Martin, Miller highlight Hall ballot
Billy Martin, Marvin Miller and Doug Harvey are among 20 former managers, executives and umpires on the new Hall of Fame ballots to be considered by the revamped Veterans Committee when it votes next month.
Whitey Herzog, Davey Johnson, Gene Mauch and Bowie Kuhn are other notable candidates up for induction in 2008. The Veterans Committee has gone three straight elections without enshrining anyone in Cooperstown, leading to further changes in the process this year.
The vets committee will not consider any players for the Hall until late next year.
•Andy LaRoche drove in four runs, Evan Longoria homered and the United States beat Panama 7-0 on Thursday at the 37th Baseball World Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.
Kansas City Royals prospect Matt Wright pitched three-hit ball for six innings, striking out five and walking none. The U.S. improved to 2-0 at the event.
Golf
Stadler shares lead in China
Kevin Stadler shot an 8-under-par 64 that gave him a share of the lead after the first round of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China.
A few days ago and half a world away, Stadler salvaged his PGA Tour card for next season. He needed to finish in the top 125 on the money list. He did, scraping by at No. 124 with a strong finish Sunday in the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Florida – the last event of the U.S. tour season.
•Paula Creamer birdied the final seven holes for a share of the first-round lead with Meg Mallon in the Tournament of Champions in Mobile, Ala., ending Suzann Pettersen’s run at the top of the leaderboard at six rounds.
Creamer and Mallon shot 5-under 67s, leaving them two strokes ahead of Pettersen, Natalie Gulbis, Pat Hurst, Mi Hyun Kim and Seon Hwa Lee.
Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., shot a 73.
Miscellany
U.S. defeats ASU women’s team
Swin Cash and Seimone Augustus each scored 14 points to lead the U.S. national team to an 82-48 exhibition victory over No. 12 Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., the Americans’ fifth win over a Top 25 team in nine days.
Lewis and Clark graduate Briann January scored 14 points for Arizona State, which reached the NCAA regional finals last spring.
•Jimmy Clausen will start at quarterback for Notre Dame against Air Force on Saturday, after coach Charlie Weis said the freshman threw the ball with zip and accuracy in practice this week.
“He looked better at just about everything than he looked a few weeks back,” Weis said.
•Formula One’s spying scandal took another twist when Renault was accused by the sport’s governing body of possessing confidential information belonging to rival team McLaren.
FIA has summoned Renault officials to a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council on Dec. 6 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to answer a charge of having “unauthorized possession of documents and confidential information” of McLaren cars between September 2006 and last month.
The move follows McLaren’s involvement in a spy scandal that overshadowed much of the season. McLaren was fined a record $100 million by the World Motor Sport Council on Sept. 13 after FIA found the team guilty of using leaked secret data from Ferrari.
•At Uncasville, Conn., undefeated Hartford fighter Mike Oliver won the vacant IBO super-bantamweight title, unanimously outpointing Al Seeger.