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Find the latest news stories from National Post on the topic Posted Sports. |
 Penguins' Staal practises for first time after injury
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 Croatian soccer player given yellow card as he suffered fatal heart attackA yellow card for diving is often well deserved. Unless, of course, the soccer player in question suffers a serious heart attack.But Croatian defender Goran Tunjic was not so lucky.According to Eurosport, the 32-year-old who played for Mladost FC, collapsed during a match against Hrvatski Sokola in the 35th minute. He was approached by the referee with a yellow card -- but was actually suffering a fatal heart attack at the time. The referee later realized the Croatian defender needed medical care. He later died during the match. According to the Croatian Times, Tunjic did not reportedly suffer from any medical conditions. (via the Huffington Post)
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 An ode to Ernie Harwell, voice of the Tigers
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 Bruins' Savard makes immediate impact on return
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 The Posted Sports blog has a new home
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 Unexpected early leaders in AL home run derbyThe early weeks of every baseball season are known for their silly statistics.Batting averages can rise and fall hundreds of points with every base hit or hitless at-bat. Pitchers sometimes post an infinite ERA until they actually record an out, at which point they need one more to trim the number from triple to double digits.But now, almost a week into May, the American League was still chugging along with a bunch of non-home run hitters leading its homer charts.Through Thursday, none of the AL's top seven home run hitters finished even as high as 16th in their league last year. Of that same group, none had surpassed even 30 home runs in a season in either 2008 or 2009.Current AL leader Paul Konerko, who carried 12 home runs into Thursday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays, finished last year tied for 17th in the AL with 28 home runs.At least Konerko has a history, albeit a distant one, of being a premier power hitter. In 2004 and 2005, respective seasons of 41 and 40 homers put him second and fifth in the AL rankings.Of the three players tied for second with nine home runs and the next three who had eight entering play on Thursday, only Konerko's White Sox teammate Andruw Jones boasts a similar pedigree.He led the National League with 51 home runs in 2005 and hit 41 more in 2006 to finish fifth.But Jones managed only 20 home runs in 2008 and 2009 combined as he became a part-time player.The two players tied with Jones at nine home runs -- Baltimore's Ty Wigginton and Robinson Cano of the Yankees -- have career high marks of 24 and 25 home runs, respectively.Next were Blue Jays Alex Gonzalez and Vernon Wells, along with Kansas City's Jose Guillen, who were all tied for fifth with eight home runs.For Guillen, that's one homer shy of the nine he hit in 81 games last season.Meanwhile, Gonzalez is on pace to far surpass his career high of 23 set in 2004, the only year he surpassed 20 home runs.Wells' eight home runs are just about half his average of 16.5 over the last three seasons and make him a threat to reach 30 home runs for the first time since 2006.
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 Manchester United to make Toronto appearance in July
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 Russia's Salenko reportedly selling his Golden Boot to pay off debtsThe 1994 World Cup's joint top goalscorer Oleg Salenko is prepared to sell his Golden Boot award for US$500,000 to pay off his debts, local media reported on Thursday."I received a good offer from the United Arab Emirates," Kiev-based Salenko was quoted as saying by Blik newspaper."I had a small business but after the [global] crisis everything is down and I need to pay off some debts," added the former Russia striker, who played for various clubs including Zenit, Dynamo Kiev, Valencia and Rangers before retiring in 2001."I'm not totally broke or anything like that so I have to sell everything, but the offer was hard to resist. I was told wealthy Arab sheikhs would take good care of the award by putting it in a local museum."Salenko notched a World Cup record five goals in Russia's 6-1 thrashing of Cameroon in their final group game at the 1994 finals in the U.S. He and Bulgaria's Hristo Stoichkov both scored six goals in the tournament to finish joint top scorers."Of course, I would prefer for the boot to stay in Russia or Ukraine, so if I get the same offer here I wouldn't have to sell it abroad," Salenko said.
