BASEBALL
RYE, N.Y. (AP) Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who gave up the home run dubbed the ”Shot Heard `Round the World,” has died at the age of 90.
Son-in-law Bobby Valentine, a former major league manager, says Branca died at a nursing home in Rye, New York.
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The home run that Branca gave up on Oct. 3, 1951, became one of the most famous in baseball history.
Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Branca with one out in the bottom of the ninth to give the New York Giants a dramatic 5-4 playoff victory and the National League pennant. Thomson’s heroics put the Giants into the World Series.
Branca, a three-time All-Star, spent the first 11 seasons of his big-league career with the Dodgers. He also pitched for the Tigers and Yankees.
SEATTLE (AP) – The Seattle Mariners finally landed the established shortstop they’ve long been trying to find.
To do it, they had to part with a talented young pitcher who still has the potential to blossom.
Seattle and Arizona pulled off a five-player trade, with the Mariners acquiring speedy infielder Jean Segura and the Diamondbacks getting right-hander Taijuan Walker as the centerpieces of the deal.
Segura immediately projects as Seattle’s leadoff hitter and starting shortstop, solidifying an infield that already includes All-Star sluggers Kyle Seager at third base and Robinson Cano at second. But getting Segura meant the Mariners had to give up on the inconsistent Walker, a power arm who has showed occasional flashes of brilliance.
BAYLOR SEXUAL ASSAULT INVESTIGATION
WACO, Texas (AP) – Two women who reported being gang-raped by Baylor University football players have reached a settlement with the school, which has been hammered by months of criticism that it ignored or mishandled assault claims for years.
The settlement was announced in a joint statement by Baylor interim President David Garland and the lawyers representing the women. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The settlements were the latest development in a scandal that has rocked the nation’s largest Baptist university. An investigation by the law firm Pepper Hamilton earlier this year found that the school mishandled assault claims for years. Football coach Art Briles was fired, school President Ken Starr was demoted and eventually left, and Athletic Direct Ian McCaw resigned.
Baylor regents recently disclosed that 17 women had reported domestic violence or sexual assaults that involved 19 football players since 2011, including four gang rapes.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
NEW YORK (AP) – College women’s basketball is exploring ways to change the format of the NCAA Tournament, including moving the Final Four back a week to avoid overlap with the end of the men’s tournament.
In a survey given to the conferences and obtained by The Associated Press, the women’s basketball oversight committee laid out a few potential changes that wouldn’t take place until 2019 at the earliest. The date change would put the women’s Final Four on the same weekend as the Masters.
The committee is asking the schools and conferences for feedback on several alterations, including having the opening round at 32 sites and having the second round and regionals played at the same location. Moving the Final Four would add a bye week to the tournament schedule.
ESPN, which broadcasts the NCAA Tournament, was opposed to most of the changes because of costs and feasibility.
Most of the ideas were originally discussed in a ”White Paper” put together by Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman in 2013 on the state of women’s basketball.
OLYMPICS
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Olympic organizers in Rio de Janeiro are trying to hand over almost $3 million in ticket refund payments due to 13,000 people.
One big problem. They can’t find them.
”We are hunting after people,” Rio spokesman Mario Andrada told The Associated Press. ”We have the money, but don’t know how to get it to them.”
Rio organizers allowed buyers to return tickets, which were resold.
”Instead of selling them to scalpers, they gave the tickets back to us, and we resold them,” Andrada said.
Andrada said 140,000 people returned Olympic and Paralympic tickets for resale, a value of 80 million Brazilian reals ($23.5 million).
About 90 percent have been reimbursed. But incorrect bank details and faulty credit card numbers are hampering the remaining refunds that total about 9 million reals ($2.7 million).
SOCCER
MADRID (AP) – Spanish prosecutors want to punish Neymar, his father, Barcelona, and the player’s Brazilian club because of an investment group’s claim that they concealed the value of the star’s transfer fee.
Prosecutors said they are seeking a two-year prison sentence and a $10.6 million fine for Neymar and his father on corruption charges, although they are not likely to face any jail time because in Spain sentences of less than two years for first offences are usually suspended.
Prosecutors also want to punish former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell on corruption and fraud charges, which could lead to up to five years in prison and the same $10.6 million fine. The former president of Brazilian club Santos, Odilio Rodrigues, is facing a three-year prison sentence on fraud charges.
They are all set to stand trial after a complaint brought by Brazilian investment group DIS, which was entitled to 40 percent of Neymar’s transfer from Brazilian club Santos in 2013 but said it received a smaller compensation because part of the transfer fee was concealed.
