Tigers’ Cabrera banned 7 games, Yankees’ Sanchez 4 games Houston practice at Texas as Hurricane Harvey looms 3 positive doping tests being investigated Former NFL GM Bobby Beathard a Hall of Fame finalist
Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera has been suspended seven games and New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez got banned four games for their actions on a fight-filled afternoon at Comerica Park.
Major League Baseball announced the penalties Friday, a day after the Yankees and Tigers got into a series of beanball-related clashes during Detroit’s 10-6 victory.
Also suspended were Tigers reliever Alex Wilson (four games), New York catcher Austin Romine (two games) and Detroit manager Brad Ausmus (one game).
With the Yankees in the middle of a pennant race, the team says Sanchez and Romine will both appeal and remain eligible to play until the process is completed. Sanchez was in the lineup for Friday night’s home game against Seattle.
The University of Houston is sending its football team to Austin to practice and get out Hurricane Harvey’s way.
The University of Texas has agreed to let the Cougars use their indoor practice facility.
Austin is supposed to get some rain from the storm but nothing like the deluge expected for several days in Houston and along the Texas Gulf coast.
The move puts the Cougars in the backyard of their former head coach Tom Herman. Texas hired Herman away from Houston after last season.
Houston starts the season Sept. 2 at UTSA. Texas hosts Maryland on the same day.
The storm has impacted other sports as well. The Houston Dynamo announced that a Saturday match with Sporting Kansas City has been postponed until Oct. 11.
Three positive doping tests involving athletes not yet identified are being investigated in samples taken from the track and field world championships held in London this month.
The IAAF’s independent integrity unit says: “None of the adverse findings relate to medalists.” The unit says details of the cases will be revealed “at relevant points of the disciplinary process.”
The three cases emerged from 1,513 blood and urine samples collected and analyzed during the competition period. It means less than 0.2 percent of doping control samples were positive.
The IAAF’s anti-doping unit says samples will be stored for 10 years to be re-analyzed when new testing methods are developed.The integrity unit also says no suspect betting activity was detected during the 10-day championships.
Longtime general manager and personnel administrator Bobby Beathard is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the contributors category.
Beathard helped build strong teams in football stops in Kansas City (1966-67), Miami (1972-77), Washington (1978-1988) and San Diego (1990-99). He also worked for the Atlanta Falcons (1968-1971).
His teams won 10 division titles, seven league or conference championships and four Super Bowls (two with the Dolphins, two with the Redskins.
“There’s nothing I love more than football,” Beathard said Friday when told of the nomination. “I feel like I’ve gone through life without a job and got paid for it.”
To be elected next February, Beathard must receive the same 80 percent voting support he got from the contributors committee when the entire 48-member selection committee votes in Minneapolis.
Previously, linebacker Robert Brazile and offensive tackle Jerry Kramer were chosen as finalists by the seniors committee.
Illinois made the decision in an effort to be more inclusive and because students haven’t responded to it as much at football games recently, Brown said.
“There are people who felt that was an offensive Native American chant or music,” Brown said. “Another big part of that was that we had used it on third-down situations and our fan reaction to that was not as good as when we used our video board to prompt our fans.”
Natives and the NCAA pushed the university for years to do away with Chief Illiniwek, which had been portrayed since 1926 by a student in a buckskin costume who danced at football and basketball games and other events. Many American Indians found those dances and the portrayal offensive.
NCAA sanctions imposed in 2005 barred Illinois from hosting postseason events. Two years later, in 2007, the university retired the chief. Those who support the Chief Illiniwek tradition have maintained that the mascot was meant to show respect to Native Americans.
— The Associated Press