TRANSACTIONS
BASEBALL Commissioner’s Office:
Suspended RHP Mario Alcantara (free agent), Cleveland RHP Dakody Clemmer (AZL Indians), Kansas City RHP Arnaldo Hernandez (LexingtonSAL), Houston RHP Brendan McCurry (Corpus Christi-TL) and Boston C Jake Romanski (Pawtucket-IL) 50 games for violations of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
Chicago White Sox:
Assigned LHP Matt Purke outright to Charlotte (IL).
Colorado Rockies:
Named Tony Diaz first base coach, Duane Espy hitting coach, Ron Gideon coach and Jeff Salazar assistant hitting coach.
Minnesota Twins:
Agreed to terms with 1B Reynaldo Rodriguez and Matt Hague on minor league contracts.
BASKETBALL WNBA San Antonio Stars:
Promoted assistant coach Vickie Johnson to head coach.
FOOTBALL Washington Redskins:
Waived WR Rashad Ross. Signed CB Dashaun Phillips from the practice squad and LB Lynden Trail to the practice squad.
HOCKEY Chicago Blackhawks:
Placed F Artem Anisimov on injured reserve, retroactive to Sunday. Recalled F Tanner Kero from Rockford (AHL).
Placed F Jacob Josefson on injured reserve, retroactive to Saturday. Recalled D Seth Helgeson from Albany (AHL).
Placed F Paul Stastny on injured reserve. Recalled F Wade Megan from Chicago (AHL).
New Jersey Devils: St. Louis Blues: COLLEGE East Carolina:
Announced the retirement of assistant head coach/ defensive backs mentor Rick Smith.
Promoted defensive coordinator Chris Willis to head football coach.
Dismissed sophomore F Myles Carter from the men’s basketball team.
North Alabama: Seton Hall:
Duke suspended Grayson Allen indefinitely from the men’s basketball team Thursday, one day after he was caught tripping an opponent for the third time in a year.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said the program “needed to take further steps regarding his actions that do not meet the standards of Duke basketball.”
Allen picked up a technical foul for tripping Elon’s Steven Santa Ana on a drive in the first half of a 72-61 win Wednesday night. That earned him a seat on the bench for the final 4:15 of the half and the start of the second half, although he returned to the game with about 16 minutes left.
Afterward, Allen met with Santa Ana and Elon coach Matt Matheny to apologize before hanging his head and fighting back tears while talking to reporters in the locker room.
“Just talking about what led up to it is just an excuse,” Allen said. “There’s no excuse for it.”
BASEBALL
The American League champion Cleveland Indians agreed to a three-year, $65 million deal with free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion.
The sides agreed to terms Thursday night and the deal is contingent upon the 33-year-old Encarnacion passing a physical after the holidays.
Encarnacion had 42 home runs and an AL-high 127 RBI last season for the Toronto Blue Jays, who lost to Cleveland in the AL Championship Series. Over the past five seasons, he has averaged 39 homers and 110 RBI in 145 games. COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Georgia fined assistant coach Shane Beamer $25,000 for accepting leaked game plan information two years ago while at Virginia Tech from a former Wake Forest assistant coach who has been fired from his job as a radio analyst.
In a statement issued Thursday by Georgia, Beamer said then-Wake Forest assistant Tommy Elrod called him the night before the game in 2014 with “a few plays that he said Wake Forest might run.”
Beamer — the son of retired Hokies coach Frank Beamer — said he did not share the plays with anyone and didn’t use the information in the game, won, 6-3, by the Demon Deacons in double overtime.
Idaho 61, Colorado State 50: Matt Linehan threw for 344 yards and four touchdowns and the Vandals (9-4) outscored the Rams (7-6) in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.
Colorado State’s Nick Stevens yards and five touchdowns.
The game was scoreless after the first quarter. The teams combined for 56 points in the fourth quarter. SKIING
Marcel Hirscher couldn’t catch Henrik Kristoffersen on the slalom hill in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
For the second consecutive slalom race this season, and in a result that matched last year’s event on the Canalone Miramonti course, Kristoffersen edged Hirscher.
The Norwegian finished the two runs under the lights 0.33 seconds faster than Hirscher, the fivetime defending overall World Cup champion from Austria. SOCCER
Forward Jozy Altidore won the U.S. Player of the Year Award for the second time.
Altidore, 27, who plays for Toronto in Major League Soccer, received 52 first-place votes and 223 points in voting by 136 media conducted by Futbol de Primera.
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Christian Pulisic, who at 17 years and 253 days, became the youngest goal-scorer in national team history, on May 28, was second with 18 firsts and 111 points. American captain Michael Bradley, last year’s winner, was third with 15 firsts and 84 points. MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Standout UFC fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino has potentially violated the mixed martial arts promotion’s anti-doping policy.
The UFC announced Justino’s apparent failure of a doping test. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the UFC’s anti-doping efforts, told the promotion that Justino was flagged for an out-ofcompetition test Dec. 5.
Justino (17-1) is considered one of the world’s top pound-for-pound fighters, and the UFC recently announced the formation of a 145-pound women’s featherweight division largely to provide a platform for Justino at her optimal weight. Justino won her first two fights in the UFC earlier this year.
On her personal webpage, Justino wrote she tested positive for a diuretic which she is taking as part of a therapeutic treatment. She hopes to get a retroactive therapeutic use exemption, she says. passed for 445