Sparks’ Parker is top female athlete
It has been a whirlwind year for the Sparks’ Candace Parker.
She led Tennessee to a second straight national championship in women’s basketball, was the first pick in the WNBA draft, took the league’s most valuable player and rookie-of-the-year awards, and helped the U.S. win a fourth straight Olympic gold medal.
Now Parker has been selected female athlete of the year by members of he Associated Press.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” the 22-year-old Parker said. “It’s been a great year from so many standpoints. I haven’t really had a chance to sit back and let it all sink in.”
Her selection Tuesday ended a five-year run in which a golfer (Annika Sorenstam, then Lorena Ochoa) won the award -- the longest streak of any sport.
Parker received 36 votes from members of the Associated Press, barely edging Ochoa, who had won the previous two years. Ochoa won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including her second major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and led the money list for the third consecutive season.
Ochoa finished one vote shy of becoming only the fourth three-time winner of the award. Rounding out the top five were gymnast Nastia Liukin, swimmer Dara Torres and gymnast Shawn Johnson. Parker is only the third basketball player to win the women’s award, joining Sheryl Swoopes in 1993 and Rebecca Lobo in 1995.
SOCCER
Jamaican goalie signs with Galaxy
The Galaxy has signed Jamaican goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. An experienced goalkeeper at the international level, Ricketts, 31, joins the Galaxy after previous stints with Village United of the Digicel Premier League in Jamaica, Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League and Bradford City of League Two in England.
Details of the contract were not disclosed.
Ricketts, who is 6 feet 4, was a member of Jamaica’s 1998 World Cup squad as a 21-year-old. He has an 11-7-6 record in 24 World Cup qualifying matches.
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Almeria has signed former Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez to lead the Spanish club. Sanchez takes over for the remaining 22 league games this season, with a contract option for the 2009-10 season should he keep the struggling club in Spain’s top league. . . . AS Roma captain Francesco Totti is expected to be out for up to two months because of a leg injury. . . . Arsenal’s last hopes of hauling itself back into contention for the Premier League title seemed to disappear when captain Cesc Fabregas was ruled out for as long as four months because of ligament damage to his right knee.
ETC.
McNamee can still sue Clemens
Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer filed paperwork preserving the right to sue the seven-time Cy Young Award winner in New York.
Brian McNamee, who told federal investigators that Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, contends the pitcher defamed him after McNamee spoke to investigators for former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. The summons, filed in Queens Supreme Court last week, preserves McNamee’s right to sue, Richard Emery, a lawyer for McNamee, said Tuesday.
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The PGA Tour has lost at least one tournament from its Fall Series because of the economy, and the final part of its 2009 schedule released Tuesday had another tournament still up in the air.
The tour announced five tournaments -- down from seven this year -- which will be played after the FedEx Cup ends and will give players a chance to finish in the top 125 on the money list to retain their cards.
Gone from the Fall Series schedule is the Ginn sur Mer Classic in Florida, which was held the second-to-last week of the season and was not expected to return because of the real estate crisis.
Also missing from the fall schedule is the Valero Texas Open, which moved to the spring to replace the defunct Atlanta tournament.
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Two Michigan State football players will be charged for assaulting one of the school’s hockey players in October. The hockey player, A.J. Sturges, was briefly hospitalized with a head injury. Freshman running back Glenn Winston will be charged with three counts of misdemeanor aggravated assault, and walk-on freshman defensive back Mitchell White will be charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, according to documents from district court in East Lansing. . . . South Carolina’s athletic department is reporting 11 secondary NCAA violations in the past six months, including two from the program of new women’s basketball Coach Dawn Staley. The school said that a women’s coach improperly text-messaged a prospect and a coach incorrectly publicized an informal practice scrimmage. The name of the coach wasn’t included in the report.