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Three German players signed to pro contracts
by MLB teams
(September 10) Major League Baseball announced
last week that through the close of the third annual MLB International
European Baseball Academy on Aug. 30, seven Academy participants
have signed professional contracts with six different MLB
Organizations.
MLB said that the seven players, all of whom are among Europe's
best talent, hail from five countries, including three players
from Germany and one each from Denmark, France, Italy, and
the Netherlands. It reported that in total, 18 MLBI European
Baseball Academy alumni have signed professional contracts
with MLB clubs since the birth of the program.
Newly-elected International Baseball Federation (IBAF) President
Harvey Schiller was encouraged by the report, saying that
the sustained growth of baseball in Europe is not only a sign
of the positive contributions MLB is making in baseball internationally,
but also a reaffirmation that baseball communities are strengthening
in countries that are still relatively new to the sport.
“Congratulations to these outstanding athletes and
to all those who have helped them achieve this level of success,”
said Schiller. “The success of these players will certainly
motivate thousands of young athletes across Europe in their
love of the game of baseball.”
This report from MLB comes as the IBAF and the Confederation
of European Baseball (CEB) usher in the 2007 European Championship/Olympic
Qualifier, which kicked off on Friday in Barcelona. The Championships
will not only crown the top team in Europe, but it will also
qualify the first place team for the Olympic Games next year
in Beijing.
On the heels of a successful Olympic Games test event in
Beijing last month and the latest in a number of positive
reports out of the MLBI Academy, Schiller is pleased with
how the landscape of international baseball is shaping-up
heading into the 2008 Olympic Games.
“This is truly an indication of the successful global
growth of baseball,” Schiller said.
The 2007 European Championship/Olympic Qualifier will run
from Sept. 7-16, 2007. Please visit www.eurobaseball2007.com
for more details. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held
from Aug. 8-24, 2008.
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Gajdosova wins WTT Rookie of the Year
honors
(July 30) Jarmila Gajdosova was named the
World TeamTennis Rookie of the Year as the most outstanding
WTT female rookie of the 2007 season.
The Kansas City Explorers had picked up Gajdosova with their
first round pick in the WTT Player draft and Gajdosova never
disappointed. She finished the season ranked No. 2 in women's
singles and often proved to be the backbone for the Exporers.
In home games Explorers coach Brent Haygarth would use the
20-year old as the team’s ace closer putting Gajdosova
in as the last match to seal the deal for the Explorers.
It took an injury in the last set of the last match against
the Sacramento Capitals to finally stop Gajdosova and spoil
her team’s hopes of making the playoffs. Up 2-1 on veteran
Elena Likhovtseva and with the team score tied at 17-17, Gajdosova
ran forward to retrieve a drop shot when she twisted her knee
and fell in noticeable pain. The diagnosis revealed she had
torn her meniscus.
The news that she has been awarded the WTT Rookie of the
Year award helped cheer Gajdosova up the next day. A congratulatory
call from Billie Jean King, the tennis legend and WTT co-founder,
reached Gajdosova at Dickson-Diveley Midwest Orthopedic Clinic
just as she was getting the results of the MRI.
Other award winners were Mark Knowles (Male MVP) and Tamarine
Tanasugarn of the Sacramento Capitals (Female MVP), Jesse
Witten of the New York Sportimes (Male Rookie of the Year)
and Springfield's John-Laffnie de Jager (Coach of the Year).
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Teenagers to open Germany Japan Fed
Cup tie
(July 13) More than just the threatened
typhoon Man-Yi occupied the thoughts of the Japanese and German
Fed Cup teams who gathered for the draw ceremony at the Toyota
Castle Hotel this morning.
The teams were honored by the presence of His Imperial Highness
Prince Akishino of Japan, an avid tennis player, who showed
his support of the competition team by participating in the
draw ceremony, conducted by Referee Jane Harvey from Great
Britain.
