Athletic Teams

The full blaze of the midday sun shone down on Dodger Stadium, and heat waves danced on the infield dirt. But the Dodgers weren't poised to take the field. In fact, the only Dodger present was Andre Ethier, and he was sprawled on a yoga mat in pigeon pose. All around him, about 100 fans were similarly contorted -- having paid $100 a pop for the privilege. In the brave new world of sports marketing, it's not always enough to sell game tickets or offer high-priced trips to spring training.

Bob Stapleton is investing more than $10 million of his own money to sponsor a cycling team that was kicked out of the Tour de France last summer. He has named it Team High Road. "We want to be transparently drug-free," Stapleton said. "I still believe in this sport even when it's not easy." Team High Road is one of four teams racing in this year's Amgen Tour of California that have committed nearly $500,000 each for doping programs that go beyond those of the International Cycling Union (UCI).

Four years after its athletes received a huge ovation at the first Olympics after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was told Thursday that its seven-member team would not be allowed to compete in Beijing because of a dispute with the International Olympic Committee. Olympic officials informed Iraq that it was barring the team because the government had dismissed the country's Olympic committee and appointed a new body chaired by its youth and sports minister.

Robert Yates Racing on Friday became the third NASCAR Nextel Cup team this week to forge a business alliance aimed at making the team more competitive in stock-car racing's premier series. But Yates reached outside NASCAR for help, saying it formed a partnership with Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing, the top team in the Champ Car World Series open-wheel racing circuit.

BAKERSFIELD -- Around here, people tend to focus more on what they have rather than what they're missing. It's just the way it is in the dusty Central Valley, a locale that has been the target of jokes from the big city to the southwest. Now Bakersfield has a plan to step up. It starts with the sports teams at the local Cal State -- a relatively tiny school with barely 5,000 undergraduates.

The old North Gym was rocking. The tiny facility on the USC campus was designed to hold about 600 fans, but it used to be so tightly jammed for men's volleyball matches against UCLA that it seemed at least that many spilled from the bleachers onto the floor. Trojans football players, often creeping within five feet of the UCLA service line, cheered in their own special way. "When our servers would go back, football players would be pulling hairs out of their legs, and there was beer everywhere.

A day after initial tests found no DNA evidence linking any of 46 Duke University lacrosse players to an alleged gang rape at a team party, the district attorney investigating the case told an emotional and sometimes angry gathering of residents that he remained confident about bringing charges. The prosecutor said further tests were being conducted and confirmed that he was focusing on three players he believed assaulted an exotic dancer hired to perform at the party.

Gunmen stormed a Baghdad sports club Wednesday and kidnapped a coach and a member of a national team for blind athletes, and authorities discovered more than 30 bodies in the capital amid persistent sectarian violence. U.S. military officials announced the deaths of two troops a day earlier in Al Anbar province in western Iraq, raising to at least 105 the number of American fatalities in October. A statement issued by the military said one soldier was assigned to the Regimental Combat Team 7.

While the NHL's billionaire owners and millionaire players lament the loss of the NHL season, two teams playing for the love of hockey will take to the ice in Southern California. The junior national teams of Israel and Mexico began a four-game series Wednesday at HealthSouth training center in El Segundo, practice for the Israelis before next month's World Under-18 Division III championship in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Steffi Graf will be back on the tennis court again in public view. Briefly. If you blink, you could very well miss her "season" for Houston of World Team Tennis. It was announced Tuesday that Graf had been selected by Houston. Her season apparently will consist of one appearance in July. Graf, 35, retired from pro tennis in 1999. She played an exhibition in September against Gabriela Sabatini in Berlin.