NEW YORK — At first, Doug O’Neill thought his prank caller pal Mark was at it again.
Team O’Neill
to attend Mets-Yanks before Belmont
NEW YORK — At first, Doug O’Neill thought his prank caller pal Mark was at it again.
So when the trainer of Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another was told Jessica Steinbrenner was on the line the other day, O’Neill wasn’t buying it.
“OK, Mark, what’s going on?” he said into the phone, only to hear the voice on the other end reply. “No, this is really Jessica.”
The daughter of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner invited O’Neill, jockey Mario Gutierrez and I’ll Have Another owner Paul Reddam to each throw out a ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium before the Met-Yankees game June 8 — the night before the colt attempts to win the Belmont Stakes and become racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 34 years.
“What a huge honor it is,” O’Neill said at a news conference Monday at Belmont Park. “That should be a blast.”
Mickelson joins group trying to buy Padres
DUBLIN, Ohio — Phil Mickelson wants to be more than just a fan of the San Diego Padres. He wants to help buy the team.
Mickelson said Monday he has a joined one of the five groups trying to buy the team from John Moores, the Padres’ majority owner for the last 18 years. Mickelson is part of the group that includes four grandchildren of former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley — Kevin and Brian O’Malley, and their cousins Peter and Tom Seidler, the chief executive of Class A Visalia Rawhide.
“I’ve been talking to them about being involved with them, having an opportunity to invest in the team and being part of the ownership group,” Mickelson said. “I think it’s a very good investment opportunity. More than that, it’s opportunity to be involved in the community in San Diego, with something that gives the community a sense of pride. I feel like we can make the Padres a competitive team that can contend year in and year out, and we can do something for the community.
“It’s something I’ve loved since I was a kid.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported the involvement of Mickelson, a four-time major champion who was inducted this month into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Mickelson brings the O’Malley clan a local investor and of San Diego’s greatest athletes.
San Diego’s biggest baseball star — another lefty — is involved in another group trying to buy the Padres. Tony Gwynn said last week he is joining the bid led by Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary Entertainment.
Angels ace Jered Weaver leaves game with back injury
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Los Angeles Angels ace Jered Weaver left his start against the Yankees in the first inning Monday night after apparently injuring his back while pitching.
Weaver gave up two hits and a run in his first three batters before pulling up awkwardly after pitching to cleanup hitter Robinson Cano.
Weaver walked around the mound and eventually attempted to throw a warmup pitch that didn’t have much zip, and he went to the Angels’ clubhouse with their training staff. The Angels eventually announced Weaver apparently has a lower-back injury.
The Angels won the game 9-8.
Phillies sending Halladay to
doctor today
NEW YORK — Now all the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans can do is wait. For another day, at least.
The Phillies say they will send Roy Halladay to see a doctor today, two days after he came out of a start due to a sore right shoulder. On Monday, the team was still determining where and when, exactly, their star right-hander will be examined.
Halladay first started to feel discomfort in Tuesday’s start against Washington, but pitched through it. He cut back on throwing between starts, but it didn’t help and he left after two innings against St. Louis that included Yadier Molina’s grand slam.
Halladay started the season in his usual overpowering way, holding the Pittsburgh Pirates to two hits in eight innings of a 1-0 win. Everything seemed pretty much normal until he blew a 6-0 lead and was pulled after eight earned runs in 5 1⁄3 innings against Atlanta on May 2.
Since then, he’s 1-3, and the Phillies have lost four of his five starts. The one win came in an ordinary effort against the Cubs, during Chicago’s longest losing streak in at least 15 years.
Police: 5-time
champ Johnny Tapia found dead in NM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Johnny Tapia, the five-time boxing champion whose turbulent career was marked by cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and run-ins with the law, was found dead Sunday at his Albuquerque home. He was 45.
Authorities were called to the house at about 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The death didn’t appear to be suspicious, he said.
Tapia won five championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt.
He was regarded as the consummate underdog by his fans. The more trouble he found outside the ring — including several stints in jail — the more they rallied around him.
But his life was also marked by tragedy.
He was orphaned at 8, his mother stabbed 26 times with a screwdriver and left to die.
In 2007, he was hospitalized after an apparent cocaine overdose. Several days later, his brother-in-law and his nephew were killed in car accident on their way to Albuquerque to see the ailing boxer.
By wire sources