First up on Saturday will be Japan’s Erika Takao, 19
years old and making her Fed Cup debut, against 19-year-old
Tatjana Malek, playing her third Fed Cup tie for Germany.
The second match will feature 17-year-old Ayumi Morita, playing
in her second tie, against 19-year-old Angelique Kerber, also
making her first appearance in this competition. On Sunday,
Takao will face Kerber while Morita will take on Malek. In
the fifth doubles rubber, Rika Fujiwara and Tomoko Yonemura
will take on Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Andrea Petrovic. Fujiwara
and Groenefeld have considerable Fed Cup experience and, at
25 and 22 respectively, are solid anchors for their young
squads.
Each team was asked about the other by the media in the post-draw
press conferences and, while first hand knowledge about their
opponents was thin on the ground, the players from both teams
expected this tie to be a difficult one and each promised
to play her very best.
There is a lot at stake here this weekend as the winner will
secure a place in the elite 2008 Fed Cup World Group while
the loser will compete in World Group II next year.
The industrial city of Toyota, about an hour east of Japan’s
fourth largest city of Nagoya, is hosting the 2007 Fed Cup
by BNP Paribas World Group Play-off match between Japan and
Germany. The city is justly proud of the brand new Sky Hall
Toyota, a nearly 5,000 seat multi-purpose stadium, where the
tie will be held.
This is the seventh meeting between the two nations with
Germany leading the series 5-1. Although Japan has only posted
one win, their 1996 victory over a Steffi Graf-led German
team is one of the most celebrated ties in Fed Cup history.
Held at Ariake Park in Tokyo, Kimiko Date handed the world
No. 1 Graf a 7-6, 3-6, 12-10 defeat in the third rubber to
give Japan a 2-1 lead. Japan went on to win when Kyoko Nagatsuka
and Ai Sugiyama defeated Graf and Anke Huber 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
to reach the Fed Cup semifinals for the first and only time.
Germany has a better overall record in Fed Cup, winning the
title twice and reaching the final four other times but their
last very successful year was in 1992.
The absence of Sugiyama and her teammates Akiko Morigami
and Aiko Nakamura has loomed over this tie but the Japanese
captain Minoru Ueda insists he is looking forward, not back:
“After losing to France in the quarterfinals, we have
been working towards this tie. We have new members and we
are looking towards the future. While this team hasn’t
had the chance until now to play on the international stage,
they will work very hard to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Ueda’s views were echoed by his players who are hoping
not just for a winning result but also for great home support.
Takao promised to “fight as hard as I can. I hope that
the fans support me,” while Morita, who made her debut
against France, added, “I have been looking forward
to a home tie. The Germans are a strong team, ranking above
us, but we will work very hard in front of our supporters.
I will do my very best.”
The Japanese team also praised the court, saying it was a
bit fast and to their advantage.
Germany’s Barbara Rittner, with 11 years of Fed Cup
experience as a player and three years as a captain, was very
respectful of the Japanese team, even without their top three.
“The whole tie changed by the numbers but numbers don’t
mean much in Fed Cup. We play the team that is here and they
will have the crowd behind them. It will be tough; they will
take their chances.”
“We have had a good practice week so far,” added
Rittner. “We are here to win and get back in the World
Group. There will be very tough matches and the Japanese will
fight to the end. We will as well.”
“We are a great team,” said Groenefeld who summed
up the perspective of the German side. “We have had
fun this week, great fun, and we are looking at a very tough
match. We hope to be the winner in the end with the same fun
we had the last time.”
This is a fifth tie for both captains with Rittner posting
a 3-2 and Ueda a 2-3 win-loss record. In first round Fed Cup
action this year, Japan lost to France 5-0 while Germany defeated
Croatia 4-1.
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Smashnova’s last hurrah could be historic moment
for Israel’s Fed Cup team
(July 13) Israel's Fed Cup team faces the
most important tie in its history this weekend.