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 Ticats owner blasts City of Hamilton over Pan Am Games stadium plansHamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young is blasting the City of Hamilton for not working with his team to ensure a new stadium built for the 2015 Pan Am Games becomes a suitable future home for his Canadian Football League franchise. In an open letter to Ticats fans, Young said city politicians are refusing to compromise regarding the location of the new stadium. Young writes: "Simply put there has been no collaboration in Hamilton's stadium project to date. The Tiger-Cats have pointed out many unresolved problems with the West Harbour location."The City of Hamilton is contributing $60-million to build a 15,000 track and field stadium and other venues for the Pan Am Games. The provincial and federal governments are also making contributions. The Ticats and the private sector are expected to come up with around $50-million to increase the stadium's capacity after the event.Young contends that the current proposed location is in a part of the city that is hard to get to and has little available parking. The team currently plays its home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium, which was built in 1930. "Whenever we try to point out any of these problems to the City our concerns are summarily rejected, with the claim that it won't be any worse than Ivor Wynne, but Ivor Wynne is a drain on the City's of Hamilton's budget, and is the cause of the Tiger-Cats financial instability for more than 40 years," writes Young. Young wrote that the current stadium location could result in a $7 million loss for his club per season. The Ticats are asking the city to delay any final decision on the stadium location and look at other options. o Follow Mark Masters on Twitter: @markhmasters
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 Bruins' Krejci out for playoffs with broken wristThe Boston Bruins are one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference final. But it appears that the team will have to go the rest of the playoffs without its second-leading goal-scorer.David Krejci, who has four goals and eight points, left the first period of Wednesday's 5-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers after receiving an open-ice hit from Mike Richards. Krejci did not return. According to the Boston Globe, who quoted an unnamed source close to Krejci, the 24-year-old has a broken wrist that will keep him out of the playoffs.The Bruins, who practice at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia on Thursday, have not yet confirmed the severity of Krejci's injury.But from the moment he was hit, it looked like he was obvious pain. While the bodycheck was clean -- Bruins head coach Claude Julien said he saw nothing wrong with it -- Richards appeared to catch Krejci unaware as he was skating through the neutral zone with the puck. If there is any consolation, it is that the Bruins immediately scored on a two-on-one afterwards, with Krejci picking up the assist. The Bruins are also without top-six forward Marco Sturm, who tore both the MCL and ACL in his right knee in Game 1 against the Flyers. As well, defenceman Adam McQuaid left Wednesday's game with an undisclosed injury.o Follow Michael Traikos on Twitter: @Michael_Traikos
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 New showerheads, new attitude in WinnipegThe Winnipeg Blue Bombers are trying to put a difficult 2009 season behind them. As part of the renewal process the team fired head coach Mike Kelly and brought in Paul LaPolice to replace him. Kelly's tenure in Winnipeg was marred with run-ins with the media and clashes with veteran players. The club finished 7-11 and missed the playoffs. Kelly was voted the Canadian Football League's biggest jerk in a media poll. LaPolice, who served as the Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive co-ordinator last season, will make his debut as a CFL head coach. During the team's season preview conference call on Wednesday, LaPolice was asked what he and his staff were doing to try and move beyond what happened in Winnipeg last year. "We try not to live in the past, but the one thing I will say is I did interview about 95% of the football team ... I wanted to know who they trusted on the football team, who was the guy they really trusted because those are the people we want to build into the team early on and get them to be the leaders of this team. "The second thing I asked them was if there was something that could be better what would it be or if there was something you would change what would it be. You want to move beyond the past, but you always want to include your players in conversations and try to hear from them and we had some great conversations. "We've done some of the things the players asked for. I mean it's a small thing, but one of the players wanted new showerheads so we got all new showerheads in the showers. One conversation with a player and he wanted more computers in the meeting room so they could watch more film and we try to address those things."We're trying to address those things so the players can see when they come to training camp we've listened to any concerns they've had and we've fixed it for them."LaPolice isn't the only new face in Winnipeg. The club also hired Joe Mack during the off-season to serve as general manager. "Last year is last year," said LaPolice. "We have to move forward and not worry about what happened last year. It's a whole new staff, it's a whole new organizational structure. You can't live in yesterday you can only live in today and we're going to do that as a team and that's what we stress."
