Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Eric Hosmer retires
from baseball following
a 13-year career
Eric Hosmer announced his retirement from baseball Wednesday following a 13-year career that included winning four Gold Gloves and helping lead Kansas City to victory in the 2015 World Series.
Hosmer, 34, was released by the Chicago Cubs on May 25 after hitting .234 with two home runs in 31 games. The first baseman decided not to pursue any other playing opportunities.
“You have to be 110% committed and doing what is necessary both physically and mentally to play at the major league level and I reached a point where I wasn’t there anymore,” Hosmer said. “I’m very satisfied with my career. I feel like I accomplished a lot, was around a lot of great people and have a lot of good stories to tell.”
Hosmer will begin telling those stories on air after partnering with former minor league teammate Anthony Seratelli to form MoonBall Media, which is launching a podcast called “Diggin’ Deep.” Hosmer will be one of the show’s hosts.
“Now that the playing days are over, I feel like I have so many fun stories that I want to give back,” Hosmer said.
Kansas City selected Hosmer third overall in the 2008 amateur draft and he made his major league debut three years later. He spent seven seasons with the Royals before signing an eight-year, $144 million contract with San Diego before the 2018 season.
Hosmer played five seasons for the Padres before being traded to Boston in 2022, then finishing up with the Cubs last year. He had a .276 career batting average and 198 home runs.
Hosmer was named the MVP in his lone All-Star Game appearance in 2016.
Tiger Woods’ son is taking his first step in PGA Tour
HOBE SOUND, Fla. | The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods is taking the first step toward trying to play on the PGA Tour. Charlie Woods is entered in a pre-qualifier for the Cognizant Classic.
The pre-qualifier for Woods is Thursday at Lost Lake Golf Club. The top 25 and ties advance to the Monday qualifier, where four players earn a spot in the field.
The PGA Tour said on its website Woods will play alongside Olin Browne Jr. and Ruaidhri McGee. Browne, whose father is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, played in the U.S. Open last year at Los Angeles Country Club.
Charlie Woods is no stranger to the stage. Tiger Woods has played with his son four times in the PNC Championship, a 36-hole tournament in which a major champion or a Players Championship winner teams up with a family member.
Tiger Woods, who withdrew from the Genesis Invitational last week with the flu, never won the tournament — formerly known as the Honda Classic — in four tries. He has not said when he will play next.
Marshawn Lynch resolves DUI case without a trial
LAS VEGAS | Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch resolved a drunken driving case without a trial or DUI conviction Wednesday, 18 months after police found him asleep in the driver’s seat of a damaged luxury sports car in Las Vegas.
A city judge accepted an agreement that did not involve plea, according to a court document and Lynch’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld.
Lynch, 37, agreed to attend DUI traffic school and pay a $1,140 fine and will avoid a misdemeanor DUI conviction if he completes 200 hours of community service, attends a victim impact panel, undergoes an alcohol evaluation and remains out of trouble for one year. Misdemeanor charges of failure to drive in a travel lane and driving an unregistered vehicle were dismissed.
The result will close the case as a reckless driving offense, his attorneys said in a statement.
Las Vegas city officials responded to a request for comment by providing a copy of Lynch’s signed written agreement.
Lynch was arrested early Aug. 9, 2022, after he was found sitting in an “undriveable” 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 at the curb of a downtown Las Vegas street. Police said the car had one front wheel missing and a badly damaged rear wheel.
In Nevada, a person in the driver’s seat can be deemed to be in physical control of the vehicle. Schonfeld and Chesnoff argued that Lynch had not been stopped by police while driving and the vehicle was parked so he couldn’t be charged with driving under the influence.
Lynch retired from the NFL in 2019 after 12 seasons, mostly with the Seattle Seahawks.
He was a five-time Pro Bowl pick, racking up 10,413 career rushing yards and 85 rushing touchdowns from 2007-19 with the Seahawks, Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders.
Woodruff staying
with Brewers on backloaded 2-year deal
PHOENIX | Brandon Woodruff is staying with the Milwaukee Brewers after all.
The right-hander has finalized a backloaded $17.5 million, two-year contract with Milwaukee that includes a mutual option for the 2026 season. The deal was completed three months after the Brewers allowed the injured pitcher to test free agency rather than tendering him a contract for 2024.