The team plays Austria for a place among the world's top
eight tennis nations.
For years Israel's women's tennis leaned heavily on Anna
Smashnova, but the veteran will be in the shadows tomorrow
and Sunday, as Israel faces Austria in a Fed Cup World Group
playoff in Linz.
For years Smashnova, who holds the international record for
the most ties played in Fed Cup competition, 73, carried Israel
almost single-handedly, with Tzipi Obziler providing the backup.
Obziler has since become an important part of the team and
in the past three years she has been joined by Shahar Peer,
who in the past year was the driving force as Israel made
it into World Group II.
Israel's leading women's tennis player for over a decade,
Smashnova didn't play when Israel beat Canada earlier this
year to earn the playoff tie with Austria and decided to close
out her distinguished tournament career at Wimbledon two weeks
ago.
In Linz, Smashnova will be providing support for her teammates
and of late she has also been working with 17-year-old Julia
Glushko.
Israel had hoped to be drawn at home, where it can count
on the fanatic support of the crowd at the Ramat Hasharon
Tennis Center, but instead it was a draw away and against
the team it didn't want to face.
Austria plays on a clay court surface and features two players
in their prime.
Sybille Bammer is ranked 24th in the world. The 27-year-old
is a late bloomer who won her first WTA title at Pattaya this
season, 10 years after turning pro. She is the only mother
on the WTA tour.
Tamira Paszek became the youngest player to win a WTA title
last year when, at 16, she won the Portoroz tournament in
Slovenia.
Making up the team are Yvonne Meusburger, ranked 83rd in
the world, and Melanie Klaffner, ranked 639.
Bammer and Paszek are both powerful baseline players, who
do well on fast hard courts. Bammer made the third round at
Wimbledon, while Paszek went as far as the last 16.
Also playing for a place among the world's top eight are
Belgium andChina; Japan and Germany; Spain and Czech Republic.
This weekend also sees the World Group semifinals with the
U.S. hosting Russia and France taking on Italy.
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Farewell Anna Smashnova
(June 28) She was the last of the great scramblers.
We don't mean that there aren't some very fast players out
there. Anyone who faces Jelena Jankovic, or faced Kim Clijsters,
knows that full well. But Jankovic, and Clijsters, and Arantxa
Sanchez-Vicario before them combined great speed with the
ability to hit winners when they had an opening. If someone
asks you to name players who won solely with speed, perhaps
the only recent name that would spring to mind is Amanda Coetzer.
There were others. Tatiana Panova, for one. But, in recent
years, none has stood above Anna Smashnova. She wasn't a big
threat at Slams -- she was basically a live practice partner
for her opponents at Wimbledon, and even at Roland Garros,
someone would eventually overwhelm her. She rarely even tried
to play doubles -- she was too easy to lob, and even at the
baseline, players at the net were too likely to blister a
ball past her. On fast surfaces -- grass, carpet, even indoor
hardcourt -- she would be overwhelmed.
But she won a total of twelve titles, mostly on clay with
some on (mostly slow) hardcourt: Tashkent 1999, Knokke-Heist
2000, Auckland 2002, Canberra 2002, Vienna 2002, Shanghai
2002, Sopot 2003, Helsinki 2003, Modena 2005, Budapest 2005,
Budapest 2006.
What's more, she won all twelve of those without losing a
final. It was not until her very last final appearance, at
Forest Hills last year, that she lost on the last day of an
event (to Meghann Shaughnessy).
She turns 31 shortly after Wimbledon. She's been through
a lot in her life, being born in Minsk in what is now Belarus
and ending up in Israel. She married her coach, then watched
it fall apart. She came back to win those last few titles.
If that isn't grit, what is?
She never made the Top Ten, but she did spend about a month
at #15 in 2003. She spent a couple of years in the Top Twenty,
starting in mid-2002 and staying there most of the time until
August 2004. She was in the year-end Top Fifty in 1994, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005; she didn't fall below
#50 to stay until after last year's U. S. Open.