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 Gaston invites second-guessing after letting Molina runCito Gaston gave his critics something new to chirp about Wednesday when he kept speedy replacements on the bench and let his slowest runner chug around the bases in the seventh inning.Afterward, the manager revealed his Toronto Blue Jays were a man short for the second day in a row because Randy Ruiz was away attending to a personal matter. But he did not explain how Ruiz might have factored into a decision to pinch-run for catcher Jose Molina.The Jays trailed Cleveland 3-2 in the seventh when Molina walked with one out. Instead of replacing Molina with Mike McCoy or John McDonald, Gaston kept Molina in the game.Fred Lewis, the next batter, lined a hit to right field that skipped by Shin-Soo Choo. Lewis made second and might have reached third, but Molina had to stop 90 feet short of paydirt. That's where he stayed as Aaron Hill struck out and Adam Lind fouled out.?The Jays went on to a 5-4 win after Lind's two-run homer in the ninth.Gaston said the seventh inning was too early to use a pinch-runner. He also revealed for the first time that Ruiz was away from the club.And he said he was not sure a faster runner would have scored on Lewis's hit. The ball was hit on a line toward Choo and a runner would have had to freeze to make sure it dropped, he said."He might have scored, he might not," Gaston said. "Either way, I didn't pinch-run for him because we're short a man."Given the same circumstances in the eighth or ninth, he would have used a pinch-runner, he said.In fact, Gaston did use McCoy to run for first baseman Lyle Overbay in the eighth. With Overbay out, third baseman Jose Bautista moved to first and McCoy took over at third in the bottom half.In the ninth, regular catcher John Buck pinch-hit for Molina and stayed in the game. Theoretically, if the Jays need a third catcher, McDonald would get the call.Ruiz is a first baseman and designated hitter who is 2-for-21 in eight games. He will rejoin the Jays in Chicago on Thursday, Gaston said. Follow National Post baseball writer John Lott on Twitter.
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 Alfredsson has successful hernia surgeryAt least one Ottawa Senator's off-season surgery has been deemed a success.Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson is back in Ottawa after having "sports hernia" surgery in Montreal on Tuesday, and general manager Bryan Murray says the surgery was successful. The recovery time is usually four to six weeks.Alfredsson told reporters last month that the injury progressively got worse after the Olympics in February, but it was still "manageable" and he was able to play in games. The winger finished the year with 20 goals -- his lowest total since 1998-99 -- and 50 assists in 70 regular-season games. He had two goals and six helpers in Ottawa's six-game first-round playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.Senators forwards Alex Kovalev and Milan Michalek are both having ACL surgery, while defenceman Chris Phillips is scheduled for surgery for bunions on his feet.Canwest News Service
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 Wearing stolen Gretzky jersey a good way to get caughtA man charged with stealing an autographed Wayne Gretzky Edmonton Oilers jersey from a sports bar in Bismarck, N.D., was arrested while still wearing the spoils of his theft.According to a report in the Bismarck Tribune, Mark Anthony Stevens is accused of taking the jersey Sunday night from Stadium Sports Bar. He allegedly took the jersey off the wall and brought it into the bathroom, where he smashed the protective glass case and fled.The paper reported that when police arrived at an area motel to arrest Stevens, he was still wearing the stolen jersey, valued at US$1,200. At a court appearance Monday, Stevens was released on $2,500 bond and prohibited from using or being in the presence of alcohol.Canwest News Service
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 MMA Diary: A tough test at a challenging timeThree years ago, Robin Black all but walked away from a successful music and television career to pursue his real passion: mixed martial arts. The beginning of this journey was captured in the MuchMusic show "Robin Black: Cage Fighter."Over the last year, Black has fought six times (compiling a professional MMA record of 3-3) and won the Elite1 Canadian Bantamweight title last July. His next fight is on June 4 against Eric Perez in Winnipeg. Here's Robin: June 4, Winnipeg Convention Centre, the next test. This one's a step up on so many levels. First of all, my opponent is my toughest one to date. His name is Eric Perez, and I'm actually a fan of him and the way he fights. He lets it all hang out.He's tough, super game, likes to throw hands, has a good chin and a lot of heart. He's on a three-fight win streak and has a lot of support in Winnipeg. I don't think there's a big mystery here as to "game plans." He likes to stand put on a striking show, and I like to take it to