Sports Briefs February 14, 2012
Triathlon
Lance Armstrong finished a close second to New Zealander Bevan Docherty at the Panama Half Ironman in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sunday in his first professional triathlon.
Docherty beat the seven-time Tour de France winner by 31 seconds after overtaking the American on the running leg of event, which was raced in searing heat. An Olympic silver medalist, Dochery told New Zealand media that Armstrong brushed passed him at the finish line without offering congratulations, but later briefly shook his hand and acknowledged his victory.
Docherty said he was surprised Armstrong didn't dominate the race's 55-mile cycling leg.
Armstrong led Docherty after the cycling, but the New Zealander made up ground on the 16 1/2-mile running leg and passed Armstrong about 1 1/2 miles from the finish.
Baseball
David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year contract worth $14,575,000.
The deal for the slugging designated hitter was midway between the $16.5 million he asked for last month and the $12.65 million submitted by the Red Sox, which matched his 2011 earnings.
• Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes and the A's agreed to a $36 million, four-year contract - quite a splash for the low-budget franchise that traded away several key faces this offseason.
The slugging outfielder had reached agreement on a deal, with details still to be finalized. This is a significant move for Oakland, which wanted to add a steady hitter.
Cespedes will earn $6.5 million this year, $8.5 million in 2013 and $10.5 million in each of the final two seasons.
Football
The 49ers announced the passing of Freddie Solomon, who lived in Florida and had battled cancer over the past year. He played on the first of the franchise's four Super Bowl championship teams in the 1980s during an 11-year NFL career.
The Dolphins selected Solomon in the second round of the 1975 draft out of the University of Tampa. He spent his first three NFL seasons with Miami and his final eight in San Francisco, finishing with 371 receptions for 5,846 yards and 48 touchdowns in 371 games.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired former North Carolina head coach Butch Davis as a "special assistant" to new head coach Greg Schiano.
Basketball
Kentucky and Syracuse remain Nos. 1 and 2 in The Associated Press' Top 25, and Wichita State and Notre Dame are ranked for the first time this season.
The Wildcats received 63 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, while the Orange got the others.
Missouri moves up one spot to third and is followed by Kansas, Duke, Ohio State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Baylor and Georgetown.
Wichita State, which has won 12 of 13 and is ranked for the first time since 2007, and Gonzaga, which returns after being out for one week, are tied for 24th.
Cycling
World-class women cyclists are due to come to Idaho for a five-day stage race later this year that could help determine competitors in the 2012 London Olympics, a decade after a previous tour for elite female riders in the state died for lack of money.
The Exergy Tour announced its May 24-28 Memorial Day weekend schedule.
The five stages include a short prologue in Boise; a stage in Nampa, on the undulating plain above the Snake River; an individual time-trial in the little high-desert town of Kuna; a 60-mile ride over a 6,100-foot mountain pass between tiny Crouch and the historic gold mining town of Idaho City; and a circuit race featuring high-speed laps around Idaho's capital on Memorial Day.
- The Associated Press