Blue Jays sign Overbay to big deal
First baseman Lyle Overbay and the Toronto Blue Jays agreed to a $24 million, four-year contract, a team official said Sunday.
Overbay hit .312 with 22 home runs, a team-high 46 doubles and 92 RBIs with Toronto last season after being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers.
The left-handed hitter leads the majors with a total of 133 doubles since 2003. He turns 30 later this month.
Cycling
Tour issues arise
A warning from the Tour de France: Cyclists – even such top riders as Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso – could be expelled from this year’s race without evidence from the Spanish doping investigation.
Race director Christian Prudhomme, speaking from Cala D’or, Spain, said the investigation, in which 56 riders allegedly were given performance-enhancing drugs at a Madrid clinic, most likely won’t conclude by the July 7 start of this year’s tour.
“We reserve the right to take away riders’ invitations – their names won’t mean a thing,” Prudhomme said.
•Switzerland’s highest court in Geneva upheld a two-year doping ban against German Danilo Hondo.
Hondo twice tested positive for the stimulant carphedon at the 2005 Tour of Murcia in Spain.
Winter sports
American wins gold
Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States and Xavier Delerue of France won gold in the snowboardcross event at the Snowboarding World Championships in Arosa, Switzerland.
Americans Seth Wescott won silver and Nate Holland placed third in the men’s event.
•Austria’s Mario Matt won a World Cup super-combi at Wengen, Switzerland, finishing the event in a combined time of 2 minutes, 27.87 seconds.
•American bobsledder Steven Holcomb won a four-man World Cup race in Cortina D’ Ampezzo, for his second victory in two days.
Holcomb and teammates Pavle Jovanovic, Steve Mesler and Brock Kreitzburg had a combined time of 1 minute, 45.04 seconds.
•Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow captured the top two places in a World Cup super-combi at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria.
Mancuso had a combined time of 2 minutes, 9.16 seconds to edge Kildow by 0.06 seconds.
•Olympic champion Carin Olofsson won a women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start event at Ruhpolding, Germany, finishing in 44 minutes, 32.0 seconds with four missed targets.
•Silke Kraushaar-Pielach led the German women to a World Cup luge win at Oberhof, Germany. Kraushaar- Pielach finished her two heats in 1 minute, 27.568 seconds.
Miscellany
Brohm to talk future
Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm was expected to announce today whether he’ll return for his senior season or enter the NFL draft. A news conference is set for 9 a.m. at the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex in Louisville, Ky.
•American Chad Hedrick won the 10,000 meters at West Allis, Wis., preventing Canadian skaters from winning all eight speedskating events in regional qualifying for next month’s World All-Around Championships.
Hedrick won in 13 minutes, 55.40 seconds. Steven Elm won the 1,500 in 1:49.24. Kristina Groves won the women’s 1,500 (1:57.55) and Clara Hughes won the 5,000 (7:04.08).
•Giniel de Villiers of South Africa won the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally at Tichit, Mauritania, and maintained his overall lead.
He finished the 366-mile trek across the desert from Atar to Tichit in 7 hours, 31 minutes, 52 seconds.
He was 6:35 ahead of French driver Stephane Peterhansel.
•Ethiopian Terefae Yae outkicked Fikadu Degefu to win the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon at Phoenix, finishing in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 13 seconds. Adenech Zekiros won the women’s race in 2:31:43.