Early in spring training, it is foreseeable that Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will watch a pop fly drift toward second base as middle infielders Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Alexi Casilla track it down.
Gardenhire may not hear either one call for it with the traditional, “I got it!” The familiar phrase could be replaced by “Watashi wa sore o motte!” or “Lo tengo! Lo tengo!”
Kei Nishikori rolled past James Blake 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Delray Beach International quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Nishikori, who beat Blake in the 2008 final for his first and only ATP title to date, made quick work of the American wild card, dismissing him in 63 minutes.
Top-division wrestler Shotenro, whose name has surfaced in a phone text message in connection with match fixing, denied once again on Monday any involvement in rigging bouts.
‘‘I have never been involved in that (match fixing). I want to return to the ring at a major tournament as soon as possible and show that I am serious about sumo,’’ said Shotenro, a Mongolian makuuchi-division wrestler.
Yoshimi Ozaki booked her place at this summer’s world athletics championships by winning the Yokohama Women’s Marathon with a time well under the qualifying standard of 2 hours, 26 minutes on Sunday.
The 2009 world silver medalist shook off her last two rivals after 39 kilometers and crossed the finish line at Yamashita Park in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds.
Yuta Ikeda, the only Japanese player to make the cut going into the weekend, closed with a 2-under 69, his lowest round of the week, to tie for 62nd at the Northern Trust Open. Ikeda finished the tournament at 3-over 287 at the par-71 Riviera Country Club.
Aaron Baddeley of Australia held on for a two-shot victory over Fiji’s Vijay Singh with a 12-under 272 total.
Hideki Matsui stood in his sparkling new white No. 55 Athletics jersey offering quite a contrast to the dark skies and pouring rain around him.
With a huge crowd gathered under a covered area at Papago Park, Godzilla took repeated slow-motion swings, then tossed a baseball into his glove over and over again—all part of a Japanese commercial shoot for a company that makes heavy machinery.
Ichiro remains lean and mean and has been earmarked for another All-Star year in 2011 by his trainer after the Seattle leadoff man underwent his preseason physical on Friday.
Mariners trainer Takayoshi Morimoto revealed Saturday that Ichiro, who turns 38 in October, has all of 6% body fat.
Momoko Ueda put herself in contention for her first U.S. LPGA Tour title on Friday, shooting a 3-under 69 to tie for fourth at the season-opening Honda LPGA Thailand.
Ueda, the 2007 Japanese tour money leader playing in her fourth season on the U.S. circuit, moved to 5-under 139, three strokes behind South Korean leader Kim In Kyung.
The scandal-weary Japan Sumo Association on Thursday received from an independent panel studying organizational reform of the association its final report which recommends half of the JSA’s executive board be appointed from outside the sumo world.
Reiko Tosa has scrapped her planned return to international competition at the Tokyo Marathon later this month due to a sore right groin, her team said Wednesday.
Tosa, who took the bronze medal at the 2009 Tokyo Marathon before heading into retirement to start a family, has been unable to train properly since taking part as a guest runner in last month’s Osaka half marathon.
Japan's aspirations to be a medalist at the newest Olympic sport, not to mention its credentials as a legitimate rugby host, will come under the spotlight in April when international sevens returns to Tokyo.
The Japan Rugby Football Union will host the Tokyo Sevens at Chichibunomiya Stadium on the weekend of April 16-17, a tournament that is sponsored by The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The Japan Sumo Association is likely to suffer about 1.4 billion yen in losses in the wake of the sumo match-rigging scandal, following the JSA decision to cancel one of its regular tournaments that make up the association's main sources of revenue.
The match-fixing scandal likely will cause great financial repercussions to the sumo world.
CSKA Moscow and Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda on Monday was named the 2010 Footballer of the Year in a poll of Japanese soccer writers.
Honda won the accolade for the first time after collecting 75 of the 202 votes cast nationwide.
The Japan Football Association on Monday said Japan’s Under-22s will now play the Kuwait senior national team in a friendly on Wednesday instead of Saudi Arabia’s U-22s, who last week were forced to pull out due to turmoil within the Saudi soccer association.
The originally scheduled match was called off Friday at the Saudi association’s request, just hours after Takashi Sekizuka’s men departed for the Middle East.