Smith, Baines voted into baseball Hall
LAS VEGAS — Longtime closer Lee Smith and smooth-swinging Harold Baines were elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Former outfielder and manager Lou Piniella fell one vote short.
Results of the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee were announced at the winter meetings. It took 12 votes for election — Smith was unanimous, Baines got 12 and Piniella had 11.
Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season. Smith began with the Cubs and went on to post a thenrecord 478 saves while Baines started out with the White Sox and had 2,866 hits. George Steinbrenner, Orel Hershiser, Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel all received fewer than five votes.
Baines was a .289 hitter with 384 home runs in a 22-year career. He never drew more than 6.1 percent in five elections by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, far from the 75 percent required.
“I wasn’t expecting this day to come,” the six-time All-Star said.
Induction ceremonies are scheduled for July 21 at Cooperstown, N.Y.
In other baseball news:
• Mike Napoli announced his retirement after 12 years in the majors that included three trips to the World Series. Napoli, 37, who did not play last season because of a knee injury, announced his decision on Twitter. The catcher/first baseman batted .246 with 267 homers and 744 RBIs over 1,392 games with the Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians.
• Chili Davis was hired as hitting coach of the New York Mets after spending last season in the role with the Chicago Cubs.
SOCCER Maryland wins NCAA men’s title
Amar Sejdic scored on a penalty kick in the 57th minute, and Maryland held off Akron 1-0 at Santa Barbara, Calif., o win its fourth NCAA men’s soccer title.
The Zips’ Colin Biros kicked Johaness Bergmann in the face pursuing the ball inside the 18-yard box, resulting in the penalty shot. Sejdic calmly converted the opportunity with a well-struck shot to the right of Ben Lundt after the goalkeeper guessed wrong and dove to the left.
Dayne St. Clair made two saves in the Terrapins’ fifth consecutive shutout.
River Plate reigns in South America
One of the most anticipated matches in South American soccer finally came to a conclusion at Madrid, with River Plate celebrating victory over fierce Argentine rival Boca Juniors in the twice-suspended final of the Copa Libertadores.
Nearly a month after the first leg was played in Argentina, River came from behind to defeat Boca 3-1 in the second leg after extra time to win South America’s equivalent of the Champions League 5-3 on aggregate. The first leg at Boca’s La Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires ended 2-2.
It was River’s fourth Copa Libertadores title and first since 2015.
After drawing at 1 after 90 minutes, River went ahead when Juan Fernando Quintero scored four minutes into the second half of extra time, and Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez added a third goal in the final minutes of the highprofile “superclasico” at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The Madrid final capped one of the most embarrassing chapters in South American soccer, which saw its leaders unable to stage the historic match on the continent. The game had to be played in the Spanish capital after it was marred by fan violence at Buenos Aires two weeks ago, when Boca players were injured after River fans attacked the Boca team bus with rocks, bottles and wood.
GOLF Kizzire, Harman tops in Shootout
Patton Kizzire and Brian Harman won the QBE Shootout, eagling the par-5 17th and closing with a par for a one-stroke victory over Graeme McDowell and Emiliano Grillo.
Kizzire and Harman shot an 11-under-par 61 in the better-ball final round to finish at 30 under at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla. They opened with a 59 in the first-round scramble and had a 66 on Saturday in modified alternate shot.
McDowell and Grillo shot 62, making seven consecutive birdies on Nos. 11-17.
MISCELLANEOUS Shiffrin captures parallel slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin won her third consecutive World Cup event, beating
Petra Vlhova in the headto-head final of parallel slalom at St. Mortiz, Switzerland. Shiffrin trailed midway down the course after clipping a gate but led her Slovakian opponent through the final three gates to win by 0.11 seconds. The American star has three wins in eight days after super-G victories Saturday at St. Moritz and last Sunday at Lake Louise, Alberta. Shiffrin now has more than double the World Cup points of any rival chasing a third consecutive season-long overall title. … Vasiliy Lomachenko picked up his second lightweight boxing title, wearing down Jose
Pedraza and winning a unanimous decision at New York on Saturday night. Lomachenko (12-1) knocked down Pedraza (25-2) twice in the 11th round and, though he could not finish him, won easily to add the World Boxing Organization title to the World Boxing Association belt he picked up in May during his first fight at 135 pounds. … Cecilia
Braekhus defended her welterweight titles with a dominant unanimous decision over Aleksandra
Magdziak-Lopes on Saturday night at Carson, Calif., in the final fight of the last HBO boxing telecast. Twotime Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields also defended her middleweight titles with a dominant unanimous decision over Belgium’s Femke Hermans.