Fast Break

Baseball

Girardi, Leyland managers of year

Six weeks after he was fired by Florida, Joe Girardi won the National League Manager of the Year award Wednesday for keeping the rookie-laden Marlins in contention nearly all season, and Detroit’s Jim Leyland took the American League honor.

A rookie manager, Girardi won easily despite Florida’s losing record. He received 18 of 32 first-place votes by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Still, he was fired two days after the season ended following a rift with owner Jeffrey Loria and has agreed to become a New York Yankees broadcaster again rather than seek another managing job.

Leyland turned around the long-moribund Tigers in his first year with the team, leading them to the World Series and their first winning season since 1993.

Football

AP voter removed

A voter for The Associated Press college football poll was removed from the poll board Wednesday because he mistakenly thought Oklahoma had lost to Texas Tech and voted the Sooners lower in this week’s rankings.

Jim Kleinpeter of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans said he tried to find the score of the Oklahoma game, but was unable to do so. He said someone in a press box said that Oklahoma had lost.

The Sooners rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Texas Tech 34-24.

Because he believed the Sooners (8-2, 5-1) had lost, Kleinpeter said he dropped Oklahoma from 15th to 24th on his ballot.

The Sooners actually moved up one spot, from No. 17 to No. 16, in the current poll.

Sportslink

So far, Bullpups, Cougars favored

If readers are correct, Washington State will win Saturday’s Apple Cup in Pullman and Gonzaga Prep would win the mythical matchup against Idaho powerhouse Lake City.

A whopping 81.8 percent of voters like the Cougars in the Apple Cup. So far, G-Prep has 59.7 percent of the vote.

There’s still time to cast your vote at spokesmanreview.com/ sports