Judge, Bellinger unanimous picks as Rookies of the Year

Beltran announces retirement

NEW YORK, Nov 14, (AP): The only major question was whether it would be unanimous — and it was.

Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are baseball’s Rookies of the Year for 2017 after their record-setting home run binges eliminated any reasonable competition for the honors. Judge led the American League with 52 homers, the most ever by a rookie. Bellinger hit 39 and had to settle for the National League’s rookie record.

Judge and Bellinger received every first-place vote available from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Judge became the first New York Yankees player to receive this award since Derek Jeter in 1996. Bellinger gave the Dodgers a record 18th Rookie of the Year winner.

Boston outfielder Andrew Benintendi finished second in the AL vote, followed by Baltimore slugger Trey Mancini. St Louis infielder Paul DeJong was the NL runnerup, with Pittsburgh first baseman Josh Bell finishing third.

Judge is also a finalist for the MVP award. Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 and Fred Lynn in 1975 are the only players to win the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season.

The Yankees entered this season with marginal expectations by their standards, but the prodigious power of Judge and catcher Gary Sanchez transformed them almost overnight into an exciting young team with tremendous potential. Judge’s 495-foot shot on June 11 was the longest home run in the major leagues this season, according to Statcast. Although he struck out 208 times in the regular season and 27 more in the postseason, the 25-yearold outfielder is one of a handful of reasons why the Yankees suddenly seem to have one of the brightest futures of any team in baseball.

Bellinger

It took quite some time, but Carlos Beltran finally got there, winning a World Series title after 20 seasons in the majors.

Now he is leaving the Houston Astros and leaving baseball, retiring after a career in which he was a ninetime All-Star and was Rookie of the Year. The 40-year-old designated hitter and outfielder made the announcement Monday, 12 days after the Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.

He announced his retirement in an essay written for The Players’ Tribune website. His story touched on what finally winning a championship meant to him.

Besides being named an All-Star nine times, most recently in 2016, and the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year, he won three Gold Glove and two Silver Slugger awards.

His production dropped dramatically this year. He hit .295 with 29 homers and 93 RBIs for the New York Yankees and Texas in 2016. He then batted .231 with 14 homers and 51 RBIs for Houston.

The Miami Marlins will spend this week’s general managers’ meetings shopping Giancarlo Stanton, the pricey slugger who led the major leagues with 59 home runs but does not fit into the plans of the new payroll-paring baseball operations staff headed by former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter.

As the meetings began Monday, Marlins president of baseball operations Mike Hill said, “I think over the next few days I’ll get a feel for what the marketplace is for our players.”

Stanton, who turned 28 last week, is owed $295 million over the final decade of his record $325 million, 13-year contract. He has a full no-trade provision, so he can determine his destination.

The remake of the Atlanta Braves’ management was completed Monday when Alex Anthopoulos was named general manager and John Hart was removed as team president.

Anthopoulos, a former Dodgers and Blue Jays executive, will have autonomy of baseball operations, giving him more power than any Braves general manager since John Schuerholz served from 1990 to 2007. Anthopoulos also was given the title of executive vice-president, while Hart will assume a senior adviser role, team chairman Terry McGuirk announced at a news conference that Hart did not attend.

Anthopoulos was to fly to Orlando on Monday night to represent the Braves at baseball’s general managers’ meetings. He spent the last two seasons as the Dodgers’ vice-president of baseball operations after six years as Toronto’s general manager.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres will play a three-game series at Monterrey, Mexico, from May 4-6.

The games had been originally scheduled for San Diego’s Petco Park, and the shift to Estadio de Beisbol was announced Monday. The Padres will remain the home team.

This will be the third regular-season series in Monterrey. Colorado beat San Diego 8-2 there in Major League Baseball’s season opener on April 4, 1999, and the Padres won two of three games against the New York Mets from Aug 16-18, 1996. Ben Bishop through the legs after Staal’s pinpoint centering pass from the left wing. Radulov tied it by working hard in the slot on a power play at 8:44 of the second.

But the Hurricanes went ahead again on a power play at 2:39 of the third, with Teravainen scoring on a rocket from the left point. Staal and Aho had assists on Carolina’s first power-play goal this month.

Teravainen made it 3-1 at 6:51 from the high slot, getting the puck past Bishop with Aho providing a screen. Bishop finished with 23 saves.

