Baseball
Cuban ballplayer defects while team tours USA
DES MOINES, Iowa – Cuban pitcher Misael Siverio told a Spanish-language newspaper he defected to the United States and is going to try to make it to the major leagues.
Siverio was part of the Cuban national team that traveled to Iowa for an exhibition game against a collegiate all-star team from the U.S. But he apparently left the delegation at some point after it arrived in Des Moines on Tuesday afternoon.
“Leaving behind your country is not easy, but this was a decision that I gave a lot of thought,” Siverio told El Nuevo Herald in Miami. “Of course, my dream is to play in the majors, and from now on I will start taking the first steps to make it happen.”
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida also welcomed the 24-year-old Siverio to the U.S. in a post on her Twitter account Wednesday.
Basketball
Stoudemire gets an invitation to play for Team Israel
JERUSALEM – The president of Israel has invited New York Knicks star Amare Stoudemire to play for the country’s national basketball team because of his ties to Judaism.
The six-time NBA All-Star, who said he has “Hebrew roots,” has significant ties to Israeli basketball. Last month, he joined a group looking to buy Hapoel Jerusalem, a team in Israel’s top league. Stoudemire is in Israel to coach the Canadian basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, a competition for Jewish athletes.
Stoudemire won a bronze medal with the United States at the 2004 Olympics but has not played for the national team since 2007.
College Football
Music City and Gator bowls partner with ACC, Big Ten
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Music City Bowl and Gator Bowl joined up to pick a school from the Big Ten Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference as one team in their games in a six-year deal starting in 2014.
The partnership announced Thursday makes the two bowls among the few postseason games linked to multiple conferences and gives them more flexibility to match teams. The deal calls for the ACC to send a team to each site three times during this deal running through 2019.
On Thursday, the ACC announced six bowl deals that will run through the 2019 season. The ACC adds the Capital One Bowl in years when the game needs a replacement because the Big Ten is sending its No. 2 team to the Orange. The Gator Bowl also is back in the ACC’s rotation for the first time since 2008, and the league also will continue to send teams to the Russell Athletic, Sun and Belk bowls.
The deals are in addition to the previously announced agreement with the Pinstripe Bowl and the 12-year tie to the Orange Bowl for the ACC’s champion if that game is not part of the playoff – and the Fiesta or Chick-Fil-A if it is. The Russell Athletic Bowl has the first pick of an ACC team after the playoff and Orange Bowl.
EL PASO, Texas – The Sun Bowl Association reached a six-year extension with the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Association officials in El Paso on Thursday announced the extension that begins in 2014. The association recently announced a similar six-year extension with the Pac-12. Teams from both conferences will face off in the Dec. 31 Sun Bowl on the UTEP campus.
USA Soccer
USA tweaks Gold Cup roster for the knockout round
MIAMI – United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann adjusted his roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals.
Defenders Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler and forwards Alan Gordon and Eddie Johnson have been added to the team. Oguchi Onyewu, Herculez Gomez, Jack McInerney and Corey Ashe were removed from the roster.
The U.S. will play El Salvador in Baltimore on Sunday. CONCACAF did not announce any changes for El Salvador on Wednesday. The knockout rounds will begin in Atlanta on Saturday.
Associated Press
