- Publish date:
For the Record
Retired
After testing positive for cocaine, Martina Hingis (below). The 27-year-old failed a drug test administered at Wimbledon, where she lost in the third round. Hingis vehemently denied using the drug and said that a subsequent hair test backed up her claim. But instead of enduring tribunals, hearings and appeals, Hingis, who returned from a three-year retirement in 2005, announced that she was hanging her racket up for good. "I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials," she said.
Announced
His intention to move his team to Oklahoma City, SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett. Upset at the city of Seattle's reluctance to build a new arena, Bennett sent the league a letter last Friday notifying commissioner David Stern of his intention to move the team, which has been in Seattle since 1967, to Oklahoma City, which served as a temporary home for the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina. Bennett is trying to void the final two years of his lease with the city, a deal he says caused him to lose $17 million last year.
Suspended
For the first 25 games of the 2008 season for violating baseball's drug policy, free-agent outfielder Mike Cameron. The 34-year-old, who hit 21 homers for the Padres last year, tested positive a second time for a banned stimulant. "The one thing I wanted to make sure was explained is, no steroids," Cameron said. "I never took nothing like that before in my life."
Agreed
By Bruton Smith, to buy New Hampshire International Speedway for $340 million, a deal that could see the track lose one of its two Nextel Cup races. By buying the 91,000-seat track, Smith—who owns six Nextel Cup tracks—will get control of its two race dates, and he has been trying for years to secure a second date for his Las Vegas track.
Kidnapped
In Italy, Equinox Bi, a trotter who has won $1.4 million in his career. The horse, who won the 2007 Breeders Crown Open Trot in September, was reportedly stolen last Thursday from a farm near Padua. The 6-year-old was expected to stand stud in New York State next year. As of Monday no one had claimed responsibility for the heist.
Injured
The right shoulder of Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya (below), which will most likely sideline the flamethrower at least until the middle of next season. Zumaya hurt his pitching arm while moving boxes—including memorabilia from Detroit's 2006 World Series appearance—at his parents' house in Chula Vista, Calif., as wildfires approached the home. The 23-year-old missed half of the 2007 season with a ruptured finger tendon. He had what team officials deemed "major surgery" last week. "I'm sick to my stomach," Zumaya told the Detroit Free Press. "The last couple days, I haven't slept at all. My career could be done."
Died
At age 84, Lillian Ellison, who was known to generations of wrestling fans as the Fabulous Moolah (right). Ellison was originally a manager and valet who escorted male wrestlers to the ring, but her grappling career took off in the mid-1950s after she got her nickname. (She said she wrestled "for the money ... for the moolah.") A South Carolina native, Ellison was a sweet Southerner who mentored other wrestlers and adopted a midget wrestler, Katie Glass, known professionally as Diamond Lil. The Fabulous Moolah, by contrast, was an eye-gouging heel, despised by men and women alike. She held the women's world title for 28 years and became the first woman inducted into the World Wrestling Federation Hall of Fame in 1995.
Died
At age 104, Sam Dana, who had been the oldest living former NFL player. For years NFL records listed Dana as having died in 1969, but in 2003 Dana's son, Bob, notified the Hall of Fame that his dad, who played five games for the NFL's New York Yankees in 1928, was still alive and well in upstate New York. Dana followed the game until his death. He watched a game on TV with Bob last month. Said his son, "He turned to me, and I'll never forget it, with a sparkle in his eye, he said, 'I love this game. I loved it then, and I love it now. And I wish I could still play.'"
Go Figure
8:23:52 Time it took Perry Romanowski, 38, to run a 50-mile ultramarathon in Chicago while juggling three balls, a world record for "joggling."
4 Number of times Romanowski dropped a ball during the race.
$5 million Amount the Arizona Rattlers stand to lose if they don't make the playoffs; the Arena Football League team will give season-ticket holders a refund if it fails to make it to the postseason.
4--12 The Rattlers' record last year, when they finished next to last in the Western Division.
1,500 Islanders games coached by Al Arbour, 75, who came out of a 10-year retirement for one game last Saturday in a 3--2 win over Pittsburgh.
22 Consecutive wins for Tennessee against Kentucky, the longest active winning streak by one NCAA team over another after Navy snapped its 43-game skid against Notre Dame.
SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE
Three Maryland high school football players received minor cuts from an opposing player who allegedly carried a concealed blade during postgame handshakes.
They Said It
REGGIE BUSH
Saints running back, on what coach Sean Payton means when he tells players to "not eat the cheese" served by the media when the team does especially well:
"It's just staying focused ... because if you eat too much cheese, you may get sick ... especially if you're lactose-intolerant."
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GERRY PENNY/EPA (HINGIS)
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DETROIT FREE PRESS/ZUMA PRESS (ZUMAYA)
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KAIA LARSEN/TIMES RECORD/AP (PICTURE THIS)
PICTURE THIS OCT. 31 Chihuahuas Santana (left) and Ali in Fort Smith, Ark.
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© WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (FABULOUS MOOLAH)
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JOHN DAVID MERCER/US PRESSWIRE (BUSH)
