BASEBALL Garza to start
Matt Garza will make his Texas Rangers debut tonight against the New York Yankees. Garza, acquired from the Chicago Cubs in a trade Monday, didn’t talk to reporters Tuesday at Rangers Ballpark, but the Rangers said Garza was sticking to his policy of not doing interviews the day before pitching. The Rangers optioned right-hander Cory Burns and left hander Joseph Ortiz to Class AAA Round Rock to clear spots on the 25-man active roster for Garza and right-hander Alexi Ogando, who was activated from the disabled list to start Tuesday night against the Yankees. Garza was 5-0 with a 1.24 ERA in his last 6 starts for the Cubs. He was scratched from his start Monday night at Arizona and last pitched July 13 against St. Louis at Wrigley Field.
A person with knowledge of the talks said All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia is in the process of agreeing to a deal with the Boston Red Sox, adding $100 million over seven seasons through 2021. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the agreement was not complete. Pedroia is making $10 million this year and is guaranteed the same amount in 2014 as part of a $40.5 million, six-year contract that started in 2009. That deal includes a $11 million club option for 2015 with a $500,000 buyout. The 5-8, 165-pound spark plug was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2007 and AL MVP in 2008.
American League MVP and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera was unavailable for the Detroit Tigers against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday because of an injured left hip. Manager Jim Leyland confirmed Cabrera would not play but revealed little else. He would not say how concerned the team is, or if a trip to the disabled list is a possibility. Cabrera left Monday’s 7-3 victory over Chicago after scoring in the fifth inning. He was replaced at third base by Don Kelly with one out in the bottom half and walked off holding his left side. The team said he had a sore hip flexor muscle and would be evaluated Tuesday.
MOTOR SPORTS NBC to carry NASCAR
NASCAR said Tuesday it has signed a 10-year deal for NBC Sports Group to carry the second half of NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup Series season, starting in 2015. The multibillion-dollar deal means ESPN, which has the final 17 of the series’ 36 annual races, and TNT (Turner Sports), which has six races in the summer, will no longer carry Cup events after next year. NASCAR Chairman Brian France told reporters on a conference call that it was “a very exciting and huge day for the sport of NASCAR. There’s a real excitement about partnering with NBC.” The deal calls for NBC to carry the final 20 Cup races - seven on the NBC broadcast network and 13 on the NBC Sports Network cable outlet. That stretch includes NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup playoff over the season’s final 10 races. Fox Sports broadcasts the first 13 races of the Cup series. Last October, NASCAR signed a $2.4 billion contract extension with Fox, also starting in 2015, that runs through the 2022 season.
Time to attach the mud flaps. NASCAR is set for an off-road detour through the dirt. The Truck Series is headed for the Eldora Speedway half-mile dirt track owned by Tony Stewart in Rossburg, Ohio, tonight for a one-night-only special designed to reconnect NASCAR with its early roots and give fans raised on asphalt and stock cars a taste of the wild races run in the dust. The last time one of NASCAR’s top touring series competed on dirt was Sept. 30, 1970, when Richard Petty won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (called the Grand National Division at that time) race at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
HOCKEY Devils sign Jagr
The New Jersey Devils have signed forward Jaromir Jagr to make up for some of the scoring lost with the recent retirement of Ilya Kovalchuk. Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello announced the signing Tuesday without releasing details of the contract. Jagr, 41, split last season with the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins, scoring a combined 16 goals and 19 assists in 45 games. The NHL’s active leading scorer added 10 assists in helping the Bruins reach the Stanley Cup final, but he did not score a postseason goal.
FOOTBALL Items seized
Police who searched the Bristol home of Aaron Hernandez’s uncle found documents related to the two men charged in connection with Hernandez’s murder case, court papers released Tuesday reveal. In the June 26 search of 114 Lake Ave., police found identification cards and other evidence related to Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, the former New England Patriot star tight end’s alleged accomplices in the June 17 shooting death of Odin Lloyd near Hernandez’s Massachusetts home. That search was one of three in Connecticut connected to the investigation for which records related to search warrants were unsealed in Superior Court in Bristol. Hernandez faces a probable cause hearing today in Massachusetts. He is charged with murder and gun-related crimes. Police seized 22 items from the uncle’s house, including a prison identification card for Ortiz and six documents referencing Wallace, including a Department of Correction intake sheet and a letter addressed to him from a cousin of Hernandez, who lives at the home. Investigators also found a gun box and two boxes of cartridges. The cartridges are .380 caliber and do not match what prosecutors believe to be the murder weapon, which they still have not found.
The Florida state attorney’s office has dropped misdemeanor charges against Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison. Morrison was arrested Sunday and charged with barking at a police dog and resisting arrest. State Attorney Bill Cervone said the “dismissal is based on the lack of evidence to warrant much less legally sustain those charges and the complete inappropriateness of pursing court action against Morrison … under the circumstances involved.” It was Morrison’s second arrest in five weeks, prompting Coach Will Muschamp to suspend him for at least the first two games of the season.
BOXING Former champ Griffith dead at 75
NEW YORK - Emile Griffith, the former welterweight and middleweight boxing champion who killed a man in a 1962 fight, has died. He was 75.
Griffith died Tuesday at the Nassau County Extended Care Facility in Hempstead, New York, the International Boxing Hall of Fame said on its website. A cause of death wasn’t given.
Born Feb. 3, 1938, in the Virgin Islands, Griffith moved in 1957 to New York, where he won a Golden Gloves title at age 19. He began his professional career the following year.
He captured the welterweight title three separate times from 1961 to 1966. Moving up in weight class, he also held middleweight titles twice from 1966 to 1968. In a 19-year career he was 85-24-2, with 1 no-contest and 23 knockouts.
“Emile Griffith was a gifted athlete and a truly great boxer,” Hall of Fame Executive Director Edward Brophy said on the museum’s website. “Outside of the ring, he was as great a gentleman as he was a fighter.”
The most famous bout of Griffith’s career came in March 1962, when he scored a 12th-round knockout over Benny Paret in a nationally televised fight at Madison Square Garden. Paret, who had taunted Griffith with homosexual slurs before the fight, was battered in the final round and died 10 days later from brain injuries.
Griffith boxed 339 title-fight rounds in his career, more than any other fighter in history, according to his Hall of Fame biography page. He suffered from dementia later in life and struggled to overcome Paret’s death, according to Sports Illustrated.
The Canastota, N.Y.-based Hall of Fame will fly its flags at half-staff in Griffith’s honor. Griffith was inducted in 1990.
Sports, Pages 20 on 07/24/2013