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Sports Briefs: Minaya gets new contract with Mets through 2012
By The Associated Press
Friday, October 03, 2008 | No comments posted.
NEW YORK — General manager Omar Minaya was given a new contract that runs through 2012, a deal that comes four days after the New York Mets were eliminated from postseason contention in the last game of the season.
The contract contains club options covering 2013 and 2014.
Minaya became general manager in 2004 and was signed to a five-year deal. The Mets made it to Game 7 of the NL championship series in 2006. New York failed to make the playoffs after leading the NL East by seven games with 17 games left in 2007 and by 31⁄2 games with 17 to go this year.
Rockies’ Helton undergoes back surgery
DENVER — Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton is expected to be ready for spring training after undergoing surgery on his lower back.
The operation was performed Tuesday by Dr. Robert Watkins at Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles.
The Rockies said Thursday that Helton has returned home to Denver to recuperate.
The 35-year-old missed 62 games this season because of a strained lower back.
BASKETBALL
Stern vows to start ref monitoring system
NEW YORK — David Stern responded to a report on NBA referees by vowing to build the “most effective possible system” to monitor illegal gambling and preserve the game’s integrity.
The commissioner ordered the investigation last August after former referee Tim Donaghy was accused of betting on games he officiated and providing inside information to gambling associates to win their bets. Donaghy began serving a 15-month sentence on Sept. 23 at a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla.
Stern promised to implement all the recommendations included in former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz’s review of the NBA’s referees operations department, the result of a 14-month probe that cost the league several million dollars.
GOLF
Shin wins Samsung Championship
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Ji-Yai Shin shot a 5-under 67 to take the first-day lead in the Samsung World Championship, topping Paula Creamer’s 68 that featured a birdie on 17 following a bogey on the previous hole.
Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam were only 17 minutes into their rounds and on the second fairway as the last twosome to start when the horn sounded and play was suspended for 26 minutes.
Ochoa, the two-time defending Samsung champion, and five-time winner Sorenstam matched Yani Tseng, Na Yeon Choi, Song-Hee Kim and Angela Stanford at 69.
Jeff Overton takes top honors at Stone Resort
VERONA, N.Y. — Jeff Overton shot a 5-under 67 to take the first-round lead at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, the second stop on the PGA Tour’s Fall Series.
Overton, who started at the 10th hole, made three birdies on the front side to take a one-shot lead over Michael Allen and Steve Allan.
Tag Ridings, Carlos Franco, and Jason Day were tied for fourth at 69. Another shot back were Briny Baird, Bo Van Pelt, Kent Jones, Mark Hensby, Tommy Gainey, Sterling Scott, Paul Claxton and Troy Matteson, who had a bogey-free round.
OLYMPICS
Larry Probst named USOC chairman
DENVER — The U.S. Olympic Committee is replacing a name most sports fans know — Peter Ueberroth — with an architect of a game most sports fans know — EA Sports.
Larry Probst, a longtime executive at the company that makes some of the nation’s most popular video games — including Madden NFL and Tiger Woods PGA Tour — was elected to replace Ueberroth as the USOC’s chairman of the board. He’ll take office next month at the USOC’s annual assembly.
Ueberroth will stay on with the USOC in a nonvoting capacity, his presence considered essential to the federation’s attempt to land the 2016 Olympics in Chicago; the International Olympic Committee vote is set for next October.
CYCLING
Spanish judge stops Puerto investigation
MADRID, Spain — Operation Puerto, cycling’s biggest doping investigation, has been shut down without a single conviction.
Spanish media reported that a judge officially sealed Operation Puerto, a civil guard probe that had implicated more than 50 riders. Raids in Madrid and Zaragoza in May 2006 turned up steroids, hormones and the endurance-boosting substance EPO, nearly 100 bags of frozen blood, and equipment for treating blood.
Repeated calls by The Associated Press to the Madrid court went unanswered.
