Golf
Count Spieth as a likely Rio Olympics starter in 2016
SYDNEY – Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott, the two headliners at this week’s Australian Open, have distinctly different excitement levels over next year’s Rio Olympics golf tournament.
While both agree a team competition would have been nice, Scott says he’ll go if he can fit it into his schedule, and isn’t very enthused. On Tuesday, however, Spieth said count him in unless he’s injured or, by some miracle, the world’s top-ranked golfer fails to qualify.
Spieth says he considers golf’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904 like a major and plans to be among the four-man American team in the 60-man field in Brazil. And he plans to stay in the athletes’ village, walk in the opening ceremony and meet “incredible athletes from around the world.”
MLB
Rockies trade puzzling bullpen arm to the Cubs
DENVER – The Colorado Rockies traded left-handed reliever Rex Brothers to the Chicago Cubs for 18-year-old lefty Wander Cabrera.
Brothers had been designated for assignment by Colorado on Nov. 20.
Cabrera recently completed his first professional season as a member of the Dominican Summer League Cubs, where he went 4-3 with a 2.34 ERA in 14 appearances, including seven starts.
Brothers, 27, began last season at Triple-A Albuquerque, where he went 5-2 with a 4.46 ERA. In two stints with the Rockies, he was 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA. He was originally drafted by the Rockies in the first round in 2009.
In parts of five seasons, he was 16-11 with a 3.42 ERA in 286 appearances with Colorado.
NFL
Rams WR Bailey critical, stable after being shot
ST. LOUIS – Suspended St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey was shot and critically wounded as he and four other people were sitting in a car outside a home in the Miami area, police said Wednesday.
Bailey was at a hospital awaiting surgery for injuries that have not been disclosed by the Rams or the authorities. Another man, Antwan Reeves, was with Bailey and was also shot in the attack Tuesday night. Three others in the car, including two minors, were not wounded, police said.
Police said they were looking for suspects, who had driven up in another car before shooting.
The Rams said they were aware Bailey was “involved in an incident” and that they had spoken with him.
Bailey went to high school in the Miami area. He has been suspended twice by the NFL in three years.
Bailey, who turned 25 on Nov. 11, was a third-round pick in the 2013 draft out of West Virginia, where he was part of a prolific wide receiving tandem with Tavon Austin, whom the Rams selected with the eighth overall pick that year.
Gifford’s family says CTE found in his brain
NEW YORK – The family of Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford says signs of the degenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy were found in his brain after his death.
In a statement released Wednesday through NBC News, the family says Gifford suffered from unspecified “cognitive and behavioral symptoms” in his later years. He died of natural causes at his Connecticut home in August at age 84.
His widow, Kathie Lee Gifford, is a host for NBC’s “Today.”
The family “made the difficult decision to have his brain studied in hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury.”
CTE can be diagnosed only after death. It has been found in the brains of dozens of former players.
Associated Press
