Golf
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France – South Koreans In Gee Chun and Sung Hyun Park shot 8-under 63 on Thursday to share the first-round lead in the Evian Championship, the last of the LPGA Tour five majors.
Top-ranked Lydia Ko’s bid to defend her title – and win a third career major by the age of 19 – got off to a rocky start with a 70.
MLB
NEW YORK – Major League Baseball suspended Padres general manager A.J. Preller for 30 days without pay on Thursday, hitting the San Diego executive with an unprecedented punishment for failing to disclose medical information when pitcher Drew Pomeranz was traded to the Boston Red Sox in July.
The commissioner’s office announced the discipline on Thursday without elaborating on what Preller did wrong. But in a statement issued by the Padres, Peller said he accepted full responsibility for “issues related to the oversight of our medical administration and record keeping.”
BOSTON – Red Sox slugger David Ortiz hit his 537th home run, moving past Mickey Mantle for 17th on baseball’s career list.
Ortiz, who says this will be his final season, homered into the center-field bleachers Thursday night at Fenway Park against New York Yankees reliever Adam Warren in the eighth inning to cut Boston’s deficit to 5-2.
Mike Schmidt is 16th on the home run list with 548
LAS VEGAS – A plan to build an NFL stadium in Las Vegas and lure the Raiders to Oakland crossed a major hurdle Thursday when a Nevada oversight committee voted unanimously to recommend $750 million in public funding for the project.
The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee recommended raising the hotel tax in the Las Vegas area to help pay for a 65,000-seat domed venue that was promoted and would be partially financed by billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Proponents still need to win over the governor, the Legislature and three-quarters of NFL owners to make the project a reality, but it’s a significant milestone for a city that’s never had a professional football team and has been working on the Raiders deal for months.
The Adelson family plans to put $650 million toward the project, which would also be home to UNLV Football, while the Raiders plan to kick in $500 million. Sands officials said they don’t want to return any profits to the public because they’d be making little or no money on the stadium. They’re also committing to fund infrastructure improvements and cost overruns.
Soccer
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Heather O’Reilly scored in her final international game, and Carli Lloyd had a hat trick to lead the U.S. women’s national team to a 9-0 victory over Thailand on Thursday night.
Three of the U.S. team’s goals, including O’Reilly’s, came within the opening five minutes. O’Reilly previously announced that she is retiring following a 15-year run with the national team.
The match drew attention at the start when midfielder Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is refusing to stand in protest of racial inequality in the United States. Rapinoe came in as a sub to start the second half.
Associated Press