The reports said Judge Antonio Serrano decided to close the case after tested samples showed levels of EPO that were too low to merit a health risk — in line with Spanish doping laws of the time.
The contract contains club options covering 2013 and 2014.
Minaya became general manager in 2004 and was signed to a five-year deal. The Mets made it to Game 7 of the NL championship series in 2006. New York failed to make the playoffs after leading the NL East by seven games with 17 games left in 2007 and by 31⁄2 games with 17 to go this year.
Rockies’ Helton undergoes back surgery
DENVER — Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton is expected to be ready for spring training after undergoing surgery on his lower back.
The operation was performed Tuesday by Dr. Robert Watkins at Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles.
The Rockies said Thursday that Helton has returned home to Denver to recuperate.
The 35-year-old missed 62 games this season because of a strained lower back.
BASKETBALL
Stern vows to start ref monitoring system
NEW YORK — David Stern responded to a report on NBA referees by vowing to build the “most effective possible system” to monitor illegal gambling and preserve the game’s integrity.
The commissioner ordered the investigation last August after former referee Tim Donaghy was accused of betting on games he officiated and providing inside information to gambling associates to win their bets. Donaghy began serving a 15-month sentence on Sept. 23 at a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla.
Stern promised to implement all the recommendations included in former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz’s review of the NBA’s referees operations department, the result of a 14-month probe that cost the league several million dollars.
GOLF
Shin wins Samsung Championship
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Ji-Yai Shin shot a 5-under 67 to take the first-day lead in the Samsung World Championship, topping Paula Creamer’s 68 that featured a birdie on 17 following a bogey on the previous hole.
Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam were only 17 minutes into their rounds and on the second fairway as the last twosome to start when the horn sounded and play was suspended for 26 minutes.
Ochoa, the two-time defending Samsung champion, and five-time winner Sorenstam matched Yani Tseng, Na Yeon Choi, Song-Hee Kim and Angela Stanford at 69.
Jeff Overton takes top honors at Stone Resort
VERONA, N.Y. — Jeff Overton shot a 5-under 67 to take the first-round lead at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, the second stop on the PGA Tour’s Fall Series.
Overton, who started at the 10th hole, made three birdies on the front side to take a one-shot lead over Michael Allen and Steve Allan.
Tag Ridings, Carlos Franco, and Jason Day were tied for fourth at 69. Another shot back were Briny Baird, Bo Van Pelt, Kent Jones, Mark Hensby, Tommy Gainey, Sterling Scott, Paul Claxton and Troy Matteson, who had a bogey-free round.
OLYMPICS
Larry Probst named USOC chairman
DENVER — The U.S. Olympic Committee is replacing a name most sports fans know — Peter Ueberroth — with an architect of a game most sports fans know — EA Sports.
Larry Probst, a longtime executive at the company that makes some of the nation’s most popular video games — including Madden NFL and Tiger Woods PGA Tour — was elected to replace Ueberroth as the USOC’s chairman of the board. He’ll take office next month at the USOC’s annual assembly.
Ueberroth will stay on with the USOC in a nonvoting capacity, his presence considered essential to the federation’s attempt to land the 2016 Olympics in Chicago; the International Olympic Committee vote is set for next October.
CYCLING
Spanish judge stops Puerto investigation
MADRID, Spain — Operation Puerto, cycling’s biggest doping investigation, has been shut down without a single conviction.
Spanish media reported that a judge officially sealed Operation Puerto, a civil guard probe that had implicated more than 50 riders. Raids in Madrid and Zaragoza in May 2006 turned up steroids, hormones and the endurance-boosting substance EPO, nearly 100 bags of frozen blood, and equipment for treating blood.
Repeated calls by The Associated Press to the Madrid court went unanswered.
The reports said Judge Antonio Serrano decided to close the case after tested samples showed levels of EPO that were too low to merit a health risk — in line with Spanish doping laws of the time.
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