“I’ve still got a lot of, I guess you could say unfinished business in a Brewers uniform,” Woodruff said Wednesday in a Zoom session with reporters. “That’s the way I feel about it. That’s why I’m so super excited because for a second, I thought that was the end of it.”
Milwaukee also announced the signing of catcher Gary Sánchez on Wednesday to a one-year contract with a mutual option for 2025. Sánchez hit 19 homers last season while playing for the San Diego Padres and New York Mets.
The 31-year-old Woodruff is expected to miss most, if not all, of the upcoming season while he recovers from shoulder surgery. But the new contract could keep the two-time All-Star with the Brewers when he returns to the mound, whether that’s this year or next year.
“Back in November when we non-tendered Brandon, we said we had to make a very difficult decision relating to one of the best pitchers and human beings in franchise history,” Brewers President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold said Wednesday in a statement. “We also said we remained very open to his return to Milwaukee. Today, I am thrilled to say that Brandon has returned to the Brewers family. We look forward to guiding Brandon through his rehabilitation and ultimate return to the mound at American Family Field.”
Woodruff will receive $2.5 million this year and $5 million in 2025. The deal includes a $20 million mutual option for 2026 with a $10 million buyout, half payable on Jan. 15, 2026, and the remainder on July 15, 2026. The contract also grants Woodruff a full no-trade provision and a hotel suite on road trips.
When the Brewers made the decision to non-tender him, Woodruff was eligible for arbitration and would have been under team control for one more year. He had surgery in October.
Regarding his possible availability for the upcoming season, Woodruff said he was going to follow the orders of Texas Rangers team doctor Keith Meister, who performed the surgery.
“I’ll take it day to day, week to week, month to month, see where I’m at, at the end of the year,” Woodruff said. “If it makes sense, maybe. If not, I’ll be ready to go for ‘25.”
The Brewers believe Woodruff’s veteran leadership and clubhouse presence can provide a boost even if he’s unable to pitch this season.
“I’m going to be a big cheerleader this year,” Woodruff said. “I look forward to that. I think it’s one thing that will help me grow mentally. And I can get to a spot physically like how I want to throughout this year. I just think being available for guys is going to be a big thing, and just trying to help out any way I can.”
Woodruff went 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 67 innings last season despite missing four months with inflammation in his right shoulder. On the day before Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Brewers announced Woodruff had hurt his shoulder again.
The injury prevented Woodruff from pitching in the Brewers’ 2-0 series loss to the eventual NL champion Diamondbacks.
Woodruff is 46-26 with a 3.10 ERA in seven seasons with Milwaukee.
Sánchez, 31, batted .217 with a .288 on-base percentage, .492 slugging percentage and 47 RBIs in a combined 75 games for the Padres and Mets last season. He played three games for the Mets and 72 games for the Padres.
He owns a .225 career batting average with a .309 on-base percentage, 173 homers and 448 RBIs in 741 regular-season games, also playing for the New York Yankees (2015-21) and Minnesota Twins (2022).
The NL Central champion Brewers already have William Contreras returning at catcher after he batted .289 with 17 homers and 78 RBIs last season.
Milwaukee lost its backup catcher when Victor Caratini signed with the Houston Astros, though the Brewers have since signed Eric Haase to a major league deal and Austin Nola to a minor league deal.
Gauff beats Pliskova to reach Dubai quarterfinals
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | Coco Gauff rallied from a slow start and a second-set argument with the chair umpire to beat Karolina Pliskova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday.
The third-seeded Gauff ended Pliskova’s 11-match winning streak.
The 19-year-old American built a 4-2 lead in the second set before a lengthy back-and-forth with chair umpire Pierre Bacchi. Gauff complained to Bacchi that he called her serve at deuce out only after Pliskova returned it into the net.
Gauff had to repeat her first serve and went on to hold for a 5-2 lead.
The U.S. Open champion said the argument “fueled” her.
“It’s OK. It’s just one point. That happens in tennis. Players make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “It kind of went upward from there for me.”
Gauff will next face Anna Kalinskaya after the Russian beat ninth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-5.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek advanced to the last eight by beating two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina had a tougher time reaching the quarterfinals. She outlasted Magdalena Frech 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.
Swiatek will next play sixth-seeded Qinwen Zheng, who eliminated Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-2. Rybakina has a quarterfinal match against Jasmine Paolini. The Italian defeated eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-2.
The other quarterfinal match is seventh-seeded Marketa Vondrousova against Sorana Cirstea.
—From AP reports
