News
Email
Print
Baseball Notebook
AP File Photo
Hideo Nomo had 123 wins in the majors and pitched two no-hitters.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 18, 2008
Sexson comes to terms with Yankees
■ First baseman Richie Sexson and the New York Yankees reached a deal yesterday.
A person familiar with the contract said that Sexson, who was released by the Mariners, would be paid a prorated share of the $390,000 minimum salary. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
ESPN.com first reported a tentative agreement between Sexson and the Yankees.
The Yankees were eager to add a powerful right-handed bat as they start the second half of the season. They went into the All-Star break third in the AL East, six games behind Boston.
Sexson hit .344 with five home runs in 71 at-bats against lefties this year. That was his bright spot during a season in which Sexson, 33, hit .218 overall with 11 homers and 30 RBIs.
The Yankees picked up a fraction of Sexson's contract, leaving the Mariners to pay the rest of his $14 million salary.
■ Hideo Nomo, who pitched two no-hitters and led a rush of Japanese players to the major leagues, is finished.
Nomo announced his retirement yesterday, agent Don Nomura said. Once known for a deceptive delivery and a devastating forkball, Nomo, 39, was released by the Kansas City Royals in late April.
Nomo's 123 wins are the most in the majors by a Japanese pitcher. He was the 1995 NL Rookie of the Year with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is one of only four pitchers to throw no-hitters in the AL and NL.
Out of the majors since 2005, he made a comeback this year and earned a spot in the Royals bullpen. But slowed by an injury late in spring training, Nomo had an 18.69 ERA in three relief appearances in which he gave up 10 hits, including three home runs, in 41/3 innings.
■ The Detroit Tigers activated outfielder Magglio Ordonez from the 15-day disabled list yesterday and placed him in the starting lineup against the Baltimore Orioles.
Ordonez has been sidelined since June 28 with a pulled oblique muscle. He's batting .307 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs in 80 games.
The move was not unexpected. Detroit optioned outfielder Clete Thomas to Class AAA Toledo on Tuesday, the same day Ordonez was reinstated from his rehab assignment with Class A West Michigan.
Detroit went 7-7 without Ordonez, whose return probably couldn't come at a better time. Not only do the struggling Tigers need his bat in the lineup, but Ordonez has flourished in Baltimore.
He started the day with a lifetime .338 batting average at Camden Yards. In 34 games, he had five doubles, five homers and 19 RBIs.
■ Sherman "Jocko" Maxwell, a pioneering black sportscaster who chronicled Negro league baseball players before the racial barrier fell, has died. He was 100.
Maxwell died Wednesday at Chester County Hospital in suburban Philadelphia after battling pneumonia, according to his son, Bruce Maxwell.
Supporting himself with a post office job during the day, Sherman Maxwell worked at night as a sportscaster. He was a prolific writer, submitting stories to the Ledger in Newark, N.J., the predecessor of The Star-Ledger, on games played by the Newark Eagles.
"His life was nothing but sports," Bruce Maxwell said. "He read about sports; he listened to sports; he talked sports."
Maxwell began his broadcasting career in 1929, doing a five-minute weekly sports report on WNJR in Newark at age 22. He went on to broadcast on other stations in northern New Jersey and eventually became the announcer for Sunday afternoon Newark Eagles games. His broadcasting career ended in 1967.
■ The Oakland Athletics traded away their second starting pitcher this month, dealing burly right-hander Joe Blanton to the Philadelphia Phillies for three minor leaguers yesterday.
A's general manager Billy Beane swapped Blanton a week after sending Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs -- and that's with his team very much in contention in the AL West, six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels.
Blanton, 27, was 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA in 20 starts for Oakland.
■ The White Sox opened a roster spot for closer Bobby Jenks yesterday by sending reliever D.J. Carrasco to Class AAA Charlotte. Chicago is expected to activate Jenks from the 15-day disabled list today, before it starts the second half with a game against the Kansas City Royals.
Jenks has been on the DL with bursitis near his left (non-pitching) shoulder and made rehab appearances with the minor-league Winston-Salem Warthogs and Birmingham Barons during the All-Star break.
Carrasco's contract was purchased from Charlotte when Jenks was hurt. In one appearance for the White Sox, he allowed one run and four hits in 51/3 innings.
■ Second-round draft pick Destin Hood agreed to terms on a contract with the Washington Nationals yesterday and for now will bypass the chance to play football at Alabama, where he had signed a letter of intent.
Hood will begin his pro baseball career with Washington's Gulf Coast League affiliate in Viera, Fla.
He played football and baseball at St. Paul's Episcopal High School in Mobile, Ala. In baseball, he played the outfield and hit .485 with eight homers, 32 RBIs and 17 steals last season. In football, he started at defensive back and wide receiver and caught 56 passes for 995 yards and 15 touchdowns as a senior.
■ Catcher Ty Boyles and outfielder C.J. Beatty are among the players selected for Tuesday's Coastal Plain League All-Star game in Asheboro.
Boyles, an East Surry High graduate who plays for Gardner-Webb, will be in the starting lineup for the National team, and Beatty, a Glenn High graduate who plays at N.C. A&T, will be among the National reserves.
Boyles plays for Edenton, and Beatty plays for Thomasville in the CPL, a summer league for college players.
■ Infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. went on the 15-day disabled list with a strained hamstring, prompting the Cincinnati Reds to activate infielder Jolbert Cabrera off the disabled list.
The Reds also reinstated left-hander Bobby Livingston from the 60-day disabled list and optioned him to Class AA Chattanooga. Livingston had surgery last September to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.
■ The crowd began chanting "Papi!" and David Ortiz responded, slamming a 1-2 pitch into the visitors' bullpen in his rehab debut in Pawtucket last night as he tries to work his way back from a wrist injury that has kept him out of the lineup since May 31.
"That's my game," Ortiz said outside the PawSox clubhouse, meeting with reporters in the seventh inning before leaving the ballpark. "It feels good ... to be able to swing like that after an injury when I couldn't hold onto my bat."
Ortiz popped up to shortstop in his first time up. When he came to bat again to lead off the fourth inning, he fell behind 0-2 before the standing-room crowd began chanting his nickname; he homered over the right-field wall and into the Toledo Mud Hens bullpen to give Pawtucket a 1-0 lead.
"That's exactly what happens at Fenway," Ortiz said. "When they start chanting your name, it pumps you up and puts you in the mood."
Email
Print
