Fast Break

BASEBALL

Teagarden parties at Twins’ expense

The Texas Rangers likely will ship Taylor Teagarden to the minors today, but he’ll always have memories of his first major league hit and all the trouble it caused the Twins.

Teagarden hit a home run with two outs in the sixth inning Sunday, ending Scott Baker’s bid for a perfect game.

Texas held on for a 1-0 victory.

Baker (6-3) retired the first 17 Texas batters.

Vicente Padilla and Baker matched each other zero-for-zero until Teagarden, the Rangers’ No. 9 hitter, stepped up in the sixth.

With a 3-2 count, the righthanded hitter reached down and drilled one into the first row beyond the center-field wall.

Teagarden, who played for the Spokane Indians in 2005, was batting .238 with six home runs for Class AAA Oklahoma before getting called up this week because Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia had been ill.

It’s not like Teagarden is a slouch. One week before Sunday’s big swing, he played in the All-Star Futures Game. On Wednesday he was selected for the U.S. Olympic team, and Friday, he made his major league debut.

BASKETBALL

OKC ticket list tops 16,000

More than 16,000 people have signed up to a season ticket request list for Oklahoma City’s new NBA team.

Officials of the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics said they have concluded the first phase of a season ticket request list. Those on the list signed up in just 16 days.

Also, the team is denying media reports that say Oklahoma City’s new nickname will be the Thunder.

SOCCER

Fans brawl at exhibition

A halftime brawl between more than 100 fans marred an exhibition match at Columbus, Ohio, between West Ham United of the English Premier League club and the MLS’ Columbus Crew.

The fights, which overshadowed West Ham United’s 3-1 win, began when a handful of West Ham supporters, some wearing the team’s claret and blue colors, entered the northeast corner of the stadium where the Crew’s most boisterous supporters typically gather.

Crew supporters began directing chants toward the rival fans, and fights quickly broke out between more than 100 Crew fans and at least 30 West Ham fans. Columbus police officers and Crew Stadium security staff eventually separated the groups.

Highway Patrol officers arrested one fan outside the stadium for disorderly conduct, Patrol spokeswoman Anne Ralston said. A dispatcher didn’t know whether Columbus police had made any arrests inside the stadium.