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Sports Briefs: Recovery from surgery may delay Utley’s debut in 2009
By The Associated Press
Friday, November 21, 2008 | No comments posted.
PHILADELPHIA — Three-time All-Star Chase Utley, who anchored the middle of the lineup for the World Series champion Phillies, will have surgery and may not be ready for the start of the 2009 regular season.
Utley will have surgery next week to repair any bone or cartilage damage he may have in his right hip. He will be able to begin baseball activity in three to four months. But depending on the extent of the damage, full recovery could take until May, team officials said.
Utley was bothered by symptoms during the season but still hit .292 and led all second basemen with 33 home runs and 104 RBIs. While his season numbers were impressive, Utley started the season very well and tailed off in the last four months.
Utley had 18 home runs and 47 RBIs through the end of May but hit just 15 home runs the rest of the season.
Team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotti and specialist Dr. Bryan Kelly examined Utley following the World Series and recommended surgery. Kelly will perform the surgery next week in New York but a date has not been set.
GOLF
Sorenstam starts slow
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Annika Sorenstam’s farewell to the LPGA Tour could come two days earlier than she hoped.
Sorenstam shot a 2-over par 74 in Thursday’s opening round of the ADT Championship, good for a tie for 23rd in the 32-woman event, her final tournament before “stepping away” from competitive golf. The field gets trimmed to 16 after today’s play, meaning Sorenstam has some work remaining just to reach the weekend.
Otherwise, a Hall of Fame career will come to an unceremonious end.
“I was a little nervous. I feel like I’m playing good. I’m excited about the week,” Sorenstam said. “But I’m telling you, nothing went my way today.”
She was 4 over after 10 holes, but rallied with back-to-back birdies on the par-4 14th and par-5 15th and finished six shots behind Katherine Hull (68).
Youth makes cut
HONG KONG — A 14-year-old golfer from Hong Kong became the youngest player to make the cut at an European Tour event today, breaking the record set by Sergio Garcia.
Jason Hak shot 70 in each of the first two rounds at his home tournament, the $2.5 million Hong Kong Open, just making the par 140 cut.
Garcia, currently No. 2 in the world, was 15 years, 46 days old when he made the cut at the 1995 Turespana Open Mediterrania in Valencia, Spain.
Cook leads Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — John Cook shot a 10-under 62 on Thursday to take a three-stroke lead over Brad Martin after the first round of the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational.
Cook, 51, one of eight Champions Tour entrants in the tournament that features players from the four major tours, had 11 birdies and one bogey.
He played on the Del Monte Golf Course, one of three Monterey Peninsula courses used in the tournament.
Martin, 39, of Portland, a former assistant pro at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, had a bogey-free 65 on the Del Monte course, where eight of the top-10 first-round scores were posted.
SOCCER
Columbus’ Schelotto named MLS MVP
LOS ANGELES — The Columbus Crew’s Guillermo Barros Schelotto, a midfield wizard who was a longtime star in his native Argentina, won the MLS Most Valuable Player award Thursday.
The 35-year-old Schelotto had 19 assists and seven goals for Columbus as the Crew bounced back from a 9-11-10 record the previous year to finish with an MLS-best 17-7-6 mark.
He and his teammates face the New York Red Bulls on Sunday afternoon in Carson for the MLS Cup.
Schelotto, from Buenos Aires, outpolled runner-up Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire in the voting by the league’s coaches and general managers, players and media.
Donovan led the league in scoring with 20 goals, and Blanco keyed the Fire’s drive to the Eastern Conference final, where they lost 2-1 to Columbus.
Utley will have surgery next week to repair any bone or cartilage damage he may have in his right hip. He will be able to begin baseball activity in three to four months. But depending on the extent of the damage, full recovery could take until May, team officials said.
Utley was bothered by symptoms during the season but still hit .292 and led all second basemen with 33 home runs and 104 RBIs. While his season numbers were impressive, Utley started the season very well and tailed off in the last four months.
Utley had 18 home runs and 47 RBIs through the end of May but hit just 15 home runs the rest of the season.
Team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotti and specialist Dr. Bryan Kelly examined Utley following the World Series and recommended surgery. Kelly will perform the surgery next week in New York but a date has not been set.
GOLF
Sorenstam starts slow
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Annika Sorenstam’s farewell to the LPGA Tour could come two days earlier than she hoped.
Sorenstam shot a 2-over par 74 in Thursday’s opening round of the ADT Championship, good for a tie for 23rd in the 32-woman event, her final tournament before “stepping away” from competitive golf. The field gets trimmed to 16 after today’s play, meaning Sorenstam has some work remaining just to reach the weekend.
Otherwise, a Hall of Fame career will come to an unceremonious end.
“I was a little nervous. I feel like I’m playing good. I’m excited about the week,” Sorenstam said. “But I’m telling you, nothing went my way today.”
She was 4 over after 10 holes, but rallied with back-to-back birdies on the par-4 14th and par-5 15th and finished six shots behind Katherine Hull (68).
Youth makes cut
HONG KONG — A 14-year-old golfer from Hong Kong became the youngest player to make the cut at an European Tour event today, breaking the record set by Sergio Garcia.
Jason Hak shot 70 in each of the first two rounds at his home tournament, the $2.5 million Hong Kong Open, just making the par 140 cut.
Garcia, currently No. 2 in the world, was 15 years, 46 days old when he made the cut at the 1995 Turespana Open Mediterrania in Valencia, Spain.
Cook leads Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — John Cook shot a 10-under 62 on Thursday to take a three-stroke lead over Brad Martin after the first round of the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational.
Cook, 51, one of eight Champions Tour entrants in the tournament that features players from the four major tours, had 11 birdies and one bogey.
He played on the Del Monte Golf Course, one of three Monterey Peninsula courses used in the tournament.
Martin, 39, of Portland, a former assistant pro at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, had a bogey-free 65 on the Del Monte course, where eight of the top-10 first-round scores were posted.
SOCCER
Columbus’ Schelotto named MLS MVP
LOS ANGELES — The Columbus Crew’s Guillermo Barros Schelotto, a midfield wizard who was a longtime star in his native Argentina, won the MLS Most Valuable Player award Thursday.
The 35-year-old Schelotto had 19 assists and seven goals for Columbus as the Crew bounced back from a 9-11-10 record the previous year to finish with an MLS-best 17-7-6 mark.
He and his teammates face the New York Red Bulls on Sunday afternoon in Carson for the MLS Cup.
Schelotto, from Buenos Aires, outpolled runner-up Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire in the voting by the league’s coaches and general managers, players and media.
Donovan led the league in scoring with 20 goals, and Blanco keyed the Fire’s drive to the Eastern Conference final, where they lost 2-1 to Columbus.
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