Another football league in works
A Wall Street dealmaker and Google executive are teaming up to form a professional football league with the intent of putting franchises in North American cities with no NFL teams.
Investment banker Bill Hambrecht and Tim Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales for Google Inc., have pledged $2 million each to form the United Football League, slated to begin as soon as August 2008. The two reportedly have recruited their first franchise owner in Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
The three previous NFL challengers -- the World Football League, United States Football League and XFL -- all folded after four seasons or fewer.
-- Sam Farmer
COLLEGES
Cal State L.A. ousted in Division II semifinals
Trent Blanco had four hits, including a seventh-inning run-scoring single that broke a tie, to lead Columbus State to a 9-4 victory over Cal State Los Angeles in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II baseball tournament at Montgomery, Ala.
Cal State L.A. (45-17-1) had scored four runs in the fifth inning, two on a single by Jeff Carroll, to tie the score, 4-4, but Columbus State (51-18) scored five runs over the last three innings to pull away.
Stanford’s Rob Grube shot a six-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead at the NCAA men’s golf championships at Williamsburg, Va.
Stanford also tops the team leaderboard with a 275, two shots ahead of Coastal Carolina. UCLA (283) is tied for ninth and USC (289) is tied for 22nd.
Individually, UCLA’s Lucas Lee and USC’s Tom Glissmeyer each shot 68s and are tied for seventh with six others.
The NCAA will test two bats per team in the Women’s College World Series, which begins today, to see if they meet the safety standards meant to protect players and ensure fair play.
The NCAA has granted Duke’s request for an extra year of eligibility for its men’s lacrosse players following rape allegations that led to the cancellation of much of last season.
The decision affects 33 players who were not seniors during the 2006 season, and it grants them a fifth year of eligibility regardless of whether they play at Duke or another school.
Vanderbilt left-hander David Price and Florida State second baseman Tony Thomas shared Collegiate Baseball’s player-of-the-year award.
MISCELLANY
Lalas says Galaxy won’t send Beckham on loan
David Beckham won’t be returning to play in Europe on loan from the Galaxy after the Major League Soccer season ends in November.
“He is coming to the Los Angeles Galaxy and we don’t anticipate him going anywhere but the Los Angeles Galaxy for the foreseeable future,” General Manager Alexi Lalas said.
Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter pleaded no contest and paid a $1,000 fine for punching Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones after a disagreement at a casino blackjack table in Las Vegas.
Two-time U.S. national gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin, 17, will be the headliner of the American team that competes at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro in July.
Chellsie Memmel and Jana Bieger are recovering from injuries and will wait until the U.S. nationals in San Jose in August to compete.
Also selected to the 12-member training squad are promising former junior team members Shawn Johnson and Samantha Peszek along with 14-year-old Ivana Hong from Laguna Hills.
-- Diane Pucin
Mike Tyson has applied to work the corner of heavyweight Sultan Ibragimov during his World Boxing Organization title fight against Shannon Briggs on Saturday night in Atlantic City, N.J.