Flames 7, Blues 4 In Calgary, Alberta, Mark Jankowski had two goals and an assist, and Kris Versteeg scored the winner with 5:31 left as the Calgary Flames beat the St Louis Blues 7-4 on Monday night.

In a wild third period, the Flames took the lead twice only to see the Blues come back to tie it each time. Calgary finally went in front for good when Versteeg’s shot off the wing beat goalie Jake Allen.

Sam Bennett scored his first of the season for Calgary, and Micheal Ferland got his fourth goal in four games. Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Frolik also scored as the Flames finished 5-2-0 on their longest homestand of the season.

Gaudreau had two points to extend his point streak to seven games (five goals, seven assists).

Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice for St Louis, and Jaden Schwartz and Alexander Steen also scored.

Bennett put the Flames in front 3-2 to open the third-period barrage when his backhand of Jankowski’s shot slipped through Allen’s pads.

Steen tied it at 11:46 and then Ferland’s power-play goal restored Calgary’s one-goal lead at 12:31. But 12 seconds later, Tarasenko one-timed a pass from Schwartz to tie it again.

Mike Smith, who has started 16 of Calgary’s 17 games this season, had to leave after the first period with an undisclosed injury. Eddie Lack played the final 40 minutes, stopping 13 of 15 shots for his first win with the Flames. Allen stopped 30 of 36 shots. St Louis opened the scoring 3:32 in on its first shot. Colton Parayko crossed the blue line and dropped the puck to Tarasenko, who beat Smith

from 40 feet on a high his blocker.

Jankowski scored the next two goals to give Calgary its first lead of the night. With the teams playing four skaters aside, he hammered a slap shot over Allen’s glove at 4:54. Jankowski then took a slick pass from Jaromir Jagr and scored on deke at 13:45.

wrist shot

over TORONTO, Nov 14, (AP): Dave Andreychuk sensed his numbers would be good enough to get him into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He just had to stay patient.

Andreychuk retired in 2006 after a 23-year NHL career, and his 640 goals make him the 14th-highest scoring player. Of the 17 retired players to hit the 600-goal mark, he was the only one not in the Hall other than coinductee Teemu Selanne despite being eligible for induction since 2009. Selanne became eligible this year.

“I think 600 goals on the resume, it’s got to happen eventually,” Andreychuk said. “To be honest when I look at the time it took to get in it just makes it sweeter. I think the numbers speak for themselves. You just hope your time will come.”

Andreychuk joined the Hall on Friday a with NHL greats, Mark Recchi, Selanne and Paul Kariya and Canadian women’s star Danielle Goyette. Longtime Canadian university

Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame Lanny McDonald presents Dave Andreychuk with the Hall ring during a media opportunity at the Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum on Nov 10 in Toronto, Canada.

(AFP)

coach Clare Drake and Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs entered in the builder category.

An induction ceremony was scheduled for Monday night.

The 54-year-old Andreychuk — who was drafted in 1982 by Buffalo and made stops in Toronto, New Jersey, Boston, Colorado and Tampa Bay — was driving on a Florida freeway to pick up his wife from the airport when he got the call.

“My heart started to race right away. I immediately hung up and called my father,” said Andreychuk, noting he pulled off the road to take the call. “My mother did most the talking, saying ‘It was about time,’ but my father was crying at the same time.”

The long wait never rattled the man described by his peers as a natural leader. Andreychuk went 22 seasons before lifting the Stanley Cup in 2004 with Tampa Bay.

“It’s like winning the Stanley Cup,” he said. “You’ve been dreaming about it all your life but you don’t know how you’re going to react until it happens.”

Andreychuk is still the career leader for power-play goals with 274. Most came from in front of the net, with his 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame paying the price. He earned his paycheck by being a goalie’s nightmare.

“It started in junior, 16, 17 years old,” he said. “You realize that’s where my bread and butter was going to be. Not a lot of pretty goals, to be honest. Not sure if there’s a highlightreel goal.”

Andreychuk played 1,639 games in the NHL and had 19 seasons with at least 20 goals, with a career-high 54 in 1992-93 with Toronto.

Former Maple Leafs teammate Doug Gilmour once said part of Andreychuk’s secret to success was his ability to create a better scoring opportunity by intentionally placing a shot at a goalie’s pad and then collecting his own rebound.