Since Forest Hills, she has played only Slams, with no wins
at all in that time. She almost didn't get into Wimbledon,
because her ranking has fallen so low. But she did get in.
That means she has played every Slam since Roland Garros 1998
(inclusive) -- 38 consecutive Slams, the longest active streak
on the Tour. In total, she played 49 Slam main draws. She
also set a record for Fed Cup service. She has been playing
pro matches since 1990. There are a lot of miles on those
legs of hers. Surely she deserves the rest.
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French Open prizes reach gender parity
(March 19) The French Open will award equal
prize money to male and female players throughout the tournament,
falling in line with the three other Grand Slam tournaments.
Roland Garros officials have said they will follow the lead
of Wimbledon and pay equal prize money throughout the tournament
to men and women.
Until this year, Wimbledon had refused to change its stance
of offering female players less prize money throughout but
now both the All England Club and the Paris tournament organisers
are to offer the same pay packets for all rounds.
The French Open opted to alter the prize money offered to
the tournament winners but there remained a discrepancy for
players knocked out earlier in the competition.
The US Open and the Australian Open both already offer equal
pay.
WTA chief executive Larry Scott commended the decision, saying
it "closes one chapter in the history of tennis and opens
an exciting new one that will positively impact opportunities
for women".
Equalizing the pay will increase the total purse to $20.34
million -- a 7.2 percent increase from last year and a record
at the tournament, which runs May 27-June 10. The men's and
women's singles winners will each receive $1.33 million.
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World baseball turns to Schiller to
get back into Olympics
(March 2) World baseball turned to Harvey
Schiller to get the sport back into the Olympic Games.
Schiller was elected president of the International Baseball
Federation on Friday, defeating Reynaldo Gonzalez of Cuba
58-29 to fill the unexpired term of Aldo Notari of Italy,
who died last year.
Schiller, a former head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Turner
Sports and YankeeNets, will lead the effort to restore baseball
and softball to the Olympic program. The sports are being
dropped after the 2008 Beijing Games and they hope to persuade
the International Olympic Committee to put them on the 2016
schedule.
"We have to make sure that the tournament here in Beijing
is very successful because the eyes of the IOC members are
going to be on softball as well as baseball,'' Schiller said.
Olympic officials have complained that baseball doesn't send
its best players to the Olympics - Major League Baseball permits
only minor leaguers to go.
"Hopefully we can gather up representatives of the best
players,'' Schiller said. "To ask that entire teams turn
over is asking too much. But I think we can have a good representation.''
IOC officials also want baseball to toughen rules against
performance-enhancing drugs.
"We need to make sure the sport is clean for all of
our competitions,'' Schiller said. "I think we can work
hand in hand with them (MLB) to ensure that the players who
are part of the pool and selected comply with the WADA rules.''
Baseball was kicked out of the 2012 London Olympics in July
2005 in a 54-50 vote by the IOC and softball fell one short
vote of remaining - a 52-52 vote with one abstention. When
another vote was held in February 2006, baseball lost 46-42
and softball was defeated 47-43.
"I do not believe that there is a European bias,'' Schiller
said. "I think there are a lot of European members. It
is important that we demonstrate to everyone the worldwide
interest in the sport of baseball. To 30 or more of the members
here, it's the primary sport in their country.''
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Yankee Stadium named host to 2008 All-Star
Game
(February 1) It will be a fitting sign-off
to the venue which closes at the end of the 2008 season.
George Steinbrenner, the team's long time principal owner
said: “It is always a great honour for a team's home
stadium to serve as host for the All-Star Game, and the Yankees
are proud and delighted to have been selected for the honor
in 2008.
“It will be one of many historic moments in the 2008
season as we say goodbye to a great facility.”
The new Yankee Stadium, to be built across the street from
the existing venue, is slated to open in 2009.
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