderbilt to a Top 10 ranking in eight seasons.

TENNIS

Isner, Dent reach second round

Fifth-seeded John Isner of the United States eased into the second round of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over French wild card Benoit Paire on Tuesday. Taylor Dent, another big server from the United States, rallied from one set down to beat Romain Jouan of France 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Also, eighth-seeded David Nalbandian converted only four of his 13 break chances, but it was enough to beat Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-4.

Thomas Muster, once ranked No. 1, lost Tuesday in his first match on the ATP Tour after 11 years away. The 43-year-old was beaten by 23-year-old Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 7-6 (5) in an all-Austrian match in the first round of the Bank Austria Trophy in Vienna. The result means Jimmy Connors remains the oldest player to win on the ATP Tour. At 42, Connors reached the quarterfinals in Halle, Germany, in 1995. Earlier, James Blake of the United States lost 6-4, 6-4 to Lukasz Kubot of Poland in the firstround, Germany’s Michael Berrer upset sixth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, and eighth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina defeated Andrej Martin of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3.

Caroline Wozniacki swept aside Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-1 in the group stage of the WTA Championships on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, putting her one victory away from ensuring she will remain the world’s top-ranked player for 2010. The eight-player tournament features the world’s top performers in 2010, although Venus and Serena Williams are absent due to injury. The top two players from the two groups will advance to the semifinals.

American qualifier Rajeev Ram had 17 aces to beat Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3 at the St. Petersburg (Russia) Open on Tuesday. The 166th-ranked Ram advanced to the second round for the first time since losing to Andy Roddick in Atlanta in July. In other matches, third-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and eighth-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania advanced to the second round.

Sports, Pages 20 on 10/27/2010

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