Baseball
MIAMI – Two Cuban baseball players told a federal jury they paid tens of thousands of dollars from signing bonuses with Major League Baseball teams to a smuggling network that prosecutors say was overseen by a Florida sports agent and his associate.
Players Jorge Padron and Reinier Roibal told a Miami jury Tuesday how they were spirited off the communist-governed island on speedboats bound for Cancun, Mexico, to train while awaiting documents necessary to come to the U.S., where they eventually signed lucrative free-agent contracts.
The two testified in the alien-smuggling and conspiracy trial of agent Bartolo Hernandez and trainer Julio Estrada, who contend their business was legitimate.
Roibal says he paid the group about $170,000 out of his San Francisco Giants contract. Padron says he paid them about $140,000 after signing with the Boston Red Sox.
Biathlon
ASTANA, Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan’s top sports official says the country’s biathletes passed doping tests following a police raid which seized medical equipment and drugs at the world championships.
Austrian police raided the Kazakh team’s hotel Thursday after finding an abandoned cardboard box last month containing used medical equipment and team accreditations for major biathlon events. The team was then tested for performance-enhancing drugs.
Kazakh officials have previously said the team did not use any banned substances but admitted medical equipment was negligently disposed of.
The Kazakh team has been allowed to race at the ongoing world championships following the raid.
NFL
LOS ANGELES – The Chargers announced season ticket prices for their return to Los Angeles, where they will play the next two years at 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson.
The team said Tuesday that prices for season tickets range from $70 to $375 per game depending on seating locations. Season tickets to all home games range from $700 to $3,750.
Next season’s NFL schedule will be released in April, but the Chargers will host Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, Kansas City, Oakland and Denver.
The Chargers are calling StubHub Center “the NFL’s most intimate venue.”
Fans can join the waitlist for season tickets by placing a fully refundable $100 deposit at FightForLA.com. The deposit grants priority status to buy season tickets for games in Carson as well as for the new stadium in Inglewood, which the Chargers will share with the Rams starting in 2019.
NHL
NEWARK, N.J. – Devils defenseman Andy Greene scored the go-ahead goal on a power play and Kyle Palmieri converted on an odd-man rush with Taylor Hall to lead New Jersey over the struggling Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Cory Schneider made 28 saves and Pavel Zacha added a goal as New Jersey won for the fourth time in six games (4-1-1) in its push to make the playoffs.
Jeremy Smith stopped 37 shots in his NHL debut after seven seasons in the minor leagues. Recent waiver pickup Mark Barberio and Mikhail Grigorenko scored for Colorado, which has lost four in a row and is 4-22-1 in its last 27 games.
The win was only the Devils’ second against the Avalanche in 11 games.
Associated Press
