College Baseball
Aussie-born U.S. ballplayer killed for ‘the fun of it’
DUNCAN, Okla. – It is a chillingly simple motive: Police said three bored teens killed an Australian collegiate baseball player attending school in the U.S. for “the fun of it.”
As authorities prepared to charge the teens Tuesday with first-degree murder, family and friends on two continents mourned 22-year-old Christopher Lane, who was being remembered as a wonderful young man whose life ended too soon. His girlfriend tearfully laid a cross at a streetside memorial in Oklahoma, while half a world away, his team in Australia placed flowers at home plate.
Lane, who was visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend and her family live, had passed a home where the boys were staying and that apparently led to him being gunned down at random, Police Chief Danny Ford said Monday. A 17-year-old in the group has given a detailed confession to police, and charges were expected Tuesday afternoon. He said they followed Lane, a student from Melbourne attending college on a baseball scholarship, in a car and shot him in the back before driving off.
MLB
Dempster’s bean-ball incident draws a 5-game suspension
NEW YORK – Ryan Dempster of the Boston Red Sox was suspended for five games and fined by Major League Baseball for intentionally hitting Yankees star Alex Rodriguez with a pitch last weekend.
The penalty was announced Tuesday by MLB senior vice president Joe Garagiola Jr. two days after Dempster hit A-Rod in the second inning at Fenway Park. Garagiola also fined Yankees manager Joe Girardi for arguing with plate umpire Brian O’Nora on Sunday night.
Dempster’s fine was $2,500 and Girardi’s was $5,000, separate people familiar with the discipline told The Associated Press.
NBA
Lawson pushes girlfriend, but says it wasn’t a ‘real push’
CENTENNIAL – Ty Lawson’s pregnant girlfriend told investigators the Denver Nuggets guard pushed her during a fight after she heard him on the phone with another woman.
Both Lawson and Ashley Pettiford were arrested after Saturday’s fight and held over the weekend because of the domestic violence allegations.
According to a sheriff’s report, Pettiford said Lawson grabbed both of her arms and pushed her back as she tried to pack her clothes to leave. Lawson allegedly admitted to pushing her out of the way but said it wasn’t a “real push.”
Pettiford said she threw Lawson’s phone against a wall, and Lawson said he ran hers under a faucet after it failed to shatter when he threw it. Pettiford is facing a criminal mischief charge for throwing the phone.
Soccer
World Cup ticket sales begin with high demand
SAO PAULO – It was a frenzied start to FIFA’s attempt to fill the stands for next year’s World Cup in Brazil as fans applied Tuesday for more than 1 million tickets in just seven hours.
But it will be some time before they know whether they’ll be among those lucky enough to get seats to football’s signature quadrennial event. Officials say applicants won’t hear back until October, after FIFA holds a random selection draw on all the requests.
More than 163,000 people requested the tickets online for the 64 World Cup matches being held in Brazil.
The website of football’s governing body FIFA showed that there were more ticket applications than the number of seats available in all four price categories for the opener in Sao Paulo and the final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium.
Skyhawks’ alumna crowned ‘Fastest Woman on Wheels’
Congrats, Missy (Erickson)!! @FLCCYCLINGbuff.ly/16pXZA3.
Associated Press