the ground and submit or play rough. He knows it, and I know it. It'll be all about who can implement his plan more effectively. There are a couple of interesting things at play here detail-wise, too. Standing, he likes to use some kicks, and I'll be ready to turn his kicks into my takedowns. On the ground, he like ankle locks and heel hooks. I'll be ready to counter those and turn his attempts to my advantage. He'll be looking at my tendencies too, because he's a smart dude. But, really, he's such a fun fighter because he's more about fight night than all this nerdy prep stuff. He's tough to prepare for because, rather than have a complicated plan, he just goes in and, as I said, lets it all hang out. I'm proud to be stepping up to a higher level of competition, proud to fight this cat, and proud to do it in Winnipeg, my home town. This fight's a step up pressure-wise, too. It's the semi-main event, and its televised nationally on The Score. We're playing in deeper water here, but I'm up for it. But, wouldn't you know it, for the first time in a long time, I'm battling injuries. I'm being forced to take days off to heal and can't train at 100%.So, I'm finding myself in the toughest fight of my life, in the crappiest condition I've been in. I've gotta believe I can turn this around. Gotta heal up these issues quick and get to hard training. If I can't its gonna be a tough night for me June 4 in Winnipeg. In addition to fighting, Robin Black is an on-air personality on The Fight Network, a colour-commentator for MMA shows including CFC, W1 and Ringside, and works as director of media relations at Xtreme Couture Toronto.
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 Chris Bosh's status for Wednesday's game in doubtWith three days off in between games after Saturday's win over Washington, the easy assumption was that Toronto Raptors Chris Bosh would be ready to play by Wednesday against Portland. Bosh has missed the past two games because of a sprained left ankle.When it was first diagnosed, the injury was called a mild sprain. But despite the absence of swelling, it is proving a bit of a problem for Bosh."I'm still experiencing a little pain right now," Bosh said on Monday."Him not practising [Monday] makes it less than positive for us," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "Hopefully he can get a practice on [Tuesday] and hopefully he can play Wednesday. But if not, we set our sights on Friday."The Raptors won their first two games without Bosh, beating New Jersey and the Wizards. But with the Trail Blazers, Cavaliers and Thunder on the horizon, Bosh's presence seems more integral.That aforementioned schedule was a big part of the post-practice discussion. The Raptors have made a surge to a season-best seven games above the .500 mark, but a lot of the team's success is owed to a soft schedule. The Raptors' next four games are all against above-average opponents. Following that, the Raptors have two friendly home games against lackluster opponents before heading out West for a four-game road trip."Portland, Cleveland then we go to Oklahoma," forward Hedo Turkoglu summarized. "They are really hot right now, they've won like, I don't know nine or 10 in a row. It will be a good stretch for us to see ourselves getting closer to the post-season to see where we are, and how much we still have to work on things so we can really improve."The return of Reggie Evans to the lineup and Bosh's injury has meant that Evans and Amir Johnson have occasionally played together in the frontcourt. Both have their merits, but neither is much of an offensive threat in the post.However, that does not necessarily hamper the Raptors' offence too much."I think energy wise, they bring something that we don't really have," point guard Jarrett Jack said." "They create a lot of havoc defensively being that both of them can pick up full court [on a press] and give us a lift. On the defensive end, that can kind of spawn some easier baskets."
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 Reds' Cuban defector says food, language are tough adjustmentsCuban defector Aroldis Chapman finds the new food and language are his biggest challenges as he gets used to pitching in the major leagues.The Cincinnati Reds signed the 21-year-old lefty to a six-year, US$30.25-million deal last month and he met the media Monday, with minor league pitching coach Tony Fossas serving as the translator.Chapman said it was very difficult to leave his wife, daughter and the rest of his family behind when he defected last July after arriving in the Netherlands with the Cuban national team. He said he has spoken to his family by phone and hopes they can somehow be reunited."It was a very hard decision," Chapman said. "But in Cuba, they told me I had to be brave and make the move."The Reds, the Athletics and one other team were finalists to sign Chapman, who picked Cincinnati in part because it has 10 players from Latin America. Chapman doesn't speak English.The Associated Press
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