<h4>Not her day </h4>
Serena Williams reacts to losing a point to Patty Schnyder at the Italian Rome Masters tennis tournament on Tuesday. Williams lost the match.
TORONTO – BlackBerry boss Jim Balsillie is looking to buy the cash-strapped Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Ontario.
The co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said that his $212.5 million offer is conditional on the Coyotes relocating to Canada, where they existed as the Winnipeg Jets before moving to Phoenix for the 1996-97 season.
The team filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday.
The filing included the proposed sale of the franchise to PSE Sports & Entertainment, LP, a Delaware limited partnership, which would move the franchise to southern Ontario.
“Extensive efforts have been undertaken to sell the team, or attract additional investors, who would keep the team in Glendale,” Jerry Moyes, the Coyotes chief executive officer, said in a statement announcing the Chapter 11 filing.
“Creating a process under the supervision of a judge assures that anyone wishing to purchase the team will have the opportunity to bid.
“Likewise, the City of Glendale, which has been very cooperative with efforts to keep the team in Glendale, will be able to provide potential buyers assurances of the city’s willingness to offer incentives to keep the team as a tenant in the Jobing.com arena, the lease for which is subject to rejection in bankruptcy.
“The process assures that the identities of the new owner and the team’s location will be known by June 30, 2009, thus enabling the NHL to include the team in its 2009-10 schedule.”
Coyle earns Pac-10 honors
Arizona sophomore Bobby Coyle was named Pac-10 baseball player of the week after hitting .462 with nine RBIs in a three-game sweep over California.
Coyle, an outfielder-designated hitter, went 6 for 13 with a triple in each game. He was 5 for 7 with runners in scoring position, including two bases-loaded triples.
He leads the Pac-10 with six triples on the season.
Citizen Staff Report
No fans for soccer games
MEXICO CITY – All pro soccer games in Mexico this weekend will again be played without fans because of swine flu. The decision comes even though other parts of the country are returning to normal following a shutdown to contain the virus.
Mexico’s 176 league games – from the first to third division – were shuttered last weekend and three games around the capital were closed to fans the week before.
The Mexican soccer federation said Tuesday the games would remain closed because the government had not lifted all preventive measures.
“The decision was made in full awareness of the emergency health situation that confronts the country,” the federation said in a statement.
Regular-season play ends this weekend, and officials have not announced postseason plans.
The Associated Press
Phelps getting ready
BALTIMORE – When Michael Phelps was at his lowest, unsure if he wanted to return to swimming, he sat down with a pen and a piece of paper.
“I wrote out the pros and cons of swimming,” he said, “and quitting.”
In the end, swimming won out. Phelps returned to what he does best. Now, he’s finished serving a three-month suspension doled out by USA Swimming after a picture surfaced in a British tabloid showing him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.
Tuesday was the final day of his suspension. Phelps marked it like any other day: He woke up late and headed to the pool.
Phelps will return to competition next week at a meet in Charlotte, N.C. It will be his first time swimming competitively since winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
“I’m happy to be back in the water and be back in semi-shape,” said Phelps, who’s lost almost 20 pounds in the last two months. “I’m sort of getting back into racing shape and getting ready to race my first race since Beijing. We’ll see how it goes.
The Associated Press
A-Rod homers twice
TAMPA, Fla. – New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez homered twice and played seven innings in the field for the second straight day in an extended spring training game on Tuesday.
Sidelined since undergoing right hip surgery on March 9, the third baseman could rejoin the Yankees for Friday night’s game at Baltimore.
A-Rod said a return date has not been finalized.
“I have no idea about Friday,” said Rodriguez, who will play in another extended spring training game Wednesday. “I’m feeling good.”
Rodriguez went 3 for 6 with two homers to center – including one that cleared a 40-foot high batter’s eye. He had two plays at third, fielding a grounder and making a spin move to throw out Philadelphia minor leaguer at first.
“He had a great day, actually,” New York manager Joe Girardi said at Yankee Stadium as his team got ready to play Boston. “Ran hard to first, no issues.”
The Yankees could use Rodriguez’s bat as soon as possible – especially with All-Star catcher Jorge Posada going on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday because of a strained hamstring.
The Associated Press
QUOTABLE
'Last year we kind of had a cakewalk to the NBA finals. It feels good to be tested a little bit,'
KOBE BRYANT,
Lakers guard, on Los Angeles losing to Houston in Game 1 of their series in the second round of the NBA playoffs
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ON THIS DATE
1917: Bob Groom of the Browns duplicates teammate Ernie Koob’s feat of the previous day by pitching a 3-0 no-hit victory against the Chicago White Sox in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis.
1973: The New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets 9-6 to win the first World Hockey Association championship.
1976: Philadelphia’s Reggie Leach ties an NHL playoff record, scoring five goals in the Flyers’ 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins. Maurice Richard and Darryl Sittler also accomplished the feat.
1978: Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, holds off Alydar’s late charge for a 1 1/2-length victory in the Kentucky Derby. This is Affirmed’s easiest race against Alydar en route to the Triple Crown.
1988: Rick Stiner is 6-for-8 with 11 RBIs and three home runs and Matt Hyde is 6-for-9 with two homers and seven RBIs as Grand Canyon College sets a college scoring record with a 45-15 victory over Denver.
1994: Lennox Lewis stops Phil Jackson in the eighth round to retain his WBC heavyweight championship in Atlantic City, N.J.
1996: The Seattle SuperSonics make a playoff-record 20 3-pointers, including 13 in a row, to beat the Houston Rockets 105-101.
1998: Rookie Kerry Wood ties the major league record with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, pitching a one-hitter to lead the Chicago Cubs over the Houston Astros 2-0.
2005: Chicago, with a 94-91 loss to Washington, becomes the ninth NBA team to lose a best-of-seven playoff series after winning the first two games.
2006: Barbaro storms into the lead at the top of the stretch and wins the Kentucky Derby convincingly. Barbaro, ridden by Edgar Prado, wins his sixth consecutive race, 6 1/2 lengths ahead of Bluegrass Cat and is the sixth undefeated winner of the Derby.
2006: Phoenix is the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1 with a 121-90 victory over Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of its Western Conference opening-round series.