St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols had elbow surgery and is expected to be ready for spring training.
Pujols underwent a 25-minute outpatient procedure to relieve nerve irritation in his right elbow, which had led to numbness, tingling in his ring finger and pinkie, weakness in his grip and pain along the inside of the forearm. George Paletta, the team physician who performed the surgery, said Pujols experienced those symptoms over the last month of the season.
Cleveland Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner will undergo arthroscopic surgery today on the strained right shoulder that kept him on the disabled list for more than three months. Dr. James Andrews will clean out the shoulder and investigate why it's causing pain, Indians head trainer Lonnie Soloff said. Soloff didn't indicate how long Hafner would be out and said he would know more today.
Former Toronto manager John Gibbons was hired by the Kansas City Royals to be their bench coach. The Royals also hired Kevin Seitzer as their hitting coach.
MISCELLANY
U.S. drops Mastroeni for World Cup qualifier
Midfielder Pablo Mastroeni (knee injury) and forward Robbie Rogers (sore back) were dropped from the U.S. soccer roster for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier at Trinidad and Tobago. They were replaced by two MLS players: Chicago forward Chris Rolfe and Columbus midfielder Brian Carroll.
Two more people involved in the killing of former Villanova basketball star Howard Porter were sentenced. Fredquinzo King was sentenced to 45 years in district court in Minneapolis. He had pleaded guilty earlier. Tonya Washington, who pleaded guilty in February to aggravated robbery, was sentenced to 10 years.
Porter, a 58-year-old probation officer, was beaten to death in May 2007.
Two-time Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo, ranked No. 22, lost to 19-year-old Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round of the Zurich Open in Switzerland. Azarenka cracked the top 20 this year and is ranked 18th.
The New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena Football League plans to cease operations as the league looks to improve its financial footing. One proposal involves individual franchise owners' ceding control of the league to new investors.
