Lee MacPhail, oldest Hall of Famer, dies at 95
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Lee MacPhail, the longtime baseball executive who ruled in the celebrated Pine Tar case and later became part of the only father-son Hall of Fame pairing, has died. He was 95.
He was the oldest Hall of Famer, and he died Thursday night at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., the shrine said Friday.
“There’s not much I haven’t done off the field other than commissioner,” he said during a 1985 interview with The Associated Press when he retired after 4 1-2 decades in the sport.
In the second generation of one of baseball’s most prominent families — his son, Andy, also was in the front office for several teams — MacPhail’s most well-known moment in baseball came in 1983. He upheld Kansas City’s protest in the Pine Tar Game against the New York Yankees, restoring a ninth-inning home run to Royals slugger George Brett — also a future Hall of Famer.
With MacPhail’s death, Bobby Doerr at 94 becomes the oldest living Hall of Famer.
“Baseball history has lost a great figure in Lee MacPhail, whose significant impact on the game spanned five decades,” Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark said. “He will always be remembered in Cooperstown as a man of exemplary kindness and a man who always looked after the best interests of the game.”
Lee MacPhail was the son of Larry MacPhail, a top executive with the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees.
Patriots rookie RB Bolden suspended four games
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots running back Brandon Bolden has been suspended by the NFL for four games without pay for violating its policy on performance-enhancing substances.
The league’s announcement Friday did not specify the substance. The Patriots had no immediate reaction.
Bolden, signed as a rookie free agent from Mississippi, can return to the active roster on Dec. 3, one day after the Patriots game at the Miami Dolphins. He was inactive for the past two games with a knee injury after rushing for 234 yards and two touchdowns in six games.
He ran for 137 yards on 16 carries and one touchdown in a 52-28 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 30.
The Patriots are home against the Bills on Sunday.
Steelers, WR Sanders fined for faking injury
PITTSBURGH — The NFL has levied $50,000 in fines to the Pittsburgh Steelers and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for faking an injury during an Oct. 21 game in Cincinnati.
Sanders was fined $15,000 and the organization $35,000. Sanders grabbed the back of his leg and collapsed to the ground during the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh’s 24-17 win.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson handed out the discipline after meeting with Sanders last week.
Sanders initially played coy in public comments about the incident, but in recent weeks has said the matter was being handled internally.
Also fined on Friday by the league were Panthers safety Haruki Nakamura and Packers tight end Ryan Taylor, $21,000 each; Titans safety Michael Griffin, $20,000; Raiders cornerback Tyvon Branch, Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, and Cardinals linebacker Quentin Groves, $15,750 each; Ravens LB Dannell Ellerbe, $10,000; Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, Colts cornerback Cassius Vaughn, and Steelers safety Will Allen, $7,875 apiece.
During the Steelers-Bengals game, NBC announcers openly discussed their belief Sanders apparently was deliberately feigning an injury for the purpose of saving a timeout.
Anderson said it found no evidence the Steelers, on an organization-wide basis, were instructing or condoning the faking of injuries for competitive purposes.
Free agents reject $13.3M deals as GMs head home
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Josh Hamilton, B.J. Upton and Kyle Lohse were among nine free agents who turned down $13.3 million offers from their former clubs Friday as the annual general managers’ ended and team officials headed home for what figures to be a busy month of negotiations.
Also rejecting the one-year guaranteed offers were the New York Yankees’ trio of Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano and Hiroki Kuroda along with Michael Bourn and Adam LaRoche.
Under baseball’s new labor contract, all the deadlines of the business season has been speeded up in an attempt to prompt quicker decisions before the Christmas holidays. That should create more activity in the market before teams head to the winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn., from Dec. 3-6.
“It expedites things, People are out there and available and being discussed right away,” said Dave Dombrowski, president of the AL champion Detroit Tigers. “It definitely has picked things up more quickly.”
Under the old rules, teams had until Dec. 7 to offer salary arbitration to their former players who became free agents. Top players under a statistical formula that was part of the 1981 strike settlement had compensation attached if they signed with new clubs — which would lose high-round draft picks.
Under the labor contract agreed to last November, that system was replaced by qualifying offers. A team could make a qualifying offer last week that was the average of the 125 highest big league contracts by average annual value — $13.3 million this year.
Djokovic, Murray advance to semis at ATP finals
LONDON — Needing only one set to join Novak Djokovic in the semis at the ATP finals, Andy Murray delighted the adoring home crowd by winning two.
The U.S. Open and Olympic champion beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 7-6 (3) Friday to reach Sunday’s semifinals, hours after Djokovic advanced by beating Tomas Berdych 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Because Djokovic won the early match at the O2 Arena in straight sets, Murray needed to win only one set to ensure his spot in the semis. And he got that easily, breaking Tsonga’s serve in the first and third games en route to a 4-0 lead.
Murray had another early break in the second set, but Tsonga rallied to even the set 3-3 and eventually forced the tiebreaker.
Murray (2-1) finished second in Group A, while Djokovic (3-0) was first.
The ATP finals is the last tournament of the season, and only for the top eight players in the world. In Group B, six-time champion Roger Federer has already qualified for the semifinals and will face Juan Martin del Potro in his final group match on Saturday. David Ferrer is also in the group and can still qualify for the semifinals, while Janko Tipsarevic has been eliminated.
Weiss introduced as Rockies manager
DENVER — Walt Weiss is an unconventional pick for an unorthodox park.
After coming off the worst season in franchise history, the Colorado Rockies are willing to try just about anything.
The newly hired Weiss was coaching his son’s high school team to the state semifinals just six months ago.
Now, he’s in charge of taking over for Jim Tracy and turning around a young squad that finished 64-98. To add to that pressure, Weiss has only a one-year deal to transform the team, not to mention a Rockies executive looking over his shoulder from an office right next to his in the clubhouse.
Weiss knows exactly what he’s getting into and hoping to reward the Rockies’ leap of faith in him.