Nolan Ryan to leave Texas Rangers, sell his stake in the team

Nolan Ryan is leaving the Texas Rangers again, stepping away from his CEO role 20 years after ending his Hall of Fame career as a pitcher.

In what the team had called a retirement, Ryan said Thursday that he is resigning as chief executive of the Rangers in a move effective at the end of this month. He is also selling his ownership stake in the team to co-chairmen Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.

“It closes a chapter of my life in baseball,” Ryan said. “I feel like it’s time for me to move on to other things. It’s been a decision that weighed on me heavily, but I feel like it’s the right decision. … At this point and time, it’s the correct thing for me to do.”

Asked about the difference in the team’s announcing that he was retiring and his calling it a resignation, the 66-year-old Ryan paused and then said he wouldn’t be the CEO of another major league team and called this perhaps the “final chapter” of his storied career in baseball.

ETC.

Mexico’s soccer coach says he was dismissed

Two days after saving Mexico’s World Cup qualifying campaign, Victor Manuel Vucetich was fired Thursday as coach of the country’s national soccer team.

Mexico’s national soccer federation (FMF) declined to comment on Vucetich’s status, but the coach told ESPN Deportes he had been relieved of his duties. By winning one of the two games he coached this month, Vucetich earned Mexico a date with New Zealand in a two-leg playoff next month, in which a spot in next summer’s World Cup will be on the line. Mexico has not missed a World Cup since 1990.

Vucetich was Mexico’s third coach in less than seven weeks, following Jose Manuel “Chepo” de la Torre and Luis Fernando Tena. According to numerous reports in Mexico, the FMF is expected to confirm Vucetich’s firing Friday, naming Club America Coach Miguel Herrera to replace him.

—Kevin Baxter

J.J. Henry made a 50-foot eagle putt from the fringe on his final hole for an 11-under-par 60 and a one-stroke lead in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at Las Vegas.

Henry also had nine birdies in perfect conditions at TPC Summerlin en route to the lowest round of his career. The two-time PGA Tour winner broke the course record and was a shot off the event mark of 59 set by Chip Beck in 1991 at Sunrise Golf Club.

Argentina’s Andres Romero was second. He had two eagles in a 61, also his lowest PGA Tour score.

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Needing a victory to retain his European Tour card, Sweden’s Peter Hedblom shot a four-under 68 for a share of the first-round lead in the Perth International in Australia.

South Korea’s Jin Jeong and Australians James Nitties and Clint Rice also shot 68 in the event co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia.

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NASCAR suspended veteran crew chief Todd Parrott indefinitely for violating its substance-abuse policy. The sanctioning body did not elaborate.

Parrott, 49, is the crew chief for Sprint Cup Series driver Aric Almirola of Richard Petty Motorsports, which said it was “very disappointed” and supported NASCAR’s move.

Parrott, now in his 19th year in the series, was the crew chief for Dale Jarrett when the driver won the 1996 Daytona 500 and, three years later, when Jarrett captured the series championship.

—Jim Peltz

Former Grand Slam champions Ana Ivanovic and Samantha Stosur made the Kremlin Cup quarterfinals with straight-sets victories at Moscow to set up a rematch of last year’s semifinal.

The formerly top-ranked Ivanovic beat Klara Zakopalova, 6-3, 6-1, and 2011 U.S. Open winner Stosur extended her winning streak to seven matches by beating Alize Cornet, 6-4, 6-1, in the second round.

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Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a sloppy second set to beat Daniel Brands of Germany, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, and reach the quarterfinals of the Erste Bank Open at Vienna.

No. 2 Tommy Haas and No. 3 Fabio Fognini also advanced from the second round, but No. 4 Philipp Kohlschreiber was upset, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (0), by Ruben Bemelmans.