News
Sports Briefs
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 17, 2008
Wrigley Field to host NHL game on Jan 1
CHICAGO -- Wrigley Field will be the Frozen Confines on New Year's Day 2009 when the Detroit Red Wings, defending Stanley Cup champions, meet the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL's second Winter Classic.
In the first Winter Classic last Jan. 1, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in front of a crowd of 71,217. Snow fell during the game.
The game will be televised nationally on NBC.
The matchup will be the 701st meeting between the Red Wings and Blackhawks -- no two NHL opponents have played more regular-season games against one another. It also will be the third regular-season outdoor game in NHL history. The Edmonton Oilers played the Montreal Canadiens in the first, on Nov. 22, 2003.
"The NHL is delighted to bring its most historic rivalry to one of the most historic venues in sports," Commissioner Gary Bettman said.
Wrigley Field, opened in 1914, is the second-oldest baseball park in the major leagues, behind Boston's Fenway Park. Bettman also said that the league will continue discussions with the New York Yankees and the city of New York to perhaps play an outdoor game in the new Yankee Stadium, which is scheduled to open next year.
More ice hockey
■ The Carolina Hurricanes will open the regular season at home against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 10. The NHL announced home openers for all 30 teams yesterday and will release the rest of the 82-game schedule today.
The league also announced the three Western Conference teams that will play home-and-home series with Carolina this year. They are Anaheim, Phoenix and St. Louis.
■ The Buffalo Sabres and restricted free agent Daniel Paille agreed to a multi-year contract yesterday. The team didn't disclose terms. Paille, Buffalo's first-round pick in 2002, emerged as a solid two-way forward in 2007-08, his first full season with the Sabres.
■ The Nashville Predators signed defenseman Kevin Klein to a two-year, $1.3 million contract yesterday.
Klein, 23, was the team's third-round pick in the 2003 entry draft. He has played 18 career NHL games with the Predators, including 13 last season, when he had two assists and six penalty minutes.
Basketball
■ James Posey has won NBA championships with two teams. The New Orleans Hornets hope to be his third.
Posey, a 6-8 forward who last season helped the Boston Celtics win their first championship since 1986, agreed yesterday to a four-year, $25 million contract with New Orleans, said his agent, Mark Bartelstein.
Posey also was part of the Miami Heat's championship team in 2005-06. His record of playing a prominent reserve role on title-winning squads made him a top free-agent target for the Hornets, who are coming off their best season in franchise history and looking to contend for a first championship of their own.
Posey averaged 22 minutes of playing time during Boston's playoff run, scoring 6.7 points and grabbing 3.6 rebounds per game.
■ The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of one of their top offseason priorities yesterday, signing sharpshooter Daniel Gibson to a five-year contract. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Gibson, a guard, averaged a career-high 10.4 points on 43-percent shooting last season. He sprained his left ankle in a Feb. 20 game at Indiana and missed 18 games.
By re-signing Gibson, the Cavaliers kept their most consistent outside shooting threat. He was fifth in the NBA last season in 3-point shooting at 44 percent.
■ Fran Dunphy signed a two-year extension yesterday that will keep him at Temple as the men's coach through the end of the 2013-14 season. Dunphy led the Owls to a 21-13 record, an Atlantic 10 championship and its first NCAA Tournament berth in seven years last season. He has a 33-31 record in two seasons since replacing John Chaney.
■ An eight-team men's tournament featuring Clemson and Temple will open the College of Charleston's new basketball arena this fall. Also in the field for the tournament Nov. 14-16 at the Carolina First Center are East Tennessee State, Hofstra, Texas Christian and Western Michigan. The eighth team has yet to be named.
■ The Boston Celtics signed Patrick O'Bryant, a free-agent center and a former first-round pick who played 40 games for Golden State last season.
The Celtics didn't disclose terms of the deal, announced yesterday.
Auto racing
■ Sarah Fisher plans to drive in two IndyCar Series races after lining up a new primary sponsor.
Fisher announced yesterday that Dollar General would sponsor a car fielded by the team she owns for the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Aug. 9 and for the Chicagoland 300 on Sept. 7. In 2002, Fisher became the first woman to start from the pole in a major U.S. open-wheel race at the Kentucky Speedway.
Fisher, 27, has long been among the series' most-popular drivers, but her only race this year has been the Indianapolis 500 because of a lack of sponsorship.
■ Al Unser Sr., a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, contends that sheriff's deputies in New Mexico violated his civil rights and harmed him physically when they arrested him in 2006 during a fight at a roadblock.
Unser filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court against Sheriff Darren White and three deputies in Bernalillo County.
In December 2006, a jury acquitted Unser on charges of resisting and disobeying police orders to leave the roadblock near a crime scene in August 2006. His brother, Bobby Unser, arrived at the roadblock later that day and was arrested after confronting police. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Bobby Unser in March 2007.
College football
■ Football coaches in Conference USA picked East Carolina to finish second in the East Division yesterday in their preseason poll. ECU, a 41-38 winner over No. 22 Boise State in the 2007 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, is coming off an 8-5 season.
ECU received 60 of a possible 72 points and finished seven points behind Central Florida in the East. Southern Mississippi, Memphis, Marshall and Alabama-Birmingham followed ECU. Tulsa was picked to win C-USA's West Division, ahead of Houston, Texas-El Paso, Rice, SMU and Tulane.
■ Bruce Snyder, a former coach at Arizona State, issued a statement through the university's sports-information office yesterday confirming that he has cancer, but he wasn't specific.
In the statement, Snyder, 68, said he appreciates the public support, but he also asked for privacy. Snyder was the 1996 NCAA coach of the year and went 58-47 in nine seasons with the Sun Devils. He also has coached at California and Utah State.
Miscellaneous
■ Two former girls soccer players at Reagan -- Eleanor Davidson and Taylor Norman -- have pulled out of next Tuesday's East-West All-Star Game at UNC Greensboro, Davidson said yesterday.
Both have signed letters of intent to play for Wake Forest and are already enrolled in summer school. Davidson said that she and Norman -- Reagan's first East-West All-Stars -- withdrew from the game because of class work.
■ Jack Swarbrick, a lawyer who helped bring numerous sporting events to Indianapolis -- including the 2012 Super Bowl, is the new athletics director at Notre Dame. He was selected by school officials yesterday to replace Kevin White, who left Notre Dame in May to become the AD at Duke.
■ J-Mee Samuels, a former Mount Tabor High star who now runs for Arkansas, was one of 78 athletes named by USA Track and Field to the U.S. team for this weekend's NACAC Under-23 track-and-field championships in Toluca, Mexico. Samuels made the team in the 100-meter dash and as part of the 4x100 relay pool.
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
Advertisement
